It's just good. I'm not going to keep you too long
tonight, but I always begin with a little talk on
leadership. Because many times we take our leaders for granted [alright] and really it speaks
volumes when somebody takes you for granted,
it's actually a compliment We don't like it, but it says that you're dependable,
it says that you are reliable, you're constant, you're
consistent, you're so much a part of the fabric of success that we no longer
even sense your presence. It's really something
you can't take everybody for granted. I mean some people you have to micromanage, you have
to watch them and look very carefully to make sure that they don't ruin your stuff. Amen but anytime you go to a church and its peaceful,
and it's organized, and it's going forward you
ought to give God thanks for that leader every day [applause] amen, amen, amen, amen.
You know sometimes we don't know the value of what we have until
we lose it [amen] and then when it's gone we find, Bishop, the late Bishop Arthur
Brazier, I went to his funeral, and before he died I
went to visit him, because he took me in some 30 years ago, and even though he was 30 years
older than I, I hung with him all the time and as we were talking he said, I said to him I
said, "It seems very tragic that none of us is indispensable." And
the old man said to me as he was sitting there
grappling with his own mortality, he said to me, "Noel, none of us is
indispensable, but some of us are irreplaceable"
[amen] and that was quite a statement that touched me deeply in my heart, because you
have some men around here and women around here that are irreplaceable, and I
think we ought to extol [applause] the virtue of the gifts that God has
given to us, and we ought to thank God for gifted men [baby talking] and gifted women because the
truth of the matter is whenever you're gifted that gift is not for you [right] that gift is for
somebody else. And when you end up with a lot
haters, when people hate because of your gift [come on] they're really not criminal, they just
crazy [laughter] because after you have killed
somebody that's gifted, you can't get their gift [that's right] The only way to enjoy the
gift is to keep the person alive [that's right] Amen, amen your character is yours,
but your gift belongs to somebody else. And as I go forward, I'm going to say this, if
you don't have any haters you are not very gifted [applause] Amen, somebody is not going to like you because
you're gifted [right] And don't take the negative,
negatively, take it positively and just operate your gift because you have it. Amen, give God
praise for yourself give God praise for your leaders [applause]
Amen, can I say just one other thing before I go further? Nobody really extols the
virtue of the creativity that goes into this job On Saturdays, I don't know when pastors study, I
have to study all the time, but when sometimes this bible with all of these pages on a Saturday night when
you know you've got thousands of people to preach to the next day, sometimes it
shrinks into a pamphlet [laughter, alright Bishop] Am I the only one that
has that problem or? Sometimes the creative and the cognitive
intellectuality that goes into this business is oftentimes missed by most of our members.
They don't grasp the enormity and significance of
being creative enough to speak to the same congregation [right] every
Sunday with a fresh word [applause] amen, amen. It's not just not a
three-point message that you all learned. It's being able to deal with a
contemporary situation and circumstance and take a book that was
written thousands of years ago glean truth from it, have one foot in the problem,
the other in the solution and speak to everybody
out of one voice and feel like he's only speaking to you [right,
applause] Nobody gives any consideration for
what it takes these men and these women to put together a
word. You know if you're on the road all you need is as many messages as you
go into one particular city [right] If I go seven times to Detroit, I only
need seven messages and a good secretary to
make sure that I don't preach in the other church what I preached in the other church [right,
laughter] Amen, but when you got to get up and
preach to the same congregation every Sunday [come on] and you all are discriminating. You will
get ready, you will wash your car, get one of
those 3-400 dollar hairdos, put on your Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Brioni, Etienne and you
will go to the church drive 20 minutes, 30 minutes to the church, pull
up and you don't see the pastor's car [right] And you may ask, "Is he here?" [right, laughter]
And you will back that car out [laughter] go back home or go to a church you wanted to visit because that you didn't go to because pastor was home, you are
discriminating. You're discriminating because the
level of excellence that has been displayed you don't want any less, but nobody gives any
real credence to what goes into being able to
preach to you every week Anybody who preaches to you every Sunday,
you ought to pray for every day [amen, applause]
and you ought to give God thanks [applause] You know, every now and then, we take one,
you know we didn't quite get the homework
together and we take one and we tie it up with another
one, and we put a new subject to it [come on]
Amen, then we get up and announce it but the church folk take notes. Got your name
written beside the scripture, the date you
preached, the subject you preached it, and some have the unmitigated gall and audacity
to say, "You preached it better the first time"
[laughter] Give God praise for the creative energy that makes this thing work [applause]
Come on, give God just a warm, hearted praise [applause] for everyone
of these leaders and preachers, amen I bought some material and I have lots of good stuff at the table, Preaching 101, I've got
that I've got Jehovah-Jireh, I've got all kinds of stuff,
Prophesying to the False Prophets, amen I've got
Credit Sunday School Increasing and Improving Credit, faithmate.com,
but I want to turn with me, all that's at the table.
