Latest / THE WORLD'S BEST PREACHER / T-D-Jakes-These-Bumps-in-the-Road-Mean-That-You-re-Close-to-
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: I know a lot of people that are doing better
- 0:02Speaker 1: than me, but none of it have got there without
- 0:05Speaker 1: a bumpy road. The road to better is bumpy. So
- 0:11Speaker 1: if you're on a bumpy road, I'm telling you you're
- 0:15Speaker 1: headed to better. There are some things that God created
- 0:18Speaker 1: you for that you had some delays and some setbacks,
- 0:23Speaker 1: and some mistakes and some mishaps, and God wants you
- 0:27Speaker 1: to come back to the place that there's going to
- 0:30Speaker 1: be a night shift. Jacob has told his sons, you
- 0:37Speaker 1: will not defeat the famine looking at each other. Did
- 0:44Speaker 1: you hear what I'm saying? Watch how Jacob handles the famine,
- 0:49Speaker 1: because my first point is the famine. And until you
- 0:53Speaker 1: can deal with the famine, you will never get to
- 0:57Speaker 1: better because the famine is a part of your journey.
- 1:03Speaker 1: How you react to the famine determines whether you make
- 1:06Speaker 1: it to the food. You've got to be aggressive. You
- 1:12Speaker 1: can't just pray against the famine. You've got to do something,
- 1:16Speaker 1: Jacob says. You can't just pray against it. You can't
- 1:19Speaker 1: just look at each other. You can't stay in the
- 1:22Speaker 1: same spot and do the same things that you've always
- 1:24Speaker 1: done and expect to get a different result. Because We're
- 1:28Speaker 1: in a famine and you've got to take action, and
- 1:31Speaker 1: we don't understand that today, we don't understand the human
- 1:35Speaker 1: requirement in the miracles of God. As much as we
- 1:40Speaker 1: have read about the miracles of God, we walk away
- 1:43Speaker 1: with praise to God, but absolve ourselves of human responsibility,
- 1:50Speaker 1: as if God were going to act outside of human effort.
- 1:53Speaker 1: When God has created us to be collaborative in the miraculous. Oh,
- 1:59Speaker 1: I'm talking all ready. He wants us to be collaborative
- 2:02Speaker 1: in the miraculous, that we have a responsibility to take
- 2:06Speaker 1: action and to be aggressive about resolving issues. Just because
- 2:11Speaker 1: you're spiritual doesn't mean you get to pray for a
- 2:14Speaker 1: job and stay at home. I'm just gonna pray. If
- 2:21Speaker 1: the Lord wants me to have the job, he'll give
- 2:23Speaker 1: me a job. I'm just gonna watch TV and hit
- 2:25Speaker 1: the remote control and believe God for better. You'll you'll
- 2:29Speaker 1: never get to better if you don't get on the road.
- 2:32Speaker 1: You gotta you gotta, you gotta get on the road
- 2:34Speaker 1: in the middle of famine. They're traveling in the middle
- 2:37Speaker 1: of a famine. Now, traveling is not fun anytime, but
- 2:41Speaker 1: traveling in the middle of a famine is a very
- 2:43Speaker 1: difficult time because the famine is so severe that Jacob says,
- 2:47Speaker 1: if you don't move, you're going to die. Now, I
- 2:51Speaker 1: don't know who I'm talking to tonight, but there are
- 2:53Speaker 1: some pressures that come so strong that if you don't move,
- 2:57Speaker 1: you're going to die. How could you let me die?
- 2:59Speaker 1: And I'm child of God. You didn't move. I told
- 3:03Speaker 1: you to move. And when God tells you to move,
- 3:07Speaker 1: you got to move. And don't act like God has
- 3:09Speaker 1: failed you when you have failed to move. When God
- 3:16Speaker 1: says move, you have to take action. Whether you're the
- 3:18Speaker 1: prodigal son who came to himself but he still had
- 3:22Speaker 1: to go home, or whether you're the woman with the
- 3:24Speaker 1: issue of blood who believed that Jesus could heal her,
- 3:27Speaker 1: but she still had to crawl, or whether you're blind
- 3:30Speaker 1: bottle man standing by the highwayside begging. He still had
- 3:33Speaker 1: to come out of his coat and go toward Jesus.
- 3:36Speaker 1: There is a human responsibility in spite of the famine.
- 3:41Speaker 1: So you got to move in the middle of a famine,
- 3:44Speaker 1: in the middle of a need, in the middle of
- 3:46Speaker 1: a storm, in the middle of a crisis. And he
- 3:48Speaker 1: sends his voice to go from Canaan to Egypt because
- 3:53Speaker 1: Jacob heard where there was food. Don't hate on people
- 3:58Speaker 1: who have even when you don't have. Because he didn't
- 4:04Speaker 1: hate on Egypt. He said, I'm going to Egypt. See,
- 4:08Speaker 1: we sit back and hate on people as if them
- 4:11Speaker 1: having is our demise, when it's not them having that
- 4:14Speaker 1: is our enemy. It's us not moving that is our enemy.
- 4:19Speaker 1: And the Bible says that though they didn't have any coin,
- 4:22Speaker 1: they had money. Yeah, and people don't quote it too much,
- 4:26Speaker 1: but the Bible all say. It says that money is
- 4:29Speaker 1: the answer to all things. It's an answer to all things.
