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Spiritual Maturity - Bishop T.D. Jakes · Pst T.D Jakes -The POTTER'S HOUSE

• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Get your Bibles and go to Genesis chapter 21, verse
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: 2 through 12. Tonight we're going to talk about spiritual maturity.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Managing my faith and my fallacies. Spiritual maturity. Help me
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: to have equilibrium. Help me to be able to balance myself.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Bring me into spiritual maturity. Spiritual maturity. The Bible said,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: make your moderation made known unto all men. The Lord
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: is at hand. Spiritual maturity is as much about balance
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: as it is about anything else and how you manage
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: your faith and your fallacies. And hopefully before the night
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: is over, I will prove that we have them both.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: We like to think that there are people who make
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: mistakes and there are people who don't make mistakes, but
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: even the most successful person makes mistakes. Even the most
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: spiritual person makes mistakes, missteps, bad judgment, listening to the
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: wrong advice, partnering with the wrong person, hiring the wrong contractor,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: moving into the wrong position, dating the wrong person. I'm
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: not going to look at nobody. Dating the wrong person. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: You thought it was God. And then you realize you
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: ate too much pizza and had a dream. And you
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: followed the wrong, come on, somebody. Come on. Genesis 21,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: 2 through 12, when you have it, say amen. Now
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: listen at the word of God and listen real closely.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: There's so much going on in this text, I don't
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: even know where to start.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: So we're going to pick up right in the middle.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: For Sarah conceived and bare Abraham a son in his
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: old age. But watch this, at the set time of
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: which God had spoken to him, he didn't mean for
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: him to have it any sooner. And Abraham called the
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: name of his son that was born unto him whom
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Sarah bared to him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Isaac being eight days old as God had commanded him.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: And Abraham was a hundred years old when his son
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Isaac was born unto him.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: My God.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I want no baby at 100, Jesus.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: I'm just saying. I'm just, let me praise the Lord. Anyway,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: and Sarah said, God have made me to laugh so
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: that all that hear will laugh with me. And she said,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: who would have said under Abraham that Sarah should have
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  Speaker 1: given children suck for I have born him a son
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: in his old age. And the child grew and was weaned.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: And Abraham made a great feast in the same day
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: that Isaac was weaned. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: the Egyptian, which she had borne unto Abraham mocking. Wherefore
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: she said unto Abraham, cast out this. But wait, how
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: did this story go bad so quick? We were at
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: a party one minute. And now she's putting the woman
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: out and her baby in the next verse.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: Ain't life crazy?
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: One minute you're dancing for joy and the next minute
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: you're opening the door to tell her to get out.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: And take her child with her. Wherefore she said unto Abraham,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: cast out this bondwoman and her son. For the son
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: even with Isaac. And the thing was very grievous in
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Abraham's sight because of his son. And God said unto Abraham,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: let it not be grievous in thy sight because of
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: the lad and because of thy bondwoman. In all that
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Sarah has said unto thee, hearken unto her voice. For
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Can you say amen?
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Let's pray.
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  Speaker 2: Spirit of the living God, bring this word to life tonight.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: As we teach and as we touch and as we
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: begin to understand what you have in store for us.
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  Speaker 2: In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: So before I get into the text, I want to
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: talk about faith and fallacies. When I talk about faith,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: you can't talk about faith and not talk about Abraham.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Because Abraham is called the father of faith. Abraham is
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: called the father of faith. Abraham believed God and it
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  Speaker 1: was counted unto him as righteousness. Abraham believed God in
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  Speaker 1: such a way that he became the friend of God.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: The friend of God. He was so close to believing God. See,
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: when we don't believe God, we insult God's character. To
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  Speaker 1: suggest that God has promised something and can't do it
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  Speaker 1: or won't do it is to suggest that God is
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  Speaker 1: a liar. And Abraham believed God in such a vivacious
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  Speaker 1: and powerful and profound and prolific way that he became
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  Speaker 1: the friend of God. Now the Bible defines faith as
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
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  Speaker 1: not seen. And then it goes on to talk about
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  Speaker 1: through faith we understand that the world's were framed by
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  Speaker 1: the word of God. So that things that do appear
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  Speaker 1: were not made from things that do appear. Saying to
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: us that the visible starts in the invisible. That the
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  Speaker 1: tangible starts in the intangible. That everything that you see
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  Speaker 1: and everything that you receive started out in the spirit
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: world before it manifests in the physical world. And we
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: know that is true because every stitch of clothes you
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: got on started out as an idea. Every vehicle you
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: drove started out as an idea. Before it became a
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: drawing on paper, before it entered the manufacturing stage, it
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: started out with a thought. All of these pews started
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: with a thought. This carpet started with a thought. So
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: we need to give a lot more attention to our
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  Speaker 1: spiritual self because we must understand that everything starts on
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  Speaker 1: the inside and flows out.
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  Speaker 2: Healing starts on the inside and flows out.
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  Speaker 1: You receive it in your spirit before you receive it
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  Speaker 1: in your body. The baptism of the Holy Spirit starts
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  Speaker 1: on the inside before it comes out. You can't overflow
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  Speaker 1: a vessel that's not filled. Come on, somebody. And when
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: God starts filling you, it's happening on the inside. And
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  Speaker 1: after a while, it overflows on the outside. And you
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  Speaker 1: get outer evidence of an inner filling and the indwelling
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  Speaker 1: of the Holy Spirit. And it starts on the inside.
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  Speaker 1: Believe it or not, somebody's being filled right now. Somebody's
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  Speaker 1: being filled right now, and it may not manifest on
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  Speaker 1: the outside immediately, but once your cup overflows, you can't
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: hide on the outside what overflows on the inside. Can
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  Speaker 1: I get a witness in here, somebody? And so we
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: understand about faith. We understand that we are called to
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  Speaker 1: walk by faith and not by sight. And so we
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  Speaker 1: are not looking at the things that are seen, for
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  Speaker 1: the things that are seen are temporal, and the things
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  Speaker 1: that are not seen are internal.
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: Are eternal.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: When it comes to fallacies, it's a different thing because
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  Speaker 1: it's not so much a Bible word. And I want
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: to take a moment and define fallacies. Fallacies is a noun,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: a plural noun, fallacies. A mistaken belief, especially one based
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  Speaker 1: on unsound argument. For example, the notion that the camera
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  Speaker 1: never lies is a fallacy. Or it could be a
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: failure in reasoning, which renders an argument invalid. For example,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Kraft exposes three fallacies in this approach. In other words,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: when you start talking about fallacies, fallacies deals with faulty reasonings,
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  Speaker 1: misleading or unsound arguments. The potential for fallacy, which lies
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: behind the notion of self-esteem is an example. So a
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  Speaker 1: fallacy is something that you have a conviction about that
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: is not based on a sound decision, okay? It may
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: or may not be a sin But it can be
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  Speaker 1: a fallacy. It can be bad judgment. It can be
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  Speaker 1: a faulty concept, a faulty notion, a faulty idea. And
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  Speaker 1: so fallacies stand on one side and faith stands on
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  Speaker 1: the other. And I can see both of them happening
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  Speaker 1: in this house. I would have hated to live in
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  Speaker 1: Abraham's house. Abraham lived in a house with two women.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: That's the first problem. One of them is his wife
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  Speaker 1: and the other one is his situation. And it's not
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: a side chick because he is not a righteous man.
