Latest / Pst T.D Jakes -The POTTER'S HOUSE / Believing Matters - Bishop T.D. Jakes
Transcript
- 0:14Speaker 1: Remain standing for a moment. I want to pray with
- 0:16Speaker 1: you as we go into the Word of God. We're
- 0:19Speaker 1: going to be talking about believing matters. Believing matters. Father,
- 0:27Speaker 1: in the name of Jesus, we approach thy throne, O God,
- 0:30Speaker 1: asking you for grace to minister to your people tonight.
- 0:33Speaker 1: We thank you in advance for what you're going to do,
- 0:36Speaker 1: and we trust you to do it. In Jesus' name
- 0:39Speaker 1: we pray, shout amen. You may be seated. Let's go
- 0:45Speaker 1: to work on this. Believing such a nebulous, indescript, hard
- 0:52Speaker 1: to define, untouchable thing is very, very important. Before we
- 0:59Speaker 1: apply it to spiritual things, let's look at the natural.
- 1:02Speaker 1: There's a fight going on right now over what you believe.
- 1:10Speaker 1: People in the same family don't believe the same thing.
- 1:14Speaker 1: Different ideologies and different ideas have become so pervasive that
- 1:18Speaker 1: wars have been fought over what you believe. Believing absolutely matters.
- 1:25Speaker 1: When I came up in the church, we focused a
- 1:27Speaker 1: lot on behavior, and behavior is important, but believing trumps behavior.
- 1:35Speaker 1: In fact, I would suggest to you before we get
- 1:38Speaker 1: very deep into this, that you can't change your behavior
- 1:44Speaker 1: until you change your belief. What you believe about yourself,
- 1:49Speaker 1: what you believe about your God, what you believe about
- 1:52Speaker 1: your house, what you believe is going to affect how
- 1:56Speaker 1: you behave. It's so strong that the Bible said, with
- 2:00Speaker 1: the heart, man believeth unto salvation.
- 2:04Speaker 2: That's incredible. With the heart.
- 2:07Speaker 1: Man believes, just what a heart believes constitutes salvation. Not
- 2:14Speaker 1: what a hand does, what a heart believes. And if
- 2:19Speaker 1: you begin to study and to understand the importance of believing,
- 2:23Speaker 1: which we're going to try to dissect it a bit tonight,
- 2:27Speaker 1: I think it's important that you understand while, go to
- 2:32Speaker 1: John 3.16 for a minute. Go to John 3.16. Let's
- 2:33Speaker 1: go to John 3.16. And let's just set a base
- 2:41Speaker 1: for a discussion. For God so loved the world that
- 2:44Speaker 1: he gave his only begotten son. You could probably just
- 2:47Speaker 1: quote it. That whosoever believes in him should not perish,
- 2:51Speaker 1: but have everlasting life.
- 2:53Speaker 2: Wait, wait, wait. For God so loved the world that
- 2:59Speaker 2: he gave it.
- 2:59Speaker 1: Sometimes knowing something and being able to quote it doesn't
- 3:04Speaker 1: mean that we really hear it.
- 3:07Speaker 2: For God so loved the world.
- 3:11Speaker 1: Is the king falling in love with a harlot? It
- 3:19Speaker 1: didn't say for God so loved the church. It says
- 3:23Speaker 1: for God so loved the world. God has fallen in
- 3:28Speaker 1: love with something that is so beneath him.
- 3:32Speaker 2: Think of that.
- 3:33Speaker 3: For God so loved the world. That he had to
- 3:38Speaker 3: fix her up. He gave his only son that whosoever believes, believes.
- 3:47Speaker 3: I almost said underline that because I'm used to people
- 3:49Speaker 3: having Bibles, not phones.
- 3:51Speaker 2: But whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have
- 3:56Speaker 2: eternal life. It's all based on what you believe.
- 3:59Speaker 1: For God did not send his son into the world
- 4:01Speaker 1: to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
- 4:07Speaker 1: Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does
- 4:11Speaker 1: not believe stands condemned already.
- 4:15Speaker 2: Now I want you to hear that.
- 4:16Speaker 1: Whosoever believes in him is not condemned. But whoever does
- 4:25Speaker 1: not believe stands condemned already because, because, because. Not because
- 4:31Speaker 1: of what they did. Not because of who they slept with.
- 4:33Speaker 1: Not because of what they drank. Not because of what
- 4:35Speaker 1: they shot in their arm. But because they have not
- 4:39Speaker 1: believed in the name of God's one and only son.
- 4:44Speaker 1: That's what the charges are that are brought against you.
- 4:48Speaker 1: Not your behavior. Your belief systems. Because God understands that
- 4:55Speaker 1: you can't change your behavior until you change your belief system.
- 5:00Speaker 1: So in the NIV it says, this is the verdict.
- 5:03Speaker 1: Light has come into the world, but people love darkness
- 5:07Speaker 1: instead of light because their deeds were evil. Now if
- 5:11Speaker 1: light were not in the world, you had no option.
- 5:14Speaker 1: But when light comes into the world, now you have
- 5:17Speaker 1: an option. You choose to be in darkness. Everyone who
- 5:22Speaker 1: does evil hates the light and will not come into
- 5:27Speaker 1: the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.
- 5:32Speaker 1: But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light
- 5:36Speaker 1: so that it may be seen plainly that what they
- 5:39Speaker 1: have done has been done in the sight of God.
- 5:44Speaker 1: So says the word of God. Can you say amen?
- 5:48Speaker 1: I want you to see that believing is the pivotal
- 5:51Speaker 1: point of what defines you as a Christian, as a believer,
- 5:58Speaker 1: as a person of faith, as a child of the king.
- 6:01Speaker 2: And so if.
- 6:01Speaker 1: There's anything that the enemy wants to attack, he wants
- 6:05Speaker 1: to attack what you believe. Now, intellectualism is extremely important.
- 6:12Speaker 1: And research should never be discounted. You want to be
- 6:15Speaker 1: as smart as you can be. Learn all you can.
- 6:18Speaker 1: Read all you can. Develop all you can. Evolve all
- 6:21Speaker 1: you can. That's very important. But believing is our only
- 6:26Speaker 1: gateway to God. Not intellectualism. Believing is our only.
- 6:34Speaker 2: It's our only.
- 6:36Speaker 1: It's not baking pies... It's not paying tithes, you can't
- 6:42Speaker 1: buy it. It's not singing in the choir, it's not
- 6:45Speaker 1: preaching the word. Believing is our only gateway to God. Now,
- 6:52Speaker 1: there have been many groups that have had ideas that
- 6:55Speaker 1: were different from this. One of them is Gnostics, and
- 6:58Speaker 1: they had a philosophy called Gnosticism. And Gnosticism assumes that
- 7:02Speaker 1: the more one knows, the closer one is to God.
- 7:05Speaker 1: That's one of the things they believe. They believe in
- 7:07Speaker 1: a hierarchy of angels, lots of things. If this were so,
- 7:10Speaker 1: then the illiterate would be at a severe disadvantage, maybe condemned.
- 7:17Speaker 1: Babies would have no hope of heaven because they don't
- 7:20Speaker 1: know yet. And the senile would have lost their way
- 7:24Speaker 1: to God. So if intellectualism is the method through which
- 7:28Speaker 1: we embrace God, then it's not fair because we don't
- 7:32Speaker 1: all have the same IQ. We don't all have the
- 7:36Speaker 1: same exposure. We don't all have the same intellectualism. And
- 7:40Speaker 1: so God had to reduce it to something that we
- 7:43Speaker 1: all have in common, which is a belief system. Gnosticism
- 7:48Speaker 1: is the idea of knowing. Think of our contemporary term agnostic,
- 7:54Speaker 1: which means not to know.
- 7:56Speaker 2: Agnostic. Gnostic is to know. Agnostic is not to know.
- 8:00Speaker 1: And through gnosticism had many beliefs and ideas, but the
- 8:06Speaker 1: substratum of the term evolves around one idea. We are
- 8:11Speaker 1: still in a fight between knowing and believing. We see
- 8:19Speaker 1: it in every sphere of our contemporary society. Take it
- 8:23Speaker 1: out in the context of the scriptures for a moment.
- 8:25Speaker 1: And we're fighting about masks. We're fighting about the vaccine.
- 8:33Speaker 1: We're fighting about politics. We're fighting about racism. We're fighting
- 8:39Speaker 1: about everything. There's all kinds of arguments going on between
- 8:44Speaker 1: knowing and believing. Take it out of society and take
- 8:48Speaker 1: it down to yourself. The enemy comes against what you
- 8:53Speaker 1: believe and what you.
- 8:54Speaker 2: Know about God.
- 8:57Speaker 1: Because Satan knows it is with the mind that we
- 9:01Speaker 1: serve the Lord. Most of the things you're worried about
- 9:06Speaker 1: that the enemy is playing with, he doesn't need. Satan
- 9:11Speaker 1: doesn't need your apartment. Satan doesn't need your house. Satan
- 9:17Speaker 1: doesn't need your car. What's Satan going to do with
- 9:20Speaker 1: your car? The devil took my car. What is he
- 9:23Speaker 1: going to do with.
- 9:26Speaker 2: It?
- 9:27Speaker 1: You're going to see the devil driving down 30, breaking
- 9:29Speaker 1: his lead limits, talking about I'm the devil. He doesn't
- 9:32Speaker 1: need your car. He needs you worried. He needs you upset.
- 9:38Speaker 1: He needs you emotionally frustrated. So any way he can
- 9:41Speaker 1: get to your mind, The enemy is after your mind.
- 9:52Speaker 1: So God says that he has given us peace to
- 9:56Speaker 1: guard our heart and mind. Because you got to put
- 10:01Speaker 1: up a defense against what you allow to infiltrate the
- 10:06Speaker 1: context of your mind. because it is with the mind
- 10:10Speaker 1: that we serve the Lord, then your mind has to
- 10:12Speaker 1: be healthy, and your mind has to be free, and
- 10:15Speaker 1: your mind has to have a conviction about what it believes.
- 10:18Speaker 1: Even if the person sitting next to you believes something contrary,
- 10:22Speaker 1: you cannot allow your affection for the individual to override
- 10:26Speaker 1: your fidelity to what you believe.
- 10:31Speaker 2: Come on, somebody.
