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ÉducationTranscription
00:00:00 [MUSIC]
00:00:10 We see God inviting his estranged children to be emancipated,
00:00:20 not only to relieve the oppression, but
00:00:24 to meet them in the wilderness to worship him.
00:00:26 [MUSIC]
00:00:31 I want you to understand that they had not had a conversation with God for
00:00:35 400 years.
00:00:36 [MUSIC]
00:00:42 The whole purpose of the Saga of Exodus is built around
00:00:46 the birth of the Old Testament church.
00:00:50 Anytime something is born, something has to die.
00:00:53 [MUSIC]
00:00:58 Moses has come to emancipate them from 400 years
00:01:03 of being contorted into whatever Egypt wanted.
00:01:09 And anytime you contort who you are into what other people want,
00:01:14 there comes a point where you become unfamiliar with who you really are.
00:01:18 We are in transition.
00:01:23 The world is changing.
00:01:25 We are in transition spiritually.
00:01:27 But God will remove anything and
00:01:32 anyone who is standing in between us being reconciled to him.
00:01:38 [MUSIC]
00:01:44 They've lost everything.
00:01:46 They have left Egypt to rediscover themselves
00:01:51 by reconnecting with God.
00:01:53 I ask God to deliver me from this bondage.
00:01:59 And now when God sends a deliverer, I'm fighting him tooth and nail and
00:02:04 asking him, are there no graves in Egypt?
00:02:07 But you got one foot in Egypt and you got one foot on the promises of God.
00:02:12 [MUSIC]
00:02:17 Break this mindset where you wanna die in Egypt.
00:02:24 [MUSIC]
00:02:26 In disease, in disgrace, in mediocrity,
00:02:32 in depression, just cuz you ran into trouble in front of you.
00:02:38 You gonna wanna go back to what God just brought you out of?
00:02:44 >> [APPLAUSE] >> I'm starting to see that the prophets
00:02:49 from 2,000 years ago are prophesying a day that we are seeing today.
00:02:54 You might wanna stay in Egypt, but I don't.
00:02:57 You might wanna be buried in Egypt, but I don't.
00:02:59 You might think your story ends as a slave, but I don't.
00:03:03 You might think that you were just created to serve somebody else, but I don't.
00:03:07 All God wants is to be reconciled with you.
00:03:12 [MUSIC]
00:03:16 Can I go deeper?
00:03:17 >> [APPLAUSE]
00:03:23 >> Can you say amen?
00:03:24 >> Amen.
00:03:25 >> Stand to your feet as we go to the word of God, the book of Exodus chapter 14.
00:03:31 I think I wrote down nine, but it starts at verse 10.
00:03:35 Exodus 14, 10 through 14.
00:03:39 I'm on a series, I'm teaching worship in the wilderness.
00:03:44 And I'm after something.
00:03:47 Everything that I'm after is in conjunction with the purpose
00:03:52 statement that I gave you during our 27th anniversary.
00:03:57 One of the things that the elements that the Lord assigned to me was to make
00:04:02 sure that you have an encounter with God and not just an encounter with church.
00:04:08 It is easy to mistake an encounter with church with an encounter with God.
00:04:15 While I love the church, I'm not sure that the church, being in the church's
00:04:20 presence is going to do for you what being in God's presence will do for you.
00:04:26 And when we think about it, the scripture talks about that the kingdom is like
00:04:31 children sitting in the marketplace, piping to one another, singing to one
00:04:37 another, looking for reactions from each other.
00:04:40 But everything else is going up on this level, and we're sitting on this level.
00:04:46 The world is in disarray.
00:04:49 I mean serious disarray.
00:04:52 And I mean more serious than anything I have seen in the 66 years of my life.
00:04:58 There are things that are in disarray that can be corrected by men who choose
00:05:04 to ignore it for greed, for self-aggrandizement.
00:05:11 And those things are reprehensible and disgusting.
00:05:13 But there are some things that are in disarray that are in nature.
00:05:20 The earth is scorching.
00:05:23 It's biblical, by the way.
00:05:26 It's prophetic, by the way, but that doesn't help it from being uncomfortable.
00:05:32 I know it's prophetic.
00:05:33 I know it's the last days, but that doesn't help homeless people from
00:05:37 burning up on sidewalks.
00:05:41 And while we banter back and forth about it, we're living in some chaotic times.
00:05:47 And I am challenged to the Holy Spirit to make sure that you have an encounter with
00:05:51 God because everything that can be shaken will be shaken so that those things that
00:05:58 cannot be shaken may remain.
00:06:00 So, when I say worship in the wilderness, it is dichotomous, the whole notion of the
00:06:05 series, worship in the wilderness.
00:06:07 Wilderness, a place where you're lost, a place where you're neither quite here nor
00:06:13 there.
00:06:14 God says, "Worship me right there in a confusing place, in a tumultuous place,
00:06:21 in a chaotic place."
00:06:23 He says, "That's where I want you to pitch your tent and worship me right there.
00:06:29 I'm not going to put my tent in your promised land.
00:06:33 I'm going to put my tent in the middle of your problems because I want you to worship
00:06:40 me in the wilderness."
00:06:43 So, we started teaching last Sunday, "Are there no graves in Egypt?"
00:06:48 In other words, if people were trying to escape slavery, they were leaving Egypt,
00:06:52 saying, "Are there no graves in Egypt?"
00:06:55 The moment they tried to break away, now Pharaoh is chasing them.
00:06:59 Fear made them want to go back into Egypt, and to die in Egypt was no more glamorous
00:07:07 than to die in the wilderness.
00:07:10 Don't we ask our stupid questions?
00:07:12 "Aren't there no graves in Egypt?
00:07:15 Why can't we die in Egypt?
00:07:17 Dead is dead.
00:07:18 If I'm going to talk to God about something, I want to talk to God about something.
00:07:25 Can we move past choosing where we die?"
00:07:30 Watch this.
00:07:31 "And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the
00:07:35 Egyptians marched after them."
00:07:37 This is a bunch of people.
00:07:39 Don't see this like you saw the movie.
00:07:41 This is 600 chosen chariots.
00:07:45 This is Egypt.
00:07:46 It's the superpower of the era.
00:07:48 The Pharaoh is known for his power and his authority and his ability.
00:07:54 If he said, "Die," you die.
00:07:55 If he said, "Live," you live.
00:07:57 If he said, "Behead her," she was beheaded.
00:07:59 If he has absolute rule, there is no Congress, there is no legislature, there is no Supreme
00:08:04 Court, there is no defense attorneys, there are no prosecuting attorneys, there is no
00:08:09 recourse, there is no boycott, there is no bigotry.
00:08:12 He is absolute monarchy in complete control.
00:08:16 So they were afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, who they had not talked
00:08:22 to for 400 years.
00:08:27 And it's not just because they're derelict.
00:08:30 Faith erodes when you don't teach your children.
00:08:36 These are the children of Abraham.
00:08:38 They started out on a solid foundation, but over 400 years of mixing more with the Egyptians
00:08:44 than they did with each other, their faith had deteriorated to the point their language
00:08:49 had deteriorated, their culture had deteriorated, their self-esteem had deteriorated to the
00:08:54 point that they had not had a relationship with God for 400 years.
00:08:59 And God was intent on bringing them into relationship with Him like He is with you.
00:09:07 God is intent on bringing you into relationship with Him.
00:09:11 Then they said to Moses, "Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away
00:09:16 to die in the wilderness?"
00:09:18 Those are my two choices.
00:09:21 Why have you so dealt with us to bring us up out of Egypt?