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  Speaker 1: It is a side chick that is brought in the
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  Speaker 1: house at Sarai's request as a surrogate more than a
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  Speaker 1: side chick. And they didn't have artificial insemination in those days.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: So they had had relationship and intimacy. And it was
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: his wife's idea. Where are the women like that today?
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  Speaker 2: I don't know none of them. I don't know none
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  Speaker 2: of them. Maybe one of them's here.
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  Speaker 1: And not many women that'll bring a woman in and say,
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  Speaker 1: I tell you what, you borrow her for the weekend. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: that wouldn't go down real well. In fact, it's so
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  Speaker 1: bad now that they say, what's she looking at you
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  Speaker 1: like that for? That girl don't want no prayer, you know.
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  Speaker 1: Oh God, can you imagine living in that house? That
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  Speaker 1: girl don't want no prayer. She don't want Jesus.
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  Speaker 2: I saw her.
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  Speaker 1: You already got, can you imagine the tension in the
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  Speaker 1: house with these two women sharing this one man and
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  Speaker 1: Hagar gives Abram something that Sarai could not. She gave
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  Speaker 1: him a child. And that's what she was supposed to do.
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  Speaker 1: That was her job. That's what she was asked to
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  Speaker 1: do by his wife. And there is a reason for that.
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  Speaker 1: It is hard in this Western culture to understand this
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  Speaker 1: Eastern tradition. But it so happens that she births him
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  Speaker 1: a child called Ishmael. We often say Ishmael, but the
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  Speaker 1: correct pronunciation is actually Ishmael. And she has this child
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  Speaker 1: to him called Ishmael. And she has Ishmael. And Ismael
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  Speaker 1: grows up and it's cool and it's fine and it's wonderful.
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  Speaker 1: And everything is going just according to how Sarah planned it.
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  Speaker 1: Because since she could not have a child and since
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: they were getting old, she wanted to be able to
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  Speaker 1: make sure that he had a child and everything is
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  Speaker 1: going good. She never understood when she made the choice
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  Speaker 1: that the time was going to come that God was
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  Speaker 1: going to bless her to conceive. Sometimes our impatience leads
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  Speaker 1: us to fallacies. Because the Lord doesn't move when we
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  Speaker 1: expect him to move. In the way that we expect
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  Speaker 1: him to move. In the time period that we have
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  Speaker 1: allotted him to move. I hate to tell you this,
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  Speaker 1: but God does not work on your time clock. He
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  Speaker 1: works on his own time clock. In his own good time.
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  Speaker 1: God does not work according to the trends of the times.
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  Speaker 1: or the cultural expectations in which you are surrounded. God
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  Speaker 1: moves when he gets ready to move. And God wanted
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  Speaker 1: to get the glory out of this. And in order
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: to get the glory, God had to wait until everybody
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: was shut down. Her factory was shut down. Y'all know
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  Speaker 1: what I'm talking about. His factory had cobwebs. The Bible
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  Speaker 1: said his body was good as dead. And it ceased
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  Speaker 1: to be with her after the manner of women. My
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  Speaker 1: grandmama would say she'd gone through the change. When it
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  Speaker 1: was totally impossible, she'd get night sweats and waking up
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  Speaker 1: to bed is wet with sweat and all that kind
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  Speaker 1: of stuff, mood changes. And she's gone through all of that.
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  Speaker 1: And it is now totally impossible for her to be
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  Speaker 1: able to conceive. God says, oh, goody, goody, goody, goody, goody.
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  Speaker 1: Now is the time to do it. I've waited till
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  Speaker 1: you couldn't. I waited till you couldn't so you couldn't
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  Speaker 1: praise yourself for this. I waited till it was impossible
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  Speaker 1: for you. I waited till it was ridiculous. I waited
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  Speaker 1: till all human efforts and biological equations had completely been
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: shut down so that it would have my signature on
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  Speaker 1: this miracle.
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  Speaker 3: As long as you.
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  Speaker 1: Are able to do it on your own, don't ask
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  Speaker 1: God to do anything you can do for yourself. When
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: it is impossible with men, it is just right for God.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: And when it's just right for God, God moves into
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  Speaker 1: that position of calling those things that are not as
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  Speaker 1: though they were. Somebody write down, it's never too late
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: for God to move. I don't care if you're in
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: the fourth stage of cancer. I don't care if you're
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: in the eighth stage of cancer. If God gets ready
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: to raise you up, he will raise you up. I
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: have seen life leave the body and the paramedics pronounce
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  Speaker 1: people dead and God wake them back up again. Y'all
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  Speaker 1: don't hear what I'm saying. I mean, back when we
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  Speaker 1: used to have church the old time way, God would
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  Speaker 1: wake them up again and shock the medical professionals. and
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  Speaker 1: shock science and do the impossible and wake them up
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  Speaker 1: in their right mind because nobody is God but God
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  Speaker 1: and nobody can do the God types of things that
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: God does except God.
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  Speaker 3: But Sarai, in her.
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  Speaker 1: Need to fulfill a promise that she was unable to fulfill,
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  Speaker 1: has now gotten Hagar, who is an Egyptian slave, to
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: be a surrogate mother. And this is the first biblical
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: reference to a surrogate in the Scriptures. It may not
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: be the first in history, but it's the first one
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  Speaker 1: in Scripture's. And it came with a blessing and it
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  Speaker 1: came with a problem. It came with years of tranquility.
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  Speaker 1: But then after a while, things that are built fallaciously
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  Speaker 1: and things that are built erroneously and things that are
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  Speaker 1: built on bad wisdom and bad advice eventually come back
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  Speaker 1: to bite you. Oh, I'm preaching. I'm preaching good right now.
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  Speaker 1: How many of you have ever made decisions that worked
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: out good for a while and later on it came
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: back to bite you? And it's much easier and much
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: more fun to get into trouble than it is to
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: get out. We pick up the text at a time
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: when that which Sarah never expected to happen, that which
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: she had laughed at, that which she had said was impossible,
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  Speaker 1: suddenly happened, and she was with child. Can you imagine
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: how happy she was to be 99 years old and pregnant?
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: walking around at Big Bear and Kroger's in the grocery
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  Speaker 1: store with her stomach all stuck out, say, yeah. Or
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: how proud he was coming up behind him talking about, yeah.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: That's right. That's right. On his cane, that's right. Don't
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: let the cane fool you, baby. Don't let the cane
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: fool you. Don't let the cane fool you. God has
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  Speaker 1: been good to me. Glory to God.
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  Speaker 2: Hallelujah.
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  Speaker 1: Can you imagine? Can you imagine testimony service? When I
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  Speaker 1: think of the goodness. Come on, brothers. Y'all know what
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about. When I think of the goodness and
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: all he done for me, my soul cries out, hallelujah.
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  Speaker 1: When people say that, you don't know what they're hallelujah-ing about.
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  Speaker 1: Abraham was hallelujah-ing because God had done it again. He
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: had resurrected. That's all I'm going to say about that.