But I want you to turn with me to Romans Chapter 5 and I want to associate that with St. James
Chapter 1 And I have some glasses somewhere, O here it
is, there it is yes, yes, yes, and I thought about, I
said now they have a wonderful theme here: Great God, Great Vision, Great
Accomplishments the Revelation of God's Glory,
but I was so glad you had a speaker to address that [right] because that untied my hands, and I
thought that I would do nothing new, I was not
going to come and try to navigate down some road I hadn't been down before not with all of
you out here, I'm not going to try and do that
[laughter] Amen, so if you will go with me to Romans Chapter 5 verse 1 says, "Therefore
being justified by faith we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ." Now the peace with God is certainly different
than the peace of God [right] Peace with God is the work of Jesus Christ
on calvary where diakonos just as if we have never sinned. It is not that we
did anything to merit it, it simply that when God
looks through the blood of Christ Jesus we look white. Come let us reason together
though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them
white as wool. When he looks through the blood of Christ Jesus, we look white. When
he looks around the blood, we're still scarlet. I
was flying to Africa the other day with Bishop Jakes and a few others, I was
doing something there and I wanted to be
unnoticed in the night as I was reaching for my Dr. Dre headphones and I had this little red
light that I look in the dark for things. And it's interesting, I
just didn't want to you know everybody else trying to sleep, you know that kind of stuff. And
as I looked through the red light and turned the headset on, it has a little red light, and
the red light that I was looking at it through caused the other red light to look white,
when I removed the red light, it was red. The light didn't
change, the light was still red but when you look through red, it looks white.
Peace with God has nothing to do with anything
that we do, peace with God comes simply by the work of Jesus Christ on
calvary [yes] Now the peace of God is a process
through sanctification through the Holy Spirit which means I can truthfully say that all of us
have peace with God, but all of us have not yet
achieved the peace of God That's a process, alright. So now he continues,
and he says, "by whom also" that's by Jesus
Christ our Lord, "we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand. And rejoice in
the hope of the glory of God and not only so, but
we glory in tribulations also. Knowing that tribulation worketh patience,
patience experience and experience hope and
hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by
the Holy Ghost which is given unto us" I would read a little bit of James Chapter 1
beginning at verse 2 and it says "My brethren count it all joy" [right] I'm trying to get
there; I don't think I got there yet "when you fall
into divers temptations. Knowing this that the trying of your
faith worketh patience, but let patience have her
perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire wanting
nothing. If any of you lack wisdom let him ask of
God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given him. But let him ask in
faith, not wavering for he that wavereth is like a
wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed for let not that man think that he shall receive
anything of the the Lord. A double-minded man is
unstable in all his ways." I'm concerned primarily about two
words: one patience and experience. Patience,
of course is from the Greek word hupomone and experience is from the Greek word
dokimazo, that is to remain under until there is an
approval. I just want you look at somebody like you're angry with them and
tell them, "I've been approved" [I've been
approved] Now look at somebody like you love them and tell them, "I've been approved" [I've been
approved] Tell somebody else, "You've been
approved" [you've been approved] Now holler, "We are approved" [we are
approved] That's what I want to talk about. The book of
Romans is regarded is some circles as Paul's
treatise or Paul's presentation of the gospel And somebody asked the question, "How can it
be defined as the treatise of the gospel or his
presentation of the gospel and my sister is here somewhere, thank you
Janet for dinner, and not have the signature or the character of Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John How is it that it can be defined as gospel when it
doesn't deal with the historicity of Jesus, it
doesn't deal with the uniqueness of his birth, the uniqueness of his
life, his teaching, the uniqueness of his death,
burial and resurrection, and yet still it is defined as Paul's presentation of the gospel? Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John show us and very definitely deal with Christ's humanity. And what
they show us is that he lived in a particular time in
history, in a particular geographic location, and that makes him human because all
of us will sojourn in a particular time, in a
particular place And yet still Jesus didn't go further than a 100
miles from where he was born, but the uniqueness of
his presentation leaves something out in the gospels. When we
see the gospels, we get the historical
presentation, but we don't get the theological philosophy that surrounds what happened when
he sojourned. And so it is Paul now who breaks
us into the philosophical theology that surrounds sanctification, propitiation,
redemption, adoption and of course, justification. We see that, we don't get
those definitions in Matthew, Mark Luke and John. So Paul's presentation of the
gospel goes behind the scenes of the historical
presentation and give us the philosophical so that we believe Jesus to get in
here, but we know him to stay. It's one thing to
believe him based on the record, it's another thing to have the theology
that gives you the strength to hold on in difficult
times. He opens up in Chapter 1, and what Paul does in Chapter 1 is
he turns one barrel of the shotgun against mankind in general. And what he
says is that when man should have received and been grateful, he
refused to retain God in his own knowledge and
because he refuses to retain God in his own knowledge, God says,
"Alright, you want to put me on trial then I'll tell you I'll do, I'll give you a mind that can't
try anything" Ooo... O yes, I told you awhile ago when people
are sinful, it's not just because they are criminal,
it's because they are crazy [preach] Because God gave a mind that was trialless,
because man decided that he wanted to put God
on trial to see whether or not he wanted to deal with him. Do I have just a little time? Do I have a
little time? [go on] It's critical here because man chose not to retain God within the
parameters of his own thinking. And that of course is because of
freewill, God gave freewill. And to give freewill
what God has to do is reduce his omnipotence to allow the creature in his space to
have any choices that God himself might or might
not like. It's a critical piece because he puts the man, he lowers yes he lessens his omnipotence, allows the man to make choices and he puts himself on the shelf