- 4:33Speaker 1: If it's a thing, money can buy it. There are
- 4:37Speaker 1: some issues that cannot be resolved by things, but money
- 4:40Speaker 1: answers all things. So Jacob told the boys he gave
- 4:45Speaker 1: them some money and said go down to Egypt, and
- 4:47Speaker 1: don't go down there begging. We came down here to
- 4:50Speaker 1: do business. Yeah. Yeah, we're spiritual people, but we know
- 4:55Speaker 1: how to do business. We praised Jehovah, but we still
- 5:00Speaker 1: how to do business. Oh, y'all not saying nothing to
- 5:02Speaker 1: me tonight. See, the church has failed its parishioners because
- 5:07Speaker 1: we have been real heavy on the praise and real
- 5:10Speaker 1: light on the business. So we told him to praise
- 5:14Speaker 1: your way out and dance your way out, and spend
- 5:17Speaker 1: a around three times, and you're going to come out.
- 5:19Speaker 1: And so I see, and you're going to get out.
- 5:21Speaker 1: But we don't tell them that you've got that the
- 5:24Speaker 1: blessings are transactional, that there's a business element required in it.
- 5:29Speaker 1: And we got to go back and lay some foundation
- 5:31Speaker 1: to understand that Jacob does not go down to Egypt
- 5:34Speaker 1: to beg He goes down there to do business, and
- 5:38Speaker 1: he sends his sons down there to do business. But
- 5:40Speaker 1: wait a minute, you have to realize as we begin
- 5:44Speaker 1: to talk about the famine, we have to understand that
- 5:47Speaker 1: the famine is so severe that it pushes them to Egypt. Now,
- 5:53Speaker 1: the second thing I want you to see about the
- 5:55Speaker 1: famine is that God will use a famine to move you.
- 5:59Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be a famine for food. It
- 6:01Speaker 1: can be a famine for love, it can be a
- 6:04Speaker 1: famine for peace. But in everybody's life listening at me,
- 6:08Speaker 1: whether online or in the room, you have experienced some
- 6:11Speaker 1: kind of famine. The famine of fatherhood, the famine of family,
- 6:16Speaker 1: the famine of a mother's affection, the famine of a
- 6:19Speaker 1: good job, the famine of a nice house. All of
- 6:22Speaker 1: us have our famines. You might not be able to
- 6:24Speaker 1: see it because we might dress nice and sprayk alone
- 6:27Speaker 1: over top of it. But all of us live with
- 6:30Speaker 1: some level of famine in our lives. Famine makes you pray,
- 6:34Speaker 1: and famine makes you seek God, and famine makes you
- 6:38Speaker 1: cry out. And famine will make you move, And oftentimes
- 6:42Speaker 1: God will use famine as an instrument to force you
- 6:46Speaker 1: out of your comfort zone. It is more comfortable to
- 6:50Speaker 1: stay in canaan, but the famine will drive you out.
- 6:53Speaker 1: It'll make you move, It'll make you get outside of
- 6:56Speaker 1: your confident zone. It'll make you travel, It'll put you.
- 6:59Speaker 2: On the road.
- 7:00Speaker 1: Somebody say I'm on the road. I'm not on the
- 7:03Speaker 1: road for a field trip. I'm not on the road
- 7:05Speaker 1: joy riding. I'm on the road to better. I'm on
- 7:08Speaker 1: the road to better. There's some time after there's something
- 7:10Speaker 1: I want to see done in my lifetime, and I'm
- 7:13Speaker 1: tired of sitting around assessing the same old troubles and
- 7:17Speaker 1: crying about the same old problems, and going through the
- 7:20Speaker 1: same old things. I'm tired of complaining one to another
- 7:23Speaker 1: back and forth. Oh any bad Yet, chiad is real bad.
- 7:27Speaker 1: It's so bad. I got to move from here, deliver
- 7:30Speaker 1: me from people who will not take action in the famine.
- 7:34Speaker 1: And God says action is required on you. You got
- 7:38Speaker 1: to get on the road. And that's anytime you can't
- 7:41Speaker 1: rebuke it with a prayer. Anytime you plead the blood
- 7:45Speaker 1: and it doesn't go away. Anytime you call on God
- 7:48Speaker 1: and it still stays there. Then God is using the
- 7:51Speaker 1: famine as an instrument to move you from one place
- 7:55Speaker 1: to the other. If it was the devil, I could
- 7:57Speaker 1: rebuke it. If it were demonic warfare, I could overcome it.
- 8:01Speaker 1: But when God sends a famine to make you move,
- 8:04Speaker 1: it is something in his providence that cannot be performed
- 8:08Speaker 1: where you are, and you've got to move in order
- 8:11Speaker 1: to get it. And God knows that some of us
- 8:13Speaker 1: won't move if we're too comfortable. Ah, y'all, I'm gonna
- 8:18Speaker 1: talk to me tonight. And so God uses as a
- 8:21Speaker 1: famine to force them to move and they go down
- 8:24Speaker 1: to Egypt to do business. Now, it is interesting to
- 8:28Speaker 1: note that though there is a famine in Canaan, there
- 8:32Speaker 1: is also a famine in this family. So my second
- 8:37Speaker 1: point deals with the family. You have to understand that
- 8:40Speaker 1: this text brings out subtly, ever so subtly in the
- 8:44Speaker 1: text that I want to point it out to you.
