BISHOP NOEL JONES - DON'T STOP TALKING TO GOD
Transcript
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00:33 - St. James the Epistle.
00:40 In the beginning of chapter one and verse one,
00:44 of course, James is servant of God
00:48 and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
00:50 To the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad,
00:55 greeting,
00:57 "My brethren, count it all joy
01:00 when you fall into dangerous temptations,
01:04 knowing this, that the triumph of your faith
01:09 will work with the patience.
01:10 But let patience have her perfect work,
01:14 that she may be perfect at an end to her wanting not."
01:20 And then in verse five,
01:24 I never used to associate it with the first four verses,
01:29 but in verse five he says,
01:30 "If any of you lack wisdom,
01:33 let him ask of God,
01:37 who hath given to all men liberally
01:39 that of brave death not.
01:41 And that shall be given him,
01:46 but let him ask in faith nothing wavering.
01:49 For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea
01:53 driven with the wind and tossed.
01:56 For let not that man think
01:59 that he shall receive anything of the Lord.
02:06 For the ever-minded man is unstable
02:09 in all his ways."
02:13 Now, I'm thinking the significance
02:19 of this particular passage,
02:21 and then I would like to even think a little bit
02:25 about Romans chapter five.
02:29 And in verse three,
02:35 in verse three,
02:36 it says, "We glory in tribulations also,
02:40 that tribulations work in the patience.
02:44 Patience, experience.
02:46 Experience, hope.
02:48 And hope, make it not a shame."
02:53 Years ago, when I was a lot younger,
02:59 I think I did a message,
03:01 a script of my joy.
03:04 If somebody called me or sent an email
03:07 or asked me about that message,
03:10 I would, if somebody has it somewhere,
03:12 I don't know where I could find it.
03:15 But it's interesting that none of us
03:20 can grow when everything is pleasant.
03:25 And I wish I could say to
03:33 myself and everybody here,
03:35 and I was to repeat something
03:39 because we weren't online.
03:42 All right.
03:47 - We're on now.
03:48 - So, we're on now, so I'm telling everybody there,
03:51 thank you for your generosity and your kindness.
03:54 Thank you for supporting the city of refuge,
03:56 and we will be in this building,
03:59 hopefully, until we move into
04:02 the promised land.
04:04 (audience laughs)
04:07 Amen.
04:09 And that temporary location is
04:11 Tamarind Avenue, Seventh-day Adventist Church,
04:14 417 South Tamarind Avenue in Compton.
04:17 So that's where we are, Tamarind Avenue,
04:23 Seventh-day Adventist Church.
04:24 It's interesting, there are,
04:26 in order for us to grow,
04:30 we oftentimes have to question.
04:32 And when I was coming along,
04:36 it was always told to me
04:41 that I should never question God.
04:44 And I really think that it was the
04:49 egocentricity of the leader at the time
04:56 who probably regarded questioning God
04:59 as questioning him.
05:02 Because every one of us,
05:06 at some time or other,
05:11 cried out to God with questions.
05:16 And I was particularly happy when
05:21 I noted Jesus saying, "My God, my God,
05:26 "why hast thou forsaken me?"
05:28 And I learned in that instance that
05:34 if you have a question,
05:36 whenever you begin to question God,
05:40 it's because God is stretching you and I to the point
05:44 where we are almost at
05:48 weeks in.
05:52 Amen.
05:55 And we are seeking to reconcile our circumstance
05:59 with our walk with God.
06:03 And that forces us to the point where we
06:08 begin to question.
06:10 The interesting thing that I noted was
06:14 when Jesus was questioning God,
06:17 he was talking to God.
06:20 I hope you see,
06:23 I'm not trying to be disciple, but you can.
06:27 He's questioning God, but he's not questioning God
06:33 to challenge who was at the cross.
06:36 He was not saying, "I have been everything
06:39 "that God would have me to be."
06:42 Why is he forsaken?
06:45 He's not talking to his mother.
06:49 He's not saying to his mother who was at the cross.
06:53 "Mom, I'm in a bad situation,
06:55 "but I've done everything I'm supposed to do.
