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Potent Faith - Bishop T.D. Jakes · Pst T.D Jakes -The POTTER'S HOUSE

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Get your Bible, stand to your feet, and let's go
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  Speaker 1: to the Word of God, Romans chapter 4. We're going
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  Speaker 1: to do a lot of reading tonight now. Romans chapter 4,
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  Speaker 1: verse 1 through 25. Yeah, I'm going to read the
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  Speaker 1: whole thing.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Some of y'all ain't read your Bible all week.
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  Speaker 1: So just this is making up for them other days
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  Speaker 1: that you didn't get to do it.
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  Speaker 2: I know you meant to. I know you meant to.
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  Speaker 2: I know you meant to. But you're going to get
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  Speaker 2: to do it tonight. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Because it is important that you see the entirety of
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  Speaker 1: the thought. Let me show you something before we read.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: And I love social media. I thank God for the
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  Speaker 1: good parts of it and what it can do and
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  Speaker 1: how it helps people and how you can minister to
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  Speaker 1: people in a few moments of time, in a minute
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  Speaker 1: of time, you can compact a message and bless them.
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  Speaker 1: But a lot of times it breeds confusion because they
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  Speaker 1: don't get to hear the statement in context. People jump
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  Speaker 1: to conclusions and comment on stuff without really understanding the parameters.
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  Speaker 1: And tonight we want to put this text in context.
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  Speaker 1: By reading the whole chapter, we begin to get some
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  Speaker 1: kind of understanding of what the Apostle Paul is trying
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  Speaker 1: to accomplish.
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  Speaker 2: Are you ready?
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  Speaker 1: What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, according
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  Speaker 1: to the flesh, discovered in this matter? If in fact
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  Speaker 1: Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about,
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  Speaker 1: but not before God. What does scripture say? Abraham believed
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  Speaker 1: God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Pay
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  Speaker 1: close attention to that. Abraham believed God and it was credited,
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  Speaker 1: an accounting term. It was a credit to him as righteousness.
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  Speaker 1: He wasn't righteous. But God gave him credit as if
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  Speaker 1: he were righteous because he believed God. Now to the
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  Speaker 1: one who works, wages are not credited as a gift,
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  Speaker 1: but as an obligation. That when I get to payday
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  Speaker 1: and they give me my paycheck, I don't have to
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  Speaker 1: feel obligated to say thank you because I earned that.
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  Speaker 1: I worked for that and I'm due that. You ain't
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  Speaker 1: doing nothing but what you're supposed to do. But if
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  Speaker 1: you just walk up and give me something I didn't earn,
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  Speaker 1: that's a gift, right? And what Abraham got from God,
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  Speaker 1: he didn't earn. However, to the one who does not
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  Speaker 1: work but trusts God, who justifies the ungodly, their faith
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  Speaker 1: is credited as righteousness. You ought to be shouting right
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  Speaker 1: there with your nasty self. You ought to be thanking
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  Speaker 1: God right there. With your stubborn self, you ought to
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  Speaker 1: be praising God right there. Because if it wasn't for
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  Speaker 1: that text, you wouldn't get into heaven. Heaven would slam
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  Speaker 1: all its doors and lock all its windows. But God
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  Speaker 1: credited righteousness to your account. David says the same thing
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  Speaker 1: when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to
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  Speaker 1: whom God credits righteousness.
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  Speaker 2: Apart from works.
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  Speaker 1: So the apostle Paul here has given us two illustrations.
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  Speaker 1: One about Abraham. Now he's talking about David. And he
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  Speaker 1: quotes David, blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven.
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  Speaker 2: Whose sins are covered.
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  Speaker 1: Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never, never, never,
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  Speaker 1: never count against them. People will count it, but God
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  Speaker 1: will not count it against you. People will bring it up,
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  Speaker 1: but God won't bring it up against you. Is this
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  Speaker 1: blessedness only for the circumcised or for the Jews or
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  Speaker 1: also for the uncircumcised, the Gentiles? We have been saying
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  Speaker 1: that Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness. In
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  Speaker 1: other words, no one group of people can hold this
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  Speaker 1: kind of accounting apart from any other group of people
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  Speaker 1: because God so loved the world that he gave his
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  Speaker 1: only begotten son that whosoever what? believeth in him shall
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  Speaker 1: not perish but have everlasting life. Under what circumstances was
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  Speaker 1: it credited? Was it after he was circumcised or before?
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  Speaker 1: It was not after but before.
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  Speaker 2: That's important.
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  Speaker 1: It was not after but before. It was not after
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  Speaker 1: but before. So it wasn't what Abraham did. Circumcision is
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  Speaker 1: not the covenant. It is the sign of the covenant.
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  Speaker 1: righteousness is not living right is not how you get
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  Speaker 1: saved you get saved so you can live right and
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  Speaker 1: he received circumcision as a sign a seal of the
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  Speaker 1: righteousness that he had by faith while he was still
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  Speaker 1: uncircumcised God he had it by faith while he was
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  Speaker 1: still uncircumcised he didn't cut himself to get it he
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  Speaker 1: cut himself because he had it Oh, I can stop
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  Speaker 1: right there. That's a whole Bible class. So then he
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  Speaker 1: is the father of all who believe. He is the
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  Speaker 1: father of all who believe but have not been circumcised
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  Speaker 1: in order that righteousness might be credited to them. Remember
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  Speaker 1: we're in Romans. Remember we're in Romans. Remember that Rome
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  Speaker 1: is a metropolitan, cosmopolitan area that is filled with a
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  Speaker 1: lot of hedonistic practices as well as some Jews and
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  Speaker 1: a lot of different sects and other sects, not sects.
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  Speaker 1: sex and different types of religious philosophies and into this
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  Speaker 1: environment Paul is equalizing he's bringing a level playing field
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  Speaker 1: he's giving the same opportunity to the uncircumcised as he's
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  Speaker 1: giving to the circumcised he's giving those who have been
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  Speaker 1: idolatrous the same opportunity even though they have not been
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  Speaker 1: zealous concerning the law he has brought them to a
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  Speaker 1: level playing floor by making the criteria Just believing on God,
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  Speaker 1: just to believe him, just to believe him. And then
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  Speaker 1: he reminds the Jews that the father of their faith,
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  Speaker 1: who is Abraham, entered into covenant with God before he
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  Speaker 1: was circumcised so they will not glory in their flesh.
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  Speaker 1: They will not glory in their righteousness. They will not
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  Speaker 1: glory in what you don't do. They will not glory
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  Speaker 1: in how they grew up in the church. They will
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  Speaker 1: not glory in the fact that they've never been in
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  Speaker 1: a club. They will not glory in the fact that
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  Speaker 1: they never had sex before they got married. They will
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  Speaker 1: not glory in the fact that they never smoked a cigarette.
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  Speaker 1: They will not glory in any human work because all
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  Speaker 1: of that is good, but it didn't make you saved.
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  Speaker 1: Some people live better by nature than you do by habit.
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  Speaker 2: Come on.
