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Making Peace With Your Past - Bishop T.D. Jakes · Pst T.D Jakes -The POTTER'S HOUSE

• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Wow. Somebody say wow. Sometimes all you can do is
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  Speaker 1: say wow. Every now and then God does a wonder.
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  Speaker 1: A wonder is when God does something that you wonder
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  Speaker 1: how he did it. Have you had him do a
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  Speaker 1: wonder in your life? That's what they meant when they
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  Speaker 1: said I don't know how, but you made it. I
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  Speaker 1: don't understand it, but you made it. Tonight I'm going
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  Speaker 1: to get into the Word of God, and I pray
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  Speaker 1: that the Word of God gets into you. And I
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  Speaker 1: want you to stand on your feet as we go
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  Speaker 1: to 2 Timothy 4, verse 5-8. And then we're going
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  Speaker 1: to drop down to the 14th verse and read to
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  Speaker 1: the 22nd verse. And I did the first verse in
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  Speaker 1: the King James Version, 2 Timothy 4, 5-8, and then
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  Speaker 1: the latter part of it, verse 14-22. It's the same word,
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  Speaker 1: but I did it in the NIV. for clarity of understanding.
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  Speaker 1: The Apostle Paul here is writing to his spiritual son, Timothy.
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  Speaker 1: He is writing to his successor. He is writing to
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  Speaker 1: the one who will finish things that he started but
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  Speaker 1: are yet to be finished. And it starts in the
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  Speaker 1: fifth verse when you have it say amen. But watch
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  Speaker 1: thou in all things. endure afflictions. So you got to
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  Speaker 1: watch and you got to endure afflictions. I'm not going
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  Speaker 1: to sugarcoat it and act like it's going to be
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  Speaker 1: easy to go forward. You got to watch everything. And
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  Speaker 1: there are some things in spite of the anointing that's
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  Speaker 1: on your life, Timothy, you're going to have to endure
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  Speaker 1: some afflictions. And while you're enduring afflictions, you can't stop preaching.
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  Speaker 1: Do the work of an evangelist. Make full proof of
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  Speaker 1: thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered.
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  Speaker 1: And the time of my departure is at hand. I
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  Speaker 1: have fought a good fight. I finished my course, son.
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  Speaker 1: I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up
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  Speaker 1: for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the
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  Speaker 1: righteous judge, shall give me at that day. And not
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  Speaker 1: to me only, but unto all them also that love
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  Speaker 1: his appearing. Now we're going down to verse 14. Alexander,
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  Speaker 1: the metal worker, King James says, coppersmiths, Did me a
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  Speaker 1: great deal of harm. I didn't go through without enemies.
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  Speaker 1: I was anointed, but I had some enemies. Alexander the
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  Speaker 1: metal worker did me a great deal of harm. The
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  Speaker 1: Lord will repay him for what he has done. I
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  Speaker 1: don't have to get revenge. The Lord will fight my
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  Speaker 1: battle for me. The Lord will repay him for what
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  Speaker 1: he has done. You too should be on your guard
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  Speaker 1: against him because he strongly opposed our message. At my
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  Speaker 1: first defense, when I came to court, went on trial,
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  Speaker 1: no one came to my support. But everyone deserted me.
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  Speaker 1: May it not be held against them. But the Lord
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  Speaker 1: stood by my side and gave me strength so that
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  Speaker 1: through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all
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  Speaker 1: the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from
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  Speaker 1: the mouth, from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue
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  Speaker 1: me from every evil attack and will bring me safely
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  Speaker 1: to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.
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  Speaker 1: By the way, tell Priscilla and Aquila in the household
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  Speaker 1: of Anesiphorus, Erastus stayed in Corinth and I left Trepithus
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  Speaker 1: sick in Miletus. But greet all of them. Tell them
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  Speaker 1: I said hi. Do your best to get here before winter.
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  Speaker 1: Eubulus greets you, and so does Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and
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  Speaker 1: the brothers and all the sisters. The Lord be with
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  Speaker 1: your spirit. Grace be with you all. So says the
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  Speaker 1: word of God. Remain standing, I want to pray with you.
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to talk tonight about making peace with your past.
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  Speaker 1: Making peace with your past. Spirit of the living God,
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  Speaker 1: fall fresh on us tonight and anoint these lips of
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  Speaker 1: clay that they may be endowed with the kind of
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  Speaker 1: anointing that is necessary to declare your word, not my own.
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  Speaker 1: Anoint my mind with clarity of thought and nimbleness of
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  Speaker 1: wit that I might have the help I need from
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  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit to implant unto your people some things
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  Speaker 1: that will give life and strength and hope and help
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  Speaker 1: to them. I believe you for it and I thank
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  Speaker 1: you for it. In Jesus' name, somebody shout amen. You
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  Speaker 1: may be seated in the presence of God. Well, tonight
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  Speaker 1: we're in 2 Timothy, and it is one of the
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  Speaker 1: epistles written by the Apostle Paul that is said to
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  Speaker 1: be one of the pastoral epistles. 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy,
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  Speaker 1: and Titus are pastoral epistles. They're not so much apostolic
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  Speaker 1: in their nature. They're not global in their view. They're
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  Speaker 1: more personal. They're more intimate. They deal specifically with pastoral
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  Speaker 1: issues in a different tone and tenor than any of
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  Speaker 1: his other writings. They're not preoccupied with doctrinal ideologies and
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  Speaker 1: setting up the government of the church. They're focused on
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  Speaker 1: a pastoral perspective as if a shepherd is talking to
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  Speaker 1: his sheep. It is written by the Apostle Paul in
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  Speaker 1: the last period, the last season of his life. So
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  Speaker 1: it's seasoned well. There's nothing like food that's seasoned well.
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  Speaker 1: Everybody could cook, but everybody doesn't season well. Paul is
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  Speaker 1: well seasoned. Seasoning comes through suffering. Seasoning doesn't just come
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  Speaker 1: with age. I've seen people get old and not be seasoned.
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  Speaker 1: I've seen young people who were seasoned beyond their years.
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  Speaker 1: But through the things and the events and the vicissitudes
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  Speaker 1: of life, Paul is well seasoned. He has learned how
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  Speaker 1: to abase and abound. He has learned how to have
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  Speaker 1: and he has learned how to be in one. His
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  Speaker 1: life has had fluctuations. In order to be seasoned, you
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  Speaker 1: have to endure fluctuations. Different seasons and different eras and
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  Speaker 1: different attitudes and different perspectives have all been thrust on
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  Speaker 1: him and he's handled everything that has come his way.
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  Speaker 1: Now Paul is not illiterate and he's not uneducated He
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  Speaker 1: is very literate, he's very educated, he's very intellectual, he
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  Speaker 1: is multilingual to say the least. He has sat at
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  Speaker 1: the feet of Gamal. He has been trained and respected
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  Speaker 1: by the great thinkers of his era. He is profound,
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  Speaker 1: he is prolific, he is well-spoken, he is articulate, he
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  Speaker 1: is able to write well, and he's able to think well.
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  Speaker 1: He is spiritual enough that he has seen some things
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  Speaker 1: that he has chosen not to write, Because they were
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  Speaker 1: so spiritual and so divine that he thought that you
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  Speaker 1: couldn't handle them. Some things he said could not be uttered.
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  Speaker 1: He has suffered persecution. He has both given persecution and
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  Speaker 1: suffered persecution. He has attacked Christians before he got saved
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  Speaker 1: and then he has been attacked himself. See, a lot
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  Speaker 1: of people are good at giving pain, but they're not
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  Speaker 1: good at taking pain. Paul has done both. He has
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  Speaker 1: given pain and he has taken pain because God is
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  Speaker 1: careful that Paul would have some recompense or reward even
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  Speaker 1: though he was saved for the suffering that he has
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  Speaker 1: afflicted on the early church because he was a Christian
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  Speaker 1: chaser and often a Christian killer, and yet he has
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  Speaker 1: survived all of that through an encounter that he has
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  Speaker 1: with God on the road to Damascus that introduces him
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  Speaker 1: to Christ at the expense of losing the respect of
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  Speaker 1: all of those around him. He is controversial now. He
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  Speaker 1: is rejected by those who once accepted him. He is
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  Speaker 1: of the tribe of Benjamin. He comes from a succession
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  Speaker 1: and an order of royalty and kings. He is zealous
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  Speaker 1: concerning the law. He is a Pharisee. He is well
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  Speaker 1: versed in Old Testament theology and ideology and profound and prolific.