06:59 "I've honored his name, I've kept his name,
07:02 "I have promoted his name.
07:04 "I have operated within the parameters of his calling.
07:07 "I have lived according to everything
07:11 "that was prophesied in the Old Testament."
07:15 So mother, why is he forsaken?
07:18 It's interesting that he's not talking to anybody else,
07:22 but he's talking to God.
07:24 I suggest that no matter how difficult your time is,
07:30 no matter how rough what you're going through is,
07:35 never stop talking to God.
07:37 (audience applauding)
07:40 Nobody else can answer the intricacies
07:43 of your revelatory experience with God,
07:48 except God himself.
07:52 And for that child of God who is struggling
07:56 through some difficult moments,
07:59 understand that none of us grow when things are pleasant.
08:04 It is interesting that he points out very emphatically
08:12 a relationship between the stability
08:18 of the walk with Christ and tribulation.
08:22 And I never ever thought so vehemently,
08:27 maybe that's too strong a word,
08:32 I never saw the connection between the issue of wisdom
08:37 and going through.
08:38 Why is there a significance of wisdom
08:47 in how I go through?
08:49 Because if I'm not wise enough,
08:53 if I don't have spiritual understanding,
08:57 I will fail to realize that what I'm going through
09:02 is not to destroy me,
09:05 but what I'm going through is to make me strong.
09:10 (audience applauding)
09:13 I have discovered some things
09:16 that have been going on for 30 years I believe.
09:21 And if I don't look at it properly,
09:24 I would be so devastated that I wouldn't continue
09:29 doing what I do.
09:30 Is that significant?
09:34 But when you understand that even in the midst of all
09:40 the trials that you have to deal with,
09:46 there is something that God does in the middle
09:49 of the trials that calls for wisdom to grasp.
09:53 And that is, if it wasn't that way,
09:58 I couldn't have made you what I wanted you to be.
10:05 So you have to approach it understanding
10:10 that whatever I allow in your life,
10:14 I allow it for your benefit.
10:16 And so the more that you regret because of the mistake
10:24 you made or how other people treated you,
10:29 if God allowed it to happen in your life,
10:33 he has a plan to fix you and make you
10:36 what he wants you to be to the point
10:41 where you are whole, nothing, nothing.
10:44 Oh, I feel like shouting a little bit.
10:51 It's critical to me because now,
10:54 for those of us who deal in love,
10:57 and somehow we have a privilege to think
11:03 that if he loves me, then he will keep everything
11:09 but when he's hurting me, that hurts.
11:12 - Oh my God.
11:13 - Because most of us, when we talk about love,
11:17 we see love in everything we want.
11:20 And when you deal with this, this is man
11:26 trying to justify how God behaves.
11:29 And you can look it up, it's called theogosy.
11:33 And that is man in an attempt to justify
11:36 and see why God is doing what he's doing.
11:39 If he's omnipotent and if he's all that,
11:43 then he's got the power to stop anything negative
11:47 from coming in my life.
11:49 - Which means that everything that God has at his disposal
11:54 is going to be used for Timothy
11:56 to partake of the affliction.
11:59 Well, since you've got that much power, Lord,
12:02 why do I have to deal with affliction?
12:05 Well, the answer is real simple.
12:08 And that's once God has anointed you,
12:11 once God has placed his hand on you,
12:14 you become a target to everything that's negative
12:19 and hateful of the Lord Jesus Christ.
12:22 Every now and then you want to give God praise
12:25 for what you go through, because what you're going through
12:29 is indicative of the fact that God has his hand on you.
12:35 The devil is not happy with you when you're anointed.
12:39 The devil is not happy with you
12:41 when you can declare the word of God.
12:44 The devil's not happy with you
12:46 when you can walk into his space and pull somebody out
12:50 that he's trying to keep under his slavery hand.
12:55 The devil's not happy with you when you lift your hands
12:58 and give God joy and praise the Lord
13:01 in the middle of whatever you go through.
13:03 The devil hates to hear you say,
13:06 I will bless the Lord at all times.
13:09 His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
13:13 You insult the devil when you look him in the face
13:17 and say, no matter what you bring my way,
13:20 I am going to give my God the praise.
