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00:00 What's up everybody, Pastor Darius here man.
00:01 I'm really serious about this message.
00:03 I need you to, I don't even know if you should watch this
00:06 while driving, well don't watch it while driving.
00:09 I don't even know if you should listen while driving.
00:11 This is a message I think you need to sit and to soak
00:14 and not be distracted when you're listening to it
00:16 because it's a message called,
00:18 I bust the windows out of your car.
00:20 And it's a message about emotional intoxication.
00:23 Listen, your success is tied to your emotional sobriety.
00:27 I wanna help you stay sober
00:29 so that you're not sabotaging your future.
00:32 I promise you God's gonna use this.
00:34 I believe God's gonna use this message to help you
00:38 stay sober.
00:39 I only have one request.
00:41 If it helps you, would you just text the link or something?
00:45 Send it to somebody else.
00:47 I love you, take care.
00:48 I wanna read a couple of verses of scripture
00:52 found in the book of Genesis chapter number 12,
00:54 beginning at verse number 10.
00:57 Genesis 12, verse number 10,
00:58 the scriptures will be on the screens
01:00 for our family in the building
01:01 and a part of our global campus.
01:03 Now there was a famine in the land
01:05 and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while
01:09 because the famine was severe.
01:11 As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife,
01:14 Sarah, I know what a beautiful woman you are.
01:17 When the Egyptians see you, they will say, this is his wife.
01:22 Then they will kill me, but let you live.
01:28 Say you are my sister
01:29 so that I will be treated well for your sake
01:34 and my life will be spared because of you.
01:38 I wanna stop the reading of scripture there
01:40 and tag this title to this text.
01:42 Here's the topic of today's teaching.
01:45 I bust the windows out your car.
01:48 (audience laughing)
01:51 Clap your hands if you're not scared.
01:54 Like, where is he going with this?
01:57 I bust the windows out your car.
02:01 On September 16th, 2008,
02:11 a soulful sister named Jasmine Sullivan
02:15 released a record entitled,
02:19 I bust the windows out your car.
02:23 And the first segment of the song said the following.
02:28 I bust the windows out your car.
02:32 And no, it didn't mend my broken heart.
02:37 I'll probably always have these ugly scars,
02:44 but right now I don't care about that part.
02:49 (audience laughing)
02:52 This song was the articulation
02:58 of the real and raw emotions of a person
03:02 that has been plagued by a painful experience
03:07 to the degree that they are provoked
03:10 to engage in an act of retaliation
03:15 in an attempt to make the person who hurt them hurt.
03:20 And although as followers of the ways of Jesus,
03:26 we do not endorse or condone these types of acts,
03:31 as people of empathy,
03:36 we can understand what precedes them.
03:42 I feel safe in saying that many, if not most of us,
03:47 know what it feels like to hurt so badly
03:51 that you want the person who hurt you to hurt also.
03:55 And if this is a segment of the sermon
04:00 where you are a bit confused and you can't relate,
04:03 I'm glad because it means that you haven't experienced
04:08 the kind of pain that provokes you
04:11 to think about things you would never think about.
04:14 It means you hadn't experienced the kind of pain
04:20 that has provoked you to consider some things
04:23 you would normally consider.
04:25 The kind of pain that provokes you
04:28 to consider saying some things you would normally say
04:32 or doing some things you would normally do.
04:35 Is there anybody in the room and online
04:39 that has enough experience to agree with pastor
04:43 that pain has levels?
04:46 Come on.
04:49 There's a degree of pain that agitates you,
04:53 but then there's another degree of pain that paralyzes you.
04:56 There's a degree of pain that is inflicted upon you
05:01 where you still can carry out your daily duties.
05:04 And there's a degree of pain that will immobilize you
05:08 and rob you of sleep.
05:10 There's a degree of pain that will take your appetite
05:13 when the pain has nothing to do with your hunger.
05:16 Is there anybody in the room that knows what it's like
05:20 to deal with intense pain?
05:24 And the enemy uses pain to provoke us
05:32 into temptation for retaliation,
05:38 to inflict hurt upon the person that hurt me.
05:43 And one of the only ways to overcome the temptation
05:46 for retaliation is to have a revelation
05:50 that the behavior we assume will hurt the other person
05:54 is actually behavior that hurts us more.
05:58 If you actually bust the windows out their car,
06:03 you might catch a charge.
06:05 (audience laughing)
06:08 This is why it is unwise, unhealthy, illogical,
06:13 and unbiblical to allow the hurt that someone
06:17 or something has caused you or me to push us to the place
06:22 where we behave in ways that hurt us even more.
06:26 If they didn't love you well enough to not hurt you,
06:30 then you need to love yourself well enough
06:33 not to continue to hurt you.
06:35 Did you hear what I just said?
06:39 It means that there is some responsibility
06:42 that I have to take for the stewardship of my own soul.
06:47 At some point, I have to get a revelation
06:50 that this is who you are.
