Noel Jones: Who Can Find A Faithful Man?

and again it's just a marvelous thing that the lord has permitted us when he has allowed us to pray for one another and i know many times from pastoral points of view we have to pray for people and intensely but we learn to pray because of the things that we have had to encounter and the things that we have to go through it teaches us how to pray and somehow the intensity of prayer is measured often by how much we love the people we pray for and i found this about prayer if you pray for somebody intensely enough you will never be envious of them because whatever happens marvelously in their lives you will feel as if you were a part of it and it's interesting that you can't approach god from a sententious platform you can't come to him and not be true because it would be ludicrous to come to someone who knows the truth and try to tell a lie and prayer then brings us into great knowledge of ourselves and as you're touching somebody you're touching somebody real tonight and i know you might feel as if you're going through something all by yourself you're the only one under fire but don't fool yourself everybody in this house is struggling with something and so as you touch them now i want you just in your own spirit to begin to ask god to bless the person on each side of you father in the name of jesus we honor you tonight we sublimate we lift up we exalt we magnify your holy name and we pray now on behalf of the people we touch bless my brother bless my sister i might not know this person but i understand their struggle because lord we are facing similar things in a similar world with the same devil with the same inklings proclivities and predilections so i pray now god that as you bless me bless my brother as you bless me bless my sister as you bring them out bring me out and oh god that's why i pray that you will strengthen and that you will restore and i pray that you will restore with meekness because lord i'm considering myself that i also may be tempted i pray god that you will restore them and i want to see how you bring my brother out i want to see how you bring my sister back so that i will understand how you will treat me i pray god that you will cause them to overcome so that no weapon formed against them shall prosper and i speak strength into their lives right now i did not come to tear them down but we've come to build them up we've come to encourage we've come to stimulate an anointing we've come to move in the power of your word and we expect a miracle tonight and we claim it done in the name of jesus have your way tonight lord in jesus name somebody loose your hands give god the glory give god the glory now throw your arms around somebody show somebody some love amen show somebody some love and and we honor god and we're thankful to the lord amen for each one of you it's all right you can hug him i prayed for it you won't catch anything it's all right amen amen and amen amen of course of course there's no greater place to be in than uh new birth amen amen no greater place to be in and we honor the lord and certainly we thank him for the plethora of ministry that's gathered in this church and particularly and especially to the honorable bishop eddie long amen amen yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes amen amen and of course to see my friends and uh here with us tonight it's just a marvelous privilege uh when you talk about leadership and you talk about vision then of course uh bishop eddie long's name comes into focus and and we thank god for his wife elder vanessa long and amen and to their family amen amen amen and and i would i would open by saying as it relates to to him and others like him i thank god my uncle and my aunt are here tonight in the very front uh my uncle jackie and my aunt lilith and uh it's it's incredible uh that good people are hard to find amen amen and and many of us single folk can attest to the fact amen that good people are hard to find and one reason good people are so hard to find is because we are choosing from faulty mechanisms uh i don't want to be too uh i'll i'll talk about this one then i'll talk about what i'm talking about later i mean you've been preached to one holiday and screamed that and and i can do the little about i can do a little of that later but but good people are hard to find the the lord challenges us with questions and uh one question that he challenges us with he says that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all and now here's the question who can know it and when he asks the question who can know it you have to understand now that he is challenging my intellectuality and my cognitive energy to respond to his question when he says who can know it he is asking me now can you know the heart that's what he's asking me who can find me someone bring someone who can and what he does is he's forcing me to acquiesce that i don't know it why because he's talking about the immaterial personal self uh the hebrew word there would be leb for the immaterial personal function that means he is asking who can know that part of a man that formulates and comprises who he is outside of his physical pulchritude in other words it's not about physicality because even though you can identify a particular rapping it does not mean that you know the individual character and so what he's saying is that the mechanism by which i choose from is the heart but my heart is deceitful so how can i make a good choice when i really don't know what i want you see because i'm choosing what i think i want but my heart has already fooled me so i'm choosing out of faulty mechanisms seeking something that's difficult to find ah i wonder if you're with me uh here i am choosing when i don't even know what i'm choosing because my heart has already made a fool out of me you see before someone else makes a fool out of me my heart already made a fool out of me because i'm choosing from mechanisms that's already broken and i'm looking for something that's very rare well the proverb says that men boast of their accomplishments and of their uh adventures and of all of the things that they have gathered but then the proverbial writer says but a faithful man who can find who if i were looking with proper mechanics i might have the opportunity to find the faithful man by my own intellectuality and by the all my own healthy heart but my heart is already deceiving so i'm looking for something that's difficult to find and i'm looking for it cross-eyed i wish you'd understand it doesn't matter what the color is if i'm color blind i can't identify the color you see so i'm looking for something that's hard to find and i'm looking from faulty mechanisms i feel like a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that's not there he said who can find i don't want to ask the sisters have they found a faithful man we might have a riot in here who can find now he challenges with another question he says who can find a virtuous woman who can find a faithful man who can find a virtuous woman when you're looking for each one of them from mechanisms that are faulty oh god you see see what god is saying he said he said if if you had the right kind of heart and if you had the right kind of uh predilections if you had that little strong word if you had the right kind of tendencies and proclivities and you had the right kind of mind that could assess and discern then maybe you could tell that this person that you're trying so hard to be with is crazy but you're choosing from faulty mechanisms and many times you're choosing out of issues of the past and you find yourself going around in circles you're picking the same people in different clothes and in different physical wrappings because many times we're caught up with what is on the outside and we fail to understand that you can have a wonderful package but to have no gift on the inside who can find a virtuous woman and virtuous in the text is not actually it's not chaste uh virtuous is the female side of a word that is used on the male side as valiant they say on the male side it is valiant on the woman's side it is virtuous and it's not dealing now with pulchritude it's not dealing now with physicality it's dealing with the immaterial personal function it's dealing with that part of you that if i separated it from your body it would be no different than a man's it would be no different than a woman's it's immaterial it's the spiritual side let me explain it a little different uh if i were