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  Speaker 1: So much so. that he staggered at the gospel of
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  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ because he is so filled with Old Testament
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  Speaker 1: ideology that he found it difficult to transition into the
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  Speaker 1: next move of God sometimes you can be so full
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  Speaker 1: of where you came from that you can't see where
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  Speaker 1: you're going Do you hear what I'm saying to you?
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  Speaker 1: Paul has preached the gospel and of all things, God
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  Speaker 1: sends him to the Gentiles. It would have been enough
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  Speaker 1: to send him to converted Jews, but no, God sends
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  Speaker 1: him to the Gentiles. The very thing that a Pharisee
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  Speaker 1: would never eat with or sit down with or talk
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  Speaker 1: to has become his ministry. And he is called to
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  Speaker 1: be the apostle to the Gentiles. It's like being the
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  Speaker 1: president of the dogs. The head of the heathens, the
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  Speaker 1: CEO of the rejected, the ambassador of the idolaters, the
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  Speaker 1: Gentiles were full of fornication and perversion. and orgies and
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  Speaker 1: they were polygamous in their ideology and they were full
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  Speaker 1: of all types of debauchery. There was a great disdain
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  Speaker 1: for them. And God has anointed Paul to minister to
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  Speaker 1: people that were disdained and rejected by everybody else. And
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  Speaker 1: anytime you're called to minister to people that have the
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  Speaker 1: disdain of society, You get persecuted because even religious people
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  Speaker 1: don't want you to be involved with certain types of people.
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  Speaker 1: His ideology has been questioned to the degree that they
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  Speaker 1: laughed him out of the synagogues. Paul is not used
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  Speaker 1: to being laughed at. He's used to being respected. But
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  Speaker 1: they laughed at him and made mockery of his mind
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  Speaker 1: and his intellect and his ideas because he would dare
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  Speaker 1: to believe that Jesus is the embodiment of God himself.
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  Speaker 1: And even amongst those who embraced Jesus, they were reluctant
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  Speaker 1: to receive him because of his past operating as a Pharisee.
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  Speaker 1: So he was not welcomed readily at the table with
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  Speaker 1: Peter and James and John. After all, Paul was not
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  Speaker 1: there when Peter, James, and John were on the Mount
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  Speaker 1: of Transfiguration. And Paul was not there when the woman
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  Speaker 1: with the issue of blood touched the hem of his garment.
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  Speaker 1: And Paul was not there when Jesus raised Lazarus from
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  Speaker 1: the dead. And Paul was not there when Jesus calmed
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  Speaker 1: the raging sea. Here comes this Johnny come lately apostle
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  Speaker 1: who has been killing and persecuting the Christians. And now
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  Speaker 1: he wants to sit at the table. with the rest
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  Speaker 1: of the apostles as if he'd been there all the
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  Speaker 1: time and they were suspicious of him. It took revelation
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  Speaker 1: for them to even begin to slowly embrace him. So
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  Speaker 1: Paul knows loneliness. He knows what it is to be
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  Speaker 1: hated on his left side. He knows what it is
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  Speaker 1: to be hated on his right side. For preaching the gospel,
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  Speaker 1: he has been persecuted. For preaching the gospel, he has
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  Speaker 1: been beaten like a slave. For preaching the gospel, he
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  Speaker 1: has been stoned. at Lystra and left for dead. For
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  Speaker 1: preaching the gospel he has borne in his body the
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  Speaker 1: marks of the Lord Jesus. For preaching the gospel he
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  Speaker 1: has been thrust into prison after prison. For preaching the
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  Speaker 1: gospel he has been ostracized by his friends, alienated by
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  Speaker 1: his own relatives, rejected by his own community. For preaching
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  Speaker 1: the gospel he has had to stand in destitution and
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  Speaker 1: isolation and comforted himself and licked his own wounds and
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  Speaker 1: lifted up his own head and had to keep going
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  Speaker 1: when other people wished he would die for preaching the gospel.
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  Speaker 1: He has endured all types of afflictions to come to
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  Speaker 1: this point in his life and we get to taste
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  Speaker 1: the nectar of his final words, his final thoughts, his conclusion,
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  Speaker 1: his finally, my brethren, The sum total of everything that
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  Speaker 1: seasoned him and set him apart and made him unique.
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  Speaker 1: That elixir, that rich residue that is left when the
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  Speaker 1: pot has boiled down to its lowest gravy. Now we
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  Speaker 1: are tasting the final droppings that are coming from Paul
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  Speaker 1: as he says, I am about to be offered up.
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  Speaker 1: When Paul says I'm about to be offered up, he
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  Speaker 1: is reminiscent of the drink offering, which a drink offering
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  Speaker 1: is a type of libation. And a libation is when
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  Speaker 1: you take a drink and you begin to pour it
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  Speaker 1: out little by little, drop by drop. Every time he
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  Speaker 1: went through something, it took something out of it. Every
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  Speaker 1: time he endured an affliction. it took something out of it,
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  Speaker 1: until he was down to nothing. And when he was
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  Speaker 1: about to be offered up, he was down to the
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  Speaker 1: last drop. That means the cup has been turned completely up,
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  Speaker 1: drop by drop. Every time you go through a test,
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  Speaker 1: it takes something out of you. You survive it, but
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  Speaker 1: it takes something out of you. You made it, but
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  Speaker 1: it took something out of you. You endured it, but
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  Speaker 1: it took something out of you. You made it out,
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  Speaker 1: but it took something out of you. You went through
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  Speaker 1: the funeral, but it took something out of you. You
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  Speaker 1: went through the scandal, but it took something out of you.
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  Speaker 1: And little by little, you lose more and more. It's
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  Speaker 1: not age that gets you. It's experiences that it took
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  Speaker 1: your strength to survive. And now, he says, I'm about
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  Speaker 1: to be offered up, which means, Timothy, I'm down to
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  Speaker 1: the last drop. And I'm about to be offered up. Amen.
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  Speaker 1: You must realize that you can survive and still suffer.
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  Speaker 1: You must realize that you can survive, but it still
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  Speaker 1: costs you something. You survived the divorce, but it costs
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  Speaker 1: you something. You survived the teenage pregnancy, but it cost
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  Speaker 1: you something. You survived the addiction, but it cost you something.
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  Speaker 1: You survived the scandal, but it cost you something. And
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  Speaker 1: to little by little, people don't realize how much has
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  Speaker 1: gone out of your cup to still be standing. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: oh my God, do you hear what I'm saying? Look
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  Speaker 1: at somebody say, I'm still here. I'm still here, I'm
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  Speaker 1: still here. I'm not the same, but I'm still here.
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  Speaker 1: You know, you can drive a car and little by
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  Speaker 1: little it'll tell you that it's got three quarters a tank.
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  Speaker 1: And then if you keep driving, it's got a half
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  Speaker 1: a tank. And then if you keep driving, it's got
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  Speaker 1: a quarter tank. And if you keep driving, it's got
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  Speaker 1: an eighth a tank. And if you keep on driving,
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  Speaker 1: it's all the way down to empty. That means the
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  Speaker 1: further you go, the more it costs you. It's not
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  Speaker 1: the years, it's the mileage. It's the things I went through.
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  Speaker 1: It's the things I suffered. It's the antagonism I endured.
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  Speaker 1: It's the betrayal that I went through. It's the friends
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  Speaker 1: that rejected me. It's the deceit that I endured. And
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  Speaker 1: it took all of my strength to get back up.
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  Speaker 1: I want to talk to somebody. that it took all
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  Speaker 1: of your strength to get back up. It took all
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  Speaker 1: of your might to get back up. These are the
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  Speaker 1: writings of the pastoral epistles of a man after he
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  Speaker 1: has endured affliction and tribulation and pain and agony. These
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  Speaker 1: are the final droppings of the master orator himself. And
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  Speaker 1: we get to hear his personal letters to Timothy and
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  Speaker 1: Titus as he shares with them his conclusion, because when
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  Speaker 1: you get to the end, you wanna know, was it
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  Speaker 1: worth it? You remember when John was about to be
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  Speaker 1: beheaded and he told his disciples, he said, go and
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  Speaker 1: I want to know, is he the Christ or shall
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  Speaker 1: we look for another? He said, I identified him in
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  Speaker 1: the Jordan. I was sure about it in the Jordan,
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  Speaker 1: but now I'm about to lose my head. And before
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  Speaker 1: I lose my head, I just want to be sure
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  Speaker 1: that it was worth it. Do you hear what I'm saying?