- 8:46Speaker 1: First thing that tells us about Jacob is that Jacob
- 8:48Speaker 1: send his sons down to Egypt to buy But then
- 8:52Speaker 1: it mentions that he did not send Benjamin unless he
- 8:56Speaker 1: fall into mischief. And this is just a hidden, subtle
- 9:01Speaker 1: reminder that Jacob doesn't totally trust his own sons. Now,
- 9:08Speaker 1: where did this distrust come up in the culture of
- 9:13Speaker 1: this family? This distrust comes up into the culture of
- 9:17Speaker 1: the family. And you can act like you don't know
- 9:19Speaker 1: what I'm talking about, But all of us have different
- 9:22Speaker 1: little things that we know about our family that when
- 9:25Speaker 1: cousin so and so comes over, you kind of look
- 9:27Speaker 1: at them out of the corner of your eye because
- 9:29Speaker 1: because you've been through some things where you've learned some things,
- 9:32Speaker 1: and this culture has risen up in the family that
- 9:36Speaker 1: the family is not fruitful, and Canaan is not fruitful,
- 9:41Speaker 1: and there is not the comfortable, loving environment of trust
- 9:44Speaker 1: that would cause the family to be a nurturing place.
- 9:48Speaker 1: Because Jacob remembers what happened to Joseph the last time
- 9:53Speaker 1: Jacob sent one of his sons out with the rest
- 9:56Speaker 1: of the sons, he turned up missing, and there's a
- 10:00Speaker 1: ado of distrust in the old man with his sons.
- 10:03Speaker 1: And he says, I'm going to keep Benjamin now. The
- 10:06Speaker 1: reason he's holding on to Benjamin and he let the
- 10:09Speaker 1: rest of them go is that Joseph and Benjamin were
- 10:13Speaker 1: born to him by Rachel, and Rachel was the love
- 10:16Speaker 1: of his life. And the reason he's holding on to
- 10:19Speaker 1: Benjamin is because that's all he's got left of Rachel.
- 10:24Speaker 1: And he says, if I lose Benjamin, I lose all
- 10:28Speaker 1: I have left of the best days in my life.
- 10:31Speaker 1: And sometimes we hold on to things because we've been
- 10:35Speaker 1: through so much pain that we become possessive. Oh y'all,
- 10:40Speaker 1: don't hear what I'm saying. There's a reason you hold
- 10:42Speaker 1: on to what you hold on, whether it's money or
- 10:45Speaker 1: people or things. There's a reason you hold on to
- 10:49Speaker 1: There's a reason that certain things make you mad. There's
- 10:51Speaker 1: a reason that you overreact in certain ways. There's a
- 10:54Speaker 1: reason that if we hit certain postpoints, you respond differently
- 10:59Speaker 1: than other people, because until you understand what I've been
- 11:02Speaker 1: through back here, you won't understand why I'm holding on
- 11:05Speaker 1: to this right here? What do you hold on to
- 11:09Speaker 1: because of what you've been through? What do you hold
- 11:13Speaker 1: on to because of what you've been through? For Jacob
- 11:16Speaker 1: the old man is holding on to the last smell
- 11:20Speaker 1: of Rachel. When he holds Benjamin. It's the last reminder
- 11:27Speaker 1: of a happier moment in his life. And he is
- 11:31Speaker 1: so afraid of losing Benjamin because Rachel the Baron Woman
- 11:38Speaker 1: has birth two sons unto him, and one of them
- 11:42Speaker 1: Jacob thinks is dead and Benjamin is all he got left.
- 11:48Speaker 1: Anytime you think this is all you got left, you
- 11:51Speaker 1: will hold on real tight, whether it is true or not.
- 11:59Speaker 1: You will hold on real tight if you think that
- 12:01Speaker 1: this is the last person that will ever love you.
- 12:07Speaker 1: You will take stuff that you wouldn't normally take. You
- 12:11Speaker 1: will go through things you wouldn't normally go through. And
- 12:14Speaker 1: your girlfriends will tell you if I was you, I
- 12:16Speaker 1: wouldn't take that, And your mama told you you need
- 12:18Speaker 1: to get away from there, But you keep holding on
- 12:20Speaker 1: to it because you've been hurt before, and anytime you've
- 12:23Speaker 1: been hurt before, you hold onto something when you think
- 12:27Speaker 1: you won't get anymore. I wonder tonight how many people
- 12:29Speaker 1: are holding onto some sort of Benjamin in your life,
- 12:34Speaker 1: holding on to it out of fear, not out of love.
- 12:37Speaker 1: He's not clutching him out of love. He's clutching him
- 12:39Speaker 1: out of fear. Be careful what fear will make you do.
- 12:43Speaker 1: And I'm looking at it. Jacob is an old man,
- 12:46Speaker 1: and the older you get, the more precious everything becomes.
- 12:54Speaker 1: And Jacob is holding on to Benjamin, and he's saying,
- 13:00Speaker 1: Joseph is not, and now Simeon is not. You ain't
- 13:08Speaker 1: taking my Benjamin. I'm wondering what you're squeezing too tight?
- 13:19Speaker 1: What are you squeezing out of fear? See, Jacob isn't
- 13:26Speaker 1: squeezing Benjamin.
- 13:28Speaker 3: Out of faith. He's squeezing again, out of fear. He's
- 13:35Speaker 3: squeezing him like it's the last thing he's gonna ever get.
- 13:40Speaker 1: You you can't grow when you squeeze something like it's
- 13:44Speaker 1: the last thing you're gonna ever get, even if it's
- 13:47Speaker 1: squeezing money like it's the last you'll ever get. Then
- 13:53Speaker 1: you have prophesied against yourself. You have you faith in reverse.