to ask for an opinion as it related to uh astrology and i asked a female to tell me something about astrology and i ask a male to tell me something about astrology i would not want a male answer or a female answer i would just want the knowledge of astrology from the individuals i ask you see if i were decorating my house i wouldn't want to ask uh for a female opinion of how it should be or a male opinion i would just want someone to give me the scoop on decoration and set it to fit whatever architectural monstrosity i'm trying to put together you see uh it's critical to understand this that sometimes we get caught up in the male female but it's all superficial you see when he talks about a virtuous woman now he is saying that in her immaterial personality function she has every bit of the components of her male counterpart she just has a female body i wish you'd catch that you see but we're caught up in the gender aspect of the of the female and we don't understand that the virtuous woman is a woman who can walk alongside the man because she compares to him in every way except her body so that as she walks with him if he stops she doesn't have to stop she can keep on walking and keep her life going because she is as powerful as he is in a female body all right now who can fight the virtuous woman because now in order to find her you can't get caught up with hips and lips and feet [Music] i lost you already because now you've got to be able to look past the physicality to the reality of the personality uh i hope you're with me you gotta you gotta go to personhood here now now uh they tell me uh economically that when the price the price is influenced by supply and demand if the demand is little and the supply is much the price goes down but if there's a great demand and little supply who can find then the price goes up that's why he says her price is far above rubies because she is so few and you can't find her on every corner she becomes extremely expensive even in the sight of god here's what peter said peter said the woman who takes care of her immaterial self as well as the outward self because he wasn't saying deny the cosmos deny the outward self but he was pointing out that the character that no one sees by just looking becomes more critical in the sight of god because man is looking at the outward appearance but god is looking at the immaterial the heart he's looking at the limb i'm judging you by your physical pulpit i'm judging you by the 36 22 36 but god isn't judging you by that he's judging you by the quality of what's on the inside you're judging a man by his physicality and what he drives and where he lives and the clothes he wears by the briony suit and the corneliani and you're judging him by the anto shirt he wears and the zelo ties but god has looked long beyond that into his heart you see and when anybody builds the inner part then that impresses god the immaterial impresses god and immediately the price goes up which means now if you could find could you afford if you could find oh i wish i could oh lord help me in this yeah because because now in god's side she has a high price that's what peter said she is of a great price in the sight of the lord which means brothers if you can buy her she's not the one [Applause] because when she builds her immaterial self she's not concerned about your bmw because god and her can get one of those without you she's not concerned about where you live because god and i wish i could preach this thing uh now somebody says well you might you're contradicting yourself because the bible says he that findeth a wife findeth a good thing thank you but understand this now you left off the qualifying part of that verse and receiveth favor from the lord which means if you didn't get favor you couldn't find i wish somebody was with me you see at the end of this discourse you and i have to come to the conclusion that we can't find so what's the answer to the dilemma you see god knows where every virtuous woman is and god knows where every faithful man is because he's the only one that can find because i'm choosing from faulty mechanism looking for something that's rare and what god is saying to me is you can't find because you will keep on going around in circles with the same old deadheads you've been choosing because you don't know who to choose because your heart is fooling you all the time but what it is is that i have found all of them and i have set them away on my shelf and in order to get one of them you can't impress them because ain't nothing you can do to impress who i have set aside in order to get my chosen you have to impress me and i will give one to you want you to give god praise for what you couldn't find bishop eddie long god had to give him because you couldn't find him god gave him to you give god a praise for your leader and your pastor amen amen give somebody high five and say i've been set aside by god in order to get me you got to impress god because i'm not impressed ah and anytime god gives you a gift you better love it and bless it and praise him for it every day of your life because you can't find a virtuous woman or a faithful man and if you could find you couldn't afford amen isn't god all right amen i i i asked the bishop tonight i asked the pastor do i have to preach or can i just uh talk you know but maybe i'll do a little both of them but anyway uh i bought some some material and i hope you go out he'll answer in the fire and you don't have to wait god uh we we believe in sustenance but we love deliverance amen uh but i promise you this before deliverance comes you have to be sustained and the hebrew boys could not have been more frightened had they died in the fire because he brought them into the fire in whatever attitude they had they were tossed in the fire and the lord answered in the fire sometimes you're in a situation you can't get out of but the lord walks into your situation and steps into it and closes the door and says now that i'm in it you'll be all right amen that's sustenance sometimes you need to be sustained amen and then i brought some others and they'll bless you i'm sure now i want to go tonight to genesis i was going to preach uh i was going to preach but uh i want to go to genesis tonight and i want to go uh to a to a place where we can find joseph so i want to go to to genesis about chapter 40 and uh and i don't know that lord changed my message you know the preacher gets up so the lord changed his message uh as if the lord didn't know what he wanted him to talk about all the time uh i might not have known but he sure knew all the time uh and and let's go to joseph and let's let's let's take him in the middle uh let's take him in in genesis 39 and uh we're going to take him to potiphar's house and see can we make some sense out of joseph and potiphar's house i don't know what i'm going to talk about tonight or maybe i can maybe i can come up with something real quick uh let's see let's see uh just just touch somebody and and say you're expected to overcome all right now we want to talk about joseph and and uh we'll talk about this from a historical platform and then we might move into a philosophical and psychological rendition to augment and complement this uh in 39 and joseph was brought down to egypt and potiphar and officer of pharaoh captain of the guard an egyptian brought him bought him rather of the hands of the ishmaelites which had brought him down thither also all uh yes and the lord was with joseph and he was a prosperous man and he was in the house of his master the egyptian and his master saw that the lord was with him and that the lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand and joseph found grace in his sight and served him and he made him overseer over his house and all that he had he put in his hand and it came to pass from the time that he had made him oversee in his house and over all that he had that the lord blessed the egyptians house for joseph's sake and the blessing of the lord was upon all that he had in the house and in the field and he left all that he had in joseph's hand and knew he knew not ought he had saved the bread which he did eat and joseph was a goodly person and well favored and it came to pass after these things that his master's wife cast her eyes upon joseph and she said lie with me and he refused and she said unto his master's wife behold my master would have not that is with me in the house and he has committed all that he hath to my hand there is none greater