- 10:33Speaker 1: You must understand this. When we start talking about God
- 10:37Speaker 1: so loving the world that he gave his only begotten
- 10:39Speaker 1: son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but
- 10:42Speaker 1: have everlasting life. He did it so that we would
- 10:46Speaker 1: all have an equal playing field. He did it so
- 10:49Speaker 1: that we would all have an equal footing, an equal place.
- 10:53Speaker 1: He did it so that we would understand that the
- 10:56Speaker 1: problem in the first place, in the first place in
- 11:00Speaker 1: the book of Genesis starts with unbelief. The original sin
- 11:06Speaker 1: is really unbelief. At the root of the forbidden fruit.
- 11:12Speaker 2: Is unbelief.
- 11:14Speaker 1: Does not believe, have God said? Questioning what God says
- 11:20Speaker 1: is an attempt to tear down the belief system that
- 11:24Speaker 1: was constructed that allowed them to stay in the garden.
- 11:28Speaker 1: So the enemy doesn't try to physically move them out
- 11:31Speaker 1: of the garden. He tries to move them away from
- 11:33Speaker 1: what they believe. Because if he moves them away from
- 11:36Speaker 1: what they believe, then he will automatically move them out
- 11:40Speaker 1: of the garden.
- 11:41Speaker 2: Y'all don't hear what I'm saying.
- 11:45Speaker 1: So he comes against what you know about God, trying
- 11:50Speaker 1: to alter it. Oh, you should eat of it because
- 11:52Speaker 1: if you eat, you're going to be just like God.
- 11:54Speaker 1: You will know as God knows. Now he's questioning God's integrity,
- 11:58Speaker 1: like God is trying to stop you from doing something
- 12:01Speaker 1: because God is intimidated by you.
- 12:04Speaker 2: What arrogance, what utter arrogance, what utter stupidity.
- 12:08Speaker 1: And yet he is attacking, he is attacking not their bodies,
- 12:16Speaker 1: He is attacking their belief system. The enemy is not
- 12:21Speaker 1: after your body. He's after your belief system. Now he
- 12:26Speaker 1: might attack your body, but he's only attacking your body
- 12:30Speaker 1: to break down your belief system. So if that's how
- 12:36Speaker 1: sin entered into the world through an ideology, an idea
- 12:43Speaker 1: that comes against what God has said, then in order
- 12:48Speaker 1: to fix how sin entered in.
- 12:50Speaker 2: The world, we have to go from unbelief to believing.
- 12:56Speaker 1: So God now fixes it so simple that a fool,
- 13:01Speaker 1: though he be a wayfaring man, he can still enter therein.
- 13:05Speaker 1: So that the person, whether they're bright or not bright,
- 13:08Speaker 1: went to school or didn't go to school, intellectual or
- 13:10Speaker 1: not intellectual, it doesn't make any difference whether they're three
- 13:14Speaker 1: or 300. God has fixed it that we all must
- 13:16Speaker 1: become like children and have childlike faith and dare to
- 13:21Speaker 1: believe him. And while knowing is important and learning is
- 13:27Speaker 1: important and growing is important, you don't want to lean
- 13:31Speaker 1: to your own understanding. You don't want to lean on
- 13:37Speaker 1: what you know because what you know is always evolving.
- 13:41Speaker 2: Oh, come on, somebody.
- 13:44Speaker 1: For a simple thing, when I went to school, Pluto
- 13:46Speaker 1: was the ninth planet.
- 13:48Speaker 2: And then they decided it wasn't a planet at all.
- 13:50Speaker 1: It was a star because as they know more, knowledge
- 13:53Speaker 1: is always changing. Ideas are always changing. Your belief system
- 13:58Speaker 1: has to be built on something that's solid and something
- 14:02Speaker 1: that's stable and something that's proven and something that's true
- 14:06Speaker 1: and something that you trust in. Your belief system has
- 14:09Speaker 1: to be built on God, not church, not denominations. Oh,
- 14:14Speaker 1: y'all don't hear what I'm saying? Not preachers, not televangelists,
- 14:22Speaker 1: not small church pastors. It doesn't make any difference. People
- 14:25Speaker 1: make gods out of all kinds of stuff. They make
- 14:27Speaker 1: gods out of their children. You can make gods out
- 14:29Speaker 1: of anything. All of these things will shake. All of
- 14:32Speaker 1: these things will crumble. But your hope has to be
- 14:35Speaker 1: built on nothing less than Jesus Christ and his righteous
- 14:40Speaker 1: not yours his not yours but his not yours but
- 14:45Speaker 1: his not mine but his not your mama's but his
- 14:49Speaker 1: righteousness not your grandfather's but his righteousness your faith has
- 14:54Speaker 1: to be built on something that's solid as a rock
- 14:58Speaker 1: so that you become above being baptist methodist presbyterian church
- 15:02Speaker 1: of god christ church of god prophecy church of god
- 15:05Speaker 1: got it going on in jesus name incorporated above whatever
- 15:08Speaker 1: you might call yourself if you ain't nothing else at
- 15:11Speaker 1: the very minimum you must be what they first called
- 15:14Speaker 1: us a believer so somebody shout i am a believer
- 15:20Speaker 1: if i am a believer what does a believer do
- 15:24Speaker 1: A believer believes, so it has to start with belief system.
- 15:29Speaker 1: You can come up here to accept Christ and get
- 15:32Speaker 1: slain in the spirit. Other people burst into tears. Some
- 15:35Speaker 1: people get goose pimples. Some people feel nothing at all.
- 15:39Speaker 1: It is not an emotion you're looking for. It is
- 15:42Speaker 1: a change to your belief system. I've seen people run
- 15:46Speaker 1: all over the.
- 15:46Speaker 2: Church, roll and roll and roll, and.
- 15:50Speaker 1: Be in the strip club by Wednesday. Because actions don't
- 15:56Speaker 1: necessarily constitute change. The Bible said Esau sought repentance with
- 16:02Speaker 1: many tears and found it not. This is not about emotions.
- 16:06Speaker 1: You can't turn on the tear faucet and move God.
- 16:10Speaker 1: Have you ever seen people that could just cry at
- 16:12Speaker 1: will and anytime they wanted attention they'd start crying? God said,
- 16:16Speaker 1: I'm not going to be psyched out because you cry.
- 16:19Speaker 1: I'm not looking at how you cry. I'm looking at
- 16:21Speaker 1: how you believe. Esau sought repentance with many tears and
- 16:25Speaker 1: found it not. The reason he couldn't find it, he
- 16:28Speaker 1: was seeking change through his emotions. And repentance means to
- 16:33Speaker 1: change your mind. Metatonia to change your mind. So you
- 16:39Speaker 1: can change your emotions all day long, but if you
- 16:42Speaker 1: don't change your mind, how many of you have had
- 16:44Speaker 1: somebody promise you, I ain't going to never do it
- 16:46Speaker 1: no more. I'm never going to do this no more.
- 16:48Speaker 1: I promise you I'm never going to do it no more.
- 16:50Speaker 1: I'm never going to do it. They went right back
- 16:52Speaker 1: and did it again. They had emotions. They might have
- 16:55Speaker 1: even felt those emotions, but they didn't change their mind.
- 17:03Speaker 1: The gospel then is designed to give you a new
- 17:08Speaker 1: belief system in which you build your life around not
- 17:13Speaker 1: just your habits, not just going to church on Sunday,
- 17:18Speaker 1: but you build your life around it. You make your
- 17:20Speaker 1: decisions around it. You make your choices around it. You
- 17:24Speaker 1: get married around it. You decide what I'm going to
- 17:27Speaker 1: do and what I'm going to be based on that
- 17:29Speaker 1: belief system. That sovereign absolute belief system. The Bahamas used
- 17:37Speaker 1: to have London as a sovereign, even though they were
- 17:41Speaker 1: separated by.
- 17:42Speaker 2: Mouths with water. The rule of law in.
- 17:46Speaker 1: The Bahamas, if they were driving on the left in London,
- 17:50Speaker 1: they were driving on the left in the Bahamas because
- 17:53Speaker 1: they were imitating their sovereign. The will of London be
- 17:58Speaker 1: done in the Bahamas. Thy will be done on earth
- 18:02Speaker 1: as it is in heaven. So when heaven becomes your sovereign,
- 18:06Speaker 1: You want to imitate what's going on in heaven in
- 18:10Speaker 1: your life. You develop your customs around that which is
- 18:14Speaker 1: divine and stop trying to keep up with trying to
- 18:18Speaker 1: be contemporary, trying to be edgy, trying to keep up
- 18:22Speaker 1: with the culture. The church is not supposed to chase
- 18:25Speaker 1: the culture. The culture will send you to hell. We
- 18:29Speaker 1: have a church today who has fallen in love with
- 18:33Speaker 1: the culture and the leaders think it's their job to
- 18:36Speaker 1: be relevant to the culture. I'm not trying to be
- 18:39Speaker 1: relevant to the culture. I'm trying to be relevant.
- 18:42Speaker 2: To the kingdom. Oh, y'all don't hear what I'm saying?
- 18:47Speaker 1: I'm trying to be relevant to the kingdom because the
- 18:49Speaker 1: culture can do anything. The culture can go anywhere. The
- 18:53Speaker 1: culture can change its mind about everything. The kingdom is
- 18:57Speaker 1: my sovereign and it stops me from being shaky and
- 19:01Speaker 1: it stops me from being flaky. Stop it, stop it,
- 19:05Speaker 1: stop it, stop it. Stop trying to always impress the
- 19:09Speaker 1: culture with how fly you can be, how flip you
- 19:13Speaker 1: can be, how cool.
- 19:14Speaker 2: You can be, how edgy. I don't know what they're
- 19:16Speaker 2: saying now. I'm using old terms.
- 19:17Speaker 1: Whatever term you want to use, it is not your
- 19:20Speaker 1: job to try to imitate the world. It is their
- 19:24Speaker 1: job to be influenced by you. They are not the
- 19:27Speaker 1: salt of the earth. You are the salt of the earth.
- 19:30Speaker 2: Come on, somebody.
- 19:34Speaker 1: The meat is not given to season the salt. The
- 19:38Speaker 1: salt is given to season the meat. But the problem
- 19:44Speaker 1: today is we have stopped being the season and we
- 19:48Speaker 1: start trying to be the meat. We're trying to be
- 19:50Speaker 1: the culture. Ye are the salt of the earth, a
- 19:53Speaker 1: city set up on a hill that.
