Latest / Pst T.D Jakes -The POTTER'S HOUSE / Singing In The Dark - Bishop T.D. Jakes

Transcript

Singing In The Dark - Bishop T.D. Jakes · Pst T.D Jakes -The POTTER'S HOUSE

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Speaker 1: I want you to go to Psalms 137, a very
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Speaker 1: familiar scripture, but I'm going to use it as a
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Speaker 1: leap off point tonight to go into the word of God.
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Speaker 1: Psalms 137, one through nine. Psalms 137, one through nine.
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Speaker 1: When you have it, say amen. Let's stand for the
0:29
Speaker 1: reading of the word. Just this one last time. Then
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Speaker 1: you don't have to get up anymore till tomorrow. You
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Speaker 1: can leave here bent over, still sitting. You're going to
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Speaker 1: look funny, but you can do it. Listen at the
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Speaker 1: language of this psalms. How beautiful, how poetic, almost poetic,
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Speaker 1: almost prose. The language is so fluid, and yet the
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Speaker 1: message is so sad. By the rivers of Babylon, there
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Speaker 1: we sat down. Yea, we wept when we remembered Zion.
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Speaker 1: We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
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Speaker 1: For they that had carried us away captive required of
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Speaker 1: us a song. And they that wasted us required of
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Speaker 1: us mirth. Saying, sing us, sing us, sing us, sing
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Speaker 1: us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we
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Speaker 1: sing the Lord's song in a strange land? Anybody ever
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Speaker 1: been in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
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Speaker 1: let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do
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Speaker 1: not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof
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Speaker 1: of my mouth. If I prefer not Jerusalem above my
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Speaker 1: chief joys, Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in
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Speaker 1: the day of Jerusalem who said, Raise it, raise it,
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Speaker 1: even to the foundation thereof. O daughter of Babylon, who
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Speaker 1: art to be destroyed, happy shall he be that rewardeth
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Speaker 1: thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be
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Speaker 1: that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.
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Speaker 1: I want to go back up in that verse, about
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Speaker 1: verse 1 through 3, right up in there. By the
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Speaker 1: rivers of Babylon, there we sat. Yea, we wept when
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Speaker 1: we remembered Zion. Keep going. We hanged our harps upon
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Speaker 1: the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that
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Speaker 1: carried us away required of us a song. And they
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Speaker 1: that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, sing us
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Speaker 1: one of the Lord's songs. Keep on. How, this is
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Speaker 1: the question, how shall we sing the Lord's song in
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Speaker 1: a strange land? Let's stop there. I want to talk
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Speaker 1: about singing in the dark. Singing in the dark. Now,
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Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, I invoke your presence to overshadow us now.
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Speaker 1: As we delve into the word of God, not for
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Speaker 1: the purpose of exploitation, but communication, information and inspiration and articulation,
3:46
Speaker 1: with clarity of thought and nimbleness of mind, we come
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Speaker 1: before thy throne, O God, that you might dispense wisdom
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Speaker 1: and revelation in such a profound and didactic way that
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Speaker 1: we are never the same again. I thank you for
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Speaker 1: this cluster, this remnant, this group of people that have
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Speaker 1: gathered here to hear what thus saith the Lord God.
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Speaker 1: And to all of those thousands of people that are
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Speaker 1: joining us online tonight, I pray that they would be
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Speaker 1: edified and that hell would be horrified. In the matchless,
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Speaker 1: invincible name of Jesus, we pray. Somebody who loves him
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Speaker 1: at the top of your lungs, shout amen. Glory to God.
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Speaker 1: You may be seated. You did that so good, I
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Speaker 1: almost started a choir. I was listening at the news
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Speaker 1: some time ago before the late Congressman John Lewis passed away.
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Speaker 1: He had come out to this protest, this demonstration, and
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Speaker 1: he must have been very sick then, but he came
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Speaker 1: And he was out there in the midst of the demonstration.
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Speaker 1: And an interviewer came over and interviewed him and asked him,
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Speaker 1: how do the demonstrations of today compare with the demonstrations
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Speaker 1: of the 60s? He said, in a lot of ways,
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Speaker 1: he said, they are quite similar. And he said, we
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Speaker 1: were young and we were vibrant and we were fighting
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Speaker 1: for what we believed in. And we were peacefully demonstrating,
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Speaker 1: but defiantly fighting for what we believed in. He said,
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Speaker 1: there's only one thing that I wish they would do
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Speaker 1: differently that we did that they don't do. And I
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Speaker 1: waited with bated breath to hear what he had to say.
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Speaker 1: And he said, they should sing. And I thought, what?
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Speaker 1: I thought he was going to say something, you know, profound.
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Speaker 1: And it was profound, but it took a while to
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Speaker 1: hit me in the face. He said the strength of
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Speaker 1: our march was our soul. And I thought to myself,
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Speaker 1: how could you sing with hoses turned on you and
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Speaker 1: dogs biting you and people beating you and yet you sang.
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Speaker 1: And then my mind went back to our ancestors in
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Speaker 1: the cotton field singing while some were beaten and hung
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Speaker 1: and raped and killed, and yet they sang. And then
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Speaker 1: I went all the way back to this text, and
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Speaker 1: I thought, what is it about singing that soothes the
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Speaker 1: soul in times of adversity? What is it about music
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Speaker 1: in general? And I started doing some research. Music stimulates
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Speaker 1: a part of the brain that produces dopamine. Dopamine is
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Speaker 1: the kind of hormone that affects emotional behavior and moods.
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Speaker 1: The influence of music literally has a biological orientation and
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Speaker 1: affects a psychological presentation, and it is powerful. So I
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Speaker 1: turned away from what the secular people said about it,
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Speaker 1: and I started thinking about what the Holy Spirit says
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Speaker 1: about it. I began to realize that music is a weapon.
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Speaker 1: Music is a weapon all through the Bible that was
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Speaker 1: used to attack the enemy. It was so effective that
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Speaker 1: God used David to play on his harp to drive
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Speaker 1: the demons out of Saul. So while the psychologist talks
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Speaker 1: about the release of dopamine and the biologist talks about
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Speaker 1: the effect of music on the brain, there must be
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Speaker 1: an effect of music on the spirit. that changes things,
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Speaker 1: that fights back the enemy, that drives forces away. That
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Speaker 1: music not only affects mood, but it also affects what
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Speaker 1: we cannot control ourselves. Now think with me tonight as
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Speaker 1: we play around with this. Let me set the stage
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Speaker 1: and take a little time with you. This is not
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Speaker 1: a happy occasion. This is not choir rehearsal. This is
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Speaker 1: not a singing convention and this is not the quartet convention.
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Speaker 1: This is not a nice situation. This is not a
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Speaker 1: bar mitzvah. This is not a wedding. This is not
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Speaker 1: a social event. This takes place at one of the
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Speaker 1: most hideous moments in the history of all of Jerusalem.
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Speaker 1: You see, Jerusalem, which is controlled by the Jews at
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Speaker 1: this point, and Judah in particular, has run into a
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Speaker 1: conflict with Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. And Nebuchadnezzar has besieged Jerusalem,
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Speaker 1: resulting in them having to pay money to get him
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Speaker 1: to leave them alone. Now Nebuchadnezzar is the king over
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Speaker 1: Babylon and Babylon is a superpower of its era. Babylon
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Speaker 1: has such power and such depth. It was what Rome
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Speaker 1: would be. It was what other superpowers have been through history.
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Speaker 1: There was a time that Egypt was a superpower. There
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Speaker 1: was a time that Babylon was a superpower. There was
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Speaker 1: a time that Rome was a superpower and they had
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Speaker 1: the ability to come in and dominate and control and
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Speaker 1: move and take whatever they wanted to take. And they
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Speaker 1: demanded of King Jehoiakim that he pay tribute or taxes
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Speaker 1: to them or they would attack him. They bullied him.
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Speaker 1: They bullied him. They bullied him. And so Jehoiakim paid
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Speaker 1: it at first. And then he got tired of paying
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Speaker 1: it and decided, I'm not going to pay this tariff anymore.
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Speaker 1: Have you ever had the enemy bully you? And you
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Speaker 1: make up in your mind, you push me as far
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Speaker 1: as you can push me. You're not going to threaten
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Speaker 1: me anymore. You're not going to take over my life anymore.
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Speaker 1: Whatever happens has to happen. It's going to happen. It
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Speaker 1: is what it is. It's going to be what it's
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Speaker 1: going to be. It's going to do what it's going
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Speaker 1: to do. But you're not going to come in my
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Speaker 1: house and do it. You're not going to come in
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Speaker 1: my life. You're not going to come in and do it.
