Latest / Jakes Messages and Purpose / GOD SENT THIS MESSAGE TO AWAKEN WHAT’S HIDDEN INSIDE YOU_ T.D. Jakes Purpose and Power_

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GOD SENT THIS MESSAGE TO AWAKEN WHAT’S HIDDEN INSIDE YOU_ T.D. Jakes Purpose and Power_ · Jakes Messages and Purpose

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  Speaker 1: The notion of God, not church, not religion, God. The
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  Speaker 1: one who rules and super rules and reigns and has
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  Speaker 1: absolute control. The auspicious one. The omnipotent one. The omnipresent one.
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  Speaker 1: The all-sufficient one. The El Shaddai, the consolation of Israel.
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  Speaker 1: The mighty God, the Prince of Peace. God. Not appointed,
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  Speaker 1: not elected. God. Nobody put him in, nobody can take
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  Speaker 1: him out. God. With all power, the sovereign one. Nobody
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  Speaker 1: can impeach him. God, the one who sits on the
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  Speaker 1: circle of the earth. That heaven is his throne and
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  Speaker 1: earth is his footstool. God, who gives you oxygen and
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  Speaker 1: movement and freedom and liberty and life and activity. Who
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  Speaker 1: kept your heart beating while you were asleep. You know
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  Speaker 1: you didn't do it, but it was beating while you were...
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  Speaker 1: It was still beaten because God regulated your temperature, your
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  Speaker 1: blood pressure, the rhythm of the way the blood runs
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  Speaker 1: through your cells was God orchestrating all things up under
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  Speaker 1: his power. I call him the puppet master because he
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  Speaker 1: manages all the artifacts on the stage of my life.
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  Speaker 1: Where does God live? What is his address? Where can
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  Speaker 1: I get to God? Where do I find him? God
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  Speaker 1: lives in eternity. Eternity doesn't deal with geographical locations or addresses.
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  Speaker 1: God lives in eternity. And we live in time. Hey,
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  Speaker 1: I'm seeing all kinds of folks I know as I preach.
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  Speaker 1: We live in time. I don't know whether preachers eat
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  Speaker 1: chicken wings. God lives in eternity. Let's think about that.
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  Speaker 1: God lives in eternity, which transcends time. Time is a
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  Speaker 1: matrix inside of eternity. Think of time being something that
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  Speaker 1: God created, not subject to. In the beginning, there was
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  Speaker 1: God before there was a first day. So God existed
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  Speaker 1: before there was a calendar, before there was a watch,
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  Speaker 1: before there was a tick or a tock, there was God.
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  Speaker 1: Before there was a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday,
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  Speaker 1: there was God. Before there was an evening or a morning,
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  Speaker 1: there was God. Before the sun rose or set, there
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  Speaker 1: was God. Before the moon glistened against the dark sky,
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  Speaker 1: there was God. Before the first earthquake tremored in the ocean,
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  Speaker 1: there was God. There was God before there was an angel.
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  Speaker 1: There was God before there was a choir. There was
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  Speaker 1: God before there was anybody there to acknowledge him as God.
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  Speaker 1: God is God. God alone is God. And beside him,
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  Speaker 1: there is no other. God lives in eternity. And if
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  Speaker 1: you don't get that in your spirit, then your prayer
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  Speaker 1: life is going to go kaput because you're never going
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  Speaker 1: to understand being a creature of time with things like birthdays.
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  Speaker 1: You won't understand God. God doesn't have to get in
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  Speaker 1: a hurry because God doesn't get old. God doesn't get
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  Speaker 1: old because he's not subject to time. Anything subject to
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  Speaker 1: time gets old. Anything born out of time is ageless
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  Speaker 1: as part of being eternal. So when you start talking
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  Speaker 1: about being eternal, eternity supersedes time. Time is a child
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  Speaker 1: of eternity. An offspring of eternity. Eternity created time. The
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  Speaker 1: celestial created the terrestrial. The divine created the human. The
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  Speaker 1: supernatural created the natural. In the beginning, God created the
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  Speaker 1: heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form
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  Speaker 1: and void. And darkness covered the face of the deep.
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  Speaker 1: But God was there to create it before there was
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  Speaker 1: an it to create. Are you following me? David says
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  Speaker 1: about God, from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. You
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  Speaker 1: were God before there was a where or when or
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  Speaker 1: this or that. You were God. You were God before
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  Speaker 1: there was anybody there to tell you you were God.