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  Speaker 1: And he is then also the father of the circumcised
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  Speaker 1: who not only are circumcised, but who also follow in
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  Speaker 1: the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had
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  Speaker 1: before he was circumcised.
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  Speaker 2: Come on.
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  Speaker 1: It was not though through the law that Abraham and
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  Speaker 1: his offspring received the promise. It was not through the
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  Speaker 1: law that Abraham and his offspring received the promises. That
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  Speaker 1: he would be heir of the world, but through the
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  Speaker 1: righteousness that comes by faith. That's got to be right
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  Speaker 1: because the law didn't come to Moses. So Abraham was
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  Speaker 1: not justified by keeping the law. And now he's talking
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  Speaker 1: to a people who feel like that the strength of
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  Speaker 1: their faith is in the execution of the law and
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  Speaker 1: the demonstration of the law. But Abraham has received the
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  Speaker 1: same dimension of righteousness and Moses hasn't come yet. So
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  Speaker 1: it couldn't have been under the law. Are you with me?
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  Speaker 1: For if those who depend on the law are heirs,
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  Speaker 1: faith means nothing. And the promise is worthless because the
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  Speaker 1: law brings wrath. The law brings wrath. The law brings wrath.
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  Speaker 1: The Bible said when the law revived, when the law came,
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  Speaker 1: sin revived and I died. So when the law came in, okay,
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  Speaker 1: let me break it down.
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  Speaker 2: I'm driving down the highway.
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  Speaker 1: There is no speed limit. There is no sign. They
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  Speaker 1: cannot pull me over for speeding where there is no law.
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  Speaker 1: But the moment they put the sign up that says
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  Speaker 1: 65 or 55 or 75 and I'm doing 82, the
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  Speaker 1: law revives sin. Now I get the ticket because the
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  Speaker 1: law legislates a barrier. That now my behavior is sinful
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  Speaker 1: because of the law. So when the law came, sin
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  Speaker 1: revived and I died. That's what that means. Because the
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  Speaker 1: law brings wrath. And where there is no law, come
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  Speaker 1: on here, there is no transgression.
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  Speaker 2: Okay?
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  Speaker 1: Therefore, the promise comes by faith. so that it may
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  Speaker 1: be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring,
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  Speaker 1: not only to those who are of the law, but
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  Speaker 1: also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He
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  Speaker 1: is the father of us all. Okay, come on, stay
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  Speaker 1: with me. Come on, I'm reading a lot, but stay
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  Speaker 1: with me. As it is written, I have made you
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  Speaker 1: a father of many nations. I have made you a father.
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  Speaker 1: I have made you a father of many nations he
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  Speaker 1: is our father in the sight of God in whom
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  Speaker 1: he believed the God who gives life to the dead
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  Speaker 1: oh they're strong The God who gives life to the
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  Speaker 1: dead and calls into being things that were not.
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  Speaker 2: The God who gives life to the dead.
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  Speaker 1: Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became
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  Speaker 1: the father of many nations. Just as it had been
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  Speaker 1: said to him, so shall your offspring be. Without weakening
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  Speaker 1: in his faith, he faced the fact that his body
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  Speaker 1: was as good as dead. He faced it without weakening
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  Speaker 1: in his faith. He faced the facts with faith. The
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  Speaker 1: facts were he was impotent. But he didn't stagger. That's
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  Speaker 1: what King James says. He didn't stagger at the promise.
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  Speaker 1: He knew the facts. He didn't deny the facts. But
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  Speaker 1: his faith overrode the facts. Somebody right now, the facts
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  Speaker 1: are not working in your favor. but your faith has
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  Speaker 1: to override the facts. You don't have to go into
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  Speaker 1: denial about the facts. You can face the facts and
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  Speaker 1: still have faith as a higher principle than overrides the facts.
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  Speaker 1: And people are giving you the facts and you don't
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  Speaker 1: have to get mad and talk, I don't receive it,
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  Speaker 1: and start acting a Christian fool. You can go ahead
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  Speaker 1: and say, yeah, that's true. But I believe he faced
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  Speaker 1: the facts and That his body was as good as dead.
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  Speaker 1: He faced the fact that he was impotent. Since he
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  Speaker 1: was about a hundred years old. And that Sarah's womb
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  Speaker 1: was also dead.
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  Speaker 2: Dead, dead, dead.
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  Speaker 1: Dead but remember that verse before the God who gives
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  Speaker 1: life to the dead that's a clue that's a big
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  Speaker 1: old clue everything's dead dead dead dead he's dead she's
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  Speaker 1: dead no kid has come and God is talking about
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  Speaker 1: his offspring and the fact is his body is dead
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  Speaker 1: her womb is dead but the hint was God gives
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  Speaker 1: life to the dead So the underwritten theme of the
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  Speaker 1: text leads us to God who is the resurrection from
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  Speaker 1: the dead. Resurrection. Are you following what I'm saying? When
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  Speaker 1: you think of resurrection, you think of funeral homes and
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  Speaker 1: graveyards and cemeteries. But with Abraham, resurrection....
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  Speaker 2: Come on somebody.
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  Speaker 1: Come on resurrection meant something different because he faced the
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  Speaker 1: fact that his body was dead. We don't have to
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  Speaker 1: go into denial about his body being dead no more
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  Speaker 1: than we have to go into denial that Christ died
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  Speaker 1: on the cross. Because if we go into denial and
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  Speaker 1: say he wasn't really dead then there is no resurrection.
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  Speaker 1: So in order for the resurrection to have power then
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  Speaker 1: you have to also understand that he was dead. And
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  Speaker 1: he was dead. And they mourned his death. And they
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  Speaker 1: put him in the grave. And they buried that which
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  Speaker 1: was dead. And what makes Sunday so opulent is the
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  Speaker 1: Friday that preceded it.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, come on somebody.
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  Speaker 1: Abraham did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God.
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  Speaker 1: He didn't waver. He didn't stagger. He didn't back up
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  Speaker 1: from it. He stood up. He saw the facts. He
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  Speaker 1: didn't lie about the facts. He didn't face the fact.
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  Speaker 1: He knew the truth of the matter was he was impotent,
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  Speaker 1: but he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise
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  Speaker 1: of God, but was strengthened. It was strengthened, was strengthened
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  Speaker 1: in his faith and gave glory to God. Now that's
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  Speaker 1: a praise when you can give glory to God, still
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  Speaker 1: embracing the facts, but knowing the faith that God has
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  Speaker 1: given me a promise that overrides the fact. The fact
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  Speaker 1: is my credit is bad, but my faith says God's
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  Speaker 1: about to open up a door.
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  Speaker 2: Come on, somebody. Come on.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not going to have to lie and say the
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  Speaker 1: devil is a liar. He's not lying. My credit is bad,
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  Speaker 1: but God still said before the year is out, I'm
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  Speaker 1: going to have my own house. And I'm calling those
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  Speaker 1: things that are not as though they were because I
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  Speaker 1: believe God. And I'm not going to stagger. At the
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  Speaker 1: promise of God. But I'm going to stand right up
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  Speaker 1: to it. Glory to God. Start picking out drapes. And
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  Speaker 1: looking at carpet. Because God has given me a promise.