- 14:00Speaker 1: Fear is faith in reverse. To have confidence that that
- 14:04Speaker 1: thing that you don't want is going to happen to you.
- 14:08Speaker 1: He's holding the boy out of fear, and God is
- 14:13Speaker 1: manipulating all of these circumstances to bring this family back together.
- 14:18Speaker 1: He is wooing them back to a place so he
- 14:21Speaker 1: can to heal them. And wouldn't it be better to
- 14:25Speaker 1: be healed than to be mad? And Jacob says to them,
- 14:36Speaker 1: if I lose Benjamin, let me quote it just like
- 14:40Speaker 1: you said. And he said, my son shall not go
- 14:42Speaker 1: down with you, for his brother is dead and he
- 14:47Speaker 1: is left alone. And if mischiefs befall him by the way,
- 14:53Speaker 1: see how Jacob is still in a place where he
- 14:56Speaker 1: don't trust them children, and he don't trust him, and
- 15:02Speaker 1: he has good reason not to trust him. He said,
- 15:07Speaker 1: you're not gonna get him. Let's mischief befall him? By
- 15:10Speaker 1: the way? Is the witch she go? He says, if
- 15:14Speaker 1: I go through with Benjamin what I went through with Joseph,
- 15:19Speaker 1: my gray hairs are gonna turn him to sorrow and
- 15:22Speaker 1: bring me to the grave. See, you get to a
- 15:27Speaker 1: point in life that you've reached an age that you
- 15:29Speaker 1: can't take no more pain. And he says, I can't
- 15:36Speaker 1: afford to live through this again. And God is really
- 15:43Speaker 1: behind it all, trying to pry Benjamin out of Jacob's hands,
- 15:50Speaker 1: because what Jacob doesn't understand. Yes, Sir Rod's been bumpy,
- 15:55Speaker 1: and yes, Sir Rod's been tough, and yes, Sir Rod's
- 15:58Speaker 1: been difficult, and yes you've shed some tears, and yes
- 16:03Speaker 1: you've endured some pain. But it is the bumpy road
- 16:08Speaker 1: to better. It is the bumpy road to better. I
- 16:24Speaker 1: know a lot of people that are doing better than me,
- 16:27Speaker 1: and I have more stuff and more money and more
- 16:29Speaker 1: recognition and more fame and more whatever you want to
- 16:32Speaker 1: count it by than me. But none of them that
- 16:36Speaker 1: I know have got there without a bumpy road. The
- 16:42Speaker 1: road to better it's bumpy. So if you're on a
- 16:48Speaker 1: bumpy road, I'm telling you you're headed to better. Do
- 16:59Speaker 1: you hear the words that are coming out of my mouth.
- 17:03Speaker 1: You can't get to better without bumpy. You can't get
- 17:07Speaker 1: to better without pain. You can't get to better without tears.
- 17:11Speaker 1: You can't be all buff if you don't work out,
- 17:13Speaker 1: you can't lose weight, if you don't push the food away.
- 17:16Speaker 1: You can't get to better without bumpy. There is no
- 17:19Speaker 1: pill you can take. There is no simple solution. It
- 17:22Speaker 1: is the bumpiness of the road that leads you to better. Ultimately,
- 17:27Speaker 1: Jacob will end up having to go to Egypt. And
- 17:32Speaker 1: when Joseph sees his father, When Joseph sees his father,
- 17:44Speaker 1: all of these years he's been living without the touch
- 17:49Speaker 1: of his father, and all of a sudden he reveals himself,
- 18:01Speaker 1: and he shows him who he is. The Bible says
- 18:05Speaker 1: that one day those who rejected Jesus are gonna look
- 18:09Speaker 1: on him whom they have pierced, and a nation shall
- 18:13Speaker 1: be saved in a day. This day in the life
- 18:18Speaker 1: of Joseph, is a prophetic prediction of what will happen
- 18:23Speaker 1: between Us, Jesus, and Israel, when all of a sudden
- 18:28Speaker 1: they will look on him whom they appears, and finally
- 18:32Speaker 1: recognize he was the Messiah. He is the Lamb of God,
- 18:41Speaker 1: he is the i Am, He is the true Vibe,
- 18:46Speaker 1: he is the living Bread, he is the manner that
- 18:50Speaker 1: came down out of heaven. He is. It wasn't a lie,
- 18:53Speaker 1: it wasn't a joke, it wasn't a philacy. And the
- 18:56Speaker 1: family will be reunited again. And all of a sudden
- 19:00Speaker 1: they beheld him whom they had thrown away, and they
- 19:04Speaker 1: fell down and said, oh, Joseph, And they now realize
- 19:09Speaker 1: that Joseph, everything he went through was to position him
- 19:14Speaker 1: to bless them. Are you all hearing what I'm saying?
- 19:22Speaker 1: The reason God doesn't bless some people because you're selfish.
- 19:31Speaker 1: The reason God didn't bless some people is because you're
- 19:34Speaker 1: only interested in you, because you hate too long, and
- 19:40Speaker 1: you're too angry, and you're too bitter to be trusted
- 19:43Speaker 1: with that much power. God blesses people whose hearts are tender.
- 19:51Speaker 1: And it was only when I saw Joseph's heart that
- 19:56Speaker 1: I understood Joseph's blessing. Because Joeoseph, what's the son that
- 20:01Speaker 1: could be trusted with favor? Because he would not use
- 20:07Speaker 1: his favor to get even, He would not use his
- 20:12Speaker 1: favor for revenge. He would use his favor to bring
- 20:19Speaker 1: them into better. And so Joseph brings the family to better.