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  Speaker 1: Midlife crisis is wondering, was it worth it? That's why
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  Speaker 1: it's a crisis because you get to the middle of
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  Speaker 1: your life and you wonder, was it worth it? Do
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  Speaker 1: I have what I expected to have to show for
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  Speaker 1: being at the stage I'm at in my life right now?
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  Speaker 1: Am I appreciated? Am I valued? Am I validated? Am
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  Speaker 1: I loved? It's the inner wrestling of a thinking mind
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  Speaker 1: trying to balance an account before you close the books.
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  Speaker 1: Such is the spirit of second Timothy. It is that
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  Speaker 1: spirit that we come into the text because he is
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  Speaker 1: talking to Timothy from the place of trying to close
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  Speaker 1: the books. The accounting is coming to an end. He
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  Speaker 1: is coming to the end of his journey. It is
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  Speaker 1: important that you understand it. I want you to sit there.
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  Speaker 1: Are you with me so far? Set that aside. That's
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  Speaker 1: an appetizer. We'll come back to it in a minute.
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  Speaker 1: I want to get into another thing. I want to
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  Speaker 1: share a little something else. There's an interesting narrative of
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  Speaker 1: the life of Olado Equiano. Olado Equiano is not a
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  Speaker 1: name that would immediately pop up in your head. You
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  Speaker 1: don't hear much about Olado Equiano. Not in history. Not
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  Speaker 1: in the Bible. Not anywhere. Because in 1789 he is
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  Speaker 1: a former slave that writes a book in 1789 that
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  Speaker 1: is published about his abduction. He was born in 1745.
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  Speaker 1: He was tricked and sold into slavery in the western
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  Speaker 1: part of Africa. He is from the tribe of Igbo.
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  Speaker 1: At 11 years old, he and his sister are abducted,
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  Speaker 1: and he finds himself being drug away from West Africa,
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  Speaker 1: now called Nigeria. Before it was called Nigeria, colonialism has
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  Speaker 1: not taken place yet, and he finds himself in the
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  Speaker 1: bottom of a boat floating like a slave toward Europe
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  Speaker 1: at 11. And he is persecuted and he is beaten
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  Speaker 1: and he is dogged and he is ostracized. And you
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  Speaker 1: must understand that when he begins to come to Europe,
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  Speaker 1: he is bought like he is property. He becomes a
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  Speaker 1: property of a European man and given another name. But
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  Speaker 1: the problem is he never forgot who he was. Sometimes
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  Speaker 1: people will give you a name but never forget who
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  Speaker 1: you are. Sometimes people will call you a name, but
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  Speaker 1: never forget who you are. Sometimes life will call you
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  Speaker 1: a name, but never forget who you are. Sometimes finances
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  Speaker 1: will call you a name, but never forget who you are.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes doctors will call you a disease, but never forget
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  Speaker 1: who you are. Don't let people take away your identity
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  Speaker 1: just because of your circumstance and your situation. There was
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  Speaker 1: slavery everywhere. It was moving all over the world, and
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  Speaker 1: it just started becoming popular. We're entering into a period
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  Speaker 1: of slavery, and it's everywhere. It's in Europe. It's coming
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  Speaker 1: out of West Africa. It's in the Americas. It's everywhere.
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  Speaker 1: It just so happens that this boat goes to Europe.
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  Speaker 1: The African slave's voice from Africa takes many to America,
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  Speaker 1: and some of them it takes to South America. and
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  Speaker 1: others it takes to England. The cross-cultural geopolitical journey from
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  Speaker 1: a slave to freedom, from heathenism to Christianity has become
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  Speaker 1: his life's work. He's trying to figure out who am
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  Speaker 1: I now, separated from my parents, separated from my culture,
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  Speaker 1: separated from my tribe, separated from all the things I
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  Speaker 1: have had 11 years to settle into. Now I'm uprooted
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  Speaker 1: from all of that and taken as property I'm a
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: line on a ledger. I am the net worth of
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: a stranger. I have been relegated and delegated into the
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: net worth of an individual from which I have no
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: experience at all. This is what he says that I
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: find interesting. Institutional slavery can raise the master as an
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: above man, as the slave is forced beneath. But listen
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: to what he concludes. Both corrupting the master with power
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: and crippling the slave with the lack of it. In
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: other words, he says nobody gets away clean. Just because
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: the master is a master doesn't mean that he doesn't
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: suffer because the power has corrupted him. And there's a
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: saying about power, power corrupts, but absolute power absolutely corrupts.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: So in order to be a slave master, it has
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: to speak to your lowest instincts. So I might be
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: crippled as a slave, but you're corrupted as a master.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: And he started speaking these kinds of words. He said,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: I consider that trials and disappointments are sometimes for our good.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Listen at how he is making peace with his past.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: He says, I consider that trials and disappointments are sometimes
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: for our good. And I thought God might perhaps have
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: permitted this in order to teach me wisdom and resignations.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: For he had hitherto shadowed me with the wings of
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: his mercy and by his invisible but powerful hand brought
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: me the way I knew not. He allowed this to happen.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: And if he allowed me to suffer, I comforted myself
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: not in the goodness of the master, but the goodness
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: of God that if he allowed me to go through
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: this kind of suffering, that some kind of way There's
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: something that he wants me to get out of it
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: or he wouldn't have allowed it to happen. I don't
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: know if that helps you like it helps me, but
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: that really helped me. These reflections gave me a little
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: comfort and I rose at last. from the deck with
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: dejection and sorrow in my countenance, yet mixed with some
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: faint hope that the Lord would appear for my deliverance.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: In other words, I was holding on by a thread,
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: but I tied a knot in it and I held on.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: Is there anybody in here that's been through enough suffering
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: in your life that you held on by a thread
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: and you were just holding on by the skin of
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: your teeth and you made it over and sometimes you
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: felt like giving up and sometimes you felt like dying
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: and sometimes you felt like committing suicide but there was
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: just a little, just a little bit of ray of light,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: just a little, little bit of light coming into the
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: dark arc that lit it just enough for you to
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: press your way through the storm and the rain. And
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: listen at how he gets a light. He gets a
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: light by what he says to himself. It is the
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: way you talk to yourself that determines whether you endure
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: hardness or not, whether you can stand affliction or not.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: It is what you choose to think about. He said,
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: I chose to believe that God would bring me out
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: of this. An 11-year-old boy says, I chose to believe
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: that God would bring me out of this, that he
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: was to teach me something. And rather than to focus
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: on the bitterness of my disappointment, I focused on the
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: fact that some kind of way I'll come out of
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: this wiser and stronger and better and richer and fuller.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: These are the first scenes of my life, though that
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: pleasure has been for the most part mingled with sorrow.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: The truth of the matter is there's not a person
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: in this room that has not had their pleasure mingled
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: We're sorry. This slave boy who is 11 years old
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: from Nigeria, from the tribe of Igbo, who was captured
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: and abducted, and don't think that that has stopped happening.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: Human trafficking is still happening. Don't think that it ended
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: with the Emancipation Proclamation. Slavery is still alive and well.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: In this country and around the world, people are still
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: living in abducted situations out of their control. In this city,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: in this state, there are people that are against their
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: will being held accountable in bondage. And there are task
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: force set up by a police department that do nothing
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: every day but work to liberate young girls and young
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: boys that have been snatched out of their country and
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: made to work without pay right in your city, right
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: up under your nose. And I laugh when I hear
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: us say, if I had lived in slavery days, I
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: would have— you are living in slavery day. As long as
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: there is inequity, there will be slavery for somebody. You
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: just choose not to look at it, but it is there.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: Every week, somebody gets busted for taking somebody from their
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: country and having them working in massage parlors and different
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: places that you might frequent. You have to have your
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: eyes open because sometimes the people who are giving you
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: service are doing it against their will. He says, early
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: on I accustomed myself to look for the hand of
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: God in the minutest occurrence. Any little sign of, any
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: little touch, I look for the hand of God. And
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: to learn from it a lesson of morality and religion.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: And in this light, every circumstance I have related was
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: to me of importance. I look for God even in pain.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: After all, what makes any event important unless by its
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: observation we become better and wiser? What makes any event
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: important if we don't use it to become better and
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: wiser and learn to do justly and to love mercy
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: and to walk humbly before God? Can I go on
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: with this? I love this. I love that. You should
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: get the book. You should order the book. To those
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: who are possessed of this spirit, there is scarcely any
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: book or incident so trifling that does not afford some profit,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: while to others the experience of ages seems of no use.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: And even to pour out to them the treasures of
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: wisdom is throwing the jewels of instruction away because some
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: people have a deaf ear to wisdom. They have no
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: value to profoundness. Their minds are so narrow that even
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: when you give them good things, they throw it away.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: Jesus said it this way, cast not your pearls to
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: the swine, neither give that which is holy to the dog.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: Come on, talk to me somebody. He said, and I
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: had a great curiosity to talk to the books as
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: I thought they did to me. And so to learn
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: how all things had a beginning, for that purpose I
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: have often taken up a book and have talked to it.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: And then when nobody was looking, I put my ears
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: to it in hopes it would answer me. In other words,
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: I so valued wisdom that I let the book that
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: talked to me, I'd talk back to it and then
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: listen to see if I said something, maybe it would
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: say something to me. If you start listening for books
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: to talk to you, especially the Bible, you would be
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: surprised how the Bible will be your counselor, will be
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: your advisor, will speak wisdom. And you would be surprised
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: what it will do for you in your life if
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: you would listen. If you would not just depend on
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: the preacher to do all the feeding. But if you
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: would develop a relationship and start listening and have an
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: ongoing conversation with the word. He said, and I have
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: been very much concerned when I found it remained silent.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: Something said nothing to me at all. But I was listening.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: I was listening. I want you to understand these quotes
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: because I think they are powerful and I think they
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: are relevant and I think they are profound. And if
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: you'll give me just a few minutes, I'm going to
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: tie them into Apostle Paul and show you why I
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: talked about it. He says, oh, ye nominal Christians, might
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: not an African ask you, learn you this from your God?