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  Speaker 1: Being fully persuaded. That God had power. To do what
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  Speaker 1: he had promised. See, your faith is not in you
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  Speaker 1: having power. He didn't have faith in his own body.
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  Speaker 1: He didn't have faith in his own flesh. He didn't
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  Speaker 1: have faith in his own potency. But he had faith
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  Speaker 1: in the potency of God that God could wake up
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  Speaker 1: the dead. Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up,
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  Speaker 1: wake up. God could wake up the dead. This is
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  Speaker 1: why it was credited to him as righteousness.
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  Speaker 2: Ooh, this is good.
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  Speaker 1: See why I wanted to read all this? The words
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  Speaker 1: it was credited to him were written not for him alone.
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  Speaker 1: That's why we're studying the word of God. Because Abraham
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  Speaker 1: did not have exclusivity over this principle. Because God is
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  Speaker 1: not a respecter of persons. This principle is applicable not
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  Speaker 1: to him alone, but to us also. But also for
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  Speaker 1: us to whom God will credit righteousness. Credit righteousness. For
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  Speaker 1: us who believe in him, who, oh, there it is.
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  Speaker 1: Raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead. We got a
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  Speaker 1: dead Jesus. We got a dead Abraham. We got a
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  Speaker 1: dead woman, Sarah. But in all three cases, God is
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  Speaker 1: raising the dead, not for them only, but for you also.
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  Speaker 1: Do you have something you would need God to raise
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  Speaker 1: in your life? You came on the right night tonight. Hallelujah.
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  Speaker 1: He was delivered over to death for our sins and
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  Speaker 1: raised to life for our justification. Can you say amen?
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  Speaker 1: Tonight we're going to talk about potent faith. Potent faith.
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  Speaker 1: Spirit of the living God fall fresh on us as
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  Speaker 1: we consider the word of God tonight. We thank you
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  Speaker 1: for the privilege of understanding and studying and embracing the
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  Speaker 1: reality of your word. We realize that embracing the reality
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  Speaker 1: of the word sets us in contradiction often with the culture.
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  Speaker 1: who is only concerned with that which is tangible, physical,
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  Speaker 1: or factual. Our faith overrides the factual and rides on
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  Speaker 1: the wave of a belief system that opens doors for
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  Speaker 1: which we cannot take credit. Many of the things that
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  Speaker 1: we have received already, we have not received them because
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  Speaker 1: we deserve them, but because of your unmerited grace and
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  Speaker 1: favor that you've excluded to us and made us eligible
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  Speaker 1: and counted it to us as righteousness. Thank you for
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  Speaker 1: potent faith. We're now ready to study your word. In
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  Speaker 1: Jesus' name, amen. You sit the whole rest of the night.
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  Speaker 1: I had you standing so long, your bunions are hurting.
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  Speaker 1: Potent faith. Let us look at the fact that we
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  Speaker 1: are in the book of Romans. This epistle, believed to
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  Speaker 1: have been written by the Apostle Paul, is written to
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  Speaker 1: Rome at a time that the church is transitioning from
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  Speaker 1: a headquarters that had been in Jerusalem. But Jerusalem had
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  Speaker 1: rejected Christianity as a whole. And gradually over time, Christianity
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  Speaker 1: began to root in Rome. The one thing that we
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  Speaker 1: know about the Apostle Paul for sure is that he
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  Speaker 1: is good at laying foundations. We know this because in
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  Speaker 1: the book of Acts, the Bible says that he laid
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  Speaker 1: foundation for the church at Ephesus for three years. He said,
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  Speaker 1: I cease not to warn you both day and night
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  Speaker 1: that after my departure, grievous wolves would come in amongst you.
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  Speaker 1: But I tried to fortify you. Now I commend you
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  Speaker 1: to God and to the word of his grace, which
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  Speaker 1: is able to build you up and give you an
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  Speaker 1: inheritance amongst all them that are sanctified. He spent three
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  Speaker 1: years laying foundation in Ephesus. And Ephesus will not be
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  Speaker 1: the epicenter for the church. How much more does Paul
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  Speaker 1: labor in this eloquent depiction of faith and grace to
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  Speaker 1: make sure that this letter is written to dispel controversy,
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  Speaker 1: to anchor them in truth, to lay a definite foundation
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  Speaker 1: up under them that stops Christianity from being neutralized into
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  Speaker 1: the cesspool of spirituality. You know how everybody now, they say,
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  Speaker 1: I'm not a Christian, I'm spiritual. That's a cesspool. It
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  Speaker 1: catches everything. What does that mean? I can be new
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  Speaker 1: age and be spiritual. I can be into mysticism and
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  Speaker 1: be spiritual. I can be into witchcraft and be spiritual.
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  Speaker 1: What does that mean? Christianity has to set itself apart
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  Speaker 1: in distinction rather than to be neutralized in the waste
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  Speaker 1: bucket of a cesspool of commonality where it disguises itself
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  Speaker 1: as spiritual. There's no power in saying I'm spiritual. The
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  Speaker 1: power is in the name of Jesus. The power is
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  Speaker 1: in the blood of the cross. The power is taking
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  Speaker 1: the persecution for being different.
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  Speaker 2: The power is in standing out.
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  Speaker 1: And Paul here is laying the foundation in Rome for
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  Speaker 1: which the epicenter of the Christian faith will evolve. So
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  Speaker 1: with great tenacity and And deliberateness, thus Paul laid that foundation. Now,
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  Speaker 1: Peter is given credit as the first pope in Rome.
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  Speaker 1: That's what the Catholics say. He's given credit for bringing
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  Speaker 1: Christianity into Rome. But it is Paul's eloquence that gives
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  Speaker 1: good theology to Peter's anointing. Did you get that? Okay,
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  Speaker 1: so Peter has a great grace on his life, but
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  Speaker 1: Paul has great truth. Remember when the Bible said, we
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  Speaker 1: beheld the wonder of his glory, the only begotten of
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  Speaker 1: the Father, full of what?
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  Speaker 2: Grace and what?