13:24 And I have news for you, Satan.
13:27 You can't do any more to me than God will allow you
13:32 because you ain't really in charge.
13:35 Oh, I feel like shouting here.
13:37 I gotta slow down.
13:44 He gives me then two responses.
13:51 If you look at verse two through four,
13:54 if I can just take my time,
13:56 he says, count it all joy
14:00 when you fall into diverse temptations.
14:04 Now, the falling into
14:08 is significant here because there are situations
14:14 that rise in your life that you have nothing to do with.
14:18 There are some times we suffer because of our choices.
14:24 Oh, yes.
14:30 Oh, yes.
14:31 I should come down on that one.
14:32 I don't know whether I get back up.
14:37 I don't have your chastening
14:45 and you don't have my chastening,
14:49 but we literally choose our chastening.
14:53 Yes.
14:57 And one of the things about us is that we
15:00 like to make choices,
15:04 but we hate to deal with the consequences.
15:07 (congregation applauding)
15:11 Oh, yes.
15:14 Somebody told you
15:18 to leave that man alone.
15:26 Your mama told you,
15:27 but you had to have him.
15:34 Your sister told you.
15:38 The woman he was with before you told you,
15:45 but you had to
15:55 have that man.
15:56 And then,
16:00 after you made your choice, now you wanna blame God.
16:05 It goes a little like this.
16:09 I've had that prayer too.
16:10 Lord, if you knew
16:16 how they were gonna treat me,
16:18 why would you let me
16:24 be with them?
16:25 Well, I can hear God responding to you.
16:29 Well, I talked to you through your mother.
16:31 I talked to you through your sister.
16:36 I even allowed you to see a flash of madness in their eyes,
16:42 but you were so caught up subjectively
16:51 that you failed to be objective
16:53 about what it is you were dealing with.
16:55 You had to have what you had to have.
16:59 So now you're getting spanked
17:04 because of your choices.
17:08 And nevertheless, in the middle of that, God says,
17:13 I will allow you to almost lose your mind.
17:20 So I can get you to change your mind.
17:24 Sometimes we are so caught up into something
17:29 that we just have to have so badly
17:31 that we close our eyes to even the move of God.
17:35 And even when he talks to us, we don't hear him clearly
17:38 because we made up our mind.
17:40 We're dead set on making this move.
17:43 And here is where God allows that to spank us.
17:47 And then he says to us,
17:48 when you're in the middle of that spanking,
17:51 you're not going to give him praise
17:52 because of the spanking,
17:54 but you're gonna give him praise
17:55 because of what the spanking is going to do.
17:58 So even in the middle of your spanking,
18:01 what your faith is saying is when I come out of this,
18:05 I'm going to be stronger than I've ever been.
18:09 And one of the great things about being spanked
18:12 is that when you come out of it,
18:16 you now have discernment.
18:18 And now you have an understanding
18:21 that you never had before you got in it.
18:24 So now your discernment is wide open
18:28 and you can see people in trouble
18:30 without even asking them what's wrong with them.
18:33 You can see the trouble they have and begin to pray
18:37 and begin to solicit God to deliver them.
18:40 There is some pain you have had.
18:43 You don't want anybody else to have that pain.
18:47 And that becomes the motivation
18:50 to reach into Satan's world and pull people out.
18:54 And now you are a real target
18:57 because you're messing up the devil's world.
19:00 Can I talk to somebody here?
19:02 Let me tell, give somebody a high five
19:04 and say you're really not a child of God
19:08 until you're messing up the devil's plans.
19:11 Oh God, I feel it here.
19:13 You're really not walking with God
19:16 unless you become a target.
19:18 When you're a target, you can throw up holy hands
19:21 and declare I'm walking like I should
19:24 because the enemy is mad.
19:26 I'm talking like I should because the enemy is mad.
19:29 I'm acting like I should because I got the enemy mad.
19:34 It's not only in the blessing that I give God praise,
19:38 but it's when I'm being cursed
19:40 that I can lift him up and glorify him
19:42 because I made the devil mad.