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: Your religion allows you to do this to me? How
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: can you worship God and still need? Eventually, he found
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: his way to freedom and became a husband and a
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: father and a very successful entrepreneur. And I want you
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: to see the before and after pictures. One shows him
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: as a slave and one shows him as an entrepreneur.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: If he would have remained bitter, he would have stayed
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: like the first picture. But because he refused to allow
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: the pain that he endured to enslave him, he ended
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: up in the second picture. I'm talking to somebody. I
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: don't know who I'm talking to. You either get better
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: or you get bitter. You either allow the pain to
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: engulf you or you rise to something above it that
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: blows your mind and sets you apart and sets you
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: on a different level. And you, put the pictures up
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: there again. I want you to choose which one you're
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: going to be. Are you going to get bitter or
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: are you going to get better? In our text, we
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: are reading the memoirs of a man enslaved to the gospel.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: His life was not his own. Paul did not belong
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: to himself. He was a prisoner of the gospel. He
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: was a slave of Jesus Christ. The difference between Olodo
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: Equiano and Paul is that Paul has eventually become a
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: willing slave. You remember when Paul identifies himself as a
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: willing slave. He is a willing slave. However, the suffering
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: and the strange mixture of feelings of dejection and yet
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: hopefulness are quite similar. In order to work for God,
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: every day will not be a great day. Every day
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: will not be an easy day. Every day will not
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: be a kind day if you're going to work for God. See,
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: Damascus was the place of his apprehension. Jesus caught him
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: in Damascus, on the road to Damascus. And all the
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: way up to Damascus, Saul, now Paul, is leading the way.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: But when Jesus got through with him, the people that
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: he were leading were now leading him. And now he
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: is bound, a prisoner of the gospel. to preach to
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: the Gentiles. He has lost the respect of his Jewish
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: Orthodox brethren. He's even faced struggles to be accepted by
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: other apostles, and yet God used him mightily. That means
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: that you don't have to have a general consensus in
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: order to be effective for God. That means that you
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: can be controversial and still be effective. That means you
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: don't have to put your mission on hold until everybody
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: votes for you and everybody likes you and everybody supports
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: you and everybody undergirds you. It means that you have
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: to come to a point that you begin to understand
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: that God is with you even when people are against you.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: Even when people are scandalizing you and ostracizing you, doesn't
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: mean that you can't be purposeful. Oh, do you hear
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: what I'm saying? And Mr. Equiano ends up an entrepreneur
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: and a successful one, and they had to reprint his
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: book over eight times in his lifetime and more after
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: he died. The Book of a Slave in the 18th Century.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: I don't care what's going on around you. If God
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: is for you, he will raise you up anyway. I
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: don't care what you read in the paper. I don't
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: care what you saw on the news. I don't care
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: what your education is, what your background is. If God
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: is for you, he will raise you up and set
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: you up and bless you and take you to a
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: place that you know not of. Do you hear what
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: I'm saying to you? When Paul tells Timothy, I have
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: fought a good fight, I have often preached that, I've
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: taught that, I've listened at it, I've shared it, but
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: I never really thought about this. He didn't say he won.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: He never said he won the fight. He just said
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: he fought the fight. I want to talk to some
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: people who have lost some battles. but you kept on swinging. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: He said, I fought a good fight. I fought a
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: good fight. He didn't say I won every fight. See,
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: we would like to think that he won every fight,
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: but he didn't win every fight. There were certain cities
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: that rejected him. There were certain people that withstood him.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: There were certain individuals that attacked him. He didn't win
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: every fight, but he stayed in the fight. And I
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: came to tell you tonight, That the Holy Ghost said,
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: if you stay in the fight, I will bless you.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: You can fight a good fight. Win or lose, I
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: fought a good fight. I fought a good fight as
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: a father. I fought a good fight as a mother.
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: I fought a good fight as a preacher. I fought
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: a good fight as a man. See, God gives you
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: credit for the fight, not the score. Oh, y'all don't
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: want to hear what I'm saying to you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: If you hear what I'm saying, you'll shout me down
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: tonight because God wants to know, will you fight back?
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: It doesn't matter who got the most licks in. He
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: wants to know, will you fight back? When Paul tells Timothy,
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: I fought a good fight, he's not bragging that he
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: won every fight, but he's telling Timothy, you got to
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: be prepared to fight a good fight. in season and
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: out of season, reprove and rebuke with all longsuffering, even
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: though sometimes they will not endure sound doctrine, do it anyway,
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: because God will bless you just because you fought. I
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: want to talk to a room full of fighters today.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: If I could get me a few fighters online, are
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: there any fighters online that you fought a good fight?
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: You fought a good fight. You won some, you lost some,
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: but you fought a good fight. You stayed in the
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: ring when you didn't have no money. You stayed in
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: the ring when you did have some money. You stayed
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: in the ring when you felt like fighting. You stayed
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: in the ring when you didn't feel like fighting. And
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: Paul is coming to the end of his life. And
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: he said, I fought a good fight. Somebody holler, I
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: fought a good fight. I fought a good fight. Now,
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: let me put this in perspective. This is making peace
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: with your past. Because if you don't make peace with it,
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: you gonna always be complaining about the ones you lost
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: and what you didn't get and what didn't happen and
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: what didn't come through in your life. But it doesn't
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: matter whether you got it or you didn't get it.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: What matters is that you kept on fighting. If you
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: really got faith, you'll fight when you win and you'll
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: fight when you lose. You'll fight when you got a job.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: You'll fight when you don't have a job. You'll fight
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: when people love you. You'll fight when people hate you.
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: I fought a good fight. Somebody say, I fought a
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: good fight. There comes a time in your life that
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: you have to reconcile yourself. that you may not, it
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: may not have turned out the way you wanted it
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: to turn out. And everything might not be in place
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: the way you wanted it to be. But if you
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: fought a good fight, you still got a crown laid
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: up for you. I want to talk to my fighters
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: that there's a crown waiting for you, that there's a
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: blessing waiting for you, that there's a door God's going
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: to open for you. If you keep on swinging, if
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: you keep on swinging, if you keep on swinging, if
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: you keep on swinging, If you keep on swinging, if
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: you keep on, I don't care what the devil throws
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: at you. Just keep on swinging. I don't care what
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: they say about you. Just keep on swinging. Just keep
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: on swinging. You may break your heart, but keep on swinging.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: I fought a good fight, a good fight. I lasted
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: all 13 rounds. I stayed in the fight. I was bloody,
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: but I kept swinging. I got a black eye, but
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: I kept on swinging. I got a busted lip, but
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: I kept on swinging. Timothy, I fought a good fight.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: If you're going to be my son, you're going to
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: have to be a fighter. You might not be a winner,
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: but you got to be a fighter. I fought a
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: good fight. Nudge somebody and say, fight back. You got
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: to fight back. You got to fight back. And you
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: got to be proud of the fact that you fought back.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: I won some and I lost some, but I fought back.
