Crushing: God Turns Pressure Into Power with Bishop T.D. Jakes &

0:00:01.960 --> 0:00:05.760 Welcome to the Elevation Church podcast. Today, we want to 0:00:05.800 --> 0:00:09.319 share a conversation that Pastor Stephen had with Bishop T. D. 0:00:09.560 --> 0:00:13.720 Jakes about moving past the painful, crushing seasons of life 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:17.560 and into God's purpose for your future. We hope you 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:23.480 enjoy this special presentation. Come on, give it up for 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:36.479 this red jacket color in living color. I love you, bye, 0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:39.040 Excited to hear you talk for the next seven hours. 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:45.440 It's good to see you. It is good to be 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:53.840 seen and not viewed. I get it. How many old 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:55.920 preacher jokes do you have? Like that, like give me 0:00:55.960 --> 0:00:59.320 another one, Oh, don't do that, don't do that. You 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:03.720 have to listen. They come organically. The first time you 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:06.040 hung out with me, you scared me, saved so like 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:07.840 he was nice enough to spend a day with me 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:11.120 talking about preaching. And in the middle of telling me 0:01:11.120 --> 0:01:15.319 about preaching, he starts preaching about blind Bartimaeus, and he 0:01:15.360 --> 0:01:18.679 starts acting out every character in the story of Blind Bartimaeus, 0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:22.039 and blind Bartimaeus hollers in the story and it's just 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:24.440 me and him in the room, and he hollers, full 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:27.920 throat bishop voice across the desk at man, I still 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:32.160 my don't but I've told people about that. I told 0:01:32.200 --> 0:01:35.120 him you can preach on anything. Well, it's not really that. 0:01:35.319 --> 0:01:38.800 What we were talking about is it's spinning the texts. Yep. 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:41.480 Because on one hand I'm a preacher and on the 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:43.880 other hand, I'm a film producer. And one of the 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:46.080 things you have to decide whenever you do a film, 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:48.600 you have a story, somebody brings you a story, and 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:50.640 you decide to write a script for it. You have 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:53.560 to decide which character is going to be the narrative, 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:56.960 who's going to be talking. And so if you take 0:01:57.000 --> 0:01:59.560 that principle and you apply it to the Bible, is 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:01.320 it going to be told through the eyes of blind 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:03.120 Bartimaeus or is it going to be told through the 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:04.920 eyes of Jesus or is it going to be told 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:08.960 through the other of the disciples? Because every POV point 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:12.280 of view leads you into a different realm of truth. 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:16.560 You see, it depends on whose perspective. It's like a 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:19.000 husband and a wife live in the same house, have 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:21.200 same i address, eat the same food, but they're having 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:25.120 two different experiences. And so the point of view determines 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:29.239 the relativity of the truth, the power of the truth, 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:32.639 the significance of the truth is all brought about by 0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:35.519 who's talking. You take the prodigal son. It's one thing 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:38.320 to talk about it from the son's perspective. It's another 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:40.639 thing to talk about it from the older brother's perspective. 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:43.160 It's yet a third thing to talk about it from 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:47.799 the father's perspective. Okay. Each perspective opens up a new 0:02:47.919 --> 0:02:52.400 ventricle of truth and feeling and perspective. And when you 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:54.880 look at it in his totality, then you see the 0:02:55.800 --> 0:02:58.359 substratum of truth itself. All right, we've been going five minutes. 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:01.720 You've already said ventricle and substrate, so slow it down. 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:06.600 There's a reason I played my shot from Hamilton when 0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:10.280 you came out, and you know why? You tell him? 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:13.079 Can I tell him? Yeah? Bishop Jakeson and I got 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:16.000 to watch Hamilton together a while back. So what I 0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:18.760 thought would be fun, just a game and then we're 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:20.160 going to talk about the book. It's going to be 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:24.480 very spiritual. He woreed me to brace myself for something 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:28.400 he was going to surprise me with. So it's it's better. 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:30.239 It is better than a dance off. But what I 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:32.280 would like to do is play a game where I 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:35.560 give you a song title from Hamilton the musical Oh Wow, 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:38.160 and you preach us a one minute sermon on that 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:41.960 song title with a text, and how many of you 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:45.360 would love to experience this? I thought you would. I 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:50.600 thought you would. How y'all doing over there? This is 0:03:50.600 --> 0:03:53.920 going to be the best night of your life. It 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:58.200 starts right now, starts with this. Okay, So the song 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:00.640 that we came out to, that you came out to, 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:04.960 my shot, what's the text and what's the sermon? My shot? 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:14.600 My shot is the young prophet who Elijah commissions to 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:19.919 shoot the arrow, and depending upon how far he shoots it, 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:23.800 it determines what he could have had and said, if 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:26.280 you would have struck the ground more times, you could 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:31.200 have gone further. The power of the text exists in 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:34.720 the reality that God does not make the shot for us, 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:38.200 but he gives us all of the ingredients that are 0:04:38.240 --> 0:04:41.719 necessary to be successful. And so what is my time 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:47.080 to make my shot? You see, I can't wait on 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:49.560 God to make the shot. But I have to have 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:52.960 the will and the tenacity and the vision and the 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:58.400 drive to pull all the way back far enough to 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:02.400 take my shot. Such a nator say it's my shot 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:06.440 if I shouted for you when you had your shot, 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:08.840 Shot for me when I have my shot, if I 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:19.720 was glad for you when you had your next one. 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:29.760 The room where it happens, Oh gosh, Thomas coming into 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:32.320 the upper room after Christ has risen from the dead, 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:35.560 and he comes into the room having missed the initial 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:40.240 inaugural moment that Christ reappears to his disciples. Now he 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:44.560 comes to the room. The power of being in the 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:48.679 room will determine the destiny of his ministry and his life. 0:05:49.200 --> 0:05:52.599 He comes to a room that he enters into the door, 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:57.120 but Christ comes through the door, spirit enough to come 0:05:57.160 --> 0:06:00.640 through the door, and man enough to eat fish inside 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:04.240 the door. He boggles the mind of the disciples. But 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:08.119 that was not what convinced Thomas to believe. What caused 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:10.440 Thomas to believe, because otherwise Thomas would have thought he 0:06:10.560 --> 0:06:14.160 was a ghost. He says, reach hither your hand, and 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:17.600 feel the nailprints in my hands, and touch my side, 0:06:17.640 --> 0:06:20.960 and be not faithless, but believe. And all of a sudden, 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:25.120 the doubting Thomas is converted only because he is in 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:35.240 the room. Now touch your neighbors, say I'm in the room, 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:43.720 even if I'm in overflow in the room one more more. 0:06:43.760 --> 0:06:45.560 You want to say more about that one? No, I can, 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:48.679 because I was like, I was on a basic track. 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:51.240 I was thinking, like, my shot is David ngeliaf but okay, 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:56.880 yours is better. No, no, Or we could go in 0:06:56.920 --> 0:07:00.719 the room where they are mourning over the the corpse 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:04.240 of a twelve year old dead girl, and all of 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:07.159 a sudden, Jesus puts him all out of the room 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:11.040 until nobody's in the room but her and Jesus, and 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:14.960 there alone he raises her up from the dead because 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:17.680 he is gone into the room with her, you know. 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:20.480 And can you imagine what it would be like to 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:23.960 be outside the door and certainly hear the sound of 0:07:24.040 --> 0:07:27.440 ruffling feet and thinking to yourself, who is that movie? 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:30.400 I hear the scampering of little feet, and I know 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:32.960 it could not be this girl, because I know she's dead. 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:35.480 I touched her and she was cold. I touched her 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:38.200 and she was stiff. I touched her and I knew 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:40.560 for sure that she was absolutely dead. But I hear 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:43.679 the sound of the scampering of a twelve year old's 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:46.880 feet because she was in the room with the right person. 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:55.320 She got back up again. So my conclusion is if 0:07:55.360 --> 0:07:59.320 everybody forsakes me, and everybody leaves my room, as long 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:02.360 as Jesus Us is in the room, I can still 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:08.400 get back up a jip. So to all of you, 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:12.000 to all of you out there who are weeping over 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:15.520 who walked out the room, who left you, who forsook you, 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:18.640 who did not stand up with you, As long as 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:22.120 you've got Jesus in the room, you can still get 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:33.400 backed up again. Go to be in the room. Ah, 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:45.680 don't think of nothing else. I'm running out, Yes, dude, 0:08:47.679 --> 0:08:51.720 Who lives, who dies? Who tells your story? Who lives? 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:58.400 Who dies? Who tells your story? Early in the morning, 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:01.760 the breaking of day, the women wrapped themselves up to 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:08.319 go down to the tomb. Loyal to Jesus, who has 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:15.840 become extremely controversial, has been executed, not crucified, executed on 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:19.400 the cross, and yet they are still going down even 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:21.920 though he did not do what they thought he was 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:24.480 going to do. These women rise up early and go 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:29.200 down to the tomb. Only when they arrived at the tomb, 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:32.280 with the dew on the ground and the mist in 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:36.400 the air, and the fragrance of death still lurking in 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:42.360 the inner chamber, the stone has been rolled away, and 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:44.760 sitting on top of the stone. On each side is 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:48.480 an angel saying he is not here. He has risen 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:54.720 from the dead. And the question then becomes, since he 0:09:54.840 --> 0:10:01.439 is not here, who tells the story? This woman comes 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:05.440 running back. It is totally inappropriate in a misogenic age 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:08.319 that a woman would be the first one to carry 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:12.880 the message. But there are some times and some seasons 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:15.360 that you have to break the protocol of the day. 