- 19:54Speaker 2: Cannot be hid.
- 19:56Speaker 1: You've got your own identity, your own personality, your own
- 20:00Speaker 1: way of doing things, and you don't have to live
- 20:02Speaker 1: up to their standards in order to be accepted by them.
- 20:06Speaker 1: You have to dare to be true to what you believe.
- 20:11Speaker 1: wants you to believe him his integrity warrants your belief
- 20:17Speaker 1: to believe him is to embrace God's integrity not my
- 20:23Speaker 1: integrity Abraham became we're going to talk about more about
- 20:28Speaker 1: him in a minute but Abraham became the friend of
- 20:31Speaker 1: God because he believed God he believed God's integrity Do
- 20:40Speaker 1: you believe God's integrity? God said, I'm not a man
- 20:45Speaker 1: that I should lie or the son of man that
- 20:47Speaker 1: I should repent. Have I not spoken it? Shall I
- 20:49Speaker 1: not perform it? Have I not said it? Shall I
- 20:52Speaker 1: not make it good? This is God's word. It's not
- 20:56Speaker 1: contemporary ideology. It's not about embracing the culture. It's not
- 21:00Speaker 1: about the latest fad they have going on. It's about
- 21:03Speaker 1: embracing what God has done and believing that his integrity
- 21:08Speaker 1: is absolute. Why do you think Jesus performed more miracles
- 21:12Speaker 1: than he did messages? It's because he did the miracles
- 21:17Speaker 1: that you might believe. The miracles didn't mean anything to God.
- 21:25Speaker 1: It was the mechanism to get you to believe. Oh,
- 21:28Speaker 1: y'all don't hear what I... Let's take Lazarus, for example.
- 21:33Speaker 1: Lazarus is sick. Jesus waits and lets him die. Why
- 21:40Speaker 1: does Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead in John chapter
- 21:44Speaker 1: 11 when he knows that no matter how many times
- 21:48Speaker 1: he raises Lazarus from the dead, Lazarus is still going
- 21:51Speaker 1: to die. Healing a woman with the issue of blood
- 21:56Speaker 1: didn't stop her from dying. Feeding the 5,000 didn't stop
- 22:01Speaker 1: them from being hungry again. He only did the miracle
- 22:06Speaker 1: so that you might, no, y'all don't hear what I'm saying,
- 22:10Speaker 1: so that you might believe. So Jesus waits and lets
- 22:14Speaker 1: Lazarus die and lets them bury him and shows up
- 22:20Speaker 1: at the house when they're eating chicken. He even weeps
- 22:26Speaker 1: with them while they're crying and says, show me where
- 22:30Speaker 1: you laid him down. Now, Jesus knows that Lazarus to die,
- 22:36Speaker 1: to be absent in the body, is to be present
- 22:38Speaker 1: with the Lord. Jesus is not sad because Lazarus died.
- 22:43Speaker 1: Jesus is using Lazarus' death as an illustration. He let
- 22:48Speaker 1: him die.
- 22:48Speaker 2: If Jesus had.
- 22:49Speaker 1: Been worried about Lazarus dying, he didn't have to go
- 22:53Speaker 1: raise him up. He could have spoke the word only,
- 22:56Speaker 1: and Lazarus would have been risen from the dead. Lazarus
- 22:59Speaker 1: dying was a setup. And then he goes and raises
- 23:06Speaker 1: him from the dead. And I told the Lord, I
- 23:10Speaker 1: lost one of my loved ones. And as they were
- 23:12Speaker 1: passing away, I said, Lord, if you're going to take them,
- 23:14Speaker 1: you might as well go ahead and take them because
- 23:16Speaker 1: it's never going to be a good time for you
- 23:18Speaker 1: to take them. Because if you let them live to
- 23:20Speaker 1: be 90, I'm going to ask for 100. If you
- 23:23Speaker 1: let them live to be 100, I'm going to ask
- 23:24Speaker 1: for 120. Anytime you take them, it's.
- 23:26Speaker 2: Going to hurt.
- 23:27Speaker 1: Just give me the strength to stand it because you
- 23:30Speaker 1: know what's best for me. I trust your decision. I
- 23:33Speaker 1: trust your choice. I trust the way you take. And
- 23:36Speaker 1: you know how I am. It's never going to be
- 23:38Speaker 1: a good time to say goodbye to somebody I love.
- 23:42Speaker 1: Go ahead and shoot your best shot. Do what you
- 23:44Speaker 1: got to do. You know what's best for me because
- 23:48Speaker 1: I believe in eternity. And I believe in eternal life.
- 23:51Speaker 1: And I believe I'll see them again. And I believe
- 23:54Speaker 1: that they'll take off mortality and put on immortality. And
- 23:58Speaker 1: I believe to be absent in the body is to
- 24:00Speaker 1: be present with the Lord. And I believe that this
- 24:03Speaker 1: old world is not my home. And I didn't come
- 24:05Speaker 1: here to stay. When you really believe what you believe,
- 24:09Speaker 1: then you stand on what you believe. And yes, I'd
- 24:14Speaker 1: like another week, but then I'm going to want another week.
- 24:17Speaker 1: And then if I get another week, I'm going to
- 24:18Speaker 1: want another month. And then if I get another month,
- 24:20Speaker 1: I'm going to want another year. So I'm never going
- 24:23Speaker 1: to be satisfied. I trust you to make the decision.
- 24:28Speaker 1: That was painful, but that was my conversation with God. Now,
- 24:32Speaker 1: God knows that Lazarus dying and even Mary and Martha
- 24:36Speaker 1: knew they would see him again in the resurrection. So
- 24:40Speaker 1: why did he let Lazarus die? He let Lazarus die
- 24:47Speaker 1: and then came and woke Lazarus up. Go to, this
- 24:52Speaker 1: happened in the Gospel of St. John chapter 11, but
- 24:55Speaker 1: go to Gospel of St. John chapter 12. All this
- 24:58Speaker 1: drama's happened in 11. The crying, Lazarus is dead, the tomb,
- 25:03Speaker 1: Mary running out, hollering at Jesus. Everybody's freaking out. The
- 25:06Speaker 1: family's going crazy. Jesus rose the stone away. Lazarus raises
- 25:10Speaker 1: from the dead. Now, in John chapter 12, Lazarus has
- 25:15Speaker 1: been raised from the dead and he's sitting at the
- 25:18Speaker 1: feast with Jesus. And here comes the unbelievers around. And
- 25:23Speaker 1: the Bible says in John 12 verse 9, Meanwhile, a
- 25:27Speaker 1: large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there
- 25:31Speaker 1: and came not only because of him, but also to
- 25:37Speaker 1: see Lazarus, whom he had raised from From the dead.
- 25:42Speaker 2: Oh, good, good.
- 25:44Speaker 1: So the chief priest made plans to kill Lazarus as well.
- 25:49Speaker 1: Lazarus was the problem. For on account of him, many
- 25:53Speaker 1: of the Jews were going over to Jesus and....
- 25:58Speaker 2: And believing in him.
- 25:59Speaker 1: So the whole purpose of Lazarus, well not the only purpose,
- 26:04Speaker 1: but one of the purposes of raising Lazarus from the
- 26:07Speaker 1: dead was that they might believe. The purpose of the
- 26:10Speaker 1: miracle is not the miracle. If he gives you bread,
- 26:13Speaker 1: you're going to get hungry again. If he gives you life,
- 26:16Speaker 1: you're going to die again. If he heals your body,
- 26:19Speaker 1: it's not going to stop death. All of this is
- 26:21Speaker 1: just so that you might believe. Somebody shout, I'm a believer. Oh,
- 26:30Speaker 1: you sounded so weak. You sounded so weak. Say it
- 26:35Speaker 1: like you mean it. I'm a believer. John 14, 28
- 26:40Speaker 1: through 29. Let's continue our Bible study tonight. Ye have
- 26:44Speaker 1: heard how I said unto you. I'll give you a minute.
- 26:47Speaker 1: I'll give you a minute. I'll give you a minute.
- 26:49Speaker 1: I'll give you a minute. I'll give you 10 seconds left,
- 26:51Speaker 1: 10 seconds.
- 26:52Speaker 2: John 14, 28, 29.
- 26:52Speaker 1: Let's go. Ye have heard how I said unto you,
- 26:57Speaker 1: I go away and come again unto you. If ye
- 27:01Speaker 1: loved me, ye would rejoice because I said, I go
- 27:05Speaker 1: unto the father for my father is greater than I.
- 27:09Speaker 1: And now I have told you before it come to
- 27:12Speaker 1: pass that when it is come to pass, ye might be.
- 27:18Speaker 1: He said, I'm telling you before it happens. He said,
- 27:20Speaker 1: I'm giving you prophecies so that when the prophecy comes
- 27:23Speaker 1: to pass, your faith will be increased and that you
- 27:27Speaker 1: might believe.
- 27:28Speaker 2: He said, the only reason I'm telling.
- 27:30Speaker 1: You what's going to happen before it happens so that
- 27:33Speaker 1: when it happens. And I get up from the dead
- 27:36Speaker 1: and I rise again that your faith might be strengthened
- 27:40Speaker 1: and that ye might believe. Not so you can dance.
- 27:43Speaker 1: Not so you can beat your tambourine. Not so you
- 27:46Speaker 1: can start a choir. Not so you can shout till
- 27:48Speaker 1: your makeup drips on your face. No, God says what
- 27:51Speaker 1: I want from you above everything else.
- 27:54Speaker 2: Is believe it.
- 27:55Speaker 1: And dancing and praising him and beating tambourines are nice.
- 27:58Speaker 1: But if it doesn't lead you to believing, you might
- 28:01Speaker 1: as well drop your tambourine on the floor. We're in
- 28:04Speaker 1: a faith fight. We're in a faith fight. We're in
- 28:07Speaker 1: a faith fight. We're in a faith fight right now.
- 28:09Speaker 1: We're in a faith fight. And what you believe matters.