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I got over, sometimes I went under, but I
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: fought back. And you got to be able to make
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: peace with the fact that fighting a good fight is enough.
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: Whether you won the fight or not, if I kept
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: the faith, I won. If I kept the faith, if
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: it was just a little rope and I held on
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: to the rope, if it was a piece of thread
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: and I held on to the faith, I have kept
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: the faith. Sometimes I had doubt, sometimes I had fear,
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: sometimes I had worry, but I kept the faith. None
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: of it made me backslide. None of it made me
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: walk away. I said thank you, Jesus, when I didn't
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: feel like saying thank you, Jesus. I said glory to
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: God when I didn't feel like saying glory to God
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: because I wanted hell to know. I don't have nothing
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: but a string, but I'm going to hold on to
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: the string, and I'm going to keep the faith. And
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: the Lord wanted me to tell somebody tonight, It looks
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: like you're going down for the third time. But hold
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: on to what you got left. And as long as
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: you hold on to what God gave you, you have
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: kept the faith. Somebody take a minute and praise Him
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: for the faith you got left.
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. Praising for the faith you got left. I
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: lost my car, but I got my faith. I lost
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: my friends, but I got my faith. I lost my family,
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: but I got my faith. I lost my job, but
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: I got my faith. I still got my faith. That's
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: what the devil was after. The devil don't want your car.
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: The devil don't want your house. The devil don't want
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: your shoes. What the devil is after is after your faith.
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: And I want everything that's listening at me that's got
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: some faith to give God 30 seconds of crazy, ridiculous praise.
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: You see, this is the thing I want you to see.
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: I ain't got to sweat now. I didn't mean to
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: go to sweat. Y'all made me sweat. Something about to
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: happen in here. The thing I want you to see
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: is Oladu knew that he might die a slave, but
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: he also knew that he might not. He knew they
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: might beat him to death, but he also knew that
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: he might not. He knew they might destroy him, But
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: he also knew that he might not. And he kept
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: on fighting and kept on fighting and wiggling till he
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: finally got free. And the Lord told me to tell
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: you that if you keep on fighting, eventually you'll get free.
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: It may not be today. It may not be tomorrow.
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: But if you keep on fighting, eventually you're going to
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: get free. Somebody needs to stay in the fight. Stay
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: in the fight. Stay in the fight. There ain't no
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: way in the world he was supposed to get free,
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: but he stayed in the fight and he kept on
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: punching until somebody had to liberate him and let him go.
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: He went from being a slave to an entrepreneur. He
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: went from being half-naked to being walking around in custom-made
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: clothes because he stayed in the fight. You've got to
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: stay in the fight. I want to talk to somebody
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: that's tired and feel like giving up and feel like
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: it's not worth it and feel like you've been through
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: too much and feel like you've endured too much pain.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: I want to encourage you tonight that the next punch
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: might be the last punch. Swing when you don't even
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: feel like swinging. Punch when you don't even feel like punching.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: Because God has a plan. In fact, had they not
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: abducted him, he would have never ended up the entrepreneur
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: and the author with the wisdom and the story that
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: made him a best seller. People always talk about what
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: you're running to, but they don't notice what you're running from.
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: It's what happened behind you that determines how fast you
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: move in front of you. And if you don't make
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: peace with your past, If you don't, listen to me,
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: if you don't make peace with your past, you'll never
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: accomplish what your past came to propel you into. There
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: is a reason. Preacher said it's Sunday. This ain't nothing
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: but confirmation of what the preacher said Sunday. This ain't
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: nothing but God adding word on top of word on
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: top of word on top of word that I got
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: a plan even when you got a pain. I got
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: a plan even when you got a hurt. I got
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: a plan even when you feel like giving up and
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: throwing yourself away. Are you hearing what I'm saying to you?
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: Paul said, when my hour came to trial, no man
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: stood with me. Now this is amazing. Because Paul has
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: spoke to cities. He's transformed communities. He's established churches. He
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: has healed all manner of diseases. He's even raised people
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: from the dead. You would think out of all of
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: the body of his work, when he went on trial,
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: somebody would have stood with him. He said, when I
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: came to defense, no man stood with me. Normally when
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: you go to court, your lawyer is standing with you.
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: Paul said, I had nobody to plead my case. No
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: man stood with me. But then he said, watch this,
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: watch how he won't let bitterness creep in. I pray
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: that the Lord does not lay it to their charge.
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: Have you grown enough in your faith to pray for
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: the people who let you down. Oh, come on. You
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: on the boat now. You got to ride. You on
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: the boat now. You got to ride all the way in.
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: Paul has learned how to pray for the people who
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: disappointed him. He is making peace with his past. He says,
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: I can't afford to die bitter. and angry and upset
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: and full of resentment and frustration because it's gonna weaken
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: my strength. So even though I was disappointed that no
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: man stood with me, I pray that God does not
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: lay it to their charge. Where was the man I
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: raised from the dead? Where was the woman I healed
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: from diseases? Where was the woman I cast demons out of?
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: Where were all the people I delivered all through the Bible?
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: Where were the churches I established? Where were the pastors
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: I set in place? Where were the people I gave
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: a second chance? Where were the people I poured into?
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: He said, when I really, really, really, really, really needed somebody.
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: No man stood with me notwithstanding the Lord stood with
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: me and what I'm supposed to tell you is stop
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: worrying about who didn't and use it as an opportunity
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: to brag about how good God stood. Is there anybody
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: online that God stood with? Is there anybody in the
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: building that God stood with? Is there anybody on the
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: internet that God stood with? Is there anybody on Facebook
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: that God stood with you? In the hospital? In the courtroom?
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: Through the pain of life? The Lord stood with me.
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: The Lord stood with me. The Lord stood with me.
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: I finished because the Lord stood with me. Good God Almighty,
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: I feel the Holy Ghost in this place right now.
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: The Lord stood with me. If he stood with you,
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: you ought to praise him like he stood with you.
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: Sit down, sit down, because between y'all standing and the
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: organ chasing me, y'all got me going too fast. I
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: feel the Holy Ghost in here. I feel the Spirit
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: of God in here. I feel the Spirit of God
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: in here, because this is my testimony too. The Lord
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: has stood with me. He's been standing with me all
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: my life. He was standing with me when I wasn't
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: standing with him. He was still standing with me. And
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: I'm here because the Lord stood with me. Are you
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: with me tonight? Are you with me tonight? Now this
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: is what I'm after tonight. You got so many years
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: that are your discovery years. Yes. Adolescent years. Discovery years.
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: Those are some tough years. Tough on you, tough on
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: your parents. Your discovery years. Who am I? Am I
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: what they call me or am I who you named me?
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: Who am I? And you go through this discovery years.
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: And then you go through this period in your 20s
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: generally where you're trying to stake your claim on something
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: That's solid. But you still got a lot of kid
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: in you. And a lot of crazy. In fact, the
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: brain doesn't fully mature about consequences until you're in your
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: early 20s. So you're living in the moment without regard
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: for consequences. You have to mature to consider consequences. By
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: the time you're in your 30s, you ought to be
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: grappling after something, trying to build something, trying to do something,
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: trying to become something. That's why I love what we're
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: doing and what we're getting ready to do with our
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: young adults because those are your building years. Your 30s
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: and your 40s are your building years. Those are your
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: building years. Those are your formation years. Those are your
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: development years. Those are the make or break you years.