- 20:28Speaker 1: The whole family dwells together in better. And not only
- 20:32Speaker 1: does he bring them to better, he releases the guilt
- 20:37Speaker 1: from the guilty. It's one thing to absolve the innocent,
- 20:45Speaker 1: but it's another thing to equit the guilty. He absolved
- 20:51Speaker 1: the guilty because he was big enough to be blessed
- 20:57Speaker 1: like that. He was big enough to be blessed like that,
- 21:02Speaker 1: He was strong enough to be blessed like that. And
- 21:06Speaker 1: that's why he was chosen from the very beginning that
- 21:10Speaker 1: God trusted him with trouble. God trusted him with rejection,
- 21:14Speaker 1: God trusting him with pain. God trusted him with agony
- 21:18Speaker 1: because God knew his heart that when push came to shove,
- 21:23Speaker 1: that love would always went out over Reverne. God knew
- 21:27Speaker 1: his heart that there was something down inside of him
- 21:31Speaker 1: that was better than that. And if you want the
- 21:35Speaker 1: favor of God in your life, you have to be
- 21:37Speaker 1: prepared to ask yourself, can God trust you with favor?
- 21:43Speaker 1: Can God trust you with power? Can God trust you
- 21:48Speaker 1: with honor? Because until that answer is a resounding yes,
- 21:57Speaker 1: the doors of your blessing will be close. They're colds
- 22:02Speaker 1: because you are too angry and too bitter and too vindictive.
- 22:07Speaker 1: And God can't give you favor because you'll use it
- 22:11Speaker 1: like witchcraft to bring curcious on those who hurt you.
- 22:18Speaker 1: And you'll know you're getting bigger when you start getting better.
- 22:24Speaker 1: You've been praying to be bigger. You should have been
- 22:27Speaker 1: praying to be better. There's somebody watching me right now.
- 22:34Speaker 1: There's no reason in the world that somebody as talented
- 22:37Speaker 1: to you as you are shouldn't be further than you are.
- 22:42Speaker 1: You have the talent to go all the way to
- 22:46Speaker 1: the top, but every time you try to go to
- 22:50Speaker 1: the top, something blocks you. And God send me to
- 22:53Speaker 1: tell you it's not what's on the outside that's blocked you.
- 22:57Speaker 1: It's the stuff you carry on the inside that always
- 23:01Speaker 1: blocks you because you're so slick, and God has to
- 23:09Speaker 1: keep showing you that you ain't as slick as you
- 23:11Speaker 1: think you are, and your blessing has been delayed, and
- 23:15Speaker 1: you wandered in the wilderness of almost getting there and
- 23:19Speaker 1: never being able to get there because you've never been
- 23:22Speaker 1: able to get your heart to the place that you
- 23:25Speaker 1: could be trusted. God gives favor to people he can trust,
- 23:43Speaker 1: but you are so transactional. Everything is a way for
- 23:50Speaker 1: you to manipulate, and so you never get better. The
- 23:57Speaker 1: Bible says none but the pure in heart shall seek God.
- 24:03Speaker 1: The word pure in the Greek is why we get
- 24:06Speaker 1: the word catheter. And there is no way for you
- 24:10Speaker 1: to see God until you put a catheter into your
- 24:13Speaker 1: heart and get rid of the bitterness that is blocking you.
- 24:18Speaker 1: From your blessing. I'm still talking about the bumpy road
- 24:26Speaker 1: to better. As I close tonight, I challenge you to
- 24:34Speaker 1: look at Genesis forty two, and even going into Genesis
- 24:38Speaker 1: forty three, and watch God bring Jacob and his voice
- 24:48Speaker 1: into a state of blessings that does not fade away.
- 24:53Speaker 1: Samuel servert under Eli, and that there was the word
- 25:00Speaker 1: of the Lord was scarce and or rare, and there
- 25:04Speaker 1: was no open vision. It's a hint, It's a preview. See,
- 25:13Speaker 1: Samuel is not so much Eli's successor. You don't use
- 25:24Speaker 1: Samuel as Eli's successor like Elijah and Elijah, like Paul
- 25:31Speaker 1: and Timothy. Not only are they not in the same chain,
- 25:36Speaker 1: they're not of the same order. Eli is a priest.
- 25:44Speaker 1: Samuel is a prophet. Perhaps one of the greatest prophets
- 25:54Speaker 1: of the Old Testament is Samuel. And what God has done.
- 26:00Speaker 1: He has forced a prophet into the house of a priest.
- 26:10Speaker 1: This is the beginning of the formation of the Messiah,
- 26:16Speaker 1: who is prophet. You see see, so we all we
- 26:27Speaker 1: have up until now is priest. But out of the
- 26:31Speaker 1: barrenness of Hannah's womb doesn't come Elive's successor. It becomes
- 26:38Speaker 1: Eli's prophets. Yeah, And the reason the prophet had to
- 26:44Speaker 1: come next is that the prophet is the one who
- 26:48Speaker 1: annoints the king. God got an order he don't even
- 26:55Speaker 1: explain to you. He does up for his own reason.
- 26:59Speaker 1: He's got his own methodology. He works all things according
- 27:03Speaker 1: to the purpose of his own wheels, say man. So
- 27:07Speaker 1: we are watching the shift between the priest to the prophet.