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  Speaker 1: So it's not enough to have grace that's anointing and
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  Speaker 1: not have truth that's sound theology. Paul is laying sound
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  Speaker 1: theology so that they won't just have Peter's anointing, but
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  Speaker 1: they'll have an absolute identity and clarity as to what
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  Speaker 1: is and is not Christianity. And the problem with the
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  Speaker 1: church today is that we do not know who we are.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: We say amen to everybody and everything that sounds good
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: and we do not understand the distinction.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: Of who we are.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying that we should isolate ourselves and stay
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: away from everybody else because you can't win people that
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: you don't talk to. But if you don't know who
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: you are, they'll win you. Now, God has sent Paul
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: in because Paul has the spiritual gift and the intellectualism
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: to be able to wrestle down the doubters and the
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: skeptics into a common understanding of the grace of God
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: that has equalized an opportunity for both the uncircumcised and
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: the circumcised to come through the same door. Now, we
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: don't really get it because we're from a Western culture
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: where And we don't understand that true Orthodox Jews would
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: break their plate before they would eat with a Gentile.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: They wouldn't even eat with you. So they refer to
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: you as dogs. The notion that God would be gracious
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: enough to let dogs have the children's bread. was absolutely unthinkable.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: It would be like letting your puppy sit at your
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: dining room table and eat off of your mama's china.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: That's how rigid orthodoxy is. And when you have been
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: taught a rigid theology, grace sounds wishy-washy. And that's still
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: true today. People who come from churches who are always
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: fussing and fighting about everything have difficulty understanding grace for
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: anybody else. And the reason they're so hard on you
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: is because they cannot receive grace for themselves. Blessed are
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. See, if you
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: can't be merciful with me, you can't obtain mercy for you.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: If you can believe that God can forgive you, then
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: you got to leave the door open and let me
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: in too. Because the same wretchedness that made you need
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: grace is the same wretchedness that made me need grace too.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: And grace then flows because if you can receive it,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: you can give it. But if you can't receive it,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: you can't give it. That goes for love. If you
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: can't receive love, you can't give love. That goes for friendship.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: If you want friends, you must show yourself friendly. If
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: something doesn't change in you, it's not going to change
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: in other people. So maybe you've been praying for them
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: when you ought to be praying for you.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: Amen. Okay, I'm going to leave that alone. So Paul is.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: Bringing theology to this new holy thing we call the church.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: It is nebulous without his writings. It is indistinct without
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: his writings. It is not absolute without his writings. And
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: most of New Testament theology has come from the pen
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: of Paul. Paul writes the book of Romans, it is
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: the Magna Carta of theology as it relates to grace.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: It is flamboyant grace. Correctly spoken, the Bible when it
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: says in Romans that it is freely, grace is freely given,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: the word there should be promiscuous. It is gracious flirtatious.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: It is gracious walking up and down the hall saying,
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: you want some? That's how gracious God's grace is. It's
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: not because you're rich. It's not because you're fine. It's
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: not because you're cute. It's just that grace is promiscuous.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: And grace is so promiscuous that it will overlook everything
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: that you did wrong and.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: Say, you want some? And if you can believe him,
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: you can receive.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: Right beside the person who's sitting beside you right now
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: who never did have the stuff that you did for
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: practice and the same blood that fell on them fell
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: on you and your equal opportunity exists for you to
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: receive the same redemption. Even though you came in at
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: the last hour, you got the same pay as the
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: person who's been working all day because grace is promiscuous
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: towards you. Are you following me? God has given Paul
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: this assignment to write to Rome. And there are several
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: reasons why he would do that. Paul, whose surname is Saul,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: he is a Hebrew, but he is also a citizen
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: of Rome. Okay, he is a citizen of Rome. And
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: many times they sought to kill him, but because he
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: was a citizen of Rome, they had to let him
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: go because Paul is a citizen of Rome. So when
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: you think of Rome, just for the purpose, I've been
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: to Rome, but just for the purpose of thinking about Rome,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: think about Rome like New York. And you go in
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: New York and you walk down the street and somebody
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: is speaking Mandarin and you go down a little further
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: and there's a couple speaking French and you're going a
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: little further and somebody's hollering Spanish off the back of
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: a truck and you go a little further and somebody's
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: speaking Swahili and you're still in New York.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: That's Rome.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: It is the epicenter of government, of political prowess and power.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: It is the America.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: Of its age.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: It has taken over colonizations and territories around about them
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: and extended its power until Caesar has become an emperor
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: of such influence and such power that people were terrified
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: of him because he was taking over dominions And territories
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: of which Rome is at the apex. And Paul has
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: come to Rome. He writes to Rome. His coming to Rome.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: was preceded by a storm where the ship fell apart.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: Because when the enemy knows that you're about to come
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: into your destiny, he will send all kinds of storms
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: and all kinds of shipwrecks to stop you from getting there.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: The snake comes out to bite him and he shakes
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: the snake, but he can't stay at Malata because he
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: must proceed to Rome because Rome is to be the
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: place where Christianity is to flourish and spread across the world.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: Rome is the epicenter of government and Athens is the
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: epicenter of language. The Greek language was like English is.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: You can go to almost any country in the world
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: and somebody there speaks English because English has become a
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: common second language even if it's not your first language.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: That's the way the Greek language was in that day.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: And so when Paul comes to Athens and he starts
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: preaching the gospel there and he says, I perceive that
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: you are superstitious. And he comes to them and begins
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: to teach how they have a sign up to the
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: unknown God. And he starts teaching them about Jesus. It
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: is because they have the language that will spread around
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: the world. Rome has the government. The Greeks had the language.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: Ephesus was the epicenter of finance and commerce. Now government
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: is controlling everything and Paul has come and he is
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: now writing to Rome.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: You understand that?
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: So when you read his writings, you have to understand
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: that he is a citizen of Rome, but he is
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: a Hebrew by descent. Like I am African by descent,
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: but I am a citizen of America. So when I
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: go to Africa, no matter how much I look like
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: the Africans, they will always say he is an American.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: And I just hurt my feelings so bad because I
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: got on the dashiki and everything and I got corn
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: rolls in my hair and I'm eating fufu and jollof
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: rice and they still say I'm an American because they
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: do not color code as we do in this country.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: I am a citizen of America, but descent, I am
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: an African. Okay, so if you did my DNA, you
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: would find out that I am African. But if you
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: check my driver's license, you would find out I am
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: a citizen of America. That's who Paul is in this situation.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: So he has a certain ambidextrous ability to be able
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: to ascend and condescend and reach all levels of people
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: because when it comes to being a Jew, he is
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: a Pharisee, which means that he is an adamant Orthodox
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: historical Jew. That's the background he comes from. He comes
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: from a background that wouldn't touch the Romans. And yet
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: God sends him to the very thing that he once hated.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: That's a message all by itself. So regarding tribe, he
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: is from the tribe of Benjamin, which is the tribe
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: from which Saul came, the beginning of kings. So he
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: is a descendant of a king coming into a kingdom
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: to represent a kingdom that is not of this world.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: And when he introduces this kingdom, he sets himself at
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: odds with both the circumcised and the uncircumcised. The uncircumcised
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: find him strange because he has opened the door to
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: have access to Yahweh in a way that the Jews
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: have not. And the Jews think he is a heretic
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: because he is now sitting down eating with these sinful,
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: barbarous type people. Grace does not seek to exclude anybody
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: from having a seat at the table. I'm still just
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: setting it up. I haven't even gotten into it. He
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: is converted to Christianity on the road to Damascus. He
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: is a theological scholar. He is an intellect. His work
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: here reads like a legal argument. When you read the
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: way he processes his argument, he does it By bringing
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: up Abraham. He brings up Abraham. So I'm going to
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: talk about the person Abraham. He brings up Abraham because
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: Abraham ultimately will represent intersectionality. Let me break that down.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: I'm going to take my time. This is Bible class.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: This is not Sunday morning, okay? You must first realize
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: that Abraham wasn't always called Abraham.