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: When you get in your 50s and 60s, you begin learning.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: to recognize that I can still win and I can
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: still accomplish some things, but you start to begin to
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: recognize I may not get what I thought I would
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: get when I started. And if you don't learn how
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: to be good with that, you'll become a Saul to
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: some David. And you'll end up trying to kill somebody
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: who's coming because you wasted your turn. Can I go
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: a little bit deeper? Making peace with your past doesn't
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: just mean making peace with your sins. It means making
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: peace with your station in life. Getting to a place
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: where I'm good with it. Alexander the coppersmith hates me,
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: but I'm good with it. I'm going to put that
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: over in the I'm good with it column. Because I
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: got to balance these books. I'm good with the fact
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: that I still can see further than I will ever
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: be able to go. By the time you get to
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: your 70s, you start to begin to understand that I
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: can see further than I can reach. And if you're
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: not good with that, you'll become bitter and you'll become
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: a hater. And you'll start trying to destroy people who
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: have more time and more energy than you do. What
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: is a sign of maturity is when you have made
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: peace with where you are. That's why the Bible says,
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: watch this, godliness with contentment is great gain. To be
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: contented doesn't mean that you don't have ambition. Doesn't mean
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: that you don't have goals. It means that you don't
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: use your ambition to create frustration. Y'all ain't gonna talk
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: to me tonight. You can't be so ambitious that you
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: turn into a witch. You can't be so ambitious that
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: you start cutting people's throats to get ahead. You can't
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: be so ambitious that you become vicious and become ruthless
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: and become dangerous. You've got to come to a point
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: that maybe you wanted some things for you that God
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: didn't want for you and you have to be good
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: with where he placed you. And you might not ever
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: get back to West Africa, but you got to learn
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: how to bloom where you're planted. And if I never
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: get back and if I never go here and if
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: I never go there, I'm going to be as fruitful
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: as I can in the land where I am. I'm
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: good with it. I can't spend the rest of my
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: life wishing for something that may not ever happen again.
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: I'm good with it. To come to a place of contentment.
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: where you can lay down at night and be contented.
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: Doesn't mean that you don't have anything that you go after,
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: any goals or anything, but it doesn't mean, it does
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: mean that whether I get it or don't, I'm still
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: gonna be okay. Whether you like me or don't, I'm
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: still gonna be okay. Whether you clap or don't clap,
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: I'm still gonna be okay. Whether you support or don't support,
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: I have come to a place of making peace with
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: where I am in my life and what I went
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: through in my life, and I'm good with it. Because
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: I can't make you feel good about you until I
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: feel good about me. Let me help the preachers that
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: are watching online. You can quote what I quote, but
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: till you've been through what I've been through, it's not
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: gonna be effective. The only way to be effective is
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: that you've gone through enough that it's changed your attitude
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: that you are good with where you are in life
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: and you're happy to be you and you're not trying
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: to be nobody else and you're not wishing you were
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: somebody else and you're not wishing you had another mama
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: and you're not wishing you had another daddy. You're saying
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: it was good that I was afflicted If it had
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: turned out any other kind of way, I wouldn't have
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: ended up where I ended up. Thank you for rejecting me.
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: Thank you for leaving me by myself. You taught me
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: how to pray. You taught me how to stand on
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: my own two feet. If you would have been there,
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: I would have never met who God wanted me to meet.
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: If you would have been there, I wouldn't have been
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: hungry enough to become anointed enough, to become powerful enough
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: to be where I am. I'm talking to somebody today
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: about making peace with your past so that you don't
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: spend the rest of your life trying to get back
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: somewhere that there's no boat to take you back. But
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: there is strength to bloom where you're planted and to
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: prosper where you are, you have to be good with
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: being you. With your big self. You got to be
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: good with being you with your skinny self. You got
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: to be good with being you with your ugly self.
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: You got to be good with being you with your
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: pretty self. Because though I might not have what you have,
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: I got something you don't. And I'm not gonna focus
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: on what I don't have. I'm gonna focus on what
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: I do have. Yes, I'm gonna do all I can
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: to enhance what I got. But some things God gave you,
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: he didn't give me. But I'm not in a race
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: with you. I'm in a race to be the best
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: me that I was. Oh, y'all don't hear what I'm saying.
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: so Paul says when people did not stand by me
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: the Lord stood with me now who would you rather
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: have stand with you He said, the Lord stood with
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: me and strengthened me. Put that scripture back up there again.
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: Because I want to get that scripture just right. Down
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: in the last part of 2 Timothy. But the Lord
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: stood at my side and gave me strength. So that
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: through me the gospel might be proclaimed. And all the
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: lion's mouth. I was delivered. You don't understand. I was
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: delivered from the lion's mouth. Imagine, now he means that figuratively,
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: but imagine that literally. I was delivered from the lion's mouth.
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: Look at how many lion's mouths you've been in. I
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: was delivered out of the mouth of people that I
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: thought was my friend and really my enemy. I was delivered...
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: I was delivered from the lion's mouth. I was delivered
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: from the thing that could have devoured me. I was delivered.
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: The reason I got to praise him, I was delivered.
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: I should have been dead. I should have died of AIDS.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: I should have had a nervous breakdown. I could have
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: lost my mind. I was delivered from the lion's mouth.
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: When you see me praising God, you can imitate my step,
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: but you can't imitate my gratitude because nobody knows like
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: I know what my lion was. Everybody in here got
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: a lion. Everybody in this room. got something that had
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: you in its clutches and you could be strung out
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: under a bridge and you could have tracks in your
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: arm and you could have OD'd and you could have
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: lost your mind. But I want you to think back
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: on the lion that had you in its mouth and
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: look at you now and I want you to give
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: God a praise for how he delivered you out of
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: the mouth of the lion. And he says, because I
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: was delivered, the Lord will rescue me. See, on the
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: strength of what I've been through in my past, God
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: has built up enough resume in me that I am
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: confident now that the Lord will rescue me from every
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: evil attack. That means that the things that used to
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: worry me don't worry me like they used to. And
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: the things that used to drive me crazy don't drive
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: me crazy like they used to. Because of the lion's mouth,
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: I've got enough faith to believe God against every evil
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: thing that's in my future. I'm going to use what
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: I've been through in my past to prepare me for
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: my future. So I'm going to leave you with four words.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: The first word is restitution. Restitution. Damascus was where Paul
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: is called to serve restitution for his deeds. You can't
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: do just anything and not have any restitution. There comes
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: a point in your life that you can't just take
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: and not give back. There has to be some level
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: of restitution. And number two, I want you to get
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: this word resolution. Resolution is the point where you accept
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: God's plan over your own life. And you resolve in
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: your own mind. You resolve. This is it. I think
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: I think it takes a long time to be married.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: It takes about 30 minutes to have a wedding. But
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: it takes a long time to be married. You can
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: be married and still be looking through a window at
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: your own life. It takes a while for you to say,
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: this is it. I'm all in. I don't just have
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: one foot in it. I'm not just testing it out.
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: I'm not just seeing. I'm not just leaving an out clause.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: I'm not keeping a fire escape open. I'm not running
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: around throwing a D word out. It takes a long
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: time for you to really settle in. Crazy as I
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: am and crazy as you are, we just going to
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: be crazy together. Resolution means that you have now accepted
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: the course God has for your life. Resolution means I'm
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: not envious of you. Oh, I'm going deep now. Resolution
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: means that I'm not comparing myself by you. I don't
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: have to measure up to you. Resolution is I'm good
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: with who I am. I'm good with the gifts I
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: bring to the table. I'm not intimidated by you. I
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: have resolved that my gift is just as effective as yours.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: I know you got the shield and the sword and
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: the shiny stuff and all I got is a rock
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: and a rag, but I'm good with the rock and
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: the rag. And the rock and the rag... Brought me
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: all the way here. When I started preaching, they said,
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: you can't get on TV preaching like that. They said,
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: you can't get on TV preaching like that. You run around.
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: I was stepping across pews. I was young and hollering
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: and sweating towel wrapped around my neck. They said, you
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: can't act like that and be on TV. I said, okay.
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: I said, which camera is the right camera? They said
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: the one that's red.
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: .
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 3: .
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: They said that we could have church in a funeral home,
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: in a garage or a storefront. They said we weren't
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: smart enough to get here and build this kind of facility.
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: This church is as wide as two football fields. This
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: church will hold 14,000 people with overflow. This church can
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: satellite around the world with our own equipment. They didn't
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: think that you could talk in tongues and jerk and
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: holler and still be smart enough to get to where
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: this church got. This church bought 400 acres of land
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: before I was 40. Oh, hallelujah. And I still got
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: my dance here. And I still got my shout here.