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Speaker 1: That was the spirit of Jehoiakim. Jehovah can refuse to
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Speaker 1: pay tribute to Nebuchadnezzar the fourth year which led to
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Speaker 1: another siege in Nebuchadnezzar's seventh year. It culminated in utter
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Speaker 1: chaos and confusion. It culminated in conflict and war and
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Speaker 1: struggle and all of a sudden they begin to beat
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Speaker 1: Judah out of Jerusalem. To beat Judah out of Jerusalem,
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Speaker 1: it's hard to articulate what that means. There's so much
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Speaker 1: history there. There's so much legacy there. There's so much
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Speaker 1: power there. There is a mixture of the political force
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Speaker 1: of being Jerusalem, but there's also the religious power of
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Speaker 1: being Jerusalem. It is the epicenter. Of three of the
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Speaker 1: major religions of the world today, for them to be beat,
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Speaker 1: for Judah to be beat out of Jerusalem, it is
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Speaker 1: more than land. It is land, but it is heritage.
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Speaker 1: It is culture. It is language. It is music. It
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Speaker 1: is food. It is a way of life. And it
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Speaker 1: is unthinkable. that Judah would be driven out of Jerusalem,
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Speaker 1: that a power like Babylon would come in with their
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Speaker 1: polytheistic ideologies and drive Judah out of Jerusalem because Judah
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Speaker 1: knew who God was, the one true and living God.
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Speaker 1: Didn't always serve him, but they knew who he was.
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Speaker 1: Didn't always obey him, but they knew who he was.
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Speaker 1: Didn't always submit to him, but they knew who he was.
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Speaker 1: And sometimes Judah When we become disobedient, God will allow
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Speaker 1: our enemies to triumph over us, to bring us to
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Speaker 1: a place of submission where we begin to appreciate what
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Speaker 1: we have ignored. It doesn't matter whether you're from Jerusalem
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Speaker 1: or Africa or Istanbul or Afghanistan. Sometimes the enemy that
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Speaker 1: comes against us, or from here in Dallas, sometimes the
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Speaker 1: enemy that comes against us comes against us as a
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Speaker 1: weapon of the Lord to correct us. And all of
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Speaker 1: a sudden Judah goes into captivity. It is almost as
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Speaker 1: awkward as As when in the Old Testament, when they
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Speaker 1: captured the Ark of the Covenant and it went into
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Speaker 1: captivity and Eli fell off his throne. You remember that?
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Speaker 1: And he broke his neck. Now, instead of the Ark
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Speaker 1: of the Covenant being brought into captivity, the people of
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Speaker 1: the covenant have gone into captivity. I don't know which
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Speaker 1: one is more astounding, that the Ark of the Covenant
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Speaker 1: would go into captivity up under the Philistines or that
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Speaker 1: the people of the covenant would go up under captivity themselves.
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Speaker 1: Babylonian captivity and it was not till they got to
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Speaker 1: the rivers of Babylon that they wept and they wept
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Speaker 1: because they said how can we sing the Lord's song
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Speaker 1: in a strange land and I want to talk to
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Speaker 1: you about this tonight because I think it's important give
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Speaker 1: me a little time with this let me play around
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Speaker 1: with this just a little bit you have to understand
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Speaker 1: that music itself is captivity The way music is written,
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Speaker 1: it is written in such a way that you have
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Speaker 1: a signature on the music that tells you what key
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Speaker 1: the song is in. And when the music signature tells
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Speaker 1: you what key the song is in, it holds you
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Speaker 1: captive to what you can do in that key. The
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Speaker 1: notes define the parameters with which the melody can flow
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Speaker 1: in contrast with the key signature. The key signature lets
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Speaker 1: you know whether you're in B flat or F or
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Speaker 1: G or where you are and what is flat and
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Speaker 1: what is sharp in that key. And it sets the
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Speaker 1: stage for you to function in a particular way because
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Speaker 1: music at its best is captivity. Out of 88 keys,
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Speaker 1: it's telling you which one to touch and which one
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Speaker 1: to stay away from. What you can use and what
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Speaker 1: you can't use. The key signature sets the guardrails on
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Speaker 1: what you can do in that key. Are you hearing
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Speaker 1: what I'm saying? And so it sets the condition for
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Speaker 1: the melody and whoever is writing the melody, they can
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Speaker 1: put all the notes in as long as they obey
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Speaker 1: the signature. Because the key signature tells you what is
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Speaker 1: lawful to do in that situation. So when you understand
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Speaker 1: that about music, you begin to understand that music flows
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Speaker 1: with laws and principles. And the key signature sets the
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Speaker 1: tone of what all you can do in that particular key.
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Speaker 1: And you can break out of it. You can modulate.
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Speaker 1: You can move. You can digress. You can go up.
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Speaker 1: You can go down. But you have to do it
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Speaker 1: strategically because there are parameters with which you can move. Now,
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Speaker 1: if music has laws and people have laws and situations
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Speaker 1: have laws, that means that we don't get to be lawless.
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Speaker 1: There are certain laws that you cannot break even though
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Speaker 1: you have freedom. For instance, the law of gravity. You
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Speaker 1: can be as free as you want to be. You
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Speaker 1: can be free, go where you want to go, do
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Speaker 1: what you want to do, but that doesn't mean you
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Speaker 1: can defy the law of gravity. If you jump up,
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Speaker 1: you're coming back down again. Whether you're black, whether you're white,
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Speaker 1: whether you're rich, whether you're poor, whether you've got long hair,
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Speaker 1: short hair, store-bought hair, any kind of hair. You still
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Speaker 1: have to obey certain rules and certain principles. Those cannot
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Speaker 1: be broken. Now they have asked them to sing the
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Speaker 1: Lord's song in a strange land. And now Judah is saying,
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Speaker 1: How can we sing the Lord's song, even though Nebuchadnezzar
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Speaker 1: has been ruthless, even though he's been mighty, even though
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Speaker 1: they've been exiled there, and Nebuchadnezzar has been there for
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Speaker 1: 18 years, and even though they've been in power and
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Speaker 1: in control and done whatever they wanted to do, whenever
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Speaker 1: they wanted to do, when they asked him to sing
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Speaker 1: the Lord's song, the children of Israel said, I could
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Speaker 1: do it if I was in Jerusalem, but I can't
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Speaker 1: do it in Babylon because I'm in captivity. And it
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Speaker 1: occurs to me that the way we worship for some
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Speaker 1: of us depends on where we are. Oh, y'all don't
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Speaker 1: hear what I'm saying to you. The way we worship
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Speaker 1: depends on where we are. I'm not talking about geographical locations.
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Speaker 1: I'm talking about where you are in life, what's going
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Speaker 1: on with you at that time, whether it's a good
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Speaker 1: season or a bad season, whether you are captive or free,
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Speaker 1: whether you feel blessed or whether you're in the mood
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Speaker 1: for it or not in the mood for it. And
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Speaker 1: when the conditions are not right and the key signature
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Speaker 1: isn't right, you don't know how to get out of key,
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Speaker 1: out of pitch, out of the range. You don't know
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Speaker 1: how to defy the environment that you're locked into. And
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Speaker 1: break into the next dimension. And you think it is
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Speaker 1: impossible to sing the Lord's song. Because you're in a
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Speaker 1: strange land. And I want to teach on this tonight.
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Speaker 1: Because we are in a strange land. Now, yes, we
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Speaker 1: are still in our country, and I hope you're in
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Speaker 1: yours too. Many people are not, but that is not
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Speaker 1: the only issue. You can be in your own country
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Speaker 1: and still be in a strange land. You can be
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Speaker 1: on your own job and still be in a strange land.
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Speaker 1: Thank you for the three people that understand what I'm saying.
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Speaker 1: You can be in your own house and be in
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Speaker 1: a strange land. Is there anybody in here that knows
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Speaker 1: what I'm talking about, what it means to be in
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Speaker 1: a strange land? If you are spiritual, you recognize that
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Speaker 1: we are in a strange land right now. We are
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Speaker 1: in strange times. We are in a strange place. We
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Speaker 1: are in a strange situation. We are in a time
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Speaker 1: where the enemy is defying us to sing the Lord's
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Speaker 1: song because we're in a strange land at a strange
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Speaker 1: time dealing with strange issues and strange plagues. and strange
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Speaker 1: news and strange issues. And it's not just what's happening globally.