- 28:13Speaker 1: Not how you feel. Not how you hurt. Not how
- 28:16Speaker 1: your emotions are. Not what you'd like to have. Not
- 28:19Speaker 1: what you'd like to drive. not what you'd like to
- 28:22Speaker 1: live in. What matters most is what you believe. I
- 28:26Speaker 1: believe God. I believe his word. I believe what he said.
- 28:31Speaker 1: I believe that he's able. I believe that he loves me.
- 28:35Speaker 1: I believe that he knows what's best for me. And
- 28:37Speaker 1: if I hurt, then I hurt knowing that if you
- 28:40Speaker 1: allowed me to hurt, it must go work for my good. Therefore,
- 28:44Speaker 1: we glory in tribulation. For tribulation, work and patience. Let
- 28:49Speaker 1: patience experience and experience hope and hope making itself not ashamed.
- 29:02Speaker 1: If you're listening at this Bible call, type out the line,
- 29:05Speaker 1: I believe God. Sometimes you got to remind yourself, I
- 29:09Speaker 1: believe God. I believe God. I believe God.
- 29:26Speaker 1: I'm talking about deeper than this foolish, fanatical,
- 29:30Speaker 1: crazy kind of faith. Why do you call that crazy faith?
- 29:34Speaker 1: I'll prove it by the scriptures. The enemy tempted Jesus, said,
- 29:39Speaker 1: if thou be the son of God cast yourself down
- 29:43Speaker 1: off of this mountain Jesus did not take unnecessary risks
- 29:47Speaker 1: to prove who he was this thing about if you
- 29:53Speaker 1: really had faith you would take unnecessary risks then Jesus
- 29:57Speaker 1: should have jumped Just because you're a believer doesn't mean
- 30:03Speaker 1: you need to jump off a cliff. Doesn't mean you
- 30:05Speaker 1: need to take unnecessary risks. Doesn't mean you shouldn't fasten
- 30:08Speaker 1: your seatbelt. Doesn't mean you shouldn't wear a mask. Doesn't
- 30:11Speaker 1: mean you shouldn't go to a doctor. Doesn't mean you
- 30:14Speaker 1: shouldn't do everything you can do to take care of yourself.
- 30:16Speaker 1: Just because you're a believer doesn't mean you shouldn't bathe.
- 30:19Speaker 1: Doesn't mean you shouldn't put on deodorant. Come on somebody,
- 30:25Speaker 1: come on somebody, come on somebody. Even then, Satan was
- 30:29Speaker 1: trying to get Jesus to take unnecessary risks and put
- 30:33Speaker 1: himself in danger to prove who he was. You never
- 30:37Speaker 1: have to prove who you are when you know who
- 30:39Speaker 1: you are. When you know who you are, you just
- 30:42Speaker 1: are who you are. I don't care what they call you.
- 30:44Speaker 1: I don't care how they troll you. I don't care
- 30:46Speaker 1: how they get on your internet. I don't care what
- 30:49Speaker 1: they say on social media. You got to know who
- 30:51Speaker 1: you are. You can't need the endorsement of people who
- 30:55Speaker 1: don't even know you. Oh, I'm preaching better than you shouting.
- 31:05Speaker 1: Now we're coming closer. I haven't even got to the
- 31:07Speaker 1: text yet. This is on my way to the text.
- 31:11Speaker 1: So I might have to break this into two weeks
- 31:13Speaker 1: to get it done. But this is important. Look at
- 31:15Speaker 1: somebody say believing matters. Hebrews 11, one through six tells
- 31:21Speaker 1: us again, now faith is confidence in what we hope
- 31:26Speaker 1: for and assurance about what we do not see. Wait
- 31:31Speaker 1: a minute, let's go back to that. Faith is confidence
- 31:35Speaker 1: in what we hope for And assurance about what we
- 31:41Speaker 1: do not see. I don't need faith for what I
- 31:43Speaker 1: can see. I don't need faith for what I can
- 31:47Speaker 1: do myself. I need faith when I don't have any
- 31:51Speaker 1: other evidence. The Bible says in King James, faith is
- 31:54Speaker 1: the substance of things hoped for. It is the evidence
- 31:57Speaker 1: of things not seen. It is my evidence. What is
- 32:01Speaker 1: your evidence? Admissible in court. I believe faith. I believe,
- 32:10Speaker 1: I believe it. This is what the ancients were commended for.
- 32:15Speaker 1: By faith we understand that the universe was formed at
- 32:19Speaker 1: God's command so that what is seen was not made
- 32:24Speaker 1: out of what is visible. And most of what you're
- 32:28Speaker 1: worried about is what is visible. Oh, y'all not gonna
- 32:34Speaker 1: talk back to me. Most of what you're praying about
- 32:36Speaker 1: is what is visible. But what you need to understand,
- 32:40Speaker 1: what made what is visible is invisible. And so if
- 32:44Speaker 1: you break it in the spirit, you can break it
- 32:47Speaker 1: in the flesh. Glory to God, you don't hear what
- 32:50Speaker 1: I'm saying to you. Jesus found a woman that was
- 32:53Speaker 1: bowed over for 18 years and could not lift up herself.
- 32:57Speaker 1: And he did not heal her. He just gave her
- 33:00Speaker 1: a new belief system. He said, woman, thou art loosed.
- 33:04Speaker 1: from that infirmity. And the moment she heard that she
- 33:07Speaker 1: was loose, she immediately changed her behavior and straightened up herself.
- 33:12Speaker 1: What you think about yourself has got you bowed over.
- 33:16Speaker 1: What you got going on in your head has got
- 33:18Speaker 1: you tripping.
- 33:19Speaker 2: The moment you.
- 33:20Speaker 1: Get, ye shall know the truth and the truth shall
- 33:24Speaker 1: set you free. I don't know who I'm talking to today,
- 33:28Speaker 1: but somebody's going to get a breakthrough. I don't care
- 33:31Speaker 1: what you see with your eyes. I don't care what
- 33:34Speaker 1: you believe in your heart. This is what the elders
- 33:38Speaker 1: were commended for. Not their behavior, their belief. By faith,
- 33:43Speaker 1: Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith,
- 33:48Speaker 1: he was commended as righteous when God spoke well of
- 33:52Speaker 1: his offerings. And by faith, Abel still speaks even though
- 33:57Speaker 1: he is dead. He does it by faith in him.
- 34:02Speaker 1: was taken from this life so that he should not
- 34:05Speaker 1: experience death. He could not be found because God had
- 34:10Speaker 1: taken him away. For before he was taken, he was
- 34:14Speaker 1: commended as one who pleased God. Anybody in here want
- 34:19Speaker 1: to please God? If you want to please God, make
- 34:22Speaker 1: some noise. Come on, make some noise. Type it on
- 34:27Speaker 1: the line. I want to please God. I want to
- 34:31Speaker 1: please God. I want to please God. I can't hear you.
- 34:34Speaker 1: I want to please God. That's why I love that
- 34:47Speaker 1: song y'all sing, take it out of me. If it's
- 34:49Speaker 1: not pleasing to you, Lord, take it out of me.
- 34:52Speaker 1: I want to please God. I haven't always pleased God.
- 34:56Speaker 1: I have disappointed him. I have let him down. But
- 34:59Speaker 1: I want to please God. You have to have the
- 35:03Speaker 1: desire to please God. He that hungers and thirsts after
- 35:07Speaker 1: righteousness shall be filled. Not he that is righteous. He
- 35:11Speaker 1: that hungers and thirsts. after righteousness shall be filled. You
- 35:16Speaker 1: have to warn it. How many people want to please God?
- 35:21Speaker 1: Hebrews 11, 6 says, and without faith it is impossible.
- 35:29Speaker 1: It is impossible to please God. Without faith, I don't
- 35:32Speaker 1: care what you give. I don't care how talented you are.
- 35:36Speaker 1: I don't care how you can preach. I don't care
- 35:38Speaker 1: how important you are to your church. I don't care
- 35:40Speaker 1: how big the check is, you're right. The Bible said,
- 35:44Speaker 1: oh my God, I better quit. I feel somebody almost
- 35:47Speaker 1: change over into that other voice. The Bible said, without faith,
- 35:52Speaker 1: it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes
- 35:56Speaker 1: to him must believe. Believe that he is, that he exists,
- 36:03Speaker 1: and that he rewards those who earnestly, earnestly from your
- 36:11Speaker 1: heart seek him. Seek him. I came here to seek him.
- 36:20Speaker 1: I live my life to seek him. I haven't mastered God.
- 36:25Speaker 1: I am in pursuit of God. I haven't searched him fully.
- 36:30Speaker 1: His thoughts are above my thoughts. His ways are above
- 36:33Speaker 1: my ways. But I came to seek him. The Bible says,
- 36:37Speaker 1: seek and ye shall find. Ask and it shall be given.
- 36:42Speaker 1: Knock and the door shall be opened unto you. Are
- 36:45Speaker 1: there any God seekers left? I see the crowd seekers.
- 36:52Speaker 1: I see the stage seekers. I see the money seekers.
- 36:56Speaker 1: But are there any God seekers left in the church today?
- 37:00Speaker 1: I can't find God seekers. I can't find people that
- 37:04Speaker 1: lay out on their face and say all I want
- 37:07Speaker 1: is you. You have to earnestly seek.
- 37:14Speaker 2: After him.
- 37:14Speaker 1: Can I go a little bit further? Now, all of
- 37:22Speaker 1: that's my setup. I don't even know whether to go
- 37:30Speaker 1: any further.
- 37:40Speaker 2: Somebody just shout, I believe.
- 37:43Speaker 1: The more we start talking about this, doubt is being
- 37:47Speaker 1: pushed out of the room. It's being pushed out of
- 37:49Speaker 1: your mind. It's being pushed out of your spirit. It's
- 37:52Speaker 1: being pushed out of your behavior. I believe, say it again.
- 37:57Speaker 1: If God raised Lazarus from the dead just to get
- 38:00Speaker 1: people to believe, if God prophesied his own resurrection so
- 38:04Speaker 1: that when we saw it, we might believe, then God
- 38:08Speaker 1: has been working overtime trying to get your mind together.
- 38:12Speaker 1: God wants to get your belief system together. God wants
- 38:15Speaker 1: to get your head on straight. God wants to get
- 38:18Speaker 1: you away from shouting and yelling. and worrying, and dancing,
- 38:22Speaker 1: and being upset. God wants to get you over coming
- 38:26Speaker 1: to church and getting drunk because you can't deal with life.