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: And I still talked in tongues. And I still praised
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: my God. And I still lifted my, why would I
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: be jealous of you? When God is trying to get
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: you to a point that you are good with what
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: he gave you, even if it's a rag and a rock,
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: run on out there and throw it at Goliath and
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: watch him fall out. You cannot win the fight if
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: you don't have confidence in your equipment. I cannot go
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: out there and fight Goliath acting like you because I
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: ain't you. Your shield is sharp and beautiful and shiny
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: and your sword looks like it could cut straight through meat.
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: But I don't have no experience with that. I do
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: know how to work this rock and this rag. And
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: why are you laughing at how stupid it is? I
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: did more with the rag and rock than you did
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: with your sword and shield. So don't try to intimidate me.
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: with what you got, you have to come to a
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: resolution that you're good with what God gave you. With
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: your short self. If you're short, you gotta work it.
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: Grab the mic and pull it down to where you
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: are and let the devil have it. If you're tall,
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: you gotta stand up and work it and use what
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: God gave you. Don't you know? When Moses came to
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: God and said, I can't speak because I stammer, God said,
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: didn't I make your mouth? When are you going to
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: be good with how God made you? Did not I
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: make your mouth? Couldn't I have fixed your tongue if
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: I wanted to? Resolution is whatever age you're at, that
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: you become happy to be who God made you. Ah.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: in the right body I look just right I'm who
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: I'm supposed to be I'm as smart as I need
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: to be I'm gifted in the areas I need to
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: be gifted in to do what God created me to
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: do And in the areas I'm not gifted, I'm not
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: supposed to be gifted there. That made room for me
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: to get other people around me. Resolution means I'm good
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: with being me. Paul couldn't die right if he wasn't
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: good with it. He says, I have finished my course.
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: Not yours, Timothy. I wasn't asked to run Timothy's race.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: I was asked to run my race. I'm good with
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: my race. I have finished my course. Resolution means I
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: accept that. Now, can I take a little time? The
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: third R I want to spend some time with is reciprocity.
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: Reciprocity is real important. Reciprocity is sowing and reaping. It's
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: seed time and harvest. And I want you to get this.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: Every relationship, whether it's business, personal, financial, emotional, or marital,
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: will only survive to the degree that there is reciprocity.
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: You have to make sure that there is reciprocity. The
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: whole earth survives through reciprocity. Right now my whole backyard
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: is covered with leaves and the leaves are gonna go
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: back down into the ground and fertilize the soil so
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: that the soil is not depleted. So the tree that
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: took from the soil is now giving back to the
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: soil And that's reciprocity. Never let anybody be better to
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: you than you are to them. You might not give
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: them back the same thing, but you've got to give
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: them back something or it will die. Reciprocity is critical.
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: Reciprocity is necessary. Reciprocity is not taught. So now we
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: got people who are better at taking then they are giving,
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: and then they can't figure out why the thing dies.
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: It dies because you rode the camel to death. You
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: rode them down to nothing. You wore them out. It
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: might not show up in the first few years, but
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: eventually they're going to wear out because you are better
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: at taking then you are giving. And I want to
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: warn you, it's important that I warn you. You're watching online.
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: It's important that I warn you. Eventually, you're going to
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: lose that job because you take more than you give.
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: You're going to lose that man because you take more
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: than you give. You're going to lose that woman because
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: you take more than you give because nobody taught you reciprocity.
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: Seed time and harvest, sowing and reaping, summer and winter,
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: while the earth remaineth, there will always be reciprocity. Reciprocity
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: is very important. And what Paul is complaining about, what
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: Paul is dying from, he didn't get reciprocity. If all
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: the people that Paul had helped would have come to
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: help him, they would have never killed him. You die
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: because you give out. He says, when my hour came
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: to trial, I didn't get it back. No man stood with,
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: I stood with everybody. Nobody stood with me. They took
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: me for granted till they wore me out. And anybody
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: will die without reciprocity. Your daughter, your son, your husband,
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: your wife, your savings, your career, Your credit, I don't
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: care what you apply it to, it survives through reciprocity.
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: If you don't learn anything else tonight, learn this. Don't
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: just let people keep giving to you and say, oh,
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: that's just how he is. He just like that. He
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: just that kind of person. She just nice like that.
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: She just so nice. She just so nice. And you'll
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: never do nothing back. You're going to kill the relationship.
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: You are obligated. It might not be the same thing
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: you give back, but you are obligated to give something back.
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: The earth gave the tree nutrients and all types of
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: minerals in order for it to grow. The tree gave
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: it back leaves. But it gave something back. And I
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: want to ask you, what are you giving back? For
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: all you take and suck up and use, you got
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: to make sure that in every area of your life,
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: there is reciprocity. My wife and I have been married
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: 39 years. We wouldn't have made it 39 years. We
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: had hills, we had mountains, we had valleys, we had disappointments,
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: we had pains, we had shortcomings, we had failures, we
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: had hurts, but we also had reciprocity. When I got sick,
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: she took care of me. When she got sick, I
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: took care of her. When she was down, I cooked.
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: When I was down, she cooked. Whatever it took to
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: make it happen, I made it happen. I washed clothes.
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: I mopped the floor. I did whatever I had to do.
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: I shut down my schedule to let her know she's important.
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: She will tell you right quick when it comes to me.
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: She will fly where I am. She will come get me.
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: She will come get me if nobody else will come
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: and get me. Our marriage survived not because I was
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: a good man, not because she was a good woman.
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: Our marriage survived because of reciprocity. This church has survived
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: because of reciprocity. We've been through storms, we've been through witches,
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: we've been through haters, we've had them curse the building,
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: we had them put chickens' blood all out in the street,
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: we had witches come in the building and curse the building.
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: I told them you should have fried the chickens and
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: went to dancing, oh, hallelujah! But we survived because of reciprocity.
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: I want you to look for areas in your life
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: where your books are out of balance. Where people or
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: jobs or things or churches are giving you more than
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: you give back. Because if you don't have reciprocity, don't
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: be surprised when it dies. This is his last letter.
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: And he's telling Timothy, The reason he didn't win is
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: no man stood with him. You got to make sure
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: that you're as good at giving as you are at taking.
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: I can carry you. I can carry any one of
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: you for a little while. But eventually I'm going to
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: get tired. If you pass out right now, I can
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: throw you on my back and I can carry you away.
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: But after a while, I'm gonna have to let you
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: go because you're dead weight. Reciprocity stops you from being
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: unlovable because you're ungivable. Oh God, y'all don't want me
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: to teach. Reciprocity. Reciprocity. should be a natural animalistic instinct
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: that starts in your children. I don't care if they
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: don't do nothing but draw a giraffe and bring it
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: in and put it on the wall. You oughta teach
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: them to give something back. Take out the trash, mop
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: the floor, even if you don't mop it right, even
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: if you leave streaks in it, do something back. We
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: are raising up people who don't know reciprocity. I'm gonna
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: get off this, I'm gonna get out, because I can
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: stay on it all night. A lot of you are
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: losing and you don't know why you're losing. You're losing
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: because you are not as intense about giving back as
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: you are about getting. All roads lead to you. It's
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: all about you. And as long as it's all about you,
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: you are killing somebody. and generally is somebody who loves you.
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: Hear me tonight. Hear me tonight. I want you to
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: get anointed to give back to the person that gives
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: to you. Write this down. Feed what's feeding you. The
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: whole creation survives off of it. The oceans have water
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: because of it. The reason the mist goes up in
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: the air and we got clouds and the rain comes
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: back down again is because everything God created survives off
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: of this principle. Feed what's feeding you. If this is
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: not feeding you, don't feed me. If it's feeding you,
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: make sure you feed it back. Because reciprocity is a
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: spiritual law. Sowing and reaping is reciprocity. And I'm not
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: just talking about offerings. Find something, build something, bake something,
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: make something, clean up something, do something, make me miss you.
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: I'm almost done. I'm almost done. I'm going to stop.
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: I'm almost done. But this is important because it's killing us.
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: We're not teaching people reciprocity. My final number is number
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: four is reparations. God said, that's all right. Paul, you
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: didn't get it on earth. But when you get to heaven,
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: I'm going to give you reparations. None of them stood
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: with you down here, but when you get to heaven,
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: I'm going to give you the crown of righteousness. I'm
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: going to give you double for your trouble. I'm going
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: to pay you. I'm going to pay you in retroactive
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: pay for everything you didn't get on this side. I'm
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: going to make it up to you on that side.