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  Speaker 1: He had resurrected. He had so resurrected Abraham's body that
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  Speaker 1: Abraham's body stays resurrected throughout the life of Sarah. And
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  Speaker 1: he marries again and continues to sire children way into
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  Speaker 1: his old age. God, hallelujah. Before there was Seolahs. Before
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: there was Viagra, before there was anything like that, there
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  Speaker 1: was a Holy Ghost power that quickens that which was dead. Now,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: he had to resurrect Abraham's body. And when Abraham's dead
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  Speaker 1: body produced the seed and hit Sarah's dead womb, it
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: quickened it and brought it back to life again. And
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: there's some significance in that because when Jesus was to
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: come later, he would say, I am the seed of Abraham.
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  Speaker 1: So he literally shot Jesus into the womb of Mary
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  Speaker 1: and it quickened it and brought it back to life.
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  Speaker 1: And the old woman's belly started swelling. She started getting
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: a mask on her face and started vomiting because when
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: Jesus comes into a situation, he will bring it to
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  Speaker 1: life again. Jesus never said, I can resurrect. He said,
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  Speaker 1: I am resurrected. the resurrection and the life. He that
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  Speaker 1: believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.
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  Speaker 1: Now we got a problem because that which she had
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: given up on just happened. That which she thought she
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: had timed out of just occurred. And see, anytime somebody
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  Speaker 1: chooses you based on a need, they will only want
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: you as long as the need arises. When the need arises,
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  Speaker 1: the feeling changes. Come on, somebody. You need to watch
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  Speaker 1: people who fall in love with you while you're afflicted
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  Speaker 1: because they're drawn to your pain. And that's good as
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: long as you're hurting. But when you recover, all of
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  Speaker 1: a sudden the pain was the only thing you had
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  Speaker 1: in common. And when you recover, all of a sudden
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  Speaker 1: they are jobless because they only wanted you as long
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  Speaker 1: as you were afflicted. Come on, y'all don't hear what
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  Speaker 1: I'm saying. And Sarah only wanted Hagar as long as
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: she couldn't. But the problem is now she can. Somebody shout,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: now I can. That's a game changer. Once I find
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: out that I can do what I thought I couldn't do,
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  Speaker 1: that changes who I want around me, that changes what
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: I need in my life, that changes how I interact
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: with people, that changes my expectations, that changes everything around
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: me because now I can. Type on the line, now
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  Speaker 1: I can. The thing that they said I'd never be
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: able to do, the thing they said I would never
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: be able to have, the places they thought I'd never
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  Speaker 1: be able to go, the degree they said I'd never
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: be able to have, somebody say, nah, I can. That's
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  Speaker 1: the power of this text. The power of this text
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  Speaker 1: is that God has reversed it. He has turned it around.
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  Speaker 1: The tail has become the head. That means God has
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  Speaker 1: reversed the entire situation. And what was impossible with men
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  Speaker 1: is now possible with God. Are you following.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: What I'm saying?
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: And you you begin to wonder where this idea originated
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: with with Sarai to take advantage of this Egyptian slave
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: as a surrogate and I begin to study the code
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: of Hammurabi when you study the code of Hammurabi this
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: is not a scripture that's not a bible This is
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: a historical understanding about language. When you study the Code
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: of Hammurabi, you begin to understand that the Code of
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: Hammurabi was developed in Mesopotamia. And it was some of
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: the early writings that concerned things like marriage. It concerned
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: the marriage of a Natatu, which is a priestess attached
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: to a temple who is not allowed to bear children.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: In this code, these are some of the first laws
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: that were ever written in the Code of Hammurabi. And
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: when you read about it, it says her husband, has
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: the right to take a second wife. But if she
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: wishes to forestall this, she can give her husband a slave.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: In the world of ancient Near East, a slave woman
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: could be seen as an incubator, a kind of womb
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: with legs. Now, it is no mistake that the code
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: of Hammurabi was developed in Mesopotamia, and Abraham and Sarah
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: came from Mesopotamia. The Bible calls it Ur, but the
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: Old Testament Ur is the new reality of Mesopotamia. Out
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: of their old culture, there is this lingering idea that
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: this is not a Hebraistic law. This is part of
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: the code of Hammurabi. Now let's go deeper into this.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: In the code of Hammurabi, they use cuneiform. Cuneiform is
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: a logo syllabic script that was used to write several
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: languages of the ancient Near East. The script was in
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: of the Common Era. It kind of looks like hieroglyphics.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: It's the kind of content that you would see in Egypt.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: It is named for the characteristic wedge-shaped impressions. Latin cuneus,
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: which form its signs that you had to draw in
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: order to be able to write. Writing did not exist.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Cuneiform was originally developed to write the Sumerian language of
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: southern Mesopotamia, modern day Iraq. Along with Egyptian hieroglyphics, it
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: is one of the earliest writing systems. So we've got
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: writing is growing and being developed at this time. The
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: ability to write, the ability to translate verbal language into
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: writing is something we shouldn't take for granted. We must
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: understand that there was a time that there was no
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: language that could be written. So history, if you go
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: back far enough, becomes oral more than written. In the
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: ancient antiquities of time, we see etches and drawings on
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: caves that begin the first dimensions to develop a written example.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: Of an oral expression.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: The code of Hammurabi is an example of that. And
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: up until recent years had never been discovered. But archaeologists
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: had dug down and found the code. And in the code,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: it kind of reinforces this idea, having come from the
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: same place that Abram came from and the same place
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: where Sarai came from. When God tells Abram to leave
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: thy country and thy kindred, he left his country and
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: his kindred, but no doubt his culture.
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: Goes with it. Hell, you didn't hear what I'm saying.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: It is possible to leave your country and your kindred
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: and still hold on to your culture. And so even
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: though he has left a polytheistic form of religion, an
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: idolatrous form of religion, and heard the voice of God, Jehovah,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: call him out and call him out from his people
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: and out from his country, there's still a residual culture
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: that affects his thinking and her thinking. And backed in
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: a corner and shoved to the wall, her old traditions
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: start to manifest in her decisions. That sounds a lot
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: like us. No, that even sounds a lot like the
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: children of Israel who have been slaves for 400 years
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: and they left Egypt, but Egypt didn't leave them. And
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: when they got ready to build an image of what
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: they thought God looked like, they built an Egyptian image
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: because the influence of the Egyptian culture, they could not
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: escape just because they crossed the Red Sea. They left
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: the country, they left the people, but they had trouble
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: divesting themselves of the culture. How much of your old
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: culture is still lingering on you today? Shaping your value systems,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: shaping your choices, shaping your apparel. I never will forget
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: being in Kenya and we had dug wells out in
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: Kenya and there were two tribes that had been fighting
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: over water in Kenya. And when we got ready to
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: do a reconciliation service because we dug a well, one
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: of the tribes got up on stage and they started
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: singing and they started swinging from side to side and
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: started clapping. And they started singing. I remember thinking, so
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: that's where we got that from. See, when you go
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: back far enough, some of your inclinations, your proclivities didn't
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: just start with you. They are innate to where you
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: came from and they travel down and they become organic
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: and natural to you without you even being conscious of it.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: That's why culture is important to understand your culture so
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: that you can separate your culture from your Christ. Y'all
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: don't hear what I'm saying to you. And so it
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: is understandable that all of this is rooted in Mesopotamia.