00:09:26 Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt saying, "Let us alone that we may serve the
00:09:31 Egyptians."
00:09:32 Leave us alone in our chaos.
00:09:34 Leave us alone in our poverty.
00:09:36 Leave us alone in our shame.
00:09:38 Leave us alone in our disgrace.
00:09:40 Don't bother me.
00:09:41 I like being corrupt.
00:09:42 I like being perverted.
00:09:43 I like being broken.
00:09:45 Leave us alone.
00:09:46 That's what the world is saying to the church today.
00:09:48 Leave us alone.
00:09:49 Leave us alone.
00:09:50 We like it like this.
00:09:52 Don't raise any opposing opinion.
00:09:54 Go along with us.
00:09:55 Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians.
00:09:58 Leave me in my bondage.
00:10:00 Leave me committing suicide.
00:10:02 Leave me hating myself.
00:10:03 Leave me slitting my wrist.
00:10:05 Leave me needing more therapy, more and more therapy, taking more and more pills, pills
00:10:10 to go to bed, pills to get up in the morning, pills to get a smile on my face.
00:10:14 Leave us alone.
00:10:19 That's what they're saying to the church right now.
00:10:21 Just shut up and go along with the program.
00:10:23 Leave us alone.
00:10:24 Don't say nothing about anything to anybody.
00:10:27 Go with the flow.
00:10:29 You got to follow the culture.
00:10:30 No, the culture's got to follow the Christ.
00:10:37 For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the
00:10:43 wilderness.
00:10:44 How?
00:10:45 And Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid."
00:10:50 In other words, your emotions are talking.
00:10:56 If you let your emotions talk, it will destroy you.
00:10:59 It will kill your marriage.
00:11:01 It will kill your children.
00:11:03 It will kill your promotion.
00:11:05 It will kill your advancement.
00:11:07 All you got to do is let your emotions get the mic and it will tear down everything God
00:11:12 is trying to do in your life.
00:11:13 I'm already preaching.
00:11:14 I'm just reading the scripture.
00:11:17 He says, "Do not be afraid.
00:11:23 Stand still.
00:11:26 Stand still.
00:11:31 You're too busy.
00:11:32 Stand still.
00:11:33 You talk too much.
00:11:35 Stand still.
00:11:37 You got too much opinion.
00:11:39 Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord which he will accomplish for you today.
00:11:49 For the Egyptians whom you see today, they're not in your future.
00:11:58 They're in your present, but they're not in your future.
00:12:00 They're in your past, but they're not in your future.
00:12:02 I'm preaching already.
00:12:03 I don't know what's in your present and in your past that God says, "I'm going to totally
00:12:07 annihilate it out of your future.
00:12:10 You shall see again no more forever.
00:12:20 The Lord will fight for you and you shall hold your peace."
00:12:33 Stop calling people.
00:12:35 Stop finagling.
00:12:36 Stop manipulating.
00:12:37 Stop trying to dominate and control everybody.
00:12:40 The Lord will fight for you and you will study to be quiet, to shut up.
00:12:46 Get your emotions away from the mic and shut up.
00:12:50 Stop screaming.
00:12:51 Stop popping your neck.
00:12:52 Stop going off on people.
00:12:54 It ain't working.
00:12:55 Well, I'm just like you, my mama.
00:12:57 It didn't work for her.
00:12:59 I'm just like my daddy.
00:13:00 It didn't work for him.
00:13:04 Still faith, quiet faith.
00:13:09 Faith is not always loud.
00:13:12 It's resolute.
00:13:14 It's not always rambunctious.
00:13:17 It doesn't always sport muscles.
00:13:20 It's quiet power.
00:13:24 It's still I rise.
00:13:28 So what I'm going to talk to you today is my second deposit on the series Worship in
00:13:37 the Wilderness.
00:13:38 I want you to look at somebody and you're going to give them the title, announce my
00:13:42 title to them and say, "We will not die here."
00:13:56 That's our decision.
00:13:59 That's our affirmation.
00:14:01 That's our declaration.
00:14:02 Tell them again, "We will not die here."
00:14:07 Father God, in the name of Jesus, we thank you for your presence and your glory and your
00:14:11 grace.
00:14:12 We thank you for all things work after the counsel of your own will.
00:14:16 We thank you that our emotions are not necessarily our reality and how we feel about it doesn't
00:14:22 make it so.
00:14:23 We thank you that as people of faith we are learning to walk in the truth of your word
00:14:29 and to believe what you said over how we feel about any particular given moment.
00:14:34 We seek your face.
00:14:36 We crave you.
00:14:37 We long for you.
00:14:39 We need you like a junkie needs a fix.
00:14:41 We need you like a flower needs a raindrop.
00:14:45 We need you like an ocean needs water.
00:14:48 We need you like tear ducts need salt.
00:14:50 Father, in the name of Jesus, we cannot exist without you as a deer paneth at the water
00:14:55 brook.
00:14:56 So pant I unto thee, O God.
00:14:59 Feed us until we want no more.
00:15:01 I rebuke every spirit of fear that has plagued us, that's made us restless and tormented
00:15:07 us and kept away our sleep and made us miserable in our own bodies and made us forget that
00:15:12 we are healthy and made us forget that we are mobile and made us forget that we had
00:15:17 a roof over our head because we're so afraid by the threatening sound of what could be,
00:15:23 what might be, what's coming up behind us.
00:15:25 I rebuke the spirit of death and suicide and agony and pain and strife and I command you
00:15:31 to let God's people go.
00:15:34 In Jesus' name we pray.
00:15:37 Somebody shout amen.
00:15:39 On your way down to your seats say we will not die here.
00:15:45 Now I want to preface this because I want you to understand something about God.
00:15:50 Can I teach you some things about God?
00:15:54 God is eternal.
00:15:58 Eternity transcends time.
00:16:04 So we are creatures of time, hence we have birth dates, because time determines our awareness.
00:16:13 God is preexistent of time.
00:16:17 That's why in the book of Genesis it says in the beginning God.
00:16:24 See it doesn't tell you the beginning of God because God has no beginning and he has no
00:16:35 ending.
00:16:37 From everlasting to everlasting thou art God.
00:16:45 So I want you to understand that so that you can understand that time limits your perspective.
00:16:52 I think differently at this age than I did 10 years ago.
00:16:57 I think differently, I think differently at 50 than I did at 40.
00:17:01 I think differently at 40 than I did at 20 because time allows me to increase in experience
00:17:10 and ability and understanding so it's not good to make permanent decisions with temporary
00:17:17 information.
00:17:18 I'm going to say that again for the people in the back.
00:17:26 Some of you are making permanent decisions with temporary information.
00:17:32 How you feel about it now may not be how you feel about it in 20 years.
00:17:38 Look at the people who got tattoos.
00:17:44 I love you so much I want to write your name on my chest.
00:17:47 Now you can't stand her.
00:17:54 You haven't seen her in five years.
00:17:57 You dating somebody else, got married to them and got a baby, her name, now you trying to
00:18:01 get somebody to burn her name.
00:18:07 Permanent decisions over temporary situations.
00:18:13 When I went to school Pluto was a planet.
00:18:19 It was nine planets and Pluto was the last one.
00:18:24 When I picked up the paper one day they decided it wasn't a planet.
00:18:28 We don't know everything.
00:18:31 Your doctor doesn't know everything.
00:18:33 Your pastor doesn't know everything.
00:18:35 Your mama doesn't know everything.
00:18:37 Your daddy doesn't know everything and you don't know.
