Latest / Pst T.D Jakes -The POTTER'S HOUSE / Making Peace With Your Past - Bishop T.D. Jakes
Transcript
- 0:13Speaker 1: Wow. Somebody say wow. Sometimes all you can do is
- 0:21Speaker 1: say wow. Every now and then God does a wonder.
- 0:27Speaker 1: A wonder is when God does something that you wonder
- 0:29Speaker 1: how he did it. Have you had him do a
- 0:32Speaker 1: wonder in your life? That's what they meant when they
- 0:35Speaker 1: said I don't know how, but you made it. I
- 0:40Speaker 1: don't understand it, but you made it. Tonight I'm going
- 0:43Speaker 1: to get into the Word of God, and I pray
- 0:45Speaker 1: that the Word of God gets into you. And I
- 0:48Speaker 1: want you to stand on your feet as we go
- 0:50Speaker 1: to 2 Timothy 4, verse 5-8. And then we're going
- 0:55Speaker 1: to drop down to the 14th verse and read to
- 0:58Speaker 1: the 22nd verse. And I did the first verse in
- 1:01Speaker 1: the King James Version, 2 Timothy 4, 5-8, and then
- 1:06Speaker 1: the latter part of it, verse 14-22. It's the same word,
- 1:11Speaker 1: but I did it in the NIV. for clarity of understanding.
- 1:15Speaker 1: The Apostle Paul here is writing to his spiritual son, Timothy.
- 1:22Speaker 1: He is writing to his successor. He is writing to
- 1:27Speaker 1: the one who will finish things that he started but
- 1:32Speaker 1: are yet to be finished. And it starts in the
- 1:36Speaker 1: fifth verse when you have it say amen. But watch
- 1:40Speaker 1: thou in all things. endure afflictions. So you got to
- 1:48Speaker 1: watch and you got to endure afflictions. I'm not going
- 1:52Speaker 1: to sugarcoat it and act like it's going to be
- 1:54Speaker 1: easy to go forward. You got to watch everything. And
- 2:00Speaker 1: there are some things in spite of the anointing that's
- 2:03Speaker 1: on your life, Timothy, you're going to have to endure
- 2:07Speaker 1: some afflictions. And while you're enduring afflictions, you can't stop preaching.
- 2:12Speaker 1: Do the work of an evangelist. Make full proof of
- 2:17Speaker 1: thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered.
- 2:24Speaker 1: And the time of my departure is at hand. I
- 2:30Speaker 1: have fought a good fight. I finished my course, son.
- 2:39Speaker 1: I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up
- 2:44Speaker 1: for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the
- 2:48Speaker 1: righteous judge, shall give me at that day. And not
- 2:52Speaker 1: to me only, but unto all them also that love
- 2:57Speaker 1: his appearing. Now we're going down to verse 14. Alexander,
- 3:04Speaker 1: the metal worker, King James says, coppersmiths, Did me a
- 3:08Speaker 1: great deal of harm. I didn't go through without enemies.
- 3:15Speaker 1: I was anointed, but I had some enemies. Alexander the
- 3:19Speaker 1: metal worker did me a great deal of harm. The
- 3:22Speaker 1: Lord will repay him for what he has done. I
- 3:26Speaker 1: don't have to get revenge. The Lord will fight my
- 3:29Speaker 1: battle for me. The Lord will repay him for what
- 3:33Speaker 1: he has done. You too should be on your guard
- 3:35Speaker 1: against him because he strongly opposed our message. At my
- 3:43Speaker 1: first defense, when I came to court, went on trial,
- 3:46Speaker 1: no one came to my support. But everyone deserted me.
- 3:56Speaker 1: May it not be held against them. But the Lord
- 4:02Speaker 1: stood by my side and gave me strength so that
- 4:10Speaker 1: through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all
- 4:13Speaker 1: the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from
- 4:16Speaker 1: the mouth, from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue
- 4:21Speaker 1: me from every evil attack and will bring me safely
- 4:25Speaker 1: to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.
- 4:33Speaker 1: By the way, tell Priscilla and Aquila in the household
- 4:37Speaker 1: of Anesiphorus, Erastus stayed in Corinth and I left Trepithus
- 4:45Speaker 1: sick in Miletus. But greet all of them. Tell them
- 4:48Speaker 1: I said hi. Do your best to get here before winter.
- 4:57Speaker 1: Eubulus greets you, and so does Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and
- 5:02Speaker 1: the brothers and all the sisters. The Lord be with
- 5:07Speaker 1: your spirit. Grace be with you all. So says the
- 5:15Speaker 1: word of God. Remain standing, I want to pray with you.
- 5:19Speaker 1: I'm going to talk tonight about making peace with your past.
- 5:25Speaker 1: Making peace with your past. Spirit of the living God,
- 5:30Speaker 1: fall fresh on us tonight and anoint these lips of
- 5:33Speaker 1: clay that they may be endowed with the kind of
- 5:35Speaker 1: anointing that is necessary to declare your word, not my own.
- 5:40Speaker 1: Anoint my mind with clarity of thought and nimbleness of
- 5:43Speaker 1: wit that I might have the help I need from
- 5:45Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit to implant unto your people some things
- 5:50Speaker 1: that will give life and strength and hope and help
- 5:53Speaker 1: to them. I believe you for it and I thank
- 5:55Speaker 1: you for it. In Jesus' name, somebody shout amen. You
- 6:01Speaker 1: may be seated in the presence of God. Well, tonight
- 6:06Speaker 1: we're in 2 Timothy, and it is one of the
- 6:09Speaker 1: epistles written by the Apostle Paul that is said to
- 6:14Speaker 1: be one of the pastoral epistles. 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy,
- 6:18Speaker 1: and Titus are pastoral epistles. They're not so much apostolic
- 6:23Speaker 1: in their nature. They're not global in their view. They're
- 6:26Speaker 1: more personal. They're more intimate. They deal specifically with pastoral
- 6:31Speaker 1: issues in a different tone and tenor than any of
- 6:34Speaker 1: his other writings. They're not preoccupied with doctrinal ideologies and
- 6:39Speaker 1: setting up the government of the church. They're focused on
- 6:43Speaker 1: a pastoral perspective as if a shepherd is talking to
- 6:47Speaker 1: his sheep. It is written by the Apostle Paul in
- 6:51Speaker 1: the last period, the last season of his life. So
- 6:56Speaker 1: it's seasoned well. There's nothing like food that's seasoned well.
- 7:02Speaker 1: Everybody could cook, but everybody doesn't season well. Paul is
- 7:08Speaker 1: well seasoned. Seasoning comes through suffering. Seasoning doesn't just come
- 7:18Speaker 1: with age. I've seen people get old and not be seasoned.
- 7:22Speaker 1: I've seen young people who were seasoned beyond their years.
- 7:27Speaker 1: But through the things and the events and the vicissitudes
- 7:31Speaker 1: of life, Paul is well seasoned. He has learned how
- 7:34Speaker 1: to abase and abound. He has learned how to have
- 7:38Speaker 1: and he has learned how to be in one. His
- 7:40Speaker 1: life has had fluctuations. In order to be seasoned, you
- 7:45Speaker 1: have to endure fluctuations. Different seasons and different eras and
- 7:51Speaker 1: different attitudes and different perspectives have all been thrust on
- 7:55Speaker 1: him and he's handled everything that has come his way.
- 7:59Speaker 1: Now Paul is not illiterate and he's not uneducated He
- 8:03Speaker 1: is very literate, he's very educated, he's very intellectual, he
- 8:07Speaker 1: is multilingual to say the least. He has sat at
- 8:11Speaker 1: the feet of Gamal. He has been trained and respected
- 8:14Speaker 1: by the great thinkers of his era. He is profound,
- 8:18Speaker 1: he is prolific, he is well-spoken, he is articulate, he
- 8:23Speaker 1: is able to write well, and he's able to think well.
- 8:27Speaker 1: He is spiritual enough that he has seen some things
- 8:30Speaker 1: that he has chosen not to write, Because they were
- 8:33Speaker 1: so spiritual and so divine that he thought that you
- 8:36Speaker 1: couldn't handle them. Some things he said could not be uttered.
- 8:40Speaker 1: He has suffered persecution. He has both given persecution and
- 8:48Speaker 1: suffered persecution. He has attacked Christians before he got saved
- 8:54Speaker 1: and then he has been attacked himself. See, a lot
- 8:57Speaker 1: of people are good at giving pain, but they're not
- 8:59Speaker 1: good at taking pain. Paul has done both. He has
- 9:03Speaker 1: given pain and he has taken pain because God is
- 9:07Speaker 1: careful that Paul would have some recompense or reward even
- 9:12Speaker 1: though he was saved for the suffering that he has
- 9:15Speaker 1: afflicted on the early church because he was a Christian
- 9:19Speaker 1: chaser and often a Christian killer, and yet he has
- 9:22Speaker 1: survived all of that through an encounter that he has
- 9:25Speaker 1: with God on the road to Damascus that introduces him
- 9:29Speaker 1: to Christ at the expense of losing the respect of
- 9:33Speaker 1: all of those around him. He is controversial now. He
- 9:38Speaker 1: is rejected by those who once accepted him. He is
- 9:42Speaker 1: of the tribe of Benjamin. He comes from a succession
- 9:45Speaker 1: and an order of royalty and kings. He is zealous
- 9:49Speaker 1: concerning the law. He is a Pharisee. He is well
- 9:53Speaker 1: versed in Old Testament theology and ideology and profound and prolific.
- 9:59Speaker 1: So much so. that he staggered at the gospel of
- 10:02Speaker 1: Jesus Christ because he is so filled with Old Testament
- 10:05Speaker 1: ideology that he found it difficult to transition into the
- 10:10Speaker 1: next move of God sometimes you can be so full
- 10:13Speaker 1: of where you came from that you can't see where
- 10:16Speaker 1: you're going Do you hear what I'm saying to you?
- 10:21Speaker 1: Paul has preached the gospel and of all things, God
- 10:25Speaker 1: sends him to the Gentiles. It would have been enough
- 10:28Speaker 1: to send him to converted Jews, but no, God sends
- 10:32Speaker 1: him to the Gentiles. The very thing that a Pharisee
- 10:36Speaker 1: would never eat with or sit down with or talk
- 10:39Speaker 1: to has become his ministry. And he is called to
- 10:43Speaker 1: be the apostle to the Gentiles. It's like being the
- 10:46Speaker 1: president of the dogs. The head of the heathens, the
- 10:54Speaker 1: CEO of the rejected, the ambassador of the idolaters, the
- 11:00Speaker 1: Gentiles were full of fornication and perversion. and orgies and
- 11:05Speaker 1: they were polygamous in their ideology and they were full
- 11:10Speaker 1: of all types of debauchery. There was a great disdain
- 11:13Speaker 1: for them. And God has anointed Paul to minister to
- 11:17Speaker 1: people that were disdained and rejected by everybody else. And
- 11:21Speaker 1: anytime you're called to minister to people that have the
- 11:25Speaker 1: disdain of society, You get persecuted because even religious people
- 11:30Speaker 1: don't want you to be involved with certain types of people.
- 11:36Speaker 1: His ideology has been questioned to the degree that they
- 11:40Speaker 1: laughed him out of the synagogues. Paul is not used
- 11:44Speaker 1: to being laughed at. He's used to being respected. But
- 11:47Speaker 1: they laughed at him and made mockery of his mind
- 11:51Speaker 1: and his intellect and his ideas because he would dare
- 11:55Speaker 1: to believe that Jesus is the embodiment of God himself.
- 12:00Speaker 1: And even amongst those who embraced Jesus, they were reluctant
- 12:04Speaker 1: to receive him because of his past operating as a Pharisee.