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  Speaker 1: You were God. God alone. God all by himself. God
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  Speaker 1: of the universe. God of the world. That's why I
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  Speaker 1: don't pray to the universe because he created the universe.
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  Speaker 1: Why should I pray to what he created when I
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  Speaker 1: can pray to the one who created it? This is good.
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  Speaker 1: From everlasting to everlasting thou art God. From as far
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  Speaker 1: back as I can see, there was God. And as
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  Speaker 1: far ahead as I can see, there was God. God
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  Speaker 1: is eternal. So when you read the Bible, the Bible
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  Speaker 1: says all kinds of things that don't make sense if
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  Speaker 1: you don't understand that. For instance, it says that the
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  Speaker 1: lamb was slain from the foundations of the world. In
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  Speaker 1: other words, talking about Jesus, he was crucified before Adam
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  Speaker 1: and Eve were born. That means that God had the
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  Speaker 1: answer in eternity before time produced the question. So whatever
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  Speaker 1: you're asking God to do in eternity, it's already done.
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  Speaker 1: It's already set up. Let me prove that. Job said,
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  Speaker 1: my witnesses in heaven, my record is on high. In eternity,
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  Speaker 1: it's already done. It's already finished. In eternity, I'm already healed.
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  Speaker 1: In eternity, I'm already blessed. In eternity, I'm already loose.
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  Speaker 1: In eternity, I'm already set free. In eternity, there are
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  Speaker 1: no wheelchairs. In eternity, there are no broken limbs. In eternity,
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  Speaker 1: there is no sadness. In eternity, there is no abuse.
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  Speaker 1: God lives in eternity. He created time so I would
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  Speaker 1: have an address. So I would have a concept. So
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  Speaker 1: I would have appreciation of days. Teach me to number
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  Speaker 1: my days so I may know how frail I am.
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  Speaker 1: He created time so I wouldn't take life for granted.
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  Speaker 1: He created time so I would appreciate my life and
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  Speaker 1: your life. He created time so I would get the
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  Speaker 1: courage to say things to you that I wouldn't say
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  Speaker 1: because I'm running out of time. If I was an
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  Speaker 1: eternal being, I would think about it longer. Maybe not
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  Speaker 1: say it ever because I have eternity to think about it.
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  Speaker 1: But since we're running out of time, the older I get,
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  Speaker 1: The older I get, the sharper I get. The quicker
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  Speaker 1: I'll tell you. When I was 30, I might not
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  Speaker 1: would tell you, but at 60, I will let you
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  Speaker 1: have it. I will let you have it and not
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  Speaker 1: look back to see how you felt about it. Because
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  Speaker 1: I'm running out of time. Running out of time makes
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  Speaker 1: you get to the point. Running out of time makes
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  Speaker 1: you say what needs to be said. God lives in eternity.
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  Speaker 1: We live in time. So God is neither coming or going.
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  Speaker 1: He is always here. Remember when Moses said, who shall
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  Speaker 1: I say sent me? And God said, I am that
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  Speaker 1: I am. Not I was or I will be, I am.
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  Speaker 1: Because he's always present. He is the same yesterday, today,
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  Speaker 1: and forevermore. I am in today. I can't go back
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  Speaker 1: to yesterday. I'm waiting on tomorrow. But God is in
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  Speaker 1: tomorrow while I'm in today. That's why when God gives
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  Speaker 1: me a word today, it can heal something that broke
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  Speaker 1: yesterday because he's not subject to dates. He can say
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  Speaker 1: something now that heals something that happened 20 years ago.
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  Speaker 1: He can speak something now that changes the outcome of
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  Speaker 1: something that happens 30 years from now because God lives
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  Speaker 1: in eternity. I live in time. I have to go deeper.
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  Speaker 1: If I get on this, I got to go deeper.
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  Speaker 1: If you read the creation story in the book of Genesis,
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  Speaker 1: over and over again, you will see the word read.
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  Speaker 1: He restored. He replenished. He redeemed. It's to do over again. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: he did it over again. He did it over again.
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  Speaker 1: It's been done before. Oh, wow. It's been done before.
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  Speaker 1: Somebody say before. See, the problem is I can't remember
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  Speaker 1: what was before because I am here present now, but
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  Speaker 1: I can't remember what was before. When the Bible says
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  Speaker 1: that God redeemed us or restored us or re-delivered us
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  Speaker 1: or redeemed us from the curse of the law, from
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  Speaker 1: sin or death, it suggests that there was something between
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  Speaker 1: me and him before. Before what? Before time. Okay. Jeremiah's
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  Speaker 1: going to help me out. I got myself in trouble,
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  Speaker 1: but Jeremiah's going to pull me out. Jeremiah 1, 4, 5. One.