00:18:47 So God has an eternal plan that works itself out in time.
00:18:54 Why am I starting there?
00:18:55 Because I want you to understand that God is not making this thing up as He goes.
00:19:02 He's not saying, "Oh my God, Pharaoh's coming.
00:19:05 What we going to do?
00:19:06 Lord God Almighty, I didn't know Pharaoh was going to come."
00:19:12 God knew the end from the beginning.
00:19:15 In fact, God had prophesied to Abram that this was going to happen before Moses' mama
00:19:20 got pregnant.
00:19:22 God had already planned their escape before they ever went into Egypt.
00:19:27 He told Abram that your people are going to sojourn in Egypt for 400 years and afterwards
00:19:33 they're going to come out with great substance and Moses wasn't even born yet.
00:19:39 Jacob wasn't even born yet.
00:19:41 Joseph wasn't even born yet.
00:19:43 God had the future figured out before the characters ever came on the stage.
00:19:49 And there you are thinking that you are conspiring with God to plan the future.
00:19:54 Your future was already planned before you got here.
00:19:57 It was already set in motion and you might be shocked at what happened, but God is not
00:20:03 shocked at what's going on in your life.
00:20:05 God already knows everything that's going to happen in your life and He made some way
00:20:09 of escape before you ever ran into the problem.
00:20:14 So when God gets ready to bring you out, no devil, no witch, no hex, no soothsayer, no
00:20:21 weakness, no dumb decision you made can stop the hand of God.
00:20:27 So stand still.
00:20:31 If God started it, God is going to finish it.
00:20:40 And He's planning, we know for sure He's planning at least 400 years in advance.
00:20:48 At the bare minimum of this text, we know that God is thinking 400 years ahead.
00:20:55 And you don't even know what you're going to wear to work tomorrow.
00:21:00 The truth of the matter is, because the book of Revelation says that the Lamb was slain
00:21:05 from the foundation of the world, God thinks all the way, millenniums ahead.
00:21:12 He is sovereign.
00:21:15 Sovereigns.
00:21:16 He is absolute.
00:21:19 There is no one above Him.
00:21:23 He is God all by Himself.
00:21:27 He said I looked for someone to swear by that was greater than myself and finding no one
00:21:31 greater than myself, I had to swear by myself because ain't nobody better than me.
00:21:36 Ain't nobody badder than me.
00:21:37 Ain't nobody greater than me.
00:21:39 Ain't nobody stronger than me.
00:21:41 Ain't nobody smarter than me.
00:21:43 Your artificial intelligence is just that.
00:21:46 Artificial intelligence.
00:21:48 I am absolute intelligence.
00:21:50 I am the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-wise God.
00:21:54 So play with your toys and play with your gadgets and ask Him all the questions you
00:21:59 want but I'm the one with the answer.
00:22:08 And I want you to have an experience with me.
00:22:11 So I determined that Moses would be born.
00:22:14 And I determined that Moses, whose name means drawn out, would be born a Hebrew, by a Hebrew
00:22:20 slave.
00:22:21 And I determined that in spite of Pharaoh, who was supposed to be the absolute power,
00:22:27 that Moses would not see death.
00:22:30 So he escaped.
00:22:31 He beat the odds.
00:22:33 I want to talk to some people for just a second in this room whose mama had a story about
00:22:38 your birth.
00:22:43 If your mama had a story about your birth and you know you were a miracle baby, stand
00:22:47 up on your feet.
00:22:49 Then you ought to understand the power of this text.
00:22:52 You're looking at a miracle.
00:22:54 Your birth was a miracle.
00:22:55 Your start was a miracle.
00:22:57 If you started out, you didn't have no Bible, you didn't have no prayer life, you didn't
00:23:01 speak in tongues and yet God let you be here today.
00:23:05 If God protected you before you had a mouth, how much more ought God to be able to protect
00:23:10 you right now?
00:23:11 Who am I talking to?
00:23:12 I want to see some miracle babies.
00:23:14 I want to see some babies that escaped free of death.
00:23:17 I want to see some babies that should have been a stillborn.
00:23:20 I want to see some babies that the doctors were shocked that you made it.
00:23:24 But when God wills you to be into existence, you are here.
00:23:28 You ought to shout the place down.
00:23:30 You are here.
00:23:32 You are here.
00:23:33 Whether you got a car or not, whether you got a house or not, whether you got a boyfriend
00:23:37 or not, whether you got a wife or not, whether your kids like you or not, your breath is
00:23:41 a miracle.
00:23:42 Let me stop.
00:23:43 It's too early for me to go off.
00:23:49 I feel like going off right there.
00:23:53 All the miracle babies touch somebody and say, "Don't make me go off."
00:23:57 I'm a miracle baby.
00:23:58 You ought to get a t-shirt and wear it and say, "I'm a miracle baby."
00:24:02 I don't care if you're 103 years old, you ought to wear the t-shirt and say, "I'm a
00:24:06 miracle baby.
00:24:07 I'm a miracle.
00:24:08 My life started as a miracle.
00:24:10 I got here by a miracle.
00:24:12 God willed me to be here.
00:24:14 So I don't need you rolling your eyes and hating me because your rolling your eyes
00:24:17 ain't going to make me go back.
00:24:19 If I came through and survived all of that, ain't no way you can kill me with a tweet.
00:24:24 The devil is a liar.
00:24:25 I'm a miracle baby.
00:24:26 Moses was a miracle baby.
00:24:27 I got to hear it.
00:24:28 Moses was a miracle baby because God purposed him to be.
00:24:37 He purposed him to be.
00:24:39 He purposed him to be born in the house that he was born in, to the mother he was born
00:24:44 to at the time he was born, in the situation he was born, in the middle of chaos and confusion.
00:24:51 God purposed his mother to hide him for three months in a tent, a slave woman, a little
00:24:58 raggedy hut.
00:24:59 How do you hide a baby in a hut from a trained, experienced soldier?
00:25:05 But when God gets ready to hide you, He'll hide you.
00:25:08 He'll hide your greatness.
00:25:09 He'll hide your anointing.
00:25:10 He'll hide your gift.
00:25:11 He'll hide your talent.
00:25:12 Sometimes God didn't mean for you to be exposed.
00:25:13 He didn't mean for you to get the job.
00:25:14 He didn't mean for them to recognize you.
00:25:15 Had they recognized you, they would have killed you.
00:25:16 So stop crying about who didn't recognize your gift.
00:25:17 God hid your gift to protect you.
00:25:35 So God puts him in the ark and lets him float down the Nile.
00:25:40 You know the story.
00:25:42 And he lands in the arms of Pharaoh's daughter.
00:25:45 And he's raised in the house of his enemies.
00:25:50 Because for what God is going to do in his life, he cannot think like a slave.
00:25:59 You see, the liberation of the Hebrews, they went in a family, but they came out a nation.
00:26:05 So Moses is designed to lead a nation.
00:26:08 And if you are called to lead a nation, you have to hang around with people who lead nations.
00:26:16 Because you can't think like somebody who's running a fast food restaurant and run a nation.
00:26:28 So Moses got to be in the room with national thought, with leadership skills, where decisions
00:26:38 were made, not obeyed, made.
00:26:42 He was born and obeyed.
00:26:44 He was raised and made.
00:26:51 There are little clues that happen in your life, all your life, that give you glimpses
00:26:56 of where you are to be in life.
00:27:00 Because God doesn't make it up as he goes.
00:27:03 He planned it from the beginning.
00:27:05 So he's already making deposits on your destiny while you're trying to figure out who you
00:27:10 are and where you are.
