Catégorie
📚
ÉducationTranscription
00:00 Hey YouTube family, Pastor Darius here man.
00:02 Listen, part four of this Slow Jam series is what you're about to watch.
00:06 It's called There Goes My Baby.
00:07 I'm talking about recognizing relational assets.
00:10 Two kinds of people in your life.
00:12 Assets, liabilities.
00:13 I know that makes some people a little uncomfortable because it feels like you're labeling or judging
00:17 people.
00:18 But before you come to a conclusion, listen to what I have to say as I teach you the lesson
00:21 from the Bible and see if the Bible supports what I'm arguing.
00:25 I believe it does.
00:26 And I think your relational life is going to change, not just romantically, but every
00:30 area of your relationships.
00:31 Here's one request.
00:32 If this blesses or adds value to you in any way, share it with somebody else.
00:36 Take care.
00:37 God bless.
00:38 Well, listen, let's go together to the book of Joshua chapter two.
00:44 Today is part four of this series called Slow Jams.
00:49 And I want to read a few verses from Joshua chapter two and use it as a launcher pad to
00:53 leap into our lesson.
00:55 Joshua two verse eight says this before the spies lay down for the night, she went up
01:01 on a roof and said to them, I know the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear
01:08 of you has fallen on us.
01:11 So that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you.
01:16 We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of
01:20 Egypt and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan,
01:26 whom you completely destroyed.
01:29 When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone's courage failed because
01:34 of you.
01:36 For the Lord, your God is God in heaven above and on earth below.
01:41 Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family because
01:48 I've shown kindness to you.
01:50 Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers
01:57 and sisters and all who belong to them and that you will save us from death.
02:05 I'm going to stop the reading of scripture right there and tag a title to this text as
02:10 we conclude this slow jams series right here from our Atlanta location.
02:15 Let's conclude it with an Atlanta legend.
02:18 I want to talk from this subject.
02:21 Let me see if old school is in here.
02:22 There goes my baby.
02:27 Clap your hands if you're ready for God's work.
02:35 On June 15th, 2010, Usher released a record entitled There Goes My Baby.
02:45 And this record reveals an unusual appreciation and an unparalleled admiration that this man
02:55 has for a woman.
02:59 And the first stanza of the song suggests something like this, "There goes my baby.
03:06 Ooh, girl, look at you.
03:12 You don't know how good it feels to call you my girl.
03:20 There goes my baby, loving everything you do.
03:30 Ooh, girl, look at you."
03:40 As is the case with each song we selected to use this month, there is a larger lesson
03:48 in the lyrics of this one if we listen with spiritual ears.
03:55 This song, as is the case with the others, has sermonic significance and redemptive value,
04:03 not just romantically, but relationally.
04:08 There is a lesson in the lyrics of this song that will help us not just manage romantic
04:15 relationships, but it helps us manage relationships in general because this song, family, teaches
04:25 us the significance of developing the ability to recognize a relational asset.
04:35 And anyone who is serious about accomplishing God's assignment for their life is someone
04:41 who takes this life skill seriously because you realize and you recognize that you and
04:49 I can't be our best self by ourselves.
04:53 We realize and recognize that we can't do our best work by ourselves, that we don't
04:59 need or we don't have to have relationships romantically in order to thrive, but you
05:06 do have to have relationships generally in order to thrive.
05:11 It is the way you have been wired and it is the way God has chosen to work.
05:17 It is actually something called incarnational ministry.
05:21 It is based on the incarnation.
05:24 What's that Darius?
05:25 It's in John chapter one, where John says in the beginning was the word and the word
05:30 was with God and the word was God speaking of Jesus.
05:35 And in verse 14 he says, and the word became flesh is saying that which was divine became
05:44 flesh.
05:45 That is the incarnation when you become, but you don't stop being.
05:51 Am I making sense?
05:55 I'm using a podium to speak here.
05:58 This is a podium, but it didn't start as a podium.
06:02 It started as wood.
06:06 It became a podium, but it didn't stop being wood.
06:12 God became flesh, but didn't stop being God.
06:18 It's it's incarnational ministry.
06:20 It is God looking at the plight and the predicament of the human species and saying they have
06:26 a sin problem, but the only way I can help them is to become like them.