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: All of this comes out of the same region.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: So her reasoning is a result of where she came from.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: How much of your reasoning is a result of where
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: you came from? If you came from poverty, how much
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: of your reasoning is affected from the impoverished surroundings that
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: you came from? Now, you may not be in poverty
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: any longer, but your judgment may be being fed by
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: the time that you were. Your values, how you handle money,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: how you handle resources. There's a certain mentality that comes
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: with poverty that tends to lean away from things like investment.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Because you've been without so long that when you finally
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: start having, you don't really know how to handle money.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: And when you give people who don't have money some money,
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: the first thing they do is spend it. And the
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: second thing they do is spend it. And the third
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: thing they do is spend it. And the fourth thing
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: they do is spend it. And the fifth thing they
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: do is spend it because they didn't come up in
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: a house where they talked about investment. They didn't come
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: up in a house where they talked about life insurance.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: They didn't come up in a house where they talked
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: about annuities. They didn't come up in an environment that
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: gave them a strategy for the success they prayed for.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: So it is possible to have a success that you
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: can't handle. Oh, y'all don't hear what I'm saying. How
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: much of your behavior is a direct result of where
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: you came from? What you think about men, what you
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: think about marriage, what you think about relationships, what you
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: think what is normal to you may be affected by
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: where you came from. If you were raised in a
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: house where there was a lot of violence. Violence may
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: be normal to you and if people are too nice
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: to you, you may irritate them on purpose to provoke
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: a response that is familiar and then complain about what
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: you provoked because that is normal to you. Or you
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: might inflict punishment on somebody because that was the model
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: that you came from and it affects how you express rage, frustration, aggravation,
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: it affects everything about you based on where you came from. Now,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: the Bible says that any man being Christ, he is
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: a new creature. He is a new creature, but you
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: can still have old ways and be a new creature. Oh,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: y'all don't hear what I'm saying. I know you don't
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: know anything about having old ways, but you can have
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: old ways and be a new creature and not even
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: understand it. It can drive you towards success. It can
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: make you a workaholic. It can cause you to do
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: things that you wouldn't do because it's not what you're
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: going to, it's what you're running from. What causes some
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: people to be more intense than other people? Because they're
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: running away from something that they never want to see again,
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: which causes you not to have balance in your life
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: because you're so busy trying to get away from what
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: you think is horrific that you overdo what you're going
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: to do because you were so affected by where you
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: came from because you never want to see that happen
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: again in your life. If you can understand what I'm
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: talking about, hold your hand up. wave at me make
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: some sort of sign so you understand how Sarai reverts
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: back to this ancient Mesopotamian ideology and there seems to
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: be some reference to it in scripture because even when
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: God promised Abraham to bless him he said I'll bless
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: whatever is born in your house So the culture of
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: the times lends itself to creating the quagmire of this
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: situation that has erupted in Abraham's life in such a
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: dimension that now we find ourselves in a situation. It
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: was fine at first. Somebody say it was fine.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: At first.
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: Say it again.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: Watch out for making decisions in the early stages of
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: any situation because almost everything starts out fine at first.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: If marriages were as good as weddings, everybody in the
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: room would be married. It was fine at first. Oh,
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: when you first took the job, everybody's so nice. Everybody
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: treats me so good. They're so kind. They're so loving.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: Everything starts out fine at first. That's why the Bible said,
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: judge nothing before it's time, but judge the righteous judgment.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: You gotta be patient before you judge. You can't say
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: for sure somebody you just met who they are and
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: how they are, because you may not have met them yet.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: You may have met their representative. But over time, they
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: will drop their mask and show you who they really are.
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: It takes time.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: I want you to understand that patience has to have
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: its perfect work in your life. It takes time to
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: know people. It takes time to know people. It takes
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: time to know organizations. It takes time to know yourself.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: I'm going to go a step further. You are still
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: learning you. Oh no, Bishop, I'm 40 years old. You
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: are still learning you. Read my lips. You are still
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: learning you. I'm 50 years old. Yeah, you are still
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: learning you because life keeps changing and stages keep changing
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: and you knew yourself, your 20 year old self, but
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: you're not that anymore. And you got to see how
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: you react to 50 because who you are at 50
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: is not who you were at 20. That's why marriage
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: is a miracle. because you picked somebody now for then.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: When I got married, I was 24 years old. I
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: didn't know who I would be by 64. I had
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: no idea who I would be at 64. And so
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: it has to be, it can't just be a roll
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: of the dice. It has to be a God divine
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: thing to pick somebody who can move with you and
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: flow with you throughout age. It's a difference between having
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: little kids and and having kids who want the car keys.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: That changes everything. So don't write any books about parenting
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: when you got a five-year-old. I, for one, will not
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: be buying the book. I don't want to read it.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: If you have survived having a child that's 30, I
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: might want to talk to you. But until you have
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: survived adolescence.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: Aggravation, frustration, humiliation, been fussed out, been cussed out, been
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: through trials and tribulation, ran down to school on your
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: lunch break, got back to work late, trying to understand
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: things that are going on, defending somebody that you know
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: is guilty. Oh, y'all not going to say nothing to me.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: It takes time. Don't write no book on parenting. Don't
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: write no book on marriage if you've been married three years.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: It takes time for you to figure out how to
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: stay together through different stages. It's a difference between a
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: parent whose biggest problem is to make sure you brought
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: the bottle and you got the blankets and you got
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: the car seat in place from somebody whose kid just
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: took the car. I ain't going to look at no
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: particular person in case you're in here right now. You
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: got to survive all of that to understand. It's a
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: difference between being married to somebody when they're young and
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: you're laying on the beach and you got sand all
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: over your body and your biggest job is to put
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: suntan protection lotion on them and somebody who's going through
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: menopause or somebody who's going through midlife crisis. And there
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: he is with gray hair and a red sports car
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: with the top down. And the music turned on and
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: he's playing hip hop. You got to survive all these
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: different stages and ages and twists and turns. And it's
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: not what you're running to, it's what you're running.
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: From.
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: Almost everybody I know who is inordinately successful is running
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: from something. They put in long hours. They work extra hard.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: They work when other people say, I'm going to take
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: it easy. You don't understand why you're driven. You are
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: driven by the thing behind you. Somebody got a getaway
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: spirit in here right now. I got to get away.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: I got to get away. I don't want that to
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: ever happen to me again. I don't ever want to
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: be that vulnerable. I don't ever want to trust anybody
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: like that again. I don't want to ever be dependent
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: on anybody else again. So the thing that drives it,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: isn't it funny how bad things can drive you to
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: good things? But if you're not careful, it'll drive you
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: so far that the good thing will go bad because
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: it'll drive you over a cliff that you should have
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: stopped at because you're still running from ghosts. Where my
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: real people at? I want to talk to some people
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: that want to keep it 100.
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: You so busy.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: Trying to pick somebody that's not like your old boyfriend
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: that you pick somebody he's not like your old boyfriend
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: but you swapped the devil for the witch. Your last
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: one was too aggressive and this one is so passive.