06:51 And I've got to respond to that revelation
06:54 by setting the kind of boundaries that protects my soul
06:59 from the toxicity of your refusal to evolve
07:04 into a better version of yourself.
07:07 I cannot put my well-being in the hands of your immaturity.
07:12 So I've got to learn not only how to love God,
07:15 come here church, I've got to learn how to love
07:18 what God loves, and God loves me.
07:20 (audience cheering)
07:23 And for those of you who have a spiritual heritage
07:28 that causes you to believe that self-love is selfish,
07:32 may I remind you of the words of Jesus
07:36 when he was questioned by a leader in the law
07:39 regarding what is the most important commandment.
07:43 And Jesus says to them, "You are to love God
07:46 "with all of your heart, all of your mind,
07:49 "and all of your soul."
07:51 And then he says, "You are to love your neighbor as yourself."
07:56 You actually can't love people well
08:00 until you learn to love you right.
08:03 (audience cheering)
08:04 Y'all not talking to me.
08:06 'Cause some of you are saying,
08:08 "No, pastor, when I didn't love myself well,
08:10 "I loved other people, that was my problem.
08:13 "I loved other people and I didn't love me."
08:15 No, you didn't, you pleased them, and you called it love.
08:18 Let me go to this side.
08:21 Just because you call it love doesn't mean it was love.
08:25 If you don't love you,
08:27 you don't have the capacity to love them.
08:29 You pleased them, you appeased them,
08:32 you accommodated them, you capitulated to them,
08:35 but that's not love.
08:37 Love means sometimes I don't give you what you want.
08:42 Love means sometimes I say what you don't want to hear.
08:46 The Bible says, "Who the Lord loves, he chastens."
08:50 (audience cheering)
08:53 That wasn't love.
08:59 That was pleasing.
09:02 Am I making sense?
09:05 Therefore, ladies and gentlemen,
09:10 we must be intentional about grooming and growing
09:15 our love for God, our love for ourselves,
09:19 and our love for others to the degree
09:23 that we become willing to perpetually,
09:27 not seasonally, not periodically, not temporarily,
09:32 but perpetually do the inner work
09:37 to properly manage unbridled emotions.
09:48 Busting windows out of a car
09:52 is an expression of emotions that are unbridled.
09:58 Come on, talk to me.
10:01 We must be willing to do the work
10:03 so that we can grow spiritually,
10:06 so that we are influencing ourselves emotionally,
10:10 so that even though we have feelings,
10:13 feelings don't have us.
10:15 (audience cheering)
10:18 Because it's one thing for feelings to be in us.
10:22 It's another thing for us to be in our feelings.
10:26 Come on, church.
10:27 Therefore, those of us who are prioritizing purpose
10:30 must embrace the following axiom.
10:33 This is for my note-takers.
10:34 My success requires my sobriety.
10:42 That I can't be successful if I'm not sober.
10:46 I can't be successful relationally if I'm not sober.
10:54 I can't be successful spiritually if I'm not sober.
10:58 I can't be whole emotionally if I'm not sober.
11:02 I cannot advance professionally if I am not sober,
11:06 and the enemy understands the importance of our sobriety,
11:10 and this is what is often under attack.
11:13 He attacks you by attacking your sobriety
11:17 because he knows when you're drunk, you're vulnerable.
11:21 My God, when you're drunk, your decision-making is impaired.
11:26 When you're drunk, you link up with people
11:31 that you would not link up with.
11:34 Where is the 1230 today?
11:36 When you are sober, when you are drunk,
11:40 you entertain things that you would not entertain
11:44 when you are sober, and this is why some of you
11:49 need to pray new friends into your circle.
11:53 This is why some of you need to get in a change group
11:57 because when you're drunk,
11:59 but you got friends around that are sober,
12:02 your sober friends will keep you from being destroyed
12:07 in your drunken state.
12:09 Will somebody pause right now
12:11 and thank God for sober friends?
12:13 (audience cheering)
12:15 When you were about to send that text,
12:17 they said, "Don't you send that text."
12:20 When you were about to pull up,
12:21 they said, "Give me your keys."
12:24 When you were about to go back,
12:25 they reminded you of why you left in the first place.
12:29 Thank God for sober friends.
12:32 Girl, where you going?
12:37 Turn around, come back home.
12:39 You need some give me your keys people in your life.
12:46 (audience cheering)
12:49 So when I say sobriety, people think intoxication,
13:00 and when we say intoxication,
13:01 culturally people only associate intoxication with alcohol.
13:07 What I'm arguing today is,
13:09 is that alcohol is not the only intoxicating agent.
13:14 What I am actually arguing
13:17 is that one of the most dangerous forms
13:21 of intoxication is emotional.
13:24 Intoxication, when there is an emotion
13:30 that is so unmanaged and so unbridled
13:34 that it clouds and impairs your reasoning and your judgment,
13:39 and it allows you to be okay with behavior temporarily
13:45 that you would not be okay with long-term.