- 12:09Speaker 1: So he was not welcomed readily at the table with
- 12:12Speaker 1: Peter and James and John. After all, Paul was not
- 12:16Speaker 1: there when Peter, James, and John were on the Mount
- 12:19Speaker 1: of Transfiguration. And Paul was not there when the woman
- 12:23Speaker 1: with the issue of blood touched the hem of his garment.
- 12:26Speaker 1: And Paul was not there when Jesus raised Lazarus from
- 12:29Speaker 1: the dead. And Paul was not there when Jesus calmed
- 12:33Speaker 1: the raging sea. Here comes this Johnny come lately apostle
- 12:37Speaker 1: who has been killing and persecuting the Christians. And now
- 12:41Speaker 1: he wants to sit at the table. with the rest
- 12:43Speaker 1: of the apostles as if he'd been there all the
- 12:46Speaker 1: time and they were suspicious of him. It took revelation
- 12:50Speaker 1: for them to even begin to slowly embrace him. So
- 12:53Speaker 1: Paul knows loneliness. He knows what it is to be
- 12:56Speaker 1: hated on his left side. He knows what it is
- 12:59Speaker 1: to be hated on his right side. For preaching the gospel,
- 13:03Speaker 1: he has been persecuted. For preaching the gospel, he has
- 13:06Speaker 1: been beaten like a slave. For preaching the gospel, he
- 13:09Speaker 1: has been stoned. at Lystra and left for dead. For
- 13:14Speaker 1: preaching the gospel he has borne in his body the
- 13:17Speaker 1: marks of the Lord Jesus. For preaching the gospel he
- 13:21Speaker 1: has been thrust into prison after prison. For preaching the
- 13:24Speaker 1: gospel he has been ostracized by his friends, alienated by
- 13:29Speaker 1: his own relatives, rejected by his own community. For preaching
- 13:34Speaker 1: the gospel he has had to stand in destitution and
- 13:38Speaker 1: isolation and comforted himself and licked his own wounds and
- 13:43Speaker 1: lifted up his own head and had to keep going
- 13:46Speaker 1: when other people wished he would die for preaching the gospel.
- 13:51Speaker 1: He has endured all types of afflictions to come to
- 13:55Speaker 1: this point in his life and we get to taste
- 13:58Speaker 1: the nectar of his final words, his final thoughts, his conclusion,
- 14:04Speaker 1: his finally, my brethren, The sum total of everything that
- 14:09Speaker 1: seasoned him and set him apart and made him unique.
- 14:13Speaker 1: That elixir, that rich residue that is left when the
- 14:17Speaker 1: pot is boiled down to its lowest gravy. Now we
- 14:21Speaker 1: are tasting the final droppings that are coming from Paul
- 14:26Speaker 1: as he says, I'm about to be offered up. When
- 14:29Speaker 1: Paul says I'm about to be offered up, he is
- 14:31Speaker 1: reminiscent of the drink offering, which a drink offering is
- 14:35Speaker 1: a type of libation. And a libation is when you
- 14:38Speaker 1: take a drink and you begin to pour it out
- 14:40Speaker 1: little by little, drop by drop. Every time he went
- 14:43Speaker 1: through something, it took something out of it. Every time
- 14:46Speaker 1: he endured an affliction. it took something out of it,
- 14:48Speaker 1: until he was down to nothing. And when he was
- 14:51Speaker 1: about to be offered up, he was down to the
- 14:54Speaker 1: last drop. That means the cup has been turned completely up,
- 14:58Speaker 1: drop by drop. Every time you go through a test,
- 15:01Speaker 1: it takes something out of you. You survive it, but
- 15:03Speaker 1: it takes something out of you. You made it, but
- 15:05Speaker 1: it took something out of you. You endured it, but
- 15:07Speaker 1: it took something out of you. You made it out,
- 15:09Speaker 1: but it took something out of you. You went through
- 15:11Speaker 1: the funeral, but it took something out of you. You
- 15:13Speaker 1: went through the scandal, but it took something out of you.
- 15:16Speaker 1: And little by little, you lose more and more. It's
- 15:19Speaker 1: not age that gets you. It's experiences that it took
- 15:23Speaker 1: your strength to survive. And now, he says, I'm about
- 15:27Speaker 1: to be offered up, which means, Timothy, I'm down to
- 15:30Speaker 1: the last drop. And I'm about to be offered up. Amen.
- 15:42Speaker 1: You must realize that you can survive and still suffer.
- 15:51Speaker 1: You must realize that you can survive, but it still
- 15:55Speaker 1: costs you something. You survived the divorce, but it costs
- 15:59Speaker 1: you something. You survived the teenage pregnancy, but it cost
- 16:03Speaker 1: you something. You survived the addiction, but it cost you something.
- 16:07Speaker 1: You survived the scandal, but it cost you something. And
- 16:10Speaker 1: to little by little, people don't realize how much has
- 16:14Speaker 1: gone out of your cup to still be standing. Oh,
- 16:19Speaker 1: oh my God, do you hear what I'm saying? Look
- 16:23Speaker 1: at somebody say, I'm still here. I'm still here, I'm
- 16:27Speaker 1: still here. I'm not the same, but I'm still here.
- 16:33Speaker 1: You know, you can drive a car and little by
- 16:36Speaker 1: little it'll tell you that it's got three quarters a tank.
- 16:38Speaker 1: And then if you keep driving, it's got a half
- 16:40Speaker 1: a tank. And then if you keep driving, it's got
- 16:42Speaker 1: a quarter tank. And if you keep driving, it's got
- 16:44Speaker 1: an eighth a tank. And if you keep on driving,
- 16:47Speaker 1: it's all the way down to empty. That means the
- 16:49Speaker 1: further you go, the more it costs you. It's not
- 16:53Speaker 1: the years, it's the mileage. It's the things I went through.
- 16:57Speaker 1: It's the things I suffered. It's the antagonism I endured.
- 17:01Speaker 1: It's the betrayal that I went through. It's the friends
- 17:04Speaker 1: that rejected me. It's the deceit that I endured. And
- 17:08Speaker 1: it took all of my strength to get back up.
- 17:11Speaker 1: I want to talk to somebody. that it took all
- 17:14Speaker 1: of your strength to get back up. It took all
- 17:17Speaker 1: of your might to get back up. These are the
- 17:20Speaker 1: writings of the pastoral epistles of a man after he
- 17:24Speaker 1: has endured affliction and tribulation and pain and agony. These
- 17:30Speaker 1: are the final droppings of the master orator himself. And
- 17:37Speaker 1: we get to hear his personal letters to Timothy and
- 17:43Speaker 1: Titus as he shares with them his conclusion, because when
- 17:47Speaker 1: you get to the end, you wanna know, was it
- 17:51Speaker 1: worth it? You remember when John was about to be
- 17:57Speaker 1: beheaded and he told his disciples, he said, go and
- 18:00Speaker 1: I want to know, is he the Christ or shall
- 18:03Speaker 1: we look for another? He said, I identified him in
- 18:06Speaker 1: the Jordan. I was sure about it in the Jordan,
- 18:08Speaker 1: but now I'm about to lose my head. And before
- 18:11Speaker 1: I lose my head, I just want to be sure
- 18:13Speaker 1: that it was worth it. Do you hear what I'm saying?
- 18:18Speaker 1: Midlife crisis is wondering, was it worth it? That's why
- 18:23Speaker 1: it's a crisis because you get to the middle of
- 18:25Speaker 1: your life and you wonder, was it worth it? Do
- 18:28Speaker 1: I have what I expected to have to show for
- 18:32Speaker 1: being at the stage I'm at in my life right now?
- 18:35Speaker 1: Am I appreciated? Am I valued? Am I validated? Am
- 18:39Speaker 1: I loved? It's the inner wrestling of a thinking mind
- 18:44Speaker 1: trying to balance an account before you close the books.
- 18:50Speaker 1: Such is the spirit of second Timothy. It is that
- 18:54Speaker 1: spirit that we come into the text because he is
- 18:57Speaker 1: talking to Timothy from the place of trying to close
- 19:03Speaker 1: the books. The accounting is coming to an end. He
- 19:08Speaker 1: is coming to the end of his journey. It is
- 19:11Speaker 1: important that you understand it. I want you to sit there.
- 19:15Speaker 1: Are you with me so far? Set that aside. That's
- 19:18Speaker 1: an appetizer. We'll come back to it in a minute.
- 19:21Speaker 1: I want to get into another thing. I want to
- 19:23Speaker 1: share a little something else. There's an interesting narrative of
- 19:27Speaker 1: the life of Olado Equiano. Olado Equiano is not a
- 19:33Speaker 1: name that would immediately pop up in your head. You
- 19:36Speaker 1: don't hear much about Olado Equiano. Not in history. Not
- 19:40Speaker 1: in the Bible. Not anywhere. Because in 1789 he is
- 19:47Speaker 1: a former slave that writes a book in 1789 that
- 19:52Speaker 1: is published about his abduction. He was born in 1745.
- 19:59Speaker 1: He was tricked and sold into slavery in the western
- 20:02Speaker 1: part of Africa. He is from the tribe of Igbo.
- 20:07Speaker 1: At 11 years old, he and his sister are abducted,
- 20:11Speaker 1: and he finds himself being drug away from West Africa,
- 20:16Speaker 1: now called Nigeria. Before it was called Nigeria, colonialism has
- 20:21Speaker 1: not taken place yet, and he finds himself in the
- 20:25Speaker 1: bottom of a boat floating like a slave toward Europe
- 20:28Speaker 1: at 11. And he is persecuted and he is beaten
- 20:35Speaker 1: and he is dogged and he is ostracized. And you
- 20:39Speaker 1: must understand that when he begins to come to Europe,
- 20:43Speaker 1: he is bought like he is property. He becomes a
- 20:47Speaker 1: property of a European man and given another name. But
- 20:51Speaker 1: the problem is he never forgot who he was. Sometimes
- 20:57Speaker 1: people will give you a name but never forget who
- 20:59Speaker 1: you are. Sometimes people will call you a name, but
- 21:03Speaker 1: never forget who you are. Sometimes life will call you
- 21:06Speaker 1: a name, but never forget who you are. Sometimes finances
- 21:10Speaker 1: will call you a name, but never forget who you are.
- 21:13Speaker 1: Sometimes doctors will call you a disease, but never forget
- 21:17Speaker 1: who you are. Don't let people take away your identity
- 21:20Speaker 1: just because of your circumstance and your situation. There was
- 21:25Speaker 1: slavery everywhere. It was moving all over the world, and
- 21:28Speaker 1: it just started becoming popular. We're entering into a period
- 21:32Speaker 1: of slavery, and it's everywhere. It's in Europe. It's coming
- 21:35Speaker 1: out of West Africa. It's in the Americas. It's everywhere.
- 21:38Speaker 1: It just so happens that this boat goes to Europe.
- 21:42Speaker 1: The African slave's voice from Africa takes many to America,
- 21:46Speaker 1: and some of them it takes to South America. and
- 21:49Speaker 1: others it takes to England. The cross-cultural geopolitical journey from
- 21:55Speaker 1: a slave to freedom, from heathenism to Christianity has become
- 22:00Speaker 1: his life's work. He's trying to figure out who am
- 22:04Speaker 1: I now, separated from my parents, separated from my culture,
- 22:08Speaker 1: separated from my tribe, separated from all the things I
- 22:11Speaker 1: have had 11 years to settle into. Now I'm uprooted
- 22:16Speaker 1: from all of that and taken as property I'm a
- 22:20Speaker 1: line on a ledger. I am the net worth of
- 22:28Speaker 1: a stranger. I have been relegated and delegated into the
- 22:34Speaker 1: net worth of an individual from which I have no
- 22:38Speaker 1: experience at all. This is what he says that I
- 22:44Speaker 1: find interesting. Institutional slavery can raise the master as an
- 22:49Speaker 1: above man, as the slave is forced beneath. But listen
- 22:55Speaker 1: to what he concludes. Both corrupting the master with power
- 23:00Speaker 1: and crippling the slave with the lack of it. In
- 23:06Speaker 1: other words, he says nobody gets away clean. Just because
- 23:11Speaker 1: the master is a master doesn't mean that he doesn't
- 23:14Speaker 1: suffer because the power has corrupted him. And there's a
- 23:19Speaker 1: saying about power, power corrupts, but absolute power absolutely corrupts.