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  Speaker 1: Chapter 1, chapter, verse 4 and 5. Jeremiah, check this out.
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  Speaker 1: It's still in frame. I haven't got to the picture.
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  Speaker 1: Before her face broke out
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  Speaker 1: in a rash and before she threw up the first
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  Speaker 1: morning and told her husband, baby, I'm sick. Before I
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  Speaker 1: formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before I
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  Speaker 1: formed you, before you had your first birthday, before you
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  Speaker 1: were one week old, before you were one day old,
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  Speaker 1: before your mama was pregnant, I knew you. Before you
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  Speaker 1: were born, before you were born, before you were born,
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  Speaker 1: I set you apart. I set you apart. I meant
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  Speaker 1: for you to be different. Before you ever even got here,
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  Speaker 1: I meant for you to be different. And you spent
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  Speaker 1: the first 20 years of your life trying to fit in.
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  Speaker 1: But the reason you never fit in is that I
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  Speaker 1: set you apart before you ever even got here. You
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  Speaker 1: didn't even fit in with your neighbors. You didn't fit
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  Speaker 1: in with your friends. Uh-oh, you don't even fit in
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  Speaker 1: your family. You're the only one in your family who
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  Speaker 1: thinks like you think because I set you apart before
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  Speaker 1: I formed you in the belly. I meant for you
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  Speaker 1: to be different. So don't be upset over the people
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  Speaker 1: who didn't like you, who thought you liked them. you
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  Speaker 1: were cute who didn't like your hair I don't care
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  Speaker 1: how you change your hair change your walk change your
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  Speaker 1: talk I meant for you to be an outcast rejected
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  Speaker 1: ostracized I meant for you to be different before I
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  Speaker 1: formed you in the belly I knew you I ordained
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  Speaker 1: you I set you apart oh my god this is
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  Speaker 1: good So he knew me in eternity past. Okay, this
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  Speaker 1: is eternity. Eternity past is an oxymoron. Eternity past is
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  Speaker 1: an oxymoron. It is two things that totally disagree with
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  Speaker 1: each other. Eternity can't have a past. But the eternity
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  Speaker 1: is my only way of describing God. And past is
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  Speaker 1: my human attempt to express an anthropomorphic reality. An anthropomorphic reality,
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  Speaker 1: anthro is human. It's a human attempt to describe something
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  Speaker 1: that is divine. So eternity past, present, and future, past, present,
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  Speaker 1: and future are human terms. Eternity is God terms. Eternity
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  Speaker 1: passed before I was born. He knew me. He knew me.
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  Speaker 1: He formed me because he knew me. I had a
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  Speaker 1: relationship with him before. I had a relationship with him
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  Speaker 1: before I met my mother. That's why when he called me,
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  Speaker 1: I recognized his voice. He said, my sheep know my voice,
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  Speaker 1: a stranger they will not follow. That's why you go
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  Speaker 1: to church and get blessed and the person you went
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  Speaker 1: with didn't get nothing. Maybe they didn't recognize the voice.
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  Speaker 1: I knew the voice before I read the Bible. You
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  Speaker 1: know the word, but I know the voice. You don't
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  Speaker 1: hear what I'm saying. A lot of people know scripture,
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  Speaker 1: but they don't know the voice. He said, my sheep
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  Speaker 1: know my voice, a stranger they will not follow. And
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  Speaker 1: some kind of way, his voice resonated with me because
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  Speaker 1: I knew him before. He said, before I formed the
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  Speaker 1: inner belly, when you were just a spirit and I
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  Speaker 1: was just a spirit, we knew each other on a
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  Speaker 1: spiritual level. We connected. We hooked up. We got together.
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  Speaker 1: I agreed to send you in a time, but here's
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  Speaker 1: the deal. If you go in the time, you're going
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  Speaker 1: to forget what we had in eternity. That's what being
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  Speaker 1: lost is about. The reason I'm lost, first of all,
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  Speaker 1: I can't be lost if I don't belong to somebody.
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  Speaker 1: And I can't be lost if there's not a place
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  Speaker 1: for me. So the whole notion of being lost is
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  Speaker 1: not just about sinful activity, it's about not remembering. So
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  Speaker 1: he chose me in him before the foundations of the world.