19:45 (audience cheering)
19:48 Oh, I feel like dancing.
19:49 (audience cheering)
19:52 Is anybody here going through anything in here?
20:01 Oh, it's just me.
20:02 He says there's a proper response
20:07 and that is approach the trials with joy,
20:11 realizing that it's going to give me something
20:15 that I never had and that's patience.
20:18 See, it is the trial of your faith
20:24 that worketh patience.
20:35 It's an interesting dynamic because
20:38 one of the reasons why we have problems with patience
20:43 is because we've been told from early life
20:47 hurry up and get it.
20:50 Get it while you can.
21:03 I dabbled in, I like sound equipment.
21:06 I like good stereo equipment.
21:11 When I was in Syracuse, New York,
21:16 or when I was in Longview, Texas,
21:17 I could get a reduced price from a distributor
21:21 in New Jersey.
21:27 Remember distinctly now, I'd have to send to New Jersey
21:32 and get the better price, but I couldn't wait.
21:36 I couldn't wait for me to send my money
21:42 and them to ship the thing and truck it down.
21:46 I couldn't wait.
21:47 So I end up spending more money for the same thing
21:53 because I couldn't wait.
22:00 And then when I'd buy the thing, the thing would break.
22:04 Then they had to send it to the same place
22:10 that could have got it in the first place.
22:15 So I'm hurrying up going nowhere
22:18 'cause I had no patience.
22:22 Because I had no patience in my life,
22:27 I have gotten into something
22:29 that I should have thought about.
22:32 And you can get into something in 15 minutes,
22:36 it'd take you 15 years to get out of it.
22:39 (audience applauding)
22:43 Because you couldn't wait.
22:48 So there is a promise that God gives.
22:57 And initially when you get the promise, you're excited.
23:02 God has revealed to me that he's gonna take me
23:09 to another dimension.
23:11 But as the time passes, ooh,
23:17 and the trials come, because sometimes when the vision
23:27 is given and God has shown you where he's going to take you,
23:32 but he doesn't give you the directions.
23:37 And he doesn't give you step by step.
23:41 He just gives you a vision, you've got the vision.
23:46 And all of a sudden, you gotta wait.
23:50 You gotta wait on him because he is the one who promised.
23:56 Can I talk to you here though?
23:59 And when he makes a promise,
24:02 you have to first believe that it's God
24:06 who's making the promise.
24:09 See, when we look at the Old Testament many times,
24:13 and we see things that seem to be described and outlined,
24:22 you have to understand that in many instances,
24:26 they weren't seeing God, they were just hearing from God.
24:31 Faith does not come by seeing.
24:35 The just doesn't live by sight.
24:42 The just lives by faith.
24:48 I have to believe it's God when he promises.
24:51 I used to ask the question,
24:54 why was there such a demonstration of God
24:58 when the prophets were called to ministry?
25:03 Isaiah saw him high and lifted up his train,
25:08 filled the temple, he was not in the temple.
25:11 His train filled the temple,
25:13 which means he's bigger than our worship.
25:19 Abraham saw him as a wheel in the middle of a wheel.
25:24 Moses was down and saw the bush burning
25:27 and it wouldn't go out.
25:30 Gideon was met by the angel of the Lord.
25:36 And I was wondering why, why, why, why
25:42 was their calling so demonstrative?
25:46 And I come to the conclusion, it has to be demonstrative
25:51 because you've got to know that God called.
25:55 You've got to know that God gave you the vision
25:59 because between the time of the vision
26:01 and the time it comes to pass,
26:04 you're going to go through so much hell,
26:06 you've got to know that it's God.
26:09 You can't have somebody tell you it's God.
26:14 You've got to know for yourself that it's God.
26:18 If your mama contradicts it, if your husband contradicts it,
26:23 if your best friend contradicts it,
26:25 you can look them in the face and say,
26:27 I don't care what you say,
26:30 I'm in the middle of what I'm going through,
26:32 but I know it was God who called me in the first.
26:42 I feel like shouting in here, give somebody a high five,
26:45 say don't let anybody talk you out of what God told you
26:49 he was going to do in your life.