in this house than i neither have he kept back anything from me but thee because thou art his wife how then can i do this great wickedness and sin against god and it came to pass and she spake to joseph day by day that he hearken not unto her to lie by her or to be with her and it came to pass about this time that joseph went into the house to do his business and there was none of the men of the house there within and she caught him by his garment saying lie with me and he left his garment in her hand and fled and got him out and when she saw that he had left his garment in her head and was fled forth she called unto [Music] the men yes yes of her house and spake unto them saying see he hath brought in in hebrew unto us democracy he came in unto me to lie with me and i cried with a loud voice and it came to pass when he heard that i lifted up my voice and cried that he left his garment with me and fled and got him out and she laid up his garment by her until the lord came home and he spake unto him according to these words saying the hebrew servant which thou has brought on this came unto us to mock me and it came to pass as i lifted up my voice and cried that he left his garment with me and fled and it came to pass when his master heard the words of his wife which he spake unto him saying after this man of the thy servant to me that his wrath was kindle joseph's master took him put him in the prison place where the king's prisoners were bound and he was there in prison but the lord was with joseph and showed him mercy and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison and of course he committed everything into joseph's hand and and joseph was in the prison now the whole thing is quite interesting and i think that we have to understand first of all that joseph is no different than we are i think that's one thing that has to be established as we look into the scriptures that we don't feel as if the people in the bible were any different than we are i think the james makes that clear when he talks about elijah and he points out that elijah of course was the same as we are he's had the temperament and he was not uh a superhuman and obviously joseph had some things that he had to deal with that is not obvious or stated but it's understood when you understand that he is no different from you or i we have to understand that it is critical because in order for him to maintain his purpose and i could talk as a subtopic you're expected to overcome and sub topic would be passion versus purpose yeah let's let's do that and and he had to have the same proclivities and the same propensities that you and i have but there was something remarkable because in spite of all of the things that should have turned him he maintained a relationship with god that was necessary to promote him to the next level in the prison let's just talk about joseph a little bit and i won't bore you i promise here is a man who begins with a vision he's a 17 year old and he begins with a vision and the vision that he begins with now is not a vision for himself but rather it is god who has selected him before the foundation of the world and placed in him a particular vision that would stimulate him to a life of purpose there is no question in my mind that whatever you become in life and however your life comes out it has to begin with vision don't let anybody limit your ability to imagine or to visualize or to have a desire or set a goal to be something that makes other people uncomfortable because as long as he keeps his vision to himself he does not have to deal with the attitudes of his brothers now he shows me something immediately and that is that the people who should be most glad about what you believe you can become are the people who oftentimes give you the most ridicule lord help me tonight i don't want to be too too too hard the people who you are expecting to rally around you and the people who you are expecting to help you to reach your goal in a very positive way are oftentimes those who feel that you are so totally and completely ridiculous even to believe that you can ascribe to such heights but nobody ever gets to a certain height in life without first having a vision of where they can go and the vision is actually the way god grasps you and takes you from the rest of everybody that is around you it is by your vision that he uniquely displaces you from everything and everybody and puts you in a unique place that is separate and distinct from the people who are around you now never get never never never allow the negatives of people when it relates to your vision to bother you because whenever you get a vision from god and it's really from god the first person it's going to upset is you i we should understand it uh the first person because immediately you're going to say to yourself do i have the capacity or the ability to achieve what god has placed in my spirit and has put in my heart do i have the ability and the the capacity to achieve it so immediately the first person who's going to be bothered by a vision from god is going to be the one who's receiving it and you see and and immediately now i have been grasped by god because he does not come down physically and take me and set me apart but what he does is he gives me a vision and the vision is so distinct and idiosyncratic that it does not measure with what other people are thinking and consequently it puts me at odds with them because most people like you to conform and don't like you to be different ah i'm going there i'm going there it's critical to grasp this now because this is the substratum of everything that is going to happen to this man and that is he comes first with a vision god distinctly sets him apart from his brethren by what he shows him in a dream and once he opens his mouth lord have mercy then immediately now he is set apart because his dream has moved him away from everybody else now the first thing satan does is when you have a vision is he attacks you from the outside is the first thing he does he attacks you from the outside and when you are attacked particularly by the people who are close to you the first thing that could enter into your spirit is hatred and bitterness why because you opposed me now you have to begin to look positively when you are opposed because what opposition says is this is real i am different from the rest i am uniquely placed i am called out from and by god to be special and to be different i am not going to conform in fact if you ever speak your vision you will not be allowed to conform because the people who should be for you are those who are going to ridicule you and put you out of their face now that does not mean they won't be around you but it does mean they will change oh i hope he says oh god can i can i just be whatever it is now i i think about people changing who don't leave you they're always around you but they've changed and i think about judas with jesus and when he went and he visited the high priest he conspired he didn't leave jesus but he kept following and walking with jesus but something had changed because now he was searching for a reason to turn him in you're still walking with me you haven't stopped calling me you haven't stopped being my friend we're still going to dinner we're still going shopping we're still enjoying each other's company but now you're here for a different reason it used to be you were hanging with me out of seeking relationship in order to enhance and embellish who i am but now you have changed you were walking with me you haven't left my presence i wish you would because if you left my presence i would know that you were against me but now you're still walking with me but now you're looking for an opportunity to destroy what god has given me because you don't want me to be what god would have me to be because it takes me out of your control uh i wish i could talk to you uh you see that's what makes people hate the fact that you have a vision because when god begins to speak to you in terms of vision he selects you but once he selects you they no longer have control of you because your vision is going to take you out of their grass out of their reach out of their neighborhood and out of their ability to control people get really upset when they can no longer control how you think control how you talk control your destiny and control where you end up they would rather have the ability to control everything about you but when god selects you and moves you out the first thing he