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Speaker 1: It's what's happening in your own life. I don't know
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Speaker 1: whether you noticed it or not, but hell has turned
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Speaker 1: up the heat. Oh, y'all ain't gonna say nothing to me.
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Speaker 1: I don't know whether you realize it or not, but
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Speaker 1: hell has loosed new demons. Some of you 40 years,
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Speaker 1: 50 years old, you never saw the demons you're dealing
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Speaker 1: with right now. You're doing hand-to-hand combat and the enemy's
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Speaker 1: attacking you in places you've never been attacked before. And
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Speaker 1: you find yourself in a strange land. And you're almost
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Speaker 1: in a fog in your mind, in your emotions, in
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Speaker 1: your spirit. And the enemy wants you to lose your soul.
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Speaker 1: He wants you to lose your song because your song
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Speaker 1: is your strength. It is your joy. It is your peace.
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Speaker 1: It is your power. He wants you to lose your
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Speaker 1: song until you're looking like you're standing outside of your
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Speaker 1: own life, looking through the window at your own life
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Speaker 1: like you're really not there. It's so strange. People are
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Speaker 1: acting strange. Friends are acting strange. Relatives are acting strange.
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Speaker 1: Strange situations breaking out in your life. You're feeling kind
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Speaker 1: of strange in your body. Everybody's walking around in a fog.
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Speaker 1: It almost feels like your life is a movie that
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Speaker 1: played late at night when you was a child and
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Speaker 1: you're having to deal with situations you never had to
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Speaker 1: deal with before. And you're trying to figure out what
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Speaker 1: do I need to kill it with? What does it
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Speaker 1: take for me to get a breakthrough? What do I,
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Speaker 1: who do I need to call? Where do I need
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Speaker 1: to go? And you don't understand that the power of
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Speaker 1: life and death is in your tongue that the power
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Speaker 1: of life and death is in your mouth that if
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Speaker 1: you would open your mouth and cry out that God
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Speaker 1: would bring yokes off of your life and off of
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Speaker 1: your spirit and off of your soul that you don't
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Speaker 1: have to submit to the enemy just because there's a
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Speaker 1: strangeness in the atmosphere. You don't have to succumb to
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Speaker 1: the strangeness around you. You don't have to hang your
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Speaker 1: harp by the willow tree and sit down and cry
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Speaker 1: because and forget everything you know. You might be in Babylon,
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Speaker 1: but you are still Jewish. You might be in Babylon,
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Speaker 1: but you're still a child of God. You might be
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Speaker 1: backed up on your car payments, but you're still washed
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Speaker 1: in the blood. You might be in foreclosure, but you
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Speaker 1: still got the power of the Holy Ghost. And until
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Speaker 1: you learn how to use what you do have against
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Speaker 1: what you don't have, you'll never get out of captivity.
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Speaker 1: And so what I'm teaching you tonight is, It's how
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Speaker 1: to break out of captivity because the enemy is sent
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Speaker 1: in captivity to shut your mouth. But the devil is alive.
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Speaker 1: There's a breakthrough coming for the people of God. If
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Speaker 1: you learn how to ignore the environment around you and
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Speaker 1: open your mouth and sing. Open your mouth and shout.
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Speaker 1: Open your mouth and praise God. Open your mouth and
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Speaker 1: give God glory. That was not the case for Babylon.
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Speaker 1: They sat by the willow trees and they wept when
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Speaker 1: they remembered Zion. You see, they had attached their song
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Speaker 1: to a city. They had attached their song to a place.
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Speaker 1: You'd be surprised at the people who can only sing
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Speaker 1: when they're in love. I'm going to sit there. I'm
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Speaker 1: going to step on your toes. You sit right there.
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Speaker 1: I'm coming. They can't sing through a divorce. They can't
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Speaker 1: sing through a crisis. They can't sing through loneliness. They
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Speaker 1: can't sing through a test. And all of a sudden,
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Speaker 1: instead of things getting better, they prolong the captivity because
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Speaker 1: they lose themselves to their environment. And they don't know
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Speaker 1: how to sing the Lord's song anymore. In a strange land.
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Speaker 1: But I came to tell you tonight. That the land
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Speaker 1: does not control the Lord. Y'all don't hear what I'm saying.
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Speaker 1: But I'm going to keep driving until I get it on.
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Speaker 1: The land does not control the Lord. If God is
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Speaker 1: God in Jerusalem. He's God in Babylon. If God is
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Speaker 1: God when things are going well. He's God when things
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Speaker 1: are going bad. If God is God when you're on
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Speaker 1: the mountaintop, he's still God when he's in the valley.
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Speaker 1: And if you would break past your environment and what
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Speaker 1: you see around you and the strangeness of the time
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Speaker 1: and the weird things people say to you. And weird
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Speaker 1: things that they're doing right now. And the weird things
23:11
Speaker 1: that are jumping off in your life. The Lord sent
23:14
Speaker 1: me here tonight to teach a class to arm you
23:17
Speaker 1: with the weapons that are necessary to get the breakthrough
23:20
Speaker 1: that you need to move into the area that you're
23:23
Speaker 1: trying to move in. Because what God has for you.
23:27
Speaker 1: You have to release it out of your mouth. And
23:31
Speaker 1: when you open your mouth and you begin to rejoice
23:34
Speaker 1: under God, you're going to break. Wait, I want to
23:37
Speaker 1: explain something. See, when you try out for the choir
23:41
Speaker 1: or the praise team, they do auditions. But when God
23:45
Speaker 1: says sing, he doesn't do an audition. Because God is
23:50
Speaker 1: not saying sing according to how melodious your voice is
23:54
Speaker 1: and how well trained you are and how well you
23:57
Speaker 1: can do riff. When the Bible says sing unto the
24:00
Speaker 1: Lord a new song, he doesn't talk to you about
24:02
Speaker 1: what key you're in and whether you can hold a
24:04
Speaker 1: tune or not. Because God is not measuring the song
24:08
Speaker 1: by the melody. He's measuring it by the intensity. Oh,
24:12
Speaker 1: y'all don't hear what I'm saying. This is an equal
24:15
Speaker 1: opportunity thing. Now when you talk about singing on stage,
24:18
Speaker 1: some folks got it, some folks don't. Some folks can,
24:21
Speaker 1: some folks won't. But when it comes to singing before
24:24
Speaker 1: the Lord, even the folks who sing well don't have
24:28
Speaker 1: any more opportunity to please him than the people who
24:31
Speaker 1: sing out of tune. Because the kind of singing that
24:35
Speaker 1: God is talking about you doing has nothing to do
24:37
Speaker 1: with pitch and tone and frame and structure and order anymore.
24:42
Speaker 1: It is a defiance. It is a defiance to sing
24:46
Speaker 1: the Lord's song in a strange land. Doesn't matter about
24:49
Speaker 1: the key, flat or sharp, off pitch, on pitch. It
24:53
Speaker 1: is defiant to sing the Lord's song. Says, I refuse
24:56
Speaker 1: to succumb. to the environment around me, I'm going to
25:00
Speaker 1: bless the Lord at all times and praise Him anyway.
25:05
Speaker 1: In fact, you won't get out until you learn to sing.
25:08
Speaker 1: You won't get a breakthrough until you learn how to
25:11
Speaker 1: sing the Lord's song in a strange land. Crying won't
25:14
Speaker 1: get you out of trouble. Weeping won't get you out
25:17
Speaker 1: of trouble. Going into depression won't get you out of trouble.
25:20
Speaker 1: Throwing up your hands won't get you out of trouble.
25:23
Speaker 1: But I dare you to open your mouth mouth and
25:26
Speaker 1: lift your voice and start singing out to God. God
25:31
Speaker 1: does something when you sing a song unto him. She
25:35
Speaker 1: can be singing an A and she can be singing
25:38
Speaker 1: a C and he can be singing an F and
25:40
Speaker 1: together it just sounds like noise, but that's okay. He
25:44
Speaker 1: says he'll make the noise, make a joyful noise unto God.
25:47
Speaker 1: Make a joyful what? Noise unto God, because God says,
25:53
Speaker 1: what blesses me is not your talent. It is your spirit.
25:58
Speaker 1: It is your heart. It is your defiant. Your singing
26:02
Speaker 1: breaks through something, pierces something in the spirit world, gives
26:06
Speaker 1: you a breakthrough over the Nebuchadnezzar that's trying to hold
26:10
Speaker 1: you captive. Everybody in here has a Nebuchadnezzar that drags
26:15
Speaker 1: you into captivity, that changes your mood, that brings tears
26:19
Speaker 1: to your eyes, that every time you try to stand up,
26:23
Speaker 1: Nebuchadnezzar comes along and wants to bring you back into captivity.