- 38:30Speaker 1: God wants to get your mind back to the place
- 38:33Speaker 1: that it ought to be. Somebody throw your hands up
- 38:42Speaker 1: and say, I believe.
- 38:43Speaker 4: I believe.
- 38:45Speaker 1: I believe. When you walk in the room, faith ought
- 38:51Speaker 1: to walk in the room. When you come in the hospital,
- 38:54Speaker 1: faith ought to come in the hospital. When you come
- 38:57Speaker 1: into the office, faith ought to come into the office.
- 39:00Speaker 1: You are a believer. That's your contribution. That's what you had.
- 39:05Speaker 1: I believe, God. My eyes haven't seen, my ears haven't heard,
- 39:12Speaker 1: neither have entered into the heart of man what God
- 39:16Speaker 1: has in store for me, but it has been revealed
- 39:19Speaker 1: unto me by his Spirit. The Spirit not only convicts me,
- 39:27Speaker 1: the Spirit convinces me. The Spirit informs me what's mine.
- 39:36Speaker 1: The Spirit informs me what's possible. How do you receive it?
- 39:40Speaker 2: Believe it.
- 39:42Speaker 1: You cannot receive what you don't believe. The preachers don't
- 39:49Speaker 1: tell you this. They just say, sow it and you'll
- 39:54Speaker 1: reap it. Not if you don't believe it. You can
- 40:01Speaker 1: sow all day long, but if you don't have the
- 40:04Speaker 1: belief system to go along with the action, you'll never
- 40:09Speaker 1: reap any higher than what you believe. If you don't
- 40:14Speaker 1: believe in a harvest, you're not going to get a harvest.
- 40:17Speaker 1: Some of you don't feel worthy of the harvest. Some
- 40:19Speaker 1: of you self-sabotage the harvest. Some of you do things
- 40:23Speaker 1: to annihilate the harvest. And though your actions are saying
- 40:26Speaker 1: one thing, your belief system is saying another. And you're saying,
- 40:29Speaker 1: why doesn't this work? Because without faith, it's impossible to
- 40:33Speaker 1: get this thing to work. If you're going to work it,
- 40:35Speaker 1: you're going to have to work it by faith. Look
- 40:43Speaker 1: at something I'm telling you, it'll work if you work it.
- 40:47Speaker 1: I'm so sick of these mansy, pansy Christians talking about,
- 40:51Speaker 1: I tried it and it didn't work. I tried it
- 40:55Speaker 1: and it didn't work. I tried to stop church and
- 40:58Speaker 1: it didn't work. I tried to get out of bed
- 41:00Speaker 1: and it didn't work. And it'll work if you work it.
- 41:04Speaker 1: It won't work while you sit on your behind. It
- 41:06Speaker 1: won't work while you sit up and watch soap operas.
- 41:09Speaker 1: It won't work while you sit up and play with
- 41:11Speaker 1: your teeth. Your face looks better than your head. Your
- 41:15Speaker 1: makeup is perfect, but your mind is crazy. It'll work
- 41:19Speaker 1: if you're working. Oops. Woo. Every time the enemy attacks you,
- 41:34Speaker 1: he's attacking your belief system, what you value, what's important
- 41:39Speaker 1: to you.
- 41:41Speaker 2: Now to the book of Romans.
- 41:46Speaker 1: The impact of Paul coming to Rome cannot be overemphasized.
- 41:55Speaker 1: I'm just going to take 45 minutes. I'm going to
- 41:57Speaker 1: quit at 9 o'clock, but I'm finished. I'll just stop.
- 42:05Speaker 1: But I built my church off of Wednesday night Bible class.
- 42:09Speaker 1: I said I built my church off of Wednesday night
- 42:11Speaker 1: Bible class. I never did build my church off of
- 42:13Speaker 1: Sunday morning. I built my church off of Wednesday night
- 42:16Speaker 1: Bible class. The impact that Paul has on Rome is
- 42:22Speaker 1: beyond anything that I can really articulate. And though it
- 42:25Speaker 1: is doubtful that he is the founder of the faith
- 42:28Speaker 1: in Rome, he does extensive work there to shape its
- 42:33Speaker 1: impact on what? was rapidly becoming its new base for
- 42:38Speaker 1: Christianity as Jerusalem had began to wither as the epicenter
- 42:45Speaker 1: of Christian thought. Jerusalem began to wither because Jerusalem had
- 42:51Speaker 1: been cursed when Jesus stood on the Mount of Olives and.
- 42:55Speaker 2: Cried over Jerusalem.
- 42:57Speaker 1: There's only two times in the Greek that it uses
- 42:59Speaker 1: this type of word to say cry with a loud voice.
- 43:03Speaker 2: He said, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often.
- 43:06Speaker 1: Would I have gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks,
- 43:09Speaker 1: but ye would not. Behold, your house shall be left
- 43:14Speaker 1: desolate and like the fig tree. He spoke it. And
- 43:20Speaker 1: by the time they came back, the fig tree had withered.
- 43:24Speaker 1: Jesus spoke it and Jerusalem ceased to be the epicenter
- 43:29Speaker 1: of Christianity. Little by little, it moved toward Rome. Am
- 43:36Speaker 1: I helping anybody? Now, Rome was the most politically endowed
- 43:40Speaker 1: city of its era. It was the place of innovation
- 43:44Speaker 1: and creativity.
- 43:45Speaker 2: It was booming.
- 43:46Speaker 1: It was teeming with ideas. It was colonizing new territories.
- 43:50Speaker 1: It was taking over new lands. According to Arrhenius, a
- 43:54Speaker 1: second century church father, the church at Rome was founded
- 43:58Speaker 1: directly by the apostle Peter and John. Peter and Paul,
- 44:02Speaker 1: I'm sorry. However, many modern scholars disagree with Arrhenius, holding
- 44:07Speaker 1: that while little is known of the circumstances of the
- 44:10Speaker 1: church's founding, it was not founded by Paul. It was,
- 44:14Speaker 1: in fact, strengthened by Paul and claims its authorship more
- 44:19Speaker 1: likely to be Peter. Hence, the Roman Catholic Church establishes
- 44:23Speaker 1: Peter as their first pope. But Paul coming to Rome
- 44:29Speaker 1: has all kinds of implications. He's coming into an epicenter
- 44:33Speaker 1: of political thought and creativity and ideology, multiplicities of religions
- 44:38Speaker 1: and ideas and a city that though it was Roman,
- 44:41Speaker 1: it also had a lot of Jews with a lot
- 44:45Speaker 1: of different sects of Judaism coexisting in any city like
- 44:49Speaker 1: we do in Dallas, like you do in Memphis, like
- 44:52Speaker 1: you do in New York, like you do in Paris.
- 44:54Speaker 1: Not everybody in every city has the same idea. Adam
- 44:59Speaker 1: Clark says many of the brethren went out to meet
- 45:02Speaker 1: Paul on his approach to Rome. That one phrase there
- 45:06Speaker 1: suggests it didn't start with Paul. If many brethren came
- 45:09Speaker 1: out to meet him, then there was a church there
- 45:14Speaker 1: when he got there. There is evidence that Christianity and
- 45:19Speaker 1: Christian people were in Rome in considerable numbers, considerable numbers,
- 45:25Speaker 1: and probably had more than one place of meeting when
- 45:29Speaker 1: Paul first came. The occasion of writing the epistle, Paul wrote,
- 45:35Speaker 1: had made acquaintances with all circumstances, all types of people,
- 45:41Speaker 1: of the Christians at Rome. There were Christians in Rome
- 45:44Speaker 1: that had Jewish descent. There were Christians in Rome that
- 45:47Speaker 1: were Greek. There were Christians in Rome that were Gentile.
- 45:51Speaker 1: There were Christians in Rome that were not. They were
- 45:54Speaker 1: all at Rome. And any finding that it was. Partly
- 45:59Speaker 1: of heathens being converted to Christianity and partly of Jews
- 46:05Speaker 1: who had with many remaining prejudiced ideas. They were converted
- 46:10Speaker 1: but they had many prejudiced ideas believing in Jesus as
- 46:13Speaker 1: the true Messiah and that many contentions arose from the
- 46:17Speaker 1: claims of the Gentiles to equality. They did not believe
- 46:22Speaker 1: that the Gentiles could have an equal standing because the
- 46:25Speaker 1: Gentiles had been idolatrous. They had participated in orgies. They
- 46:29Speaker 1: had had a filthy past. And the idea that they
- 46:32Speaker 1: could just believe on Jesus and be equal with people
- 46:35Speaker 1: who were steeped in religious tradition and ideology was a
- 46:39Speaker 1: tough pill for the Jews of that era to swallow.
- 46:44Speaker 1: Their refusal to admit these claims, unless the Gentile converted,
- 46:49Speaker 1: became circumcised, became more and more pronounced. They wanted the
- 46:54Speaker 1: Gentiles to act like them. So many people attempt to
- 46:58Speaker 1: evangelize people, and they don't just bring their Christ, they
- 47:01Speaker 1: bring their culture. Oh, that's so good. So I want
- 47:07Speaker 1: your Jesus, but I don't want your culture. Don't tell
- 47:10Speaker 1: me that the only way to be a Christian is
- 47:12Speaker 1: to act like you because just because you have that
- 47:15Speaker 1: culture doesn't mean that I have to have that culture.
- 47:18Speaker 1: Let's separate your culture from your Christ. Oh, y'all not
- 47:22Speaker 1: hearing me. That's more profound than you think. He wrote
- 47:25Speaker 1: this epistle to adjust and settle these differences. In other words,
- 47:29Speaker 1: when you think of Paul, he's almost an abolitionist. He's
- 47:32Speaker 1: trying to free the New Testament church from the religious
- 47:37Speaker 1: dogma of Judaism and the legalism that required more out
- 47:41Speaker 1: of them than what they were supposed to have. He
- 47:43Speaker 1: is fighting to abolish myths and ideas that cohabitate with
- 47:48Speaker 1: Christianity and thereby pollute Christianity. Christianity. He is trying to
- 47:53Speaker 1: teach them, like he said in Galatians, there is neither
- 47:55Speaker 1: male nor female, Greek nor Jew, bond nor free, but
- 47:59Speaker 1: that we're all one in Christ Jesus. And even today,
- 48:03Speaker 1: there's a spirit of separation that exists in the church
- 48:07Speaker 1: that does not acknowledge women as having equal footing as men,
- 48:11Speaker 1: that God can't speak through a woman, that God can't
- 48:14Speaker 1: use a woman. I got news for you. If a
- 48:17Speaker 1: woman can sing the gospel, she can preach the gospel.