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  Speaker 1: That's what the Bible said. He chose me in him.
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  Speaker 1: He picked me out and then sent me into time. Now, Thomas,
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to send you into time. When I send
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  Speaker 1: you into time, you're going to walk into time. And
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  Speaker 1: the moment you come out of your mother's womb, you
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  Speaker 1: won't remember that you knew me before. But I set
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  Speaker 1: you apart. I won't lose track of you. I set
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  Speaker 1: you apart. And when I get ready for you, I'm
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  Speaker 1: going to call you. And when I call you, you're
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  Speaker 1: going to recognize my voice, though you don't remember what
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  Speaker 1: we had before. I'm going to prove this. Can I
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  Speaker 1: prove this to you? Okay, go to Romans 8, 29
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  Speaker 1: and 30. Look at this right quick. It's just a frame.
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  Speaker 1: It's not the picture. For those God foreknew, He also
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  Speaker 1: predestined to be, oh, this is so good. For those God,
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  Speaker 1: we're going backwards, foreknew. For those God before knew, those
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  Speaker 1: are people that God before knew. That's what foreknew means,
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  Speaker 1: before knew. He also, this is future, predestined. Okay, because
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  Speaker 1: I knew you before, I predestined you to be conformed
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  Speaker 1: to the image of his dear son. Good God, am
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  Speaker 1: I right? that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
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  Speaker 1: Come on. And those he predestined, he also called. Wait
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  Speaker 1: a minute, go back to 29 again. For those God foreknew,
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  Speaker 1: he also predestined to be conformed to the image of
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  Speaker 1: his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
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  Speaker 1: All of that he did without me knowing it. I
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  Speaker 1: can't remember it. Come on. And those he predestined, he also,
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  Speaker 1: he also, this is when I found out, he also,
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  Speaker 1: he also, he also, He also, he also, he also,
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  Speaker 1: he also, he also, that's when I found out I
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  Speaker 1: was his. When he called me, that's when I realized
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  Speaker 1: that I wasn't what they called me. I wasn't what
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  Speaker 1: he called me. I wasn't what she called me. I
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  Speaker 1: was what, are you hearing what I'm saying? So when
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  Speaker 1: he called me, we're having trouble with one of the screens,
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  Speaker 1: but when he called me, that's when I realized that
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  Speaker 1: That's him. That's him. And because he called me, that's
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  Speaker 1: when I became aware of who I was before. And
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  Speaker 1: it doesn't matter what I was in when he called me.
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  Speaker 1: He called me. I could have been in a strip club,
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  Speaker 1: but he called me. I could have been in a
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  Speaker 1: gay bar, but he called me. I could have been
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  Speaker 1: a hound crack, but he called me. And all of
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  Speaker 1: a sudden, what used to make me happy doesn't make
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  Speaker 1: me happy anymore. And what used to give me joy
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  Speaker 1: doesn't give me joy anymore. Because God has a way
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  Speaker 1: of disrupting your life. Because he called you. When he
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  Speaker 1: called you, I like Ephesians. I didn't give you this scripture, Jermel,
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  Speaker 1: but I like this scripture. Ephesians 1 and 9. Having
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  Speaker 1: made known unto us The mystery of his will. That's
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  Speaker 1: what called is, is to make you know the mystery
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  Speaker 1: of his will. You are more than what you're doing.
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  Speaker 1: He made known unto me the mystery of his will.
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  Speaker 1: I meant for you to be raised the way you
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  Speaker 1: were raised. I meant for you to go through the
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  Speaker 1: pain you went through. I meant for you to be rejected.
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  Speaker 1: I know it's a mystery, but all things are going
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  Speaker 1: to work together for your good. Amen. I'm gonna make
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  Speaker 1: known there's a purpose in your pain. You're not just
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  Speaker 1: having pain to have pain. I'm birthing something in you.
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  Speaker 1: I'm birthing something out of you. This is not just
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  Speaker 1: arbitrary pain. This is pain for a reason. I'm bringing
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  Speaker 1: something out of you. I'm gonna show you who you
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  Speaker 1: really are. Because who you really are is a mystery.
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  Speaker 1: Who you really are is a mystery. You work with
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  Speaker 1: people who don't really know you. You live around people
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  Speaker 1: who don't really get you. You may have married somebody
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  Speaker 1: who didn't get you. Uh-oh. We're going to get off
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  Speaker 1: there because you're sitting beside them. You don't want to
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  Speaker 1: say nothing. So just keep looking ahead and look confused. Say, huh?