26:26
Speaker 1: and defy you and make fun of you and say,
26:29
Speaker 1: where is your God now? Where is your song now?
26:32
Speaker 1: How are you going to sing now? How are you
26:33
Speaker 1: going to praise him now? So every now and then,
26:36
Speaker 1: I don't just praise God because he's good. I don't
26:39
Speaker 1: just praise God because he's great. I don't just praise
26:41
Speaker 1: God because he's made. Sometimes I praise God just to
26:44
Speaker 1: get on the devil's nerves. To let him know I'm
26:47
Speaker 1: still going to praise him. Everything might not be right.
26:51
Speaker 1: All my bills might not be paid. Everything might not
26:54
Speaker 1: be in order. I may not even be happy. But
26:57
Speaker 1: in the midst of all of this, if you think
26:59
Speaker 1: I'm going to lay here and cry and hang my
27:02
Speaker 1: heart by the willow tree, I got news for you tonight.
27:06
Speaker 1: I will come. I got to quit. I don't want
27:10
Speaker 1: to get that far. I will bless the Lord at
27:14
Speaker 1: all times. His praise shall continually. It'll be in my
27:19
Speaker 1: mouth in Babylon. It'll be in my mouth in Jerusalem.
27:22
Speaker 1: It'll be in my mouth in Judea. It'll be in
27:25
Speaker 1: my mouth in crisis. It'll be in my mouth when
27:27
Speaker 1: the bills are paid. It'll be in my mouth when
27:29
Speaker 1: you walk off and leave me. It'll be in my
27:32
Speaker 1: mouth when my feelings are hurt. It'll be in my
27:34
Speaker 1: mouth when I lose my job. It'll be in my
27:36
Speaker 1: mouth when I got to move in with my mama.
27:39
Speaker 1: It'll still be in my mouth because I'm a soldier.
27:48
Speaker 1: I respect the fact that these are people who have
27:51
Speaker 1: been drug into captivity and the women have been raped
27:55
Speaker 1: and the men have been neutered with blood running down
27:59
Speaker 1: their legs and ankle chains on their feet. And their
28:05
Speaker 1: hands tied behind their back. That they left Jerusalem in
28:09
Speaker 1: dire straits. The crisis is momentous. It is not comfortable.
28:15
Speaker 1: It is painful. They are away from their homeland. They
28:19
Speaker 1: are away from everything that is familiar. They are away
28:22
Speaker 1: from everything that defines them. But they are not away
28:27
Speaker 1: from God. David said, if I make my bed in hell,
28:32
Speaker 1: thou art there. He said, if I take the wings
28:34
Speaker 1: of the morning and ascend to the uttermost parts of
28:37
Speaker 1: the earth, thou art there. I want to talk to
28:40
Speaker 1: somebody whose life is inconsistent and everything around you is
28:45
Speaker 1: inconsistent and you can't find anything solid to nail into.
28:50
Speaker 1: Everything around you is inconsistent. The only thing that is
28:55
Speaker 1: consistent is God. God doesn't change. God doesn't move. God
29:03
Speaker 1: doesn't move because you move. God doesn't move because your
29:06
Speaker 1: conditions change. And if you learn to be like God,
29:10
Speaker 1: that means you got to be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding
29:16
Speaker 1: in the work of the Lord. You can't, deliver me
29:19
Speaker 1: from moody Christians. Amen. People, they're one day, they're this way,
29:25
Speaker 1: the next day, they're this way, the next day, they're
29:26
Speaker 1: this way. God is calling for consistency. God is calling
29:31
Speaker 1: for people who can sing in the dark. God is
29:34
Speaker 1: calling for people who will open their mouth and praise
29:37
Speaker 1: him no matter what's going on in your life, no
29:39
Speaker 1: matter what's going on in your life. what is running
29:40
Speaker 1: through your mind no matter what's going on in your
29:43
Speaker 1: body you gotta find a way to praise God because
29:46
Speaker 1: things are not going to get better until you open
29:49
Speaker 1: your mouth and learn how to sing in the midst
29:52
Speaker 1: of adversity we hung our hearts by the willow trees
29:58
Speaker 1: when we remembered Zion If I forget Jerusalem, let my
30:03
Speaker 1: tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. Jerusalem is
30:09
Speaker 1: not just a geographical location. Jerusalem is a centered place
30:15
Speaker 1: in your soul. If I forget who I am, let
30:20
Speaker 1: my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. You
30:24
Speaker 1: got to know who you are. Even when you're in
30:28
Speaker 1: a strange land. You got to know what your center is.
30:34
Speaker 1: Even when it's a strange time. You got to know
30:37
Speaker 1: what your center is. Even when you lost your job.
30:41
Speaker 1: You got to know what your center is. Even when
30:44
Speaker 1: you're destabilized by people you thought you could trust and
30:47
Speaker 1: you couldn't. People you thought you could count on and
30:50
Speaker 1: you can't. People who said they'd be with you and
30:52
Speaker 1: they left. But you got to stabilize yourself by your Jerusalem.
30:56
Speaker 1: jerusalem is your spiritual epicenter it is the place from
31:01
Speaker 1: which you draw strength it is the place from which
31:03
Speaker 1: you draw vigor it is the place from which you
31:06
Speaker 1: draw identity our jerusalem is not a physical jerusalem there
31:10
Speaker 1: is a jerusalem that comes down out of heaven there
31:13
Speaker 1: is a jerusalem on earth in your heart there is
31:15
Speaker 1: a jerusalem there is a spiritual epicenter called a pavilion.
31:20
Speaker 1: God hides you in a secret place. You go into
31:23
Speaker 1: the secret place with God. When all hell is breaking loose,
31:27
Speaker 1: there is a secret place that anchors you so that
31:30
Speaker 1: you are not at the mercy of the environment to
31:34
Speaker 1: control the intensity. of the power with which you operate.
31:39
Speaker 1: If that were true, if I set you in a
31:42
Speaker 1: situation where there were witches, you would lose your glory.
31:45
Speaker 1: God's got to have a power that transcends an environment.
31:49
Speaker 1: God's got to have a power that'll work in a
31:51
Speaker 1: hospital room. God's got to have a power that'll work
31:55
Speaker 1: in an unemployment line. God's got to have a power
31:58
Speaker 1: that will work, I don't care where you are. The
32:03
Speaker 1: only thing that is unstable is him. Because God is
32:10
Speaker 1: able to do, watch this, exceedingly, abundantly, above all that
32:16
Speaker 1: ye may ask or think. Hold up. According to the
32:20
Speaker 1: power that worketh. Where? Where? In you, according to the
32:26
Speaker 1: power that worketh in you. Not in your church, not
32:29
Speaker 1: in your bishop, not in your denomination, not in your city,
32:33
Speaker 1: not in your town. God said, I can do exceedingly
32:36
Speaker 1: abundantly above all ye may ask or think according to
32:41
Speaker 1: the power that worketh in you. Now they got taken
32:45
Speaker 1: away from Jerusalem, but you can't take me away from me.
32:52
Speaker 1: You cannot take me away from me. God said, it's
32:58
Speaker 1: not according to what river you're sitting beside. It's not
33:02
Speaker 1: according to where you're working. It's not according to how
33:05
Speaker 1: you feel in your body. It's according to the power
33:08
Speaker 1: of God. that works in you. And God said, if
33:12
Speaker 1: you work, I can work. If you move, I can move.
33:16
Speaker 1: If you look up, I can look up. If you
33:19
Speaker 1: reach out, I can reach down. I can only do
33:22
Speaker 1: it according to the power. So hell wants you to
33:27
Speaker 1: hang your heart by the willow trees and forget who
33:30
Speaker 1: you are and think that you can't do it because
33:33
Speaker 1: you don't get what you want. And so you're just
33:35
Speaker 1: like a baby crying because God will wean you from
33:39
Speaker 1: this and put you over in that and say, will
33:43
Speaker 1: you praise me now? Can you praise me now? Can
33:46
Speaker 1: you praise me in this situation? Can you love me
33:49
Speaker 1: like this? Am I still God in this situation? Can
33:53
Speaker 1: you glorify me now? And if you are well taught
33:57
Speaker 1: in the word of God, you will offer up to
34:00
Speaker 1: him the sacrifice of praise from the fruit of your
34:06
Speaker 1: lips continually with thanksgiving the sacrifice I know you don't
34:11
Speaker 1: feel like it you don't have to do it you
34:13
Speaker 1: can stay bound all you want to but if you
34:16
Speaker 1: give him the sacrifice of praise If you give him
34:19
Speaker 1: the sacrifice of praise from the fruit of your lips,
34:24
Speaker 1: your lips, your lips. Choir can't do that for you.