to see whether or not the man would choose him. Now notice now,
how in theology it's called divine self-effacement, where God reduces
himself to the point where he will allow the
creature the right or, to choose him. If the creature is not
allowed to put him up for choice, then he does
not have freewill because freewill must also include the creature's ability to choose
or not to choose the creator. But you cannot not
choose the creator and expect things to go on as if you did. Because if God is
not a part of your choices, then what you have
done is just eliminated the substratum of all your intellectual capacity and ability. Anytime you
refuse to choose God, things can't follow you as
if God is with you. ahh, Something is pushing me here,
you know, mmm [music] I can do that anytime, I
can do that anytime, that's not the anointing that's just me [laughter] Alright, don't worry about it. It's
a critical piece here because what man does is
man wants to enjoy the freedom to choose and if he chooses and God is not a part of the choice
then God does not have to send any extra
chastening, the man will automatically be chastened by his own choices. I don't get your
chastening, and you don't get my chastening,
because my chastening is predicated on what I choose to do. Now when man chose not to have
God and retain God in his mind, what happens
now is that his mind becomes so trial-less that he can't even understand the
significance of the opposite sex. When a man is
running his hand through the hair of another man, and running his down the back
of another man, and running his hand down the
legs of another man he's not criminal he's just cra... [crazy, laughter, alright] Because he chose not to retain God in his knowledge, God
gave him over to a mind that cannot figure out what to do. Can I preach like I feel it? Now we
want the choices, we want the choices, but we don't want the consequence of our choices
[right] we want to choose. Now because God,
because he decreased or because he divinely self-effaced as it relates to
his omnipotence, he did not reduce his
omniscience, which means that he knows what we are going to choose
before we choose it, but if everytime we choose
something that he didn't approve of and he interfered, then we would not have
freewill. Freewill necessitates that I can choose
whatever I want to choose but the problem is I have to live with the
consequences. Now we use that against God, we do it all the time and we say something like you know "Well Lord, if you knew that man was going to
treat me like he did, you should have never let me
choose him" uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh "Lord, you know if that woman was gone treat
me like that, you should have never let me choose
her, how could you let me make that choice?" Well, when Mama told you to leave the man alone,
that was God [laughter] When your best friends
told you to leave the man alone, that was God. When the woman he was with told
you, "You don't need him" [laughter] that was
God, and when the man himself said "Now baby you don't need to mess with me"
[laughter] uh-uh, that was God, but you had to
have him and so now you have got to live [come on] I wish somebody'd help me. Chapter number 2 he
turns the second barrel of the shotgun against
the Jewish people. He said now you had the Pentateuch, you had the Torah, you had the law,
you had the pillar of cloud by day, the pillar of fire
by night and you wouldn't serve God By Chapter number 3 he proves that all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. In
Chapter 4 he picks up with justification and he points out that we cannot
justify ourselves no more than Abraham can have
a child at 100 and Sarah at 90, just as that is a double impossibility so it is that you
and I cannot justify ourselves because indeed
and in fact our trialless mind was so reprobate that we didn't even choose to
come to God independent of him drawing us. uh-
uh, We're here because we were chosen in him before the foundation of the world,
and we couldn't make that choice unless he first
suro or dragged us It would seem then that according to the issue of
justification, and that's where we are going now,
that it would be an easy ride and it would be just, you know we would just slip
right in and just make it through without any
difficulties. But the truth of the matter is that God has to raise us to bring us from what we
used to be and how we used to think to the way
that he wants us to think. You see, we were processed
and we were socialized in a negative
environment and our proclivity and tendency is to operate within the parameters of the
environment that we were socialized in. Let me the first words that God spoke to Abraham he
said to Abraham he said one, "I want you to leave your father's house, I
want you to leave the place of your birth I want you to leave your country, I want you to
leave your land" essentially, not in that order he started with leave your land. It was ahh, mm-
mh, it was Karl Marx that said that, "Land
ownership is the substratum of wealth and stability" and God said to Abraham, "I want
you to leave your land" I don't want you when
you walk with me to associate anything material as your strength for being with me. I want you to
leave your land. Then he said to him, "I want you to leave the place of your birth."
It's Spinoza who said that, "We are the pool, what our pool is, the genetic pool
we draw from is what we become" And what
God is saying now, I want to socialize you differently because of the blood of Jesus. I don't
care what is running in your blood, when I run in
your blood you are going to be different than what you Mama's, Mama's,
Mama your Father's, Father's, Father used to be.
Then he said I want you to leave your father's house because Sigmund
Freud said, "We are no better than the way we were developed in our early
childhood" And so what God is saying now is I need you to change your mindset,
and that's why there is a process to bring us
from one level of life to the next level and it all begins with the
transformation of our mind. I want to bless you; I
want to take you to another level but you have to be able to make the leap from the
way you were socialized, the way you were
brought up and where I want to take you You've got to be able to move from the halt, the
lame, the crippled, the blind into a space that I want to take you. And so the
question then becomes, wilt thou be made whole? And the answer is I'm
about to heal somebody in here, but I'm only going
to heal one somebody by this pool I don't want to waste my healing so I want to
know are you ready to take this step from the
way that you were socialized the way that you were brought up from the way
that you were manipulated and orchestrated by
those who were around you Are you ready now to make the quantum leap to
be where I would have you to go? [right] And in order for
that to happen, you can't just walk in and walk straight into the mindset that God would
have you to have. And so he points out now that
there is a relationship between tribulation and the stability of the Christian's walk.