26:52 The struggle and the problem is
27:12 and the problem, the 30 year problem,
27:15 happened ever since I've been here.
27:22 30 year problem has not taken anything away
27:27 from me, from us, materially.
27:40 So what did it do?
27:41 Just made me better.
27:48 You see, the proper way to handle it
27:53 is to count it all joy.
28:08 Because no matter how the devil comes at you,
28:12 I hear people say things like,
28:14 everything the devil took from you,
28:18 you're going to get it back.
28:21 And everybody gets happy and fall out.
28:25 I got news for you.
28:27 If he can take it from me, he can keep it.
28:32 Oh yeah, if he can take it from me, he can keep it.
28:37 Because when God blesses you with something,
28:40 the devil can't take it from you.
28:43 What?
28:46 He can't take it from you.
28:51 When God blesses you, it adds no sorrow.
28:54 So what is going on?
28:57 You count it all joy.
29:05 Because it's making something out of you.
29:08 See, I got to tell you this.
29:14 When God is not working on your stuff,
29:17 he's working on you.
29:22 And here's what God says.
29:25 God says, I am God.
29:27 And beside me, there is no other.
29:33 If something's going haywire in your life,
29:36 you talk to me.
29:38 Because I'm the one dealing with you.
29:40 And I will do anything in my power
29:43 and allow anything to come up in your life
29:46 to make you more like me.
29:49 Because I have decided that I'm going to form you
29:53 in the image of my son.
29:55 And you need to look and see how my son goes through.
29:59 When trials were all over him,
30:01 he bore the cross and he didn't say a mumbling word.
30:06 He stood every test.
30:08 He stood every devilish move against him.
30:11 And all he showed in the middle of it was power.
30:17 At the end of the day, God said,
30:19 I'm going to take you through
30:21 until you get rid of your bitterness,
30:23 your malice, your revenge, until you get to the joy.
30:28 And when you get to the joy,
30:30 you look at all your enemies
30:32 and give God praise for every single one of them
30:36 because they made you better.
30:39 Not bitter, better.
30:41 I feel like giving God the glory.
30:50 Touch your neighbor's neighbor.
30:56 I'm not bitter.
30:57 I'm better.
31:00 (audience cheering)
31:03 I feel like dancing.
31:09 (audience cheering)
31:12 Do I have a few more minutes?
31:18 Do I have a few more minutes?
31:20 Y'all sit down, sit down a little bit.
31:26 On account of, and this is the wisdom
31:29 that he's now giving the child of God.
31:35 And maybe I should do a discourse sometime
31:37 on what I call spiritual understanding.
31:40 Because the wisdom that operates
31:49 within the parameters of this world
31:52 is the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
31:57 And there is a natural way to look at things.
32:01 And then there's a spiritual way to look at things.
32:05 And it's that spiritual understanding
32:09 that allows you to navigate
32:14 through and around all the snakes.
32:17 The man said it to me like this.
32:24 He said, "Is it hissing?
32:26 "Is it rattling?
32:31 "Is it slithering?"
32:35 Well, if it's rattling and hissing and slithering,
32:42 then the reverend, it's a snake.
32:47 (audience laughing)
32:52 It's a snake.
32:53 Or do you have to be bit?
32:56 I'll talk to you now.
33:01 It's rattling, it's slithering, and it's hissing.
33:08 Now, don't you realize it's a snake?
33:15 Or do you have to get bit?
33:22 (audience applauding)
33:25 The spiritual understanding helps you to see
33:31 that Joseph could never have gotten to the palace
33:39 without hatred.
33:45 (audience chattering)
33:48 Yes.
33:55 God used the hatred in his household
34:00 to put him where he wanted him to be.
34:08 I'm on my way to the palace.
34:12 I'm on my way to the palace.
34:15 Why am I in a pit?
34:18 I'm on my way to the palace.
34:23 Why have I been sold as a slave twice?
34:26 I'm on my way to the palace,
34:30 and because I stood my grounds in holiness,
34:34 I end up now in prison.
34:37 Why am I going through here?
34:42 You have to understand that there was something
34:45 about Joseph that God was building
34:48 because God gave him an assignment to protect Israel.