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:20.400 Because Jesus was looking for somebody who was bold enough 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:23.480 to walk into a room full of men and tell them. 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:27.280 I know for myself he is rhythm from the dead, 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:40.960 why alive to tell his story? Good night everybody. I 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:43.559 thought that would be amazing. It was one hundred times 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:48.160 better than I said. You always amazing. It was scary 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:51.200 for me. Yeah, so I want to ask you that 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:52.880 I want to get into the I want to get 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:57.320 into the content of the book. Crushing God turns pressure 0:10:57.320 --> 0:11:00.800 into power. And I was thinking, how last time you 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:05.560 were here, you're a sore ar like eagles on the 0:11:05.559 --> 0:11:09.280 cover and yeah, and now we're crushing. Yeah, so what happened? 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:17.920 One one is not diabolically opposed to the other. For 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:21.760 the eagle sore is about flying, But for the eglet, 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:27.280 sore is about falling. If the eagle stirs her nests 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:29.480 and the eaglets are pushed out of the comfort of 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:33.319 their nests, is that not crushing? If their food supply 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:37.079 is now cut off and they are pushed out by 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:41.480 their own mother to fall off the side of a cliff, 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:46.240 is that not crushing? Why would mama do that to me? 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:50.720 Why would mama not feed me? And in the process 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:56.720 of the eglet falling flapping its wings in hysteria, it 0:11:56.880 --> 0:12:01.200 is the thing that crushed the eglet that causes it 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:10.320 to sow. And what the substratum up you told me 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:20.800 not to esus, what epitomizes. The whole value of crushing 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:26.160 is to explain to people not to be confused when 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:31.720 the crushing proceeds a soaring, because a lot of times, 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:34.040 if we only tell you about sowing and we don't 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:37.920 tell you about crushing, when something crushing happens in your life, 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:42.040 it looks like what we preach is not true. Right, 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:47.600 Whereas crushing is the process and soaring is the promise. 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:53.960 You cannot have promise without process. And we live in 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:59.040 a time where people preach more about the promises and 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:03.000 less about the prom So what happens is when you 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:04.920 come to church and you hear about the promise, and 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:07.480 you go home and you find yourself in the process 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:12.280 your life is a contradiction to your faith. But you 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:16.520 are so loyal to Jesus that you would never admit 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:20.079 that you are not seeing the manifestation of what your 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:23.760 pastor is talking about in your life. And it looks 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:26.719 like that you must be doing something wrong, because they 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:29.920 are talking about the blessings and the healing and the 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:33.319 soaring and the power of God and the strength of God, 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:36.400 and how all things are yours and all promises are 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:39.240 yea and amen, and you're the head and not the tale, 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:41.880 and above and not beneath. And then all of a sudden, 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:43.760 in the midst of them saying all of those things, 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:48.240 you are going home and dealing with marital issues, children 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:51.760 who won't obey or comply, a sister who doesn't like you, 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:55.360 a father who always preferred the other sister or daughter, 0:13:55.600 --> 0:13:59.359 and you're saying, how is my life in such shambles? 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:04.280 Never realizing that those that God is going to anoint 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:14.559 the most, he always crushes the most severe. When we 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:17.080 were talking about the arrows. A moment ago and we 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:19.240 were talking about striking the ground, and we were talking 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:24.080 about the bow an arrow. You must realize the further 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:27.720 the arrow is going to be shocked, the more it 0:14:27.800 --> 0:14:32.800 must be pulled back. And I wrote crushing in part 0:14:32.840 --> 0:14:37.560 because I have never met anybody who did exceptional things 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:40.960 in their life who had not at some point endured 0:14:41.200 --> 0:14:45.080 exceptional crushing. It is the force to which you have 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:49.000 been pulled back that determines the height that you will fly, 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:55.120 you see ye, And I wonder about that because I've 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:58.520 seen you at the height of success, and yet you've 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:01.720 shared with me your own crushing, and some of that 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:06.040 was external, some of it was internal. Some of the 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:10.040 things that you've shared with me privately gave me hope 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:13.120 to know that God is using a lot of the 0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:16.560 things that I think this qualify me and that will 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:20.760 be the actual place of power. But what I wanted 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:23.920 to ask you on a deeper level is do you 0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:27.080 think that there is a certain process by which we 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:31.880 accept that crushing that either turns it into something powerful 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:37.600 or something destructive in our life. Is the pressure of 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:42.320 the things that we go through in itself a growth mechanism, 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:44.960 or is there a response that's required from us to 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:48.480 make it turn into something. You know, that's a great question, 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:51.440 and you know, a couple of things come to my mind. 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:54.360 When I married my wife, I was pastoring. I've been 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:57.080 pastoring for two years. I pastored a very small church 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:01.600 in a rural area of West Virginia called Montgomery, West Virginia. 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:04.640 Though I lived in Charleston. I was pastoring and working 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:08.560 a full time job. I had a brand new car. 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:11.640 I had my own place. I mean, I wasn't wealthy 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:13.560 or anything like that, but I had the car, in 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:15.960 a good job, and I had my own place, and 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:19.440 I was good enough to say I do. And not 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:23.920 long after I said I do, the whole country shifted 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:27.440 and the Union car bade shut down the part that 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:31.200 I worked for, and many other industries began to leave 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:35.840 the Roustvelt States, and I was unemployed and ran out 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:42.920 of unemployment, and eventually they repossessed my car, and eventually 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:47.440 I could not feed my children. And eventually it got 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:50.560 so low that the deacon sloan me a car. But 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:52.640 the car was so raggedy that they hid it in 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:56.120 the back of the church. No, I'm serious. It was 0:16:56.120 --> 0:16:59.520 a nineteen sixty seven volume with the floorboard rusted out 0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:01.400 of the bottom of it, and I had to put 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:03.840 carpet over the bottom of the floor so my kids 0:17:03.920 --> 0:17:07.000 feet didn't go through. And they didn't want anybody to 0:17:07.000 --> 0:17:10.679 know that the pastor had that kind of car, so 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:13.320 when we had guests, they would hide my car in 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:16.840 the back because that was the stage of life I 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:19.760 was in. It got so bad that the car broke 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:21.400 down on the side of the road and I had 0:17:21.400 --> 0:17:25.679 to thumb to get to church and climb across the 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:28.560 coal cars on the railroad tracks to go into the 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:35.640 church to preach faith. I never stopped preaching. I never 0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:38.919 let up on preaching the power of God and the 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:46.200 strength of God, even though it became so bad that 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:49.160 we want at one point had to go gather apples 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:52.960 to feed the kids because we had nothing at all 0:17:53.160 --> 0:17:58.560 to eat. God knew that later in my life he 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:03.960 was going to bless me extraordinarily and some people would 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:09.800 later question, are you serving God for stuff? So he 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:14.080 allowed me to be crushed early so that no matter 0:18:14.119 --> 0:18:20.480 what they said, I would know, you understand what I'm saying, 0:18:21.640 --> 0:18:25.840 Because they were going to come in at the end 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:30.040 of the movie and make assumptions. But I lived through 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:33.479 the first of the movie to validate the fact that 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:36.119 it was not for the things he gave me that 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:39.040 I do what I do. It was because of the 0:18:39.119 --> 0:18:42.640 love and the passion and the annoying thing. And so yes, 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:47.440 it makes you, and sometimes it also creates a narrative 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:51.240 for you that completes your ability to reach both high 0:18:51.440 --> 0:18:55.040 and low. I can reach the guy in the homely shelter, 0:18:55.640 --> 0:18:57.600 and I can reach the guy in the penthouse sweep 0:18:58.480 --> 0:19:02.359 because I have learned how to at a bound. I 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:06.520 suffered lax and I've had peny, and I have learned 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:12.320 whatever state I'm in, therewith to be contented. Some things 0:19:12.440 --> 0:19:14.960 God takes you through or not for you, but it's 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:24.280 so you can reach somebody else. Sometimes sometimes he crushes 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:27.000 you because he's going to bless you so much. He 0:19:27.080 --> 0:19:30.680 does not want you to get arrogant like your predecessors, 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:34.480 and so he humbles you. Anytime he's going to exalt you, 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:37.639 he humbles you. You take the two fish in the 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:39.440 five blows of Bread when they brought it to Jesus. 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:41.800 They brought it to Jesus to multiply it. And the 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:45.040 first thing he did was crushing. He took it, and 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:47.159 he blessed it, and he broke it. As he broke it, 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:49.600 he started crushing the fish and the bread, And the 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:52.320 more he crushed it, the more it multiplied. The more 0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:54.639 he crushed it, the more it multiplied, the more he 0:19:54.680 --> 0:19:57.639 crushed it, the more it multiplied. And all of a 0:19:57.640 --> 0:20:01.120 sudden you find yourself in a state of complication, and 0:20:01.160 --> 0:20:04.480 somebody comes in and says, look at all of that fish. 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:07.119 But you know that when you first came into his 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:11.639 hands you were not enough. It was his crushing that 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:17.640 made you more than enough. So sometimes it's intrinsic, and 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:20.680 sometimes it is so that you are relevant for other people. 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:22.880 I want to give you one more quick example. Look 0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:26.440 at Air. You can give me one more not quick example. Okay, 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:31.360 look at Moses goes up on the mountaintop to get 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:34.800 the tin commandments from God. Simultaneously, he also has the 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:38.760 experience of getting the plans for the tabernacle, and there 0:20:38.840 --> 0:20:43.719 he is. God designs the garments. Now, you know, sometimes 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:46.280 we'll have a name brand somewhe but to be designed 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:50.560 by God. Erin's robes were designed by the almighty God. 