00:27:12 This is a fight between nations.
00:27:18 Like Russia and Ukraine, it's a fight between nations.
00:27:23 It's not just a fight between slaves and masters, it's a fight between nations.
00:27:29 The Hebrews left Egypt as a nation.
00:27:34 And Pharaoh was intimidated by them because they were a nation, but they thought like
00:27:39 slaves.
00:27:45 Are you hearing what I'm saying?
00:27:47 So when we start talking about this text today, God has spared no expense in their liberation.
00:27:54 I want this to sink in.
00:27:55 Now I'm getting into where I want to be.
00:27:58 God has spared no expense on their liberation.
00:28:03 He doesn't use nuclear war.
00:28:08 He doesn't use the techniques of our times.
00:28:12 But he uses unique devices to cause them to prevail.
00:28:17 First he says to Moses, "Go down there and tell Pharaoh that I said, 'Let my people go.'
00:28:25 But before you go tell him, practice in the wilderness."
00:28:29 Oh, gosh.
00:28:38 I don't have time.
00:28:39 I can't do this, Lord.
00:28:40 I can't do this.
00:28:42 My mother used to walk up on me in the basement of my house preaching.
00:28:46 Wasn't nobody down there.
00:28:49 I just walked around, "You can't tell me that God I said."
00:28:54 And she'd come down and start looking at me like, "Who you talking to?"
00:28:59 "Nothing, Mama."
00:29:02 God's got somebody practicing for what you're going to do in life.
00:29:10 Don't hate rehearsal and love performance because performance without rehearsal will
00:29:20 always lead to failure.
00:29:23 Are you hearing what I'm saying to you?
00:29:25 So Moses is out in the wilderness practicing his stuff before nobody.
00:29:30 Nobody's out there.
00:29:31 Nobody cares.
00:29:32 Moses is in the middle of the wilderness.
00:29:34 Nobody's looking at him.
00:29:35 Nobody's clapping for him.
00:29:37 Nothing.
00:29:38 He's just sticking his hand in his clothes and coming out with leprosy.
00:29:42 He's sticking it back in.
00:29:43 It's coming out whole.
00:29:46 Pouring out water.
00:29:47 It's turning into blood.
00:29:48 He's just going through his stuff.
00:29:49 Throwing down his rod.
00:29:50 It turns into a snake.
00:29:51 Doing stupid stuff.
00:29:52 Makes no sense because Moses is in time.
00:30:03 And when you're looking at your situation in time, it makes no sense.
00:30:09 But from eternity, it looks like rehearsal.
00:30:12 It looks like preparatory school.
00:30:14 It looks like I'm getting ready to do something amazing in your life and I want you to have
00:30:18 the confidence in your craft so that I can bring you before great men and you won't faint
00:30:23 on the stage.
00:30:32 Proact one.
00:30:33 Moses goes down there with Aaron who he didn't need, but he thought he needed because you
00:30:37 can be great and still be insecure.
00:30:39 God, I'm preaching so good this morning.
00:30:44 You can be great and still be insecure.
00:30:45 You can be strong and mighty and still doubt yourself.
00:30:49 You can perform miracles and still stutter.
00:30:54 And sometimes people see your greatness, but they don't see your stutter.
00:30:58 And I'm glad that God is not just a God of my greatness, but also the God of my weakness.
00:31:06 He's not just a God of my victory.
00:31:07 He's the God of my failure.
00:31:09 He's not just a God of my mountain.
00:31:11 He's the God of my valley.
00:31:12 And I can be just as honest with him when my stick turns into a snake as I can when
00:31:18 my speaking turns into a stutter.
00:31:22 I can bring both things before him at the same time because one does not contradict
00:31:26 the other.
00:31:28 All things are open before him with whom we have to do.
00:31:32 All things.
00:31:33 And just because you stutter doesn't mean God won't use you.
00:31:38 And just because you made a mistake doesn't mean God doesn't have a plan for your life.
00:31:41 And just because you're going through a bad time right now doesn't mean that you don't
00:31:44 have a great ending.
00:31:46 And just because you went backwards doesn't mean you won't go forward.
00:31:50 And just because you're in a down setting moment doesn't mean you're not about to stand
00:31:53 up on your feet like you never stood in your life before.
00:31:57 I'm talking to somebody and I don't know who it is.
00:32:00 And if you're watching online and you know somebody who needs to hear this, text them
00:32:04 right quick and tell them to log on right now because God has given me a message that
00:32:08 they cannot afford to miss.
00:32:11 You're frustrated because you're not getting paid.
00:32:13 This is practice.
00:32:15 We don't pay you for practice.
00:32:18 We pay you for a performance.
00:32:21 That's where practice pays off is in the moment of performance.
00:32:24 So don't despise the day of small beginnings.
00:32:27 I preached in the woods.
00:32:28 I preached in the shower.
00:32:30 I preached in the basement.
00:32:31 I preached to animals.
00:32:32 I preached to crickets.
00:32:34 I preached to roaches before God gave me people.
00:32:37 Don't despise the day of small beginnings.
00:32:39 You don't get paid in the practice.
00:32:41 You get paid for the performance.
00:32:50 My first business deal was to take walnut hulls and boil them and turn it into dye and
00:32:56 sell it in mason jars for a quarter.
00:32:59 I was eight.
00:33:02 I know they didn't need that purple dye.
00:33:05 They just bought it because it was nice.
00:33:08 And then Mama grew greens in the garden.
00:33:10 I sold them in brown paper bags for a dollar, from a quarter to a dollar, and gave a receipt.
00:33:17 When I gave a receipt, they were talking about me and my brother's civics class because an
00:33:22 eight-year-old was doing business.
00:33:27 Whatever's in you, God, lets you practice.
00:33:31 That's why you got to watch your kids because they're prophecies in their habits, in their
00:33:36 details, in the little stuff they do, and the little things that sometimes get on your
00:33:40 nerves, they're little glimpses of what's going to be in their life.
00:33:47 You don't become Michael Irvin when you join the Cowboys.
00:33:50 You become Michael Irvin when you're backed up in the Carolinas somewhere where nobody
00:33:55 knows your name and nobody cares about your name and nobody's thinking about you.
00:33:59 It is not about what they think about your name.
00:34:02 It is about your diligence and going after what God has for you.
00:34:05 I got to move on.
00:34:06 And so he says, "Go down and tell Pharaoh," I said, "Let my people go."
00:34:13 Well, Moses has the power to walk into Pharaoh's house because he was raised in Pharaoh's house.
00:34:18 So he walks up in Pharaoh's house and said, "God said, 'Let my people go.'"
00:34:26 And Pharaoh thinks he's a God.
00:34:32 Because in his life, he is a God.
00:34:36 He serves a God, a deity, but he has so much power he's drunk off of himself.
00:34:44 If you're not careful, success will make you drunk off of yourself.
00:34:49 And nobody can tell you that you're not a God and nobody can tell the king that he has
00:34:53 no clothes because if everybody you surround yourself with is on your payroll, you can't
00:35:00 be sure you're getting the truth.
00:35:06 I don't know who that's for, but it's for somebody.
00:35:09 So let me show you the Scripture right quick because I got to make some ground.
00:35:14 Are you all enjoying this?
00:35:16 So I'm going to Exodus 7, 8 through 12.
00:35:18 I want you to see what happened in the palace.
00:35:22 And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, "When Pharaoh shall speak unto you,
00:35:28 saying, 'Show a miracle for you,' then thou shalt say unto Aaron, 'That's when you're
00:35:33 going to find out why you've been practicing out in the desert.'"