- 48:21Speaker 1: What is the difference? Uh-oh, let me stop fighting. What
- 48:26Speaker 1: is the difference between letting them sing and teach Sunday
- 48:29Speaker 1: school and then I steal the word whether I say
- 48:32Speaker 1: it in the choir stand or I say it.
- 48:34Speaker 2: On the floor?
- 48:35Speaker 1: But it's just male egotism that does not accept the
- 48:38Speaker 1: fact that the same spirit that quickens a man quickens
- 48:43Speaker 1: a woman, the same spirit that quickens a white man
- 48:46Speaker 1: quickens a black man, the same spirit that quickens a
- 48:50Speaker 1: Republican can quicken a Democrat, but we separate, and Paul
- 48:55Speaker 1: is trying to bring them back. He's fighting for equality.
- 48:58Speaker 1: He's fighting for equal rights. He's fighting for oneness. He's
- 49:02Speaker 1: fighting for unity. He's struggling for that equality because he
- 49:07Speaker 1: vacillates between addressing, in the book of Romans, both the
- 49:11Speaker 1: Jews and the Jewish believers and the Gentiles, ultimately bringing
- 49:15Speaker 1: them both in need of the same radical allocation of faith.
- 49:20Speaker 1: He said, you've got religious traditions. You've had religious traditions
- 49:24Speaker 1: for years, but the door is not your washings, your ceremonies,
- 49:28Speaker 1: or your cleansings. You still have to believe God. You
- 49:31Speaker 1: still have to believe God. You won't be saved through
- 49:33Speaker 1: your feasts. You won't be saved through unleavened bread. You
- 49:37Speaker 1: won't be saved through your feasts. The door is believing.
- 49:40Speaker 1: He comes to the Gentile and said, you should have
- 49:44Speaker 1: seen God in nature. You failed to acknowledge God in nature.
- 49:48Speaker 1: You've become unnatural and lost natural affection. You've gone into
- 49:52Speaker 1: all kind of lust and depravity and perversion and wickedness.
- 49:56Speaker 1: He said, but the same door that exists for the
- 49:59Speaker 1: religious man exists for the whorish man they both have
- 50:03Speaker 1: to be brought down to the same humility of saying
- 50:07Speaker 1: if you don't believe God you cannot see the glory
- 50:10Speaker 1: of God this is a radical father of faith the
- 50:14Speaker 1: believer that he's teaching us here somebody say I'm a
- 50:23Speaker 1: believer That's all it takes for me to be anointed.
- 50:27Speaker 1: I don't care whether I come from Judea or Samaria.
- 50:30Speaker 1: I don't care whether I come in a box like
- 50:32Speaker 1: a man or a box like a woman. It is
- 50:35Speaker 1: not my box that God wants to deal with. It's
- 50:38Speaker 1: my content. God wants to fill my heart with his
- 50:41Speaker 1: power and with his anointing. Y'all ain't going to say nothing,
- 50:45Speaker 1: but I don't even care. We got to have some
- 50:48Speaker 1: freedom in this place and begin to understand if God
- 50:52Speaker 1: can use an ass, he can use a woman. So
- 51:03Speaker 1: Paul is trying to bring unity amongst all of this division.
- 51:08Speaker 1: And it is like the Swedish Alps of the epistle.
- 51:14Speaker 1: It is his longest writing. It is his most eloquent position.
- 51:19Speaker 1: It is his greatest and most complex document that we
- 51:22Speaker 1: are ascribed to the apostle Paul is the book of Romans.
- 51:27Speaker 1: It is him writing to the city that he is
- 51:31Speaker 1: a citizen of. While Paul is a Jew, he is
- 51:35Speaker 1: a citizen of Rome. He writes to Rome from a
- 51:40Speaker 1: different perspective because he belongs there.
- 51:45Speaker 2: Do you hear what I'm saying?
- 51:47Speaker 1: And he comes in there to bring them down to
- 51:50Speaker 1: one level. You must come in at the door. You
- 51:55Speaker 1: remember that old song? You may be high, you may
- 51:57Speaker 1: be low, you may be rich, you may be poor.
- 52:00Speaker 1: When it's all settled, you still got to come in
- 52:02Speaker 1: through the door. There's still one door. There's still one Lord.
- 52:06Speaker 1: There's still one faith. There's still one baptism. There's one
- 52:10Speaker 1: way for you to get in. Ain't no special door.
- 52:14Speaker 1: I was down in South Africa looking at the apartheid
- 52:17Speaker 1: museum and they had a door for the colored folks
- 52:20Speaker 1: and a door for the black folks and a door
- 52:23Speaker 1: for white folks. God don't have no three doors. Jesus said,
- 52:26Speaker 1: I am the door. There's only one door for anybody
- 52:30Speaker 1: to come in. I don't care what color you are.
- 52:32Speaker 1: I don't care what language you speak. I don't care
- 52:35Speaker 1: what country you came from. I don't care what your
- 52:37Speaker 1: gender is.
- 52:38Speaker 2: There's only one door.
- 52:40Speaker 1: God's not going to create a separate water fountain because
- 52:43Speaker 1: you're a woman. It is the spirit of division. I'm
- 52:54Speaker 1: all for discourse, but division is satanic. To divide the
- 53:00Speaker 1: church is to weaken the church. To deny us of
- 53:05Speaker 1: the bright potential that exists in our sisters as well
- 53:09Speaker 1: as our brothers is to weaken the fabric of the
- 53:12Speaker 1: church itself. There are women who are finding cures to
- 53:16Speaker 1: diseases and finding cures to all types of toxicity. We
- 53:21Speaker 1: need that mind. At a time like this we need
- 53:25Speaker 1: every soldier. We need every soldier. We need every soldier.
- 53:30Speaker 1: I want every thinking, believing person in this room to
- 53:35Speaker 1: clap your hands and let God know you're available. I
- 53:42Speaker 1: don't care what you did in your past. I don't
- 53:44Speaker 1: care what your religious tradition is. Away with your tradition.
- 53:48Speaker 1: God is trying to bring us down into one place.
- 53:54Speaker 2: One idea. One perspective.
- 53:57Speaker 1: Shout it.
- 53:57Speaker 2: I'm a believer.
- 54:02Speaker 1: Understanding that is simply to know that believing matters. Believing matters.
- 54:11Speaker 1: Not your dogma. Not your tradition. I come from five
- 54:14Speaker 1: generations of AME.
- 54:16Speaker 2: I don't care. My great-great-grandmama started the apostolic church. I
- 54:24Speaker 2: don't care. I've been Church of God and Christ all
- 54:27Speaker 2: my life. I don't care.
- 54:30Speaker 1: Why are we so strung up over all these organizations
- 54:34Speaker 1: that are less than 100 years old? You serve a
- 54:40Speaker 1: Jesus that's 2,000 years. What happened to the other 1,900 years?
- 54:46Speaker 1: Was there no expression of God before your denomination? Some
- 54:52Speaker 1: of them are 100, 200, 250 years old. Some of
- 54:55Speaker 1: them may even be 300 years old. What happened to
- 54:58Speaker 1: the other 1,700 years? Has God ever left himself without
- 55:02Speaker 1: a witness? Before your founder founded your movement, there was
- 55:06Speaker 1: still God. Before his mama was pregnant, before she was
- 55:11Speaker 1: ever born. Oh, I got to quit. I've got to
- 55:14Speaker 1: get started. God is still God. He's bigger than your bishop.
- 55:19Speaker 1: He's bigger than your denomination. He's bigger than your church creed.
- 55:23Speaker 1: He's bigger than your ideas. God will not be enslaved.
- 55:28Speaker 1: and trapped behind a religious philosophy. God is still God.
- 55:33Speaker 1: He's sovereign. He's absolute. He's mighty. He's God all by himself.
- 55:39Speaker 1: He sits high. He looks low. He has all power
- 55:42Speaker 1: in his hand. God is God. And you believe in
- 55:46Speaker 1: anything else, you're not a believer. You might shout like it.
- 55:50Speaker 1: You might dance like it. You might sing like it.
- 55:54Speaker 1: But you are not it. When the real thing comes,
- 55:57Speaker 1: then every phony thing is going to have to back
- 56:00Speaker 1: up and get out of the way. Say if you
- 56:03Speaker 1: believe him, you are going to hell. Throw your hands
- 56:20Speaker 1: up and shout, I'm a believer. You don't just believe
- 56:24Speaker 1: on Sunday. You don't just believe for a couple of hours.
- 56:27Speaker 1: This is bigger than church. This is bigger than Wednesday
- 56:31Speaker 1: night Bible class. I'm a believer. In the hospital, I'm
- 56:34Speaker 1: a believer. Broke, I'm a believer. In a bread line,
- 56:38Speaker 1: I'm a believer. On food stamps, I'm a believer. With
- 56:41Speaker 1: no car, I'm a believer. Tell me to get to church.
- 56:45Speaker 1: I used to thumb to get to my church. I
- 56:48Speaker 1: was still a believer. I'm a believer when I'm up.
- 56:51Speaker 1: I'm a believer when I'm down. My faith is steady.
- 56:55Speaker 1: My life is crazy, but my faith is steady. My
- 56:59Speaker 1: conditions are wild. My position is secure. I'm seated together
- 57:05Speaker 1: in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And though he slay me,
- 57:10Speaker 1: Yet shall I trust him. Some trust in horses. Some
- 57:15Speaker 1: trust in chariots. But I will remember the name of
- 57:20Speaker 1: the Lord. For the name of the Lord is a
- 57:23Speaker 1: strong power where the righteous.
- 57:26Speaker 2: Run their head.
- 57:31Speaker 1: Ow!
- 57:32Speaker 4: Ow! Ow!
- 57:35Speaker 1: I want every believer to take a praise break and
- 57:38Speaker 1: give your God some praise.
- 57:59Speaker 2: I believe it.