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  Speaker 1: I may not even get me. I just spent a
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  Speaker 1: lot of energy doing something that I really wasn't predestined
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  Speaker 1: to do. Maybe I did it because you wanted it
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  Speaker 1: from me. Maybe I did it because my parents wanted
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  Speaker 1: it from me. Maybe I did it because my wife
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  Speaker 1: wanted it from me. Maybe I did it because it
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  Speaker 1: was easy for me. Maybe I did it because I
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  Speaker 1: had some talent in it. But it doesn't give me
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  Speaker 1: fulfillment because it is not it. You got me? Now
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  Speaker 1: to my text. When we step into this text, we
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  Speaker 1: step into utter chaos. I want to paint it for you.
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  Speaker 1: The Amalekites were more massive than the Israelites. They were
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  Speaker 1: more dominant. They were brutal warriors. The Amalekites were brutal
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  Speaker 1: in how they killed. They preyed on women and children.
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  Speaker 1: They killed off those that were weaker physically first. They
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  Speaker 1: would do anything to get advantage of a nation. They
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  Speaker 1: were cruel. And worse still, they had hooked up with
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  Speaker 1: the Midianites. People who don't even like each other will
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  Speaker 1: get together to hate you. In another class, I call
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  Speaker 1: them comrades. Comrades are people who the only thing they
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  Speaker 1: have in common is what they're against. constituents are people
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  Speaker 1: who the only thing they have in common is where
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  Speaker 1: they're going and confidence the only thing they have in
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  Speaker 1: common is you so you have confidants who are for
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  Speaker 1: you you have constituents who are for where you're going
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  Speaker 1: the only thing about constituents if they see somebody getting
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  Speaker 1: there quicker they'll leap out of your car into their
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  Speaker 1: car because they never liked you they like where you
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  Speaker 1: were going and comrades the only reason they are together
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  Speaker 1: it's the only thing they have in common it's their
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  Speaker 1: hatred of you or something so the Amalekites and the
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  Speaker 1: Midianites were comrades against Israel and it was working it
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  Speaker 1: had beat Israel down to a pulp Israel has given
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  Speaker 1: up everything and they're now hiding in caves the people
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  Speaker 1: God delivered in last Sunday's message the people that God
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  Speaker 1: set free last Sunday and we were shouting all over
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  Speaker 1: the place the people who dance on the dead bones
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  Speaker 1: of Pharaoh these are their children's children's children and they're
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  Speaker 1: in trouble again and now they're back in trouble again
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  Speaker 1: and the Lord is using their enemies to teach Ooh,
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  Speaker 1: that should have rung home. If that didn't ring home,
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  Speaker 1: your bell is broke. God uses your enemies to teach.
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  Speaker 1: He doesn't use your enemies because they're stronger than you.
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  Speaker 1: He uses your enemies to teach. So God is using
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  Speaker 1: the Amalekites and the Midianites to teach Israel, you have
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  Speaker 1: gotten out of control. You have left the teachings of
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  Speaker 1: your fathers behind. You have started worshiping idol gods, and
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: I'm going to allow you to be defeated until I
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: get your attention. Because you're so impressed with yourself, I'm
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: going to break your heart until I bring you to
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: your knees so you will discover me. You were too successful.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: You were too powerful. You were winning on every front,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: and I had to show you something to humble you
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: to make you submit. So God is using the Amalekites
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: and the Midianites. He's not using the Israelites, even though
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: the Israelites are his people. God uses your enemies. If
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: you won't hear his word, that means you're carnal. Then
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: he has to speak to your circumstance. And he uses
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: your circumstance because you ignored his word. And God uses
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: your enemies to bring you in line. Israel's beat up
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: bad famine is in the land. Every time they grow up,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: crop the Amalekites and Midianites come out and kill and
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: destroy it. And now we come into a text where
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Gideon is hiding his harvest. I'm going to get back
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: to y'all in a minute. Have y'all ever hid your harvest?
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: Has God ever blessed you, but you didn't want to
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: show it? They phony. I'm going to talk to y'all.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: Has God ever done something for you? Given you a blessing?