- 23:25Speaker 1: So in order to be a slave master, it has
- 23:29Speaker 1: to speak to your lowest instincts. So I might be
- 23:35Speaker 1: crippled as a slave, but you're corrupted as a master.
- 23:42Speaker 1: And he started speaking these kinds of words. He said,
- 23:46Speaker 1: I consider that trials and disappointments are sometimes for our good.
- 23:51Speaker 1: Listen at how he is making peace with his past.
- 23:57Speaker 1: He says, I consider that trials and disappointments are sometimes
- 24:03Speaker 1: for our good. And I thought God might perhaps have
- 24:07Speaker 1: permitted this in order to teach me wisdom and resignations.
- 24:13Speaker 1: For he had hitherto shadowed me with the wings of
- 24:16Speaker 1: his mercy and by his invisible but powerful hand brought
- 24:21Speaker 1: me the way I knew not. He allowed this to happen.
- 24:27Speaker 1: And if he allowed me to suffer, I comforted myself
- 24:32Speaker 1: not in the goodness of the master, but the goodness
- 24:36Speaker 1: of God that if he allowed me to go through
- 24:39Speaker 1: this kind of suffering, that some kind of way There's
- 24:43Speaker 1: something that he wants me to get out of it
- 24:45Speaker 1: or he wouldn't have allowed it to happen. I don't
- 24:48Speaker 1: know if that helps you like it helps me, but
- 24:51Speaker 1: that really helped me. These reflections gave me a little
- 24:56Speaker 1: comfort and I rose at last. from the deck with
- 25:00Speaker 1: dejection and sorrow in my countenance, yet mixed with some
- 25:04Speaker 1: faint hope that the Lord would appear for my deliverance.
- 25:09Speaker 1: In other words, I was holding on by a thread,
- 25:12Speaker 1: but I tied a knot in it and I held on.
- 25:15Speaker 1: Is there anybody in here that's been through enough suffering
- 25:19Speaker 1: in your life that you held on by a thread
- 25:22Speaker 1: and you were just holding on by the skin of
- 25:24Speaker 1: your teeth and you made it over and sometimes you
- 25:27Speaker 1: felt like giving up and sometimes you felt like dying
- 25:30Speaker 1: and sometimes you felt like committing suicide but there was
- 25:33Speaker 1: just a little, just a little bit of ray of light,
- 25:36Speaker 1: just a little, little bit of light coming into the
- 25:39Speaker 1: dark arc that lit it just enough for you to
- 25:42Speaker 1: press your way through the storm and the rain. And
- 25:45Speaker 1: listen at how he gets a light. He gets a
- 25:48Speaker 1: light by what he says to himself. It is the
- 25:56Speaker 1: way you talk to yourself that determines whether you endure
- 26:00Speaker 1: hardness or not, whether you can stand affliction or not.
- 26:04Speaker 1: It is what you choose to think about. He said,
- 26:07Speaker 1: I chose to believe that God would bring me out
- 26:11Speaker 1: of this. An 11-year-old boy says, I chose to believe
- 26:16Speaker 1: that God would bring me out of this, that he
- 26:18Speaker 1: was to teach me something. And rather than to focus
- 26:21Speaker 1: on the bitterness of my disappointment, I focused on the
- 26:25Speaker 1: fact that some kind of way I'll come out of
- 26:28Speaker 1: this wiser and stronger and better and richer and fuller.
- 26:32Speaker 1: These are the first scenes of my life, though that
- 26:35Speaker 1: pleasure has been for the most part mingled with sorrow.
- 26:42Speaker 1: The truth of the matter is there's not a person
- 26:44Speaker 1: in this room that has not had their pleasure mingled
- 26:50Speaker 1: We're sorry. This slave boy who is 11 years old
- 26:58Speaker 1: from Nigeria, from the tribe of Igbo, who was captured
- 27:01Speaker 1: and abducted, and don't think that that has stopped happening.
- 27:04Speaker 1: Human trafficking is still happening. Don't think that it ended
- 27:08Speaker 1: with the Emancipation Proclamation. Slavery is still alive and well.
- 27:12Speaker 1: In this country and around the world, people are still
- 27:16Speaker 1: living in abducted situations out of their control. In this city,
- 27:22Speaker 1: in this state, there are people that are against their
- 27:26Speaker 1: will being held accountable in bondage. And there are task
- 27:29Speaker 1: force set up by a police department that do nothing
- 27:32Speaker 1: every day but work to liberate young girls and young
- 27:36Speaker 1: boys that have been snatched out of their country and
- 27:39Speaker 1: made to work without pay right in your city, right
- 27:43Speaker 1: up under your nose. And I laugh when I hear
- 27:45Speaker 1: us say, if I had lived in slavery days, I
- 27:49Speaker 1: would have— you are living in slavery day. As long as
- 27:53Speaker 1: there is inequity, there will be slavery for somebody. You
- 27:57Speaker 1: just choose not to look at it, but it is there.
- 28:01Speaker 1: Every week, somebody gets busted for taking somebody from their
- 28:06Speaker 1: country and having them working in massage parlors and different
- 28:09Speaker 1: places that you might frequent. You have to have your
- 28:12Speaker 1: eyes open because sometimes the people who are giving you
- 28:16Speaker 1: service are doing it against their will. He says, early
- 28:25Speaker 1: on I accustomed myself to look for the hand of
- 28:27Speaker 1: God in the minutest occurrence. Any little sign of, any
- 28:32Speaker 1: little touch, I look for the hand of God. And
- 28:35Speaker 1: to learn from it a lesson of morality and religion.
- 28:39Speaker 1: And in this light, every circumstance I have related was
- 28:44Speaker 1: to me of importance. I look for God even in pain.
- 28:51Speaker 1: After all, what makes any event important unless by its
- 28:55Speaker 1: observation we become better and wiser? What makes any event
- 29:02Speaker 1: important if we don't use it to become better and
- 29:06Speaker 1: wiser and learn to do justly and to love mercy
- 29:12Speaker 1: and to walk humbly before God? Can I go on
- 29:16Speaker 1: with this? I love this. I love that. You should
- 29:19Speaker 1: get the book. You should order the book. To those
- 29:22Speaker 1: who are possessed of this spirit, there is scarcely any
- 29:25Speaker 1: book or incident so trifling that does not afford some profit,
- 29:30Speaker 1: while to others the experience of ages seems of no use.
- 29:34Speaker 1: And even to pour out to them the treasures of
- 29:37Speaker 1: wisdom is throwing the jewels of instruction away because some
- 29:42Speaker 1: people have a deaf ear to wisdom. They have no
- 29:45Speaker 1: value to profoundness. Their minds are so narrow that even
- 29:50Speaker 1: when you give them good things, they throw it away.
- 29:52Speaker 1: Jesus said it this way, cast not your pearls to
- 29:55Speaker 1: the swine, neither give that which is holy to the dog.
- 29:58Speaker 1: Come on, talk to me somebody. He said, and I
- 30:02Speaker 1: had a great curiosity to talk to the books as
- 30:06Speaker 1: I thought they did to me. And so to learn
- 30:10Speaker 1: how all things had a beginning, for that purpose I
- 30:13Speaker 1: have often taken up a book and have talked to it.
- 30:18Speaker 1: And then when nobody was looking, I put my ears
- 30:21Speaker 1: to it in hopes it would answer me. In other words,
- 30:29Speaker 1: I so valued wisdom that I let the book that
- 30:34Speaker 1: talked to me, I'd talk back to it and then
- 30:37Speaker 1: listen to see if I said something, maybe it would
- 30:40Speaker 1: say something to me. If you start listening for books
- 30:44Speaker 1: to talk to you, especially the Bible, you would be
- 30:48Speaker 1: surprised how the Bible will be your counselor, will be
- 30:52Speaker 1: your advisor, will speak wisdom. And you would be surprised
- 30:58Speaker 1: what it will do for you in your life if
- 31:00Speaker 1: you would listen. If you would not just depend on
- 31:03Speaker 1: the preacher to do all the feeding. But if you
- 31:06Speaker 1: would develop a relationship and start listening and have an
- 31:10Speaker 1: ongoing conversation with the word. He said, and I have
- 31:13Speaker 1: been very much concerned when I found it remained silent.
- 31:17Speaker 1: Something said nothing to me at all. But I was listening.
- 31:21Speaker 1: I was listening. I want you to understand these quotes
- 31:24Speaker 1: because I think they are powerful and I think they
- 31:27Speaker 1: are relevant and I think they are profound. And if
- 31:29Speaker 1: you'll give me just a few minutes, I'm going to
- 31:31Speaker 1: tie them into Apostle Paul and show you why I
- 31:34Speaker 1: talked about it. He says, oh, ye nominal Christians, might
- 31:38Speaker 1: not an African ask you, learn you this from your God?
- 31:44Speaker 1: Your religion allows you to do this to me? How
- 31:52Speaker 1: can you worship God and still need? Eventually, he found
- 31:59Speaker 1: his way to freedom and became a husband and a
- 32:03Speaker 1: father and a very successful entrepreneur. And I want you
- 32:08Speaker 1: to see the before and after pictures. One shows him
- 32:11Speaker 1: as a slave and one shows him as an entrepreneur.
- 32:19Speaker 1: If he would have remained bitter, he would have stayed
- 32:22Speaker 1: like the first picture. But because he refused to allow
- 32:26Speaker 1: the pain that he endured to enslave him, he ended
- 32:30Speaker 1: up in the second picture. I'm talking to somebody. I
- 32:33Speaker 1: don't know who I'm talking to. You either get better
- 32:37Speaker 1: or you get bitter. You either allow the pain to
- 32:41Speaker 1: engulf you or you rise to something above it that
- 32:44Speaker 1: blows your mind and sets you apart and sets you
- 32:47Speaker 1: on a different level. And you, put the pictures up
- 32:50Speaker 1: there again. I want you to choose which one you're
- 32:52Speaker 1: going to be. Are you going to get bitter or
- 32:55Speaker 1: are you going to get better? In our text, we
- 32:59Speaker 1: are reading the memoirs of a man enslaved to the gospel.
- 33:03Speaker 1: His life was not his own. Paul did not belong
- 33:06Speaker 1: to himself. He was a prisoner of the gospel. He
- 33:09Speaker 1: was a slave of Jesus Christ. The difference between Olodo
- 33:14Speaker 1: Equiano and Paul is that Paul has eventually become a
- 33:18Speaker 1: willing slave. You remember when Paul identifies himself as a
- 33:26Speaker 1: willing slave. He is a willing slave. However, the suffering
- 33:31Speaker 1: and the strange mixture of feelings of dejection and yet
- 33:35Speaker 1: hopefulness are quite similar. In order to work for God,
- 33:40Speaker 1: every day will not be a great day. Every day
- 33:44Speaker 1: will not be an easy day. Every day will not
- 33:46Speaker 1: be a kind day if you're going to work for God. See,
- 33:50Speaker 1: Damascus was the place of his apprehension. Jesus caught him
- 33:55Speaker 1: in Damascus, on the road to Damascus. And all the
- 33:58Speaker 1: way up to Damascus, Saul, now Paul, is leading the way.