34:55 Well, who is Israel?
34:59 His brothers.
35:01 I think I missed you on that one.
35:05 I'm gonna say like, Dr. Olman,
35:10 you wanna talk to this group over here?
35:13 His assignment was not to go and have
35:18 just great pleasures in Egypt, which he did,
35:22 but his assignment was to protect Israel.
35:26 Well, who is Israel?
35:30 His brothers.
35:31 So notice now, he now is in a position
35:37 of power, and his brothers are now in his hands.
35:41 The same ones that wanted to kill him.
35:54 Reuben stepped in, seven.
35:56 The same ones that wanted to destroy him.
36:05 He's now got them in his hand.
36:07 I wanna show you now, he struggled with it.
36:14 Oh, you gotta understand.
36:17 You gotta understand, God has to allow you
36:21 to have spiritual understanding to the point
36:23 where he can get you through your natural human struggle
36:27 to put you in that spiritual place
36:33 where you overcome your natural instinct for revenge.
36:37 God had to deal with him to the point
36:46 that when he had the upper hand,
36:53 he did not destroy his assignment.
37:02 I wanna talk to you a minute.
37:05 Sometimes the people who are most against you
37:08 are the people who need your light the most.
37:13 (audience applauding)
37:16 This is why you can't tell everybody
37:24 who is against you.
37:30 (audience shouting)
37:33 Give an example, for instance.
37:38 I'm called to ministry.
37:41 I'm called to preach.
37:45 So I'm called to deal with whatever that entails.
37:50 And that entails that negative that comes
37:55 as the pain of preaching, that pain that comes
37:59 from being a target.
38:22 A brother said to me, he said, "Brother Jones?"
38:26 He says, "Do you really wanna get on TV?
38:32 "Do you really wanna preach around the world?"
38:35 He said, "Because the first day you do that,
38:38 "when you get out there like that,
38:41 "your life is not gonna be the same."
38:44 Paul, talking to Timothy, talks about the hardship.
38:49 You should handle hardship like a good soldier.
38:53 So God has given to his pastors a spirit of forgiveness.
39:02 'Cause he has to give that spirit of forgiveness.
39:14 He anoints you with that.
39:16 That ain't something you picked up.
39:18 That ain't something God gave you.
39:21 That ability to forgive people who have done you wrong.
39:26 But everybody does not have that anointing.
39:33 So you have to be careful who you tell,
39:41 what somebody did to you.
39:49 (audience applauding)
39:51 Because you have an anointing to be able to forgive,
39:55 but they ain't got it.
40:00 Let me bring it home.
40:03 Let me bring it home.
40:06 I'm anointed to do what I'm supposed to do.
40:09 But Sister Jones ain't got that anointing.
40:15 (audience laughing)
40:18 She may have an anointing to deal with me,
40:24 but she does not have an anointing
40:31 to deal with who I got to deal.
40:33 So now I'm gonna put her at risk
40:38 because she cares about me.
40:42 And when you care about a person,
40:45 you want vengeance and judgment on whoever does them wrong.
40:50 Talk to me now.
40:53 Amen, amen.
40:56 You mess with one of my children, you messing with me.
41:00 Because I care about my son, my sons and daughter.
41:09 And if you mess with them, you messing with me.
41:13 But maybe they might have an anointing to forgive.
41:24 You know a little child playing,
41:27 a kid should play and one hit the other one,
41:30 and you come in like a flood.
41:32 And they say, "No daddy, no daddy, he didn't mean that.
41:36 "He wasn't trying to hurt me."
41:39 So they have reconciled, but you still watching.
41:43 (audience laughing)
41:47 You can't tell everybody what somebody
41:54 is putting you through.
41:59 Because you have the anointing to forgive.
42:03 You have the anointing to forgive.
42:06 And they're still locked into a state of vengeance
42:14 when you have let it go.
42:19 See, Joseph, hatred got him to the palace,
42:31 but everything he went through gave him the power
42:35 to forgive.
42:40 He struggled with it because all of us human beings
42:45 struggle to do the will of God.