13:49 Come on now, it puts you in a I don't care mindset.
13:55 When a I don't care mindset is always seasonal,
14:01 it never leads to full relief.
14:05 Because when a person hurts you,
14:10 hurting them never hurts them enough to heal you.
14:16 Did you hear what I just said?
14:20 When you hurt them,
14:22 you realize hurting you didn't stop me from hurting.
14:25 So now I want to hurt you some more.
14:31 Am I making sense here?
14:32 And the enemy understands this,
14:36 which is why he is after our sobriety.
14:40 And maybe this is why Peter says in 1 Peter 5, 8,
14:45 be alert and of sober mind.
14:49 Why Darius?
14:53 Because your enemy prowls around like a roaring lion,
15:00 looking for someone to devour.
15:04 So it means I don't even have to be strong
15:06 to avoid being devoured.
15:09 I just need to be sober.
15:11 Are you here?
15:14 Maybe this is why Solomon,
15:17 one of the, well, thee, one of thee besides Jesus,
15:20 wisest man to ever live says this in Proverbs 29, 11,
15:24 only a fool gives full vent to their rage.
15:30 He didn't say a fool, only a fool has it.
15:34 He said only a fool gives full vent to it.
15:40 Has no filter, has no boundaries,
15:48 just emotionally unloads.
15:56 He says, but the wise bring calm in the end.
16:01 Y'all missed it.
16:03 They bring calm in the end.
16:05 It means that they are subject to, the wise are,
16:10 the same kind of tendencies and practices as fools.
16:13 It means that they may begin to temporarily engage in
16:18 some of the same tendencies and practices of the fool,
16:23 but the wise get a revelation.
16:26 Of their behavior, mid action.
16:29 And they're able to catch themselves
16:33 and reel themselves back in.
16:37 All of the perfect people be quiet,
16:39 but if you're glad God reeled you back in,
16:43 y'all not talking to me.
16:45 Some of y'all just sit there and don't say anything,
16:48 but if you've ever been on the edge
16:50 of some self-sabotaging behavior and God reeled you in,
16:55 you ought to thank him for that.
16:57 Maybe this is why James says,
17:06 my dear brothers and sisters take note of this.
17:09 Everyone should be quick to listen,
17:11 slow to speak and slow to become angry
17:22 and slow to become angry and slow to become angry and slow.
17:27 I love this church.
17:43 Because I hear some of you in the spirit,
17:46 you just say, help me Jesus.
17:47 I am not slow.
17:51 I'm a runner, I'm a track star.
17:53 I'm not slow.
17:55 It does not take much.
17:57 I'm all the way there.
17:59 I love Jesus, but I will go there very quickly.
18:02 Why?
18:10 Because human anger does not produce the righteousness
18:15 that God desires.
18:17 (congregation murmuring)
18:21 Maybe this is why the apostle Paul says in Ephesians four,
18:25 verse 26 and 27, in your anger, do not sin.
18:28 One translation says, be angry, but sin not.
18:31 So it means that it's okay to have the emotion of anger,
18:33 but don't allow that emotion of anger
18:37 to drive you to a sinful response.
18:39 And then he says this, do not let the sun go down
18:47 on your wrath, or while you're still angry.
18:48 Now, wait a minute, 'cause.
18:50 'Cause some people will read that and say,
18:54 the sun is going down, so we need to not be angry.
18:57 Guys, this is what's called a truism.
19:01 It's not like, it's not, it's the new covenant.
19:04 It's not a law.
19:05 It's a truism.
19:06 It means that you got to extract the point
19:08 that Paul is making.
19:10 It's the spirit of the law, not the letter of the law.
19:14 No, no, no, no, no, Pastor.
19:15 No, it's say the sss.
19:18 Well, what if they hurt me at night?
19:21 The sun already down.
19:25 I got 24 more hours to be mad.
19:28 It's a truism, guys.
19:38 The point is, don't live in that emotion
19:45 longer than is necessary.
19:47 Why?
19:48 Verse 27, and do not give the devil a foothold.
19:52 When I stay in that place emotionally,
19:55 I allow the devil to put his foot in the crack of a door.
20:01 And once he gets his foot in, he can get his leg in.
20:05 And once he gets his leg in, he can get his torso in.
20:09 And once he gets his torso in, he can get his body in.
20:13 But it starts with a foot.
20:15 And I love Bruno, but when it comes to anger,
20:19 we are not leaving the door open.
20:21 We are closing the door
20:23 because we will not give the enemy a foothold.
20:28 How you doing?
20:32 Where you at?
20:33 Oh, you got plans?
20:36 Don't say that.
20:37 (audience cheering)
20:40 Pastor, why are you leaning into emotional sobriety?
20:54 I got this revelation a couple of weeks ago,
20:57 and it wrecked me
20:58 because I started seeing this all throughout scripture.
21:02 And I was like, this is a blind spot
21:05 for the average believer.
21:07 But it is what the enemy has been using
21:10 all throughout scripture.