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: He won't even go to work.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: You fixed the old problem, but you created a new
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: problem because you are driven by where you came from.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: Do you hear what I'm saying to you? Sarai is
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: driven by where she came from, and it leads and
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: affects her decisions, and it causes her to have fallacies.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: And ultimately, it seems to work out at first. And
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: Hagar births a child for her called Ishmael. And Ishmael
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: is called Ishmael, which means God will hear.
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: God will hear.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: This Egyptian woman who comes from an idolatrous background names
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: the child, and it's an Egyptian woman who has now
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: named the child Ishmael in reference to Abram's God.
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: God hears. will hear.
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: Later on we will see where she is out in
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: the wilderness and she's about to die and the Bible
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: said that God heard the cry of the baby. God
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: will hear. It's a prophetic name. Be careful what you
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: let people call you. Be careful what you adapt Be
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: careful what you let people call you because it has
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: prophetic inferences to it. Little did she know when she
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: named him, God will hear that that cry of that
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: baby would lead to her deliverance because it wasn't so
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: much her cry that God heard, it was the cry
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: of the child. And God said, I heard the cry
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: of your child and God will hear. I came to
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: tell somebody tonight that God will hear you. I don't
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: care how far in the desert you are. I tell you,
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: if you make your bed in hell, God is there.
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: If you take the wings of the morning and ascend
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: to the uttermost parts of the earth, God is still there.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: If you get behind the door and laugh, God will hear.
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: If you murmur in your own head, God will hear.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: If you think in your own mind, God will hear.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: The Bible says that he is a discerner of the
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: thoughts and the intentions of the heart. There is nothing
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: that you think that God can't hear. So don't sit
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: there with your holy self and your nose up in
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: the air trying to be important and impress me because
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: I didn't hear what you thought, but God heard what
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: you thought. And if you aren't dirty in your life,
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: you've been dirty in your mind. God, talk to me somebody,
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: God will hear. There's none good but the Father. There's
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: none righteous but the Father.
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: No, not one.
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: Not the bishop, not the elder, not the butcher, not
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: the baker, not the candlestick maker. None of us, none
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: of us are that righteous. If you get in our head,
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: we'll all lose our position. How many people in here
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: are glad that your mind is not on a loudspeaker?
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: You can't even trust your mind to be on a
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: loudspeaker when you're in church because you have to reel
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: your thoughts in even in.
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: The house of God.
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: You have to cast down imaginations even in the service
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: of God. You have to capture your thoughts even in
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: the spirit of God.
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: You can be.
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: Worshiping one minute and think something crazy the next and
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: you don't even know where it came from and look
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: around and wonder, did anybody hear what you thought? Because
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: if somebody next to you heard what you thought, they
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: wouldn't even ride home in the car with you. Ishmael,
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: God will hear. There is a prophetic power over this child.
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: Even though he is born through a fallacy and a
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: failed attempt, a human effort to bring to pass the
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: promise of God, there is still a prophetic utterance over
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: his life. God will hear. Just because you're not the
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: one doesn't mean you're not a one. Oh God, I'm
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: talking good tonight. Just because you're not the one doesn't
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: mean that you're not a one. The problem with this
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: generation that we're living in now, everybody wants to be
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: the one. Out of eight billion people on the planet,
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: you want to be the one. So you don't mind
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: who you... step on, who you step over, who you
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: step across, because you think there's only room in God's
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: plan for one person. But I came to serve notice
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: on you. God has a plan for your life. You
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: might not be the one, but you are a one.
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: You are the apple of his eye. You are chosen
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: of the Lord. God has a destiny for you to fulfill.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: And stop fighting over one chair because God has other
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: sheep that are also of this fold. Them also must
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: he bring. And you don't have a franchise on the
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: favor and the hand of God.
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: I smell. God will hear.
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: Ice, ice, ice, ice.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: In the Old Testament, it talks about Isha. I will
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: call thy name no more Balaam, but I shall call
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: it Isha. That's a converting moment. When the prophet married
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: the prostitute, she changed the name from Baal to Isha.
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: She had found Isha, Ishmael, Isaac. All of these are
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: references and utterances that have God in it. Later Sarah
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: will have Isaac, meaning Isaac, I, God has made me
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: to laugh. Ishmael, God will hear. I will call thy
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: name Ishi. God dwells amongst us. God is in it all.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: I said God is in it all. Ishmael means God
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: will hear. Look at Genesis 21, 18 through 21 for
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: just a minute. Genesis chapter 21, verse 18 through 21.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: Am I teaching good tonight? This is what God says
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: about Ishmael. Up, lift up the boy and hold him
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: fast with your hand for I will make him into
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: a great nation. Then God opened her eyes and she
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: saw a well of water and she went and filled
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: God is taking care of Abraham's mistake in the wilderness. Oh,
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: somebody ought to shout me down right now because you
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: made a mistake and you think God doesn't care about it.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: But God will take care of your mistakes as well
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: as your miracle. And God cared for Ishmael and wouldn't
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: let him die in the wilderness. And God was with
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: the boy and he grew up. He lived in the
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: wilderness and became an expert with a bow. He lived
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: in the wilderness of Paran and his mother took a
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: wife for him from the land of Egypt. History will
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: teach us that Ishmael will go on to have 12 sons.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: He will have 12 sons. Isaac is the promised seed.
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: He will only have two, Jacob and Esau. But Abraham's grandson, Jacob,
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: will have 12 sons. And those 12 sons will become
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: the 12 tribes of Israel.
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: Look at Abraham's tree.
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: The branch on one side is coming up with Hagar's
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: ice mail. And on the other hand, something just sprouted
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: out of the dead womb of Sarah called Isaac and
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: another branch is growing. Later on, when Sarah is dead,
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: he will marry Keturah and another branch will come out.
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: No wonder God said, you will be the father of many.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: You will be the father of many children. You will
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: be the father of many. Many nations came out of
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: the loins of one man. And he was significant to God.
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: And his life is just reaching the apex of significance
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: at 100 years old. Give yourself some time. Calm down.
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: quiet yourself. Both sons were circumcised. Look at Genesis 17,
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: 10 through 14. Both sons were circumcised. Circumcision was a
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: covenant that God made with Abraham and his seed as
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: a sign of the covenant. It is not the covenant.
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: It is the sign of the covenant. So Ishmael has
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: the sign of the covenant just like Isaac does. This
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: is my covenant which you shall keep between me and
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: you and your offspring after you. Every male among you
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: of your foreskins and it shall be a sign of
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: the covenant between me and you. He who is eight
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: your generation, whether born in your house or bought with
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring.
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: Both he who is born.
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: In your house and he who is bought with your
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: money shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: in your flesh an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant.
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: Are you with me? It's amazing to me. When we
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: pick up the text, we're dealing with a circumcised Isaac
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: at eight days old and an Ishmael who has been circumcised.
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: And ultimately, Sarah is going to ask him to put
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: the bondwoman out and her son, which is a circumcision.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: The removal of Ishmael is as much a circumcision as
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: the cutting of his flesh. This whole text is circumcision.
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: Are you hearing what I'm saying to you? In every
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: case we are seeing flesh being cut away and cast off.