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: You was afraid to wear it? You was afraid to
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: drive it? Because you know how they are? And they
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: can't handle what he did? When you step into the text,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: Gideon is hiding his harvest in the wine press. The
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: Bible says he is threshing wheat. in the wine press
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: for fear of the Midianites because if they find out
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: that they got any kind of harvest, they're going to
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: take that too. It's a hard thing to live around haters.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: It's an uncomfortable reality when you have to dumb down
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: how bright you are because you're around somebody so insecure
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: that they can't handle the brilliancy of your intellectual capacity
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: and so you got to go into hood talk. Yo.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: You and the board were talking about yo. Because if
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: you appear too bright, often the person who hired you,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: how could you pick me and then want me to
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: be stupid? I'm just asking. I don't know. But the person...
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: Who picked you often hates you. Or the people around you.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: They were after his harvest. And so he's trying to
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: cultivate his harvest and he's down in the wine press
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: threshing wheat. Lord, I can stay there all day. I
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: can't tell you how many times I had to put
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: my wheat in the wine press. I better not wear that.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: I better not drive that. I better not say that. Beverly, see,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: where are we going to meet? No, let's not meet
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: at the house. We're going to meet at Papa Doe's.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: Because if I thresh my wheat in the open, where
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: my blessed people holler at you, boy, holler at you.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: You got a new house, but you can't tell your
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: cousin Joe. So you act like you lease it. I'm
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: talking about threshing your wheat in the wine press. And
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: there he is threshing his wheat in the wine press
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: because Gideon sees himself as a farmer. He's raised wheat.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: He has a harvest. He thinks that's who he is.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: And he's down in the wine press harvesting but fussing.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: Now look at this. Here's the strange thing. He's winning,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: but his people are losing. And inequity in your sociological
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: environment creates a painful experience. Because the people who love
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: you don't love what you got. And the people who
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: love what you got don't love you. And now you
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: got a little bit of wheat, but you got to
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: get down in the wine press. And he's threshing his wheat.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: In the wine press, he understands himself to be a
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: farmer and he's angry. He's angry because he never met
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: the God of the Red Sea I preached about last week.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: But he heard about it. His grandma and them. Madea
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: and them. They told him about the God that delivered
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: the children of Israel across the Red Sea and brought
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: them through on dry ground and delivered them up safely
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: on the other side. But he sees no, millennials, he
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: sees no relationship with traditional religion and where he is
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: in his life. And he's mad about it. He says,
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: where is the God of our fathers? I'm through with
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: that stuff. It don't work. If it worked like grandma
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: and him said it worked, how come the Amalekites and
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: the Midianites are killing our people? So I have concluded,
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: ain't nothing to this. If God was this good, why
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: aren't you helping me? About every 100th comment I get
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: on social media is some version of this. That's nice
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: what you're saying, Rev, but if God was all of that,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: why am I? Hold on. Let me tell you, let
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: me stop and answer the question so you don't have
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: to write this this week. I'll make this simple. God
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: will not overrule your choices. It is easier for you
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: to be angry at God than to take responsibility for
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: the mistakes you made that brought you into the situation
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: that you were in. And by the way, you never
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: asked him before you made the choices that you made.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: But now he gets the punishment for the choice you made.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: And you're never going to get out until you take responsibility. Oh,
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: I'm going to get some mail on that. God, hear
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: you just in time. I'm going to need a lawyer.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: And he doesn't know that while he's complaining about needing
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: deliverance and where is God? And he is looking for God.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: That God is looking for him. And the Bible says
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: that the angel of the Lord sat down by the winepress.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: Now we got the angel of the Lord sitting down
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: by the winepress. We got Gideon who thinks he's a
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: farmer in the winepress threshing wheat. I need to underscore
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: that the winepress is a place of transition. I need
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: to underscore that the Lord has you here this morning
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: because you're in the middle of a transition. And anytime
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: you're in transition, every emotion in the world comes out
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: of you. Anger and sadness and frustration and fear and
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: doubt and strife and everything comes out of you because
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: you're in an unstable environment. You've heard me talk about
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: being with a weight trainer, being on a ball. I
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: hate them balls. I hate them balls of demonic. They're
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: from the devil. They're from the pits of hell. Give
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: me a bench. Give me a bench. Put me on
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: something solid and I can bear the weight. But they
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: put you on the ball in an unstable environment because
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: unstable environments make you activate core strength. Now you're in
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: the threshing floor. It's an unstable environment. And he's having
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: to activate core strength. And everything is coming out of him.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: And he's upset with God. And he's upset with the
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: religion he's been taught. And he's saying, who's going to
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: come and deliver us out of this mess? When are
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: you going to get me out of this? This is
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: your fault, God. It's always, when all else fails, blame God.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: Just blame God. The woman thou gave me. Remember that
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: with Adam? I'm in this mess. You gave her to me.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: That was a subtle way of saying it's your fault.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Not I ate the fruit. Not I ran out on her.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Not I cheated. Not I haven't worked in two years. No.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: The woman thou gave me. It's your fault. Don't do it.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: Don't do it. I'm going to do it. Conviction is
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: good for the soul. It's going to be all right.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. You're going
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: to make it. And all of a sudden he's trying
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: to figure out why doesn't God work the way I
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: told him to? And isn't that what most of us
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: are trying to figure out? Why doesn't God work the
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: way I told him to? The way I expected him to?