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: He was called Abram.
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: And that when God first called him, he was living
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: in Mesopotamia and he was a Chaldean. And he was
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: an idolater, Abraham. And God called him, get thee away
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: from thy country and away from your kin and go
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: to a place that I.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: Will show thee.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: And God called a covenant and called the Hebrew family
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: out of the loins of a Gentile. If you miss that,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: you missed the whole thing. If you don't get that,
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: you're going to be lost. Abram was a Gentile that
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: becomes a Hebrew because of the covenant he has with God.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: He is to Hebraistic theology, the Adam of the faith.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: He is the beginning of a new order and a
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: new thing. See, God will do something new in the
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: middle of something old. God does a new thing. He
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: starts a new race of people out of an old
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: race of people.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: He starts a new ethnicity.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: It's like when God had the children of Israel in
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: the middle of the wilderness and he says, this shall
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: be the beginning amongst you. It wasn't the beginning, but
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: God said, it's New Year's Day. Why is it New
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: Year's Day? Because I say so. And if I call
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: it new, you can't call it old. And if I
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: call it clean, you can't call it dirty. And if
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: I call it righteous, you can't call it unrighteous. Because
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: I am not a man that I should lie or
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: the son of man that I should repent. If I
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: speak a thing, it is what I say it is.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: Glory to God. So God comes along and takes this
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: idolatrous family. Abraham's father Nahor brings him out of Mesopotamia,
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: which is the modern day Iraq. He brings him out
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: of Mesopotamia, away from his country, away from his kindred,
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: And says, I'm going to start a race of people
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: with you. And you will be the father of many nations.
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: And Abraham says, excuse me, Lord. I don't have no kids.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: And my chance for having kids is gone. I ain't
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: going to explain that. But you should have done this sooner.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: Look at the many people today who think you are
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: no longer eligible for what God wants to do in
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: your life because of a mistake you made or an
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: age you have or a circumstance you're in and you're
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: telling God you should have done this sooner. God waited
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: till you couldn't do it so that you wouldn't get
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: no glory out of it being done.
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: Come on, somebody. And so God.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: Says to him, through thy seed shall all nations, all
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: nations of the earth be blessed. You will be the
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: father of many nations. The Chaldeans were people who lived
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: in southern Babylonia, which would be the southern part of
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: Iraq today. That's where Abram comes from. And now we
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: see him as the father of the faith. Sometimes the
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: term Chaldean means is used to refer to Babylonians in general.
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: But normally, normally, normally, it.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: Refers to a specific semi-nomadic tribe of people that lived
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: in the southern part of Babylon. Are you following me?
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: The land of the Chaldeans was the southern portion of
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: Babylon or Mesopotamia, or in the Old Testament, it called
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: it Ur.
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: Follow me.
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: I'm going to go deeper. Y'all with me? don't let
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: me lose you it was generally thought to be an
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: area about 400 miles long and about 100 miles wide
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: along the Tigris and the Euphrates river the thing you
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: must understand then is that Abraham the reason I want
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: you to understand that Abraham starts a new race but
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: was born a Chaldean and an idolater is that Paul
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: uses Abraham's testimony to convert Rome that how can you
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: say you're the seed of Abraham and reject these people
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: when what you are rejecting was in your father so
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: it is it is the shrewdness of an attorney that
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: he brings up Abraham who they accept to explain who
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: they reject The mastery of his mind is paramount in
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: this text because they cannot reject Abraham because he is
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: the father of their religion. And they cannot deny the
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: fact that the father of their religion was an idolater.
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: If you study the word closely, you will find when
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: God says to Abraham in Genesis 22, take now thy son,
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: thy only son, and go to a place I will
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: show you. And there I want you to offer him
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: up as a sacrifice. If you study his Chaldean background,
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: it was not strange that one of their gods would
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: receive human sacrifice.
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: Amen.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: So when God says to him, take now thy son,
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: thy only son, he knows that Abram will not stagger
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: at this because this is not as strange to him
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: as it would be to you because it aligns up
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: with his history. But God gives himself distinction because he
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: will not allow Abram to react to him the way
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: he would those idolatrous gods. He says, stay your hand, Abraham.
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: Now I know that you love me more than you
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: love the gods you had before me that you would
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: offer up if I were to ask for your son.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: I could get him. But all I wanted you to
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: do was understand how I felt when I give my son.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: If you're going to be my friend, you have to
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: have empathy for how I feel because just the way
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: you felt walking your son up to have him offer
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: it up that's the way I'm going to feel when
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: I offer up my son and if you're going to
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: be my friend we have to have shared experiences in
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: order to have deeper relationship y'all y'all y'all not shouting
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: like I'm teaching I'm teaching better than you're shouting So
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: it is no accident that Paul has called and evoked
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: Abraham to make this case to the Roman Jews because
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: he puts them in a paradoxical situation that causes them
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: to have to open up the door because he reminds
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: them that your father's father's father's father for which you
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: have all this respect was just like these people that
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: you won't eat with. I was thinking the other day
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: how they're doing all of these genealogies and everybody's getting
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: their genealogy to find out what's in them. And if
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: that continues to happen, prejudice is going to have to
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: be a thing of the past. Because what you're going
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: to find out is white folks ain't as white as
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: they thought they were. And black folks ain't as black
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: as they thought they were. And Hispanic folk aren't as
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: Hispanic as they thought they were. And how are you
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: going to hate what's in you? And eventually you're going
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: to come down to there's only one race and that's
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: the human race. And when we get down to that,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: we ain't going to have nothing else to hate each
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: other about because you're going to find out that you
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: ain't pure and I ain't either. And we're a strange
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: mix of everything. And if you hate me, you hate
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: yourself because somewhere in your DNA, you got a little
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: bit of me.
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: So it's that kind.
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: Of situation that Paul has put them in when he
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: now evokes the story of Abraham. The process of Abraham's
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: faith is based on the premise that his faith conviction
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: is not convenient to his physical predicament. His faith conviction
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: is It's not convenient to his physical predicament. That means
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: that God will always put you in a situation that
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: contradicts the situation you're in. God will not ask you
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: to do the easy thing. He will ask you to
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: do the very thing that you think you can't do.
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: He will ask you, widow woman, you getting ready to die,
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: you don't have nothing but a handful of meal, bake
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: a cake for me first. He won't ask a rich
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: person to bake a cake. He'll ask a widow who's
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: about to die to bake a cake because your extremity
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: is God's opportunity and God will come to you when
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: your hand is withered And say, stretch forth your hand.
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: And God will come to you when you're lame and say,
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: take up your bed and walk. And God will come
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: to you when you only have one lunch and say,
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: everybody sit down in groups of 50. We getting ready
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: to break some bread in here today. Because the facts
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: are you got two fish and five loaves of bread.
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: But the faith is God can take what you got
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: and multiply it to be more than enough. And so
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: don't let your feelings about your situation stop your convictions
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: about your.