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: Put out the bond woman and her son. That's circumcision
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: in the family. Every male child should be circumcised. There's
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: circumcision in the body. And God is into circumcision. What
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: have you cut off lately? Cutting off certain things, certain people,
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: certain situations is not the covenant, but it's the sign
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: of the covenant. This is an equal opportunity chance, male
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: and female. We all got some cutting to do. Write
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: that down. We all got some cutting to do. In
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: order for us to receive the promise of God, we've
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: all got some cutting to do. And we've all got
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: some bleeding to do. And we've all got some pain
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: to bear. Because cutting off that which you are connected
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: to is painful. So in our text, there is pain.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: There is a party and then there is a pain.
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: In our text, language is growing. Genealogies are growing. Nations
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: are growing. And God is pruning. There is a continual
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: ongoing pruning in your life that does not stop. It
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: is highly unlikely to live a life void of poor
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: judgment or fallacies. That's what I want you to see.
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: The second thing I want you to see is that
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: God's grace is broad enough to offer a plan for
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: your fallacy while his greatest providence rests on your faithfulness.
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: I'm telling you that God can get the glory out
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: of your humanity. as well as your holiness. God said,
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: I'm going to make a great nation out of Ishmael.
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: He's not the one, but he's still a one. And
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: I'm going to make a great nation out of Ishmael.
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: And that nation today is called Arabs. And the Arabs
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: are descendants of Ishmael. And they have become a great
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: nation and a warring people. And God bless them to
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: survive to this day. And yet they were not the one.
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: But they were still a one. You've got to make
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: peace with your fallacies. So that you can walk into
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: your faith and your destiny. A separation is often required
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: when your fallacies mock your faithfulness. There is a rumbling
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: in this house because for a while your fallacies and
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: your faithfulness can live together under the same roof, but
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: eventually your fallacies will begin to mock your faith. And
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: this is what's happening in this text. They were cool,
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: they were having a party. Isaac has been weaned. Abraham
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: throws a party. They were all having a good time
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: until Sarah looked out the window and she saw her
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: mistake mocking her miracles. I wonder how many people in
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: this room have had your mistakes mock your miracle. Oh,
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: it's getting quiet in here. As long as I'm looking
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: at Isaac, everything is fine. But you look out the
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: window and you know that Ishmael is making fun of Isaac.
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: That Ishmael is making fun of Isaac and it's all
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: in your house. Anytime you have inconsistencies, eventually one will
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: mark the other. And at some point along life's journey,
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: you gotta put one of them out. In order to
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: be whole, in order to have peace, in order to
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: have tranquility, in order to have unity, there comes a
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: point that something that is mucking, something that God has
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: promised you has got to go.
• 50:45
  Speaker 3: That's what's happening in this text.
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: And Jesus says of his father, he says, I am
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: the vine, ye are the branches in John 8 chapter 1.
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: And my father is the husbandman or he is the
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: vine dresser or he is the gardener. And there is
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: nobody in that text that doesn't get cut. Every branch
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: in me that beareth not fruit, I cut it away.
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: Every branch in me that beareth fruit, I cut it
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: that it might bring forth more fruit. No branch escaped
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: the cut. There's not a person in this room that
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: can escape God's knife. There's not a person in this
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: room that won't have party one moment and pain the next. Oh,
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: do you hear what I'm saying? How could this switch
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: from one verse to the other? They're having a party,
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: they're having a celebration. Isaac is weaned. Until Sarah looks
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: out the window and she begins to see the mockery
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: in her own life. This is the catalyst of change.
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: When you confront what is mocking your destiny. The real
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: lesson here is the promotion of patience. It is understanding
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: that letting go of your fallacies is painful and problematic,
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: but it is also, the real lesson here is the
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: promotion of patience. If Sarah had only waited, she wouldn't
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: have had to deal with this fallacy.
• 52:31
  Speaker 3: Now Abraham is in a crisis.
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: He is in a crisis because now his wife has
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: asked him to put out his son. His son who
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: he knows, not the son he just had, the son
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: he's grown up with. He wants him to cast out,
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: she wants him to cast out the bondwoman and her son.
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: And Abraham ain't hearing it. He's not hearing it. He's
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: not hearing it. And an argument has broken out in
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: the house because Abraham told Sarah, you must be tripping.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: He wouldn't have been in the house if, this is
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: what I said. This is Jake's version of the Bible.
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: He wouldn't have been up in this house in the
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: first place if your mouth hadn't have made this decision
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: to bring him in the house. Now you're going to
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: turn around and change your mind in the middle of
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: the story. It's a good argument. It's a true argument,
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: but it's not right. Oh God, can I go deeper?
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: It can be true and not be right. It is
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: true that Sarah is reversing her own idea. It is true,
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: but it's not right. How do you know it's not right?
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: Because God said, hearken unto the voice of thy wife, Sarah,
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: which I have given you.
• 53:59
  Speaker 3: Sarah is right.
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: But the problem is.
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: They're asking Abraham who has waited till he was a
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: hundred to.
• 54:12
  Speaker 3: Have a child while all.
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: Of his brothers and all of his family and all
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: of his kin people are having children.
• 54:20
  Speaker 3: He has nothing to show for a hundred years.
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: And you know how it is when you get something
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: after not having something for a long time and now
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: they want to take it from you.
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: Now you're ready to.
• 54:36
  Speaker 3: You come up... You ain't gonna take this....
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: Because when you've waited a long time to get something
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: and now you got to give it up, it is difficult.
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: It is painful. It is hard.
• 54:54
  Speaker 3: And it takes faith.
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: It took faith for Abraham to submit to the voice
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: of God. To hearken unto the voice of a woman
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: who got him in the mess in the first place.
• 55:15
  Speaker 2: Now y'all know you will change your mind.
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: Can you feel the tension in this text? Can you
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: feel the marital discord in this text? Abraham is the
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: father of faith and he's having trouble in his marriage
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: because he is.
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: Sick of Sarah.
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: This is a part of the Bible that we don't teach.
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: These are our spiritual parents. Our covenant parents, the patriarchs
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: of all that we embrace as faith are having marital problems.
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: They're having a fight. They went from a feast to
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: a fight, from a party to pain, but they still
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: stayed together. Can you stay with somebody that you have
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: a right to leave? Oh, y'all ain't gonna talk to me.
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: Let me go on back home. Y'all not ready to
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: talk to me. I can imagine what's going on online.
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: Y'all are not ready to talk. Can you stay on
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: a job that you have a right to quit? Can
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: you stay because God put you there? Can you stay
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: because you're called there? Can you stay because your destiny
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: is there? Can you work it out because God is
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: about to do something amazing in your life? Is there
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: ever a time in your life that God gets bigger
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: than your feelings? Oh, y'all not going to talk to me.
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: Let me try this. Is there ever a time in
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: your life that God gets bigger than your fear? I
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: hear you dance. I hear you shout. I hear you
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: speak in tongue. But the moment something gets on your nerves,
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: you are out of there. Abraham is staying with a
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: woman whose advice has created a problem and her cure
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: has created pain. Abraham who didn't flinch at cutting the
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: foreskin off his penis. is going crazy about putting away
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: his son.
• 57:29
  Speaker 3: Men, back me up.