And that's why I borrowed James a little bit, because what James
is saying is that there is a relationship between tribulation and the stability of a child of
God's walk. If I don't have to face any tribulation,
then I will not develop as an individual, but in a love
relationship where there is tribulation it oftentimes
questions my credulity and my credibility and veracity as it relates to my
God. He loves me and if he loves me then why
do I have to go through anything? Why should I have to face difficulties of life?
Because anytime we think about love, we think
about being protected We think about being covered in a manner where
we don't have to go through anything I mean if you love me, why would you allow me
any kind of pain at all? But it seems here, as if there's a proper
way to handle trials and there is an improper way to handle trials. And I speak this everywhere
because its important for us to understand particularly with the economic situation in our
country that we have to handle trials properly. The proper way to
handle trials as James put it to us in verses two through
four, is count it all joy when you enter into divers temptations. Now
he's dealing with temptations and he calls it
divers and what that simply means from the Greek is it's variegated: it's round trials, it's
square trials, it's rectangular trials, it's polka dot
trials, it's paisley trials and it's not something that you thought
through, you're not always the initiator of what you have to go through.
Sometimes you got to go through stuff just because you were in somebody else's space
and you had to deal with the collateral damage of
the way they operated and next thing you know you are in a storm over who you are with.
Sometimes people put you through hell just
because they want to And some people do it through carelessness and
some people do it through their own malicious
disposition and attitude Sometimes you have been put through trials just
because of the home you were born in. You
didn't determine who your parents were and before you know it you're being developed
socially in a psychologically debilitated arena that
affects your life later because you just came up in the wrong home and you had
nothing to do with it. He said the proper way to
handle that is to count it all joy And the reason you count it all joy is because
your maturity level has taken you out of the
situation into the results of the situation. In other words I'm looking at an
horrific situation, but I have projected my spirit out
of the situation into a place of revelation as to what this situation is going to
make out of me. I'm not going to have the same
kind of mechanism that did the choosing that got me into trouble because
I've entered into divers temptations and I've been
whipped enough to know that I don't need to rush into making any decision about
anything that's going to be life effected because
of the temptations and the trials I have faced, I've learned to slow down and make
sure that I've included God in the process of my
decisionmaking and so he says "Count it all joy" because it's building your
character. I have allowed it to come into your
space so that I can make you strong enough not to be in a hurry about anything, but rather to
be cool enough to know that if God is not in it,
then I don't want to be a part of it anyway [applause] ahh I wish I knew
that years ago because I wouldn't have stumped
my toes and I wouldn't have lost my mind had I understood that the trials around me are not there
to destroy me, but rather to make me better. O
God now, now, can I just take my time? Because I'm not going to be too long. It's critical now
because I never saw the association between
double-mindedness and trials. I never understood that if any man lack wisdom, let
him ask God. He's saying that you cannot not
walk with God positively because you're going through some stuff right now. He says now
you have got to have enough wisdom to understand that what it is you're going through
is being orchestrated, manipulated and controlled by God.
It is God forming you in the middle of something
you regard as negative and sometimes God has to push you to
the very edge of your mind in order for you to
change your mind I don't know about you, but you see sometimes I
walk outside of the principles of God. And when
you walk outside of the principles, then you need miracles. Can I say it another way? The more you
walk in principle the less you need miracle. The
problem we need so many miracles is because we don't walk
according to principle. uh-uh, Can I take it further?
The only time I am nervous about my enemies is when I'm not walking according to principle
because if I'm walking according to principle,
there is nothing my enemies can do with me. ahh Yes, yes, yes. 'Cause when I'm
walking according to principle, if my enemy gets
into the hedge that's because God has ordained a situation for revelation. Can I say that again?
When I'm walking into principle the enemy can't
get to me. You see it was as much a miracle for Job to get in trouble as it was for us to get out
of trouble. Why? Because Job is walking in
principle and as long as he's walking in principle it would take a miracle
for the enemy to get in. The miracle was that God
removed the hedge and he removed the hedge in order to give Job a
revelatory experience that he couldn't have had if
he was sequestered in the hedge Let me put it another way. Can I work it just a
minute? uh-uh We gone shout after awhile, but I got to work, I
got to have something to shout about. Now Jesus is a friend of Lazarus, he's a friend of
Martha and he's a friend of Mary, and they're friends and
John in Chapter 11, allow me the digression in Chapter 11 spends the first six verses trying to
show us just how close Jesus was to this family. And yet still, when
they were sick and the word was sent to Jesus, he just didn't go. You know I mean,
can I talk a little bit pastors? Let me talk pastors. Now most of us, who have
churches, of God smiled on us, we got a few members. We generally have a staff of
ministers who go to visit the sick, and you know
they go to visit the sick, and I look at it as here I am the body of an octopus and all of the
people who serve with me are my tentacles. And so you send somebody over to
visit one of your members And they go over there and the first thing they
ask is, "Did the pastor call you?" Come on man,
the reason I sent you over there is to represent me.