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: The improbability of Abram's seed is that time is not
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: on his side.
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: And let's face it.
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: Even if God were to roll back the clock and
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: make him a young man, Sarah was always barren. She
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: was beautiful, but she was barren. She was so fine
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: that even when she was an old woman, he had
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: to lie. Because she was fine old. Abraham said, I
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: got to lie because if I tell them she's my wife,
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: they're going to kill me and take her. Now that's
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: fine when she's 90 and you have to lie. Don't
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: let it escape you that I coupled beautiful with barren.
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: Because beauty does not negate barrenness. And man looks on
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. She
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: was beautiful, but she was barren. And it is out
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: of her barren womb that God must incubate the seed.
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: So there are layers of impossibility to the promise. So
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: I don't just need one miracle. Because even if you
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: resurrect my little friend down here. Her little friend has
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: gone home to bed. And so this is a double whammy.
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: You understand? I want to talk to people that God
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: keeps saying something to you that is so different from
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: your circumstance that you can't even find anybody to tell
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: what he's saying to you because it's totally ridiculous that
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: God would say something like that to you. And yet
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: God is going to give you potent faith. He's going
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: to give you powerful faith. He's going to give you
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: yoke-breaking faith. He's going to do a thing in your life,
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: even though everybody voted you out, said you'd never be nothing,
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: threw you out, never thought you'd be any good, cursed
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: you out, laughed at you, made fun of you, spat
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: on you, you flunked out of school, you dyslexic, and
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: now God's going to do something fresh in your life. Yes,
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: because God said my strength is made perfect in your weakness.
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: And if you were strong, I wouldn't have any place
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: to be perfect. But I am the most potent when
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: you are the most impotent. And I waited till you
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: were limited so I could be limitless in your life.
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: And that's why we praise him, not because we're potent.
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: but because he's potent. Not because we got money, but
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: because he got money. Not because we got resources, but
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: because he got resources. Not because we know the king,
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: but because the heart of the king is in his hand.
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: And if God gets ready to bless me, no devil
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: in hell can curse me. And if God gets ready
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: to set me free, you can't put me in jail.
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: For he whom the son has set free is free indeed.
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: Don't pay these shackles no mind. I'm free indeed. Don't
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: pay these handcuffs any mind. I'm free indeed. Look at
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: somebody and say, I got potent faith. I got potent faith.
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: I got potent faith. I got potent faith. I got
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: potent faith. I got potent faith. I got potent faith.
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: I am not like Israel. who is like Sarah, who
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: is beautiful.
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: But barren.
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: I am not like the temple, which was beautiful, but
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: it did not have any Ark of Covenant in it,
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: and behind the veil there was nothing, which means that
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: the womb of the temple was barren. So what was
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: going on with the temple was, was going on with
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: Mother Sarah. She was beautiful. Lots of rituals, Feast of Weeks,
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: Feast of Unleavened Bread, Feast of Pentecost, but there was
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: no glory behind her. And God revealed that she was
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: barren when he went to the cross and the veil
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: in the temple was rent from the top to the bottom.
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: It exposed the barrenness of their theology.
• 48:06
  Speaker 3: Amen.
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: Because how can you offer up sacrifice in a place
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: where there is no Ark of the Covenant? So Sarah
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: is a type of the temple. She is beautiful. But barren.
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: Let me go on. Are y'all getting what I'm saying
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: to you? I want you to understand the improbability of
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: Abraham's seed goes beyond his own impotence and embraces hers.
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: And the reason I want you to see that is
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: because we are living in a society today that either
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: promotes men to the point that they are dominant, overbearing, controlling,
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: and abusive. Or now promotes women who now say men
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: are irrelevant and I don't need them and don't lift
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: them up, don't talk to me about them. Because to us,
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: it's either his fault or her fault. But God has said...
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: That Abraham is barren. And Sarah is barren. And the
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: only one in the story that got any power is me.
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: So it's not about the men. And it's not about
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: the women. It's about the glory of God. And if
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: that ever comes back in the church again. Where you
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: stop trying to prove that you got more power than me.
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: And I stop trying to prove that. that I got
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: more power than you and both of us fall on
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: our knees and say both of us are barren and
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: we need the power of God then there are no
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: male nor female Greek nor Jew bond or free we
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: become one in Christ when we stop playing tug of
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: war because if you barren you can't laugh at me
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: being impotent and if I'm impotent I can't talk about
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: you being barren so just the way God neutralizes both
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: of them he has now neutralized both the uncircumcised and
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: the circumcised and brought them down to the common denominator
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: that you're all beautiful but barren This is the purpose
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: of the book of Romans. To bring them down to
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: an equal playing floor, he has to break them out
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: of their orthodoxy. You know why I wrote disruptive thinking?
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: Because you cannot erupt until you disrupt it. And what
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: Paul is doing in Romans is disrupting the theology that
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: is stopping them from seeing the glory. And he's doing
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: it through metaphors, similes, and patriarchal understandings that they can
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: find palatable. Because you like Abraham. So I'm not going
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: to bring up no other God. You like Abraham. And
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: you say he's your father. Well, your father is a Gentile.
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: And he received the covenant before he got circumcised. You're
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: running around here identifying yourself by your circumcision. But your
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: daddy got the covenant before. Before he got circumcised. So
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: if he could receive the covenant before he got circumcised,
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: how can you say that these Gentiles can't be? Come on, somebody.
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: Come on.
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: This is the argument that he's making in the text. See,
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: that's why I read the whole thing, because you must
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: understand that he is litigating the case. For God opening
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: the door for the idolater to have equal opportunity and
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: access before these people who were law keepers, they found
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: it detestable and unthinkable that God would say these people
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: were in orgies. They were burning babies. They were doing
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: all kinds of debauchery and the Orthodox Jew thought it
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: was reprehensible that you would suggest that my God would
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: save them. That arrogance is blinded to the fact that
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: your daddy was one of them. That's why he brings
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: up Abraham. That's why he rehearses the story. That's why
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: it becomes significant that Abraham received the covenant before he cut.
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: So that you couldn't say that Abraham earned the covenant
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: because he cut. Because the reality is, Abraham received the
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: covenant before he was circumcised. That's why he's arguing, when
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: did he get it? When did he get it? When
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: did he get it? When did he get it? He's
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: litigating the case. He's laying out a case before the jury.
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: But God said, we've got to be able to make
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: a decision that God can justify the ungodly. Can I
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: teach this thing? The promise of Abraham's faith, the promise
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: of Abraham's faith is you shall be the father of
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: many nations. If you take an Orthodox Jew, a devout Christian,
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: and a Muslim who practices Islam, the only thing, that
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: we all agree about completely.
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: Is Abraham.