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: I have never had a day in my life that
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: I thought, No, no.
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: No, no.
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: You cut my fingernails or something like that. You cut
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: my toenail. You cut my hair. Don't you bring that
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: knife over there because I'm not hearing that because that's.
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: Going to hurt.
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: Abraham didn't flinch at that. But at putting away his son,
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: now we got a problem. But Abraham's problem was also
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: Abraham's practice. Y'all ain't ready for me tonight. Abraham's problem
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: was also Abraham's practice. God allowed him, he said, hearken
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: unto the voice of thy wife. I want you to
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: get used to giving up your son. Stay with me.
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: Because by the time we get to Genesis 22, when
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: God says, take now thy son, thy only son, Isaac,
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: to the mountain to offer it up, it has become
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: easier for Abraham to give up Isaac than it was
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: for him to give up Ishmael. He said, I've been
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: through this before. And if God took care of Ishmael,
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: God will take care of Isaac. So now he takes
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: Isaac to the mountain. And he doesn't stagger at the
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: promises of God because the promise, the problem led to
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: the promise. Talk to me a minute in here. Talk
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: to me a minute in here. Abraham said, I'm used
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: to cutting off stuff. I cut off my flesh. I
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: cut off my Ishmael. And if you ask me for Isaac,
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: You can have him too. And he told his servants,
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: me and the lad are going yonder to worship. But
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: some kind of way, God is going to get us
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: out of this. If he took care of Ishmael, he'll
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: take care of Isaac. I survived the cutting of my flesh.
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: I survived the cutting of my first son. And I'll
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: survive the cutting of my... Oh, y'all don't hear me. Daddy,
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: I see the knife. And daddy, I see the wood.
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: But where is the sacrifice? Don't worry about it, boy.
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: God himself shall provide the sacrifice. Your faith comes out
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: of your experience with God. And little by little, Abraham
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: is growing up. He's growing up through the things he suffered.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: He is learning obedience through the things he suffered. He's
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: learning endurance through the things that he suffered. And by
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: the time we get to the 22nd chapter, which is
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: just another chapter away, Abraham has gotten good. at saying
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: yes to God even when it hurts. Is there anybody
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: in here that's gotten better at saying yes to God
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: even when it hurts? Or is God just a God
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: of your convenience and a God of your good times
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: and a God when things are working out and a
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: God when you agree with him, you say yes. but
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: when it draws blood, you back away. That's why the
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: book of Hebrews said, you have not yet resisted under blood.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: You got to be God's child even when it causes
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: you pain, even when it draws blood, even when it
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: hurts your feelings. The promises of God are sure. The
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: promises of God are sure. He will say, surely blessings
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: I will bless thee and multiplying I will multiply thee.
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: The promises of God are sure. Say it with me.
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: The promises of God. Say it again.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 2: The promises of God.
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 3: Say it again.
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: Say it again. Now that's praise, that's praise. When you
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: compliment God's character, when you brag on his integrity, when
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: you trust him in uncertainty, when you praise him in
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: the middle of pain, when you give him the sacrifice
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: of praise, when you believe him even when you're hurt,
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: when you believe him even when you're frustrated, when you
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: believe him even when it doesn't feel good, When you
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: believe him, even when you're living in a situation that
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: is below what you want it to be. When you
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: believe God, even when your flesh is saying, leave this
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: crazy woman and walk out the door. And I'm not
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: talking about Hagar. I'm talking about Sarah.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 3: I'm sick of her.
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: And her bad advice because now she wants to hurt
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: me again. And yet God says, wait, wait, go back
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: and hearken to the voice of thy wife. The woman
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: is right. I want you to practice giving up your son.
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: Your problem is your practice. Can I go deeper? They
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: gave me my first church. It was in Montgomery, West Virginia.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: At that time, and I think even now, Montgomery had
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: one red light in the whole town. So you know
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: how big that was. You blink and you was out
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: of Montgomery. And I had to drive about an hour
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: or so To even get to the church. And I
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: was working a full time job. And it wasn't a church.
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: It was a building. And the building wasn't a church.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: It was a hole in the wall. And I was
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: preaching my heart out. And preaching Sunday mornings. And Sunday night.
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: And teaching Wednesday night Bible class. And had to be
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: at work at 7 in the morning. And the church
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: was not growing. And the church was not developing. And
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: I was teaching everything I knew. I was teaching on
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: the tabernacle ever since I was a teenager. I was
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: teaching Moses' tabernacle, the tabernacle of David, the temple of Solomon.
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: I was teaching eschatology. I was teaching Christology. I was
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: teaching everything I knew how to teach to about five
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: old ladies and two little kids. And a big service
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: was 40 people. And if we hit 100, it would
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: have blown our mind. We'd have to put out chairs.
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: And I thought, God, eventually, it took me a while,
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: because at first I was grateful to just be there
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: at all, but eventually I got tired of preaching to
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: a handful of people, and people were making fun, and
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: they were laughing at me, and they were calling me
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: the boy preacher. I didn't realize that my problem was
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: my practice. What you may be wrestling right now, it
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: may only be preparation for what God is about to
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: do in your life and stop being so frustrated because
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: it's not working out. This is not the recital, it's
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: just the rehearsal. And you know, the choir don't look
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: like the choir when they come to rehearsal. They don't
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: have on the robes when they come to rehearsal. They
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: don't have their hair done and the black dress with
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: the pearls around the neck when they come to rehearsal.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: And so don't be so upset about what you're going through.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: Your problem is your practice. Let me prove it to
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: you in Scripture. The Bible said if you can be
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: over many. And so I was faithful for 10 years,
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: preaching to less than 100 people to prove to God
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: that I would preach even when the numbers were down.
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: I couldn't even imagine preaching in a building like this.
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: I couldn't even imagine preaching to the crowds that I
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: had preached to. Later, I would preach to a million
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: people in Uhuru Park in the middle of Kenya. But
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: at that time, I couldn't get 100. But I was practicing.
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: And if you're faithful over a few things, God will
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: make you rule over many. I don't know who I'm
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: preaching to right now. Your business might be failing. You
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: might be struggling to keep the doors open. But don't
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: you doubt the promises of God. Weeping may endure for
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: a night, but joy is coming in the morning. Your
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: problem is practice. A few more quick points and I'm done.
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: God's promises transcend your circumstances. All we pray about nowadays
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: is our circumstances.
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 3: Give me out, Lord.
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 2: I'm sick of this.
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 3: I'm tired.
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 2: I don't feel good.
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 3: They hurt my feelings. They don't respect me.
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 2: Give me out. Give me out.
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: And God has given you a promise. And all you
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: pray about is the circumstance. The second thing I want
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: you to get out of the class tonight is that
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: walking with God often includes contradictions. Faith on one hand,
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: fallacies on the other. Promises on this side, problems on
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: that side. The greater the promise, the greater the problems.
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: New levels, new devils. If you cannot run with the footmen,
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: how shall you contend with the horses? So God has
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: put you in a foot race and you're ready to faint.
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: And yet you told me you could outrun the herd.
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: How you outrun the herd and you can't outrun the footmen?
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: I'm telling you that God will test you before he
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: promotes you. I'm telling you that he put Moses in
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: the desert and let him practice his miracles with nobody watching.