34:27
Speaker 1: Praise team can't do that for you. Band can't do
34:30
Speaker 1: that for you. Because God is watching your mouth. You say,
34:34
Speaker 1: I can't even sing. I don't even care. God says,
34:36
Speaker 1: when your lips move, my lips will move. When you
34:40
Speaker 1: open up your mouth, I'll open my mouth. When you
34:43
Speaker 1: start thinking about me, I'll start thinking about you. I
34:46
Speaker 1: am watching your lips. I want you to take about
34:49
Speaker 1: 15 seconds and just open your mouth and make any
34:52
Speaker 1: kind of joyful noise. Anything you got. Anything. Anything you got.
35:04
Speaker 1: Any key, any tool Any kind of sound. Oh, oh, oh, oh.
35:24
Speaker 1: see when you start opening
35:36
Speaker 1: your mouth yokes start falling chains start falling barriers start
35:40
Speaker 1: falling problems start falling it don't matter what river you're
35:44
Speaker 1: sitting beside it don't matter what willow tree you're standing
35:48
Speaker 1: by you don't even have to have no harp if
35:51
Speaker 1: you got a mouth let the redeemed of the Lord
35:54
Speaker 1: yeah yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The
36:11
Speaker 1: devil will defy you. He'll try to shut you down.
36:14
Speaker 1: He'll try to shut your mouth. He'll try to shut
36:16
Speaker 1: you up. He'll try to make you be still. But
36:19
Speaker 1: the devil is alive. We are in a fight tonight, y'all.
36:23
Speaker 1: We are in a fight tonight. You listening to me online?
36:26
Speaker 1: We are in a fight tonight. You can take them
36:29
Speaker 1: little cute shoes off. We are in a fight tonight.
36:32
Speaker 1: Glory to God. You might have to take them nails
36:34
Speaker 1: off and pull your earrings off. We are in a
36:36
Speaker 1: fight tonight. And you got to learn how to go
36:40
Speaker 1: into spiritual warfare and sing. and shout and dance and
36:46
Speaker 1: pray and drive back the forces of the enemy because
36:50
Speaker 1: there's something that we got to drive back and we
36:53
Speaker 1: got to drive it back with our mouth and we
36:56
Speaker 1: got to drive it back with our song and we
36:58
Speaker 1: got to drive it back with our prayer and we
37:01
Speaker 1: got to drive it back. If you drive it back,
37:03
Speaker 1: if you drive it back, if you push it in
37:06
Speaker 1: a move, if you push it in a move, if
37:08
Speaker 1: you push it in a move, if you push it
37:10
Speaker 1: in a move, if you push it in a move,
37:13
Speaker 1: If you push it, it'll move. If you push it,
37:15
Speaker 1: it'll move. Y'all gonna make me preach. I don't want
37:20
Speaker 1: to do that. I don't want to do that. Hallelujah.
37:23
Speaker 1: Look at somebody and say, if you push it, it'll move.
37:28
Speaker 1: If you push it, it'll move. It'll move. You got
37:33
Speaker 1: to make up in your mind, do you want to
37:34
Speaker 1: be a captive or do you want to be a conqueror?
37:39
Speaker 1: I say, do you want to be captive? Or do
37:42
Speaker 1: you want to be a conqueror? Do you want to
37:46
Speaker 1: be captive? Or do you want to be a conqueror? Now,
37:50
Speaker 1: if you're a conqueror, that still means you got to fight.
37:53
Speaker 1: That don't mean you don't get to be a conqueror
37:55
Speaker 1: if you don't have opposition. But if you make up
37:57
Speaker 1: in your mind you're going to be a conqueror, that
37:59
Speaker 1: means this will not whip me. I might die somewhere,
38:03
Speaker 1: but it won't be right here. This right here will
38:06
Speaker 1: not whip me because I am a conqueror. In fact,
38:10
Speaker 1: according to the word, I am what? More than a conqueror.
38:15
Speaker 1: Give me that word like you've been to Bible class before.
38:19
Speaker 1: I am more than a conqueror. I might not feel
38:21
Speaker 1: like a conqueror. I might not look like a conqueror.
38:25
Speaker 1: I might not have the emotions of a conqueror. But
38:28
Speaker 1: the Bible says I am more than a conqueror. I
38:33
Speaker 1: just happen to be in Babylon. I just happen to
38:40
Speaker 1: be in Babylon. I just happen to be by the
38:42
Speaker 1: will of Jesus. I just happen to be in this situation,
38:45
Speaker 1: but my situation does not define my reality. Can I
38:52
Speaker 1: go deeper with this? What strikes me about this singing
38:57
Speaker 1: in this dark place and their inability to be able
39:02
Speaker 1: to get past their rage. In fact, you have to
39:07
Speaker 1: realize this text is a song itself. That the Jewish tradition,
39:16
Speaker 1: the rabbis sing as much as they talk. Because there's
39:21
Speaker 1: something about your voice that cries out to God. And
39:27
Speaker 1: when you open your mouth and cry out to God,
39:31
Speaker 1: he moves in your behalf. The paradoxical situation of the
39:37
Speaker 1: text is so fascinating to me because on one hand,
39:40
Speaker 1: it is a deplorable place. And on the other hand,
39:44
Speaker 1: probably just to mock them, the Babylonians asked them to sing.
39:50
Speaker 1: This is just me. I think they should. Because I
39:55
Speaker 1: have learned the power of singing in the dark. I
40:06
Speaker 1: know why the old folks moaned. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm.
40:22
Speaker 1: You all don't know.
40:23
Speaker 2: Nothing about that.
40:34
Speaker 1: The same reason the slaves sang in the field. It's
40:37
Speaker 1: a message. It's a code. It's a system. It's a message.
40:43
Speaker 1: It's a code. It's a system. It's a message. It's
40:47
Speaker 1: a code. It's a system. It's a message. Steal away
40:52
Speaker 1: to Jesus. Ain't got long. Ain't got long to stay.
41:02
Speaker 1: Steal away to Jesus. Ain't got long. Ain't got long
41:13
Speaker 1: to stay. Oh, to stay. My Lord, he calls me.
41:24
Speaker 1: It sounds like he's just singing, but it's a message
41:27
Speaker 1: in it. It's a code. It's a code. It's a
41:30
Speaker 1: code hell can't break. It's a code that the devil
41:33
Speaker 1: don't understand. It's a code that the demons can't understand.
41:37
Speaker 1: It's a code that lets them know I'm getting ready
41:39
Speaker 1: to come out of captivity. It's a code that says
41:42
Speaker 1: I'm getting ready to break. My Lord, he calls me
41:46
Speaker 1: by the thunder. Hallelujah. And when you start understanding that code,
41:56
Speaker 1: things began to break. Don't say it to myself. He
42:02
Speaker 1: If this is true, if this theory is true, let's
42:06
Speaker 1: try it in other places.
42:10
Speaker 3: So I left the Psalms and I went to the
42:14
Speaker 3: book of Acts. And when I got to the book
42:17
Speaker 3: of Acts, I got over in the book of Acts.
42:22
Speaker 1: And they had thrown Paul in jail. They were going
42:38
Speaker 1: to kill him in the morning. This is serious. The
42:43
Speaker 1: first mistake is that they locked him up with Silas.
42:48
Speaker 1: Because if any two of you agree as touching anything
42:54
Speaker 1: on earth, It shall be done. See, the devil messes
42:58
Speaker 1: up when he lets you be locked up with somebody
43:01
Speaker 1: else that's on the same frequency that you're on. And
43:05
Speaker 1: y'all don't hear what I'm saying. So the Bible says,
43:14
Speaker 1: the Bible says that they put Paul and Silas in jail.
43:21
Speaker 1: And notice what time it is. It says, and at midnight.
43:28
Speaker 1: Midnight is the darkest part of the night. It was
43:33
Speaker 1: when there was a complete blackout. Everybody should be in
43:37
Speaker 1: the bed at midnight. At midnight, the jail is quiet.