does is move you out of their control oh took somebody and said you gotta dare to be different you uh you gotta oh yeah you gotta dare to be different uh how much i put this god's trying to get you up on this level and you're fighting to stay down on this level because you're trying to be everybody's friend when god separates you you can't be everybody's friend oh i feel it here touch somebody say get used to it uh get used to it get used to it oh i feel like having church now it is here the element now is it's an outward attack and the outward attack becomes a confirmation don't look at it the negative negatively please look at the negative positively uh blind bar by barthelem was for instance when when he was laying on the roadside he he was begging and and he heard a noise and he just figured that could be jesus i mean who else is carrying all of that crowd and making all of that noise he couldn't see him but he he he sensed that it could be jesus so he hollered to check jesus now son of david have mercy on me now had everybody stayed quiet he probably would have hushed after hauling a couple times but somebody told him to shut up and when they told him shut up now he really knew something was going on right about now you see you got to learn when to holler when folk tell you to shut up you got to learn how to dream and believe when folktalia is crazy well you got to think it's crazy it came from god and if it comes from god you don't have the intellectual capacity to understand where god's going to take me because i don't understand it myself [Applause] uh it's critical to grasp this now because they are reacting negatively to joseph's vision and they hate him and now here comes a conspiracy when when when people don't like what god is doing with you they meet in the restaurant and they conspire and they talk about you behind your back and one of the things we do wrong is we fight with everything we have to be a part of a group that really don't care about us [Applause] we we literally are fighting to be a part of a group that god is getting ready to use to help you to get to where you're going [Applause] because now they want to kill him and they have all decided to kill him ruben of course being the the eldest son uh he didn't want him dead because he couldn't explain how he called his father but he took off and the fellas decide well uh let's drop him off here in this pit and that's what they did they dropped him in the pit and of course reuben uh stayed away too long and uh and then of course uh here comes judah who is thinking money and judah says well let's not kill him here comes the ishmaelites see what they didn't know was that god was dealing with all the timing all of the timing is gone but now the challenge of joseph is in the middle of all of these negatives that's happening for him to maintain the right spirit because remember now he is just like you and me and there's absolutely no way that i wouldn't have a horrendous struggle with trying to keep the right spirit towards my brothers and sisters when i hear them from the pit conniving about killing me and having put me in the pit my own brothers sitting on top of the pit eating totally indifferent and nonchalant to what's going on with me in this pit with a complete attitude of detachment from their own brother just because i have a vision just because god gave me a dream how could you be so despicably evil towards me when i'm such a lovable guy with a father who has shown me nothing but favor how could you hate me like this i don't want to be too hard on the brothers because i got to remember something else and that is that all of them were born with a lot of different women you know different maids different you know ray rachel and leah and and and the handmaidens and you know his family was a little messed up it was a little messed up uh and then and you see can you conceive at all and let's be serious about this i don't think that the african american woman or the jamaican woman or any of the western civilization women can ever think at all of being in a house with another woman i want you to think about this now okay you know i i don't think any woman in here and especially those who have experienced it before yeah don't look at me like with that like alice in wonderland or i'll read your mail how about if she was in new york and you were in l.a see you can't conceive of having leah in this tent right here with not a soundproof wall and rachel over here and jacob loving rachel more than leah and rachel pimpin leah over the mandrakes oh you only read the story see see you all thought it was uh uh uh uh fairy tales and i'm gonna tell you a story uh it's it's reuben is out and he finds some mandrakes and mandrakes is a fertility plant so rachel wants a child so she says to reuben bring me the plans but reuben goes and tells his mother leah that rachel is asking for the plans so he so of course lia doesn't want her to have the plans but rachel says to leah if you give me the plans i'll let jacob come over to be with you tonight now ain't that pimping now come on now tell me [Applause] you can't imagine then the animosity that has been passed down into these children because they all have different mothers vying for the attention of the same man and now all of a sudden now he is in love with joseph because when god gives you a vision and god puts something in you he's going to give you a season of nurturing and this is what joseph had to have as a season of nurturing before all hell breaks loose in his life because of his brothers but at the same time when he has a season of nurturing can you imagine the psychological devastation to have been loved so earnestly by his father and have to deal with the hatred of his brothers a guy is in a tizzy psychologically because he has to maintain the right spirit to keep a relationship with god when he's dealing with the external hatred of his brother but i'm so glad that god knows how to use the negative to further your cause it is god who knows how to use folk who can't stand you in order to move you to the next level because you would have never started your own business if you had stayed enjoying that job but somebody hated you on the job and god moved you into your own business now you can look back at it and say god i thank you for my enemies [Applause] i feel like having church in here i thank you for my enemies and every now and then you ought to praise god for your enemies because your enemies think you're doing you in but your enemies are moving you up i feel like having church oh i'll prepare a table in the presence of your enemies you got to learn to give god praise for your enemies because your enemies get you [Music] like lifting them blessed let them know so you don't like me so now the psychological uh effect of this now is now they're conniving and next thing he's in a pit now he's sold as a slave twice because he sold by the ishmaelites to the ishmaelites by his brothers i want to show you something about god i you know i'm not home so i can't be too radical but you see sometimes the preacher's god and the bible's god are two different gods can't figure it out from the preacher now jacob of course has received the the coat of many colors all bloody and the word is that he was destroyed some beefs ate him the brothers now have no your enemies have no no no compunction when it comes to their behavior your enemies anyways when people decide they want to destroy you they have no compunction they want to destroy you with great intensity and and and and they don't care how much pain they cause how can you go home to your father know that he loves his son and lie to him and then fake comforting him when you know the truth and notice now the god of purpose and take another look at god because god is using this circumstance in order to further his purpose and yet still god isn't backing off from what's happening because jacob is hurting i wonder if you want to go there with me it would seem to me that the soft sentimental god that we project would look at the pain that jacob is facing and say let me back off this way let me get joseph to the palace another way but he doesn't do that because he intends to use his enemies to propel his career and whoever is hurting because of what's happening god is still holding on to his purpose sometimes his purpose causes you pain but god is not going to trade present pain for ultimate victory and you got to be willing to take today's pain for tomorrow's glory as a