21:12 Are y'all ready for this?
21:16 I can go through the majority of biblical characters
21:21 and show you in some way how this emotion,
21:25 how their unbridled emotion impacted their ability
21:29 to accomplish all that God had called
21:31 and created them to accomplish.
21:32 I could show you Moses.
21:36 (audience cheering)
21:38 Who did not reach his redemptive potential.
21:41 Who God spoke to and said, come here,
21:43 I'm gonna show you a land, you can see it.
21:45 Here's your punishment.
21:46 You get to see what you never get to have.
21:49 Did you hear what I just said?
21:53 Yeah, see, sometimes the punishment
21:55 isn't the wrong that does happen.
21:57 It's the, ooh, it's the missing of the good that doesn't.
22:02 He says, here's your punishment.
22:03 Look at this land.
22:04 You get to see it, but you won't go in it.
22:07 Why?
22:08 Because he got intoxicated with the emotion of anger.
22:12 And when God told him to speak to the rock,
22:16 he hit the rock.
22:18 And whether or not that seems as a big deal to you or me,
22:22 it's a big deal to God
22:24 because it is an indication of Moses' unpredictability.
22:29 God said, Moses, I can use people that's not perfect.
22:32 I can't use people I can't trust.
22:35 I need to know even in your imperfections,
22:38 you're not unpredictable.
22:39 I cannot be worrying about which version of you
22:42 I'm going to get when you're leading my people.
22:45 I need to know when you are under pressure,
22:48 you can maintain your poise.
22:50 I need to, am I talking to anybody?
22:53 I can show you a gentleman named Absalom
23:00 who was one of David's sons,
23:01 who actually destroyed his entire life.
23:05 He undermined his ability to receive some of his inheritance
23:09 because he was intoxicated with the emotion of ambition.
23:13 He did not have what I call green light theology.
23:17 He was always being pumped up and prodded
23:20 and celebrated by other people.
23:22 And he took their celebration as God's green light.
23:27 He thought because other people were telling him
23:31 he could do it and what he should be doing,
23:34 that that was God's authorization for him to do it.
23:37 See, come on, and Absalom had a lot going for him.
23:43 And that's a blessing and a burden.
23:45 Here's what you hear me say often,
23:46 the more gifted you are, the more difficult clarity becomes.
23:50 'Cause some people are trying to figure out
23:55 what they should be doing.
23:56 And it's hard to figure that out
23:58 when you can do a number of different things and win.
24:01 (congregation applauding)
24:03 Does that make sense?
24:05 So then people are telling you, you should do this,
24:08 or you can do that, or you should be doing this,
24:11 and you can do that.
24:12 They're right, but that doesn't mean
24:13 God's giving you a green light.
24:15 So for me, it doesn't matter who says what.
24:19 I don't move based off of what people say out there.
24:22 I don't move till I get a green light in here.
24:26 And when he say green light, it's all gas and no brakes.
24:30 Lord, don't you touch your neighbor,
24:32 but give them an air high five and say green light.
24:35 Green light.
24:36 I don't know what you've been waiting on, green light.
24:39 I don't know what you've been believing for, green light.
24:42 I don't know what door you've been waiting to swing open,
24:44 but green light.
24:46 (congregation applauding)
24:49 All throughout scripture, we see examples of this.
24:54 I got 11 minutes, y'all good?
24:56 All throughout scripture, I see examples of this,
24:58 but there is no example that is more perplexing to me
25:02 than the example of Abraham.
25:04 There is no example that confused me more than him.
25:10 I mean, this is an incredible man.
25:12 If we eavesdrop on a conversation that God has with him
25:14 in Genesis chapter 12, verse number one,
25:16 you'll see God saying some amazing, amazing,
25:20 amazing things to him and about his future.
25:23 The Lord said to Abraham, go from your country,
25:25 your people, and your father's household
25:27 to the land that I'm gonna show you.
25:28 That doesn't mean that there's anything wrong
25:30 with his past, it just means that he needed
25:31 something new for his future.
25:33 Make sense?
25:35 And the Lord said, he said,
25:37 I'm gonna make you into a great nation.
25:40 Now at this point, he or his wife,
25:42 we don't know which one, is infertile.
25:45 So they can't even have children.
25:47 And God says, I'm still gonna make you a great nation
25:50 'cause you caught up in the process
25:52 when you just need to believe the promise.
25:55 (congregation cheering)
25:58 Your doubt is not in the promise,
26:02 it's really in the process.
26:04 'Cause you think the promise is contingent
26:07 on a certain process.
26:09 Not realizing God say, if I wanna get something to you,
26:13 I don't even have to use a process that already exists.
26:17 I will create a new process
26:20 in order to do a new thing in your life.
26:23 (congregation cheering)
26:25 Watch what he says, I will make your name great.
26:30 Ooh.
26:31 Listen to that, God tells another man,
26:38 I'm gonna make your name great.
26:40 Don't men exist to make God's name great?