43:41
Speaker 1: At midnight, the lights are out. At midnight, the night
43:45
Speaker 1: shift is the easiest shift to work because all the
43:48
Speaker 1: prisoners are asleep at night except Paul and Silas. Instead
43:53
Speaker 1: of being asleep, the Bible said at midnight, Paul and
43:57
Speaker 1: Silas prayed and sang praises unto God and the prisoners
44:02
Speaker 1: heard them. See, don't just sit there in the jail
44:05
Speaker 1: and be passive and be quiet and be still. You
44:09
Speaker 1: got to make some noise in your jail. You got
44:12
Speaker 1: to open your mouth in your jail. You got to
44:15
Speaker 1: cry out in your jail. You got to open your
44:19
Speaker 1: mouth into fire, but wait till it's midnight. Wait till
44:23
Speaker 1: it's real dark. Don't wait till it's just kind of dark.
44:26
Speaker 1: Don't wait till it's fixing to be dark. Wait till
44:29
Speaker 1: it's midnight because there's something about singing in the darkest
44:35
Speaker 1: part of your night that lets hell know I will
44:39
Speaker 1: not submit to your son. And at midnight, Paul and
44:46
Speaker 1: Silas prayed and sang praises to unto God. Are y'all
44:53
Speaker 1: listening to what I'm saying? They prayed and sang praises
44:58
Speaker 1: at the darkest point in their life. I don't know
45:01
Speaker 1: who's listening at me tonight, but if you're at the
45:03
Speaker 1: darkest point in your life, if all hell is breaking loose,
45:07
Speaker 1: if before you can get out of this, here comes that.
45:10
Speaker 1: And before you can get out of that, here comes
45:12
Speaker 1: the other. If you're going through first one thing and
45:14
Speaker 1: then another. If your moods are all over the place,
45:17
Speaker 1: your kids are all over the place, your emotions are
45:20
Speaker 1: all over the place, your body's all over the place,
45:22
Speaker 1: just wait till midnight when it gets real dark, when
45:26
Speaker 1: it gets real black, when the devil expects you to
45:29
Speaker 1: roll over and die. Open up your mouth and shout
45:35
Speaker 1: unto God at midnight, at midnight, at midnight, Paul and Silas.
45:48
Speaker 1: The Bible says Paul and Silas prayed and sang. They
45:59
Speaker 1: prayed and sang. What fool sings in prison at midnight?
46:09
Speaker 1: You got to be a fool for Christ. You got
46:12
Speaker 1: to be a fool for Christ. If you're trying to
46:15
Speaker 1: fit in, this message is not for you. You have
46:18
Speaker 1: to be daring enough to be different enough to sing
46:22
Speaker 1: at an unexpected time. Sometimes you got to dance, no music,
46:27
Speaker 1: no drums, no tambourine, nobody to say go ahead, nobody
46:31
Speaker 1: beating on nothing. It don't matter whether you on beat
46:34
Speaker 1: or off beat. It's just minus that it's midnight. Because
46:37
Speaker 1: if you do it at midnight, if you do it
46:40
Speaker 1: at midnight, If you do it at midnight, if you
46:44
Speaker 1: do it at midnight, I wish I had somebody in
46:47
Speaker 1: here who was going through a midnight because I need
46:51
Speaker 1: it to be dark enough for your praise to stand
46:54
Speaker 1: out strong enough that when you give the praise, it
46:58
Speaker 1: will set it off. If you're watching online and you're
47:03
Speaker 1: going through a midnight, if you open your mouth and
47:06
Speaker 1: praise it now, it will set it off. Somebody praise
47:10
Speaker 1: him now. Somebody praise him now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
47:41
Speaker 1: That's what I'm talking about right there. That's what I'm
47:44
Speaker 1: talking about right there. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about
47:47
Speaker 1: right there. That's what I'm talking about right there. That's
47:49
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about right there. That's what I'm talking
47:51
Speaker 1: about right there. That's what I'm talking about. You can't
47:54
Speaker 1: tell it, but the wall is cracking. What you say, Joshua?
47:58
Speaker 1: You mean when I shout, the wall cracks? Yes, when
48:02
Speaker 1: you open your mouth and shout unto God, I see
48:06
Speaker 1: a crack in the wall. When you crack your lips,
48:09
Speaker 1: God cracks the wall. I see a crack. Ow! You
48:19
Speaker 1: got a wall of debt. You got a wall of bills.
48:23
Speaker 1: You got a wall of problems. You got a wall
48:26
Speaker 1: of crisis. But if you open your mouth, you can
48:29
Speaker 1: shout to the wall cracks. Now, now, sit with me.
48:38
Speaker 1: Sit with me. It's okay. Sit with me. Sit with me.
48:41
Speaker 1: I'm going to behave. I'm going to be good in
48:43
Speaker 1: a minute. I'm going to be good in a minute. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
48:54
Speaker 1: At midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God.
49:03
Speaker 1: They sang and prayed unto God. But at first, the
49:08
Speaker 1: prisoners heard them. That's all who heard them. The prisoners
49:16
Speaker 1: heard them. That means they haven't broken through the earth
49:21
Speaker 1: realm yet. When they first started singing and praying, you
49:27
Speaker 1: pray and at first, the only thing you move is
49:30
Speaker 1: other people. So other people start stirring around in the prison.
49:34
Speaker 1: Other people start because you're still in the earth realm.
49:37
Speaker 1: But at some point... At some point, it must have
49:42
Speaker 1: been a point because the Bible said suddenly, Have you
49:48
Speaker 1: ever had a suddenly happen in your life? You didn't even,
49:52
Speaker 1: it felt like you was just going through the motion.
49:54
Speaker 1: But suddenly, suddenly, suddenly means you can pinpoint the moment
50:00
Speaker 1: that you penetrated from the earth realm into the spirit realm.
50:04
Speaker 1: And the Bible says that suddenly there was a great
50:07
Speaker 1: earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken absolutely.
50:12
Speaker 1: And immediately. So we got a suddenly and we got
50:16
Speaker 1: an immediately. If you get a suddenly, then you get
50:20
Speaker 1: an immediately. Once you get the suddenly, the suddenly brought
50:24
Speaker 1: the earthquake, but the immediately opened up the door. You
50:28
Speaker 1: need a suddenly and an immediately. The suddenly will bring
50:33
Speaker 1: the earthquake, but the immediately will open up the door.
50:36
Speaker 1: Everything that need a door open up, give him some
50:39
Speaker 1: praise for the immediately. So watch this. So the first
50:58
Speaker 1: one they did it, the prisoners heard him. And it
51:01
Speaker 1: had to go beyond the prisoners because the prisoners couldn't
51:05
Speaker 1: have caused the earthquake. So they praised him until they
51:08
Speaker 1: got a suddenly. And the suddenly brought the earthquake. And
51:13
Speaker 1: once they had pierced the suddenly, then they got in immediately.
51:20
Speaker 1: And the doors opened up. Anybody in here need a
51:23
Speaker 1: door to open up? It's in your mouth. It's in
51:27
Speaker 1: your mouth. It's in your mouth. It's in your mouth.
51:32
Speaker 1: It's in your mouth. It's in your mouth. The door
51:35
Speaker 1: you need to open. It's not in the judge's mouth.
51:39
Speaker 1: It's not in the people's mouth. It's not in the
51:42
Speaker 1: governor's mouth. It's in your mouth. It's in your mouth.
51:51
Speaker 1: And when you opened your mouth, not just you, but
51:56
Speaker 1: everyone's bands were loose. Now, everybody wasn't singing. Everybody wasn't singing,
52:03
Speaker 1: but everybody got loose. That's why the devil got you
52:07
Speaker 1: in jail in the first place. Because when you open
52:10
Speaker 1: your mouth, you're not the only one that's going to
52:12
Speaker 1: get loose. Everyone's bands were loose. Everyone's bands were loose.
52:18
Speaker 1: And the devil is scared of you because he knows
52:21
Speaker 1: that if you get free and you open up your mouth,
52:25
Speaker 1: everyone's bands are going to be loose. I don't know
52:28
Speaker 1: who your everyone is, but everyone Everyone's bands. Everyone's bands
52:43
Speaker 1: are loose. But it will not happen if you cannot
52:49
Speaker 1: sing in the dark. At midnight, he sang in the dark.