- 58:01Speaker 1: I believe it. See, we got too many church folk
- 58:04Speaker 1: that's been raised on junk food. Five ways to be blessed.
- 58:08Speaker 1: Three ways to get a car. Twelve ways to get
- 58:11Speaker 1: a house. Get off of this junk food and get
- 58:14Speaker 1: back on the word of God. Because the devil is
- 58:17Speaker 1: fighting you. And you got to have some word down
- 58:20Speaker 1: inside of you that says, I still believe. If you
- 58:25Speaker 1: take my house, I still believe. If you take my car,
- 58:30Speaker 1: I still believe. Knock me down to my knees, and
- 58:34Speaker 1: I still believe. Broke, busted, and disgusted, and I still believe.
- 58:40Speaker 1: What you believe matters. Praise Him. until demons tremble. Pray
- 58:56Speaker 1: them until tumors shrink. Pray them until lame men get up.
- 59:03Speaker 1: Pray them until dead people start walking. Pray them until
- 59:08Speaker 1: somebody's lungs are up. Pray them until hell gets frustrated.
- 59:14Speaker 1: Pray them until witches are slain. Pray them until curses
- 59:19Speaker 1: are broken. You know what that is in this room
- 59:51Speaker 1: right now? That's the Holy Ghost bearing witness to the truth.
- 59:58Speaker 1: You can't get God to anoint a lie. But if
- 1:00:02Speaker 1: you preach the truth, the truth will make its own gravy.
- 1:00:06Speaker 1: The truth will bring its own anointing. The truth will
- 1:00:10Speaker 1: produce its own glory. I don't need no tricks. I
- 1:00:14Speaker 1: don't need no scams.
- 1:00:16Speaker 2: All I need.
- 1:00:28Speaker 1: Whew, y'all better.
- 1:00:30Speaker 2: Come get this.
- 1:00:55Speaker 1: Y'all better come get this because I'm about to mess
- 1:00:56Speaker 1: this up. It's about to be messed up in here.
- 1:00:59Speaker 1: It's about to be all jacked up in here because
- 1:01:02Speaker 1: I feel the anointing of the Holy Ghost up in
- 1:01:04Speaker 1: here right now. I feel the power of God adjusting
- 1:01:08Speaker 1: somebody's belief system. I feel the power of God reminding
- 1:01:12Speaker 1: you that you are not your circumstance. You are not
- 1:01:15Speaker 1: your bank account. You are not your emotions. You are
- 1:01:19Speaker 1: not your feeling. The just shall live by faith. The
- 1:01:23Speaker 1: judge shall live by. The judge shall live by. Praise him.
- 1:01:49Speaker 1: I feel somebody's body getting healed. Praise him right now.
- 1:01:55Speaker 1: Praise him right now. Praise him right now. I feel
- 1:02:00Speaker 1: somebody's mind being lifted. Praise him right now. Praise him
- 1:02:05Speaker 1: right now. There's been a demon of oppression that's been
- 1:02:09Speaker 1: on you all week, but I feel it breaking right
- 1:02:12Speaker 1: now in the name of Jesus. I wish I had
- 1:02:16Speaker 1: somebody that knew how to really praise God. I wish
- 1:02:21Speaker 1: you'd stop being cute and open your mouth and praise
- 1:02:25Speaker 1: God like a blood-washed believer. I dare you. I dare you!
- 1:02:35Speaker 1: Defy the devil! Defy the devil! Defy the devil! I
- 1:02:50Speaker 1: defy you! I defy you! I defy you! Holler at
- 1:03:16Speaker 1: somebody and tell them believing matters. You can't fight the
- 1:03:21Speaker 1: kind of devil you're fighting and fight him in your
- 1:03:24Speaker 1: emotions and fight him in your feelings. You're going to
- 1:03:27Speaker 1: have to fight by faith. How about somebody else and say,
- 1:03:31Speaker 1: believing matters. Believing will heal you. Believing will restore you.
- 1:03:38Speaker 1: Believing will revive you. Believing will unite you. Believing will
- 1:03:43Speaker 1: strengthen you. Believing will strengthen you. Believing will strengthen you.
- 1:03:48Speaker 1: I feel the strength of the Almighty God rising up
- 1:03:53Speaker 1: in this place. You don't need a lover. You don't
- 1:04:01Speaker 1: need a husband. You don't need a boyfriend. You already
- 1:04:05Speaker 1: got a man. His name is Jesus. He is the rock.
- 1:04:10Speaker 1: He is the lily. He is the rose. He is
- 1:04:14Speaker 1: the morning star. Shout yes! What Paul came to do
- 1:04:48Speaker 1: by letter and by word and by ministry and by
- 1:04:53Speaker 1: his life was to change the belief system that was
- 1:04:59Speaker 1: causing so much confusion. It was causing so much confusion
- 1:05:06Speaker 1: because the Roman church didn't have.
- 1:05:09Speaker 2: His head on the street.
- 1:05:12Speaker 1: And he comes, truth always comes to get your head together.
- 1:05:24Speaker 1: To adjust your belief system. I'm going to stop right there.
- 1:05:30Speaker 1: I'm going to pick it up next Wednesday night. I
- 1:06:01Speaker 1: knew I was gonna make it through it. I knew
- 1:06:03Speaker 1: I was gonna make it through it. Because God is
- 1:06:06Speaker 1: after your belief system. The way you process. The way
- 1:06:12Speaker 1: you process. What you're standing on has got too much
- 1:06:17Speaker 1: emotion in it. Contaminated by too much flesh.
- 1:06:21Speaker 2: Too much flesh. Too much flesh. And for the kind
- 1:06:29Speaker 2: of assault.
- 1:06:31Speaker 1: That has come against the church right now, we don't
- 1:06:35Speaker 1: need church members. We need believers. We need believers. We
- 1:06:43Speaker 1: need prayer warriors and intercessors and people laying on their
- 1:06:47Speaker 1: face and moaning and groaning in the Holy Ghost and
- 1:06:51Speaker 1: prevailing in the spirit.
- 1:06:53Speaker 2: I know it's old fashioned.
- 1:06:54Speaker 1: You go ahead and keep up with the culture with
- 1:06:57Speaker 1: your cute self. But I'm worried about the glory of
- 1:07:00Speaker 1: God falling back in a place to come against hell's forces.
- 1:07:06Speaker 1: Arsenals of demons have been released in the earth like
- 1:07:09Speaker 1: we have never seen before. At a time that the
- 1:07:13Speaker 1: church is trying to be cute and hip and edgy,
- 1:07:17Speaker 1: we need some prayer warriors. We need some glory. We
- 1:07:21Speaker 1: need some old-fashioned, rock-cut, supernatural anointing. Away with this flesh.
- 1:07:42Speaker 1: That's what defines us. We have emotions just like anybody else.
- 1:07:48Speaker 1: We have feelings just like anybody else. They vacillate just
- 1:07:51Speaker 1: like anybody else. We move past our soulish man down.
- 1:07:57Speaker 2: To our spirit man and we believe God. I admit.
- 1:08:09Speaker 1: Sometimes I have to crawl to get there Sometimes I
- 1:08:13Speaker 1: have to cry to get there. Sometimes I need a
- 1:08:16Speaker 1: few days to get there. Sometimes I have to feel
- 1:08:19Speaker 1: after it and grope after it and try to get
- 1:08:22Speaker 1: my hand on it. Like Samson trying to get his
- 1:08:25Speaker 1: hand on the pillar. But once I get my hand
- 1:08:28Speaker 1: on the pillar, I will bring the whole place down.
- 1:08:36Speaker 1: Not because of my strength, but because of his strength.
- 1:08:43Speaker 1: Because believing matters. What has been fighting you? What have
- 1:08:54Speaker 1: you been trying to handle by yourself? What have you
- 1:09:00Speaker 1: been struggling in your emotions about? Maybe God is trying
- 1:09:09Speaker 1: to talk to you about your belief system. You're watching
- 1:09:15Speaker 1: online right now. The Holy Ghost is talking to you.
- 1:09:19Speaker 1: For where you are right now, you need to change
- 1:09:21Speaker 1: your belief system. God is about to promote you into
- 1:09:27Speaker 1: an area that you cannot enter with your old belief system.
- 1:09:33Speaker 1: You need to shed it like a snake coming out
- 1:09:36Speaker 1: of skin. Like a butterfly coming out of a cocoon.
- 1:09:43Speaker 1: There has to be a transformative moment where you refuse
- 1:09:47Speaker 1: to be conformed. And instead are transformed. How am I
- 1:09:52Speaker 1: going to do that? By the renewing of your mind.
- 1:10:07Speaker 1: Lift your hands and talk to your daddy. All over
- 1:10:12Speaker 1: the world. In front of your computer. Lift your hands
- 1:10:18Speaker 1: and talk to your daddy. You don't talk to your daddy. Jacob,
- 1:10:24Speaker 1: you've been talking to your mama. You ain't been talking
- 1:10:26Speaker 1: to your daddy. You've been depending on your own devices,
- 1:10:32Speaker 1: your schemes and your tricks. Talk to your daddy. Open
- 1:10:38Speaker 1: your mouth. Be honest with him. Be honest with him.
- 1:10:51Speaker 1: I've been lost. I've been in the hog pen. I
- 1:10:59Speaker 1: spent your money in righteous living. And some of this debt,
- 1:11:04Speaker 1: I brought it on myself. I tried to buy love
- 1:11:07Speaker 1: from my friends and they all forsook me. And I'm
- 1:11:11Speaker 1: muddy and I smell like slop. But I heard that
- 1:11:16Speaker 1: word and I came to myself. Daddy, if you let
- 1:11:21Speaker 1: me back, I'm coming home. I'm coming home in my head.
- 1:11:28Speaker 1: I'm coming home in my thinking. I'm coming home in
- 1:11:31Speaker 1: my belief system. How many servants in my father's house
- 1:11:35Speaker 1: have bread enough in despair and yet I perish? I'm
- 1:11:38Speaker 1: not supposed to be perishing. I came to myself and
- 1:11:44Speaker 1: remembered who I am.
- 1:11:46Speaker 2: I am who.