Now why you going over there starting some
stuff asking the sick did I call You are my phone call, you represent my visit.
You know how it is when people don't respond
when leaders don't respond when people are sick.
That's why Martha said, "If you had been here my
brother would not have died." Wrong, wrong, wrong, I have allowed the enemy
in the hedge because I only give revelation to my
friends, I don't give revelation to my enemies, I only give revelation to my friends,
and I chose you so that I might reveal to the world
that I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth on
me though he be dead, yet shall he live and he
that liveth and believeth on me shall never die So I had to create a situation in order to give you
a revelation. He created a situation for revelation and called it Jehovah-Jireh; He created a situation
for revelation and called it Jehovah-Ropheca; He
created a situation for revelation and called it Jehovah-Rammah; He
created a situation for revelation and called it
Jehovah-Tsidkenu and he's creating a situation for revelation in your
life, and he says when I create the situation
count it all joy because I'm getting ready to take you to another
level. Ah, I feel like preaching! I'm a tell you to
touch your neighbor seven times that's it I'm not borrowing one yet. The trials then must be
approached with joy based on the realization of
what the trial is going to make you. You want to be anointed,
but you're not just gone rub on somebody that's
anointed and end up anointed. You gone have to go through something, you gonna have to be
broken a few times, just just broken and just broken. If I break you twice, you can only feed two people; if I break you three
times, you can touch three; if I break you 40
times, you can touch 40. Well some of us had to be broken a few
thousand times in our lives so that we might
touch people of all sizes, of all types, of all kinds. So when I'm being broken, I must give God
praise, because he doesn't break until he
blesses. He has to bless you so you take the breaking, so he can distribute you to
many different people. So instead of complaining
while you're going through he says, "Count it all [joy] joy" ahh, I feel like preaching here!
Where am I Patrick? Alright, good. It's critical here
because it leads to patience. Ya'll sit down, ya'll sit down we got
work to do. And patience completes us, it takes
the edge off of being in a hurry about anything. So now that's why he says we
glory in tribulations also because satan you're
bringing it on thinking you are going to to destroy me, but what you are going to end up
doing is making me better. I will not be bitter, but I
will be better And that's why I give God praise for all of my
enemies because my enemies get me blessed,
my enemies help to move me to the next level my enemies help to uncover the weaknesses that
I have so that God can fortify the weaknesses
because of my cognitive involvement in the move of God. Give God thanks for your
enemies. Your enemies just help you to find out
who ought to be in your space And who ought to be eliminated from your space.
That's what tribulation does, all trials do is help
me to distinguish who is who in my space. Now you need to be
reduced; you need to be increased; you need to
be moved over there; you need to go over there; When I was going through something, you left me
to go through by myself; you were with me on
the Mt. of Transfiguration but you couldn't hang with me in Gethsemane.
Now, you were there when it was time for
praise, but you didn't know when I lost my house You know when I bought it when we had the
party, but you didn't know when I lost it. "Oh, I
didn't know you were going through all that uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh All tribulation does is help
you to figure out who needs to be around you
and who needs to be gone That's all it does is help you to figure out who
your friends are and who your enemies are. You
know sometimes you have people around you that really get envious when you're
blessed. As long as you are complaining about
what is going on in your life "Oh, let's go to lunch." But let somebody call you
and ask, "How you doing?" Oh, I'm doing fine.