53:01
Speaker 1: At midnight, he sang in the dark. At midnight, he
53:09
Speaker 1: sang in the dark. And then I started thinking about
53:13
Speaker 1: singing in the dark and I thought about what they
53:15
Speaker 1: said about Jesus on the night of the Passover. The
53:23
Speaker 1: Bible said that on the night of the Passover, after
53:29
Speaker 1: that they had had the Lord's Supper, the Bible said
53:36
Speaker 1: that they all began to sing. Now this is the
53:40
Speaker 1: night before they apprehended Jesus to take him to the cross,
53:45
Speaker 1: and this is the night that the Paschal Lamb becomes
53:49
Speaker 1: the Jesus of glory, the incarnation of God himself is
53:55
Speaker 1: to go to the cross, and he's the only one
53:58
Speaker 1: that knows that he is the lamb that's going to
54:02
Speaker 1: the cross and on this night it wasn't that they
54:05
Speaker 1: sang it's that he sang with them the last thing
54:10
Speaker 1: they heard him say in the darkness of the Passover
54:15
Speaker 1: night was he started singing with them who can sing
54:21
Speaker 1: on the last free night You do know that God
54:28
Speaker 1: can sing. The Bible said he sings over us. That
54:35
Speaker 1: God literally sings over us. Jesus sings on the night
54:43
Speaker 1: they're about to take him. Why would you sing? When
54:47
Speaker 1: you know you're about to go to the cross, you
54:49
Speaker 1: already told us in the Garden of Gethsemane that you
54:52
Speaker 1: didn't want to go to the cross. So you're not
54:54
Speaker 1: singing because you're happy about going to the cross. So
54:56
Speaker 1: your emotions are in captivity. They're in Babylon. And yet
55:01
Speaker 1: your discipline says sing. And he sang. And of all things,
55:08
Speaker 1: Psalms 118, he sang, this is the day that the
55:13
Speaker 1: Lord hath made. We shall rejoice and be glad in it. Now,
55:20
Speaker 1: what kind of craziness is this for this particular day
55:25
Speaker 1: of all days to be the day that you sing
55:27
Speaker 1: Psalms 118? This is the day that the Lord hath made.
55:31
Speaker 1: We shall rejoice and be glad in it. You know why?
55:35
Speaker 1: It's the day of redemption. It's the day of atonement.
55:38
Speaker 1: It's a day of restoration. It's a day of renewal.
55:41
Speaker 1: It's a day of healing. It's a day of divine purpose.
55:45
Speaker 1: How do you know it is that day? Because it's dark.
55:48
Speaker 1: It wouldn't be dark if God wasn't getting ready to
55:51
Speaker 1: do something. It wouldn't be dark if God wasn't getting
55:54
Speaker 1: ready to move. It wouldn't be this dark, not this
55:56
Speaker 1: kind of dark, if this weren't the day that the
56:00
Speaker 1: Lord has made. And Jesus knows the day by the dark.
56:10
Speaker 1: Jesus knows this is the day by the dark. What
56:15
Speaker 1: do you mean by the dark? By the betrayal? By
56:21
Speaker 1: the attack? By the pain? By the level of problems?
56:28
Speaker 1: is a sign that this is the day that the
56:32
Speaker 1: Lord has made. Psalm 118 has a lot more in
56:35
Speaker 1: it than that. But this is the day that the
56:37
Speaker 1: Lord has made. We shall rejoice and be glad in it.
56:42
Speaker 1: This is crazy. Be glad in the dark? Yeah. But
56:46
Speaker 1: I can't see. That don't matter. But I can't see.
56:54
Speaker 1: And I just got betrayed. And I just told him
56:56
Speaker 1: what thou doest, do it quickly. And I'm going to
56:59
Speaker 1: sing while you go get them? What kind of faith
57:05
Speaker 1: is this that sings while your Judas goes to get
57:11
Speaker 1: the soldiers? It's the same kind of faith that made
57:17
Speaker 1: you feed your enemy. If you were sitting at the
57:24
Speaker 1: table with me and I knew you was my enemy,
57:28
Speaker 1: you wouldn't be getting no bread from me. I'd have
57:32
Speaker 1: gave John your piece. If you're going to eat, you
57:38
Speaker 1: better go ask your mama because you ain't going to
57:40
Speaker 1: get nothing from me. But Jesus fed his enemy. He
57:49
Speaker 1: served his enemy. He sat with his enemy. With his
57:58
Speaker 1: John on one side and his Judas on the other,
58:01
Speaker 1: he sat with his enemy. And you cannot be a
58:05
Speaker 1: great man or woman of God until you can sit
58:08
Speaker 1: in between John and Judas and treat them both the same. Oh,
58:15
Speaker 1: y'all ain't going to talk to me. You got to
58:17
Speaker 1: be able to sit with John and Judas and know
58:21
Speaker 1: which one is which. And feed both of them the
58:25
Speaker 1: same bread and the same cup with the same piece.
58:30
Speaker 1: And then have the audacity to sing in the dark.
58:38
Speaker 1: This is what happens when you have to sing against
58:42
Speaker 1: the atmosphere. This is how you become Lord of the atmosphere.
58:53
Speaker 1: Can I show you a little bit more? First Corinthians 14,
58:57
Speaker 1: 26 talks about what's then shall we say, brothers and sisters,
59:02
Speaker 1: when you come together, each of you has a hymn
59:05
Speaker 1: or word of instruction, of revelation a tongue or an
59:08
Speaker 1: interpretation everything must be done so that the church may
59:13
Speaker 1: be built up and the king james says that the
59:16
Speaker 1: church might be edified when you sing the church is
59:21
Speaker 1: edified When you give word of knowledge, the church is edified.
59:25
Speaker 1: Edified is an architectural term that means to be built up,
59:31
Speaker 1: like renovated, like resurrected. So singing bills, singing bills. Say
59:38
Speaker 1: that with me. Singing bills, singing bills. You know, see,
59:43
Speaker 1: we don't have, maybe we have it, I don't know,
59:46
Speaker 1: because I don't live in your house, but you don't
59:48
Speaker 1: see it like you used to see it People standing
59:51
Speaker 1: over the sink singing. People washing clothes singing. People going
59:58
Speaker 1: through the house shaking their head and singing. Nowadays you
1:00:01
Speaker 1: don't see church folk having church until they come to church.
1:00:04
Speaker 1: But it used to be. It used to be you
1:00:07
Speaker 1: could go in your house and you could sense glory
1:00:11
Speaker 1: in the house. Because you begin to understand that if
1:00:16
Speaker 1: you're going to be built up, you got to open
1:00:19
Speaker 1: your mouth and sing out to God and give him glory.
1:00:24
Speaker 1: When Nehemiah was building the wall, he didn't just call
1:00:28
Speaker 1: for the builders, he called for the Levites to sing.
1:00:33
Speaker 1: Because singing builds. Now in Corinthians, it says that it
1:00:39
Speaker 1: will build up the body of Christ. In Nehemiah, it
1:00:43
Speaker 1: proves that if you're going to build up walls, you
1:00:45
Speaker 1: got to call the singers. Because singing builds walls. And
1:00:52
Speaker 1: some of you, your walls are torn down. And that's
1:00:58
Speaker 1: why this has gotten to you like this. Because a
1:01:03
Speaker 1: man that cannot rule his own spirit is like a
1:01:06
Speaker 1: city without walls. And what made Nehemiah go to Jerusalem
1:01:13
Speaker 1: in the first place was to build back the walls.
1:01:18
Speaker 1: And what you must do instead of giving advice to
1:01:21
Speaker 1: everybody else is build back your walls until you can
1:01:28
Speaker 1: rule your own spirit. You don't get to tell me
1:01:33
Speaker 1: what to do if you can't rule you. Well, y'all
1:01:39
Speaker 1: ain't saying nothing to me. So he doesn't just call
1:01:45
Speaker 1: the Masons. He calls the Levites to sing because there's
1:01:49
Speaker 1: something about singing that hastens the edification, the building up.
1:01:58
Speaker 1: Nehemiah used singing to build the wall. Joshua used it.
1:02:08
Speaker 1: Joshua used it to tear down the wall. So the
1:02:11
Speaker 1: same voice that builds a wall has the power to
1:02:16
Speaker 1: tear down a wall. And why do they do both things?
1:02:19
Speaker 1: Because sometimes in your life you need to build a
1:02:21
Speaker 1: wall and sometimes you need to tear down a wall.
1:02:25
Speaker 1: And God said, I know which one you mean when
1:02:29
Speaker 1: you sing. When you sing, I know what you mean.
1:02:33
Speaker 1: I know whether to build up or to tear down.