00:35:36 When I put you on stage, that's when I'm going to activate the things you've been rehearsing.
00:35:40 "Take thy rod and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent.
00:35:46 And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commanded.
00:35:51 And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent."
00:36:02 Pay attention to that.
00:36:04 The rod became a serpent.
00:36:07 That's going to have power all through the Bible.
00:36:09 The rod became a serpent.
00:36:10 This is not just a moment.
00:36:13 This is a glimpse.
00:36:15 Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers.
00:36:18 Pharaoh said, "I ain't nothing.
00:36:19 I can do that too."
00:36:21 So he called his wise men, his magicians, his sorcerers, and now the magicians of Egypt.
00:36:26 They did, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.
00:36:31 That's why you got to be careful of Christians who follow miracles.
00:36:38 Because Satan does tricks too.
00:36:47 Somebody in here's mama's name is Helen.
00:36:50 Somebody in here, you dropped out of school in the seventh grade.
00:36:53 You got to be careful about following people over this fanatical kind of stuff.
00:36:57 You got to be rooted on a solid foundation, on the Word of God, on the truth, on the Spirit
00:37:02 of God, on the presence of God, and not on what you see with your eye.
00:37:06 Because Pharaoh said, "That ain't nothing.
00:37:08 Them tricks you've been practicing, we do that too."
00:37:12 So Pharaoh called for his magicians, and they cast down every man his rod, and they became
00:37:18 serpents.
00:37:19 But Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods.
00:37:29 Do you hear that?
00:37:30 Do you hear that?
00:37:31 They had more serpents.
00:37:33 Aaron only had one rod that became a serpent, but it was stronger than all of the serpents
00:37:40 put together, and it ate up his rods.
00:37:42 And look at this.
00:37:43 I want to spend a minute talking about sticks and snakes.
00:37:48 Sticks and snakes, sticks and snakes.
00:37:50 This is powerful.
00:37:51 We often overlook the relationship between the stick and the snake.
00:37:55 The stick became a snake.
00:37:57 It was a stick in his hand, but when he cast it down, it became a snake.
00:38:02 Sticks and snakes.
00:38:03 When Paul was on his way to Rome, the Bible said that while he was gathering sticks, that
00:38:09 a snake came out.
00:38:11 There's something down between the stick and the snake, the stick and the snake, the stick
00:38:17 and the snake, the stick and the snake.
00:38:19 Thy rod comforteth me.
00:38:21 Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
00:38:24 There's something between the stick and the snake.
00:38:27 There makes no accident that the snake was a stick, and the one that was a stick and
00:38:35 became a snake devoured all the snakes of the magicians.
00:38:40 This is Calvary.
00:38:43 You don't see it yet.
00:38:48 The Bible said that Christ carried a cross up the hill, that's the stick.
00:38:54 And he carries it up the hill, that's the stick.
00:38:57 But when he got on the stick, he became a snake for us.
00:39:01 The Bible, let me put it in biblical language, he became sin who knew no sin, that we might
00:39:07 be the righteousness of God.
00:39:09 And by him becoming that, when he lifted up, he said, "If I be lifted up from the earth,
00:39:14 if you cast me out, I'll turn into the cure for the venom that bit you in the first place."
00:39:21 So it was snake to snake.
00:39:24 And Satan said, "I hexed, I cast spells, I sent curses."
00:39:27 But when Jesus went to the cross, the Bible said he bore every curse that was ever against
00:39:33 us, every hex, every spell that was ever against us, that was that one snake eating up all
00:39:38 them other snakes, he divided every last one of them.
00:39:41 This is the first glimpse that we see between the stick and the snake.
00:39:45 Jesus could have died on the whipping post, but it wouldn't have exemplified the stick
00:39:50 and the snake.
00:39:51 They could have beat him to death.
00:39:52 They could have thrust him through with a sword.
00:39:55 But in order to fulfill the draw and out that Moses was going to do and to establish the
00:40:00 New Testament church, there had to be an association between the stick and the snake.
00:40:06 Glory to God.
00:40:07 Hallelujah.
00:40:08 Thank you, Jesus.
00:40:09 Jesus didn't just die as the Lamb of God, he became sin for us.
00:40:14 He became the cure from the venom of sin that the first man, Adam, partook of.
00:40:21 He is the stick that became a snake.
00:40:25 He became sin for us that we might be the righteousness of God.
00:40:31 So I don't care who hexed you.
00:40:33 I don't care who got a piece of your hair.
00:40:35 I don't care who worked roots on you.
00:40:37 I don't care what they said about you.
00:40:39 No weapon formed against you shall be able to prosper because God said, "I'll eat it
00:40:45 up.
00:40:46 I'll eat up what they said about you."
00:40:57 I'll eat up what they did to you.
00:40:59 I'll eat up the spell they cast on your mama.
00:41:02 I'll eat up every generational curse.
00:41:04 You're going to be the first one of your generation that's going to break the curse.
00:41:08 God said, "I'm going to eat it up."
00:41:10 It got your mama.
00:41:11 It got your auntie.
00:41:12 It got your uncle.
00:41:13 It got your grandfather.
00:41:14 It got your great uncle, but it's not going to get you.
00:41:17 Everybody who's breaking a generational curse, give him 30 seconds of praise.
00:41:30 You're watching on TV, type it on the line.
00:41:33 Eat it up, Jesus.
00:41:34 it up Jesus eat it up Jesus they met it for evil but eat it up Jesus eat it up
00:41:40 eat it up eat it up eat it up
00:41:52 yeah yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes one snake ate up all the snakes of
00:42:10 all the magicians and all the curses and all the spells I gotta get off it but
00:42:14 slap the name and say one you only need one just one just one just one just one
00:42:20 just one just one if you got one rod it's more than all the rods that have
00:42:24 been beating you down if you got one snake you're gonna eat up every snake
00:42:29 that came up against you if you got one praise that'll break a yoke that come
00:42:33 against your life that's why the Bible said bring you all the tithes and
00:42:37 offerings into the storehouse that there might be meat in my house and prove me
00:42:41 now herewith if I will not open up the windows or the floodgates of heaven and
00:42:46 pull you out watch this one blessing you won't have room enough to receive God
00:42:52 said I'm gonna give you one thing that's gonna fix everything that messed up
00:42:56 anything that was happening in your life you only need one thing you know one
00:43:00 thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek out
00:43:05 you better get up off me I feel something I feel something you better
00:43:12 get up
00:43:16 you've been asking for too much stuff you just need one thing you just need to
00:43:21 be one with God you need to be one in his presence one in his glory put away
00:43:26 your list of stuff about 22 I won't diss him when I'm 31 I won't do it and I
00:43:31 want to buy my home when I'm 17 shut up!