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: So that when Moses got before Pharaoh, he was good
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: at his tricks. He said, let me show you something.
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: You think your magicians are bad? Let me show you something.
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: The magician threw down their rod, it turned into a snake.
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: He threw down his rod, it turned into a snake
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: and ran their snakes off. He picked up the snake,
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: it turned into a rod again. He stuck his hand
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: into his bosom, it came out with leprosy. He stuck
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: it in again, it got healed. He poured out.
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 3: Water, it turned to blood. But Moses had been practicing.
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: Tonight we're talking about spiritual maturity creates patience in you
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: that you are willing to wait.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 3: And wade through contradictions.
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: Removing the contradiction takes as much faith as receiving the promise.
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: It took faith for Abraham to do what he did
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: not want to do And put out his son. And
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: by the way, I believe that Abraham was bond to
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: the bond woman. Come on, talk to me somebody. That
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: this is not just a laboratory exchange of fluids done
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: in a tester. Abraham has spent some time with Hagar.
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: And you know about pillow talk. And you sit over
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: there talking about what you want to be and what
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: you would do with your life and how you grew
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: up and where you came from. And now this is
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: a ripping of his flesh. And it is most painful.
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: Because he's bond to the bond woman which is part
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: of the reason Sarah wants her out of there. Because
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: I was foolish enough to believe that she could incubate
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: my baby and not my man.
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 2: That's stupid.
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: And now they're in a situation where Abraham has to
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: have faith to cut away His flesh again. Life is
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: a series of losses. No shouting tonight. Life is a
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: series of losses. In order to gain, you gotta lose.
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: In order to walk, you had to fall. In order
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: to be healed, you have to be sick. In order
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: to prosper, you got to go through pain. For every yin,
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: there is a yang. For every north, there is a south.
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: For every east, there is a west. Nobody gets away
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: without bleeding. Everybody is going to have some tears before
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: this life is over. Stop being jealous of people who
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: look like they haven't been through anything. There is no
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: way for you to have everything and not go through anything.
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: The only way you can have anything is to go
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: through other things. You are not the only one in
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: here bleeding. You are not the only one in here lonely.
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: You are not the only one in here sore. You
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: are not the only one in here who has suffered loss.
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: If your Savior suffered loss, then spiritual maturity requires that
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: you face with the same grace the loss as you
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: do the win. One moment he's partying, And the next
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: moment he's in pain. One moment he's happy and the
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: next moment he's in an argument. Ain't that just like life?
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: One text can take the smile off of your face.
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: One phone call and you would have to leave the room.
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: One incident could change everything in your life. God is
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: the righteous judge. God is merciful if we repent. God
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: knows how to fix our fallacies and yet build our faith.
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: There are people in here who have made some bad choices,
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: but God wants to fix them. Stress often comes when
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: our lives are too complicated. And in order to detox
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: from the complication, you gotta let some things go. What
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: are you willing to send away to bring peace to
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: your life.
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 2: This is deep.
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: There's too much stuff going on under the same roof,
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: which creates stress and depression.
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 2: Paul said, I was pressed.
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: Above measure and beyond strength so much so that I
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: despaired of life itself while I was in Asia.
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 3: He left.
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 2: Some things are too much for you.
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: You have got to develop the ability to save when
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: things are enough. Enough is enough. Something has got to go.
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: Because my destiny is being mocked by my history. As
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: I close tonight, I'm talking about spiritual maturity. And I'm
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: telling you that while Abraham's tree of nations was growing,
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: Abraham and his faith was growing at the same time.
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: That Ishmael was growing. Isaac was also growing. And we
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: are also growing. And you know you're growing as you
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: deal with the inconsistencies of faith and fallacies and maintain
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: the integrity of staying.
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 2: Through it all.
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: As I close tonight, I was watching this man. He
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: was paralyzed. He had some sort of disease. And the
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: only thing he could move was his lips. And he
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: had to talk through a computer. And he was going
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: to die. And they said, when... when you start to
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: get really, really down toward the end, do you want
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: us to resuscitate you? He said, yes. And I thought
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: to myself, why would you want to be resuscitated? Nothing works.
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: Nothing moves. Nothing is going your way. You can't go
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: to the beach. You can't go to the party. You
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: can't make love. You can't have fun. Why would you
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: want to stay? He said, life is so precious that
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: I want to experience the whole thing. I will take
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: no shortcuts. Every breath he gives me, I'll take it
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: because life is the most precious thing I.
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 2: Have ever known.
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: And he talked so much about the preciousness of life that.
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 2: I dropped my head.
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: Because here I am standing on two good legs with
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: two good feet and a strong body and a reasonable
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: portion of health and strength clothed in my right mind.
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: And this man who can't move a muscle or turn
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: his head or chew his own food, this man who
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: is sucking his food through a straw still thinks life
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: is precious. And suddenly I realized he was more mature
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: than I was. He had learned to value what I
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: am taking for granted. Spiritual maturity will stop you from
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: leaving when things get tough. Abraham could have left Sarah,
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: ran off with Hagar, and changed.
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 2: The course of destiny.
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: But God had a plan for him that required that
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: he endure pain sometimes and pleasure sometimes. And disagreements sometimes.
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: And inconsistency sometimes. I'm not saying to stay in a
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: situation where you're being abused and being raped and being
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: molested and all that kind of crazy stuff. But I'm
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: talking about leaving over burnt toast and leaving because he
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: lost his job and leaving because she can't cook and
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: leaving because they get on your nerves. You're not worshiping God,
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: you're worshiping you. Our ancestors made dinner out of yams.
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: They had no refrigerator. They covered the yams with leaves
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: and fed the neighborhood. My grandmother raised 23 children off
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: of yams and peas and greens. And you're sitting in
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: air conditioning saying I can't make it. And yet you
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: are filled with the Holy Ghost. And I love the
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: way we dance and I love the way we shout
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: and I love the way we praise God. But I'm
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: wondering when are we going to grow up? Growing up
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: means that you glory in tribulation. Because tribulation works with patience.
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 3: Patience.
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 2: Patience. Patience.
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: And patience experience and experience hope. But we are in
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: the generation of I want it now and I want
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: it fast and I want it quick or I quit.
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: You cannot become the father of many nations until you
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: learn how to stand until your branches grow to their
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: full capacity. Let's stand to our feet. Tonight there may
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: be somebody. Were you blessed tonight? I don't know why
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: God had me teach this. But somebody in here does.
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: I don't know who needs this. but somebody in here did.
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: It may be somebody in our virtual community that has
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: experienced a touch of the Holy Spirit right now. And
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: you're tired and you're annoyed and you're frustrated and you
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: want to walk away. And maybe God sent this word
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: to you about spiritual maturity so you could manage your
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: faith and your fallacies and understand that this, your problem
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: is your practice. By the time I got to Dallas,
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: I was ready to pastor. Because being in West Virginia
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: raised me. I could stand tribulation. I could stand storms.
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: Things that would have made other people walk away from
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: this ministry in this city I passed through it like
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: it wasn't nothing because he had trained me in the
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: desert he had called me in the wilderness he had
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: taught me how to preach through pain and preach through
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: turmoil