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: You will find Abraham in Islam. You will find Abraham
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: in Orthodox Jews. You will find Abraham in Christianity. You
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: shall be the father. Y'all can handle this. All of
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: it comes from Out of Abraham's Lord. That's why there's
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: so much fighting in the Holy Land right now. Because
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: everybody's fighting to say, I'm Abraham's seed. No, I'm Abraham's seed. No,
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: I'm Abraham's seed. How can you be Abraham's seed? Your
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: mama ain't Sarah. Yeah, but my mama was Keturah. And
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: Abraham got married again. Or my mama was Rahab. My
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: mama was Rahab. One way or the other, the wombs
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: were different. Can I go a little bit deeper? Now,
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: the promise of Abraham's faith is right in the face
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: of impossibility. What I want you to get tonight is
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: God may be saying something to you that your circumstances
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: totally contradict. And if you are going to be his friend,
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: you cannot stagger at the promise. You cannot waver at
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: the promise. I cannot point the.
• 55:33
  Speaker 3: Facts out to you and make you doubt that God
• 55:37
  Speaker 3: is potent enough to handle your impotency. That God has
• 55:45
  Speaker 3: enough money that he can raise your credit score, that
• 55:49
  Speaker 3: he can set you free, that he can give you
• 55:52
  Speaker 3: what you need, that he can give you what you say,
• 55:55
  Speaker 3: that he can give you exceedingly abundantly above all that
• 55:58
  Speaker 3: ye may ask or think. according to the power that
• 56:01
  Speaker 3: works in you.
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: And I don't care if you're 90 or 190. If
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: God says I'm going to bless you, he told Abraham,
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: I swear I'm going to bless you. I swear I'm
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: going to bless you. I give an oath that I'm
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: going to bless you. He said, I noticed that it
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: is a custom amongst men that the giving of an
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: oath is the end of all strife. So I'll tell
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: you what I'm going to do. I'm going to swear
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: to you. He said, but I couldn't find nothing greater
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: than myself to swear by.
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: So I swear by myself.
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: I put myself on the line. If I am not legitimate,
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: you will know it because I put myself on the line.
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: I swear by myself.
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: If there was something greater than me, I would swear
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: by that. But I looked and I couldn't find nothing
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: greater than myself.
• 56:46
  Speaker 3: So I swore by myself. That's what Calvary is.
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: Calvary is God putting himself on the line. Saying that
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: if I am not really God, then Christ will stay
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: in the grave. And the Bible said that on Friday
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: it was on limbo. And on Saturday it was in limbo.
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: But early Sunday morning, God's word erected itself.
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: He got up.
• 57:17
  Speaker 3: Abraham got up. God raises the dead. Slap somebody and say,
• 57:25
  Speaker 3: it's dead, but God's going to raise it. It's dead,
• 57:28
  Speaker 3: but God's going to raise it. It's dead, but God's
• 57:31
  Speaker 3: going to raise it. You watch it online, and I
• 57:33
  Speaker 3: say it's dead, but God's going to raise it. My
• 57:35
  Speaker 3: marriage is dead, but God's going to raise it. My
• 57:38
  Speaker 3: relationship with my child is dead, but God's going to
• 57:41
  Speaker 3: raise it. My finances are dead, but God's going to
• 57:44
  Speaker 3: raise it. They say I can't speak, but God's going
• 57:47
  Speaker 3: to raise me. And if God gets ready to raise me,
• 57:50
  Speaker 3: it might take me three days.
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: But he said, in two days, I will revive you.
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: At the third day, I'll raise you up. I feel
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: a third day about to break loose in the church.
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: Somebody needs to give him a third day praise. Praise
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: him for a get up. Praise him for a comeback.
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: Praise him for a resurrection. I feel like giving him
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: some praise. I feel like giving him some praise. I
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: feel like giving him some praise. Somebody take him out
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: 30 seconds and praise him like you lost your mind.
• 58:28
  Speaker 3: Praise him. Praise him like all things are yours. Praise
• 58:34
  Speaker 3: him like nothing is impossible. Praise him like you can
• 58:37
  Speaker 3: run through troops and leap over walls.
• 58:41
  Speaker 2: Praise him. Praise him.
• 58:55
  Speaker 3: Run over and holler at somebody and say, it's still possible.
• 58:59
  Speaker 3: It's still possible. It's still possible. It may be impossible
• 59:04
  Speaker 3: with men, but it's possible with God.
• 59:07
  Speaker 2: It's still possible.
• 59:08
  Speaker 3: It's still possible. It's still possible. I may be old,
• 59:13
  Speaker 3: but it's still possible. I may be on a walk,
• 59:17
  Speaker 3: but it's still possible. I feel glory. Coming in this
• 59:23
  Speaker 3: place right now. The wind of God is blowing in
• 59:28
  Speaker 3: this place right now.
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: The wind of the Holy Spirit.
• 59:32
  Speaker 3: I dare you to praise him. I double dare you
• 59:41
  Speaker 3: to praise him.
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: So, the person of faith, the process of faith, the
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: improbability of Abraham's seed, the promise of Abraham's faith, the
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: production of faith. Faith produces. I'm going to say it
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: for the people in the back. Faith If you don't
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: believe that, you can't be a friend of God. Abraham
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: became the friend of God because he believed him. God
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: wants you to believe him. To believe him is to
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: trust him when you can't see your way clear. And
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: you keep waiting to see your way clear before you
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: bust a move. But God said if you wait till
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: you see your way clear, it will be works and
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: not faith. Works, watch this, works do not produce faith.
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: But faith produces faith. So write this down. Faith goes
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: to work. Faith goes to work. If you believe it,
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: your actions are to show it. Faith goes to work.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: You can't be an undercover agent for the Lord Some
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: of you trying to be a secret agent for Jesus.
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: You want to be a Christian, but you don't want
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: to be disliked by nobody. That's contradictory to the whole
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: notion of Christianity. Your Lord was hated and despised. You
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: got to be comfortable with the fact that everybody's not
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: going to like you. You got to stop taking everybody's
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: temperature to see whether they like you or not. You
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: got to be good with the fact that you are
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: liked by God. You have the favor of God and
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: you got to go ahead and do the work. Faith
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: produces works. Works don't produce faith. Go to James 2
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: and I'll be done. James 2, 14 through 26, and
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: I'm out. Anybody getting anything tonight?
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 2: This is good.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: Now, James 2, 14 reads like this. Are you with me?
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: You need a minute? Say, wait a minute.
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 2: Okay. Cool, I'll go wipe my head Get a drink
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 2: of water. Chill out. Take it easy. Be cool. Pull
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 2: my pants up. Yeah. Now, James, is this good? Now, James.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: Argues it almost to the point of contradiction to Paul,
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: but it's really... completion of Paul he says what good
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: is it my brothers and sisters if someone claims.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 2: To have faith but has no deeds.
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: Can such faith save them can you just be saved
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: and live any kind of way no you absolutely cannot
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: but your living right is not what made you saved
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: You got saved on credit. He accredited salvation to you.
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: You owe him to clean it up. I gave you
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: the car. You ain't paid it off. You just signed
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: on the dotted line. We into a covenant relationship, but
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: that does not mean I excuse the debt. You still
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: owe me for it, though I've gone ahead and given
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: it to you. I accredited it to your account and
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: you say it's my car, but it's only your car
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: if you make the payments. So faith goes to work.