- 34:04Speaker 1: But when Jesus got through with him, the people that
- 34:07Speaker 1: he were leading were now leading him. And now he
- 34:10Speaker 1: is bound, a prisoner of the gospel. to preach to
- 34:14Speaker 1: the Gentiles. He has lost the respect of his Jewish
- 34:17Speaker 1: Orthodox brethren. He's even faced struggles to be accepted by
- 34:21Speaker 1: other apostles, and yet God used him mightily. That means
- 34:25Speaker 1: that you don't have to have a general consensus in
- 34:29Speaker 1: order to be effective for God. That means that you
- 34:32Speaker 1: can be controversial and still be effective. That means you
- 34:35Speaker 1: don't have to put your mission on hold until everybody
- 34:39Speaker 1: votes for you and everybody likes you and everybody supports
- 34:43Speaker 1: you and everybody undergirds you. It means that you have
- 34:46Speaker 1: to come to a point that you begin to understand
- 34:50Speaker 1: that God is with you even when people are against you.
- 34:54Speaker 1: Even when people are scandalizing you and ostracizing you, doesn't
- 34:59Speaker 1: mean that you can't be purposeful. Oh, do you hear
- 35:03Speaker 1: what I'm saying? And Mr. Equiano ends up an entrepreneur
- 35:09Speaker 1: and a successful one, and they had to reprint his
- 35:12Speaker 1: book over eight times in his lifetime and more after
- 35:17Speaker 1: he died. The Book of a Slave in the 18th Century.
- 35:23Speaker 1: I don't care what's going on around you. If God
- 35:26Speaker 1: is for you, he will raise you up anyway. I
- 35:29Speaker 1: don't care what you read in the paper. I don't
- 35:31Speaker 1: care what you saw on the news. I don't care
- 35:33Speaker 1: what your education is, what your background is. If God
- 35:37Speaker 1: is for you, he will raise you up and set
- 35:41Speaker 1: you up and bless you and take you to a
- 35:44Speaker 1: place that you know not of. Do you hear what
- 35:50Speaker 1: I'm saying to you? When Paul tells Timothy, I have
- 35:55Speaker 1: fought a good fight, I have often preached that, I've
- 35:59Speaker 1: taught that, I've listened at it, I've shared it, but
- 36:02Speaker 1: I never really thought about this. He didn't say he won.
- 36:11Speaker 1: He never said he won the fight. He just said
- 36:15Speaker 1: he fought the fight. I want to talk to some
- 36:18Speaker 1: people who have lost some battles. but you kept on swinging. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 36:25Speaker 1: He said, I fought a good fight. I fought a
- 36:28Speaker 1: good fight. He didn't say I won every fight. See,
- 36:31Speaker 1: we would like to think that he won every fight,
- 36:34Speaker 1: but he didn't win every fight. There were certain cities
- 36:37Speaker 1: that rejected him. There were certain people that withstood him.
- 36:41Speaker 1: There were certain individuals that attacked him. He didn't win
- 36:44Speaker 1: every fight, but he stayed in the fight. And I
- 36:48Speaker 1: came to tell you tonight, That the Holy Ghost said,
- 36:51Speaker 1: if you stay in the fight, I will bless you.
- 36:55Speaker 1: You can fight a good fight. Win or lose, I
- 36:58Speaker 1: fought a good fight. I fought a good fight as
- 37:01Speaker 1: a father. I fought a good fight as a mother.
- 37:03Speaker 1: I fought a good fight as a preacher. I fought
- 37:05Speaker 1: a good fight as a man. See, God gives you
- 37:08Speaker 1: credit for the fight, not the score. Oh, y'all don't
- 37:13Speaker 1: want to hear what I'm saying to you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 37:17Speaker 1: If you hear what I'm saying, you'll shout me down
- 37:20Speaker 1: tonight because God wants to know, will you fight back?
- 37:24Speaker 1: It doesn't matter who got the most licks in. He
- 37:26Speaker 1: wants to know, will you fight back? When Paul tells Timothy,
- 37:30Speaker 1: I fought a good fight, he's not bragging that he
- 37:33Speaker 1: won every fight, but he's telling Timothy, you got to
- 37:35Speaker 1: be prepared to fight a good fight. in season and
- 37:39Speaker 1: out of season, reprove and rebuke with all longsuffering, even
- 37:43Speaker 1: though sometimes they will not endure sound doctrine, do it anyway,
- 37:48Speaker 1: because God will bless you just because you fought. I
- 37:52Speaker 1: want to talk to a room full of fighters today.
- 37:55Speaker 1: If I could get me a few fighters online, are
- 37:58Speaker 1: there any fighters online that you fought a good fight?
- 38:02Speaker 1: You fought a good fight. You won some, you lost some,
- 38:06Speaker 1: but you fought a good fight. You stayed in the
- 38:09Speaker 1: ring when you didn't have no money. You stayed in
- 38:13Speaker 1: the ring when you did have some money. You stayed
- 38:16Speaker 1: in the ring when you felt like fighting. You stayed
- 38:19Speaker 1: in the ring when you didn't feel like fighting. And
- 38:22Speaker 1: Paul is coming to the end of his life. And
- 38:24Speaker 1: he said, I fought a good fight. Somebody holler, I
- 38:27Speaker 1: fought a good fight. I fought a good fight. Now,
- 38:41Speaker 1: let me put this in perspective. This is making peace
- 38:45Speaker 1: with your past. Because if you don't make peace with it,
- 38:49Speaker 1: you gonna always be complaining about the ones you lost
- 38:53Speaker 1: and what you didn't get and what didn't happen and
- 38:56Speaker 1: what didn't come through in your life. But it doesn't
- 38:58Speaker 1: matter whether you got it or you didn't get it.
- 39:01Speaker 1: What matters is that you kept on fighting. If you
- 39:07Speaker 1: really got faith, you'll fight when you win and you'll
- 39:11Speaker 1: fight when you lose. You'll fight when you got a job.
- 39:14Speaker 1: You'll fight when you don't have a job. You'll fight
- 39:17Speaker 1: when people love you. You'll fight when people hate you.
- 39:20Speaker 1: I fought a good fight. Somebody say, I fought a
- 39:23Speaker 1: good fight. There comes a time in your life that
- 39:28Speaker 1: you have to reconcile yourself. that you may not, it
- 39:31Speaker 1: may not have turned out the way you wanted it
- 39:34Speaker 1: to turn out. And everything might not be in place
- 39:36Speaker 1: the way you wanted it to be. But if you
- 39:39Speaker 1: fought a good fight, you still got a crown laid
- 39:42Speaker 1: up for you. I want to talk to my fighters
- 39:45Speaker 1: that there's a crown waiting for you, that there's a
- 39:48Speaker 1: blessing waiting for you, that there's a door God's going
- 39:50Speaker 1: to open for you. If you keep on swinging, if
- 39:54Speaker 1: you keep on swinging, if you keep on swinging, if
- 39:57Speaker 1: you keep on swinging, If you keep on swinging, if
- 40:00Speaker 1: you keep on, I don't care what the devil throws
- 40:03Speaker 1: at you. Just keep on swinging. I don't care what
- 40:06Speaker 1: they say about you. Just keep on swinging. Just keep
- 40:09Speaker 1: on swinging. You may break your heart, but keep on swinging.
- 40:14Speaker 1: I fought a good fight, a good fight. I lasted
- 40:19Speaker 1: all 13 rounds. I stayed in the fight. I was bloody,
- 40:23Speaker 1: but I kept swinging. I got a black eye, but
- 40:26Speaker 1: I kept on swinging. I got a busted lip, but
- 40:29Speaker 1: I kept on swinging. Timothy, I fought a good fight.
- 40:32Speaker 1: If you're going to be my son, you're going to
- 40:35Speaker 1: have to be a fighter. You might not be a winner,
- 40:38Speaker 1: but you got to be a fighter. I fought a
- 40:41Speaker 1: good fight. Nudge somebody and say, fight back. You got
- 40:53Speaker 1: to fight back. You got to fight back. And you
- 40:57Speaker 1: got to be proud of the fact that you fought back.
- 41:00Speaker 1: I won some and I lost some, but I fought back.
- 41:04Speaker 1: Sometimes I got over, sometimes I went under, but I
- 41:08Speaker 1: fought back. And you got to be able to make
- 41:11Speaker 1: peace with the fact that fighting a good fight is enough.
- 41:16Speaker 1: Whether you won the fight or not, if I kept
- 41:20Speaker 1: the faith, I won. If I kept the faith, if
- 41:26Speaker 1: it was just a little rope and I held on
- 41:29Speaker 1: to the rope, if it was a piece of thread
- 41:32Speaker 1: and I held on to the faith, I have kept
- 41:35Speaker 1: the faith. Sometimes I had doubt, sometimes I had fear,
- 41:39Speaker 1: sometimes I had worry, but I kept the faith. None
- 41:43Speaker 1: of it made me backslide. None of it made me
- 41:46Speaker 1: walk away. I said thank you, Jesus, when I didn't
- 41:50Speaker 1: feel like saying thank you, Jesus. I said glory to
- 41:53Speaker 1: God when I didn't feel like saying glory to God
- 41:56Speaker 1: because I wanted hell to know. I don't have nothing
- 41:59Speaker 1: but a string, but I'm going to hold on to
- 42:02Speaker 1: the string, and I'm going to keep the faith. And
- 42:05Speaker 1: the Lord wanted me to tell somebody tonight, It looks
- 42:09Speaker 1: like you're going down for the third time. But hold
- 42:13Speaker 1: on to what you got left. And as long as
- 42:15Speaker 1: you hold on to what God gave you, you have
- 42:19Speaker 1: kept the faith. Somebody take a minute and praise Him
- 42:23Speaker 1: for the faith you got left.
- 42:35Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 42:36Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. Praising for the faith you got left. I
- 42:42Speaker 1: lost my car, but I got my faith. I lost
- 42:46Speaker 1: my friends, but I got my faith. I lost my family,
- 42:50Speaker 1: but I got my faith. I lost my job, but
- 42:53Speaker 1: I got my faith. I still got my faith. That's
- 42:57Speaker 1: what the devil was after. The devil don't want your car.
- 43:01Speaker 1: The devil don't want your house. The devil don't want
- 43:04Speaker 1: your shoes. What the devil is after is after your faith.
- 43:08Speaker 1: And I want everything that's listening at me that's got
- 43:11Speaker 1: some faith to give God 30 seconds of crazy, ridiculous praise.
- 43:33Speaker 1: You see, this is the thing I want you to see.
- 43:35Speaker 1: I ain't got to sweat now. I didn't mean to
- 43:37Speaker 1: go to sweat. Y'all made me sweat. Something about to
- 43:40Speaker 1: happen in here. The thing I want you to see
- 43:44Speaker 1: is Oladu knew that he might die a slave, but
- 43:49Speaker 1: he also knew that he might not. He knew they
- 43:55Speaker 1: might beat him to death, but he also knew that
- 43:58Speaker 1: he might not. He knew they might destroy him, But
- 44:02Speaker 1: he also knew that he might not. And he kept
- 44:04Speaker 1: on fighting and kept on fighting and wiggling till he
- 44:08Speaker 1: finally got free. And the Lord told me to tell
- 44:11Speaker 1: you that if you keep on fighting, eventually you'll get free.
- 44:16Speaker 1: It may not be today. It may not be tomorrow.
- 44:19Speaker 1: But if you keep on fighting, eventually you're going to
- 44:23Speaker 1: get free. Somebody needs to stay in the fight. Stay
- 44:27Speaker 1: in the fight. Stay in the fight. There ain't no
- 44:31Speaker 1: way in the world he was supposed to get free,
- 44:34Speaker 1: but he stayed in the fight and he kept on
- 44:36Speaker 1: punching until somebody had to liberate him and let him go.
- 44:41Speaker 1: He went from being a slave to an entrepreneur. He
- 44:47Speaker 1: went from being half-naked to being walking around in custom-made
- 44:51Speaker 1: clothes because he stayed in the fight. You've got to
- 44:56Speaker 1: stay in the fight. I want to talk to somebody
- 44:59Speaker 1: that's tired and feel like giving up and feel like
- 45:02Speaker 1: it's not worth it and feel like you've been through
- 45:05Speaker 1: too much and feel like you've endured too much pain.