- 1:11:48Speaker 1: God says I am. I can do what God says
- 1:11:52Speaker 1: I can do. I can have what God says I
- 1:11:55Speaker 1: can have. Talk to your daddy. You talk to everybody
- 1:12:04Speaker 1: else but the one who can change a thing. Because
- 1:12:32Speaker 1: of the intensity of the struggle, you have a glory
- 1:12:36Speaker 1: to God. You need to draw closer to him than
- 1:12:40Speaker 1: you've ever been before. Some of you are on the
- 1:12:44Speaker 1: verge of the greatest elevation of your life. but your
- 1:12:48Speaker 1: belief system always sabotages you and brings you down like
- 1:12:52Speaker 1: gravity pulling you back to the same spot. And I
- 1:12:56Speaker 1: break the gravitational pull that's been on your life that
- 1:13:00Speaker 1: keeps dragging you back to the same spot and the
- 1:13:04Speaker 1: same kind of people and the same kind of thinking
- 1:13:07Speaker 1: and the same kind of ideas. And God has given
- 1:13:12Speaker 1: you enough velocity to spread your wings like an eagle
- 1:13:45Speaker 1: You ate with them, but you're not one
- 1:13:50Speaker 1: of them. You work with them, but you're not one
- 1:13:53Speaker 1: of them. You're a child of the king. I want
- 1:14:01Speaker 1: to pray for you right now. I want to pray
- 1:14:04Speaker 1: because believing matters. And we are in an hour where
- 1:14:08Speaker 1: the devil doesn't want us to believe nothing. We fight
- 1:14:12Speaker 1: about everything. Vaccines, masks, where we sit, where we stand,
- 1:14:20Speaker 1: what we teach, anything we can find to fight about.
- 1:14:25Speaker 1: We fight because the spirit of the witchcraft, has become
- 1:14:37Speaker 1: so prevalent that you'd rather die than admit you was wrong.
- 1:14:45Speaker 1: You'd rather die and drown in your own fluids than
- 1:14:50Speaker 1: to humble yourself and change your opinion. You'd rather die
- 1:14:54Speaker 1: lonely and drive all your children away from you. Don't
- 1:14:59Speaker 1: you know you're going to grow old? You're more childish
- 1:15:05Speaker 1: than your children. Humble yourself. Change your belief system.
- 1:15:15Speaker 2: Go home.
- 1:15:17Speaker 1: Go home.
- 1:15:20Speaker 2: Say I was wrong.
- 1:15:24Speaker 1: I'm no more worthy to be called thy son or
- 1:15:26Speaker 1: thy husband or thy wife or thy worker. Make me
- 1:15:31Speaker 1: a hired servant. Humble yourself. And watch him kill the
- 1:15:37Speaker 1: fatty calf. Put a robe on your shoulders. Put a
- 1:15:44Speaker 1: ring on your finger. He's got something for you. Everybody
- 1:16:01Speaker 1: in here that knows you need your belief system strengthened,
- 1:16:06Speaker 1: come to this altar as we prepare to close. I'm
- 1:16:09Speaker 1: going to close praying for you. You don't mind you
- 1:16:14Speaker 1: can't come to this altar, but you can receive this prayer.
- 1:16:20Speaker 1: You're not one of them. You work with them, but
- 1:16:24Speaker 1: you're not one. I need a better belief system. I
- 1:16:32Speaker 1: need to be rooted and grounded. I need to be
- 1:16:34Speaker 1: instructed in the word, not my feelings. My flesh is
- 1:16:37Speaker 1: out of control. My emotions are out of control. My
- 1:16:42Speaker 1: thoughts are all over the place. Somebody's been fighting the
- 1:16:49Speaker 1: spirit of suicide. I feel the spirit of suicide. I
- 1:16:54Speaker 1: feel the spirit of suicide. I feel the spirit of suicide.
- 1:16:58Speaker 1: And you call yourself a Christian and you're ready to
- 1:17:02Speaker 1: take your own life. You need to change your belief system.
- 1:17:08Speaker 1: I curse that spirit at the root. And I command
- 1:17:12Speaker 1: it to dry up and get out of your mind
- 1:17:14Speaker 1: and out of your thoughts and out of your life
- 1:17:17Speaker 1: and out of your spirit. You shall not die but
- 1:17:19Speaker 1: live and declare the works of the Lord. You have
- 1:17:22Speaker 1: not seen your best day yet. You have not sung
- 1:17:25Speaker 1: your greatest song. You have not seen your greatest miracle.
- 1:17:29Speaker 1: And that demon that tells you you'll never be happy
- 1:17:31Speaker 1: and you'll never smile again and you'll never have joy,
- 1:17:34Speaker 1: it's a lying spirit from the pit. And I curse
- 1:17:38Speaker 1: it and send it back where it came from. Sing
- 1:17:47Speaker 1: that again. God's doing some adjusting. Receive it right now.
- 1:17:51Speaker 2: Right now. He loves you.
- 1:17:57Speaker 4: He died for you on the cross.
- 1:18:19Speaker 2: On the cross. On the cross.
- 1:18:24Speaker 1: Better. Should not perish. Should not perish. You're not supposed
- 1:18:33Speaker 1: to perish.
- 1:18:34Speaker 4: Should not perish. But they shall have.
- 1:18:46Speaker 1: They shall have. Yeah, brother.
- 1:18:40Speaker 4: Father God, we've heard your cry.
- 1:19:09Speaker 1: And it has resonated in us. And I speak to
- 1:19:15Speaker 1: every poisoned belief system contaminated by abuse and bondage contaminated
- 1:19:27Speaker 1: by self-hatred and dread and doubt contaminated by satanic attack
- 1:19:35Speaker 1: and depression contaminated by grief Contaminated by low self-esteem. Contaminated
- 1:19:45Speaker 1: by pride and arrogance. Contaminated by loathing and harshness.
- 1:19:55Speaker 2: And secrets.
- 1:19:59Speaker 1: You are as sick as your secrets. And right now
- 1:20:08Speaker 1: in the name of Jesus. I decree and declare there
- 1:20:15Speaker 1: will be change. There will be change not just while
- 1:20:20Speaker 1: I'm here, not just while she's singing. There will be
- 1:20:23Speaker 1: change in your car. There will be change in your house.
- 1:20:28Speaker 1: There will be change in your kitchen. There will be
- 1:20:31Speaker 1: change in your house, in your life, in your bedroom,
- 1:20:36Speaker 1: in your thinking, in your private time. that God is
- 1:20:41Speaker 1: drawing you back to the Father's house, back to the
- 1:20:46Speaker 1: fullness of joy, back to the presence of God, back
- 1:20:50Speaker 1: to the core values that he called us to, that
- 1:20:53Speaker 1: he died for us to have. Right now, let the
- 1:21:00Speaker 1: transforming power of the Holy Spirit start a transformation in
- 1:21:05Speaker 1: us that gets in the car and gets in the
- 1:21:08Speaker 1: house and gets in our perspectives We're worried about stuff, God,
- 1:21:14Speaker 1: that only you can handle. We cast our cares on you.
- 1:21:19Speaker 1: This stuff is too heavy for us. It's too much
- 1:21:23Speaker 1: for us. It's too complicated for us. It's too complex
- 1:21:27Speaker 1: for us. We can't fix everything and everybody and control
- 1:21:32Speaker 1: everybody's choices. We surrender to you. Let God be God.
- 1:21:38Speaker 1: And his enemies be scattered. I'm through taking charge of
- 1:21:43Speaker 1: stuff I'm not in charge of I'm through taking responsibility
- 1:21:47Speaker 1: for things I'm not responsible for I'm through trying to
- 1:21:51Speaker 1: fix stuff that I can't fix I turn it over
- 1:21:54Speaker 1: to you give me my peace back give me my
- 1:21:59Speaker 1: peace I'm taking my peace back I'm hanging up on
- 1:22:04Speaker 1: anybody that tries to disturb my peace I'm taking my
- 1:22:07Speaker 1: peace back So that I can have a guard for
- 1:22:11Speaker 1: my heart and for my mind. Fathers, we come to
- 1:22:27Speaker 1: the end of this Bible class. The word has been
- 1:22:30Speaker 1: profitable to us. The word has been helpful to us.
- 1:22:38Speaker 1: The Word has been healing to us. The Word has
- 1:22:42Speaker 1: strengthened us. The Word has invigorated us. The Word has
- 1:22:47Speaker 1: corrected us. The Word has rebuked us. The Word has
- 1:22:51Speaker 1: revived us, and we're glad about it. Keep on talking
- 1:22:56Speaker 1: to me, Jesus. Keep on talking to me, Jesus. I
- 1:23:00Speaker 1: might be a hard case, but keep on talking to me.
- 1:23:03Speaker 1: Till you break me down, till you fix me, till
- 1:23:06Speaker 1: you regulate me, keep on talking to me. I'm alive,
- 1:23:09Speaker 1: but keep on talking to me. I'm at work, but
- 1:23:12Speaker 1: keep on talking to me. I'm in my house, but
- 1:23:14Speaker 1: don't give up on me. Amen. I've been praying about
- 1:23:23Speaker 1: my behavior. I didn't know to pray about my belief system.
- 1:23:28Speaker 1: If my belief system is broken, my behavior will always
- 1:23:31Speaker 1: be dysfunctional. Thank you for putting hope within my reach.
- 1:23:47Speaker 1: You didn't make it so high that I'm not smart
- 1:23:49Speaker 1: enough to grab it. You didn't make it beyond my scope,
- 1:23:54Speaker 1: my reach. I can believe. I can believe. Children believe.
- 1:24:07Speaker 1: I can believe. There's Shandai. That peace is coming into
- 1:24:14Speaker 1: my heart right now.
- 1:24:15Speaker 2: I can believe.
- 1:24:18Speaker 1: That contentment is coming into my spirit. I can believe
- 1:24:23Speaker 1: that I am your son. If my daddy don't know me.
- 1:24:28Speaker 1: If my mama don't like me. If they don't recognize me.
- 1:24:33Speaker 1: If they found me in a dumpster. I found my daddy. God,
- 1:24:38Speaker 1: you're my father. And I cry to you right now. Abba. Abba, Abba, Abba.
- 1:24:50Speaker 1: Pick me up, Daddy. Pick me up, Daddy. I'm yours
- 1:24:56Speaker 1: right now. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
- 1:25:01Speaker 2: Give him the best praise you got. The best praise
- 1:25:05Speaker 2: you got.
- 1:25:06Speaker 1: Amen.