26:45 But in the text, God is telling this man,
26:50 I'm gonna make your name great.
26:52 But he gives us some context or some commentary
26:56 to this statement when he says in Genesis 12, two,
26:59 and you will be a blessing.
27:00 So he's like, I'm not making your name great
27:05 just to make your name great.
27:07 I'm making your name great so that you will be a blessing.
27:11 And the reason some people's name will never be great
27:15 is because they're obsessed with their name being great.
27:19 (congregation cheering)
27:22 But if you will become obsessed with being a blessing,
27:26 then you won't have to make your name great.
27:30 God, come on here, will make your name great.
27:35 This is important, why would God do that?
27:37 Because I know we use God's name,
27:41 but God was gonna use Abraham's name.
27:44 He says, I'm gonna make you live a life
27:48 that's so legendary that generations
27:51 who don't know me yet will hear about you.
27:54 So when I get ready to introduce myself to them,
27:59 I'm gonna drop your name.
28:01 When people ask me, who am I?
28:04 I'm gonna say, I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
28:09 Yeah, Abraham, that came out of nothing
28:13 and became something, I did that.
28:16 Abraham, the father of the faith, I did that.
28:19 Oh yeah, Isaac, I did that too.
28:22 Oh Jacob, is there anybody here
28:24 that wants God to be able to drop your name?
28:28 To say, if you wanna know how good I am, look at what I did.
28:34 This is amazing, he tells Abraham,
28:40 I'm so committed to you that I'll bless those who bless you.
28:44 That those that confer favor on you,
28:46 I'll confer favor on them
28:48 because when they're opposing what you're doing,
28:50 they're opposing my agenda.
28:52 So I'm gonna take it personal.
28:56 And I will curse whoever curses you, I'll curse
29:03 because they're inhibiting my agenda.
29:07 And all people on the earth will be blessed
29:18 because of you.
29:18 This is amazing.
29:22 What does God have to think about a man
29:25 to tell a man something like that?
29:27 So he tells this man, hey, I need all this,
29:32 I don't have time, but all this is contingent on you leaving.
29:35 Did you hear what I just said?
29:42 Yeah, he said, he tells Abraham all of this before he left.
29:47 It's a prophetic promise, but it's tied to your obedience.
29:50 You do not shout prophecy in the manifestation.
29:54 The manifestation of the prophetic word
29:58 is on the other side of your obedience.
30:00 After you get through dancing, obey.
30:03 After you get up being slain in the spirit,
30:05 get up and obey.
30:06 Y'all aren't talking to him.
30:07 After you're done running, sit down, catch your breath,
30:10 and you got to do what God said.
30:15 I got five minutes, here it is.
30:17 The text says that God tells him to leave and he leaves.
30:24 This is so interesting to me.
30:27 He leaves and he goes to a place and the Bible says
30:34 when he gets to that place, we read this in verse 10,
30:38 text says that place that he went to experienced a famine.
30:42 So I obeyed.
30:45 I left where you told me to leave
30:47 and you gave, giving me these vague instructions.
30:50 Where I'm going, I'm gonna show you
30:55 specific and vague at the same time.
30:57 So I settle in this place and I'm in this place for a season
31:01 then the place I'm in hits a famine.
31:04 The place I left didn't have one.
31:06 But the place I'm in has a famine
31:14 and famine represents seasons of scarcity.
31:18 It's when there is something that you need
31:21 that is unavailable to you at the level that you need it.
31:24 So obedience doesn't mean I avoid famine.
31:28 Obedience may mean God gives me the wisdom to survive it.
31:31 So they say, all right, this place is
31:39 in a season of scarcity, we got to leave again.
31:43 This is important 'cause it lets you know
31:45 that there are some things that you think are permanent
31:48 that God knows are temporary.
31:49 So they leave and the text says they go to Egypt.
32:00 Tari, I'm done.
32:01 They go to Egypt, almost, got four minutes.
32:04 Just got this.
32:05 It says they leave and they go to Egypt.
32:09 Y'all follow me?
32:11 Okay, so when they go to Egypt,
32:13 I want you to see something.
32:15 Okay, I don't know if I have to do this at the 1230,
32:17 but just in case, I want you to see something.
32:19 I want you to read the Bible objectively.
32:23 Okay, there's only one God in the Bible
32:29 and his name not Abraham, not Isaac or Jacob.
32:33 So the apostle Paul says the stories
32:35 that are written in the Bible are written for our learning.
32:37 Is that right?
32:40 So these people not gods.
32:42 So we're not gonna criticize them,
32:43 but you can't pull the riches from the scriptures
32:46 if you don't look at them critically.
32:49 They not God.
32:53 So you've got to see their humanity so you can learn from it.
32:57 So it's some stuff I'm getting ready to point out
32:59 that may shake your religious tree a little bit.
33:02 But I want you to see something, this same man
33:04 that God says is the father of the faith.
33:10 He's about to enter Egypt.
33:11 This same man looks at his wife.