- 45:08Speaker 1: I want to encourage you tonight that the next punch
- 45:12Speaker 1: might be the last punch. Swing when you don't even
- 45:16Speaker 1: feel like swinging. Punch when you don't even feel like punching.
- 45:20Speaker 1: Because God has a plan. In fact, had they not
- 45:33Speaker 1: abducted him, he would have never ended up the entrepreneur
- 45:45Speaker 1: and the author with the wisdom and the story that
- 45:50Speaker 1: made him a best seller. People always talk about what
- 45:54Speaker 1: you're running to, but they don't notice what you're running from.
- 45:58Speaker 1: It's what happened behind you that determines how fast you
- 46:02Speaker 1: move in front of you. And if you don't make
- 46:06Speaker 1: peace with your past, If you don't, listen to me,
- 46:11Speaker 1: if you don't make peace with your past, you'll never
- 46:16Speaker 1: accomplish what your past came to propel you into. There
- 46:29Speaker 1: is a reason. Preacher said it's Sunday. This ain't nothing
- 46:34Speaker 1: but confirmation of what the preacher said Sunday. This ain't
- 46:38Speaker 1: nothing but God adding word on top of word on
- 46:40Speaker 1: top of word on top of word that I got
- 46:43Speaker 1: a plan even when you got a pain. I got
- 46:46Speaker 1: a plan even when you got a hurt. I got
- 46:49Speaker 1: a plan even when you feel like giving up and
- 46:51Speaker 1: throwing yourself away. Are you hearing what I'm saying to you?
- 46:56Speaker 1: Paul said, when my hour came to trial, no man
- 47:01Speaker 1: stood with me. Now this is amazing. Because Paul has
- 47:07Speaker 1: spoke to cities. He's transformed communities. He's established churches. He
- 47:13Speaker 1: has healed all manner of diseases. He's even raised people
- 47:18Speaker 1: from the dead. You would think out of all of
- 47:21Speaker 1: the body of his work, when he went on trial,
- 47:24Speaker 1: somebody would have stood with him. He said, when I
- 47:30Speaker 1: came to defense, no man stood with me. Normally when
- 47:38Speaker 1: you go to court, your lawyer is standing with you.
- 47:42Speaker 1: Paul said, I had nobody to plead my case. No
- 47:47Speaker 1: man stood with me. But then he said, watch this,
- 47:51Speaker 1: watch how he won't let bitterness creep in. I pray
- 47:54Speaker 1: that the Lord does not lay it to their charge.
- 48:00Speaker 1: Have you grown enough in your faith to pray for
- 48:05Speaker 1: the people who let you down. Oh, come on. You
- 48:10Speaker 1: on the boat now. You got to ride. You on
- 48:13Speaker 1: the boat now. You got to ride all the way in.
- 48:16Speaker 1: Paul has learned how to pray for the people who
- 48:20Speaker 1: disappointed him. He is making peace with his past. He says,
- 48:26Speaker 1: I can't afford to die bitter. and angry and upset
- 48:31Speaker 1: and full of resentment and frustration because it's gonna weaken
- 48:35Speaker 1: my strength. So even though I was disappointed that no
- 48:42Speaker 1: man stood with me, I pray that God does not
- 48:45Speaker 1: lay it to their charge. Where was the man I
- 48:48Speaker 1: raised from the dead? Where was the woman I healed
- 48:51Speaker 1: from diseases? Where was the woman I cast demons out of?
- 48:55Speaker 1: Where were all the people I delivered all through the Bible?
- 48:57Speaker 1: Where were the churches I established? Where were the pastors
- 49:01Speaker 1: I set in place? Where were the people I gave
- 49:03Speaker 1: a second chance? Where were the people I poured into?
- 49:06Speaker 1: He said, when I really, really, really, really, really needed somebody.
- 49:18Speaker 1: No man stood with me notwithstanding the Lord stood with
- 49:31Speaker 1: me and what I'm supposed to tell you is stop
- 49:37Speaker 1: worrying about who didn't and use it as an opportunity
- 49:46Speaker 1: to brag about how good God stood. Is there anybody
- 49:52Speaker 1: online that God stood with? Is there anybody in the
- 49:55Speaker 1: building that God stood with? Is there anybody on the
- 49:58Speaker 1: internet that God stood with? Is there anybody on Facebook
- 50:02Speaker 1: that God stood with you? In the hospital? In the courtroom?
- 50:08Speaker 1: Through the pain of life? The Lord stood with me.
- 50:14Speaker 1: The Lord stood with me. The Lord stood with me.
- 50:18Speaker 1: I finished because the Lord stood with me. Good God Almighty,
- 50:24Speaker 1: I feel the Holy Ghost in this place right now.
- 50:28Speaker 1: The Lord stood with me. If he stood with you,
- 50:31Speaker 1: you ought to praise him like he stood with you.
- 50:50Speaker 1: Sit down, sit down, because between y'all standing and the
- 50:53Speaker 1: organ chasing me, y'all got me going too fast. I
- 50:58Speaker 1: feel the Holy Ghost in here. I feel the Spirit
- 51:01Speaker 1: of God in here. I feel the Spirit of God
- 51:04Speaker 1: in here, because this is my testimony too. The Lord
- 51:08Speaker 1: has stood with me. He's been standing with me all
- 51:12Speaker 1: my life. He was standing with me when I wasn't
- 51:15Speaker 1: standing with him. He was still standing with me. And
- 51:19Speaker 1: I'm here because the Lord stood with me. Are you
- 51:28Speaker 1: with me tonight? Are you with me tonight? Now this
- 51:33Speaker 1: is what I'm after tonight. You got so many years
- 51:40Speaker 1: that are your discovery years. Yes. Adolescent years. Discovery years.
- 51:47Speaker 1: Those are some tough years. Tough on you, tough on
- 51:51Speaker 1: your parents. Your discovery years. Who am I? Am I
- 51:56Speaker 1: what they call me or am I who you named me?
- 51:58Speaker 1: Who am I? And you go through this discovery years.
- 52:03Speaker 1: And then you go through this period in your 20s
- 52:07Speaker 1: generally where you're trying to stake your claim on something
- 52:13Speaker 1: That's solid. But you still got a lot of kid
- 52:17Speaker 1: in you. And a lot of crazy. In fact, the
- 52:23Speaker 1: brain doesn't fully mature about consequences until you're in your
- 52:28Speaker 1: early 20s. So you're living in the moment without regard
- 52:35Speaker 1: for consequences. You have to mature to consider consequences. By
- 52:42Speaker 1: the time you're in your 30s, you ought to be
- 52:45Speaker 1: grappling after something, trying to build something, trying to do something,
- 52:48Speaker 1: trying to become something. That's why I love what we're
- 52:51Speaker 1: doing and what we're getting ready to do with our
- 52:53Speaker 1: young adults because those are your building years. Your 30s
- 52:57Speaker 1: and your 40s are your building years. Those are your
- 53:00Speaker 1: building years. Those are your formation years. Those are your
- 53:03Speaker 1: development years. Those are the make or break you years.
- 53:08Speaker 1: When you get in your 50s and 60s, you begin learning.
- 53:11Speaker 1: to recognize that I can still win and I can
- 53:13Speaker 1: still accomplish some things, but you start to begin to
- 53:17Speaker 1: recognize I may not get what I thought I would
- 53:21Speaker 1: get when I started. And if you don't learn how
- 53:27Speaker 1: to be good with that, you'll become a Saul to
- 53:33Speaker 1: some David. And you'll end up trying to kill somebody
- 53:40Speaker 1: who's coming because you wasted your turn. Can I go
- 53:49Speaker 1: a little bit deeper? Making peace with your past doesn't
- 53:52Speaker 1: just mean making peace with your sins. It means making
- 53:59Speaker 1: peace with your station in life. Getting to a place
- 54:05Speaker 1: where I'm good with it. Alexander the coppersmith hates me,
- 54:12Speaker 1: but I'm good with it. I'm going to put that
- 54:18Speaker 1: over in the I'm good with it column. Because I
- 54:22Speaker 1: got to balance these books. I'm good with the fact
- 54:27Speaker 1: that I still can see further than I will ever
- 54:30Speaker 1: be able to go. By the time you get to
- 54:34Speaker 1: your 70s, you start to begin to understand that I
- 54:38Speaker 1: can see further than I can reach. And if you're
- 54:46Speaker 1: not good with that, you'll become bitter and you'll become
- 54:51Speaker 1: a hater. And you'll start trying to destroy people who
- 54:55Speaker 1: have more time and more energy than you do. What
- 55:01Speaker 1: is a sign of maturity is when you have made
- 55:04Speaker 1: peace with where you are. That's why the Bible says,
- 55:08Speaker 1: watch this, godliness with contentment is great gain. To be
- 55:13Speaker 1: contented doesn't mean that you don't have ambition. Doesn't mean
- 55:17Speaker 1: that you don't have goals. It means that you don't
- 55:19Speaker 1: use your ambition to create frustration. Y'all ain't gonna talk
- 55:26Speaker 1: to me tonight. You can't be so ambitious that you
- 55:31Speaker 1: turn into a witch. You can't be so ambitious that
- 55:37Speaker 1: you start cutting people's throats to get ahead. You can't
- 55:40Speaker 1: be so ambitious that you become vicious and become ruthless
- 55:46Speaker 1: and become dangerous. You've got to come to a point
- 55:49Speaker 1: that maybe you wanted some things for you that God
- 55:52Speaker 1: didn't want for you and you have to be good
- 55:55Speaker 1: with where he placed you. And you might not ever
- 55:58Speaker 1: get back to West Africa, but you got to learn
- 56:01Speaker 1: how to bloom where you're planted. And if I never
- 56:06Speaker 1: get back and if I never go here and if
- 56:09Speaker 1: I never go there, I'm going to be as fruitful
- 56:12Speaker 1: as I can in the land where I am. I'm
- 56:16Speaker 1: good with it. I can't spend the rest of my
- 56:19Speaker 1: life wishing for something that may not ever happen again.
- 56:23Speaker 1: I'm good with it. To come to a place of contentment.
- 56:31Speaker 1: where you can lay down at night and be contented.
- 56:34Speaker 1: Doesn't mean that you don't have anything that you go after,
- 56:37Speaker 1: any goals or anything, but it doesn't mean, it does
- 56:40Speaker 1: mean that whether I get it or don't, I'm still
- 56:43Speaker 1: gonna be okay. Whether you like me or don't, I'm
- 56:48Speaker 1: still gonna be okay. Whether you clap or don't clap,
- 56:52Speaker 1: I'm still gonna be okay. Whether you support or don't support,
- 56:56Speaker 1: I have come to a place of making peace with
- 57:00Speaker 1: where I am in my life and what I went
- 57:03Speaker 1: through in my life, and I'm good with it. Because
- 57:07Speaker 1: I can't make you feel good about you until I
- 57:11Speaker 1: feel good about me. Let me help the preachers that
- 57:15Speaker 1: are watching online. You can quote what I quote, but
- 57:19Speaker 1: till you've been through what I've been through, it's not
- 57:21Speaker 1: gonna be effective. The only way to be effective is
- 57:25Speaker 1: that you've gone through enough that it's changed your attitude
- 57:28Speaker 1: that you are good with where you are in life
- 57:31Speaker 1: and you're happy to be you and you're not trying
- 57:33Speaker 1: to be nobody else and you're not wishing you were
- 57:35Speaker 1: somebody else and you're not wishing you had another mama
- 57:38Speaker 1: and you're not wishing you had another daddy. You're saying
- 57:41Speaker 1: it was good that I was afflicted If it had
- 57:44Speaker 1: turned out any other kind of way, I wouldn't have
- 57:46Speaker 1: ended up where I ended up. Thank you for rejecting me.