- 27:16Speaker 1: The prophet is under the priest. Before it's over, the
- 27:25Speaker 1: priest is gonna be under the prophets. A double chef.
- 27:30Speaker 1: Ta see you can can, Oh, God, I want to
- 27:33Speaker 1: go sit. See. When we worship, when we praise, when
- 27:38Speaker 1: we give offerings, we're working like priests. When I get
- 27:42Speaker 1: up to preach, I'm working like a prophet. Hallelujah. So oh,
- 27:47Speaker 1: while you're worshiping, I'm up under you. But when I
- 27:51Speaker 1: get up to preach, you're up under this annoying We
- 27:55Speaker 1: just acted out what the text is all about. If
- 27:59Speaker 1: the priest comes first, here comes a prophet. You provoke
- 28:03Speaker 1: the word of God by how you worship. You provoke
- 28:07Speaker 1: the word of God by how you lift him up.
- 28:10Speaker 1: You provoke the word of God by how you lift
- 28:13Speaker 1: your hands and raise your hand the priest comes before
- 28:16Speaker 1: the prophet is released. This is not just a succession.
- 28:23Speaker 1: This is a transformation, This is a revolution, this is
- 28:30Speaker 1: a move. And the irony of it is they said,
- 28:34Speaker 1: the word of the Lord was scarce in those days,
- 28:38Speaker 1: and there was no open vision, and yet the prophet
- 28:43Speaker 1: was growing in the scarcity. Y'all can't handle this. Prosperity
- 28:56Speaker 1: grows in poverty. That's why the Bible said, let the
- 29:02Speaker 1: poor say that I'm let the weak say that I'm
- 29:08Speaker 1: see You can you can. You can be weak on
- 29:11Speaker 1: top and be strong underneath. You're don't hear what I'm saying.
- 29:16Speaker 1: You can be poor on topa and have prosperity growing
- 29:20Speaker 1: up under you. It does not yet appear what you
- 29:23Speaker 1: shall be, but it's still growing up. That's why I
- 29:27Speaker 1: use the NIV, because the prophet is still a boy,
- 29:31Speaker 1: but he's coming. He's coming. He's coming, he's coming, he's coming.
- 29:35Speaker 1: Your prophecy is still a boy, but it's coming, is coming,
- 29:39Speaker 1: is coming, It's up under your priesthood. That that's why
- 29:42Speaker 1: I'm trying to get you to worship, because when you worship,
- 29:45Speaker 1: you're getting closer to releasing that prophetic utterance that exists.
- 29:50Speaker 1: In your life. And that's why the devil doesn't want
- 29:53Speaker 1: you to worship, because worship makes the water break, it
- 29:57Speaker 1: makes the baby give birth, it releases a prophetic, utterant sigh.
- 30:02Speaker 1: Somebody shall yes. And then I want to point out
- 30:12Speaker 1: the extreme generational change. It is not that Samuel and
- 30:22Speaker 1: Eli just represent two generations. The truth of the matter
- 30:29Speaker 1: is Eli is a boy. I mean Samuel is a boy.
- 30:35Speaker 1: When Eli is an old man, Samuel is young enough
- 30:40Speaker 1: to be huff NAIs son. So you got this grandfather
- 30:47Speaker 1: character who is old and the other extreme is a
- 30:55Speaker 1: boy is in the house. And it is an extreme shift.
- 31:13Speaker 1: It's gonna skip a generation. You don't see it where
- 31:20Speaker 1: you thought you would see it, But here it comes
- 31:24Speaker 1: from the place you didn't expect to see it, from
- 31:27Speaker 1: a person you didn't expect to see it, from a
- 31:31Speaker 1: woman that you thought was drunk. Here comes the change
- 31:36Speaker 1: that God's gonna bring in your life. That's why you
- 31:39Speaker 1: got to stop looking down your nose at people and
- 31:42Speaker 1: calling people out their name, because sometimes God or you
- 31:46Speaker 1: somebody you thought was drunk to be the next level
- 31:49Speaker 1: of blessing in your life. Somebody holler for me. I
- 31:54Speaker 1: feel like hollering this morning. I feel like screaming this morning.
- 32:06Speaker 1: And then when I was praying about it, the Lord said,
- 32:09Speaker 1: I want you to tell them in the night shift,
- 32:14Speaker 1: the light shimmers. In the night shift, the light shimmers.
- 32:25Speaker 1: Night doesn't mean total blackout, It says, and ere the
- 32:31Speaker 1: lamp of God went out. Now, you all were raised
- 32:35Speaker 1: with electric lights, and I was too, But when I
- 32:38Speaker 1: went to my grandmother's house, they would have candle lights
- 32:41Speaker 1: and all lamps. And when the lamps were going out,
- 32:45Speaker 1: as they start to go out, they flicker, flickering. The
- 32:53Speaker 1: night has shimmering light, moments of illumination, glimpses, shadows, moments
- 33:09Speaker 1: of revelation, moments of insight. You can't see it clearly
- 33:17Speaker 1: because it's shimmering, but you've cut glimpses. You would have fraided,
- 33:24Speaker 1: but you caught shimmers of light every time the devil
- 33:28Speaker 1: buddy had you. God let the light shimmer. You're steal
- 33:32Speaker 1: in the night season. But you got a flicker of light.