"Alright, see you later." You want to go to lunch when I'm hurting, but you see me later when I'm
doing alright. I wish somebody'd help me here, O
God It's critical because he says I want you now to
glory, kauchaomai and it really means to glory on
account of a thing that is exalt because of something because God
moves you to next levels in very scandalous,
skandalizó from the Greek where Paul says the preaching of the gospel is
scandal, offendere in the Latin, very offensive
where Jesus says, "Blessed is the man who is not offended in me." And it's easy to get offended
when your expectation and your experience
don't come together uh-uh, That's when you go double-minded
because I'm expecting something but I'm experiencing something else. uh-uh, The
prophet should have told us that we were going to experience financial
decline in America, and because we didn't get the
right word we were not equipped to handle having to downsize. I wish somebody
would help me, but the truth of the matter is the
tribulation will prove whether you're real or you're Memorex. I may lose my
house, but I'm not gone lose my mind. I may lose
my job, but I'm not gone lose my mind because I'm going to need my
mind for the next job. Because you lose a man, don't mean you ought to lose your mind [right]
'cause you are gone need your mind for the next man. 'Cause I lost a woman, don't
mean I'm gone lose my mind uh-uh And I got news for you, give somebody a
high five for the first time and say, "Neighbor
[neighbor] never say [never say] you have lost everything"
[you have lost everything] because a child of God cannot lose everything as long as I got God
[applause, music] I'm ahead of myself, ya'll sit
down, ya'll sit down I gotta remember where I am. You glory in a thing,
you gotta glory and exalt him because you know
where its going Notice how God operates. He chooses Joseph
and he says to Joseph what I need you to do is I
want to make you second man in Egypt and I want to make you second man in Egypt, and
the question is why? Because of Egypt? No, I want to make you second man in Egypt because I want
you to cover Israel. Well, who is Israel? Israel are sons of Jacob. Well, who are
the sons of Jacob? Joseph's brothers. But what
did Joseph's brothers do? Sold him as a slave after contemplating killing him. Now his
assignment is to cover his brothers, but his
brothers sold him into slavery. Now if Joseph couldn't understand the
significance of the tribulation it would have made
him bitter and not better Had he been bitter, he would have blown his
assignment because he would have used his
power to destroy the brothers that sold him into slavery. I wished you'd
understand it. But instead he looks at his brothers
from a lofty position that they helped to create. 'Cause had they not
treated him like that he wouldn't have been where
he became. So now he looks at them and instead of being angry he
simply says, "You meant it for evil, but God meant
it for good" [applause] So I'm not going to sit here and make my enemies
feel like I'm dead. The devil is a liar. Come on devil
do what you want because at the end of the day, God is going to use
everything you throw at me to make me what he
wants me to be ahh, I feel something pushing me here! When you
understand this, the article here in tribulation, ya'll sit down, we gone work a little bit,
it's coming A pressing together, it's a pressing together, it's
an oppression, it's an affliction, its distress and
the article suggests, and the article yes suggests that this is natural. Peter helps us with
that when he says, "Think it not strange" don't
think it foreign; don't think it's outside of the operation of God when you're going
through something, it's God ordained because
when he's not working on things around you he's working on you. And at the end of the day,
it's not what you have, it's who you are. I am
who I am in a Bentley, but I am who I am on a bicycle; I am who I am in a
Brioni suit, but I am who I am in a jogging suit. You
see God will use the things in order to make me who he wants me to be.
Because at the end of the day he's not coming
back for my house, he's coming back for me. And if he's got to take losing my house in
order to make me what he wants me to be, then
he'll do just that ahh, I feel it here! And when I know how I'm
coming out, and I know how much better I'll be, I
praise God for the new me that the trials and the tribulations are bringing.
There is always a separation between my
anointing and my appointing And I've got to learn how to operate wisely when
I am the anointed one, but somebody else is
appointed. David learned how to be the second man in a first position. You've got to
understand how to navigate when you are under
even though you've been anointed to be over. Don't lose your mind while you're
under, because you have been anointed to be
over ahh, I feel something! Give somebody a high five
number 2 and say, "Neighbor act wisely." Give
God praise while you're going through it Because you know where its coming out at the
end of the day. This will not kill me, this will make
me better and I'm praising God already for what he is going to
use me to do after I come through this trial. I'm
praising him for the revelation I already have after I come through what the devil thinks is going
to destroy. Can I take it further? ahh, God I feel something coming on now! [music]
Then he says this, and I quote he said, "It does not simply mean when we
are in tribulations, but also because we are" So the tribulation becomes the ground of
glorying" unquote Now here's where the Holy Ghost kicks in,
because my next level, the exaltation, it is not in
the tribulation themself, but the beneficial nature that comes out
of them. Its because God has chastened me and now I'm seeing the effects of the chastening
and that is I've learned how to call on him better;
I've learned how to feel his presence better; I've learned how in all thy
ways acknowledge him and he will direct my
path I've learned how to stay before him, because his
power now moves in a greater way and I understand that
there is a certain anointing that comes when I'm going through
something that I can't find when I'm not. I wished
somebody will understand me There's a level of comfort and consolation that he
brings into my spirit when I'm going through a
horrendous circumstance and I love it so much until I'm crying out to him,
"Lord, what else do I have to go through so that I
can feel your presence in a way I felt it when everything was going crazy on the
outside. Lord, what else do I have to go through
that will increase my worship that I can lift up and enjoy your name even though I'm flat
broke. I'm enjoying you with a wealth that's
coming out of the depth of my soul and I'm reaching for you in a manner that I've
never reached for you before" So I'm praising him for the condition I'm praising him for the situation, because I'm not
walking by situation, I'm walking by revelation that no matter how rough it is, I'm coming out with
a mighty hand ahh, yeah [music] So now it
produces something then and the writer says what it accomplishes is
hupomone, and hupomone is a steadfastness,
it's a constancy, it's an endurance One of the etymolgists put it like this and I quote,
"The characteristic of a man who is unswerved
from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety even by the greatest sufferings"
Can I preach like I feel it? My brother was up here
earlier, and I heard him preaching in the midst of a painful situation and as he was preaching I noted that he didn't
swerve from his purpose but he held onto the truth of God even though he
was going through losing his mother. Can I talk to
you a little bit? You've got to learn to stay focused in light of your
calling. And whatever your purpose is, you got to
let the devil know I might be hurting, but I'm still focused. I might be talked
about, but I'm still focused. I might be mistreated,
but that ain't gone stop nothing I might be looked at as I'm least [music] but that
ain't gone stop me, 'cause I know my purpose
and I know my destiny and it doesn't matter what you
throw at me [music] I'm still going to be here doing
the will of God I might be crying, but I'm still moving. I might be
hurting, but I'm still praising. I might be down and
out, but I made up my mind [music] that I'm going to hold
onto the purpose that God has placed in my life.