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:56.000 And God says, of all the people that have escaped 0:20:56.080 --> 0:21:00.399 the trauma of Egypt. There is one guy that I 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:03.760 will allow to come into the holies of holies and 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:08.359 not die, and that guy is going to be able 0:21:08.400 --> 0:21:12.359 to access My presence and represent the children of Israel. 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:15.800 The guy he is talking about has been left in 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:18.760 charge at the bottom of the mountain, and so while 0:21:18.800 --> 0:21:21.240 God is designing what will be blue and what will 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:24.840 be purple, and what will be crimson, this guy has 0:21:24.880 --> 0:21:29.679 got the whole camp strip neked, dancing, neked around a 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:34.760 golden calf in the process. When Moses comes down off 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:39.000 the mountain, he is so shocked he drops the Ten 0:21:39.119 --> 0:21:45.160 Commandments because the one that God has promoted has fallen 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:48.600 into an abyss so low that it seems like there's 0:21:48.640 --> 0:21:52.040 a disconnect between what happened up here and what happened 0:21:52.080 --> 0:21:55.200 down there. But it is really the wisdom of God. 0:21:55.840 --> 0:21:58.880 Because had God allowed anybody else to be the high 0:21:58.920 --> 0:22:02.560 priest when people got ready to come and share their sins, 0:22:02.640 --> 0:22:07.880 he might be arrogant. But because God had so crushed him, 0:22:08.400 --> 0:22:12.040 he was humble enough that no matter what your sin was, 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:16.119 he would remember his own, and that humility would make 0:22:16.200 --> 0:22:19.399 him able to be able to connect with you and 0:22:19.520 --> 0:22:23.320 bekin both to the problem and kin to the answer. 0:22:24.040 --> 0:22:27.600 This is a shadow of Christ who became sin for 0:22:27.760 --> 0:22:31.960 us that we might be the righteousness of God. He 0:22:32.080 --> 0:22:35.000 is in all points without sin, but tempted like as 0:22:35.080 --> 0:22:37.520 we are, so that we can come to him, and 0:22:37.600 --> 0:22:40.280 he can be touched by the feeling of our infirmity. 0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:45.040 He became it so he could deliver us from it. Erin, 0:22:45.119 --> 0:22:55.119 it's the shadow CHRISTI is the reality. I always figure 0:22:55.160 --> 0:22:57.280 that's what makes you stop and take time and care 0:22:57.320 --> 0:23:01.200 about people. Is the years that you were preaching barbecue 0:23:01.200 --> 0:23:03.280 sauce on your tie because you were making the chicken 0:23:03.320 --> 0:23:06.200 for the fundraiser in the back of the church before 0:23:06.240 --> 0:23:08.320 you preach. See, they don't know what you're talking about. 0:23:08.440 --> 0:23:10.800 Let me tell you what I did. I think I 0:23:10.840 --> 0:23:12.880 explained it pretty well. No no no, no, no no, no, you didn't. 0:23:13.080 --> 0:23:16.680 You didn't do good at all. Just sit back. Let' 0:23:16.720 --> 0:23:21.440 don't make sure you I do. My spiritual father's coming, 0:23:21.440 --> 0:23:23.399 and he's coming with five bus loads of people to 0:23:24.119 --> 0:23:27.680 celebrate my second or third or fourth anniversary. And I've 0:23:27.720 --> 0:23:31.960 got maybe thirty members at best, counting pregnant people in debtfos, 0:23:32.720 --> 0:23:36.000 and so we have to have all of this food 0:23:36.040 --> 0:23:39.240 for all these bus loads of people he brought. So 0:23:39.600 --> 0:23:42.040 my wife and I had to cook it. But we 0:23:42.080 --> 0:23:45.000 didn't want to look like we cooked it. We wanted 0:23:45.040 --> 0:23:47.239 to look like we had enough members to cook it. 0:23:48.000 --> 0:23:50.639 So I had my bowtie one because it's my anniversary, 0:23:50.640 --> 0:23:53.040 and I had my pseuito on, and they said, you know, now, 0:23:53.119 --> 0:23:56.000 let's receive the pastor and his wife. And I marched 0:23:56.040 --> 0:23:58.760 down the aisle, you know, like I had all of 0:23:58.800 --> 0:24:02.040 these members, which most of them were really his, and 0:24:02.200 --> 0:24:05.320 he leaned over and whispitt of me and said, you 0:24:05.440 --> 0:24:11.920 left a little barbecue sauce on your fingernails. I love that, 0:24:12.520 --> 0:24:14.800 you know what. I love it too, because you know what, 0:24:15.560 --> 0:24:20.560 I have always been tenacious. I have always been relentless. 0:24:21.600 --> 0:24:28.200 I never allowed my circumstances to destroy my intensity and 0:24:28.240 --> 0:24:30.639 my drive and my feeling that God was going to 0:24:30.680 --> 0:24:36.120 do something in my life. Yeah. So, having come from 0:24:36.160 --> 0:24:38.880 a season of obscurity, and this is not six months 0:24:38.920 --> 0:24:43.199 of obscurity, this is how many years, oh years, I 0:24:43.240 --> 0:24:47.280 mean years I was in a churchhip. I preached twice 0:24:47.440 --> 0:24:50.320 in seven years. My job was to clean out the 0:24:50.359 --> 0:24:54.880 baptism pool and to shampoo the rugs three times a year, 0:24:54.920 --> 0:24:58.160 and on a Saturday, I would do that. I drove 0:24:58.240 --> 0:25:02.920 my pastor around, I cleaned up the church, I worked 0:25:02.920 --> 0:25:05.240 in the ministry, and I hardly ever missed a service, 0:25:05.520 --> 0:25:10.440 though I was hardly ever called on to speak. Obscurity 0:25:10.520 --> 0:25:18.720 though pastor is a great gift. It's a great gift. 0:25:18.880 --> 0:25:25.119 There's a reason that God develops an embryo in obscurity. 0:25:25.480 --> 0:25:28.160 There's a reason that Moses was hidden in the tent 0:25:28.359 --> 0:25:32.800 three months. There's a reason that christ dwelt in obscurity 0:25:32.920 --> 0:25:37.840 till he was thirty. Obscurity gives you a chance to 0:25:37.880 --> 0:25:45.280 have development, to fight your own devils, to overcome your obstacles, 0:25:45.880 --> 0:25:49.320 to get your priorities in alignment. The problem we have 0:25:49.400 --> 0:25:52.640 today is that people want a success for which they 0:25:52.680 --> 0:26:00.639 have not been groomed for. Success that you have not 0:26:00.720 --> 0:26:05.600 been roomed for is like having birthing a baby prematurely. 0:26:06.520 --> 0:26:10.560 The chances of survival go down the earlier the baby 0:26:10.720 --> 0:26:14.679 is exposed. And to be exposed too soon it's not 0:26:14.720 --> 0:26:20.119 a blessing, it's curse. You don't want anything before it's time, 0:26:21.119 --> 0:26:24.720 nothing before it's time. There's a time and a season 0:26:24.960 --> 0:26:29.359 for every purpose under heaven, and so you don't want 0:26:29.400 --> 0:26:32.160 to get married too soon. You don't want to buy 0:26:32.200 --> 0:26:36.400 a house too soon, You don't want to be exposed 0:26:36.440 --> 0:26:40.280 to crowds too soon. And so, because he loves you, 0:26:40.400 --> 0:26:45.360 it's not punishment, it's preparation. Because he loves you, he 0:26:45.440 --> 0:26:51.040 hides you in obscurity. Anything that's valuable you protect. When 0:26:51.080 --> 0:26:53.679 I say in a hotel, there's just safe for you 0:26:53.720 --> 0:26:58.959 to put your valuables in obscurity, not because they're invaluable. 0:26:59.000 --> 0:27:01.480 And there's somebody listening in us right now who feels 0:27:01.480 --> 0:27:03.800 like they've been overlooked because they're not good enough. That's 0:27:03.840 --> 0:27:07.600 not right. You have been hidden because you are valuable. 0:27:09.080 --> 0:27:13.280 When the time is right, When the time is right, 0:27:13.920 --> 0:27:16.960 when you are strong enough to withstand the elements to 0:27:17.040 --> 0:27:20.560 which you will be exposed to, you will be revealed. 0:27:21.359 --> 0:27:23.600 You understand. Yeah, And I wanted to ask you about 0:27:23.640 --> 0:27:27.720 the contrast, because the pressure of success is the type 0:27:27.720 --> 0:27:31.760 of crushing as well. Oh. Absolutely. And usually it's looked 0:27:31.800 --> 0:27:34.920 at in a linear way. You know, if you'll tend sheep, 0:27:35.000 --> 0:27:37.720 then you'll kill Goliath, and then what and then you'll 0:27:37.720 --> 0:27:40.520 have greater responsibility, and then you'll have more battles and 0:27:40.560 --> 0:27:43.560 bigger battles. So I want to ask you this personal 0:27:43.600 --> 0:27:45.320 hold on, hold on. I want to drive that home. 0:27:46.480 --> 0:27:52.359 The reward you get for overcoming your last challenge is 0:27:52.400 --> 0:27:59.840 your next challenge. That's basically what I was saying. Now, 0:28:00.920 --> 0:28:02.520 let me ask you this. I really want to ask 0:28:02.560 --> 0:28:07.400 you this. In your life, what has been a greater pressure, 0:28:07.960 --> 0:28:11.520 the frustration of obscurity or the pressure of success. I 0:28:11.520 --> 0:28:14.600 didn't have the frustration of obscurity because I never got 0:28:14.680 --> 0:28:20.040 into this to be exposed. I never wanted to be famous. 0:28:20.160 --> 0:28:25.680 I wanted to be effective. See, I think our motives 0:28:25.720 --> 0:28:29.119 have to be right. So when I talk about some 0:28:29.200 --> 0:28:30.840 of the worst parts of my life, they say I'm 0:28:30.880 --> 0:28:34.040 real bad and everything. But at the time it didn't 0:28:34.080 --> 0:28:37.439 feel bad because I had nothing to compare it to, 0:28:37.760 --> 0:28:42.960 and my job was to glorify God in the situation 0:28:43.120 --> 0:28:46.560 I was in and to continue to lead the flock 0:28:46.640 --> 0:28:50.000 I was in. You cannot be so driven by ambition 0:28:51.120 --> 0:28:56.600 that you see obscurity as punishment. So I think for me, 0:28:56.800 --> 0:29:02.680 the hardest part was managing what we call sess because 0:29:05.120 --> 0:29:10.560 that creates expectations, and the expectations are as different as 0:29:10.560 --> 0:29:14.040 there are people. When you have thirty people, you only 0:29:14.040 --> 0:29:18.640 have thirty people's expectations to manage. The more you are 0:29:18.680 --> 0:29:22.160 known around the church, your church grows, and then the state, 0:29:22.280 --> 0:29:24.760 and then the country and then the world. There are 0:29:24.840 --> 0:29:29.720 eight almost eight billion people on the planet. Somebody's not 0:29:29.880 --> 0:29:36.800 gonna like you, and before they wouldn't know you. Right, 0:29:36.920 --> 0:29:40.680 Like somebody is on YouTube right now commenting on our 0:29:40.840 --> 0:29:45.560 clothes right our oh everything everything everything. He shouldn't have 0:29:45.600 --> 0:29:47.800 that on. You know. I was at my son in 0:29:47.840 --> 0:29:50.160 laws church. I had on some jeans. You know, they 0:29:50.200 --> 0:29:53.040 were the ragged kind of rip jeans, because that's because 0:29:53.040 --> 0:29:54.760 that's how they dress out. They're and I was trying 0:29:54.760 --> 0:29:58.760 to be cool, like coming here, I stress out coming here, 0:29:59.440 --> 0:30:07.440 you know, rest for you, Thank you. I put great 0:30:07.640 --> 0:30:11.440 thought into this outfit. I am geared for suits and ties. 0:30:11.520 --> 0:30:14.000 I have all kinds of suits and ties. And then 0:30:14.040 --> 0:30:15.600 I come to you and I panic and I think, 0:30:16.040 --> 0:30:20.640 oh god, I have to be casual. What am I 0:30:20.720 --> 0:30:22.680 going to wear? And I started to like a girl 0:30:22.680 --> 0:30:24.320 and send and pictures to people. Do you think I 0:30:24.360 --> 0:30:32.080 said wear this is what? And the other thing about 0:30:32.120 --> 0:30:35.640 being big is this I'm preach in so many different worlds. 0:30:36.280 --> 0:30:39.160 I'm preaching worlds where they would church you for wearing this, 0:30:40.240 --> 0:30:42.040 and then I'll go and preach in a place where 0:30:42.080 --> 0:30:43.800 if I wore a suit and a collar, you would 0:30:43.800 --> 0:30:47.680 think it was strange. Being global causes you to be 0:30:47.920 --> 0:30:51.760 relevant in so many rooms where the rules are different, 0:30:52.480 --> 0:30:55.560 and you have to be flexible enough to be able 0:30:55.600 --> 0:30:59.120 to function in various types of situations and still be 0:30:59.240 --> 0:31:05.120 true to who you are are you see Yah, The 0:31:05.200 --> 0:31:08.200 Bible say it this way. To him who much is given, 0:31:09.960 --> 0:31:12.880 much is required. So the more that's given to you, 0:31:12.920 --> 0:31:14.960 the more that's required of you. That's why you ought 0:31:15.040 --> 0:31:19.600 not to despise the preparation, because what got you applauded 0:31:19.880 --> 0:31:24.400 over here will get you killed over here. And you 0:31:24.480 --> 0:31:28.600 won't even know that you have stepped into a different arena, 0:31:28.720 --> 0:31:32.240 and you don't understand that this is not that. There's 0:31:32.400 --> 0:31:34.960 nothing worse than sing A preacher who walks in the 0:31:35.040 --> 0:31:38.120 room and he thinks that this is that, so he 0:31:38.240 --> 0:31:40.880 goes into whatever the thing is that he does, and 0:31:41.000 --> 0:31:55.800 he's God's done whatever he does about God, and somebody's 0:31:55.800 --> 0:32:01.280 getting happy, but somebody saying, why is he singing? Why 0:32:01.360 --> 0:32:07.760 is he singing? So you're normal as somebody else is weird. 0:32:08.480 --> 0:32:13.240 And the more God promotes you. The more ampidexterous you 0:32:13.360 --> 0:32:16.760 have to be to be able to serve the body 0:32:16.800 --> 0:32:21.640 of Christ, because the body is vast, and God forbid 0:32:21.640 --> 0:32:24.040 that you get an opportunity. Because I don't just want 0:32:24.080 --> 0:32:27.680 to serve the body of Christ, I also want to 0:32:27.720 --> 0:32:31.560 be relevant in affecting the culture, because I don't just 0:32:31.600 --> 0:32:35.240 want to preach where the amen's run free. I want 0:32:35.240 --> 0:32:38.000 to go into the wild, into the jungle and capture 0:32:38.440 --> 0:32:42.000 and ride and ride a lion's back and pull him 0:32:42.040 --> 0:32:44.400 by the main and pull him and say, set down, 0:32:47.480 --> 0:32:49.400 you know, snatch him by his hand and say what's 0:32:49.400 --> 0:32:54.440 my name? You know? You know, you know, Yeah, I 0:32:54.480 --> 0:32:57.320 don't want to I don't want to go. Yeah, I 0:32:57.360 --> 0:33:00.200 know your shock. You'll be okay. We're gonna bring Yeah, 0:33:00.240 --> 0:33:02.200 you brought me. We're gonna have fun. We're gonna have fun. 0:33:04.800 --> 0:33:11.400 Most of the preachers today only preach to Christians. At 0:33:11.440 --> 0:33:13.480 the time I came up, we would pitch a tent 0:33:14.960 --> 0:33:18.960 in the roughest part of town. I mean I preached 0:33:18.960 --> 0:33:21.720 it in a tent in the bronx where people were 0:33:21.760 --> 0:33:24.800 throwing needles down on the altar. They were coming in 0:33:24.840 --> 0:33:28.400 and throwing crack cocaine down on the altar. There were thugs. 0:33:28.440 --> 0:33:31.160 There were people in there with guns and knives, and 0:33:31.240 --> 0:33:35.200 I was happy. I was happy because I was young 0:33:35.280 --> 0:33:37.720 and I was wild, and I was preaching get away 0:33:37.720 --> 0:33:40.240 from that gate about the lame man at the gate 0:33:40.320 --> 0:33:43.080 called beautiful, and I was preaching get away from that 0:33:43.160 --> 0:33:46.000 gate where there wasn't a big amen section like this. 0:33:46.280 --> 0:33:49.880 Today people always want to go into an environment that 0:33:50.040 --> 0:33:53.560 is friendly fire. But the Bible said, go into all 0:33:53.840 --> 0:34:01.920 the world and preach the Gospel to every reader, living creature, 0:34:02.440 --> 0:34:08.680 black creatures, white creatures, brown creatures, intellectual creatures, illiterate creatures. 