- 33:37Speaker 1: You got a flicker of light, And sometimes a flicker
- 33:40Speaker 1: is all you need. If you get a flicker of light,
- 33:44Speaker 1: you can hold on a little while longer. Some of
- 33:47Speaker 1: y'all came out with a flicker of light. You're like
- 33:50Speaker 1: the woman who said I don't need the loaf. If
- 33:53Speaker 1: I get a crumb, I'll come out on a crumb.
- 33:57Speaker 1: I wish I had some crummy people come out on
- 34:00Speaker 1: a crumb. If you give me a half a chance,
- 34:04Speaker 1: I'll scratch myself out the rest of the way. I
- 34:07Speaker 1: may not have had daylight, but if I got shimmering light,
- 34:11Speaker 1: if I know two script uests, if I know one
- 34:15Speaker 1: and a half scriptures, if I can sing a little bit,
- 34:19Speaker 1: I may not be on the praise team. But if
- 34:21Speaker 1: I can sing while I'm doing my dishes, I can
- 34:24Speaker 1: break her yo over my house. I want to talk
- 34:28Speaker 1: to some people that are standing in shimmering light. Make
- 34:33Speaker 1: some noise. The old man couldn't hear him. Now the
- 34:39Speaker 1: Bible said he couldn't sing, But he didn't sing anybody's ears.
- 34:45Speaker 1: But he cannot hear what the young man can hear.
- 34:51Speaker 1: The young man can hear God, and he can hear
- 34:54Speaker 1: God to the point that he's disruptive, anxious, irritated, disturbs
- 35:02Speaker 1: his sleep, cheaps getting up again. Some of you can
- 35:05Speaker 1: hear God so clear, and then when you try to
- 35:08Speaker 1: act on what God told you to do, they send
- 35:10Speaker 1: you back, and when they send you back, it plays
- 35:16Speaker 1: into your rejection issues. It plays into your abandonment issues,
- 35:21Speaker 1: and you think they don't believe in you because they
- 35:23Speaker 1: send you back. But they're sending you back because they
- 35:25Speaker 1: don't hear what you hear. All they can do is
- 35:33Speaker 1: send you back because they haven't heard what you're heard.
- 35:37Speaker 1: Somebody holler, I hear it. My money is not right,
- 35:42Speaker 1: but I hear it. My friends are not right, but
- 35:46Speaker 1: I hear it. I don't have no building for it,
- 35:49Speaker 1: but I hear it. Somebody holler, I hear it. I'm
- 35:53Speaker 1: preaching that. Somebody online. I hear it. It won't let
- 35:57Speaker 1: me rest. It won't let me rest. It won't let
- 35:59Speaker 1: me lay down. He won't let me speak. Because I
- 36:01Speaker 1: keep hearing it. I don't know how to do it,
- 36:04Speaker 1: but I hear it. Now, what's this? This is why
- 36:12Speaker 1: we can't throw either extremes away. I'm not talking about
- 36:17Speaker 1: you and your parents. I'm talking about from grandparent on down.
- 36:23Speaker 1: Eli can't hear it, but he can interpret it. Samuel
- 36:35Speaker 1: can hear it, but he don't know what to do
- 36:38Speaker 1: with it. So when Eli perceives that the Lord had
- 36:44Speaker 1: called him, not only did he perceive that God had
- 36:47Speaker 1: called him. He told him what to say. See some
- 36:55Speaker 1: of us. God has kept us in the earth just
- 36:58Speaker 1: to tell you what to do with what you got.
- 37:01Speaker 1: We're not trying to control you. We're trying to stop
- 37:05Speaker 1: the vicious cycle of going back and forth and back
- 37:09Speaker 1: and forth, and back and forth and back and forth.
- 37:11Speaker 1: So which we're gonna script you. It's gonna be your
- 37:16Speaker 1: job you're annoting. I'm just giving you the script, so
- 37:22Speaker 1: Eli told him. Then Eli said, go back and lay
- 37:29Speaker 1: down in your place. In other words, go back and
- 37:33Speaker 1: be where God expects you to be. Adam, where art thou.
- 37:39Speaker 1: You're not in the meeting place. Moses built a tabernacle
- 37:46Speaker 1: in the wild. And if what is tabernacle, it's a
- 37:51Speaker 1: When God sent Jesus, he sent divinity to humanity. Because
- 37:55Speaker 1: Jesus is a I am the way, the truth, and
- 38:01Speaker 1: the life. No man coming them to the Father say me,
- 38:04Speaker 1: come by me. Go back to the meeting place and
- 38:07Speaker 1: lay down, and if he calls you again. This is
- 38:15Speaker 1: the humility of the text. I cannot assume that I
- 38:26Speaker 1: have endless opportunities to go back and forth. I don't
- 38:35Speaker 1: know if you're gonna call me again. But if you
- 38:40Speaker 1: call me again, I know what to say now because
- 38:44Speaker 1: I have served under Eli. So there's this big argument
- 38:51Speaker 1: going on in the world in some parts of the
- 38:53Speaker 1: world today, the generational argument between the former and the latter,
- 39:00Speaker 1: and they're arguing over who's relevant, who they both are,
- 39:08Speaker 1: the reason they both are. He called the young because
- 39:10Speaker 1: they're strong. He called the old because they they know
- 39:13Speaker 1: the way. They know the way. Eli was old, but
- 39:17Speaker 1: he knew the way. He couldn't run the place, but
- 39:21Speaker 1: he knew the way. You understand what I'm talking about.
- 39:26Speaker 1: So one doesn't operate independent of the other. So the
- 39:31Speaker 1: day shift can't go home before the night shift comes on.