We might as well have church Come on Pat, I'm tired of lecturing [music] I feel like
having just a little church! Give somebody a high five [music] for the third
time and say, "hupomone" [hupomone] you got to remain
under. If its causing you to get closer to the Lord,
don't try to jump out of it Just stay right there til God gets through with his
work [music] Don't run from it, [music] don't run out of it, just hold on til
the Lord begins to move you [music] to the next level. Give
somebody a high five for the fourth time and say,
"Neighbor you can't go back to Egypt you've got to keep going forward" [music] you've
got to keep moving to the next level, you can't go back to Egypt, you got
to get by bitter water, you got to get by the Amalakites
at Rephedim [music] you got to get by everybody
at Jordan You've got to keep moving through Ai [music] you
got to get through it til you get to the river and you
can't turn back I don't care how rough it is in front of you [music]
that's where you got to go. So you can't keep
crying everytime you run into a situation that I want to go
back to Egypt [music] ain't nothing back there [music] God's taking you from
slavery and he's moving you to ownership [music] and if it remains
hupomone, I'm gone stay in this wilderness til God
brings me to the Promised Land I'd rather be [music] free with trials than to be
somebody's slave making bricks. I feel like
preaching in here! Touch somebody beside you and say, "Keep
going forward [music] because you've got to get
over these hurdles" in order to become [music] all that God has called
you to be, so I got to hupomone [music] I got to stay under it. I know
folk don't like the new direction [music] but you got to
hupomone, you got to stay there with it until you
overcome every opposition in your spirit I feel something pushing me right about now!
[music] And hupomone turns to dokimazo. And I
might as well close this out, because I feel church coming on [music] I feel something getting
ready to happen up in this house. Give somebody
a high five for the second to the last time and say, "Neighbor, I've got to hang in there
[music] I've got to hold on, because I feel the next level [music] is about to take place"
I'm one pain away from my victory [music] I'm one tear away from my
deliverance, I'm one heartache away from being
who God has called me to be I'm one, I'm one, just one [music] Can I preach like I
feel it? Now hupomone leads to dokimazo [music] and
dokimazo means to go through a series of events [music] to see
whether or not they can stamp an approval on
you I don't know what you drive [music] but I know
every car has a guarantee on it It's been approved [music] for a certain amount of
miles. Well I can tell you they didn't guess when
they said 100,000 miles They froze the car in a cold place [music] then
they thawed it out, they drove it in the desert then they pulled the engine down [music] they
checked the oil, then they put it back together,
they drove it back through the desert [music] checked the oil,
checked to see the wear and tear on the
odometer then they made some adjustments [music] put it
back together, put it in a wind tunnel, had the
wind blow over it put some dummies in it and crashed it [music]
then put some dummies in it and let something
crash it against the side then they tore it down [music] put it back together,
then they put it back in and ran the test again. I
just come to tell you that I've been tore down [music] I've been
driven in the rain, driven in the snow, then the
Lord pulled me down checked me out [music] made some adjustments,
then he put me back in the wind tunnel, had some
dummies crash me on both sides, then he pulled me back down
[music] put me back together, then he set me up,
then he put me in the snow ran me in the rain [music] then I crashed, then he
pulled me back down, then he put a stamp,
approved I feel like preaching in here! [music] Somebody
holler, "I've been approved" I've been approved
because I stayed there when I was talked about [music] stayed there
when I was walked on, stayed there when they
tried to kill me. So I've been approved for [music] another level,
been approved for a fresh anointing, I've been
approved for a bigger church I've been approved for a bigger walk [music] I've
been approved because I hung in there. Give
somebody a high five for the last time, say [music] "Neighbor, I stayed there
when others would have left" I cried when
others would have walked out I could have left a long time ago [music] but I
stayed there and I took it. I praised him when I
was down I praised him when I was hurt [music] I praised
him when other people wouldn't praise him. I lift
him up even when I'm sick so devil eat your heart out [music] I've been
approved. I feel like preaching in here. I feel like
lifting him up. Can I take the limit off for what I want to say? [music] Can I
take the limit off you touching your brother. Touch
your brother one more time and say, "Neighbor, I've been approved" [music] I've been
to hell and I hung in there. I've been walked on,
and I hung in there. I've been talked about, but I hung in there [music] Now God
has approved me for a fresh anointing. He's approved me for a bigger house [music] for
a better car, and I can tell the devil get out of my
house, get out of my church, get out of my choir [music] 'cause I have been approved. I'm
getting ready to close, but I feel the Holy Ghost.