- 57:50Speaker 1: Thank you for leaving me by myself. You taught me
- 57:52Speaker 1: how to pray. You taught me how to stand on
- 57:55Speaker 1: my own two feet. If you would have been there,
- 57:57Speaker 1: I would have never met who God wanted me to meet.
- 58:00Speaker 1: If you would have been there, I wouldn't have been
- 58:02Speaker 1: hungry enough to become anointed enough, to become powerful enough
- 58:06Speaker 1: to be where I am. I'm talking to somebody today
- 58:10Speaker 1: about making peace with your past so that you don't
- 58:13Speaker 1: spend the rest of your life trying to get back
- 58:15Speaker 1: somewhere that there's no boat to take you back. But
- 58:18Speaker 1: there is strength to bloom where you're planted and to
- 58:21Speaker 1: prosper where you are, you have to be good with
- 58:25Speaker 1: being you. With your big self. You got to be
- 58:32Speaker 1: good with being you with your skinny self. You got
- 58:36Speaker 1: to be good with being you with your ugly self.
- 58:40Speaker 1: You got to be good with being you with your
- 58:42Speaker 1: pretty self. Because though I might not have what you have,
- 58:45Speaker 1: I got something you don't. And I'm not gonna focus
- 58:49Speaker 1: on what I don't have. I'm gonna focus on what
- 58:52Speaker 1: I do have. Yes, I'm gonna do all I can
- 58:54Speaker 1: to enhance what I got. But some things God gave you,
- 58:57Speaker 1: he didn't give me. But I'm not in a race
- 59:00Speaker 1: with you. I'm in a race to be the best
- 59:03Speaker 1: me that I was. Oh, y'all don't hear what I'm saying.
- 59:10Speaker 1: so Paul says when people did not stand by me
- 59:15Speaker 1: the Lord stood with me now who would you rather
- 59:18Speaker 1: have stand with you He said, the Lord stood with
- 59:22Speaker 1: me and strengthened me. Put that scripture back up there again.
- 59:25Speaker 1: Because I want to get that scripture just right. Down
- 59:28Speaker 1: in the last part of 2 Timothy. But the Lord
- 59:30Speaker 1: stood at my side and gave me strength. So that
- 59:33Speaker 1: through me the gospel might be proclaimed. And all the
- 59:37Speaker 1: Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the
- 59:41Speaker 1: lion's mouth. I was delivered. You don't understand. I was
- 59:46Speaker 1: delivered from the lion's mouth. Imagine, now he means that figuratively,
- 59:50Speaker 1: but imagine that literally. I was delivered from the lion's mouth.
- 59:55Speaker 1: Look at how many lion's mouths you've been in. I
- 1:00:03Speaker 1: was delivered out of the mouth of people that I
- 1:00:06Speaker 1: thought was my friend and really my enemy. I was delivered...
- 1:00:12Speaker 1: I was delivered from the lion's mouth. I was delivered
- 1:00:15Speaker 1: from the thing that could have devoured me. I was delivered.
- 1:00:18Speaker 1: The reason I got to praise him, I was delivered.
- 1:00:21Speaker 1: I should have been dead. I should have died of AIDS.
- 1:00:25Speaker 1: I should have had a nervous breakdown. I could have
- 1:00:27Speaker 1: lost my mind. I was delivered from the lion's mouth.
- 1:00:31Speaker 1: When you see me praising God, you can imitate my step,
- 1:00:34Speaker 1: but you can't imitate my gratitude because nobody knows like
- 1:00:38Speaker 1: I know what my lion was. Everybody in here got
- 1:00:43Speaker 1: a lion. Everybody in this room. got something that had
- 1:00:47Speaker 1: you in its clutches and you could be strung out
- 1:00:50Speaker 1: under a bridge and you could have tracks in your
- 1:00:53Speaker 1: arm and you could have OD'd and you could have
- 1:00:56Speaker 1: lost your mind. But I want you to think back
- 1:00:58Speaker 1: on the lion that had you in its mouth and
- 1:01:01Speaker 1: look at you now and I want you to give
- 1:01:03Speaker 1: God a praise for how he delivered you out of
- 1:01:07Speaker 1: the mouth of the lion. And he says, because I
- 1:01:19Speaker 1: was delivered, the Lord will rescue me. See, on the
- 1:01:25Speaker 1: strength of what I've been through in my past, God
- 1:01:29Speaker 1: has built up enough resume in me that I am
- 1:01:32Speaker 1: confident now that the Lord will rescue me from every
- 1:01:37Speaker 1: evil attack. That means that the things that used to
- 1:01:44Speaker 1: worry me don't worry me like they used to. And
- 1:01:47Speaker 1: the things that used to drive me crazy don't drive
- 1:01:50Speaker 1: me crazy like they used to. Because of the lion's mouth,
- 1:01:54Speaker 1: I've got enough faith to believe God against every evil
- 1:01:58Speaker 1: thing that's in my future. I'm going to use what
- 1:02:01Speaker 1: I've been through in my past to prepare me for
- 1:02:08Speaker 1: my future. So I'm going to leave you with four words.
- 1:02:12Speaker 1: The first word is restitution. Restitution. Damascus was where Paul
- 1:02:19Speaker 1: is called to serve restitution for his deeds. You can't
- 1:02:26Speaker 1: do just anything and not have any restitution. There comes
- 1:02:33Speaker 1: a point in your life that you can't just take
- 1:02:36Speaker 1: and not give back. There has to be some level
- 1:02:42Speaker 1: of restitution. And number two, I want you to get
- 1:02:47Speaker 1: this word resolution. Resolution is the point where you accept
- 1:02:51Speaker 1: God's plan over your own life. And you resolve in
- 1:02:58Speaker 1: your own mind. You resolve. This is it. I think
- 1:03:09Speaker 1: I think it takes a long time to be married.
- 1:03:14Speaker 1: It takes about 30 minutes to have a wedding. But
- 1:03:18Speaker 1: it takes a long time to be married. You can
- 1:03:22Speaker 1: be married and still be looking through a window at
- 1:03:26Speaker 1: your own life. It takes a while for you to say,
- 1:03:33Speaker 1: this is it. I'm all in. I don't just have
- 1:03:40Speaker 1: one foot in it. I'm not just testing it out.
- 1:03:44Speaker 1: I'm not just seeing. I'm not just leaving an out clause.
- 1:03:49Speaker 1: I'm not keeping a fire escape open. I'm not running
- 1:03:52Speaker 1: around throwing a D word out. It takes a long
- 1:03:58Speaker 1: time for you to really settle in. Crazy as I
- 1:04:03Speaker 1: am and crazy as you are, we just going to
- 1:04:06Speaker 1: be crazy together. Resolution means that you have now accepted
- 1:04:14Speaker 1: the course God has for your life. Resolution means I'm
- 1:04:23Speaker 1: not envious of you. Oh, I'm going deep now. Resolution
- 1:04:31Speaker 1: means that I'm not comparing myself by you. I don't
- 1:04:37Speaker 1: have to measure up to you. Resolution is I'm good
- 1:04:42Speaker 1: with who I am. I'm good with the gifts I
- 1:04:44Speaker 1: bring to the table. I'm not intimidated by you. I
- 1:04:50Speaker 1: have resolved that my gift is just as effective as yours.
- 1:04:57Speaker 1: I know you got the shield and the sword and
- 1:04:59Speaker 1: the shiny stuff and all I got is a rock
- 1:05:02Speaker 1: and a rag, but I'm good with the rock and
- 1:05:05Speaker 1: the rag. And the rock and the rag... Brought me
- 1:05:09Speaker 1: all the way here. When I started preaching, they said,
- 1:05:13Speaker 1: you can't get on TV preaching like that. They said,
- 1:05:17Speaker 1: you can't get on TV preaching like that. You run around.
- 1:05:20Speaker 1: I was stepping across pews. I was young and hollering
- 1:05:24Speaker 1: and sweating towel wrapped around my neck. They said, you
- 1:05:26Speaker 1: can't act like that and be on TV. I said, okay.
- 1:05:33Speaker 1: I said, which camera is the right camera? They said
- 1:05:34Speaker 1: the one that's red.
- 1:05:44Speaker 1: .
- 1:05:58Speaker 3: .
- 1:06:02Speaker 1: They said that we could have church in a funeral home,
- 1:06:04Speaker 1: in a garage or a storefront. They said we weren't
- 1:06:07Speaker 1: smart enough to get here and build this kind of facility.
- 1:06:12Speaker 1: This church is as wide as two football fields. This
- 1:06:18Speaker 1: church will hold 14,000 people with overflow. This church can
- 1:06:25Speaker 1: satellite around the world with our own equipment. They didn't
- 1:06:30Speaker 1: think that you could talk in tongues and jerk and
- 1:06:33Speaker 1: holler and still be smart enough to get to where
- 1:06:36Speaker 1: this church got. This church bought 400 acres of land
- 1:06:41Speaker 1: before I was 40. Oh, hallelujah. And I still got
- 1:06:46Speaker 1: my dance here. And I still got my shout here.
- 1:06:50Speaker 1: And I still talked in tongues. And I still praised
- 1:06:52Speaker 1: my God. And I still lifted my, why would I
- 1:06:56Speaker 1: be jealous of you? When God is trying to get
- 1:07:02Speaker 1: you to a point that you are good with what
- 1:07:04Speaker 1: he gave you, even if it's a rag and a rock,
- 1:07:09Speaker 1: run on out there and throw it at Goliath and
- 1:07:12Speaker 1: watch him fall out. You cannot win the fight if
- 1:07:18Speaker 1: you don't have confidence in your equipment. I cannot go
- 1:07:24Speaker 1: out there and fight Goliath acting like you because I
- 1:07:27Speaker 1: ain't you. Your shield is sharp and beautiful and shiny
- 1:07:34Speaker 1: and your sword looks like it could cut straight through meat.
- 1:07:38Speaker 1: But I don't have no experience with that. I do
- 1:07:41Speaker 1: know how to work this rock and this rag. And
- 1:07:46Speaker 1: why are you laughing at how stupid it is? I
- 1:07:50Speaker 1: did more with the rag and rock than you did
- 1:07:53Speaker 1: with your sword and shield. So don't try to intimidate me.
- 1:07:59Speaker 1: with what you got, you have to come to a
- 1:08:04Speaker 1: resolution that you're good with what God gave you. With
- 1:08:10Speaker 1: your short self. If you're short, you gotta work it.
- 1:08:16Speaker 1: Grab the mic and pull it down to where you
- 1:08:18Speaker 1: are and let the devil have it. If you're tall,
- 1:08:21Speaker 1: you gotta stand up and work it and use what
- 1:08:25Speaker 1: God gave you. Don't you know? When Moses came to
- 1:08:28Speaker 1: God and said, I can't speak because I stammer, God said,
- 1:08:32Speaker 1: didn't I make your mouth? When are you going to
- 1:08:37Speaker 1: be good with how God made you? Did not I
- 1:08:43Speaker 1: make your mouth? Couldn't I have fixed your tongue if
- 1:08:46Speaker 1: I wanted to? Resolution is whatever age you're at, that
- 1:08:51Speaker 1: you become happy to be who God made you. Ah.
- 1:09:00Speaker 1: in the right body I look just right I'm who
- 1:09:06Speaker 1: I'm supposed to be I'm as smart as I need
- 1:09:09Speaker 1: to be I'm gifted in the areas I need to
- 1:09:12Speaker 1: be gifted in to do what God created me to
- 1:09:15Speaker 1: do And in the areas I'm not gifted, I'm not
- 1:09:19Speaker 1: supposed to be gifted there. That made room for me
- 1:09:22Speaker 1: to get other people around me. Resolution means I'm good
- 1:09:28Speaker 1: with being me. Paul couldn't die right if he wasn't
- 1:09:33Speaker 1: good with it. He says, I have finished my course.
- 1:09:41Speaker 1: Not yours, Timothy. I wasn't asked to run Timothy's race.