- 39:41Speaker 1: The knight shift can't go home until the day shift
- 39:45Speaker 1: comes back. And God said, until you learn how to
- 39:49Speaker 1: work interdependently, you will never be effective. Because I can't
- 39:58Speaker 1: run the plays anymore, but I know how to play
- 40:01Speaker 1: the game. The challenge of the older generation is to
- 40:16Speaker 1: not be jealous of the younger generation to the point
- 40:22Speaker 1: that you won't give them the benefit of what you learn.
- 40:32Speaker 1: The challenge of the younger generation is to understand that
- 40:37Speaker 1: some old systems still work, and in your desire to
- 40:45Speaker 1: be innovative, there are still some laws you can't break,
- 40:50Speaker 1: and one of them is to lay down in the
- 40:53Speaker 1: right place and wait on the Lord. And if I
- 41:02Speaker 1: can't make it call you, that's how I. I can't
- 41:07Speaker 1: make it call you. I can't make it seek. I
- 41:12Speaker 1: can't even make you go to the place. But yeah,
- 41:16Speaker 1: you go back to the place. See, I gotta stop.
- 41:24Speaker 1: The powerful thing to me about watching you run around
- 41:30Speaker 1: the stage and preach is I remember you as a
- 41:35Speaker 1: little girl sitting right over there in the corner with
- 41:41Speaker 1: your head down, to come back full circle to the place.
- 41:59Speaker 1: God said, I'm a blas shot, right right in the
- 42:04Speaker 1: place where you felt rejection, right in the place where
- 42:06Speaker 1: you felt disgraced, right in the place where you felt shame,
- 42:09Speaker 1: right in the place where you thought nobody would ever
- 42:11Speaker 1: accept you, Right in the place where you thought you'd
- 42:14Speaker 1: never be anybody. God said, that's still a place, And
- 42:17Speaker 1: I'm gonna bring you back to the place. I'm gonna
- 42:19Speaker 1: bring you right back to the spot, to the spot,
- 42:22Speaker 1: to the very spot. Show me where you laid him down,
- 42:26Speaker 1: show me where you came up, show me where you
- 42:29Speaker 1: wanted to quit, show me where you wanted to run from,
- 42:32Speaker 1: show me where you're trying to hide from I'm gonna
- 42:35Speaker 1: bring you right back to the blade. Sign you up.
- 42:50Speaker 1: See they shot because they see the woman preaching. I'm
- 42:54Speaker 1: over here showing because I see the little girl preacher.
- 42:58Speaker 1: I see the little girl preacher who thought her life
- 43:01Speaker 1: was over. That's what I'm shouting about, because you always
- 43:06Speaker 1: meet my baby. So I see you like you're steal
- 43:09Speaker 1: a child sitting over the corner with big Billy holding
- 43:13Speaker 1: Malachi in your arms. Now what you're holding, and it
- 43:40Speaker 1: ain't just for her, It's for you too, some of
- 43:43Speaker 1: you gods getting ready to do something in your life.
- 43:46Speaker 1: He's gonna break every curse, every bondas, every shame, every
- 43:50Speaker 1: struggle on your life. If I'm preaching to you giving
- 43:54Speaker 1: him sixty seconds of crazy, I need no no, no.
- 43:58Speaker 2: No crazy. Pray don't break and play yoke, break and
- 44:02Speaker 2: pays quint and pray. Pray that like you lost your mine.
- 44:07Speaker 2: Pray that like that, just hard from God. Play them
- 44:10Speaker 2: like you got another tad. Play them like he opened
- 44:13Speaker 2: up a door. The Lord said to me. The Lord
- 44:38Speaker 2: said to me, there are some people in this room
- 44:42Speaker 2: that he's trying to call you back to the place
- 44:49Speaker 2: of your confusion of your chaos, that there's gonna be
- 44:55Speaker 2: a night shift. Wait wait, wait, me give you this prophecy.
- 45:01Speaker 2: The Lord said to Samuel, I'm going to do things
- 45:05Speaker 2: through you that causes both ears of them that hear
- 45:12Speaker 2: it to tingle. I am going to use you like
- 45:22Speaker 2: no other prophet has ever been used in the scriptures.
- 45:29Speaker 2: I'm gonna use you in life. I'm gonna use you
- 45:32Speaker 2: after your life. I'm gonna use you to annoy kings.
- 45:37Speaker 2: I'm gonna bring you before princess. I'm gonna bring you
- 45:40Speaker 2: into positions of power and if I don't know, if
- 45:43Speaker 2: you've got faith enough.
- 45:44Speaker 1: To believe it. And God said all of that when
- 45:50Speaker 1: Samuel had not yet known the Lord. Now this is
- 46:16Speaker 1: not just about churches. This is about your life, your business,
- 46:23Speaker 1: your career, your degree, your entrepreneurship. Whatever you're calling in
- 46:32Speaker 1: the earth is whatever you're calling. Everybody ain't calling to
- 46:35Speaker 1: the pulpit. Everybody's not supposed to do this, everybody's not
- 46:38Speaker 1: created to do this. Don't be one dimensional. There are
- 46:42Speaker 1: some things that God created you for that you had
- 46:44Speaker 1: some delays and some setbacks and some mistakes and some mishaps,
- 46:51Speaker 1: and God wants you to come back to the place. Yes,
- 46:54Speaker 1: shadda k bull cha da, God said, go back to
- 46:58Speaker 1: the place where you heard my voice speak Lord, for
- 47:14Speaker 1: the servant here is