33:14 Put my script on the screen, they don't believe me.
33:17 He looks at his wife and said, "You fine."
33:20 And when the Egyptians see you,
33:25 they will say, "This is his wife."
33:28 Then they will kill me, but let you live.
33:32 So say you're my sister
33:38 so that I will be treated well for your sake
33:43 and my life will be spared.
33:45 Okay, y'all not.
33:46 Sisters, you got a man.
33:51 You're married.
33:54 You go on vacation in another country.
33:59 You walk into the resort.
34:02 He looks at you and say, "You fine."
34:06 These people are going to kill me so they can have you.
34:11 So the whole vacation, if anybody walk up to me and speak
34:16 and say, "Who is that?"
34:20 I want you to say, "You're my sister."
34:24 Come on.
34:30 This is the only way you're going to get the riches out of.
34:33 Take Sarah's name out and put your name in.
34:36 Take Abraham's name out, put your man's name in.
34:39 Don't sanitize it.
34:42 Now watch what he does.
34:48 He says, "So that I will be treated well for your sake
34:51 and my life will be spared because of you."
34:54 So he's saying, "Do this or I'll die."
34:57 He's a man of God, isn't he?
35:00 But that's manipulation.
35:02 Y'all not ready.
35:04 Let me, next week.
35:06 See, come on, why'd it get so tight in here?
35:09 I said, that's a man of God, but he's not God.
35:11 So he's imperfect.
35:13 And now we see the exposure of some of his imperfections.
35:16 He's a man of God, but look at that.
35:18 That's manipulation.
35:20 What kind of position are you putting her in?
35:33 He's selfish.
35:34 Y'all missed it.
35:36 But I want you to see, put my scripture back up.
35:39 I want you to see how he twists his words.
35:42 "I will be treated well for your sake."
35:45 But earlier in the conversation,
35:50 you said that they are going to kill me and let you live.
35:54 So it was about me.
36:00 (congregation laughing)
36:03 But now I'm trying to make it about you,
36:06 to talk you into.
36:09 Lord, I'm out of time.
36:16 Can I have five more minutes?
36:18 (congregation cheering)
36:20 Some of y'all need to hear this,
36:23 'cause this is a man of God doing this.
36:25 'Cause some of y'all think just 'cause he Christian,
36:27 that's enough.
36:28 (congregation cheering)
36:31 That's where you start.
36:32 That's the first question.
36:35 That's not the only question.
36:36 Are you a manipulator?
36:38 Do you, I go to church.
36:40 That means I know where you at on Sunday.
36:43 That does not mean I know how you are on Monday.
36:46 I can't hear anybody.
36:52 (congregation cheering)
36:55 That is manipulation.
37:03 Now I hear what some of you are saying, "Pastor Daniels,
37:08 how dare you take this one moment in this man's life
37:17 and preach a whole story?
37:22 In one moment, how dare you exegete an isolated incident?"
37:27 Oh, you think it's isolated?
37:30 You hadn't been reading your Bible then.
37:32 Maybe you not as biblically astute as you think you are.
37:39 Because if you kept reading your Bible,
37:42 you would see this is not an isolated incident.
37:45 You would see in the book of Genesis chapter number 20,
37:49 that they came to a place and the Bible says,
37:52 y'all aren't talking to me now.
37:54 The Bible says they went to the region of Nevege
37:57 and lived between Kadesh and Shur.
37:59 And for a while he stayed in Gerar.
38:01 And there in Gerar, not in Egypt, in Gerar,
38:05 he says of Sarah, she my sister.
38:08 This is a pattern.
38:17 I know he hear from God, but it's a pattern.
38:20 And I know he pray, but it's a pattern.
38:22 And I know he's the father of the faith, but it's a pattern.
38:25 And the pattern now is the problem.
38:31 Here's the pattern.
38:36 Every time he gets on foreign soil, he get drunk with fear.
38:46 He's only sober in the familiar.
38:49 Whenever he hits a season that's unfamiliar,
38:54 then this same man, who's a man of faith,
38:57 when he's not on foreign soil, becomes a man of fear.
39:01 When he is on foreign soil,
39:03 he's a man that can't handle the pressure of the unknown.
39:07 And Sarah got to submit to that.
39:11 Y'all aren't talking to me now.
39:14 She in love with a liability.
39:17 You didn't hear what I just said.
39:26 And everybody wants to lead,
39:28 but are you responsible enough to not be a liability?
39:33 You don't get to lead because you are of the male gender.
39:36 You get to lead because you're mature enough
39:39 not to be a liability to those that you love.
39:43 I don't hear anybody.
39:45 If you said amen during manology,
39:51 you ought to be saying amen right now.
39:53 She in love.
40:04 I don't think y'all understand what happens.
40:06 Culturally here, this cultural content, she have an option.
40:13 Culturally, women were treated as property.
40:15 So she is literally at the mercy of the decisions
40:21 of a man that's drunk.