see many times we jump off because of the pain and fail to realize the ultimate gain because we can't stand what we're going through now and what god is saying to you is you got to stand when focation you got to stand when folk despise you because it's not going to end here this is just the beginning because i want to take you somewhere where you can't have a nasty spirit over how folk treated you in the first place let them treat you how they treat you but you stay open for me because i need to come deal with you after they think they're finished with your life i feel god here oh you got purpose and that's why god will move some people out of your life and you sit around crying hoping they can stay and i don't want to leave him and i don't want him to leave me but god when he selected you he had something greater for you than to be stuck up with somebody that ain't going nowhere and because you didn't have the guts to walk out god reached in there and snatched them out he don't care if you cry all night he don't care if you boo-hoo for weeks can't get over them for half a year wondering where they are three years from now he don't care because they aren't a part of his plan for your life y'all relax y'all around how much time do i have he's a pawn because of his vision he is facing great external opposition hatred oh my god and everything around is moving in pain and yet still god has not changed his ideas or has not changed the manner in which he is going to bring it to pass to suit anybody's grief he's not adjusting his plan and yet still he's entrusting in this young man the ability to deal with the pain and still have the right spirit because right about now i would be feeling quite bitter oh if there's anything like me i would be feeling quite bitter i'm sitting here in a pit i don't deserve this pit i've been loved all my life i'm a lovable guy sometimes i can't understand why some people just don't like me how can you not like me how can you not like me how can you not allow me why can't i let you look on the inside why would you look on the inside and then go talk about me i'm a likable guy i want people to love me i want people to care about me i'm funny i try to be funny and try to be hospitable i'm trying to be good here i'm bringing you food from my daddy and you all hate me i'm bringing you food and i'm bringing it joyfully and gladly and and i'm giving my dad reports and i'm coming happily to see my older brothers and and and you all hate me have you ever been there with the people you were trying to please and the people you're trying to bless and the people you're trying to help they seem to be the first ones that want to cut your throat and can't stand you and never stand up to defend you [Applause] he's got to have the right spirit because in order for him to get to the place where god's gonna work in his gift he has to maintain the right spirit and the enemy is very shrewd because now he's been sold twice first to the ishmaelites and then now he is sold into egypt isn't it interesting how he goes to the pit and god moves him immediately into the place where he's going to be ruler now look how quickly now you see see see god moves him quickly to the place because in order for him to get him to where he wants to go he's got to get him out of his house oh yeah yeah sometimes i gotta get you out of the house moses would have never become a deliverer if he stayed in the house in fact he would have brought death to his house had he stayed in the house somebody had to risk putting moses out of the house you see in order for god to get you to where he wants you to go he's got to move you out of your comfort zone he's got to get you out from among what i call enemy friends you got some enemy friends enemy friends of folk who introduce you to things that you should not be a part of it was your enemy friend that introduced you to cocaine that night yeah oh then you went with a friend and you didn't imagine that for 15 years of your life you'd have been caught outside of your purpose because you gave in to a friend but the friend really turned out to be an enemy and the one who threw you out and kicked you out and called you all kind of names and treated you like a dog and you thought they were your enemy that was your friend your friend was the one who wouldn't have nothing to do with you because god ordained it so they wouldn't have anything to do with you and you called that an enemy the one who seduced you into uh becoming an alcoholic you called that your friend the one who introduced you to that guy that kept you away from your purpose for 15 or 20 years of your life and walked out and left you now that you're 35 and 40 and now you're trying to go back to school now that was your friend uh you got it backwards your enemy was the one who introduced you to that mess that kept you from doing what you ought to do and your friend was that one who told you you were no good and you walked away and got your life together and went on and lived your life you got to understand that oftentimes your enemies do more for you than your friends [Applause] so here's the second part he is now in part of his house now it's interesting that he is coming in as a slave but he's still prosperous because prosperity is not an outward trapping but it is an inward quality because his prosperity was based on the fact that god was with him i want you to see this now when god is with you you're automatically prosperous so see what you're doing is you're you're valuing prosperity by outward trappings by material things and you're trying to find a sense of who you are by what you drive or by where you live or by the clothes you wear and you don't feel very significant because you don't have what other people have because now you're measuring where you are by what they have by what you have but it's not what you have that makes you significant is who you are and you are definitely not prosperous if god doesn't give you a favor the richest one of us is the one who has the most god uh we should talk to him because my car don't make me rich i wish i could talk to you my house doesn't make me rich because it's just a thing it'll come and go it ain't gonna be here forever but my relationship with god will be here forever and when i walk in the purpose of god i don't judge myself as rich because of what i have in the bank i judge myself as rich because of my relationship with god because i don't have to have money if i have god [Music] i feel a little churchy in here oh i think i got you now i got you i'm gonna work on that a minute again you have become extremely superficial because god is dealing with this man as a slave and yet he doesn't own anything yet he's over everything because god gives him favor now god gives him so much favor until potiphar understands that the reason i am blessed is because he is here uh-huh uh-huh now now you can walk up with your fine self walk up with you with your uh proportion uh protoplasm [Applause] but does anybody around you feel blessed because you're here you see you got to be careful how you deal with with me you got to be careful how you deal with us you got to be careful how you deal with folk who god is with you don't judge folk who god is with by what they wear or by how they look because there is something about the anointing of god that comes on someone that you can identify their value without their money oh you don't know what you're missing when you walk by me because i don't look the part there's a value that i have that's not on the outside but it's all through the ends oh i feel like having church here hey man i i cannot can i tell you like i feel it and i'm gonna come in here some folk gonna come in and look good and got the right dress on the right suit on i mean dressed to the tee but when they leave they leaving with it now ask me a question can you come in here and when you leave leave something here what you gonna leave here can you leave the right spirit can you leave the right ambiance can you leave an anointing can you leave the presence of god oh you look good coming in you look good going out but you ain't left nothing here but when god is in somebody everything they touch is blessed it don't matter what they wear [Applause] oh i feel like dancing i need you with me because god is with you i need you with me because god is on your side i need you with me because every time you're around i get blessed i don't know what your brothers were thinking when they threw you out because