Can I preach it like I want to? Give somebody a high five [music] say, "Neighbor
have you ever heard of the three little pigs?" One
pig built his house out of straw and the enemy came by [music] said, "Little pig,
little pig let me in." Not on the hair of my chiny,
chin, chin. I'll huff and I'll puff and [music] I'll blow your house
down. He did, ran over to his brother, blew his
house down, but I'm so glad there was one brother that built his house [music] out of
rock. Upon this rock I'll build my church. I come to
tell the Church of God in Christ 103rd Convention you have built [music] your
house out of rock and I hear the devil say, "Little
pig, little Church of God in Christ sanctified, Holy Ghost pig let me in" [music] I
heard you say, "Not on the hair of my Holy Ghost,
speaking in tongues, sanctified Church of God in Christ chin" [music] But he say,
"I'll huff, and I'll puff and I'll blow your house
down" When you moved from Memphis came to St. Louis he's huffing [music] and he's
puffing and you're still here. He's huffing and he's
puffing and you're still holy He's huffing and he's puffing [music] and you're
still lifting up the name of the Lord I came to tell you let him huff [music] let him puff
and I'll be praising the name od my God [music] Let him huff and let him puff and I,
I, I and I will lift up the name of my God Give somebody a high five [music] for the very
last time and say, "Neighbor he's huffing and I'm still here [music] he's puffing
and I'm still holding [music] he's huffing and I'm still
together, he's puffing [music] and I...I...I... " [applause, music] Somebody holler, "We are approved [we are
approved, music] We've been approved for a
higher level" [applause, music] Approved approved [music] we are approved for a higher [music] Because you in there in the face of your critics, you hung in there when they said it couldn't be done you hupomone, didn't quit, [music] didn't turn your back on your vision. Went through hell, but the Lord said, "You are approved I'm approving you for the next level [music] I'm approving you for restoration of everything you've lost plus [music] I'm approving you to move now and in abundance you have never had [music] because you knew how to remain under. And hope maketh not ashamed. Because its not my love for God now, but its his love for me [right, music] Ooo... I feel it in here! For the love of God is shed abroad in my heart and he's not going to let me look bad [music] after I have stood with him. The God we serve we are not careful to answer you [yes] concerning this matter O king [music] but the God we serve. Knowledge says he's able [able, music] O I feel it in here! This anointed place [yes, music] Faith says, "He will" [he will] but commitment says, "If not, we still are not going to bow" If he saves me out of your hand [yes sir, music] I wouldn't lose. If I die where I'm standing, I still won't lose [I still won't lose] Should I say that again? If he delivers me, I won't lose [music] but if I die making this stand, I still won't lose. Oh, king you are already defeated, because the only way I can lose is if I bow [right, amen, go 'head preach, music] (speaking in tongues) The only way I can lose is if I bow. I don't know what the outcome is, but I ain't bowing [music] O I feel it here! And because you took that stand, God has approved you [my God] Check through take somebody's hand if you would [music] all over this building I just come to tell you, you've been approved [haha, hallelujah, music] To your great, great leader, God just told me to tell him you've been approved [music] (speaking in tongues) Approved, smiling at your sacrifice, smiling at your tears [music] To that man that woman that person who walked away from ministry because of pressure [my God] God says come on back [come on back, music] When I called you and I gave you the gift to minister I gave it to you before the foundation of the world [music] and when I gave it to you, I knew the mistake you would make, because I had all the facts when I gave it to you [music] When I called you to preach, I had all the facts. The gifts and callingsof God is without repentance [without repentance, music] He don't have to take it back, 'cause when he gave it, he knew everything. What you did, did not surprise God, he knew it before he gave you the gift [music] So now just get over it, you've been abused and talked about enough Get over it [o yes, music] That's a part of the penalty of, but now its behind you. Get up, get back in your ministry [yes] get back in your purpose [yes, music] and I promise you, you'll be better now because of that [my God] than you were before it happenend Touch somebody tenderly [music] The Bible says whatsoever things we bind on earth, are bound in heaven; whatever we loose on earth is loose in heaven [music] He was talking about the gospel. I want to accommodate the text and use it for prayer Squeeze one hand [music] Father, in the name of Jesus I bind doubt, I bind discouragement, I bind low self-esteem [yes] I bind every negative thought (speaking in tongues) [music] every negative thought every "I can't make it" [music] procrastinating, postponing spirit right now I come against it, I come against it in the mighty hand in the name of Jesus [music] I bind right now, I bind whisperers, I bind, I bind, I bind the broken heart in the name of Jesus [music] I bind it right now, I bind manipulation, I come against that spirit now. I bind the spirit of failure in the name of Jesus [music] Now squeeze the other hand. I loose joy, I loose a fresh anointing, I loose the next level thinking, I loose right now financial prosperity [music] I loose it in the name of Jesus. I loose creative ideas, creative thoughts, creative songs new messages, new sermons [music] new everything right now in the name of Jesus and I claim it done. I claim it done. I receive my approval, I receive my certificate [music] I receive it in the name of Jesus and I'm ready to move out, move up, move up and get it done in Jesus name [music] I'm going home to do it, I'm going home to accomplish it, I'm going home to reach it, I'm going home to declare it, I'm going home to move in it [music] and I speak it right now. Somebody loose your hands, give God a celebration Celebrate your approval [music] celebrate your renewal, celebrate your rejuvenation, celebrate your anointing celebrate your wisdom [music] celebrate your creativity. Somebody ought to celebrate who you are in Christ Jesus Give him thanks [praise, music] give him praise, lift him up