40:25 P.D., my man don't get drunk with alcohol,
40:30 but that doesn't mean he don't get drunk.
40:35 Fear, rage, ambition, selfishness,
40:42 intoxication.
40:43 I guess this your womanology sermon from P.D.
40:50 So this lady is literally at the mercy
40:57 of the decisions of this man.
40:58 And there were two times she was literally taken
41:04 by other men.
41:09 The Pharaoh in Egypt and Abimelech in Jeroam, two times.
41:14 But I want to tell you something about your God.
41:21 Although we as humans exist interdependently,
41:26 God still exists sovereignly.
41:29 So that means although I am impacted
41:32 by the decisions of another person,
41:34 the totality of my life's outcome is not dependent
41:37 on the decision of another person.
41:39 'Cause Abraham let her go in a situation.
41:45 But if you keep reading in Genesis 12, verse 17,
41:49 you'll see in Egypt, the Lord afflicted serious diseases
41:54 upon Pharaoh and his household, not because of Abram,
41:59 but because of Abram's wife, Sarah.
42:01 When he took Sarah into the household,
42:06 God sent diseases into that house.
42:09 No, no, no, no, no.
42:11 In Genesis chapter 20, in Gerar,
42:14 it says that when Abimelech took Sarah,
42:17 God came to Abimelech in a dream one night
42:20 and said, "You are as good as dead
42:24 "because of the woman you have taken."
42:26 Y'all aren't talking to me.
42:28 You see, this is the power of God's sovereignty
42:32 when Abraham won't cover you.
42:35 (congregation cheering)
42:37 When Abraham won't protect you.
42:40 When Abraham won't step up to the plate, God did.
42:44 And God said, "I'm not going to allow her welfare
42:48 "and her wellbeing to be determined
42:51 "by the decision of another person."
42:53 He said, "If they won't do it, I will."
42:56 I feel like preaching in here today.
43:01 David said it this way.
43:02 David said, "If my mother and my father forsake me,
43:06 "then the Lord will take me up."
43:08 I don't know who this is for, but you're gonna be all right.
43:15 I said, you're gonna be all right.
43:17 I don't care who didn't do what they said
43:19 they were going to do, you're gonna be all right.
43:21 I don't care who didn't show up
43:23 the way they said they were gonna show up,
43:25 you're gonna be all right.
43:27 When they step out, God steps in.
43:30 (congregation applauding)
43:34 I'm done, Ty, y'all.
43:41 Although Abraham didn't cover Sarah, God did.
43:46 He won't allow the activity of another person
43:48 to determine your wellbeing.
43:49 You are not at the mercy of somebody else's dysfunction.
43:52 But this cost Abraham.
43:59 (congregation murmuring)
44:01 Cost him something.
44:02 This lack of emotional sobriety.
44:06 Were a couple of incidents,
44:08 but I know it cost him something
44:10 beyond the lifespan of those incidents.
44:12 It cost him something.
44:15 It is a reflection of how the enemy
44:18 wants to use emotional intoxication
44:20 to destroy other areas.
44:24 Number one, he wants to use emotional intoxication
44:27 to destroy your comrades.
44:30 In other words, he wants us to be so emotionally intoxicated
44:35 that loving you becomes a liability.
44:37 So some people want you to stay and get sick
44:53 as opposed to them getting better.
44:57 (congregation applauding)
45:01 I don't want loving me to be a liability.
45:06 I don't want loving me to be hazardous to your health
45:13 because I'm emotionally intoxicated.
45:18 Not just your comrades.
45:26 Number two, he wants to use it to destroy your calling.
45:29 What you've been put on this earth to do.
45:32 Your calling is carried out in seasons, right?
45:36 Your purpose is the reason for the creation
45:37 of existence of a thing.
45:38 Your calling is God's invitation for your participation
45:42 to carry out a certain role in a certain season.
45:45 And so he calls you to different things
45:47 in different seasons.
45:49 So you don't give him one yes,
45:50 you gotta give him multiple yeses.
45:52 He called me in the ministry, that's one yes.
45:55 Then he called me in the pastoral ministry,
45:57 that's another yes.
45:58 Then he called, am I making sense?
46:00 So there are gonna be these different,
46:02 and right when God's getting ready to open the door
46:05 to a new chapter in his story for your life,
46:07 the enemy strategically times a trigger.
46:10 He's strategic in his timing.
46:16 He says right when they get ready to step forward,
46:20 I'm gonna trigger them with something
46:22 to get them to behave in a way
46:24 where they take three steps back.
46:26 Because I can't destroy their life.
46:31 I couldn't in the Garden of Eden.
46:33 I can only influence them to destroy themselves.
46:36 But because I'm a deceiver, if I can keep them mad at me
46:41 because they think I'm the problem,
46:44 they'll never fix the real problem.
46:46 The devil doesn't mind us being mad at him
46:53 when we the problem.
46:54 (congregation murmurs)
46:56 'Cause if we think he's the problem,
46:57 then we've gotta wait on him to fix it for it to be fixed.