00:43:34 Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things
00:43:43 stop somebody and tell them I don't need but one thing I love you but I don't
00:43:57 have to have you I like you but I don't have to have you I want you to be
00:44:01 impressed I want you to appreciate me but if I never win your appreciation I
00:44:05 only gotta have one thing
00:44:09 God said I'm gonna show you who's God I'm gonna show you who's boss I'm gonna
00:44:27 show you who's in charge I'm gonna use stuff that you ain't got I'm gonna whip
00:44:33 you without a chariot I'm gonna beat you without a horse I won't even use a sword
00:44:38 to take you down I'm gonna kill you with locusts God said I'll use stuff that's
00:44:45 not up under your regime and not in your power I'll turn your water into blood
00:44:50 God said I'll release frogs I'll send frogs up out of the rivers of
00:44:55 Egypt until you can't see the ground for the frog God said I'll send lice after
00:45:00 you I'll send the livestock we'll all get sick I'll put boils all over your
00:45:05 body I'll send hell down on top of you I'll send locusts and darkness and the
00:45:11 killing of the firstborn I'll kill every baby coming out of your womb until you
00:45:16 turn me when God gets ready to bring you out he'll send stuff you thought
00:45:21 couldn't be done to get you out of the body look at how much God paid for to
00:45:26 get you out of what some of your kinfolks are still into but God reached
00:45:30 down and smacked you out and to God be the glory for the things he has done he
00:45:37 brought you from a mighty long way how dare you sit there with your lips glued
00:45:42 together and act like you can't praise God girl you know you wasn't born like
00:45:47 this God just brought you out
00:46:09 that's why it's dangerous to be an enemy against somebody that God wants to use
00:46:19 it's not that they're dangerous God is dangerous God don't take no mess
00:46:25 gotta kill you with stuff that they ain't got no name for you'll be in the
00:46:29 hospital we said they'll say we can't figure out what's wrong with you we did
00:46:33 a MRI we did an EKG we did an x-ray we don't have no kind of machine to
00:46:38 determine why you died you'll just be dying
00:46:42 God said touch not mine anointed do my prophets know a heart when I sent a man
00:46:50 shut up you might not agree with him but shut up
00:46:59 Pharaoh in all of his might had no response to fight lice he knew how to
00:47:11 fight armies but not boils he knew how to fight people but not locusts gotta
00:47:22 hit you where your weapons don't work
00:47:26 all of this to let my people go can I take you deeper now this is what I want
00:47:43 you to get sound this is what I want you to get this is what I want you to get my
00:47:47 God I feel the Holy Ghost in you glory to God glory to God it's not good for me
00:47:54 to preach with my mic cuz it pushes me
00:47:58 when I get a mic in my hand I go you know I'm trying to be professorial and
00:48:07 this mic mess me up make me think I'm in a storefront somewhere next thing you
00:48:13 know I'll be running down I'll walking across pews leaping up and down in the
00:48:17 air talking in tongues shaking shaking devils and rebuking witches and cashing
00:48:22 out cuz I always keep my stuff with me I always I'm always packing I'm never by
00:48:30 myself I'm always always got some just a little extra in case you come at me at
00:48:35 the Dairy Queen I don't need to call nobody to pray for me I got enough power
00:48:40 inside of myself
00:48:44 don't get it twisted
00:48:50 I was preaching when you got here
00:48:56 ain't no such thing as a bad crowd if you got a real anointing I'll flip this
00:49:13 place over in the floor if God be for you
00:49:21 who am I preaching to today?
00:49:26 now I got to get you where God wants me to get you watch this
00:49:34 [crowd cheering]
00:49:51 I don't know who it is but something just broke in your life and you can't
00:49:56 hardly hold your peace cuz you just gotta break through and hell can't do
00:50:02 nothing about it
00:50:05 [crowd cheering]
00:50:17 [crowd cheering]
00:50:27 [crowd cheering]
00:50:37 [crowd cheering]
00:50:57 [crowd cheering]
00:51:07 [crowd cheering]
00:51:17 [crowd cheering]
00:51:37 [crowd cheering]
00:51:57 [crowd cheering]
00:52:07 [crowd cheering]
00:52:27 [crowd cheering]
00:52:47 [crowd cheering]
00:53:07 [crowd cheering]
00:53:27 [crowd cheering]
00:53:37 [crowd cheering]
00:53:47 [crowd cheering]
00:53:57 So Sarah, Sarah, Sarah, I wanted you to get that anointing out of you so you can think
00:54:04 cuz there is a glory that gets so high you can't think when the glory is real
00:54:09 high the priest can't minister the Bible said when the glory fell on Solomon's
00:54:13 temple the priest lay prostrate in the floor cuz there is a glory that gets you
00:54:17 so intoxicated you gotta get that out look at you never said whoo I had to get
00:54:23 that out
00:54:25 [crowd cheering]
00:54:49 Watch this
00:54:57 Moses is leading them forward almost against their will because while he's
00:55:10 trying to get them out from under Pharaoh when they heard Pharaoh's army coming up
00:55:19 behind them their emotions took over their intelligence have you ever had your
00:55:29 emotions take over your intelligence so out of their emotions affecting their
00:55:41 intelligence their reasoning is so flawed that they start arguing over where
00:55:47 they're going to die were there no graves in Egypt why did you bring us into the
00:55:56 wilderness to die this whole conversation is stupid it's like saying I don't want
00:56:04 to die in the bedroom I want to die in the living room why did you bring me in
00:56:11 the living room I wanted to die in the bedroom dead don't make no difference it
00:56:17 doesn't make any difference at all you don't get in the presence of God and
00:56:25 talk stupid
00:56:28 God is intelligent Moses immediately they didn't say nothing about being
00:56:37 afraid they just gave a stupid conversation and Moses said be not afraid
00:56:47 do we attack people that we ought to discern are we so focused on what they
00:56:59 say that we don't think about why they said it
00:57:05 Moses doesn't wrestle with the what because of what was ignorant he goes
00:57:13 right to the why he says don't be afraid see they're dealing with somebody they
00:57:20 had seen commit atrocities bury people alive split them in two of course they
00:57:30 were scared they had not seen God's hand for 400 years he had worked around them
00:57:41 but he had not worked in them he said let my people go that they may worship me
00:57:51 in the wilderness so the word we call tabernacle in the Hebrew is oh el moed
00:57:59 it is a tent of meeting God said I'm taking them on a date so they can find
00:58:10 out who their husband is
00:58:13 everything else I did for them the locusts the lice the boils the water
00:58:25 turning in the blood the afflictions attacking the animals all the ten of the
00:58:29 plagues I did for them but having God doing things for you is different from
00:58:36 having God doing things in you now
00:58:45 here's where you're at they have come down to the Red Sea and they think
00:58:56 they're going to die and Moses is shut up a paraphrasing I like to shut up I
00:59:10 was raised off the shut up y'all deal kitchen my mother did not negotiate if
00:59:18 you've been as soon as you finish talking I would like to interject the
00:59:22 thought you just shut your mouth you sound stupid
00:59:30 you know what I did
00:59:35 so what Moses is saying to them is shut up see we don't have the kind of faith
00:59:43 today that can take an insult
00:59:47 no no you will leave the church because somebody said in your chair you can't
00:59:53 take a good shut up that's why Pharaoh keeps eating you up
00:59:58 because until you can endure correction you're not a son I don't care what your
01:00:08 DNA says
01:00:14 he says stand still and see the salvation of the Lord for the Egyptians
01:00:22 that you see today you shall see them no more he didn't say they would have to
01:00:31 fight again they had to fight all kind of people the Philistines, the Amalekites
01:00:34 all kind of people God only promised them Ammonites, Hittites, Gepsis but what you're
01:00:38 talking about you ain't gonna never see them no more
01:00:47 so settle this in your mind I will not say this in a provocative way because it
01:00:58 is too profound to be provocative and because I want both your spirit and your
01:01:04 soul to hear this settle this in your mind in spite of the hoofprints that you
01:01:10 hear through your senses coming up behind you and the snorting of the