you're the one who blesses folk by your presence you change the atmosphere of a place and they wear and design a clothes you change the atmosphere of a place and walked in off the bus oh i feel like dancing give somebody a high five i said the money will come later but right now i need faith with god money will come later but i need an anointing because i got a pit to go through a prison to go through before i get to a palace uh i'm not gonna keep you all down oh they understand who you are look at two people and say i know who i am god told me who i am i'm sick of people telling me who i am and what i am i need god to tell me amen amen oh i don't want to be crazy you know i want to be crazy but uh uh give somebody high five say anybody who don't know who i am they ain't the one they ain't the one they're into one name the one name to one i'm sick of shallow people i'm sick of outside people i'm sick of folks who just look at things on face value and ain't got enough insight to go deeper you're looking at my clothes but do you see god with me do you see the anointing do you see that i can change the atmosphere of your house of your church of your building of your job i'm not coming by myself i'm bringing god with me oh y'all she said i i ain't just a singer i'm just another preacher i'm not just another woman i ain't just another man i'm not just another doctor when i show up god shows up [Applause] this is what helps you to survive this is what keeps you sane this is why you don't have to be bitter your assessment is your assessment i don't value your assessment i have value god's assessment if you can't look through my slave clothes and see that i'm favored of god then you don't deserve my presence [Applause] give somebody's high five so i can always dress up later dress up later right now i got purpose right now i gotta get through this thing without being bitter [Applause] so now the interesting thing here is what he's been chosen to do by vision and what has transpired to get him to proud of his house it's not only what he has felt but now we're accumulating pain we're accumulating trials and we're adding them all together to get him to potiphar's house we're accumulating negative incidents that bring struggle to maintain the beauty of who he is in spite of what he's going through see that's that's the real issue here can you go through it and still be beautiful [Applause] can you go through it and not come out tainted with a lot of negative issues because it was that winsome wonderful quality that kept people opening the doors no no no seriously speaking i think i'd have been so issued down by the time i got to part of his house my continents would have fallen i had nothing but vengeance in my mind i i was sucked a friend of mine and uh he's multi-millionaire now quite great philanthropist and and i said to him i said man what was your motivation when we're in the discussion once was talking and and he said to me he said you know what i had a negative family background a little trailer house and and he said my father acted like i could never be anything and i and i just worked with everything i had to prove to him that i could be something and i said to him i said now but what's motivating you now because unless you switch from that negative motivation i was traveling some years ago and i went and i met with i met don cheney the coach of temple university basketball team in the airport and i said to him i say i i your team i know your team's going to destroy this team they're playing tonight because last year they beat you unmercifully he said he said my boys are up for it but he said to me he said but but no if i have to lose to win then i'll have to lose half of the time you see joseph's struggle like you and my struggle is going to be how do i keep taking the pain and notice now the pain is orchestrated by god because this is the path that god chose [Applause] you hollering the devil but maybe what you're going through right now is the path that god chose because the devil ain't nothing but a pawn in his hand to use the devil anyway he sees fit to bring you to where he wants you to go because it ain't about you it's about the purpose of god that what he's gonna use you to do this is the path [Applause] oh you wanna you wanna get there but don't want the path oh no this is the road honey this is the road this is a road you want to go down a road that has no pain but that road ain't going nowhere ah i'd rather go down the road that had some pain but at the end i was in the palace than to be going down a road that has no pain but it ain't going nowhere you see we end up going down a painless road but we end up going around in circles because we don't want to face that road with the pain but the short way to the blessing is through that pain right there and you got to get through this pit you got to get through this prison before i put you in the palace now can you get past potiphar's wife oh we talk about the palace the the pit the prison the palace but it's the pit the prison no it's the pit politics wife and that other pete and that other pig but don't forget that part of his wife [Applause] y'all sit down fasten your seat belt see when he cannot get him with bitterness from the outside because everything to the point of part of his wife was designed to make him bitter and hateful by satanic attack but it was the challenge of the power of god from god's position see the challenge the greatness of the end result demands challenge on the way say because at the end of the day he must be prepared for the greatness of where he is and the only way to be prepared for the greatness of where he is after all he was he started a spoiled child he has to be prepared now the measure of god's greatness has to be seen in juxtaposition to the measure of the greatness of the challenge and it is it is paradoxical because the challenge is so great in terms of the accosting power that he could slip either way all right let me let me let me make it a little deeper we look in james and the bible talks about giving a crown of life to them that love him it's a blessed man that endureth temptation but temptation is made up of two parts a man is drawn of his own lust and enticed now notice now two things make up temptation lust and enticement if i have lust but there's no enticement that's not temptation because all of us have our desires yes yes yes and some desires may be more intense than others and some may be different from others i was not sitting on the fence when i met the lord trying to decide which way to go with my life i had already been dipped baptized submerged almost drowned in the things that will pleasure us oh since since you all don't want to go there well we just uh how much time do i have you all tell me you see there are only three things that's in the world from a philosophical point of view john says three things the lust of the flesh the lusts of the eyes the pride of life now it's interesting that when you think about what's in the world you should say maseratis ferraris porsches bentleys big houses all of these things but he doesn't say that he says all that is in the world and if you check genesis she saw the tree was good for food pleasant to the eyes something to be desired to make one wise it's the same thing if you see what jesus was tempted high high place kingdom of the world throw cast yourself down angels will catch you turn these stones in the bread there's only three areas now if jesus had that in him because if his temptation was real he had to have desire or are we facetious eve was innocent and satan used the lust of flesh the pride of life and the lust of the eyes so now what he's saying to me that all that's in the world is how you look at it because he did not give me a list of things that's on the outside so he's saying my disposition to the world is more subjective than objective uh for instance i i uh longview texas i bought a 930 turbo porsche some years ago uh about 20 years ago first uh exotica uh well second one you know because before i got before i started preaching i'd buy whatever i wanted but anyhow i pull up in longview and the banker said to me he said to me he said sir whenever you bring the car to longview bring it by the banks call i can see what it is because he had never seen one the bank had never seen one nobody had ever bought one so now i pull up to the church with this little car and the mothers of the church came out and said oh pastor we need to pray for pastor [Applause] because he don't even know what kind of car to buy what is this little ugly car one man comes in your life one woman comes in your life and tears you down you're the same person and somebody else comes in your life and thinks you're the cat's meow and the dogs and you're the same person but it's how they looked at you one person would never buy a cadillac and another person would never not buy one because at the end of the day is how you look at it it's very subjective and so consequently a man is drawn away by his own idiosyncratic lust and he's enticed he's got a desire to have a desire doesn't make you sinful and the wonderful thing uh maybe not so wonderful wonderful or not so wonderful because i have prayed and asked god to sort of ease desire but i never really prayed about him easing the desire until what i desire was around see i can i can oh glory to god i thank you jesus uh uh lord i just praise you for the deliverance and the victory over something i didn't want [Applause] that's not the difficulty what i don't want so what satan does is he keeps a variety in your face and the reason he keeps the variety in your face it's to find out what moves you and satan doesn't entice you with what doesn't move you because what he wants to do is match desire with the right enticement now you got temptation because the truth of the matter is you can't make me wear a suit i don't want you can give it to me and when you turn your back i'll give it away because i don't want it but when i'm having desires and god puts the devil puts who puts and satan slips what i desire my type in my face and it would be like this if if i had to climb a barbed wire fence if i had to crawl through snake infested water if i had to climb down the side of mount everest and go over the andes mountain to get it i'd still try desire and enticement and one thing you gotta hate about the devil and and and really pray for god to help you is when satan got you down so well that he knows what'll get you he don't care yeah i don't care how he's preaching i don't care how he's speaking in tongues he can go to church every night i know when i lay this out in front of him and the thing about when desire and temptation meet and the will gives in see the lord says you're already sinning your heart because what you're looking for now is opportunity you have already decided what you gonna do all you looking for is the opportunity and if you want it bad enough you set up the opportunity and sometimes you got people feeling guilty about something you doing to them [Applause] now that's when you're in the hand of a master i don't need to go there you're in the hand of a master when you feel like you going after what's really coming after you yes lord so now if joseph was like me he's having a problem because a whole lot of stuff jump off in the workplace [Music] you could have witnessed to somebody had it not jumped off in the workplace on talk to me about the workplace come on let's talk because after you work with somebody for a while had you seen him on the street it wouldn't have phased you but you work real close to that secretary for a while and and she come to work fine and funny every day and then of course you have these business lunches and become familiar with them and then you begin to like them a special way on the workplace a lot of love go off on the workplace a lot of a lot of love happen when they're doing music people in the studio uh uh just the studio because we're working together and i get to know things about you and we get exposed to each other in a way that we wouldn't get exposed to each other a lot of love go off in the church house you didn't met a lot of folk in the church you wouldn't have met in the streets yes yes yes yes yes yes a lot of folk get hit on in the church house because i come to one church and i see a variety uh i wish you'd understand this but notice what's happening here all of the pain of jacob all of the pain that joseph felt he's on his way to the palace it's a painful road but he's on his way to the palace i've already gotten by the pain of the hatred of my brothers i've gotten by the decimation of being put in the pit i've gotten by being sold a slave twice and now i'm in a place of prosperity god the wonderful thing is with all the hell he's been through every now and then god gave him a reprieve because part of his house was a high a place of reprieve i know you're hurting joseph but even along the way i'm gonna give you a place of reprieve now you're over everything in this man's house and that's a place of reprieve i don't have a complaint because as i go sometimes i'm down real low but every now god lifts me and gives me some substance gives me a place of reprieve but the question is do i want to stay in this place of reprieve because potiphar's wife sees me as a piece of meat you gotta understand the difference potiphar sees him as a god-given gift he sees the favor of god but in the same house somebody sees him as a piece of meat i want to talk to you folks that god has selected from your birth to be something because god's plan is to make him ruler of the land that's god's plan god's plan is to make you the head and not the tale but tell me would you give it up just to be somebody's peace of me i ain't telling you what i read about telling you what i know that just for that moment of intense desire because god uses passionate people joseph had to be passionate to have come through all of that and still feel like going come on talk to me now god uses passionate folk don't fool yourself god does not use folk who barely want to go god uses folk who when they were with the devil they were with the devil and when they came to god day with god god uses folk that don't take no for an answer when it comes to doing what must be done god don't use folk that want to go back all the time he uses passionate folk and the devil loves passion [Applause] devil don't want you to lose your passion he just want to misdirect it have i been there yes called in the matrix gotta fight it all the time cause it ain't hidden and god didn't take the feeling from you you want to be a ruler or you want to be a piece of me you want all of egypt or you want to be stuck with this woman [Applause] you want to be all you can be or you want to stop part way harry's caught now isn't he because now when satan couldn't get him from the outside he's going to try to get him from the inside so now i've discovered i have an outside enemy and i got one on the inside and i found that it's easy to fight the enemy on the outside but how almost said the wrong thing how do i fight the enemy on the inside because i like the one on the inside oh i stopped liking it don't you fool yourself i like the one on the inside how do i fight what i like how do i rebuke what i want oh this is the real battle now it's all right because i can always get away from the enemies on the outside goodbye i'm in the pit goodbye i'm in the prison goodbye i'm i'm out of here goodbye i moved to atlanta goodbye i'm going to new york i ain't got to face you i ain't got to deal with you i ain't got to talk to you but i got to deal with me everywhere now that's the battle now because this is the one that will suspend what god has called you for i encourage you to get stuck part of the way i called you to rule and you already been through enough and you're almost there now you're almost there you just you just got a couple more corners to take and then i'll have you right at the finish line the whole point now is what's about to face you can you get through it for a moment so you can keep on going to where you got to go can you keep on going [Applause] with her pulling on you every day good looking winsome young man party for gone all the time fine young boy up in the house with a pulling on him every day singling virgin little fella in the hand of a pro if he's anything like me he had to be [Applause] curious had to be wondering what would it be like powder for not here hitting on him every day to workplace have you ever looked over your life and and and and and remembered the times that you got sidetracked [Music] and don't fool yourself it doesn't only stop with what you're trying to become it continues after you become and sometimes in the middle of a moment of everlasting indiscretion you ask yourself [Music] how could i even think like this [Applause] i want to talk to some folk trying to make it through here to your purpose you got to get through your potiphar's wife