0:34:09.440 --> 0:34:12.120 When I first got to Dallas, I knew. I knew 0:34:12.200 --> 0:34:16.160 that my ideology had to change. When I first got 0:34:16.200 --> 0:34:18.200 to Dallas, I threw a party for the homeless people 0:34:18.440 --> 0:34:20.279 rented out in the civic Center and brought all of 0:34:20.320 --> 0:34:23.480 these clothes and food and stuff. That was how I 0:34:23.520 --> 0:34:26.080 opened up my church. And so we had all of 0:34:26.080 --> 0:34:28.720 these homeless people in there. And when I was leaving, 0:34:29.360 --> 0:34:32.040 this man looked at me with tears in his eyes. 0:34:33.320 --> 0:34:36.319 It's hurt for me to tell it, and he said, 0:34:37.600 --> 0:34:43.680 I love you, mister bishop. And I drove away in 0:34:43.719 --> 0:34:46.239 the car, and I thought he doesn't even know what 0:34:46.360 --> 0:34:52.360 a bishop he is. And immediately I knew either you're 0:34:52.440 --> 0:34:56.120 going to reach the world or you're going to honor 0:34:56.200 --> 0:35:04.400 your traditions. Wo you have to go beyond your traditions 0:35:05.400 --> 0:35:09.359 in order to be effective. And if you're going to 0:35:09.440 --> 0:35:16.239 do that, that pliability what psychologists would call AQ, your 0:35:16.320 --> 0:35:22.240 optability adaptability quote, your ability to adapt to environment comes 0:35:22.320 --> 0:35:27.120 from being crushed. It comes from the I was gonna 0:35:27.160 --> 0:35:28.759 say the women would relate to that, but the women 0:35:28.760 --> 0:35:31.800 today don't do this. So the older women might remember 0:35:31.840 --> 0:35:36.680 when we needed bread dough. The younger women don't know 0:35:36.680 --> 0:35:39.120 what I'm talking about because they get the bread already 0:35:39.120 --> 0:35:43.239 made at the grocery store. But when you go home 0:35:43.239 --> 0:35:45.800 and ask your grandmother if I'm right about this, that 0:35:46.160 --> 0:35:48.120 if you're going to make biscus from scratch, you have 0:35:48.160 --> 0:35:52.000 to need the dough. And the more you crush it, 0:35:52.600 --> 0:35:56.839 the more pliable it becomes, and ultimately the bread will 0:35:57.000 --> 0:36:01.400 rise because you pressed it. And if you're going to 0:36:01.480 --> 0:36:06.480 be adaptable enough to fit into the future God has 0:36:06.640 --> 0:36:11.680 designed for you, then it is it is the crushings 0:36:11.880 --> 0:36:15.120 that prepares you not to be more loyal to your 0:36:15.200 --> 0:36:19.640 traditions than you are your calling, not to look down 0:36:19.719 --> 0:36:23.440 your nose at somebody who is into what you just left. 0:36:30.800 --> 0:36:39.520 Because church people get amnesia. Okay, church people get amnesia quick. 0:36:41.560 --> 0:36:43.680 They turn up there and I, oh, my god, the 0:36:43.800 --> 0:36:47.960 smell of smoke, Come, my god, it and it was 0:36:48.040 --> 0:36:52.680 just three years ago. You were sucking on one like 0:36:52.719 --> 0:36:56.359 it was a straw, you know, you know, and now oh, 0:36:56.400 --> 0:36:59.600 I just oh they used they said, a profane where 0:36:59.600 --> 0:37:03.040 to come on, Henry, Let's leave, No, don't leave, let's stay, 0:37:04.680 --> 0:37:10.640 Let's stay. Jesus. What made Jesus so radical? The religious 0:37:10.680 --> 0:37:14.120 people hated Jesus. What made him so radical is that 0:37:14.239 --> 0:37:16.640 Jesus went to the wine bibbers, and he went in 0:37:16.680 --> 0:37:19.640 the street and he touched people who were hurting, and 0:37:19.800 --> 0:37:24.680 they loved him. They loved him Jesus. That was so 0:37:24.800 --> 0:37:29.120 relevant that he looked no different than the people around him. 0:37:29.480 --> 0:37:32.800 He looked so ordinary to his environment that the Roman 0:37:32.840 --> 0:37:37.160 soldiers had to hire somebody to point him out. So 0:37:37.360 --> 0:37:43.120 Jesus wasn't into standing out. He was interfitting in, Okay, 0:37:43.520 --> 0:37:46.560 because in order for him to redeem us, according to 0:37:46.600 --> 0:37:50.640 the law, you had to be a kinsman redeemer. Okay, 0:37:50.920 --> 0:37:54.440 So in order to be a kinsman redeemer. He has 0:37:54.560 --> 0:37:57.680 to be kin to the thing he wants to redeem. 0:37:58.120 --> 0:38:01.440 And what makes a minister effect of a not condescending 0:38:02.120 --> 0:38:06.000 is when you're reaching for that soul. This is the truth, 0:38:06.440 --> 0:38:09.960 when you're reaching for that soul. The most effective ministers 0:38:10.000 --> 0:38:13.360 are the ones who see a little bit of themselves 0:38:13.400 --> 0:38:18.399 in the people coming down the aisle. Yeah, because you don't. 0:38:18.560 --> 0:38:21.120 If you're not kin to them, you won't care about them, 0:38:21.120 --> 0:38:23.359 and you won't labor with them, and you won't work 0:38:23.400 --> 0:38:25.960 with them, and you just walk out of wave and 0:38:26.040 --> 0:38:28.320 go about your business. But when you akin to them, 0:38:28.800 --> 0:38:32.279 you are moved with compassion because you know that could 0:38:32.280 --> 0:38:36.200 have been you, that used to be you, and sometimes 0:38:36.239 --> 0:38:44.040 it's still you because you don't live in victory every day. See. 0:38:44.160 --> 0:38:48.800 But the pressure, the pressure of fitting into a religious 0:38:48.920 --> 0:38:55.279 environment can tempt you to hypocrisy because we become more 0:38:55.320 --> 0:38:58.560 concerned about being accepted by the people we worship with 0:38:58.960 --> 0:39:04.560 than we are about used by God. So going into 0:39:04.840 --> 0:39:09.399 environments that intimidate you excites you. Oh yeah, you like it? 0:39:10.960 --> 0:39:20.720 Oh yeah, you're a glutton form. Yeah, yes, what intimidates you? Oh? 0:39:19.400 --> 0:39:25.920 Any anything that's foreign. A lot of times I'm speaking 0:39:25.920 --> 0:39:30.800 in environments that are not faith based at all. Sometimes 0:39:31.560 --> 0:39:35.200 I have to be able to deliver truth in a veil. 0:39:37.200 --> 0:39:39.239 Sometimes I have to put it in a in a 0:39:39.360 --> 0:39:46.560 film subtly to make it palatable enough that they don't turn, 0:39:47.440 --> 0:39:52.680 but potent enough that it captures something on the inside, 0:39:52.800 --> 0:39:56.920 and so that can be intimidating. I like to be 0:39:57.040 --> 0:40:00.080 in a room full of smart people. I like to 0:40:00.000 --> 0:40:04.160 to hear people preach who make me feel stupid. It's 0:40:04.200 --> 0:40:09.279 such a turno like it, like, yeah, yeah, it really is, 0:40:09.320 --> 0:40:12.080 it is it is. I love it the best for 0:40:12.239 --> 0:40:14.000 the guy preacher is so good that I feel like 0:40:14.120 --> 0:40:18.120 just throwing my bottom up there that I claim because 0:40:18.280 --> 0:40:23.200 you just described me every Monday listening to you get 0:40:23.200 --> 0:40:25.080 out of here and I want to ask you about 0:40:25.520 --> 0:40:27.560 this is going to sound so silly how I say it, 0:40:27.800 --> 0:40:35.120 But I wrote down pms and it's early to be 0:40:35.200 --> 0:40:38.920 going there. But I put it from the perspective of 0:40:39.480 --> 0:40:42.480 you know, a lot of times on Saturday, I'm texting 0:40:42.520 --> 0:40:48.040 you frantically like, hey, I've got people showing up and 0:40:48.239 --> 0:40:49.880 they need to hear from God, and I don't know 0:40:50.000 --> 0:40:53.040 if I have yet. You know, I hope so. And 0:40:53.080 --> 0:40:55.520 you're kind to me, and then there's coming down after 0:40:55.680 --> 0:40:58.200 preaching a message. But it's so much more than preachers 0:40:58.200 --> 0:41:00.600 in here. I thought it would be helpful to talk 0:41:00.600 --> 0:41:04.160 about not just pre message syndrome post message syndrome from 0:41:04.160 --> 0:41:08.600 a preaching standpoint, But I want you to describe yeah, yeah, 0:41:08.719 --> 0:41:14.319 your pressure management system, because all right, I love the book. 0:41:14.360 --> 0:41:18.480 It's it's it's about how fruitfulness is not the end 0:41:19.600 --> 0:41:22.400 that the gardener, the vine dresser crushes the grapes to 0:41:22.440 --> 0:41:27.800 make wine. That process of pressure, if it's not managed correctly, 0:41:28.239 --> 0:41:31.560 it can paralyze you. It can actually make you. It 0:41:31.600 --> 0:41:35.719 can shut you down. And you've transcended so many limitations 0:41:35.719 --> 0:41:38.640 and broken barriers and stood up with your handshaking and 0:41:38.719 --> 0:41:41.319 done things. Oh yes, And I want to know how 0:41:41.360 --> 0:41:44.960 you do it because like I need to know, parents 0:41:45.000 --> 0:41:49.480 need to know, business owners need to know, how do 0:41:49.560 --> 0:41:54.200 you manage the pressure without the pressure beginning to overwhelm 0:41:54.239 --> 0:41:59.719 you and consume you. If the pressure overwhelmed me and 0:41:59.800 --> 0:42:06.280 to assume me, then the pressure would have aborted my destiny. 0:42:07.160 --> 0:42:12.200 And I refuse to allow how I feel to abort 0:42:12.680 --> 0:42:19.360 what I'm called to. You touched on so many things 0:42:19.360 --> 0:42:21.279 that are so important. First of all. I don't want 0:42:21.320 --> 0:42:24.640 to leave them with the feeling of you being uncertain 0:42:25.840 --> 0:42:30.239 of your message. He's never uncertain of his message. He's 0:42:30.360 --> 0:42:34.640 uncertain of himself. And the reason he's uncertain of himself 0:42:34.840 --> 0:42:38.799 is because everybody in this room can see everybody in 0:42:38.840 --> 0:42:43.600 this room, but they can never see themselves. And so 0:42:44.960 --> 0:42:49.280 your pastor can see everything, but he can't see himself. 0:42:50.200 --> 0:42:52.600 So when you can't, that's why you have a mirror, 0:42:52.640 --> 0:42:56.360 because you can't see yourself. I can see everybody. I 0:42:56.440 --> 0:43:00.960 see all of you, all the way up in the back, hie. Yeah, 0:43:01.040 --> 0:43:06.680 how you doing? How you doing? I see you got 0:43:06.719 --> 0:43:08.920 that yellow shirt on your arms. Sold I see you 0:43:09.000 --> 0:43:15.040 up here. But yeah, yeah, I'm talking about you. Yeah yeah, 0:43:15.040 --> 0:43:18.239 I saw yeah. Yeah, chocolate man and yellow shirt. I 0:43:18.280 --> 0:43:26.920 got you. The problem in life, when you are truly gifted, 0:43:29.040 --> 0:43:35.480 you can't see it. When you are truly gifted, When 0:43:35.480 --> 0:43:41.399 you are truly gifted, it is your normal. Yeah. And 0:43:41.440 --> 0:43:44.760 so the frustration is you're trying to manifest your gift, 0:43:44.840 --> 0:43:47.279 and you are manifesting your gift, but you don't know 0:43:47.640 --> 0:43:50.760 that that is your gift because your gift is your normal. 0:43:52.360 --> 0:43:56.080 People who can sing aren't trying to sing they just can. 0:43:58.400 --> 0:44:01.160 People who can write aren't trying to right, they just can't. 0:44:01.239 --> 0:44:03.160 And so when they write things, they say, oh my god, 0:44:03.200 --> 0:44:05.120 that's not good. Oh my god, it's not good. Oh 0:44:05.160 --> 0:44:07.600 my god, it's not good because you can't see yourself. 0:44:07.719 --> 0:44:10.360 So sometimes the more gifted you are, the more vulnerable 0:44:10.400 --> 0:44:13.520 you are, and the more affirmation you need from your 0:44:13.600 --> 0:44:19.520 inner circle. Because I could walk off a straight stage 0:44:19.560 --> 0:44:24.560 and feel like strangling myself with a belt because that 0:44:24.680 --> 0:44:29.960 was very graphic, good good, that's part of That's My 0:44:30.040 --> 0:44:35.640 ministry is to give you pictures. So the reason I 0:44:35.680 --> 0:44:39.200 think about strangling myself with the belt is because you should. 0:44:39.440 --> 0:44:46.360 You should hear the guy that's preaching in me, and 0:44:47.000 --> 0:44:51.279 there I am trying to give you what he's giving me. 0:44:52.360 --> 0:44:55.440 I'm never preaching against the guy who preached before me 0:44:55.560 --> 0:44:57.920 or the guy who preached after me. I'm preaching against 0:44:57.960 --> 0:45:01.719 the guy who preaches inside of me. Okay, So the 0:45:01.760 --> 0:45:04.880 bar is so high that a lot of times I 0:45:04.960 --> 0:45:08.680 walk home to the the state and I think, you know, 0:45:09.120 --> 0:45:11.320 why don't you get somebody else? I blew it. I 0:45:11.680 --> 0:45:14.319 didn't get it across. I'm not sure that they got 0:45:14.320 --> 0:45:16.399 it the way you got it to me. You got 0:45:16.400 --> 0:45:18.319 it to me so bad I couldn't sleep that night, 0:45:19.560 --> 0:45:21.680 and I'm not sure I can get it out. So 0:45:21.880 --> 0:45:25.560 really gifted people are sensitive and they're vulnerable, and you 0:45:25.640 --> 0:45:30.280 have to learn how to function within that sensitive, vulnerable space. 0:45:30.600 --> 0:45:32.040 And I'm going to give you a couple of things 0:45:32.040 --> 0:45:35.440 that will help you to do it. Insulate yourself with 0:45:35.520 --> 0:45:38.480 a few inner circle people who love you enough that 0:45:38.520 --> 0:45:42.239 you can be vulnerable in front of and yet are 0:45:42.440 --> 0:45:46.600 honest enough. My daughter, let me tell my story. My 0:45:47.040 --> 0:45:55.959 daughter Sarah wrote this paper. Yeah, I know, she wrote 0:45:56.000 --> 0:45:58.120 this paper one time and she sent it to me, 0:45:58.480 --> 0:46:02.279 and I was a day where what just happened was 0:46:02.840 --> 0:46:05.080 something so far away to you talk about it? Oh, 0:46:05.239 --> 0:46:06.719 I talk about it in the book. I mean she 0:46:06.880 --> 0:46:15.560 was the least likely child Lord have mercy if you 0:46:15.600 --> 0:46:18.399 would have asked me, you know which one I would 0:46:18.560 --> 0:46:23.120 have met. Anyway, I talked about it in the book. 0:46:23.120 --> 0:46:26.440 You gotta read the book. She wrote a paper and 0:46:26.520 --> 0:46:28.600 she sent it to me. And the thing about me is, 0:46:29.400 --> 0:46:32.759 my wife says, I'm brutally honest. I say, I'm just 0:46:32.920 --> 0:46:37.280 honest shed verse two. Then she said, a brutally honest 0:46:37.520 --> 0:46:40.720 I will tell you the truth. She wrote this paper. 0:46:40.800 --> 0:46:42.600 My daughter wrote this paper. She sent it to me 0:46:42.719 --> 0:46:44.560 and I read it. And I remember I was in 0:46:44.680 --> 0:46:46.600 LA at the time that I read, and I was busy. 0:46:46.640 --> 0:46:48.520 I probably would have been more tactful at and I've 0:46:48.520 --> 0:46:50.719 been so busy, but I was busy. And I read 0:46:50.719 --> 0:46:55.000 through it and I said, Sarah, I said, I don't 0:46:55.080 --> 0:46:59.480 even know what you're talking about it. I said, I 0:46:59.640 --> 0:47:01.759 know you. You can write better than this. She need 0:47:01.760 --> 0:47:04.640 to go back and write this over again. And she 0:47:04.719 --> 0:47:06.879 said okay. She said that I'll give it another spit. 0:47:07.000 --> 0:47:09.840 I realized now in retrospect that I probably should have 0:47:09.920 --> 0:47:13.800 softened it. A bit. Later on, she wrote her first book, 0:47:14.120 --> 0:47:16.200 and I sat down to read the book, and I'll 0:47:16.200 --> 0:47:17.919 be honest, I sat down to read the book because 0:47:17.960 --> 0:47:19.880 she's my daughter, and she wrote it, and I was 0:47:20.040 --> 0:47:23.080 going to read it. And it's the way they used 0:47:23.080 --> 0:47:25.960 to cook, and some stuff they cooked their mother would need. 0:47:26.040 --> 0:47:29.560 I would eat anything they cook, just so they have 0:47:29.719 --> 0:47:31.439 confidence in itself. So I said, I'm going to read 0:47:31.440 --> 0:47:35.399 this book. And I started reading it and I called 0:47:35.440 --> 0:47:37.680 her and I said, Sarah, I sat down to read 0:47:37.680 --> 0:47:39.920 the book because she wrote it, and I couldn't put 0:47:39.960 --> 0:47:43.600 it down. I said, I read from the first page 0:47:43.600 --> 0:47:47.440 to the last page, and I didn't stop because the 0:47:47.520 --> 0:47:53.520 rhythm of your writing, the eloquence of your speech, the 0:47:53.600 --> 0:47:59.000 visual images that are created through the opulence of your 0:47:59.080 --> 0:48:04.520 vocabulary was so overwhelming that I was mesmerized. And I 0:48:04.600 --> 0:48:09.920 left her that message and she called me back. She said, Daddy, 0:48:10.120 --> 0:48:12.960 She said, Naddy. She said, I want to keep this 0:48:13.160 --> 0:48:17.400 voice message forever. She said, I want to keep it 0:48:17.480 --> 0:48:20.479 the rest of my life. And I said, Sarah, I said, 0:48:20.440 --> 0:48:22.440 it was just what I thought. She said, I know. 0:48:24.719 --> 0:48:28.799 She said, that's what made it real. She said, I 0:48:28.840 --> 0:48:40.640 could trust your compliments because of your criticism. You need 0:48:40.680 --> 0:48:43.319 somebody who's not just going to say it because they 0:48:43.520 --> 0:48:46.040 liked you, or said because they love you. You want 0:48:46.040 --> 0:48:49.560 to get the absolute truth from them and inner circle 0:48:49.600 --> 0:48:52.160 of people who will tell you like it TI is 0:48:52.680 --> 0:48:55.919 so that you can trust them that when they say 0:48:55.960 --> 0:48:58.640 it's good. Because the reason you have to trust them, 0:48:58.880 --> 0:49:01.080 it's like a blind man for seeing our dog. You 0:49:01.080 --> 0:49:04.080 gotta trust the dog because the dog can see you 0:49:04.160 --> 0:49:08.319 can't see yourself, and you have to be okay with 0:49:08.400 --> 0:49:11.040 that or you're never gonna get anything done. For God, 0:49:11.400 --> 0:49:14.879 I'm gonna go just a little bit deeper. Jesus takes 0:49:14.880 --> 0:49:18.960 a blind man and takes a blind man out of 0:49:19.040 --> 0:49:22.960 best say it, and he lays hands on him, and 0:49:23.120 --> 0:49:25.360 then asks a blind man, what do you say? The 0:49:25.600 --> 0:49:31.240 healing is all predicated on honesty, the courage to tell 0:49:31.360 --> 0:49:36.560 Jesus you touch me in it didn't work in front 0:49:36.560 --> 0:49:42.640 of your disciples. He says, I see I'm better, but 0:49:42.760 --> 0:49:47.600 I see men walking the streets, and Jesus touches him again, 0:49:47.719 --> 0:49:50.120 or I believe fits in his eye and tells him 0:49:50.160 --> 0:49:52.520 to go wash in the pool, and the man has 0:49:52.600 --> 0:49:58.920 to take the first steps in the dark. The first 0:49:59.160 --> 0:50:01.960 time I went the mic to preach, my hands were 0:50:02.000 --> 0:50:09.359 shaking so bad that when I held the mic, I 0:50:09.440 --> 0:50:11.200 was nervous when I picked it up. But when I 0:50:11.280 --> 0:50:13.360 knew that they could see that I was nervous, that 0:50:13.440 --> 0:50:17.239 made it worse. So it started. It starts ship. It 0:50:17.280 --> 0:50:19.879 was like a It was kind of like a tambourine 0:50:20.000 --> 0:50:23.680 or something, you know. So the next time I had 0:50:23.719 --> 0:50:26.480 them adjust the height of the mic. I didn't quit preaching. 