- 1:09:47Speaker 1: I was asked to run my race. I'm good with
- 1:09:52Speaker 1: my race. I have finished my course. Resolution means I
- 1:10:00Speaker 1: accept that. Now, can I take a little time? The
- 1:10:06Speaker 1: third R I want to spend some time with is reciprocity.
- 1:10:11Speaker 1: Reciprocity is real important. Reciprocity is sowing and reaping. It's
- 1:10:18Speaker 1: seed time and harvest. And I want you to get this.
- 1:10:22Speaker 1: Every relationship, whether it's business, personal, financial, emotional, or marital,
- 1:10:32Speaker 1: will only survive to the degree that there is reciprocity.
- 1:10:39Speaker 1: You have to make sure that there is reciprocity. The
- 1:10:46Speaker 1: whole earth survives through reciprocity. Right now my whole backyard
- 1:10:52Speaker 1: is covered with leaves and the leaves are gonna go
- 1:10:56Speaker 1: back down into the ground and fertilize the soil so
- 1:11:00Speaker 1: that the soil is not depleted. So the tree that
- 1:11:04Speaker 1: took from the soil is now giving back to the
- 1:11:08Speaker 1: soil And that's reciprocity. Never let anybody be better to
- 1:11:14Speaker 1: you than you are to them. You might not give
- 1:11:18Speaker 1: them back the same thing, but you've got to give
- 1:11:21Speaker 1: them back something or it will die. Reciprocity is critical.
- 1:11:29Speaker 1: Reciprocity is necessary. Reciprocity is not taught. So now we
- 1:11:36Speaker 1: got people who are better at taking then they are giving,
- 1:11:44Speaker 1: and then they can't figure out why the thing dies.
- 1:11:47Speaker 1: It dies because you rode the camel to death. You
- 1:11:52Speaker 1: rode them down to nothing. You wore them out. It
- 1:11:55Speaker 1: might not show up in the first few years, but
- 1:11:57Speaker 1: eventually they're going to wear out because you are better
- 1:12:01Speaker 1: at taking then you are giving. And I want to
- 1:12:05Speaker 1: warn you, it's important that I warn you. You're watching online.
- 1:12:08Speaker 1: It's important that I warn you. Eventually, you're going to
- 1:12:11Speaker 1: lose that job because you take more than you give.
- 1:12:16Speaker 1: You're going to lose that man because you take more
- 1:12:19Speaker 1: than you give. You're going to lose that woman because
- 1:12:21Speaker 1: you take more than you give because nobody taught you reciprocity.
- 1:12:27Speaker 1: Seed time and harvest, sowing and reaping, summer and winter,
- 1:12:33Speaker 1: while the earth remaineth, there will always be reciprocity. Reciprocity
- 1:12:43Speaker 1: is very important. And what Paul is complaining about, what
- 1:12:49Speaker 1: Paul is dying from, he didn't get reciprocity. If all
- 1:12:58Speaker 1: the people that Paul had helped would have come to
- 1:13:01Speaker 1: help him, they would have never killed him. You die
- 1:13:08Speaker 1: because you give out. He says, when my hour came
- 1:13:21Speaker 1: to trial, I didn't get it back. No man stood with,
- 1:13:31Speaker 1: I stood with everybody. Nobody stood with me. They took
- 1:13:38Speaker 1: me for granted till they wore me out. And anybody
- 1:13:44Speaker 1: will die without reciprocity. Your daughter, your son, your husband,
- 1:13:54Speaker 1: your wife, your savings, your career, Your credit, I don't
- 1:14:00Speaker 1: care what you apply it to, it survives through reciprocity.
- 1:14:04Speaker 1: If you don't learn anything else tonight, learn this. Don't
- 1:14:12Speaker 1: just let people keep giving to you and say, oh,
- 1:14:14Speaker 1: that's just how he is. He just like that. He
- 1:14:17Speaker 1: just that kind of person. She just nice like that.
- 1:14:21Speaker 1: She just so nice. She just so nice. And you'll
- 1:14:23Speaker 1: never do nothing back. You're going to kill the relationship.
- 1:14:30Speaker 1: You are obligated. It might not be the same thing
- 1:14:33Speaker 1: you give back, but you are obligated to give something back.
- 1:14:37Speaker 1: The earth gave the tree nutrients and all types of
- 1:14:41Speaker 1: minerals in order for it to grow. The tree gave
- 1:14:44Speaker 1: it back leaves. But it gave something back. And I
- 1:14:51Speaker 1: want to ask you, what are you giving back? For
- 1:14:55Speaker 1: all you take and suck up and use, you got
- 1:15:01Speaker 1: to make sure that in every area of your life,
- 1:15:07Speaker 1: there is reciprocity. My wife and I have been married
- 1:15:12Speaker 1: 39 years. We wouldn't have made it 39 years. We
- 1:15:21Speaker 1: had hills, we had mountains, we had valleys, we had disappointments,
- 1:15:25Speaker 1: we had pains, we had shortcomings, we had failures, we
- 1:15:28Speaker 1: had hurts, but we also had reciprocity. When I got sick,
- 1:15:33Speaker 1: she took care of me. When she got sick, I
- 1:15:36Speaker 1: took care of her. When she was down, I cooked.
- 1:15:40Speaker 1: When I was down, she cooked. Whatever it took to
- 1:15:43Speaker 1: make it happen, I made it happen. I washed clothes.
- 1:15:46Speaker 1: I mopped the floor. I did whatever I had to do.
- 1:15:49Speaker 1: I shut down my schedule to let her know she's important.
- 1:15:55Speaker 1: She will tell you right quick when it comes to me.
- 1:15:58Speaker 1: She will fly where I am. She will come get me.
- 1:16:01Speaker 1: She will come get me if nobody else will come
- 1:16:03Speaker 1: and get me. Our marriage survived not because I was
- 1:16:07Speaker 1: a good man, not because she was a good woman.
- 1:16:09Speaker 1: Our marriage survived because of reciprocity. This church has survived
- 1:16:18Speaker 1: because of reciprocity. We've been through storms, we've been through witches,
- 1:16:22Speaker 1: we've been through haters, we've had them curse the building,
- 1:16:25Speaker 1: we had them put chickens' blood all out in the street,
- 1:16:28Speaker 1: we had witches come in the building and curse the building.
- 1:16:31Speaker 1: I told them you should have fried the chickens and
- 1:16:33Speaker 1: went to dancing, oh, hallelujah! But we survived because of reciprocity.
- 1:16:42Speaker 1: I want you to look for areas in your life
- 1:16:45Speaker 1: where your books are out of balance. Where people or
- 1:16:49Speaker 1: jobs or things or churches are giving you more than
- 1:16:53Speaker 1: you give back. Because if you don't have reciprocity, don't
- 1:17:01Speaker 1: be surprised when it dies. This is his last letter.
- 1:17:10Speaker 1: And he's telling Timothy, The reason he didn't win is
- 1:17:16Speaker 1: no man stood with him. You got to make sure
- 1:17:27Speaker 1: that you're as good at giving as you are at taking.
- 1:17:34Speaker 1: I can carry you. I can carry any one of
- 1:17:36Speaker 1: you for a little while. But eventually I'm going to
- 1:17:41Speaker 1: get tired. If you pass out right now, I can
- 1:17:45Speaker 1: throw you on my back and I can carry you away.
- 1:17:47Speaker 1: But after a while, I'm gonna have to let you
- 1:17:49Speaker 1: go because you're dead weight. Reciprocity stops you from being
- 1:17:59Speaker 1: unlovable because you're ungivable. Oh God, y'all don't want me
- 1:18:06Speaker 1: to teach. Reciprocity. Reciprocity. should be a natural animalistic instinct
- 1:18:15Speaker 1: that starts in your children. I don't care if they
- 1:18:19Speaker 1: don't do nothing but draw a giraffe and bring it
- 1:18:22Speaker 1: in and put it on the wall. You oughta teach
- 1:18:25Speaker 1: them to give something back. Take out the trash, mop
- 1:18:29Speaker 1: the floor, even if you don't mop it right, even
- 1:18:31Speaker 1: if you leave streaks in it, do something back. We
- 1:18:34Speaker 1: are raising up people who don't know reciprocity. I'm gonna
- 1:18:39Speaker 1: get off this, I'm gonna get out, because I can
- 1:18:40Speaker 1: stay on it all night. A lot of you are
- 1:18:47Speaker 1: losing and you don't know why you're losing. You're losing
- 1:18:50Speaker 1: because you are not as intense about giving back as
- 1:18:54Speaker 1: you are about getting. All roads lead to you. It's
- 1:19:00Speaker 1: all about you. And as long as it's all about you,
- 1:19:04Speaker 1: you are killing somebody. and generally is somebody who loves you.
- 1:19:17Speaker 1: Hear me tonight. Hear me tonight. I want you to
- 1:19:22Speaker 1: get anointed to give back to the person that gives
- 1:19:26Speaker 1: to you. Write this down. Feed what's feeding you. The
- 1:19:34Speaker 1: whole creation survives off of it. The oceans have water
- 1:19:38Speaker 1: because of it. The reason the mist goes up in
- 1:19:42Speaker 1: the air and we got clouds and the rain comes
- 1:19:44Speaker 1: back down again is because everything God created survives off
- 1:19:48Speaker 1: of this principle. Feed what's feeding you. If this is
- 1:19:53Speaker 1: not feeding you, don't feed me. If it's feeding you,
- 1:19:59Speaker 1: make sure you feed it back. Because reciprocity is a
- 1:20:03Speaker 1: spiritual law. Sowing and reaping is reciprocity. And I'm not
- 1:20:11Speaker 1: just talking about offerings. Find something, build something, bake something,
- 1:20:18Speaker 1: make something, clean up something, do something, make me miss you.
- 1:20:29Speaker 1: I'm almost done. I'm almost done. I'm going to stop.
- 1:20:32Speaker 1: I'm almost done. But this is important because it's killing us.
- 1:20:35Speaker 1: We're not teaching people reciprocity. My final number is number
- 1:20:43Speaker 1: four is reparations. God said, that's all right. Paul, you
- 1:20:53Speaker 1: didn't get it on earth. But when you get to heaven,
- 1:21:00Speaker 1: I'm going to give you reparations. None of them stood
- 1:21:03Speaker 1: with you down here, but when you get to heaven,
- 1:21:06Speaker 1: I'm going to give you the crown of righteousness. I'm
- 1:21:09Speaker 1: going to give you double for your trouble. I'm going
- 1:21:11Speaker 1: to pay you. I'm going to pay you in retroactive
- 1:21:14Speaker 1: pay for everything you didn't get on this side. I'm
- 1:21:16Speaker 1: going to make it up to you on that side.
- 1:21:18Speaker 1: Can you prove it by the scriptures? Yes. Jesus, when
- 1:21:21Speaker 1: he told the story about the good Samaritan, And the
- 1:21:24Speaker 1: good Samaritan got to the innkeeper and he gave him
- 1:21:27Speaker 1: two denarius. And he said, if I owe you anything,
- 1:21:31Speaker 1: I'll pay you when I come back. He says, I'll
- 1:21:33Speaker 1: make it up to you. I'll give you reparations. I'll
- 1:21:36Speaker 1: go back in the past and restore that, that the
- 1:21:39Speaker 1: canker worm and the palmer worm and the locust ate up.