01:01:15 horses hot breath and the images that have been in your head for 400 years of
01:01:22 what Pharaoh can do to you and now he is after you it's like the image I had when
01:01:30 I went down to the power company years ago and asked him to keep the power on
01:01:34 and the woman said she was gonna cut it off anyway and I walked out of
01:01:39 Appalachian Power Company crying walking down the street because I saw an image
01:01:44 of me pushing a go-kart and me and my wife and my two kids was gonna be
01:01:48 homeless and sometimes it's an image you're fighting
01:01:57 I was crying and I couldn't stop I was crying over an image David said yay
01:02:06 though I walked through the valley of the there are death has shadows anybody
01:02:14 understand what I'm talking about anybody ever been up all night over an
01:02:18 image it hadn't even happened yet but it's an image anybody in the Elijah
01:02:23 running from a threat from a Jezebel that you ain't even seen who said you
01:02:28 would be dead in 24 hours and the 24 hours has elapsed and you still running
01:02:34 anybody still running from a ghost somebody something somebody said about
01:02:45 you in the first grade something your stepmother told you something somebody
01:02:48 said about something your big sister said about you and you still running from it
01:02:52 this is why I want to speak to your spirit and to your soul and this is why
01:02:59 you're logged on to this broadcast right now this is why you cannot move because
01:03:05 the Holy Ghost said you will not die here
01:03:13 [Applause]
01:03:24 Wait a minute, hold on music. I want you to take that and make it yours and I want you
01:03:29 to hear your voice say I will not die here
01:03:39 I will
01:03:43 I will not die here I may die somewhere but I will not die here
01:03:55 this won't kill me it may hurt me but it won't kill me I will not look at
01:04:05 somebody say I will not you ain't got enough fight in you you ain't got enough
01:04:10 I want you to pull up that stuff you did when you found out your husband had a
01:04:14 girlfriend and I want you to say it like you mean it I will not die here
01:04:23 [Applause]
01:04:43 Now I'm going to show you this and I'm going to close. They couldn't die at the Red Sea
01:04:53 because they had a rendezvous scheduled with God and God could not allow the Red
01:05:04 Sea to restrict the meeting. He says let my people go that they may worship me in
01:05:18 the wilderness. The Lord said to me stop worrying about reconciliation between
01:05:25 races. Stop worrying about that. Stop worrying about that. Stop worrying about
01:05:33 that. Stop worrying about reconciliation between generations. Stop worrying about
01:05:39 reconciliation between genders. You will never be able to negotiate reconciliation
01:05:46 in any of these areas. I said Lord I had all kinds of reconciliation conferences. I
01:05:52 did all kinds of stuff. I counseled couples for years. I did it. He said you
01:05:56 will never be able to reconcile it. He said the problem in the reconciliation is
01:06:02 not between people or genders or generations. The problem is reconciliation
01:06:08 with me. If you reconcile the man and the woman, the young and the old, the black
01:06:19 and the white, if they get reconciled with me, then reconciliation with each
01:06:31 other is not only possible, it is a necessity because I am only one God.
01:06:37 There's not a white God and a brown God and a black God and a female God and a
01:06:42 male God and a young God and an old God. There's just one God and if you're going
01:06:46 to get to me, you got to brush up against each other. Call them back to me. Call
01:06:55 them back to me. Blond hair, brunette hair, black hair, kinky hair, bald head,
01:07:00 no hair, buck teeth, big lips, call them back. Call them from Australia. Call
01:07:06 them from Africa. Call them from Switzerland. Call them from New Zealand.
01:07:10 Call them from Puerto Rico. Call them from Mexico. Call them from Canada. God
01:07:16 said call them back. Call the dope dealer. Call the deacon. Call the whore
01:07:25 monger. Call the prostitute. Call the church mother. Call the senator. Call
01:07:30 them back. Because if you call them back to me, they will bump into each other
01:07:43 crawling after me. Watch this. Your marriage would get better if both of
01:07:57 y'all really got saved. What's wrong with your kids is not that they don't obey
01:08:07 you, it's that they don't obey God. What's wrong with you is that you don't
01:08:12 obey God. So how you going to get them to obey God while they watch you not obey
01:08:18 God? Oh, I'm coming for you. I'm coming for you. Sit right there. Sit right
01:08:26 there. Sit right there. I'm coming for you. So in order to give you access to
01:08:38 him, he parted the Red Sea because the Red Sea was standing in between the
01:08:46 people getting to him. He could have killed Pharaoh and his army with a heart
01:08:55 attack. All the horses could have dropped dead. He opened up a way. You remember
01:09:03 that song? He laid the foundation and opened up the way. What more could he do?
01:09:08 They don't know what we're talking about, but we know what we're talking about.
01:09:11 If you are our age, you know, what more could he do? What more could he do? He
01:09:16 laid the foundation, opened up the way. What more could he do? What more could he
01:09:22 do? What more could he do? Church, he laid the foundation, opened up the way.
01:09:28 What more could he do? That's what we used to say. Y'all don't understand that.
01:09:34 That's okay. That's okay. Y'all sing that other stuff. That's good. That's good.
01:09:41 But when we got ready to chase the demon out of the room, what more could he do?
01:09:48 So what he do? He laid the foundation and opened up the way and brought them
01:09:56 across on dry ground. I ain't through yet. And Pharaoh tried to follow him.
01:10:03 Nobody can follow you through a way that God made for you.
01:10:08 What God has for you is for you and all of your imitators and spectators and
01:10:18 haters that's trying to get through the door that God opened up for you. Every
01:10:23 last one of them going to drown trying to be like you. They can wear your clothes.
01:10:28 They can go to your barber. They can wear your tie, but they can't get through
01:10:33 your way. When God has a way for you to go through, it's your way. And once you
01:10:38 get through, he going to shut it down.
01:10:41 Watch this. He shut it down.
01:10:50 And here's the question. And here's the problem. They were trying to get away
01:11:02 from Pharaoh more than they were trying to get to God.
01:11:15 At what point do we stop running from and start running to?
01:11:23 The will was or is currently a time in your life that you gave your all,
01:11:40 stepped out on faith, forsook the familiar, offered up the right
01:11:47 sacrifices, and didn't see the reward you anticipated. The job that downsized,
01:11:55 the marriage that failed, the child that died, the business that capsized,
01:12:02 the church, it just won't grow. No matter how successful we may be in many areas,
01:12:09 we are never exempt from the reflective, reminiscent idea, "What was that all
01:12:15 about?"
01:12:16 See, this is what started me with this text. See, they said, "Were there no
01:12:31 graves in Egypt? Why did you bring us out into the wilderness to die?"
01:12:38 What started me with the whole text was, they did die in the wilderness.
01:12:45 The question wasn't wrong. They didn't die at the Red Sea, but they did die
01:12:59 in the wilderness.
01:13:05 Wonder why God delivers us in one place and lets us die in another.
01:13:16 That's one question. Second question is, "What about me needs to die for me to
01:13:24 get to the promised land?"
01:13:30 Sometimes God puts you in the wilderness to kill the thing that's stopping you
01:13:36 from getting to the promised land.
01:13:38 New Testament reflection on it is, the first generation died in the wilderness
01:13:47 not having faith mixed with the word that they heard. They died in the wilderness
01:13:53 because their motives were wrong. They were running from, not to.
01:14:03 So God raises up another generation in the wilderness who has no Pharaoh to run
01:14:10 from. Because what God wants from us, help me Jesus, what God wants from us and
01:14:21 what God has challenged me to do is to create thirst in this room for Him.
01:14:31 I'm glad you go to this church. I'm glad you come out here. I'm glad you come
01:14:35 out here when it's hot and when it's raining, when it's cold. I'm glad.