0:50:26.719 --> 0:50:29.120 I had them adjust the height of the mic and 0:50:29.160 --> 0:50:32.160 put my hands behind my back so they couldn't see 0:50:32.200 --> 0:50:34.480 my hands, and I preached the first five or ten 0:50:34.560 --> 0:50:38.240 minutes with my hands behind my back until enough annoying came, 0:50:38.680 --> 0:50:41.759 because when the annoying comes, the fear goes. And then 0:50:41.800 --> 0:50:45.919 I took the mic and started preaching. You cannot let 0:50:46.000 --> 0:50:53.239 your fear hold you back from your destiny. You have 0:50:53.520 --> 0:50:57.600 to feel the fear and do it anyway. Do it broke, 0:50:57.760 --> 0:51:01.480 do it scared, do it nervous, it trembling. Do it 0:51:01.520 --> 0:51:04.240 on your knees, do it with help, do it on crutches, 0:51:04.400 --> 0:51:07.640 do it in a wheelchair. Because you don't want to 0:51:07.719 --> 0:51:09.759 end up in a nursing home sitting on a bed pan, 0:51:09.880 --> 0:51:13.600 wondering what would have happened if you'd only had more currents. 0:51:14.520 --> 0:51:17.160 You don't want to end up in an old folks home. 0:51:17.520 --> 0:51:22.360 And your dying thought is I wish I had a 0:51:22.640 --> 0:51:25.920 because the one thing that you will never get is 0:51:26.040 --> 0:51:30.279 more time, So you don't have time to allow your 0:51:30.320 --> 0:51:35.880 fear to incarcerate you. When you have the key, reach 0:51:35.960 --> 0:51:39.600 around there, unlock the door, and step into your destiny. 0:51:41.960 --> 0:51:44.000 Don't you feel like a lot of stuff gets thrown 0:51:44.040 --> 0:51:47.120 around at a cliche level like this, Like I was 0:51:47.160 --> 0:51:49.520 thinking about this reading the book. You have this great 0:51:49.560 --> 0:51:54.759 section on pruning and feel free to preach on John 0:51:54.800 --> 0:51:57.040 fifteen at any point during this question if you want. 0:51:59.000 --> 0:52:05.440 But I was thinking how sometimes Christians use language to 0:52:05.520 --> 0:52:09.440 cover up lifestyles. So you know, I really wanted to 0:52:09.480 --> 0:52:14.279 ask you this tonight. Do we sometimes use pruning as 0:52:14.320 --> 0:52:20.279 an excuse for our bad decisions? In other words, you know, 0:52:20.400 --> 0:52:22.640 everybody walked away from me, God is pruning me. They 0:52:22.680 --> 0:52:26.399 walked away from you and your self centered and your 0:52:26.400 --> 0:52:30.480 breath smells bad, you know, or whatever, But that is 0:52:30.560 --> 0:52:37.359 pruning too. Some people only learn through those kinds of 0:52:37.600 --> 0:52:43.720 chastenings because anytime you won't hear God's warning, he will 0:52:43.800 --> 0:52:49.680 chasten you, and whom the Lord loveth he chastens. And 0:52:50.400 --> 0:52:54.080 you're right, they're not leaving because God is pruning you, 0:52:54.760 --> 0:52:58.400 But they're leaving because of your behavior. But your behavior 0:52:58.480 --> 0:53:02.600 is making them leave with just still a pruning because 0:53:02.640 --> 0:53:05.040 it comes down to how many will you have to 0:53:05.160 --> 0:53:09.080 lose for you to change? Okay, I want to go 0:53:09.120 --> 0:53:12.319 into that bishop. So is there a difference between being 0:53:12.360 --> 0:53:16.120 crushed by the hand of God versus suffering the consequences 0:53:16.160 --> 0:53:19.720 of your own decisions? I think there. Sometimes God uses 0:53:19.760 --> 0:53:26.560 his hand and sometimes he uses yours. Yeah, yeah, sometimes 0:53:26.600 --> 0:53:30.040 he uses yours. But see, you cannot get God's people 0:53:30.080 --> 0:53:33.600 out of God's hand. Whether they are dysfunctional, whether they're 0:53:33.640 --> 0:53:37.600 emotionally dwarfed, they are still God's people. Whether they make 0:53:37.719 --> 0:53:41.920 bad decisions or stupid decisions, or terrible mistakes, you cannot 0:53:42.000 --> 0:53:44.920 get them out of God's hand. The souls that are 0:53:44.960 --> 0:53:47.200 in the Father's hands, no man can pluck them out. 0:53:47.400 --> 0:53:49.279 Some of them are smart soul, some of them are 0:53:49.320 --> 0:53:51.719 proud soul, some of them are arrogant soul, some of 0:53:51.760 --> 0:53:54.720 them are prejudiced souls. But they are in God's hands. 0:53:54.800 --> 0:53:57.080 And God will keep working with them, and working with them, 0:53:57.160 --> 0:53:59.879 and reshaping them, and breaking them and making them again, 0:54:00.080 --> 0:54:03.480 breaking up again, until they become what he had in mind. 0:54:05.080 --> 0:54:09.480 Every branch of me that bears fruit, every branch of 0:54:09.520 --> 0:54:12.760 me that's going kind of good, he says. The reward 0:54:12.960 --> 0:54:17.760 is I prune it that it might bring forth more fruit. 0:54:19.400 --> 0:54:23.480 And ultimately herein is when our Father glorified verse eight, 0:54:23.560 --> 0:54:26.840 that you bring forth much fruit. So shall you be 0:54:26.920 --> 0:54:30.640 my disciples. In between fruit and more fruit is always 0:54:30.719 --> 0:54:37.120 a knife. When God gets ready to take you up, 0:54:37.200 --> 0:54:42.880 he always cuts you back. There will be some exodus, 0:54:42.920 --> 0:54:50.640 There will be some loneliness. There will be some crushing place, 0:54:51.719 --> 0:54:59.520 some weeping, wallowing stage of life because you are his 0:55:00.840 --> 0:55:04.879 and he knows exactly where to cut you. In the book, 0:55:04.960 --> 0:55:07.000 I talk about my mother had a rose bush and 0:55:07.040 --> 0:55:11.680 I decided to help her out. And I was a 0:55:11.680 --> 0:55:13.360 little kid, and I went out there to do like 0:55:13.440 --> 0:55:15.160 I had seen her do. I was going to prune 0:55:15.200 --> 0:55:20.239 the bush, and I almost killed it. The difference I 0:55:20.320 --> 0:55:22.400 used the same knife, and it was the same bush 0:55:22.440 --> 0:55:24.960 that I'd seen her prune the year before. I used 0:55:25.000 --> 0:55:28.760 the same knife, but in my hand it was a weapon, 0:55:29.960 --> 0:55:34.120 and in her hand it was a tool. God knows 0:55:34.200 --> 0:55:37.239 exactly where to cut you to make you more productive. 0:55:38.520 --> 0:55:40.440 I was doing the right thing, but I was cutting 0:55:40.480 --> 0:55:43.800 in the wrong place. Mama knew exactly where to cut 0:55:43.840 --> 0:55:47.000 that bush in order to make it go from fruit 0:55:47.840 --> 0:55:52.520 to more fruit to much fruit. God knows exactly where 0:55:52.719 --> 0:55:56.200 to crush you to bring you to the place that 0:55:56.280 --> 0:55:59.080 you need to be. I want to throw this in 0:56:00.600 --> 0:56:02.799 what started this journey? I was getting ready to preach 0:56:02.840 --> 0:56:07.920 at Lakewood and uh, and I was sitting outside and 0:56:08.400 --> 0:56:10.160 all of a sudden I got a download. And it's 0:56:10.160 --> 0:56:12.719 hard for me to explain what a download is. I mean, 0:56:12.760 --> 0:56:14.560 all the technical people know what it is as it 0:56:14.600 --> 0:56:18.080 relates to technology. But that's kind of what we finally 0:56:18.120 --> 0:56:21.120 got to in technology. The Holy Spirit was always there 0:56:21.880 --> 0:56:27.480 because the Holy Spirit has always downloaded. Knowledge from the 0:56:27.560 --> 0:56:32.160 Divine comes in waves. It doesn't come in reason. Right. 0:56:32.719 --> 0:56:37.560 Behold is a download. They missed that that was so 0:56:37.680 --> 0:56:40.920 good it was. They get it when they watch it back, 0:56:41.000 --> 0:56:46.719 Preach it Sunday, It'll be all right. The word revelation 0:56:47.320 --> 0:56:51.399 is the Greek word apocalypse. It means to unveil. Behold, 0:56:51.520 --> 0:56:53.799 it is a download. All of a sudden, you know 0:56:53.920 --> 0:56:56.160 something that you didn't know, and it comes in a 0:56:56.239 --> 0:56:58.600 fullness and it comes and God started giving me this 0:56:58.680 --> 0:57:01.279 downloaded Oh my god, it was. It was not a 0:57:01.360 --> 0:57:03.080 normal one. It was a big one. It was too 0:57:03.120 --> 0:57:05.160 big to be a sermon. I was writing all over 0:57:05.239 --> 0:57:07.160 legal past, trying to keep up with it and trying 0:57:07.160 --> 0:57:09.360 to trying to trying to get it all together, because 0:57:09.400 --> 0:57:13.160 all of a sudden, I begin to realize that when 0:57:13.239 --> 0:57:17.000 Jesus held up the cup in the Last Supper, that 0:57:17.120 --> 0:57:19.720 there was and he says, the New Testament is in 0:57:19.800 --> 0:57:23.520 my blood, that that what was in the cup had 0:57:23.680 --> 0:57:30.000 synergy with the one who held it. The grape you see, 0:57:30.400 --> 0:57:34.680 is one of the few fruits that that is raised 0:57:34.720 --> 0:57:40.560 to be crushed. And Christ was born to die, and 0:57:40.600 --> 0:57:43.840 as he held the cup, he was also the cup 0:57:43.960 --> 0:57:47.800 was a reflection of him, except that the cup had 0:57:47.880 --> 0:57:54.200 already been raised and crushed and resurrected in its eternal form. 0:57:55.080 --> 0:57:58.640 And Christ was about to be And he says, take 0:57:59.440 --> 0:58:07.400 and do this in remembrance of me. I was born 0:58:07.560 --> 0:58:12.880 to die. You're about to see me be crushed, but 0:58:13.080 --> 0:58:17.960 understand that as he crushes me like this cup, he 0:58:18.080 --> 0:58:24.920 is transforming me from grapes to wine. And I wrote 0:58:24.920 --> 0:58:28.320 this because there are so many people listening at us 0:58:28.440 --> 0:58:32.680 right now who are being crushed, some in obvious ways, 0:58:33.720 --> 0:58:35.960 some in childhood ways. There are people in here have 0:58:35.960 --> 0:58:38.000 been raped. There's people in here have been molested. There's 0:58:38.000 --> 0:58:41.640 people in here have been abused verbally, emotionally, mentally, raised 0:58:41.640 --> 0:58:44.560 without parents, never been loved, never been treated right, and 0:58:44.960 --> 0:58:48.360 they have been crushed. There are people who are being 0:58:48.440 --> 0:58:52.080 crushed right now in situations that don't work, in circumstances 0:58:52.080 --> 0:58:56.440 that are overwhelming. Sometimes the pressure is visible and you 0:58:56.520 --> 0:59:01.840 can see the assailant, but other times it's invisible. It's 0:59:01.880 --> 0:59:05.000 an emotional it's a mental, it's a turmoil. It's an 0:59:05.000 --> 0:59:10.400 internal conflict that crushes you, and you suffer in invisible ways, 0:59:10.840 --> 0:59:13.240 like a child that's been whipped and sent to school. 0:59:13.280 --> 0:59:16.600 But they wore clothes to hide the scars. And there 0:59:16.640 --> 0:59:19.000 you are walking amongst people and nobody can see that 0:59:19.080 --> 0:59:22.600 your scarred beneath it all. That's what crushing is. And 0:59:22.640 --> 0:59:25.160 there are people in this room right now who have 0:59:25.680 --> 0:59:30.000 or will or are enduring crushing moments, and they are saying, 0:59:30.040 --> 0:59:32.920 where is God? And he's under the clothes with you. 0:59:33.760 --> 0:59:36.240 He's in the pain with you. He's in the situation 0:59:36.360 --> 0:59:42.280 with you. He's in the turmoil with you. No nobody 0:59:42.400 --> 0:59:46.800 else is as brutally, brutally give me this, brutally brutally 0:59:46.880 --> 0:59:52.919 honest as God about crushing. It's right up front. The 0:59:53.000 --> 1:00:01.240 whole emblem of Christianity is a cross. Duh, It's not 1:00:01.360 --> 1:00:06.920 a crown. He comes right out front and tells you, 1:00:07.480 --> 1:00:10.040 if any man will be my disciple, pick up his 1:00:10.160 --> 1:00:15.320 cross and follow me. Come on, let's die when you win. 1:00:15.360 --> 1:00:16.840 An I talk about this in the book. I talk 1:00:16.880 --> 1:00:18.920 about the tabernacle, and the Tarbernacle stands out in the 1:00:18.960 --> 1:00:21.480 middle of the wilderness, and the flapping of the goat 1:00:21.480 --> 1:00:23.640 skins out of the the badger skins out in the 1:00:23.640 --> 1:00:26.240 middle of the wilderness. The white flapping of the skins 1:00:26.320 --> 1:00:29.800 is an indication that God wanted to meet with Man, Oil, 1:00:29.920 --> 1:00:33.320 mo Ed and Hebrew the tent of meetings, and you 1:00:33.400 --> 1:00:35.520 must come in at the door. And the door stands 1:00:35.520 --> 1:00:38.400 out starkly different from the walls around it, with its blue, 1:00:38.720 --> 1:00:41.760 and it's crimson and it's purple. It's blue for the 1:00:41.800 --> 1:00:45.280 grace of God. It's crimson for the redemptive power of God. 1:00:45.320 --> 1:00:48.760 It's purple for the majesty of God. The door stands 1:00:48.760 --> 1:00:51.040 out because it's a picture of Jesus that says, I 1:00:51.080 --> 1:00:54.000 am the door. The moment you walk through the door, 1:00:54.080 --> 1:00:58.800 the very first thing you see is a brazen altar, 1:00:59.680 --> 1:01:05.120 a dying place. No couches, no chairs, no furniture, no candles, 1:01:05.200 --> 1:01:09.400 no sense and fragrances, no aromas, no aroma therapy. The 1:01:09.560 --> 1:01:14.160 very thing you smell is the stench of burning flesh 1:01:14.200 --> 1:01:16.560 and the dripping of blood into a pan beneath it. 1:01:16.640 --> 1:01:21.120 Because God puts the pain upfront, he never hides or 1:01:21.240 --> 1:01:24.479 disguises the fact that the moment you walk into the door. 1:01:24.560 --> 1:01:27.400 You have to pay something for promotion. You have to 1:01:27.440 --> 1:01:29.880 go through process to get a promise. You have to 1:01:29.880 --> 1:01:32.640 go through pushes in order to have a crown. He 1:01:32.680 --> 1:01:34.880 puts it right right up front. He doesn't give you 1:01:34.920 --> 1:01:36.880 the labor. He doesn't you know how. They come along 1:01:36.920 --> 1:01:38.720 and they give you the little towels on the plane 1:01:38.760 --> 1:01:41.560 and all the little scented stuff. Before you do, he does, 1:01:41.600 --> 1:01:44.120 no, no no, no, no. You will wash later, you will 1:01:44.160 --> 1:01:48.880 burn first, you will rear and grown. And and let 1:01:48.920 --> 1:01:50.640 me prove to you. Let me prove to you the 1:01:50.720 --> 1:01:54.280 Apostle proves to us in the New Testament. I beseech 1:01:54.360 --> 1:01:56.280 you there for a brother, and by the mercies of God, 1:01:56.600 --> 1:02:00.720 that ye present your body a living sacrifice, holy and 1:02:00.800 --> 1:02:04.040 acceptable under God. A living sacrifice is something that is 1:02:04.160 --> 1:02:08.480 put on the altar, alive. Squirming, tied to something that 1:02:08.520 --> 1:02:11.760 doesn't work, tied to something that doesn't move, tied to 1:02:11.840 --> 1:02:14.400 a marriage that doesn't work, tied to a job that 1:02:14.440 --> 1:02:17.480 doesn't work, tied to a city where you're not respected, 1:02:17.760 --> 1:02:21.240 tied to a situation where you're squirming. And God uses 1:02:21.320 --> 1:02:25.880 squirming situations to crucify the flesh. And it's all up front, 1:02:26.680 --> 1:02:29.000 and if you can make it past the first piece 1:02:29.000 --> 1:02:32.120 of furniture, then he'll wash away the stain of the 1:02:32.160 --> 1:02:35.479 blood off of your hands and take you on into 1:02:35.600 --> 1:02:41.200 an area that smells better. Because the first room, the 1:02:41.240 --> 1:02:46.880 first outer court, smells like burning flesh. But if you 1:02:46.960 --> 1:02:51.240 make it to the most holy place, what calms down 1:02:51.280 --> 1:02:55.680 the stench of death. It's the smell of burning incense. 