1:02:36
Speaker 1: Anything that's standing in your way, God said, I'll bring
1:02:39
Speaker 1: it down. The high places, I'll bring it down. The obstacles,
1:02:44
Speaker 1: I'll bring it down. That that's resisted my will, I'll
1:02:48
Speaker 1: bring it down. That that's standing up in your way
1:02:50
Speaker 1: and the promises of God, God said, when you sing,
1:02:53
Speaker 1: I'll bring it down. Anybody who has become vulnerable and
1:02:58
Speaker 1: you need more walls, God said, when you open your mouth,
1:03:01
Speaker 1: I will build walls where you never had walls, where
1:03:04
Speaker 1: your mama didn't have walls and your grandmama didn't have
1:03:06
Speaker 1: walls and your great grandmama didn't have walls and you
1:03:09
Speaker 1: living up under a generational curse. But what's going to
1:03:12
Speaker 1: break the curse is I'm going to give you walls
1:03:15
Speaker 1: that your mama didn't have. I'm going to give you
1:03:17
Speaker 1: walls that your grandmama didn't have. I'm going to give
1:03:19
Speaker 1: you walls that your great grandmama didn't have. Because you're
1:03:22
Speaker 1: going to do something that they didn't do. You're going
1:03:24
Speaker 1: to open your mouth unto me. God said, I'm watching
1:03:27
Speaker 1: your lips. When you get tired of sitting up there
1:03:30
Speaker 1: with your face all twisted up and tears running down
1:03:33
Speaker 1: your face and your lips glued together, God said, I
1:03:37
Speaker 1: will rescue you when you open your mouth. I will
1:03:40
Speaker 1: bring you out. I don't care. It may take three
1:03:43
Speaker 1: days to do it. You may be on the cross
1:03:46
Speaker 1: on Friday. You may be in the grave on Saturday.
1:03:49
Speaker 1: But by Sunday morning, I will raise you up out
1:03:52
Speaker 1: of everything that ever held you down. And you got
1:03:55
Speaker 1: to sing and open your mouth and understand there ain't
1:03:59
Speaker 1: no wall that will stop me from getting to you.
1:04:02
Speaker 1: There ain't no stone that can roll in front of
1:04:05
Speaker 1: the tomb that I will roll up out of your
1:04:08
Speaker 1: way because you were singing in the dark. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:04:19
Speaker 1: Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee. Wait
1:04:26
Speaker 1: a minute. How can a soul sing Then sings my soul,
1:04:36
Speaker 1: my Savior God to thee. How great thou art. How
1:04:48
Speaker 1: great thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior God.
1:05:02
Speaker 1: to me how great now I'll how I'll I'll I'll
1:05:17
Speaker 1: I'll I'll I'll been things Tell him how great. How
1:05:44
Speaker 1: great thou art. How great thou art. Then sings my soul.
1:05:58
Speaker 1: Come on, sing it right in your living room. My
1:06:01
Speaker 1: Savior God today How great Thou art How great Thou art.
1:06:36
Speaker 4: This is my soul, my sin. You're not to me.
1:06:52
Speaker 4: How great thou art.
1:06:57
Speaker 1: How great thou art. This is my soul. My soul,
1:07:09
Speaker 1: my Savior God to Thee. How great Thou art. How
1:07:27
Speaker 1: great Thou art. Hannah sang a song that drove away
1:08:01
Speaker 1: her barrenness And enabled her to conceive. And when the
1:08:09
Speaker 1: angel came to Mary. And said hail Mary. You've been
1:08:13
Speaker 1: highly favored amongst women. You shall bring forth a son.
1:08:18
Speaker 1: Mary was barren too. Because she had not known a man.
1:08:25
Speaker 1: It was just two different kinds of barrenness. Hannah had
1:08:29
Speaker 1: known a man. But her womb was barren. Mary's womb worked,
1:08:36
Speaker 1: but she had not known a man. Both of them
1:08:39
Speaker 1: are two different kinds of barrenness. But Mary remembered Hannah.
1:08:47
Speaker 1: Then sings my soul, my Savior God. to Thee. How
1:09:05
Speaker 1: great Thou art. How great Thou art. Is there something
1:09:15
Speaker 1: buried in your life? You need to say, this is my...
1:09:17
Speaker 1: My Savior God to thee.
1:09:21
Speaker 2: How great thou art.
1:09:24
Speaker 1: How great thou art. There is something that God wants
1:09:59
Speaker 1: to leave in the womb of your soul tonight. That
1:10:08
Speaker 1: the dark cannot take away from you. There is something
1:10:13
Speaker 1: that God wants to leave in the womb of your
1:10:17
Speaker 1: spirit that will take you from weeping to dancing. By
1:10:31
Speaker 1: the rivers of Babylon, we wept. they asked of us
1:10:46
Speaker 1: to sing the Lord's song. And we did not know how.
1:10:53
Speaker 1: How can we sing the Lord's song when we are
1:11:00
Speaker 1: in a strange land? How can we sing the Lord's
1:11:06
Speaker 1: song in a pandemic? How can we sing the Lord's
1:11:12
Speaker 1: song worried about our children and grandchildren going to school.
1:11:17
Speaker 1: How can we sing? How can we sing the Lord's
1:11:25
Speaker 1: song while our backs are being beaten? How can we
1:11:30
Speaker 1: sing the Lord's song with the holes of oppression in
1:11:37
Speaker 1: our face? How can we sing the Lord's song when
1:11:41
Speaker 1: every day the phone rings? about somebody who's sick or
1:11:46
Speaker 1: somebody who's passed away. How can we sing the Lord's song?
1:11:53
Speaker 1: You can't sing it if you can't sing it in
1:11:57
Speaker 1: the dark. In fact, stop singing in the light if
1:12:04
Speaker 1: you're not going to sing in the dark. Because God
1:12:15
Speaker 1: don't need no part-time soldiers. He needs people who can
1:12:28
Speaker 1: sing in the jailhouse with their hands tied and their
1:12:35
Speaker 1: feet shackled at midnight. He needs people who can say,
1:12:41
Speaker 1: though he slay me, yet shall I trust him. He
1:12:47
Speaker 1: needs people who can say to their enemies, what thou doest,
1:12:51
Speaker 1: do it quickly and still keep their song. And if
1:12:57
Speaker 1: you keep your song, you can overcome anything. As we
1:13:05
Speaker 1: bring this Bible class to a close tonight, I do
1:13:08
Speaker 1: not know who God sent me for, but I do
1:13:11
Speaker 1: know that they are here today Or there, or there,
1:13:16
Speaker 1: or there. Somebody has been having their own personal captivity.
1:13:26
Speaker 1: Your own midnight. Your own dark place. Your own emotional
1:13:35
Speaker 1: roller coaster. And you're saying, how can I sing the
1:13:42
Speaker 1: Lord's song Everything in my life is feeling kind of
1:13:48
Speaker 1: strange right now. And I am saying to you, you
1:13:54
Speaker 1: do your best singing in the dark. I want the
1:14:01
Speaker 1: praise team to come and close us out with a
1:14:05
Speaker 1: song in just a moment. But tonight I want to
1:14:10
Speaker 1: pray for people whose emotions have been all over the place,
1:14:20
Speaker 1: who've been feeling like, I don't know what to do.
1:14:27
Speaker 1: I want to pray that God would restore your song.
1:14:32
Speaker 1: Because if he can restore your song, you're going to
1:14:36
Speaker 1: get a suddenly. And if you get a suddenly, you're
1:14:43
Speaker 1: going to get in immediately. And if you get in immediately,
1:14:50
Speaker 1: the doors are going to open. And if the doors
1:14:54
Speaker 1: are going to open, God's going to take your opposition
1:15:00
Speaker 1: and turn it into opportunity. Can I pray for you tonight?
1:15:06
Speaker 1: I mean, just me and you coming together like Paul
1:15:10
Speaker 1: and Silas into agreement. that everyone's bands would be loose,
1:15:18
Speaker 1: that the captive would be set free. Can I pray
1:15:22
Speaker 1: for you until you move away from the willow trees
1:15:29
Speaker 1: and you start singing in the dark? Spirit of the
1:15:33
Speaker 1: living God, fall fresh. on us tonight not because we're
1:15:46
Speaker 1: so good or so special or so holy or so
1:15:49
Speaker 1: wonderful but because we are so needy and so desperate
1:15:52
Speaker 1: and so longing and so in need of you today
1:15:55
Speaker 1: we need you we need you great God we need
1:16:02
Speaker 1: you to do some things that only God can do