47:01 But when we see that we're the problem,
47:03 we can fix it whenever we get ready.
47:05 The triggers are always strategic in time.
47:10 And last but not least, number three, you ready?
47:16 Your credibility.
47:18 I'm gonna ask y'all something I don't know the answer.
47:22 We're gonna ask Sarah when we get to heaven.
47:24 I know you stayed with Abraham after that,
47:28 but how much did you respect him after that?
47:31 (congregation murmurs)
47:34 I don't know.
47:37 That had to cost them some credibility.
47:43 And credibility is currency,
47:49 a medium of exchange in the kingdom.
47:52 (congregation murmurs)
47:54 Wow, pastor, it's one of your most important assets.
47:57 Credibility creates access.
47:58 Just as currency allows us to gain access
48:01 to exclusive places or services,
48:03 credibility creates opportunities that can only be accessed
48:06 by those who can be trusted, not just those that are gifted.
48:09 (congregation murmurs)
48:12 Credibility opens doors that gift doesn't.
48:16 (congregation murmurs)
48:18 Credibility insulates you from attacks.
48:21 It doesn't prevent attacks, but it insulates you from them
48:26 because your credibility in the past
48:28 will give you the benefit of the doubt in the present.
48:31 Your credibility defends you in your absence.
48:36 So even when people are saying things
48:38 and you're not there to defend yourself,
48:41 the credibility that you have established in the past
48:44 begins to defend you.
48:48 And it gives you the benefit of the doubt
48:50 with reasonable people.
48:51 'Cause you can't reason with unreasonable.
48:56 You cannot be understood by someone
49:00 who's made a decision not to understand.
49:02 (congregation murmurs)
49:06 Number three, credibility amplifies the impact of your gifts.
49:11 It's like, man, this is something that's so important.
49:18 (congregation murmurs)
49:21 Sometimes people have a great gift
49:23 and you want to benefit from that gift,
49:26 but you challenged because they come with it.
49:31 (congregation murmurs)
49:34 It's like, I want this gift,
49:38 but I don't know if I want to deal with
49:39 everything I gotta deal with to get this, I'm good.
49:43 (congregation murmurs)
49:47 And when people don't check this,
49:49 especially when people don't check this,
49:52 they get to a season where they're not as relevant.
49:55 And then their only options become doors
49:59 that can only be opened by people who are desperate enough
50:03 to tolerate what the rest of us refuse to tolerate anymore.
50:08 (congregation murmurs)
50:15 One of my greatest preaching influences
50:17 is a guy named John Guns from Jacksonville, Florida.
50:20 And John Guns says something to me years ago
50:22 when I was early in ministry, I'll never forget it.
50:25 Very honest and gracious man.
50:27 He looked at me and said,
50:28 "Darius, you ain't nothing but a season."
50:30 He wasn't diminishing my importance.
50:36 He was helping me see that you're gonna make
50:38 a contribution to the earth, you're gonna go to heaven,
50:41 they're gonna talk about you for a minute,
50:42 and it's the next man up.
50:44 (congregation murmurs)
50:47 All you are is a season.
50:48 Manage yours well.
50:51 (congregation cheers)
50:54 And credibility attracts favor.
51:02 Favor's not bestowed on those who earn it.
51:08 That would make it something other than favor.
51:10 Favor's bestowed on those who can be trusted with it.
51:12 (congregation murmurs)
51:14 Credibility.
51:16 Now here's the real.
51:17 We're not judging, we're thinking critically.
51:20 You're not judging Abraham.
51:22 'Cause all of us have been Abraham.
51:24 And because you're not perfect, perfectionist,
51:27 you're gonna have another Abrahamic moment.
51:30 You're gonna have a few.
51:31 I know, that's real, end is right.
51:35 (congregation laughs)
51:38 But here's what I love about God.
51:41 Even though Abraham operated the way he operated,
51:45 God, in Genesis 20, when he's talking to Akeem of Bimelech,
51:49 he's like, "You gotta go to Abraham, my prophet,
51:51 "and let him pray for you."
51:52 After all Abraham went through,
51:55 God looked at him and said, "That's still my prophet."
51:58 Here's the good news.
52:03 God's a God of redemption.
52:04 So it means that even when you have moments
52:07 that impact your credibility,
52:09 God will restore your credibility, listen to me,
52:12 in the minds of those that are necessary for your destiny.
52:15 He restores your reputation in the minds of those
52:20 that are necessary for your destiny.
52:22 So if their opinion about you doesn't change,
52:26 it means their opinion doesn't matter.
52:28 (congregation applauds)
52:31 You receive that?
52:38 - Yes.
52:39 - So no guilt, no condemnation,
52:42 'cause we all have been Abraham.
52:45 But his grace is sufficient.
52:49 We're gonna get ready to go.
52:51 I'm praying us out of here right now.
52:53 I want you to lift your hands.
52:55 We're gonna do three things at once.