06:31 Yeah, a theologian called Anselm calls this a ransom theory of atonement.
06:37 He says that sin is not giving God what he's owed, so we are indebted to him.
06:43 Yet God is only satisfied with God, so only he can satisfy what we owe.
06:49 So God has to figure out a strategy to be man enough to owe it and God enough to pay
06:55 it.
07:00 So in Philippians 2, the Bible says he empties himself.
07:04 It's a Greek concept called kenosis, and he performs what's called the hypostatic union
07:10 where you take two natures, you put them in one person without the natures commingling
07:14 with each other.
07:16 So you got the human in the divine in one person, and the human nature is not touching
07:21 the divine because if the human nature touches the divine, it's not fully human.
07:26 And you got the divine not touching the human because if the divine touches the human,
07:29 it's not fully divine.
07:30 It's a demigod.
07:32 So you got two natures that are existing in one person, and he's not half of both of them.
07:37 He's full of all of them.
07:39 He's the only one of the begotten of the father, full of grace and truth.
07:45 He became, he says to fix this sin problem, I've got to become like them.
07:53 So he didn't send an angel.
07:57 He didn't send an angel to save you and me.
07:59 He didn't come in the form of the father to save you and me.
08:03 When he got ready to save you and me, he sent a person because much of what God is going
08:09 to do in our lives is going to come through people and we don't have to like it.
08:14 It may make us uncomfortable, but the scriptures teach that God takes the foolish things of
08:20 this world to confound the wise.
08:22 He says, I'm going to take a fragile, temperamental, unpredictable, territorial, selfish, hypersensitive,
08:31 imperfect, up and down human, and I'm going to put something in them that you need.
08:38 I'm going to put some treasure in that earthen vessel.
08:44 And the only way you get the treasure is you're going to have to deal with the vessel.
08:48 Am I talking to anybody in the house today?
08:54 It's incarnational ministry.
08:57 He uses people.
09:03 He's not limited to using people, but he is likely to use people.
09:12 We see this, I taught you this law first mentioned, we see this in the creation narrative.
09:17 When God creates the world, whether that's seven days, don't get caught up on that, whether
09:21 that's a literal or metaphorical, there was progressive creation.
09:25 Here's what he says on the first day he created, step back and evaluate it, said it's good.
09:35 Second day, create it, step back and evaluate it.
09:39 It's good.
09:40 Third day, fourth day, fifth day, create it, step back and evaluate it and say it's good.
09:47 On the sixth day, he created Adam, step back and evaluate it and say it's not good.
09:54 That man should be alone.
09:59 He's not saying every person needs a spouse.
10:05 That's not what he was saying.
10:06 Jesus didn't have one.
10:09 Paul didn't have one either.
10:12 Now I need one and I got one.
10:18 I need one.
10:19 I'm not Paul or Jesus.
10:20 I need one.
10:21 Ain't no woman like the one I got.
10:23 I need that.
10:29 He wasn't saying every person needs a spouse.
10:31 He was saying humanity needed the female gender.
10:35 He said, Adam, I told you to have dominion and if you are the only gender that exists,
10:45 then you're going to be unable to accomplish my assignment.
10:48 So I need, I made you and I made you complete, but you still need some help.
10:55 So I'm going to make a help mate.
11:00 So what did he do?
11:02 Adam had animals around and Adam had God.
11:08 How can I be alone if God there?
11:14 It's not good that man should be alone.
11:16 God said that.
11:18 How can I be alone if God with me?
11:21 Because God looked at the human species and said, there's something that they need that
11:26 I won't give them in this form.
11:32 There's something they need that show up in their life, not on four legs, not on four
11:36 wheels, but on two legs, they need other humans because this and this family law first mentioned,
11:43 when you see it in Genesis, you're going to see it in principle all throughout scripture
11:47 is a powerful picture of the truth that God has chosen to use people.
11:52 God's the source, but people are the resource and I would be an irresponsible pastor derelict
12:00 in my duty if I did not stand and lean into this and push back against a cultural ideology
12:07 that many people treat like it's theology.
12:10 See a lot of times when culture saying it, people treat it like God says it.