1:02:56.720 --> 1:03:00.200 The prayers and praises of the saints drive back the 1:03:00.280 --> 1:03:02.880 smell of death. And what it costs you to be 1:03:03.000 --> 1:03:06.120 who you are, it costs you to make it now. 1:03:06.160 --> 1:03:09.280 You didn't come through that door to smell death. You 1:03:09.440 --> 1:03:11.720 came to that door to have an encounter with God. 1:03:12.120 --> 1:03:14.960 But you have to walk through the whole process and 1:03:15.000 --> 1:03:18.520 then get to the veil, and get past the veil 1:03:18.800 --> 1:03:23.880 into the holies of holies. You have gone from daylight, daylight, 1:03:24.040 --> 1:03:28.800 natural light, light that everybody sees, to candlelight, which is 1:03:28.920 --> 1:03:32.960 revelatory light, the light of God's word, to their kind 1:03:32.960 --> 1:03:37.560 of glory, which is divine light. Every step you go 1:03:37.640 --> 1:03:41.640 from transition to transition, it smells different, it looks different, 1:03:41.760 --> 1:03:45.000 it feels different. You pass the table of shoe bread, 1:03:45.920 --> 1:03:48.600 where the Bible is specific to say that the table 1:03:48.600 --> 1:03:53.320 of shoebread must be made out of fine flower. Now 1:03:53.400 --> 1:03:56.240 today we don't get that because if you want fine flower, 1:03:56.320 --> 1:03:59.080 you go buy it. But in the wilderness, if you 1:03:59.120 --> 1:04:03.960 want fine flower, were you crush it? The finest flower 1:04:04.240 --> 1:04:06.840 was the only thing that God's bread could be made 1:04:06.840 --> 1:04:09.560 out of. In other words, it had to be crushed 1:04:09.680 --> 1:04:13.280 and crushed and crushed and crushed and crushed until it 1:04:13.360 --> 1:04:17.840 was fine enough to be bred. And in our lives, 1:04:17.960 --> 1:04:20.480 when God gets ready to serve us to the world, 1:04:21.400 --> 1:04:24.880 there are certain crushings that we go through. There are 1:04:24.880 --> 1:04:29.160 certain crushings that you're going through right now in your life, 1:04:29.200 --> 1:04:31.800 and sometimes people don't see it. They don't know that 1:04:31.840 --> 1:04:35.600 you're being crushed because because sometimes you're being crushed in 1:04:35.640 --> 1:04:40.840 your heart, in your emotions. I was doing research for 1:04:40.960 --> 1:04:43.360 my book, and I found out that the same part 1:04:43.360 --> 1:04:48.480 of the brain that processes physical pain processes emotional pain. 1:04:49.400 --> 1:04:52.280 So my brain doesn't know whether my heart is broken 1:04:52.320 --> 1:04:56.200 or whether you stab me in the leg. The same 1:04:56.480 --> 1:05:00.160 part of the cerebellum that sends the message that you're 1:05:00.160 --> 1:05:03.640 in pain is just as intense about a broken heart 1:05:03.840 --> 1:05:07.720 as it is about a stabbed legs. You understand. So 1:05:07.880 --> 1:05:10.440 all of a sudden, I'm in trauma, but there's no 1:05:10.600 --> 1:05:14.360 paramedic because I'm not bleeding. I'm not being crushed on 1:05:14.400 --> 1:05:17.720 the outside where you can put a tourniquet on it 1:05:17.760 --> 1:05:20.320 and send me to the emergency room. I'm being crushed 1:05:20.360 --> 1:05:23.600 in my heart. I'm being crushed by failed expectations. I'm 1:05:23.600 --> 1:05:26.040 being crushed by the fact that I'm older now and 1:05:26.080 --> 1:05:28.080 I thought I would be further than I am, and 1:05:28.120 --> 1:05:30.560 I am not. God has a whole lot of ways 1:05:30.600 --> 1:05:33.320 to crush you. I'm being crushed by bankruptcy. I'm being 1:05:33.360 --> 1:05:36.640 crushed by disappointment. I'm being crushed because I love somebody 1:05:36.640 --> 1:05:39.280 who won't love me back. I'm being crushed because I 1:05:39.320 --> 1:05:42.200 have a child who disrespects me. There are all kinds 1:05:42.240 --> 1:05:44.560 of ways for you to be crushed in places that 1:05:44.640 --> 1:05:47.400 people don't see, and it affects you like you are 1:05:47.440 --> 1:05:54.240 being stabbed. This trauma of the soul cannot be treated 1:05:54.280 --> 1:05:58.920 in the hospital. This trauma of the soul, the secret 1:05:59.320 --> 1:06:03.840 crushing that God allows us to go through sometimes in 1:06:03.880 --> 1:06:08.680 our lives, are beyond expl explanation. And yet there's not 1:06:08.840 --> 1:06:12.000 a person in this room, young or old, black or white, rich, 1:06:12.040 --> 1:06:16.200 or poor, intellectual or illiterate who escapes it. You cannot 1:06:16.240 --> 1:06:19.120 live in this world and not need what I'm talking about. 1:06:20.520 --> 1:06:24.960 You cannot live in this world. I need it. Something 1:06:26.000 --> 1:06:30.640 in your life is going to be what God uses 1:06:30.920 --> 1:06:36.600 to crush you. But remember that crushing is not the end. 1:06:38.560 --> 1:06:41.840 Crushing is not. Then after the grapes have been smashed, 1:06:42.000 --> 1:06:45.120 I started into this download, and I saw the Bible 1:06:45.160 --> 1:06:48.560 said in Genesis that the heel that the seed of 1:06:48.600 --> 1:06:51.240 the woman would bruise ahead of the serpent, and serpent 1:06:51.240 --> 1:06:53.760 would bruise his heel. And I looked at the heels 1:06:53.800 --> 1:06:57.600 of Jesus. And I looked at the bruised heel of Jesus, 1:06:57.760 --> 1:07:00.240 and immediately I was taken in the spirit. And I 1:07:00.240 --> 1:07:03.800 saw women trembling on grapes. And when I saw the 1:07:03.840 --> 1:07:06.960 women trembling on grapes, I saw the stains of the 1:07:07.000 --> 1:07:09.600 grapes on the heels of their feet. And all of 1:07:09.640 --> 1:07:12.320 a sudden, the Holy ghosts begin to connect the blood 1:07:12.600 --> 1:07:15.160 and the redemptive power of Jesus Christ with the crushing 1:07:15.200 --> 1:07:17.640 of the grape. And when I looked at Jesus holding 1:07:17.640 --> 1:07:19.760 the cup, I knew that he was in the cup. 1:07:19.760 --> 1:07:24.800 And yet he was holding the cup, and immediately I 1:07:24.960 --> 1:07:27.280 sensed in my spirits, said, I want you to go 1:07:27.480 --> 1:07:31.360 tell my people that crushing is a stage. It's not 1:07:31.480 --> 1:07:39.520 a destination. It's not a destination. It's not a destination. 1:07:40.160 --> 1:07:42.800 Do not, do not. I gotta get this out because 1:07:42.840 --> 1:07:47.520 this is important. Some people take on a pathology of pain, 1:07:48.640 --> 1:07:53.120 and they make the crushing their address, and they live 1:07:53.440 --> 1:07:57.000 in what should have been a stage, and no matter 1:07:57.040 --> 1:07:59.160 what you do, you cannot pull them out of it, 1:07:59.240 --> 1:08:03.680 because pain becomes their normal. They will provoke you till 1:08:03.720 --> 1:08:07.000 you fight them. They will push you away to you 1:08:07.240 --> 1:08:10.280 reject them because it is the thing that they are 1:08:10.400 --> 1:08:13.800 most familiar with, and they don't understand that they self 1:08:13.840 --> 1:08:17.360 sabotage their success. You're not fighting a demon, You're not 1:08:17.439 --> 1:08:20.280 fighting the devil. You are fighting the fact that you 1:08:20.439 --> 1:08:24.760 have become so accustomed to pain that it is your 1:08:24.880 --> 1:08:30.280 place of residency. And I challenge you today to shatter 1:08:30.479 --> 1:08:32.840 your way out, to break your way out. If you 1:08:32.920 --> 1:08:34.960 can't get out of the door, come out of the window. 1:08:35.360 --> 1:08:41.519 I challenge you today. I challenge you to be happy, 1:08:41.800 --> 1:08:45.640 even if being happy feels funny. I challenge you to 1:08:45.720 --> 1:08:48.280 have joy if you feel even if it feels like 1:08:48.360 --> 1:08:51.439 it's phony, even if it's not you, if it's not 1:08:51.479 --> 1:08:53.639 your personality, it's not going to be you at first. 1:08:53.720 --> 1:08:55.919 What do you mean? How do you do that? Because 1:08:56.120 --> 1:08:58.920 because when you are used to being miserable, you will 1:08:58.960 --> 1:09:01.800 provoke everything around you until you are miserable. Your self 1:09:01.880 --> 1:09:06.320 sabotagey because you made what should have been a process, 1:09:06.520 --> 1:09:10.040 you have made it permanent, and now it's you doing it. 1:09:10.040 --> 1:09:12.759 It's not God doing it. It's you doing it to yourself. 1:09:12.960 --> 1:09:16.000 And God is steadily trying to rescue you out of 1:09:16.040 --> 1:09:19.280 the pit, Joseph, but you won't grab the rope because 1:09:19.320 --> 1:09:22.040 you have become so comfortable in the pit that even 1:09:22.040 --> 1:09:24.360 when God sends the minion knites to pull you out 1:09:24.400 --> 1:09:26.320 of the pit, you choose to stay in the pit 1:09:26.400 --> 1:09:29.960 because you like it down here. I like it down here. 1:09:30.120 --> 1:09:32.439 Ain't nobody bothered me down here. I just like to 1:09:32.479 --> 1:09:34.960 be by myself. I want to be alone. I'm just 1:09:35.000 --> 1:09:37.960 that kind of person I'm being No, you're not. It 1:09:38.080 --> 1:09:40.799 is not good for man to be alone. Your creator 1:09:40.840 --> 1:09:43.720 said you were not designed to be alone. You have 1:09:43.880 --> 1:09:50.920 allowed the process to become permanent. So when you break out, Stephen, 1:09:51.280 --> 1:09:54.439 you feel strange. You feel like an immigrant. You feel 1:09:54.479 --> 1:09:57.080 like a foreigner, you feel like you're in a strange situation, 1:09:57.439 --> 1:10:00.280 and you want to retreat back to the familiar, because 1:10:00.320 --> 1:10:03.320 even though it's toxic, it's become your normal. And so 1:10:03.400 --> 1:10:06.040 when you start getting into these other atmosphere you can't 1:10:06.120 --> 1:10:09.920 wait to get back to the familiarity of this self 1:10:10.040 --> 1:10:13.760 inflicted torture that you put on yourself. And anybody who 1:10:13.760 --> 1:10:16.880 says you preach nice so you look nice good, you 1:10:16.880 --> 1:10:20.920 don't believe them because believing them would free you. You 1:10:21.160 --> 1:10:32.760 you you don't believe them. If you believe them, that 1:10:32.840 --> 1:10:35.559 would free you. Jesus said, you shall know the truth, 1:10:35.840 --> 1:10:39.200 and the truth shall make you free. That means if 1:10:39.240 --> 1:10:40.760 I was the double, all I have to do to 1:10:40.840 --> 1:10:43.840 keep you balance, keep you from knowing it. You can 1:10:43.880 --> 1:10:46.759 be beautiful, just don't know it. You can be wonderful, 1:10:46.840 --> 1:10:49.320 just don't know it. You can be effective, just don't 1:10:49.320 --> 1:10:51.479 know it. You can be smart, just don't know it. 1:10:51.520 --> 1:10:54.840 And so the enemy keeps you blind to what you 1:10:55.040 --> 1:11:00.840 have because you're not used to light. The hardest thing 1:11:00.880 --> 1:11:03.559 in the world is to go from dark rooms into 1:11:03.600 --> 1:11:06.639 bright light. And so all of a sudden you say, oh, 1:11:06.800 --> 1:11:09.640 that's too much. And so when God does want to 1:11:09.720 --> 1:11:13.160 emancipate you, you have a tendency to go back into 1:11:13.200 --> 1:11:17.120 the crushing place because it is your familiar place. But 1:11:17.240 --> 1:11:21.000 in order for you to find your strength, you have 1:11:21.160 --> 1:11:23.960 to not only go into the crushing, you must come 1:11:24.040 --> 1:11:29.880 out of it. You cannot make wine underfeat. It has 1:11:30.040 --> 1:11:33.120 to come from the crushing stage to get to the 1:11:33.160 --> 1:11:36.160 wine stage. It has to survive and talk about the 1:11:36.160 --> 1:11:37.960 fermenting stage and all of that in the book, and 1:11:37.960 --> 1:11:40.400 it has to go through these different stages ultimately to 1:11:40.439 --> 1:11:43.439 become wine. And grapes are at their best when they 1:11:43.479 --> 1:11:47.360 are wine. Grapes are at their best when they are wine. 1:11:47.400 --> 1:11:51.400 They are strongest when they are wine. They are more 1:11:51.439 --> 1:11:55.640 effective when they are wine. They can affect the consumer 1:11:55.840 --> 1:11:59.280 when they are wine. They infiltrate the blood system when 1:11:59.280 --> 1:12:02.120 they are wine, like you got to go through digestion. 1:12:04.479 --> 1:12:15.080 You understand what I'm talking about. Please, please please, I 1:12:15.160 --> 1:12:22.679 feel in my spirit God breaking through some deeply personal 1:12:22.720 --> 1:12:26.720 things in this room. Some things that we don't get 1:12:26.720 --> 1:12:28.840 on Sunday morning and that we don't talk about, and 1:12:28.880 --> 1:12:33.799 that we don't expose people to. Some pathologies, some ways 1:12:33.840 --> 1:12:40.280 in which you process yourself that keeps you underfoot. And 1:12:40.320 --> 1:12:43.479 I wrote crushing to tell you, yes, you go through it, 1:12:43.520 --> 1:12:45.080 and I go through it, and we go through it, 1:12:45.160 --> 1:12:47.080 and we all go through it. And I've never met 1:12:47.120 --> 1:12:50.719 anybody extremely gifted who has not gone through extremely crushing. 1:12:50.960 --> 1:12:57.519 But none of them stayed there. And I believe that 1:12:58.080 --> 1:13:01.840 many of you your time has come to come out 1:13:01.840 --> 1:13:06.840 from underfoot, even if the foot is your own, and 1:13:07.160 --> 1:13:13.759 to finish the process of becoming what God had in mind. 1:13:14.400 --> 1:13:18.559 Jesus says, Father, Now glorify me with the glory that 1:13:18.680 --> 1:13:21.599 I had with you before the foundations of the world. 1:13:21.800 --> 1:13:25.639 Take me back to what you had in mind. Now. 1:13:25.760 --> 1:13:32.519 The cross is the transportation, It is not the destination. Wow. 1:13:33.479 --> 1:13:35.760 First thing my grandmother taught me I was walking through 1:13:35.760 --> 1:13:38.160 the house. I was a little boy. I'll never forget it. 1:13:38.280 --> 1:13:40.720 I had bought a crucifix somewhere and it's still you know, 1:13:40.720 --> 1:13:43.280 a crucifix has Christ on the cross. And she said, no, baby, 1:13:43.320 --> 1:13:48.920 she said, don't wearry that. He's not there anymore. He's 1:13:48.960 --> 1:13:54.080 not there anymore. It's important that the cross be empty 1:13:54.200 --> 1:13:56.560 to remind you that he did not get stuck in 1:13:56.640 --> 1:14:01.400 a stage. I mean, said, touch somebody and say I'm 1:14:01.400 --> 1:14:05.599 not there anymore. I'm not there anymore. Some people need 1:14:05.640 --> 1:14:12.000 you to be there because they have built a system 1:14:12.080 --> 1:14:17.599 around your pain, and they have they have created jobs 1:14:17.640 --> 1:14:20.280 around your dysfunction, and they don't want you to get 1:14:20.280 --> 1:14:25.000 well because if you got well, they're afraid that they 1:14:25.080 --> 1:14:27.760 might not be important to you. And sometimes it's not 1:14:27.960 --> 1:14:31.800 in their interest for you to recover. I'm going on 1:14:31.880 --> 1:14:35.840 and on. Let me turn up. I should write a book, aside, 1:14:36.000 --> 1:14:46.320 I should write a book. It's like therapy. I'm settled. 