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: The way I wanted him to? Why didn't God do
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: what I wanted him to do when I told him
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: to do? Excuse me, God don't work for you. God
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: is not on your payroll. God doesn't have to listen
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: to you before he, God is God. And the angel
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: is just checking him out. The angel is just sitting
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: by the well watching this fool. I don't guess I
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: should have said that. I don't know whether you can
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: say that on Sunday morning. Well, it's out there now.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: He's watching this young man. He's watching him go through
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: what the wheat is going through. The wheat is being
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: beat down to fruit. All the chaff is being beat
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: away so that the wheat falls to the ground. And
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: whenever God puts you in an uncomfortable situation, he's sifting you.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: What matters? What doesn't matter? What's real? What's not real?
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: What counts? What doesn't count? Who I can't have? Who
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: I can live without? Where are my real people at?
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: Holler at your boy. You go through these periods where
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: you get stuck in this wine press and he starts
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: shaking away stuff that you thought you had to have.
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: And it's uncomfortable and it's painful and it's brutal and
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: it's barbaric and he's beating me like wheat in the
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: wine press away from the crowd trying to get me
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: down to my core values. Trying to fix me in
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: my roots. Trying to get me together where it matters.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: Not in my image. He's not tinting my picture for Instagram.
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: Enhancing my accessories. Accentuating my positives. He is beating my
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: high end. Because he is beating the wheat in the
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: wine press. I can talk to you today because the
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: Lord assured me that I would get to talk to
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: people today whose wheat is being beaten in the wine press.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: And if that's you and you're here today, I want
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: you to know that you're not in there by yourself.
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: I want you to know that God has sent an
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: angel Down to the wine press. To help you make
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: sense out of this time in your life. Because sometimes
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: life doesn't make sense. How could you bless the Amalekites
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: and the Midianites and not me? Where is the God
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: that I hear about on Sunday morning? Where is he
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: on Monday? Where is he in this unemployment line? Where
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: is God in this divorce? Where is God in I'm
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: HIV positive? Where is God? And I'm being beat in
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: places I can't talk about. I'm being beat in the
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: wine press. I'm down in something, being beaten. And waking
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: up in the morning talking about, welcome to JCPenney's. Good morning,
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: may I help you? This way, anything you need. Oh,
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: I'm so glad I can help you. And all the
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: while I'm smiling for people. I'm being beat in the
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: wine press. Now y'all tell me, did I hear from
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: God this morning? The wine press is the place where
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: the grapes find out that they're meant to be wine.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: The wheat is being beaten so that it may become bread.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: And what's going on in the wine press with the
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: wheat is going on in the life of Gideon, who
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: understands himself to be a farmer. And the angel is
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: sitting on the side watching him do to the wheat
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: what God is doing to him. Only instead of Gideon
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: beating the wheat, God is using the Amalekites and the
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: Midianites to beat his wheat too. Only his wheat is us.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: Trying to get bread out of wheat. Trying to get
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: wine out of grapes. Trying to get in to discover
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: who he is. So the angel says to him, I'll
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: finish next Sunday. God bless you. He said, you got jokes.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: The angel in his greeting And his greeting creates disruption.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: He says to Gideon, hey, mighty man of valor. You're
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: a warrior. What? I'm just a brother on the JLB
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: trying to make a living down here. And as well,
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: trying to deal with some stuff, trying to get paid
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: this minimum wage so I can get some money and
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: go back and feed my hungry kids and buy some
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: diapers and stuff. I'm not one of them people. Am I?
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: Could it be possible? One of us has got to
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: be wrong. Because I think I'm a gardener and you
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: think I'm a warrior. Why did you call me that?
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: I am kind of attracted to it, but... I mean,
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: it would be nice, but I'm not... I'm from the
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: smallest tribe, and I'm the youngest in the tribe. This
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: is when we build up evidence to talk us out
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: of dreams. We build evidence to dissuade us from going forward.