42:48 There is nobody in here who just simply slips
42:52 into the will of God without a struggle.
42:56 Remember he kept Benjamin.
43:00 (audience murmuring)
43:03 He wouldn't send Benjamin back.
43:05 And he knew the grief it would cause his father.
43:09 But he knew the grief that would be evident
43:15 in his father would be expressed on how the father
43:19 acted towards the boys.
43:21 How could you have let this happen?
43:26 How could you have kept my son?
43:27 He struggled with it.
43:30 And the thing that God does for those of us
43:32 he has anointed is no matter how rough the struggle is,
43:36 he gives us the victory at the end.
43:41 (audience applauding)
43:44 Oh, I wanna talk to somebody in here.
43:47 God has given you an assignment.
43:52 God has given you the power to be a man
43:57 and the power to bring peace and deliverance.
44:01 And in order to bring peace and deliverance,
44:07 he has to get you to the place where you have peace
44:10 within yourself.
44:11 (audience murmuring)
44:14 Where you have been delivered yourself.
44:19 And with spiritual understanding realize
44:26 that it didn't really hurt me.
44:29 It hurt themselves.
44:32 (audience applauding)
44:36 And I'm beginning to understand something
44:40 as I come to a close.
44:42 That much of the battle that we have
44:47 is not so much with people who are wicked.
44:54 (audience murmuring)
44:57 They're just immature spiritually.
45:01 Hear me when I tell you.
45:08 I'm going home to Longview.
45:11 I was going to Longview when I was a young pastor.
45:15 I'm an old pastor now.
45:18 And I would travel, I've got nine million miles
45:24 on American Airlines alone, nine million.
45:27 Not Delta, not Emirates, not United,
45:30 not any of the other on American alone.
45:35 Nine million.
45:37 And I would sleep on the plane
45:42 every time I would leave on a Saturday night
45:48 from somewhere in New York on the way back to Longview.
45:51 I'm sleeping on the plane.
45:52 The plane was where I slept.
45:55 'Cause traveling back and forth so much.
45:58 So I nodded off to sleep on this flight
46:01 and all of a sudden, boom,
46:06 somebody kicked back my chair.
46:11 I have a tolerance for pain.
46:17 So I tried to go to sleep again.
46:22 Boom.
46:23 Hit my seat again.
46:26 So I called the flight attendant and I said,
46:29 "Somebody behind me."
46:30 I didn't want to look back there.
46:33 I said, "Somebody behind me is kicking my seat."
46:39 And I paid for my seat.
46:42 I want to go to sleep.
46:45 She whispered something back behind me,
46:47 said a couple of words and I thought it's all right.
46:50 And as soon as I dozed off again, boom.
46:54 This time, I rose up, turned around on my knees.
47:04 (audience laughing)
47:06 Turned around on my knees.
47:08, I saw this little Japanese girl.
47:11, who had just turned 20.
47:14 turned 20.
47:15 turned 20.
47:16 turned 20.
47:17 turned 20.
47:18 turned 20.
47:19 turned 20.
47:20 turned 20.
47:21 turned 20.
47:22 turned 20.
47:23 turned 20.
47:24 turned 20.
47:25 turned 20.
47:26 turned 20.
47:27 turned 20.
47:28 turned 20.
47:29 turned 20.
47:30 turned 20.
47:31 turned 20.
47:32 turned 20.
47:33 turned 20.
47:34 turned 20.
47:35 I saw this little Japanese girl
47:37 who had just discovered that her feet could reach the seat.
47:45 (audience laughing)
47:48 And immediately I was diffused
47:51 because I realized that she was not wicked.
47:56 She was immature.
47:58 Why should you take up arms
48:03 against somebody who's immature
48:07 when they need the wisdom God has given you
48:13 so they can grow?
48:15 (audience applauding)
48:18 Give God praise for everything you've been through.
48:22 Give God praise for what it's making you,
48:26 for how he's bringing you out.
48:29 I give him glory for discovery.
48:32 Can I tell you something?
48:36 Sometimes God don't let you discover something
48:38 until you're able to handle it.
48:41 Can I say that again?