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: If one of you says to them, go in peace,
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about their
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: physical needs, what good is it? I got to stop
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: right there. I got to stop right there. Because when
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: people say to me, you're a pastor. Why are you
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: mentoring entrepreneurs? You're a pastor. Why are you making movies?
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: You're a pastor. Why are you building homes? You're a pastor.
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: Why are you shutting down food deserts? You're a pastor.
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: Why don't you just preach and go home? You had
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: a season in your life. You can take it easy. Well,
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: what you are saying to me is that somebody could
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: come up to me and be naked and you want
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: me to give them a sermon. Put that verse back
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: up here again because I want you to get this.
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 2: In your spirit. The reason the church is deemed.
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: Irrelevant today is because for every community problem, all we
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: got is a sermon. But what the community needs is
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: to see change. They need to see jobs. They need
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: to see opportunities. They need to see development. They need
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: to have access to a blessing. And don't tell me
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: that God doesn't care about human conditions when the Bible
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: is clear. It said, if one of you says to them,
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: go in peace, keep warm and well fed, but does
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: nothing about their physical needs, what does good is your
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: faith if you're gonna make me shout about something that
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: you won't help me enter into if you keep telling
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: me I got a feeling everything gonna be all right
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: and it don't ever get better what good is your
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: faith That's why we need leaders who are not one dimensional.
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: That's why we need leaders who can do more than preach.
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: That's why we need singers who can do more than sing.
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: That's why we need people at the forefront who will
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: go in the gates for us, who will intercede for.
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 2: Us, who will go to the courtroom for us.
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: Who will talk to the CEO for us, who will
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: plead our case until breakthroughs come and changes come and
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: opportunities come.
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 2: We got to take.
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 3: It out of the church. We got to take the
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 3: gospel to the streets.
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 2: We got to.
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: Go where the trouble is. We got to go where
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: the people are hurting. I'm tired of you telling me
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: to go in peace, keep warm and well-fed, but you
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: don't do anything about my physical need? What good is
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: your faith without works? That's why I'm talking to you
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: about stuff that ain't in the scriptures. Ain't no blankets
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: in the scriptures, but if you cold, you need one.
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: Ain't no style in the coats in the scriptures, but
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: if you freezing, you need a coat. You don't need
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: a sermon and a God bless you and thoughts and prayers.
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: I'm sick of thoughts and prayers. I don't need no
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: more thoughts. I don't need no more prayers. I need
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: to see action. That's why the first thing I did
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: when I came to Dallas was throw a party for
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: the homeless people. At the Civic Center. At the Dallas
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: Convention Center. I threw a party for the homeless people
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: and had a job fair and served food and gave
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: out clothes.
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 2: That's how I came to the city.
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: And then we started blessing them in our church and
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: giving them haircuts and letting them shower and putting them
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: in clothes and creating opportunities. Because if you show me
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: your faith and I don't see no works behind it,
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: then what good is your sermon? I'm looking for sermons
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: in the flesh. That's what Jesus was. He was a
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: sermon in the flesh. Oh God, I got to quit.
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: That's why the Bible said in the beginning was the
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: word and the word was with God and the word
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: was God. But down around the 14th verse it says,
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: and we beheld the wonder of his glory. When the
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: word is made flesh, those are sermons in the flesh.
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: I want a sermon I can see. I don't need
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: a sermon I can hear.
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 2: Let me stop it. So James is telling you.
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: Yes, your faith is wonderful. But if your faith doesn't
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: produce work. what good is it? Next verse. In the
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: same way, faith by itself, if it is not accomplished
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: by action, is dead. But someone will say, you have faith,
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: I have deeds. Show me your faith without deeds and
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: I will show you my faith by my deeds.
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 2: Yes. You believe that there is one God? Good.
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: Even the demons believe. They believe that and shudder. So
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: he says, it's not enough to tell me what you
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: believe if I don't see no action. I ought to
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: be able to see what you believe by what you do.
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: You foolish person. Do you want evidence that faith without
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: deeds is useless?
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: You see that his faith and his actions were working.
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 2: Together.
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: In other words, when faith gets pregnant, its baby is works.
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: When I say faith produces, that is the point of impregnation.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: When your faith shows up pregnant, it produces and pushes
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: out works. In other words, if you believe it's going
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: to rain, show me your umbrella. If you believe things
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: are going to get better, then friend up. If you
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: believe in God to raise you to the next level,
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: stop hanging out with rugrats. Whatever you believe ought to
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: be seen by the actions you do. You got to
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: walk it out. Your word has to be made flesh.
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: You got to be able to watch me walk and
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: tell what I believe. It ain't enough to say I
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: am somebody if you ain't going to stretch your shoulders
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: back and hold your head up and walk like you're
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: a king's kid. You see that his faith and his
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: actions were working together and his faith was made.
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 2: Complete by what he did.
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: And the scriptures was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: and it was credit to him as righteousness and he
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: was called God's friend. You see that a person is
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: considered righteous by what they do and not by faith.
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: because your faith can be beautiful.
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 2: And barren.
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: If faith doesn't produce works, it's Sarah all over again.
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 3: It's a veil hiding an empty holies of holies.
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: Your behavior matters. It legitimizes your faith. How can you
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: say that you love God who you have not seen
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: and hate your brother who you see every day?
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 2: Oh, y'all quiet.
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: See, this is what we don't want to embrace anymore.
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: We don't want to embrace the responsibility of faith. That
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: faith produces works. Works don't produce faith, but faith produces works.
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: If I believe it, you ought to see it in
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: my leadership. My leadership style proves what I think is important.
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: You ought to be able to see it. I can't
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: be in no 30-year building fund riding around in a
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: Rolls Royce. And you still meeting in a closet. The
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: devil is alive. If you believe it, your works ought
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: to show up in your life.
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 3: It may not be this year. It may not be
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 3: next year. But if you believe it, you ought to see.
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: Some cinder blocks, some concrete, some barbed wire. Ought to
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: see some fences, some gates, something somewhere. Show me something.
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: Don't beat your chest and tell me you the man
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: and you the head of the house. Because the moment
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: you have to tell me you ain't. If you the man,
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you you the man. I'm a grown woman
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: and act like one. Are you hearing what I'm saying
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: to you? Faith gets pregnant with works. And without it,
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: it is like Sarah, beautiful woman. As I close tonight,
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: everybody stand. As I close tonight, thank you for your patience.
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: Did you get something out of this? My faith must
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: be potent. My faith must be potent. Not because I
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: am potent, but because my God is potent.
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 2: I am impotent. But God is potent. He is the
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 2: potentate of the church. He is able.
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: He is well able. He is strong and mighty. He
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: is a deliverer. And you keep crawling to him, telling
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: him about, I don't think I can do it. I
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: don't feel like I can do it. Let me tell
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: you something. It's not you that's going to do it.
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: He's going to do it in you. He's going to
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: do it through you. He's going to do it with you.
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: He's going to do it. Is anybody getting anything tonight?