01:14:38 I'm glad you're streaming online. I'm glad we got, normally I don't know what
01:14:41 the numbers are today, but somewhere between 70 and 80,000 people watching
01:14:45 right now on stream all over the world. I'm so glad. Stay tuned. Glad to have you.
01:14:50 Good for you to be here. Welcome to the Parless house. That's wonderful.
01:14:54 But why are you watching?
01:14:58 If you are just running from Pharaoh, God will kill your Pharaoh to check your motive.
01:15:16 And once Pharaoh was dead, they wandered for 40 years because their motive was
01:15:33 still running from and they did not ever transition to running to.
01:15:44 And they were so busy running from whatever horror that brought you to church,
01:15:49 whatever nightmare, whatever atrocity, whatever abuse, whatever misfortune,
01:15:53 whatever agony, whatever crisis that brought you to church. Thank God.
01:15:57 God used it to bring you here, but you can't spend your entire life running
01:16:03 from a shadow.
01:16:11 What God wants for this church, it's for us to bring you into an encounter.
01:16:18 You can't even have a relationship until you have an encounter with God.
01:16:23 Then you can have a relationship. You can't have a relationship with somebody
01:16:26 that you don't have an encounter with. And you're having an encounter with church
01:16:31 and music and singing and dancing and preaching and hooping and hollering
01:16:36 and jumping and information and intellect and education and all that's good
01:16:41 and all that's wonderful and we don't have to stop none of that.
01:16:44 But none of that means a hill of beans. None of your degrees, none of your education,
01:16:48 none of your hooping, none of your changing keys, none of your riffs,
01:16:52 none of your runs mean nothing. It don't mean nothing.
01:17:00 Beyonce can riff, Aretha can riff, Michael Jackson can riff.
01:17:06 I don't care about your riffing.
01:17:09 If it doesn't bring me into an encounter with God, you're wasting your breath.
01:17:17 You can teach me Hebrew, you can teach me Greek, you can teach me Swahili,
01:17:24 but if you don't bring me to Jesus, why am I here?
01:17:29 Hallelujah. Yes sir. Yes sir. Hallelujah. Yes sir. That's it.
01:17:37 And God says I don't want them to have an encounter with you.
01:17:40 I don't want them to have an encounter with the band.
01:17:43 I don't want them to have an encounter with the praise team or the praise dancers.
01:17:47 I don't just want them to have an encounter with your education, your intellect,
01:17:51 your ability or your decisiveness or your revelations or none of that
01:17:56 if it does not bring them into an encounter with me.
01:18:01 I'm the one who sent the bulls and the lice and the frogs to bring your Pharaoh
01:18:08 and make him turn you loose. I'm the one who laid the foundation and opened up a way
01:18:12 and made it possible for you to get out of jail, for you to escape your turmoil,
01:18:16 for your body to be healed, for you to survive breast cancer.
01:18:20 I'm the one that brought you through the flood and the fire and the food stamps
01:18:24 and the crisis and the trauma in your life.
01:18:26 I'm the one that brought you from crack and cocaine and drugs and addiction.
01:18:30 I'm the one!
01:18:32 And I am a jealous God.
01:18:40 I'm jealous that I brought you out and you fall in love with other people.
01:18:46 I'm jealous that I spent all my resources to deliver you
01:18:51 and you still don't put me above everybody else.
01:18:54 I'm jealous that I still play suck and fiddle around your false idols and your fake gods.
01:19:04 And I want you to miss me.
01:19:10 I want you to miss me, not deacon you, not elder you, not evangelist you, not bishop you.
01:19:18 I want you, Freddie.
01:19:21 On your knees, crawling to this altar, begging me for my presence and my glory and my anointing.
01:19:29 And I will meet you in your wilderness and I will meet you in your despair
01:19:34 and I will meet you in your agony and I will meet you in your loneliness
01:19:38 and I will meet you in your pain and I will meet you in your confusion
01:19:42 when you stop entertaining and start begging me for me!
01:19:49 [Cheering]
01:19:51 It's not enough that you escape Pharaoh if you don't find me.
01:20:00 Pharaoh's dead and you're still not happy.
01:20:03 You came here to find me.
01:20:09 You came here to seek me.
01:20:13 You came here to lay on your face in my presence and hunger for me.
01:20:18 And all you're worried about is your seat and your parking space.
01:20:22 And the fact that you're more worried about your parking space than you are my glory
01:20:26 is a sign that you only have an encounter with church and you've never had an encounter with God.
01:20:32 You don't mind being late. You don't mind leaving early.
01:20:36 You don't mind because you're more worried about the pancake house than you are the glory of God.
01:20:42 [Cheering]
01:20:44 And nobody can pastor you and nobody can lead you and nobody can help you!
01:20:49 Because you're better at coming to work than you are at coming to me.
01:20:55 You're more long-suffering with your lying husband than you are to me.
01:21:07 And I want to see you humble yourself in my presence and miss me and crave me
01:21:12 and I want you to have an encounter with me that changes the rest of your life.
01:21:16 That changes your trajectory. That leaks into your daughter and your son.
01:21:20 That heals your body and heals your mind.
01:21:22 I want you to have an encounter with me and you would need less therapy if you had more power.
01:21:28 I want you to have an encounter with me until you can sleep at night.
01:21:31 I want you to have an encounter with me until I fill up the emptiness that nobody can be able to fill.
01:21:37 Not your husband and your boyfriend. None of them can fill the place.
01:21:41 I left a hole in you. I left a thirst in you. I left a craving in you and I want you to want me!
01:21:48 And the reason you will not die here is that I kept you alive in the hopes
01:21:55 that somewhere in the wilderness you would stop running from and start running to.
01:22:04 And I want you to know that I am more than religion.
01:22:12 That I am more than a building.
01:22:16 That I am more than theology and doctrine and ideas and Bible discussions and debates about text
01:22:22 and what does this mean and what does that mean.
01:22:25 I am your God.
01:22:28 I am your God and I brought you through hell.
01:22:33 And I brought you through hot water.
01:22:36 And I brought you through agony and I brought you through stuff you thought you wouldn't get through.
01:22:40 And I'm tired of you not talking to me.
01:22:44 And I'm tired of you not craving me.
01:22:46 And I'm tired of you not longing for me.
01:22:50 I gave you the wealth of the Egyptians.
01:22:53 Not so you could show off.
01:22:56 I just wanted to show you how good I could be to you.
01:22:59 If you ever miss me.
01:23:02 And no I'm not going to make no formal altar call.
01:23:07 Because if I have to make an altar call, you didn't hear me.
01:23:11 If I have to call you, you didn't even hear nothing that I said today.
01:23:19 If there's nothing in your belly that's calling you stay in your seat.
01:23:24 I only want people who feel a magnetism, a drawing, a pulling, a craving, a nagging, a missing, a hunger, a thirst, a wailing in their soul.
01:23:34 That says God I want an encounter with you.
01:23:37 And I don't care if I have to come on Sunday and come on Wednesday.
01:23:40 And I don't care if I got to lay on my face.
01:23:42 I need something real. I need something that will last.
01:23:45 I need something I can take home with me.
01:23:47 I can't take this band with me.
01:23:49 I can't take them good singers with me.
01:23:51 I can't take the bishop with me.
01:23:53 I can only take you with me.
01:23:55 And I need something that goes with me when I'm going through hell on my job.
01:24:00 And I want to quit and cuss everybody out.
01:24:03 I need something in my belly that sustains me.
01:24:08 Beautiful.
01:24:10 [Music]