experience ladies and gentlemen because for one moment of having a good time you can suspend rulership that's where i want you to be and here's where you stopped because somebody saw you as a piece of meat it was his integrity that got him to the next level it was his enemies that got him to the first level it was his integrity that got him to the next level because god needed him to say no in order to bring him to the next level sometimes it's not all about yes sometimes god needs you to say no to get you to the next level where he's taking you so even though the no put him in prison the no was on the way and the prison was the next level because now god worked in his gift i hope you see this i hope you see this god needs to have you to the place where he can use your gift to lift you up out of the lowest place that everything else puts you in and i'm getting ready to close but i want to tell you you've got to overcome and you give somebody a high five and say neighbor i got to overcome i've been in a whole lot of stuff but i got to come out of it and what god says is i don't expect you not to love stuff but i just want you to love me more than these and that's the reason why i kept the stuff around you come on pat let's have some church i'm gonna be but five more minutes the reason i kept all that stuff around you and the reason i kept all these challenges in front of your face is to prove how much you really love me because i know how you feel about a man and i know how you feel about a woman i know how you feel about the things that satan entices you with but every time you walk by one of them and you step past another one i know how much you love me and i'll give you i'll take you to the height that i told you i'd bring you to if you only understand it's loving me that gets you through i'm getting ready to close i need you to give somebody high five and say the one i must overcome is myself i've overcome my brothers i've overcome my lying sisters but what i've got to overcome is the stuff i like and every time it comes in my face i gotta look to jesus and said it she i want but it's you i need help me to overcome everything that's driving me the wrong way help me to overcome the stuff that'll stop me today and if you help me through it today i'll have power to go through it tomorrow i'm getting ready to close but shake somebody's hand like you go shake it off and say i'm going to the palace i'm going to the place where god wants me to go and if i gotta step over sally step over robert well that's what i got to do because my future is bright give somebody high five and say your future is bright and you don't have to wait for somebody to bless you because i heard the lord say if you delight in me i will give you the desires of your heart i've got a feeling you're getting ready to go around your corner you're almost to the finish line the season is a get ready to open and the devil's throwing everything in your face in order for you to turn back but i hear you're telling the devil get out of my face i see my finish my eyes i rest towards the prize of the mark of the high calling i feel like quitting now give somebody high five say i'm almost there i'm almost there i got another few temptations i got another few challenges i got another few things to get over but i'm almost there pray with me fast with me encourage me but don't let me go i'm too close to my blessing i'm too close to the palace i'm too close to lead i'm too close to the top i feel the holy ghost in here look at somebody say you're almost there you're almost there touch somebody else say hold on hold out stand firm lift him up cause the future is bright i'm almost almost i'm almost there i gotta get through this one tell your neighbor get through this one i know it's a tough one i know it's a hard one but get through this one and the windows of heaven is gonna burst open i feel like we should i'm getting ready to stop but touch somebody and tell them i'm joseph i want to introduce myself to you i'm joseph i'm joseph you tried to hurt me but look where i am look in my eyes look at my face you thought i was dead you thought i was through but my name is joseph i'm the one you left for dead i'm the one you tried to kill but you meant it for evil but god [Applause] god [Applause] oh i see you like dancing meant it for good so i don't hate you i love you he raised me up to take care of you and that's exactly what i'll do because i am joseph [Applause] take somebody's hand i'm not bitter god's gonna bless you so good you won't have time to hate the folk who put you there you ain't gonna bother with that you can't let it go you can't give up rulership [Music] for just a little fling because at the end of the day you're gonna have all of that in god's time so as you get through your years of being single and they won't last always they won't last always you don't have anybody now because you're special that's it that's all you if you just keep on impressing god he's gonna reach back and give you something man you know you know you go you know you're living right when you can go to bed and just start praising god over who you got beside you find your jesus oh glory to god ain't you a good god amen amen amen no more mess god don't give gifts with mess so just get through let's get through i hope i hope the word helps somebody here tonight i hope it strengthens somebody's resolve i hope it puts somebody back in the university i hope to put somebody back in their purpose because you're going there take the person's hand and father in jesus name as i speak now lord to each one of us and i said us lord for you know i'm included i pray god that that young woman that young man who was complete contemplating a detour i pray god that you block the street because i already see at the end of that road the sign is going to say dead in put them back in the road and of course to the victory and i claim it right now and i believe you will god and for those who have been holding out but very discouraged lift their spirits tonight strengthen us tonight and keep us chucking down that road because lord ultimately we're going to spend more time in the palace than we ever spent in the other times of our lives and we'll give you the glory because you declared our fruit shall remain and we thank you for it right now somebody lose your hands give god the praise many came down and many were blessed enough to move this way i'm going to ask all the servants to come i ask everybody in this building borrow it if you have to everybody in this building get a ten dollar gift in your hand everyone borrow it if you have to if you don't have it you can't get it you can't give it but uh when you don't have money sometimes you buy it bart and pay pay back one dollar a week bless you my dear but i would that everyone would get that in your hand get that in your hand and ten dollars in your hand and and you're so many of you i don't know if you want to walk uh pastor you want should they walk or just sit and we serve him and walk all right everyone who can and will get ten dollar gift in your hand loan it to your neighbor amen loan it to your neighbor if if just just ten dollars it's not enough to hurt you but it's enough to for you to know you gave a sacrifice amen i want to give for nine people let me see nine hands who just don't have ten dollars all right i'm covering this i'm covering you amen father as we bring our gifts to you it is just another seed that we're planting into this house because this house takes care of our immaterial personal function the hairdresser does uh he does here and the barbers and we buy clothes makeup artists and we go through all kinds of pedicures and manicures but that's only our outside but we thank you for new birth because new birth develops our inside that part of us that the hairdresser doesn't see that the barber doesn't see we thank you for the shepherd of this flock bless this house forever and ever in jesus name amen i want you to come from from from wherever you are give me something up b fellas come on the toughest man in town god bless you heaven smile on you god bless you god bless you hope it wasn't too radical [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] me [Music] so [Music] jesus is lord as you come and give you can continue under the stage there are workers here to take you and get information you

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Length: 111min 42sec (6702 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 30 2021