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: Can you prove it by the scriptures? Yes. Jesus, when
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: he told the story about the good Samaritan, And the
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: good Samaritan got to the innkeeper and he gave him
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: two denarius. And he said, if I owe you anything,
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: I'll pay you when I come back. He says, I'll
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: make it up to you. I'll give you reparations. I'll
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: go back in the past and restore that, that the
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: canker worm and the palmer worm and the locust ate up.
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: The God we serve. believes in reparation. So to everybody
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: whose account is out of balance and you're wore out
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: and you're tired and you give more than you get back,
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: God said, don't worry about it. If they don't pay you,
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: I will. If they don't bless you, I will. If
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: they don't appreciate you, I will. If they don't restore you,
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: I will. So I close tonight. I have said some
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: strong things to you tonight. I pray I have not
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: cast the pearls before the swine. I pray that you
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: will use this to be a better person, a better deacon,
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 1: a better leader, a better husband, a better wife, a
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 1: better business person, a better community person. I pray that
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: you would be, that the yoke of selfishness would break
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: off of your neck. And that you would stand by
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: the people who stand by you. That you would feed
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: what's feeding you. All we need for the world to continue.
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: That's all we need is reciprocity. If the rain keeps
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: coming down and if it humidifies and goes back up
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: to the clouds and the cycle that God put in
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: place is enough to sustain the earth as long as
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: there's reciprocity. You know what global warming is? The lack
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: of reciprocity. It means the stuff we are making is
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: stopping the earth from doing its thing. That the smog
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: we're putting up in the air is creating a blockage
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: that's stopping reciprocity and it's changing our weather till the
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: earth is dying for the lack of getting back what
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: it's giving. The whales are dying. The polar bears are dying.
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: Because we have filled the oceans with our filth. And
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: the whole earth is suffering for the lack of reciprocity.
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: Stop it in your house. Stop it in your business.
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: Stop it in your life. And little by little, we
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: will live again This is Paul's last letter. He wrote
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: it to Timothy and he tells Timothy, bring me some
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: paper because God is still talking to me. And bring
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: me a coat because I'm cold. And the last thing, Timothy,
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: hurry up. I've been alone so long. Come before winter.
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: I won't last much longer. Because I have given out.
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: I have offered up. I'm down to the last drop.
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: And I won't last much longer. And if you're going
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: to do anything, do it before winter. If you're going
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: to be a better person, do it now. If you're
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: going to get into reciprocity, do it now. Stop taking
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: for granted that people just are the way they are
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: because they've been doing it so long and start to wonder,
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: are you tired? Do you need help? How can I
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: serve you like you serve me? How can I make
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: you feel important? How can I show you that you matter?
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: Because as a Christian, I am called to reciprocity. That's
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 1: why it says, muzzle not the mouth of the ox
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: and tread to grain. That if the ox works, it
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: ought to be able to eat as well as it works.
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: That's reciprocity. It said, do not muzzle the mouth of
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: the ox and treadeth to grain because he has a
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: right to get back on the level he works on.
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: Take the muzzle off your wife. Take the muzzle off
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: your husband. Take the muzzle off your children. Take the
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: muzzle off the people you love. Take the muzzle off
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: your job. Take the muzzle off so that you make
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: sure that if I work, I also eat. If I
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 1: carry the burden, I get the reward. Make it easy
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: to love you. Make it easy to love you. And
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: the quickest way to make it easy to love you
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: is to make sure that you have reciprocity and that
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: your account is balanced. Because some of you are living
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 1: out of balance. And this message is a warning. Before
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 1: you go bankrupt, And somebody just says, I'm out of it.
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: I'm just tired. I'm worn out. Bring balance. Sometimes I
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: tell my wife, no, no, no, no, no, no. You
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: can't cook. No, you're tired. I'll do it. I'll do it.
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 1: I'm not so high I can't do it. If I
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 1: can't cook, I'll order something. I'll make sure you get
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 1: some time off. You don't have to be no slave.
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 1: I'll clean up. I'll do it. When I'm cooking, sometimes
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: she'll come in, she'll clean the dishes while I do
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: the cooking. Reciprocity. You might be losing your relationship not
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: because you're not a good person, but you haven't learned
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: reciprocity with your children, with your church. You say you're
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: a member of this church and you never support or
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 1: serve or work or labor in any way. How are
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: you a member? Because you watch. Because you watch me work.
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: You don't have to join to do that. Just watch.
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: When you join, I should feel your help. I pray
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit convicts you. I pray the Holy Spirit
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 1: speaks to you in such a way that you begin
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: to look at yourself and say, how can I do better?
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 1: Can I pray for you tonight? Because I think this
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 1: is a warning. I think this message is a warning
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: I think you're so busy wrestling with your past and
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: your insecurities and your doubts and you and you and
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: you and how you feel and what's going on with
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: you and what's your emotions and you don't like this.
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: You and you and you and you that you don't
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: have room for me or them or us. Can I
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: pray for you tonight? Because the Holy Spirit would anoint
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: you to give. You have been given so much. And
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: I want you to have confidence in what you have
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 1: to give to the point that you can give it
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 1: and not doubt it and not feel like it's not enough.
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 1: It's enough. If it's your best, it's enough. You don't
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: have to feel inadequate and use that as an excuse
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: not to give it because you don't think it's good enough.
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: Even if it's not enough, I'll take it. It's better
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 1: than nothing. Don't let the enemy talk you into be
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: better at receiving than you are at giving. It matters
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: how you feel, but it matters how they feel too.
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 1: I'm talking right to somebody. This is an emergency. In
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: my spirit, I feel like somebody is about to break,
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 1: carrying you, because your relationships are always about what you need,
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 1: what you want, how you feel, what's going on with you, you, you.
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 1: That's wrong. Bow your heads, let me pray with you
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 1: right now. Father, I have shared with them the word
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: of God. I have shown them how you can have
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 1: a rough past and still have a bright future. I
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: have shown them how you took a slave and made
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: him a businessman and an author and an entrepreneur in
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 1: the 1700s. I have shown them how even the Apostle
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: Paul needed somebody to stand with him I have shown
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: them how they cannot allow their past to forever, forever
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 1: leave them.
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 2: Chained from giving and serving and sowing and working. Now,
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 2: Holy Spirit, do the work. Go deep down in the
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 2: hearts and the minds and touch your people. Because it
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 2: don't matter how much we dance if we don't change.
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 2: It don't matter how much we shout if we don't change.
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 2: Don't let us continue to be who we were after
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 2: all we've been through. What the slave writer was trying
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 2: to tell us is that everything you go through ought
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 2: to make you a better person. I rebuke deceitfulness and
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 2: selfishness and treachery. I come against it. In the name
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 2: of Jesus, we cannot serve you when we are overcome
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 2: with ourself. And tonight, if we don't do nothing else,
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 2: if nobody comes to the altar, if nobody gets saved,
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 2: if nobody backslider comes back to the Lord, if we
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 2: could just leave here a little bit better than we
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 2: were when we came, then it would be.
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: A great Wednesday night service. Lord, we got people in
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 1: their 40s and 50s and 60s who are still wrestling
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 1: with their past. We need to make peace with it. Peace.
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 1: Peace be still. Some of the people who hurt you
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: are old. Some of them dead. You got to let
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 1: it go. Make peace with it. And step into the
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 1: fullness of what God has for you before you crush
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 1: somebody and kill somebody and victimize them over something that
• 1:34:41
  Speaker 1: they didn't even do. I rebuke that spirit. And I
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 1: call a supernatural healing to come into your spirit and
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: into your life and into your heart. And I pray
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 1: that when you wake up in the morning, that you
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: wake up in the morning and thinking about somebody other
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 1: than you, giving to somebody other than you, serving somebody
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: other than you, living for somebody other than you. Before
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 1: you get your last letter, I pray that you come
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 1: before winters. The leaves are starting to fall. And the
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: temperature is changing. And you've been stuck in this season
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: for years. And I pray you come before winter and
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 1: bring something when you come. Bring something to the table.
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: Bring something to the company. Bring something to the church.
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 1: Bring something to the marriage. Bring something to somebody other
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: than yourself Stop by Tychius and get my coat and
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 1: pick up some paper and come on here, boy, before winter.
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 1: I feel the breeze coming. And I've lived as long
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 1: as I can with no man standing by me. In
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 1: Jesus' name. Give him the best praise you got. If
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 1: this message blessed you, make some noise.