1:14:47.640 --> 1:14:49.680 I should I should write a book because what I'm 1:14:49.720 --> 1:14:53.479 talking about is so personal that you should be in 1:14:53.520 --> 1:14:58.439 your bed reading this where I told them, I told 1:14:58.520 --> 1:15:00.880 them now this is I'm old school, so look over me. 1:15:01.040 --> 1:15:04.040 This is even look over. I still like books. Now 1:15:04.080 --> 1:15:06.280 we have the books and stuff like that. That's nice. 1:15:06.280 --> 1:15:08.479 And to all of you that are different, get the 1:15:08.479 --> 1:15:10.200 e books and then we have audiobooks and we have 1:15:10.240 --> 1:15:12.439 it in Spanish and all that kind of stuff. I 1:15:12.560 --> 1:15:16.360 like books. I like books so that I can dog 1:15:16.400 --> 1:15:21.600 hear the pages and bend it back and abuse the 1:15:21.680 --> 1:15:25.439 book and write my stuff on top of the book. 1:15:25.880 --> 1:15:32.360 Because when you hear a writer, think that's what reading is. 1:15:32.479 --> 1:15:37.160 Is to hear your writer think. It impregnates you with 1:15:37.280 --> 1:15:41.000 thought until you start thinking things that are not even 1:15:41.040 --> 1:15:44.240 in the book. And so I like to write little things, 1:15:44.400 --> 1:15:46.800 little notes that came to me as a result of 1:15:46.880 --> 1:15:49.120 something I read in the book. And I like to 1:15:49.160 --> 1:15:51.559 get like a little bit of jelly on the book 1:15:54.280 --> 1:15:57.000 and spill my coffee on it, or just a little bit, 1:15:57.320 --> 1:16:00.000 just a little bit, so that I got high lighted 1:16:00.160 --> 1:16:02.320 parts of the book and notes in the book, and 1:16:02.400 --> 1:16:04.160 a little bit of jelly and a little coffee. But 1:16:04.240 --> 1:16:06.679 then somebody wants to bob, no, you can't have my book. 1:16:08.240 --> 1:16:10.679 That's a DNA in there, my favorites, and to beget 1:16:10.680 --> 1:16:15.160 a wife from me. That's my book. You cannot lead. 1:16:15.240 --> 1:16:22.040 If you do not read, you cannot lead. We have 1:16:22.280 --> 1:16:28.840 raised a world that has everything so automated that we're 1:16:28.880 --> 1:16:34.439 afraid of quiet. We want little sound bites information. So 1:16:34.520 --> 1:16:36.439 what happens? Let me tell you what this generation does. 1:16:38.040 --> 1:16:41.240 I can post an excerpt from the book on Instagram. 1:16:42.120 --> 1:16:45.000 It can blow your socks off and you will repost it, 1:16:46.200 --> 1:16:51.760 but not read the book. So you walk away with 1:16:51.920 --> 1:17:05.559 cliches but no wisdom. So when the enemy tries you 1:17:06.920 --> 1:17:09.719 and finds out that there's nothing beneath you but something 1:17:09.760 --> 1:17:13.320 that you reposted but you really don't understand, and you 1:17:13.439 --> 1:17:16.680 really have delved down into and he starts attacking you 1:17:16.760 --> 1:17:20.000 on the level that you spoke on. You're not able 1:17:20.040 --> 1:17:22.640 to stand up against it because you don't have the 1:17:22.840 --> 1:17:32.160 roots you understand. I'm sad. I sense that coming through 1:17:32.200 --> 1:17:36.080 in the book that you're frustrated with this microwave mentality. Yes, 1:17:36.760 --> 1:17:40.800 you're frustrated with this skim the surface spirituality. Yes, that 1:17:40.920 --> 1:17:42.960 you're seeing a failure of it in the church and 1:17:43.080 --> 1:17:48.920 in our lives. Yes, And I don't I don't want 1:17:49.240 --> 1:17:57.400 to leave this world without making sure that what our 1:17:57.520 --> 1:18:06.320 fathers passed to us, it's passed to you. Our father 1:18:06.439 --> 1:18:08.960 sat around the dinner tables and talked about the Lord, 1:18:09.240 --> 1:18:11.479 and we would wash dishes and do anything just to 1:18:11.479 --> 1:18:13.640 be in the kitchen or be around where the conversations 1:18:13.680 --> 1:18:18.599 were being held. And and and the level of our 1:18:18.800 --> 1:18:21.519 thought was cultivated because we got to be in the 1:18:21.640 --> 1:18:25.400 room where it happened, where it happened, where it happened. 1:18:25.640 --> 1:18:29.639 And so I'm writing, and I'm teaching, and I'm speaking 1:18:30.800 --> 1:18:34.360 at this season in my life because I think I 1:18:34.400 --> 1:18:40.360 see a fading away, generals going home, generals going home, 1:18:40.520 --> 1:18:43.920 or Roberts gone home, Billy Graham gone home. Countless people 1:18:44.000 --> 1:18:47.400 gone home that that we loved and cherish of all 1:18:47.560 --> 1:18:51.320 racist colors and hymns all denominations. Some of our top 1:18:51.439 --> 1:18:55.360 thinkers are going home, and they're being replaced with our 1:18:55.400 --> 1:19:06.200 top tweeters. And so we're now breaking because it's trending. 1:19:06.240 --> 1:19:09.160 My god, it's trending. You know, it's trending. It's trending. 1:19:09.640 --> 1:19:15.000 And what I want is to get the word in 1:19:15.040 --> 1:19:20.000 a place that can't be hacked. Thy word have I 1:19:20.120 --> 1:19:26.120 hid in my heart so that what I'm talking about 1:19:26.560 --> 1:19:29.080 is so deep. It has to get in you to 1:19:29.120 --> 1:19:32.280 heal you. It can't just be something cute you put 1:19:32.320 --> 1:19:35.960 on so you get more followers. I don't want to 1:19:36.000 --> 1:19:38.760 do that with you. I didn't come up here so 1:19:38.840 --> 1:19:41.800 you get more followers. I want you to get this 1:19:41.920 --> 1:19:43.800 down in you so that when you had one of 1:19:43.800 --> 1:19:46.479 those bad nights like I've had, where you're curled up 1:19:46.479 --> 1:19:49.600 in a corner and you really secretly want to die, 1:19:50.160 --> 1:19:52.360 that you have enough inside and you to pull you 1:19:52.479 --> 1:19:54.040 up off of the floor and get you back up 1:19:54.080 --> 1:20:03.280 from your feet a going I want to put enough 1:20:03.280 --> 1:20:05.840 word in you so that when you are holding your 1:20:05.880 --> 1:20:10.559 mother like I held mine, and watch her gasp and die, 1:20:12.600 --> 1:20:16.760 and feel her body get cold in your arms and 1:20:16.880 --> 1:20:21.280 rock her to see stiff, that you'll have something inside 1:20:21.280 --> 1:20:24.880 of you that will not break, that will not fade away, 1:20:25.760 --> 1:20:28.840 that will not fall apart, that will make you able 1:20:28.880 --> 1:20:31.160 to stand even if the person you love walks out 1:20:31.200 --> 1:20:46.200 on you, that you cry, but you don't die. This 1:20:46.200 --> 1:20:54.520 this is not about selling books. It's about leaving footprints. 1:20:57.880 --> 1:20:59.519 I'm okay. If you don't get in the book, I'll 1:20:59.520 --> 1:21:05.800 be fine. I'm good. This is not about commercialization. I 1:21:05.800 --> 1:21:08.760 say I'm good because all my kids are grumba. I'm good. 1:21:09.120 --> 1:21:11.240 I'm good. We can downside and live in the trailer somewhere. 1:21:11.240 --> 1:21:13.120 We make it. We'll be all right. We will make 1:21:13.160 --> 1:21:15.240 it to old age. We are in old age now, 1:21:15.280 --> 1:21:26.000 but we're in denial. I want to leave footprints behind. 1:21:28.000 --> 1:21:34.000 My son is in this room right now. I want 1:21:34.000 --> 1:21:37.639 to say something that outlives me. I want to say 1:21:37.640 --> 1:21:41.400 something that catches in when I'm dead. I want to 1:21:41.439 --> 1:21:45.559 say something that becomes fuel for the next two hundred years, 1:21:45.600 --> 1:21:49.760 that lives on in your mouth and the mouths of 1:21:49.840 --> 1:22:00.160 your children. I'm way past needing to be known, have 1:22:00.920 --> 1:22:13.240 smell the fragrance of his presence as unworthy as I am, 1:22:13.400 --> 1:22:18.040 and I have this this need to tell you, and 1:22:18.120 --> 1:22:25.600 he's more than amazing, that he's greater than religion, and 1:22:25.640 --> 1:22:28.439 he's better than your dogma and your creed and your 1:22:28.600 --> 1:22:33.880 doctrines and your theology. That sometimes he saw the only 1:22:33.960 --> 1:22:36.320 thing in an unstable world that keeps you from falling 1:22:36.360 --> 1:22:52.479 absolutely apart. So I call it crushing, and I want 1:22:52.479 --> 1:22:54.000 to tell you so I'm going to be honest with you. 1:22:54.040 --> 1:22:56.200 The subtitle really is in mine, it's what the it's 1:22:56.240 --> 1:22:59.400 what the publishers. One of my title really was crushing 1:22:59.760 --> 1:23:04.880 is the end, because the substratum of the Bunk is 1:23:04.960 --> 1:23:12.559 really about not getting stuck in a stage and deteriorating 1:23:13.520 --> 1:23:19.519 and rotting and giving it up on yourself and your 1:23:19.640 --> 1:23:23.640 dreams and how to be productive at every stage of 1:23:23.680 --> 1:23:27.760 your life and not to think because you have a setback, 1:23:27.960 --> 1:23:30.760 that this is not God and that you can't win 1:23:31.000 --> 1:23:33.200 and that you can't be successful. Because I would not 1:23:33.600 --> 1:23:37.360 be here if I believe the first ten years of 1:23:37.439 --> 1:23:41.559 my pastor, and I wouldn't be here. Wow, I passed 1:23:41.720 --> 1:23:44.000 the first few years of my church, sitting on a 1:23:44.040 --> 1:23:48.320 piano bench. My foot was the drum I played for 1:23:48.439 --> 1:23:52.040 myself while I was preaching. I took all the money 1:23:52.040 --> 1:23:55.160 from my job and put it into my church. My 1:23:55.240 --> 1:23:59.000 mama was frying fish and chicken behind the wall because 1:23:59.040 --> 1:24:03.280 she believed in my d and had success been determined 1:24:03.320 --> 1:24:07.880 by numbers, I would have quit. But the Bible said, 1:24:07.920 --> 1:24:12.800 after you suffered a while, I'll establish shit and make 1:24:12.880 --> 1:24:17.799 you perfect. When I started preaching all over the country, 1:24:17.880 --> 1:24:20.000 like you're preaching all over the country, I was still 1:24:20.040 --> 1:24:23.040 pastoring the storefront and they were making fun of me 1:24:23.080 --> 1:24:25.839 because I was preaching in all the biggest churches around 1:24:25.840 --> 1:24:28.400 the country, and I came home to a storefront. It 1:24:28.520 --> 1:24:31.080 was so small that when people came to visit me, 1:24:31.320 --> 1:24:32.920 I was standing at the front door and watch them 1:24:33.000 --> 1:24:37.360 drive past. No, I'm not being fun. I'm telling the truth. 1:24:37.479 --> 1:24:39.840 They would be looking for my church. It was at 1:24:39.880 --> 1:24:42.080 that point. It was right across the street from Rose 1:24:42.160 --> 1:24:45.120 City Cafeteria in South Charles and Westernginia, and they would 1:24:45.120 --> 1:24:46.840 be driving past. They were looking for one of those 1:24:46.840 --> 1:24:50.040 big places. They went right past my church like it 1:24:50.120 --> 1:24:54.760 wasn't even there. When I got on national television. I 1:24:54.840 --> 1:25:01.759 had one person, one staff person in our entire ministry. 1:25:01.800 --> 1:25:05.599 We had eight thousand dollars in the bay and the 1:25:05.640 --> 1:25:08.920 first time one eight hundred Bishop Too rang in. I 1:25:08.960 --> 1:25:12.559 had all the church mothers answering the phones. I had 1:25:12.600 --> 1:25:14.439 a phone in the pulpit. I had a phone in 1:25:14.520 --> 1:25:16.679 the sound room. I had a phone in my office, 1:25:16.840 --> 1:25:19.000 and I had a phone in Beverly's office. And I 1:25:19.040 --> 1:25:21.040 had all these old ladies asking the fellow saying what 1:25:21.120 --> 1:25:25.720 ain't hand Bishop too? And they were writing stuff, and 1:25:25.720 --> 1:25:28.720 we couldn't even read what the people had said. We 1:25:28.760 --> 1:25:31.759 couldn't read the prayer request because our hands was shaken. 1:25:34.280 --> 1:25:38.480 And I only I didn't own a duplicator. I borrowed 1:25:38.560 --> 1:25:41.559 a duplicator from Brian Keith Williams and drove to Columbus, 1:25:41.600 --> 1:25:44.960 Ohio to get it. To just start duplicating pape. It 1:25:45.000 --> 1:25:51.120 does not matter where you start, do you hear me? 1:25:51.720 --> 1:25:56.120 It does not matter where you start, It matters where 1:25:56.160 --> 1:26:00.120 you finish. It does not matter how you suffer. It 1:26:00.200 --> 1:26:02.800 does not matter how they laugh at you and make 1:26:02.920 --> 1:26:06.080 fun of you. They told jokes about me. They said 1:26:06.120 --> 1:26:09.559 I never have anything. They said I couldn't preach. They 1:26:09.560 --> 1:26:12.519 said I couldn't pastor they said, they said, they said, 1:26:12.600 --> 1:26:16.439 they said, they said that none of it was true, 1:26:16.760 --> 1:26:19.880 None of it was true. Do you have to hold 1:26:19.920 --> 1:26:24.880 your truth inside of you? You have to know when 1:26:24.920 --> 1:26:27.639 all hell is breaking loose, and he that has begun 1:26:28.080 --> 1:26:31.040 a good work in you shall perform it until the 1:26:31.080 --> 1:26:35.240 day of Jesus Christ. I know I'm probably gone over it. 1:26:35.400 --> 1:26:39.200 I don't know what I'm suppore to do. How many 1:26:39.200 --> 1:26:45.920 people are being blessed tonight? How many people needed this 1:26:46.040 --> 1:26:57.639 word from God about trusting tone everybody in here who's 1:26:57.680 --> 1:27:00.439 been through something Prussian just touch somebody and tell them 1:27:00.479 --> 1:27:10.280 it crushed me and crust me. But I survived. Crowd 1:27:11.120 --> 1:27:15.880 but I survived, and trust me, but I survived. I 1:27:15.920 --> 1:27:24.599 went to a test that I survived because I figure 1:27:24.640 --> 1:27:29.240 if you would tell them that it crushed you. I 1:27:29.280 --> 1:27:31.719 think that if you would tell them and stop acting 1:27:31.880 --> 1:27:36.720 like you don't relate to this, then we would see 1:27:36.760 --> 1:27:41.600 survivors and other people would learn that that you that 1:27:41.680 --> 1:27:47.240 there's something beyond the crushing. That grapes do turn to wine, 1:27:48.040 --> 1:27:53.120 that crosses turned to crown, the pain turns to power, 1:27:54.760 --> 1:28:00.120 the scars turn the stars. Somebody needs to know that 1:28:01.200 --> 1:28:05.720 you and Honeyboo didn't live together happily for fifty years. 1:28:09.160 --> 1:28:11.920 Sometimes you just came home because that's where your shoes were. 1:28:16.160 --> 1:28:18.679 Sometimes she faced the east and you face the west, 1:28:20.000 --> 1:28:22.240 and your hip bones didn't even touch. You was so 1:28:22.360 --> 1:28:26.040 far apart. I can sleep on you know, that little 1:28:26.200 --> 1:28:29.920 rail on the side of the mattress. I can get 1:28:30.000 --> 1:28:36.040 my whole big body, the entirety of my two hundred 1:28:36.080 --> 1:28:40.320 and eighty plus bounds, can lay right on that edge 1:28:40.439 --> 1:28:51.120 all night long and knock fall off the edge. Yes 1:28:51.160 --> 1:28:59.000 it can, Yes it can. We got people that get 1:28:59.080 --> 1:29:03.240 married and if everything isn't wonderful, in nine months, they're out. 1:29:06.240 --> 1:29:14.200 They've been in twelve churches, they quit every job they 1:29:14.240 --> 1:29:16.920 had because they don't recognize your worth and who you are. 1:29:17.080 --> 1:29:28.120 Shut up, Shut up, grab a broom, sweet mop, do something. 1:29:29.800 --> 1:29:33.320 God puts you there to learn something. It's not always 1:29:33.320 --> 1:29:38.280 about the money. Sometimes it's about the moment. Sometimes it's 1:29:38.320 --> 1:29:41.600 about somebody you met. Sometimes it's somebody got sent you 1:29:41.640 --> 1:29:56.760 there to influence. Everything is not about you. We talk 1:29:56.920 --> 1:30:03.000 like this, you and I all the time. If all 1:30:03.000 --> 1:30:05.639 of y'all left, we would still be sitting there talking 1:30:05.680 --> 1:30:09.040 like this. We talk like this on the phone because 1:30:09.080 --> 1:30:30.800 you know what your pastor has greatness in him, and 1:30:31.600 --> 1:30:36.120 you know what greatness needs. Greatness always needs a friend. 1:30:41.720 --> 1:30:48.960 Greatness always needs somebody to say I'm scared. Greatness always 1:30:48.960 --> 1:30:56.240 needs somebody who will not judge you criticize. Greatness always 1:30:56.280 --> 1:31:01.160 needs a soft place to fall because sometimes being great 1:31:01.840 --> 1:31:11.240 ain't so great. Sometimes being great means being crushed and 1:31:11.360 --> 1:31:17.160 not being allowed to whimper. Sometimes being great means bearing 1:31:17.240 --> 1:31:19.920 the fact that you're in a crushing season and helping 1:31:20.000 --> 1:31:29.719 other people and going home empty yourself. Sometimes being great 1:31:30.160 --> 1:31:34.840 means giving all of your courage to people until they 1:31:34.880 --> 1:31:40.320 go home encourage and you get in your card discourage 1:31:41.000 --> 1:31:42.720 and sit up to two or three o'clock in the 1:31:42.760 --> 1:31:52.479 morning trying to get yourself to sleep. So before you 1:31:52.520 --> 1:31:57.680 become jealous of anybody you see on any stage, you 1:31:57.760 --> 1:32:00.519 don't have to be preaching the hip hop. I don't 1:32:00.560 --> 1:32:05.320 care what it is poetry, drama, art, science, math, technology, 1:32:05.479 --> 1:32:11.240 I don't care what platform it may be. They didn't 1:32:11.240 --> 1:32:17.280 get there because they were cute. They got there because 1:32:17.280 --> 1:32:31.960 they were crushed. And all I want to be is 1:32:34.920 --> 1:32:41.080 it's some soft place for you to say I'm tired 1:32:42.320 --> 1:32:46.519 or i'm mad, I'm aggravated, I got a revolution, I 1:32:46.600 --> 1:32:51.840 heard from God, or I feel empty. And the reason 1:32:51.880 --> 1:32:54.360 I want to give you that is because I know 1:32:54.479 --> 1:32:59.400 so well what it is to need that, and I 1:32:59.439 --> 1:33:06.600 know how valuable it is when you are crushing secret places. 