48:43 Sometimes God will keep your eyes shut
48:46 and keep you in the dark
48:51 until he builds you up
48:53 so that when he reveals what's happening around you,
48:57 you're able to handle it.
48:59 And God has a way of giving you triple for your trouble.
49:03 Triple, quadruple.
49:04 I wish I could.
49:07 Somebody give God the glory in here.
49:11 Give him the praise.
49:13 Look at somebody, say, I know you're going through,
49:17 but you're coming out all right.
49:20 I know you're going through,
49:22 but there's power on the other side.
49:25 There's joy on the other side.
49:28 There's peace on the other side.
49:31 There's more God on the other side.
49:34 I didn't know I'd know him like I know him,
49:37 but he put me through so much,
49:40 and I had to get close to him.
49:42 The only reason I could survive
49:45 is because I got close to him,
49:47 and I snuggled up with him,
49:50 and I said, Lord, when you let me out of this,
49:53 let me out with power.
49:55 Give me my joy back.
49:58 Give me my love back.
50:01 Give me my peace back.
50:03 Don't leave me without power.
50:05 Don't leave me without joy.
50:09 Don't leave me without a fresh anointing.
50:13 Give somebody a high five for the last time,
50:17 and say, neighbor, you're about to receive
50:21 a fresh anointing all over your life.
50:25 I'm prophesying.
50:28 Somebody, God's calling you.
50:34 He's calling you to salvation.
50:37 He's calling you to a new place in him, a higher place.
50:41 And if you're in this building,
50:45 and you're going through something
50:48 that has you questioning God,
50:50 God's pulling you on all sides.
50:53 Ease on out of your seat.
50:54 Come down to this altar, and let us pray.
50:57 If you're not born again of the water and the spirit,
51:00 come on down here.
51:02 It's time to be saved.
51:05 If you're online watching, pick up your phone
51:09 and call 844-267-7729.
51:11 That number should be on the screen right now.
51:17 Somebody's waiting patiently to pray with you,
51:21 to pray for you.
51:25 Come on.
51:26 Where's that soul that needs to be born
51:29 of the water and the spirit?
51:33 You must be born again.
51:35 You must be born again.
51:37 ♪ Let the power of the Holy Ghost fall on me ♪
51:43 ♪ Anointing fall on me ♪
51:50 ♪ Let the anointing fall on me ♪
51:58 He's calling you.
52:00 He's calling you.
52:02 He's calling you.
52:04 He's calling you.
52:06 Come on, we can spend a minute or two or three or four.
52:11 We'll wait for you to come.
52:13 ♪ Let the power of the Holy Ghost fall on me ♪
52:19 Pick up that phone.
52:28 Pick up that phone.
52:29 Pick up that phone.
52:32 844-267-7729.
52:33 Somebody's waiting with bated breath
52:39 to pray for you, to pray with you, to see you through.
52:45 ♪ Fall on me ♪
52:48 Everybody's standing.
52:50 ♪ Let the power of the Holy Ghost fall on me ♪
53:00 ♪ Let the anointing fall on me ♪
53:04 Father, we come and we thank you for this time.
53:12 We thank you for this place that we're in
53:15 and we thank you for the children of God
53:20 who have received this word
53:22 and we pray now, Lord, that nothing
53:28 that we have to face and go through
53:30 will ever make us bitter, make us better,
53:33 make us better.
53:38 Give us a capacity, a capacity
53:40 to handle people of all types,
53:45 widen us so that we can forgive,
53:51 that we can lift, we can bless,
53:57 we can heal, we can deliver
53:59 and give us a light that shines so bright
54:04 that men will see our good works and glorify you.
54:10 That's what it's about, Lord.
54:13 Help us to glorify you in everything we say or do
54:18 and where we're struggling,
54:22 where it gets difficult and hard,
54:25 you're there to push us through
54:27 and we claim the victory right now,
54:30 right now, right now.
54:32 I'm going home with a better attitude.
54:35 In Jesus' name.
54:37 (upbeat music)
54:39 (upbeat music)
54:42 (upbeat music)
54:44 (upbeat music)
54:47 [BLANK_AUDIO]