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: He has rationalized. This is not no immediate thought. This
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: is not like something you cough up off the top
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: of your head. He has given this some thought. I
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: belong to the smallest tribe. I'm the youngest person. Don't
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: expect much from me. Don't expect much from me. I'm
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: a woman. Don't expect much from me. I'm a minority.
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: Don't expect too much from me. I didn't finish school.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: Don't expect too much from me. My mama didn't raise me.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: Don't expect too much from me. I didn't have a father.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: We build up this story to support who we think
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: we are. And they're the reasons that make us able
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: to cope with the limitations. And it gives us somebody
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: to hate. That's what I like about it. That's what
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: I like about it. It gives somebody hate. If you'd
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: have raised me, if you'd have stayed home more, if
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: you'd have loved me like you were supposed to love me,
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't be like this. It gives me a license.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: to hate you and blame you for why I didn't become. Oh,
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: he's kidding. I told you they wasn't going to like
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: this now. When we were talking about this at the house,
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: I told you this. And here comes a call, a
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: high calling, a divine calling, a supernatural calling that has
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: classified information about me that I don't have on myself.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: And the angel is speaking out of his knowledge of
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: how I was designed and I'm living out of my
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: knowledge of what I grew up around. And I have
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: to decide in this struggle which one of these entities
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: is going to win this fight. What I grew up
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: around or what I was created to be. Because one
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: of them are going to determine what the trajectory of
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: my future looks like. Who am I preaching to? You
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: remember when me and June started that one done signing company.
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: You remember that? I got laid off at Union Carbide.
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: He started the window and siding company and did me
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: a favor, hiring me to come in there. We was
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: going to do like daddy. We was going to build
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: a family business. And we opened up the windows and
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: siding company. And we kept getting into trouble and ran
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: out of money. And I ended up losing my car.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: And I didn't have no car because I was following
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: his vision for my life. When I put my car
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: up to get the business out, I did it because
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: I love my brother and I did it because I
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: wanted us to win. I did it because I wanted
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: us to succeed. But I also did it because I
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: didn't know I was me. Had I known I was me, Jan,
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: I would have stepped right over top of the window
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: inside the company. Gideon is in the wine press because
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: it is possible not to know who you are. Who
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: you really are. are at your core at your essence
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: what you were created to be what your potentials are
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: what you can reach what you can become what you
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: can withstand what you can endure how tough you really
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: are how strong you really are how tenacious you really
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: are it is possible not to know it because your
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: feelings don't always validate your reality You can feel like
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: collapsing and still be fighting. You can feel like the
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: victim and be the victor. You can feel limited and
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: still have it exhausted all that's inside of you. You
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: cannot define yourself by how you feel. Your feelings cannot
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: be trusted. Your feelings will lie to you. Your feelings
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: will deceive you. Your feelings will have you in the
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: wine press. Your feelings will have you down in the
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: wine press beating up wheat. Oh my God. You cannot
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: trust how you feel. Because your feelings are a conglomerate
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: of your experiences. They are built off of your history,
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: not your destiny. They are your response to what happened,
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: not what's about to happen. Your praise is about what's
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: about to happen. Amen. Your praise is expectation that this
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: isn't over yet. Your praise is about a happy ending
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: on the other side of this crowd. Your praise. I'm
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: not praising God because I'm emotional. I'm not praising God
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: because I'm religious. I'm not praising God because I'm black.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: I'm praising God because I have an expectation that I
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: may be down here right now. But it ain't over, devil.
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: I said it ain't over. Give me 30 seconds of
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: praise and praise. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yes. Good call, everybody.
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: I feel the power of God in this room. Somebody
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: shout yeah. Shout yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: I'm going to tear down some stinking bacon. I'm going
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: to get rid of some limitations that have been imposed
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: upon you that are limiting you from achieving what you
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: were put on this earth to do. I rebuke every
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: lying spirit that ever spoke up in your head that
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: is contrary to your purpose. Everybody who's tracking me, everybody
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: who's tracking this word this morning, touch your neighbor and say,
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: I think there's something else inside of me. I think
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: there's something else inside of me. I think there's something
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: else inside of me. I think there's something else inside
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: of me. I think I got something. I don't know
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: what to call it yet. I don't understand it yet,
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: but I think I got something. I think there's something
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: else inside of me. I know I act a fool,
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: but I think there's something inside of me. I know
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: I've been strung out on drugs, but I think there's
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: something else inside of me. I know I've been living
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: with this man, but I think there's something else inside
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: of me.