- 1:21:42Speaker 1: The God we serve. believes in reparation. So to everybody
- 1:21:47Speaker 1: whose account is out of balance and you're wore out
- 1:21:50Speaker 1: and you're tired and you give more than you get back,
- 1:21:54Speaker 1: God said, don't worry about it. If they don't pay you,
- 1:21:57Speaker 1: I will. If they don't bless you, I will. If
- 1:22:00Speaker 1: they don't appreciate you, I will. If they don't restore you,
- 1:22:04Speaker 1: I will. So I close tonight. I have said some
- 1:22:15Speaker 1: strong things to you tonight. I pray I have not
- 1:22:21Speaker 1: cast the pearls before the swine. I pray that you
- 1:22:27Speaker 1: will use this to be a better person, a better deacon,
- 1:22:31Speaker 1: a better leader, a better husband, a better wife, a
- 1:22:35Speaker 1: better business person, a better community person. I pray that
- 1:22:39Speaker 1: you would be, that the yoke of selfishness would break
- 1:22:44Speaker 1: off of your neck. And that you would stand by
- 1:22:51Speaker 1: the people who stand by you. That you would feed
- 1:23:00Speaker 1: what's feeding you. All we need for the world to continue.
- 1:23:09Speaker 1: That's all we need is reciprocity. If the rain keeps
- 1:23:16Speaker 1: coming down and if it humidifies and goes back up
- 1:23:20Speaker 1: to the clouds and the cycle that God put in
- 1:23:24Speaker 1: place is enough to sustain the earth as long as
- 1:23:27Speaker 1: there's reciprocity. You know what global warming is? The lack
- 1:23:31Speaker 1: of reciprocity. It means the stuff we are making is
- 1:23:35Speaker 1: stopping the earth from doing its thing. That the smog
- 1:23:40Speaker 1: we're putting up in the air is creating a blockage
- 1:23:45Speaker 1: that's stopping reciprocity and it's changing our weather till the
- 1:23:50Speaker 1: earth is dying for the lack of getting back what
- 1:23:54Speaker 1: it's giving. The whales are dying. The polar bears are dying.
- 1:24:04Speaker 1: Because we have filled the oceans with our filth. And
- 1:24:10Speaker 1: the whole earth is suffering for the lack of reciprocity.
- 1:24:16Speaker 1: Stop it in your house. Stop it in your business.
- 1:24:21Speaker 1: Stop it in your life. And little by little, we
- 1:24:26Speaker 1: will live again This is Paul's last letter. He wrote
- 1:24:35Speaker 1: it to Timothy and he tells Timothy, bring me some
- 1:24:40Speaker 1: paper because God is still talking to me. And bring
- 1:24:48Speaker 1: me a coat because I'm cold. And the last thing, Timothy,
- 1:24:59Speaker 1: hurry up. I've been alone so long. Come before winter.
- 1:25:09Speaker 1: I won't last much longer. Because I have given out.
- 1:25:17Speaker 1: I have offered up. I'm down to the last drop.
- 1:25:25Speaker 1: And I won't last much longer. And if you're going
- 1:25:29Speaker 1: to do anything, do it before winter. If you're going
- 1:25:36Speaker 1: to be a better person, do it now. If you're
- 1:25:40Speaker 1: going to get into reciprocity, do it now. Stop taking
- 1:25:46Speaker 1: for granted that people just are the way they are
- 1:25:49Speaker 1: because they've been doing it so long and start to wonder,
- 1:25:53Speaker 1: are you tired? Do you need help? How can I
- 1:25:59Speaker 1: serve you like you serve me? How can I make
- 1:26:03Speaker 1: you feel important? How can I show you that you matter?
- 1:26:08Speaker 1: Because as a Christian, I am called to reciprocity. That's
- 1:26:14Speaker 1: why it says, muzzle not the mouth of the ox
- 1:26:17Speaker 1: and tread to grain. That if the ox works, it
- 1:26:20Speaker 1: ought to be able to eat as well as it works.
- 1:26:24Speaker 1: That's reciprocity. It said, do not muzzle the mouth of
- 1:26:28Speaker 1: the ox and treadeth to grain because he has a
- 1:26:31Speaker 1: right to get back on the level he works on.
- 1:26:40Speaker 1: Take the muzzle off your wife. Take the muzzle off
- 1:26:43Speaker 1: your husband. Take the muzzle off your children. Take the
- 1:26:46Speaker 1: muzzle off the people you love. Take the muzzle off
- 1:26:48Speaker 1: your job. Take the muzzle off so that you make
- 1:26:53Speaker 1: sure that if I work, I also eat. If I
- 1:27:00Speaker 1: carry the burden, I get the reward. Make it easy
- 1:27:05Speaker 1: to love you. Make it easy to love you. And
- 1:27:12Speaker 1: the quickest way to make it easy to love you
- 1:27:15Speaker 1: is to make sure that you have reciprocity and that
- 1:27:18Speaker 1: your account is balanced. Because some of you are living
- 1:27:24Speaker 1: out of balance. And this message is a warning. Before
- 1:27:29Speaker 1: you go bankrupt, And somebody just says, I'm out of it.
- 1:27:37Speaker 1: I'm just tired. I'm worn out. Bring balance. Sometimes I
- 1:27:48Speaker 1: tell my wife, no, no, no, no, no, no. You
- 1:27:50Speaker 1: can't cook. No, you're tired. I'll do it. I'll do it.
- 1:28:01Speaker 1: I'm not so high I can't do it. If I
- 1:28:05Speaker 1: can't cook, I'll order something. I'll make sure you get
- 1:28:10Speaker 1: some time off. You don't have to be no slave.
- 1:28:20Speaker 1: I'll clean up. I'll do it. When I'm cooking, sometimes
- 1:28:27Speaker 1: she'll come in, she'll clean the dishes while I do
- 1:28:30Speaker 1: the cooking. Reciprocity. You might be losing your relationship not
- 1:28:41Speaker 1: because you're not a good person, but you haven't learned
- 1:28:43Speaker 1: reciprocity with your children, with your church. You say you're
- 1:28:51Speaker 1: a member of this church and you never support or
- 1:28:54Speaker 1: serve or work or labor in any way. How are
- 1:28:59Speaker 1: you a member? Because you watch. Because you watch me work.
- 1:29:10Speaker 1: You don't have to join to do that. Just watch.
- 1:29:15Speaker 1: When you join, I should feel your help. I pray
- 1:29:30Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit convicts you. I pray the Holy Spirit
- 1:29:36Speaker 1: speaks to you in such a way that you begin
- 1:29:40Speaker 1: to look at yourself and say, how can I do better?
- 1:29:47Speaker 1: Can I pray for you tonight? Because I think this
- 1:29:52Speaker 1: is a warning. I think this message is a warning
- 1:29:58Speaker 1: I think you're so busy wrestling with your past and
- 1:30:03Speaker 1: your insecurities and your doubts and you and you and
- 1:30:07Speaker 1: you and how you feel and what's going on with
- 1:30:10Speaker 1: you and what's your emotions and you don't like this.
- 1:30:15Speaker 1: You and you and you and you that you don't
- 1:30:19Speaker 1: have room for me or them or us. Can I
- 1:30:28Speaker 1: pray for you tonight? Because the Holy Spirit would anoint
- 1:30:32Speaker 1: you to give. You have been given so much. And
- 1:30:46Speaker 1: I want you to have confidence in what you have
- 1:30:48Speaker 1: to give to the point that you can give it
- 1:30:50Speaker 1: and not doubt it and not feel like it's not enough.
- 1:30:54Speaker 1: It's enough. If it's your best, it's enough. You don't
- 1:30:57Speaker 1: have to feel inadequate and use that as an excuse
- 1:31:01Speaker 1: not to give it because you don't think it's good enough.
- 1:31:05Speaker 1: Even if it's not enough, I'll take it. It's better
- 1:31:07Speaker 1: than nothing. Don't let the enemy talk you into be
- 1:31:13Speaker 1: better at receiving than you are at giving. It matters
- 1:31:19Speaker 1: how you feel, but it matters how they feel too.
- 1:31:26Speaker 1: I'm talking right to somebody. This is an emergency. In
- 1:31:32Speaker 1: my spirit, I feel like somebody is about to break,
- 1:31:37Speaker 1: carrying you, because your relationships are always about what you need,
- 1:31:45Speaker 1: what you want, how you feel, what's going on with you, you, you.
- 1:31:53Speaker 1: That's wrong. Bow your heads, let me pray with you
- 1:32:00Speaker 1: right now. Father, I have shared with them the word
- 1:32:04Speaker 1: of God. I have shown them how you can have
- 1:32:08Speaker 1: a rough past and still have a bright future. I
- 1:32:13Speaker 1: have shown them how you took a slave and made
- 1:32:16Speaker 1: him a businessman and an author and an entrepreneur in
- 1:32:20Speaker 1: the 1700s. I have shown them how even the Apostle
- 1:32:25Speaker 1: Paul needed somebody to stand with him I have shown
- 1:32:31Speaker 1: them how they cannot allow their past to forever, forever
- 1:32:36Speaker 1: leave them.
- 1:32:37Speaker 2: Chained from giving and serving and sowing and working. Now,
- 1:32:45Speaker 2: Holy Spirit, do the work. Go deep down in the
- 1:32:51Speaker 2: hearts and the minds and touch your people. Because it
- 1:32:56Speaker 2: don't matter how much we dance if we don't change.
- 1:33:00Speaker 2: It don't matter how much we shout if we don't change.
- 1:33:04Speaker 2: Don't let us continue to be who we were after
- 1:33:09Speaker 2: all we've been through. What the slave writer was trying
- 1:33:14Speaker 2: to tell us is that everything you go through ought
- 1:33:17Speaker 2: to make you a better person. I rebuke deceitfulness and
- 1:33:24Speaker 2: selfishness and treachery. I come against it. In the name
- 1:33:31Speaker 2: of Jesus, we cannot serve you when we are overcome
- 1:33:37Speaker 2: with ourself. And tonight, if we don't do nothing else,
- 1:33:43Speaker 2: if nobody comes to the altar, if nobody gets saved,
- 1:33:47Speaker 2: if nobody backslider comes back to the Lord, if we
- 1:33:50Speaker 2: could just leave here a little bit better than we
- 1:33:53Speaker 2: were when we came, then it would be.
- 1:33:56Speaker 1: A great Wednesday night service. Lord, we got people in
- 1:34:02Speaker 1: their 40s and 50s and 60s who are still wrestling
- 1:34:05Speaker 1: with their past. We need to make peace with it. Peace.
- 1:34:15Speaker 1: Peace be still. Some of the people who hurt you
- 1:34:20Speaker 1: are old. Some of them dead. You got to let
- 1:34:24Speaker 1: it go. Make peace with it. And step into the
- 1:34:30Speaker 1: fullness of what God has for you before you crush
- 1:34:35Speaker 1: somebody and kill somebody and victimize them over something that
- 1:34:41Speaker 1: they didn't even do. I rebuke that spirit. And I
- 1:34:48Speaker 1: call a supernatural healing to come into your spirit and
- 1:34:52Speaker 1: into your life and into your heart. And I pray
- 1:34:55Speaker 1: that when you wake up in the morning, that you
- 1:34:57Speaker 1: wake up in the morning and thinking about somebody other
- 1:35:01Speaker 1: than you, giving to somebody other than you, serving somebody
- 1:35:05Speaker 1: other than you, living for somebody other than you. Before
- 1:35:12Speaker 1: you get your last letter, I pray that you come
- 1:35:17Speaker 1: before winters. The leaves are starting to fall. And the
- 1:35:23Speaker 1: temperature is changing. And you've been stuck in this season
- 1:35:28Speaker 1: for years. And I pray you come before winter and
- 1:35:34Speaker 1: bring something when you come. Bring something to the table.
- 1:35:40Speaker 1: Bring something to the company. Bring something to the church.
- 1:35:44Speaker 1: Bring something to the marriage. Bring something to somebody other
- 1:35:48Speaker 1: than yourself Stop by Tychius and get my coat and
- 1:35:53Speaker 1: pick up some paper and come on here, boy, before winter.
- 1:36:03Speaker 1: I feel the breeze coming. And I've lived as long
- 1:36:09Speaker 1: as I can with no man standing by me. In
- 1:36:19Speaker 1: Jesus' name. Give him the best praise you got. If
- 1:36:35Speaker 1: this message blessed you, make some noise.