1:33:06.840 --> 1:33:13.840 Nobody comforts you when you are Superman. Nobody knows your 1:33:13.920 --> 1:33:26.120 Clark kim Ya. And for every heroic mama, grandmama, big mama, daddy, 1:33:27.160 --> 1:33:33.920 big brother, uncle, single parent in this room, you know 1:33:33.960 --> 1:33:38.000 what I'm talking about. You know that Mama's not always 1:33:38.000 --> 1:33:43.080 as happy as the kids think she is. You know 1:33:43.160 --> 1:33:45.760 that it's not always as easy to be daddy as 1:33:45.760 --> 1:33:49.400 it looks like it is. You know what it is 1:33:49.600 --> 1:33:52.919 to have to be consistent while you are being crushed. 1:33:56.600 --> 1:34:03.000 It is to you that I write, It is to 1:34:03.120 --> 1:34:09.200 you that I breathe. It is you that gave me calling. 1:34:10.720 --> 1:34:17.799 All of these years, I'm called to you. I always 1:34:17.840 --> 1:34:22.880 have been, I always have been, I probably always will be. 1:34:33.680 --> 1:34:35.280 Can I can I get up? I want to get up. 1:34:35.280 --> 1:34:38.120 I want to get up. I want I want to 1:34:38.160 --> 1:34:44.840 tell you that I'm I'm here for you. I ain't much, 1:34:46.200 --> 1:34:50.640 I ain't much, but he called me because of you. 1:34:53.000 --> 1:34:55.519 When I first started preaching earlier in my ministry. I 1:34:55.600 --> 1:34:58.400 wasn't used to big stages, of big crowds, and all 1:34:58.400 --> 1:35:00.680 of the heat, and all of the and all of 1:35:00.720 --> 1:35:02.840 the criticism and all of the envy and all of 1:35:02.880 --> 1:35:05.960 the strife and all the stuff. Let me fix my clothes, Lord, 1:35:08.040 --> 1:35:10.080 fix the old man up. If you're gonna be standing 1:35:10.120 --> 1:35:14.679 behind me, Lisia can at Lisia can do it. Fix 1:35:14.760 --> 1:35:21.120 me up. And when this old country boy first got 1:35:21.120 --> 1:35:25.040 exposed to what it costs to be up front, I 1:35:25.080 --> 1:35:29.400 didn't want it. And I'd gone to evangel Temple in 1:35:29.720 --> 1:35:32.320 d C. And preach, and I decided, I'm appreciate night, 1:35:32.400 --> 1:35:36.600 I'm gonna quit. The Washington Post had written a blistering 1:35:36.640 --> 1:35:41.479 what I thought was a blistering article about me, because 1:35:41.640 --> 1:35:46.840 that's what they do. They never write blistering articles about 1:35:47.000 --> 1:35:52.639 preachers that aren't big enough to be known, because then 1:35:52.680 --> 1:35:56.760 the controversy sales product. You have to be big enough 1:35:56.760 --> 1:36:02.280 to be attacked. I should have seen it as a compliment, 1:36:02.320 --> 1:36:06.320 but I wasn't mature enough to understand that levels bring 1:36:06.439 --> 1:36:09.080 new devils and that promotions bring new problems. And I 1:36:09.920 --> 1:36:16.000 didn't understand that to be in the paper at all, 1:36:16.680 --> 1:36:19.040 Even though I wasn't misunderstood, and the paper meant that 1:36:19.080 --> 1:36:23.519 I was significant enough to be evaluated. I hadn't gotten 1:36:23.520 --> 1:36:27.879 there yet, so I wanted to quit. And I decided 1:36:27.880 --> 1:36:31.000 this my last sermon. I preached my head off and 1:36:31.080 --> 1:36:34.599 I said that's it. And I was in act Ours Fellowship, 1:36:34.600 --> 1:36:36.560 and they kept worrying me about some woman downstairs that 1:36:36.680 --> 1:36:40.360 morning to see me. And I said, well, she's there 1:36:40.400 --> 1:36:42.479 when I come down. Because I was tired, I wasn't 1:36:42.520 --> 1:36:46.320 going down. That was my way. Again. I said, she's 1:36:46.360 --> 1:36:49.280 there when I come down, I'll talk to her. Well. 1:36:49.320 --> 1:36:51.800 I finally came downstairs. This woman was standing there. She 1:36:51.920 --> 1:36:58.280 was tiny and frail and shaken, and she said, I 1:36:58.360 --> 1:37:03.240 came all the way here to see you. She said, 1:37:03.280 --> 1:37:07.200 I just got out of the hospital. I checked myself out. 1:37:09.040 --> 1:37:11.519 She said I was carrying a dead baby in my 1:37:11.960 --> 1:37:15.760 boom and the baby was rotting inside of me. And 1:37:15.800 --> 1:37:19.160 I've never been so sick in all of my life. 1:37:21.000 --> 1:37:23.080 And she said the only thing that kept me alive 1:37:23.280 --> 1:37:28.519 was hearing you preach. Wow. And she said, if you 1:37:28.600 --> 1:37:35.719 didn't keep preaching, I would have died. And she said 1:37:35.720 --> 1:37:37.320 the Lord spoke to me and told me to get 1:37:37.400 --> 1:37:41.160 up out of the hospital and go find you and 1:37:41.280 --> 1:37:46.880 to tell you it's not for them that you preach. 1:37:48.680 --> 1:38:04.439 It's for us. She said, it's for us. It's not 1:38:04.520 --> 1:38:10.120 for them, it's for us. I staggered back like she 1:38:10.280 --> 1:38:14.800 shot me. I got in the car, man and I 1:38:14.920 --> 1:38:18.920 cried all the way all the way home. I couldn't 1:38:18.960 --> 1:38:26.280 stop crying because that woman I didn't even know reminded 1:38:26.280 --> 1:38:31.640 me why I am breathing. Now. That was early in 1:38:31.680 --> 1:38:34.519 my ministry and right at the point it was beginning 1:38:34.520 --> 1:38:38.120 to explode. Last year, two years ago, I was on 1:38:38.160 --> 1:38:40.559 a book tour and this woman walked up to me 1:38:41.120 --> 1:38:43.280 at the signing and she said, you remember that lady 1:38:43.280 --> 1:38:46.040 that came to see you at evangel Temple. And when 1:38:46.080 --> 1:38:48.840 she said I started crying. I lost it immediately. She said, 1:38:49.120 --> 1:38:59.040 I'm that woman, and I told her. I said, I 1:38:59.200 --> 1:39:02.960 prayed nor name or nothing. I prayed that I would 1:39:02.960 --> 1:39:07.160 see her again to tell her thank you, because when 1:39:07.200 --> 1:39:12.400 I was being crushed, she reminded me of why I breed. 1:39:17.040 --> 1:39:22.040 While God was toughening me up enough to stand the 1:39:22.080 --> 1:39:24.559 weight of something that he called me to do that 1:39:24.680 --> 1:39:30.280 I didn't even have, for he sent an angel right 1:39:30.320 --> 1:39:34.880 out of the hospital to tell me don't get stuck 1:39:35.960 --> 1:39:41.200 in the crushing, that when this is over, you shall 1:39:41.200 --> 1:39:56.439 come forth as kid. And I feel like I'm here 1:39:56.520 --> 1:39:59.560 for a reason. I don't care whether you get a 1:39:59.560 --> 1:40:02.559 book or not. But I'm here for a reason. I 1:40:02.720 --> 1:40:05.639 wrote the bookfore reason. I'm standing here for a reason 1:40:09.120 --> 1:40:11.600 because I think that I'm supposed to give to you 1:40:12.160 --> 1:40:15.760 what was given to me. That if you are in 1:40:16.120 --> 1:40:19.840 or have been in your question place, don't you die here. 1:40:29.600 --> 1:40:32.240 Don't you let somebody standing on the outside and you 1:40:32.280 --> 1:40:34.880 say something about you that makes you die. Don't you 1:40:35.280 --> 1:40:39.479 let somebody who left you or forsook you, or divorce you, 1:40:39.760 --> 1:40:43.080 or denied you or betrayed you make you hate your 1:40:43.120 --> 1:40:46.600 life enough that you stop breathing before you see the 1:40:46.640 --> 1:40:53.680 fulfillment of the promise of God in your life. And So, 1:40:53.840 --> 1:40:56.360 whether you're in this room, or whether you're in one 1:40:56.400 --> 1:40:58.880 of the campuses, or whether you're in an overflow room, 1:40:58.960 --> 1:41:03.320 or whether you're standing outside peeking in the door, whether 1:41:03.360 --> 1:41:09.840 you're streaming online, I wrote a book that ain't sexy 1:41:09.920 --> 1:41:13.280 and ain't for about the promises of God. In Three 1:41:13.320 --> 1:41:16.040 Ways to be Blessing, Five Ways to get a new car, 1:41:16.080 --> 1:41:18.840 and two Ways to get your house painted while you 1:41:18.880 --> 1:41:24.439 sit on your couch. I wrote to the people who 1:41:24.479 --> 1:41:35.680 have been crushed. I want, I want, I want to 1:41:35.720 --> 1:41:39.280 do something. I'm gonna keep going till he grabbed me. 1:41:41.880 --> 1:41:43.920 I want you to reach out and touch somebody next 1:41:43.920 --> 1:41:50.760 to you, and not just assume that they're okay, even 1:41:50.800 --> 1:41:55.720 if you're married to them. I'm serious, because you can 1:41:55.800 --> 1:41:59.519 be being crushed laying next to somebody who has no 1:41:59.600 --> 1:42:05.960 idea that you are being crushed, and some of us 1:42:06.040 --> 1:42:09.320 are so masterful at being crushed at it that it's 1:42:09.360 --> 1:42:14.800 become normal. You might be touching somebody right now who 1:42:14.880 --> 1:42:17.160 has got stuck in a state of crushing and they 1:42:17.200 --> 1:42:22.240 can't get out. You might be touching somebody who runs away, 1:42:22.320 --> 1:42:25.120 anybody who looks like they care about them because they're 1:42:25.160 --> 1:42:28.000 scared of rejection and the only way of coping is 1:42:28.080 --> 1:42:29.880 to not let you in, because if I don't let 1:42:29.920 --> 1:42:31.400 you in, then I don't have to see you go. 1:42:35.439 --> 1:42:39.200 You might be touching somebody who was abused as a child, 1:42:42.320 --> 1:42:47.320 great birelative, and they are all made up and gusted 1:42:47.400 --> 1:42:48.920 up and looking good, and they don't want you to 1:42:49.000 --> 1:42:56.960 know that they have nightmares and terrors and flashbikes. You 1:42:57.040 --> 1:43:00.599 might be touching somebody who's trying to be a father 1:43:00.680 --> 1:43:05.720 and didn't have one, trying to be a man and 1:43:05.800 --> 1:43:12.599 never saw one. You might be touching somebody who's trying 1:43:12.640 --> 1:43:15.280 to find love and live with the man, but they'd 1:43:15.360 --> 1:43:17.760 never lived with a man before, and they don't understand men, 1:43:18.000 --> 1:43:19.600 and they're married to a man, but they talk to 1:43:19.680 --> 1:43:21.679 him like he's a woman because they never had a father, 1:43:22.000 --> 1:43:31.559 and men are a mystery. You might be talking to 1:43:31.600 --> 1:43:34.280 somebody who's trying to raise a child and you gave 1:43:34.360 --> 1:43:38.320 him everything, and they're still angry and disrespectful, and you 1:43:38.439 --> 1:43:41.080 work like a dog, so they'd have the best of everything, 1:43:41.400 --> 1:43:43.519 And now when you need them the most, they don't 1:43:43.600 --> 1:43:45.599 understand you. And you don't feel appreciated, and you don't 1:43:45.600 --> 1:43:48.320 feel loved, and you come to church sometimes it's your 1:43:48.360 --> 1:43:50.400 only escapist to get in the house of God and 1:43:50.479 --> 1:43:53.519 worship yourself till you are drunk because you can't deal 1:43:53.560 --> 1:43:56.240 with what's going on in your life. Squeeze that person's 1:43:56.240 --> 1:44:00.280 hand right there, because that's who I came to talk 1:44:00.400 --> 1:44:08.080 to tonight. And we come in all colors, and we 1:44:08.160 --> 1:44:10.960 come in all racists, and we come in all genders 1:44:10.960 --> 1:44:14.120 and all ages. Because the one thing about pain, it 1:44:14.160 --> 1:44:18.640 ain't never prejudice. It to get everybody. It a get anybody, 1:44:18.840 --> 1:44:22.479 It to get any gender, any race, any orientation. Pain 1:44:22.840 --> 1:44:25.519 will come anywhere. So squeeze a hand to let them 1:44:25.520 --> 1:44:34.519 know that they are not alone. And so here I stand, Lord, 1:44:34.600 --> 1:44:40.840 with these your people. These are your grapes, clusters and 1:44:40.920 --> 1:44:46.760 clusters and clusters of grapes that at some point, at 1:44:46.760 --> 1:44:51.840 some time or another, they have gone through something, maybe 1:44:51.880 --> 1:44:56.800 going through something right now. But oh God, I know 1:44:56.880 --> 1:45:04.720 you're the wine maker. Whoa glory to God. I know 1:45:05.520 --> 1:45:08.559 you are the wine maker. I know you're not finished 1:45:08.560 --> 1:45:11.400 with them. I know you're not through with them. I 1:45:11.479 --> 1:45:14.400 know it ain't over yet. I know it's not over yet. 1:45:14.520 --> 1:45:19.880 And I pray God that you give them, give them 1:45:19.880 --> 1:45:25.800 a faith injection in this little bit of time I 1:45:25.960 --> 1:45:30.160 tried to impart just a fragment of what you gave me. 1:45:31.560 --> 1:45:33.759 I pray Lord, not only would they get the things 1:45:33.760 --> 1:45:35.720 that I wrote in the book, but I pray God 1:45:35.760 --> 1:45:38.280 that you would say stuff to them that I didn't 1:45:38.280 --> 1:45:42.280 know the right, that you would talk to them about 1:45:42.320 --> 1:45:45.679 the specific tool you used in their life to crush 1:45:45.720 --> 1:45:49.800 them and go beyond that and show them the triumphant 1:45:49.880 --> 1:45:53.040 plan that you have to raise them up above where 1:45:53.040 --> 1:45:59.479 they have ever been before. I pray God that revival 1:45:59.520 --> 1:46:05.800 would break not so much in the country, not so 1:46:05.960 --> 1:46:09.280 much even in the church. I'm not praying that revival 1:46:09.320 --> 1:46:12.360 would break out in elevation. I pray revival would break 1:46:12.360 --> 1:46:18.040 out in your chest. I pray that revival would break 1:46:18.040 --> 1:46:21.400 out in your spirit, and in your mind, and in 1:46:21.520 --> 1:46:28.120 your being and in your soul. I pray that worship 1:46:28.160 --> 1:46:30.680 service would break out in your car, that you go 1:46:30.920 --> 1:46:34.360 home worshiping God so strong that you'd have to sit 1:46:34.400 --> 1:46:37.400 in the parking lot for a while to get yourself together, 1:46:37.800 --> 1:46:41.120 because the glory of the Lord has set all over you, 1:46:41.520 --> 1:46:50.120 and the power of God has overshadowed you. Father. I 1:46:50.160 --> 1:46:56.960 pray for this young lion pauling behind me. I pray 1:46:57.040 --> 1:46:59.799 that his teeth be sharp and his back be straight. 1:47:00.960 --> 1:47:03.920 I pray that his head be held up high. And 1:47:04.040 --> 1:47:06.639 I pray Lord that you'd make his feet at Hind's 1:47:06.720 --> 1:47:11.080 feet strong enough to climb for years and years and 1:47:11.360 --> 1:47:15.040 years and years and years to come, and that he 1:47:15.080 --> 1:47:19.160 would do like David and serve his generation well. I 1:47:19.320 --> 1:47:24.879 pray that the power of God would overshadow every pastor 1:47:25.479 --> 1:47:29.760 in this room, in the overflow in other places, watching online, 1:47:29.840 --> 1:47:35.479 every leader, every feeder, every single mama, every daddy trying 1:47:35.520 --> 1:47:38.439 to be a dad, every man trying to pull his weight, 1:47:38.800 --> 1:47:41.200 every young boy trying to figure out who he is 1:47:41.439 --> 1:47:44.320 and get himself together, and wishes he was further than 1:47:44.360 --> 1:47:47.200 he was right now. I pray that the poem God 1:47:47.520 --> 1:48:04.880 would find him. Thank you for the opportunity to be 1:48:05.040 --> 1:48:09.240 used in this small way to speak to these your 1:48:09.320 --> 1:48:28.840 children in Jesus' name. Amen, thank you for joining us. 1:48:29.120 --> 1:48:31.600 Special thanks to those of you who give generously to 1:48:31.640 --> 1:48:35.120 this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible. 1:48:35.600 --> 1:48:37.800 You can click the link in the description to give 1:48:37.880 --> 1:48:42.040 now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more 1:48:42.040 --> 1:48:45.840 information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. 1:48:46.120 --> 1:48:48.200 You can share it with your friends. You can click 1:48:48.240 --> 1:48:50.439 the share button, take a screenshot and share it on 1:48:50.479 --> 1:48:53.360 your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks 1:48:53.400 --> 1:48:59.800 again for listening. God bless you