12:14 And there's this cultural ideology that I don't need anybody so I can be disrespectful,
12:20 dismissive, entitled, arrogant, dishonoring, and I'm still going to have what I want and
12:26 get to where I want to go.
12:28 But the devil is a liar.
12:33 At some point you're going to need a door open that your check can't open.
12:39 Did you hear what I just said?
12:42 Because some of the doors you and I are believing God to open are have to be opened by people
12:48 who don't want or need our money.
12:52 Did you hear what I just said?
12:54 God has chosen to use people.
12:59 He used Noah to save humanity from the flood.
13:04 He used Joseph to spare his family from famine.
13:07 He used Moses to get Israel out of Egypt.
13:11 He used Joshua to get them into the promised land.
13:15 He used Gideon to deliver them from the Midianites.
13:18 He used a strong sister named Deborah to deliver them from the Canaanites.
13:24 He used Esther to save them from Persia.
13:28 And he used Jesus to save us from our sins.
13:32 He used Paul to write two-thirds of the New Testament.
13:37 And he is still in the business of using people.
13:48 Now hear me, he uses people, but he's not limited to using a person.
13:55 And when we erroneously assume that he's limited to using a person, what we end up doing is
14:01 treating the person who's a resource like they the source.
14:08 Did y'all hear what I just said?
14:10 And that's how many people subject themselves to abuse and subject themselves to exploitation
14:17 because you think they the only one that can do it.
14:20 I want you to know if God chooses not to use them, God can use somebody else.
14:27 Because when he's got something for me, it's going to get done.
14:31 If he wants me in a room, I'm getting in the room.
14:34 If he wants a door open for me, the door's going to open.
14:38 Now you can decide if he uses you to do it, but you can't decide if it gets done.
14:44 He'll open no doors that no man can shut and close doors that no one can open.
14:50 Am I talking to anybody that knows that when man steps out, God will step in?
14:57 Somebody praise him like he's getting ready to step.
15:00 Clap like he's getting ready to step.
15:02 Rejoice like he's getting ready to step in your situation.
15:08 But he has chosen to use people.
15:17 Am I making sense?
15:21 He's chosen to use people.
15:24 Now I want you to catch this family.
15:28 Therefore, every believer, I'm going to get ready to say this.
15:32 What I want you to do, especially if this house in some way, if you're dating us,
15:37 if you just pull up every now and then, but in some way, if you see this as a place
15:42 that contributes to your spiritual growth, if I'm going to help you and this house is going to help you grow in any way,
15:48 it means I've got to stretch you from time to time.
15:51 Right?
15:52 So it means if all I'm doing is repeating what you've already heard, I'm not helping you.
15:57 So every now and then I'm going to have to say something and challenge us in the area where you got to step back and say, what?
16:04 OK, so I'm getting ready to say something here.
16:07 And I want I want you to let me explain myself.
16:11 Because this is why I'm leaning into this, this area.
16:16 Everybody is equally valuable in the eyes of God.
16:22 Got me?
16:23 Wave at me if you agree.
16:25 OK, Wall Street off the street, equally valuable in the eyes of God.
16:32 Ph.D. No degree.
16:34 Equally valuable as a guy.
16:38 Magna cum laude summa cum laude.
16:40 Thank you, Lottie.
16:44 Equally valuable in the eyes of God.
16:47 All right.
16:51 But just because people are equally valuable in the eyes of God doesn't mean they add equal value to you.
17:05 See, breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe.
17:09 We the same, but we different.
17:14 We the same. We need grace.
17:16 We the same. We need mercy.
17:18 We're the same. We're God's children, but we different because there's a difference between my value in the eyes of God and the value I bring to people.
17:31 I'm not done. Keep breathing.
17:33 Y'all right. Need some water. Here it is.
17:35 I'm not done. Not only is everyone not an asset to people.
17:41 Some are actually liabilities.
17:52 We're equally valuable in the eyes of God, but that is not the same as the value I bring to people.
18:04 I can be loved enough by him for him to die for me.
18:09 But I can be so dysfunctional that I'm killing you.
18:17 Come on. Come on.
18:23 1038 45.
18:27 Here it is. Here it is. Let's let's look through it scripturally.
18:31 Let's look through scripture. The wisest man who ever lived besides Jesus is a sage named Solomon.
18:37 He wrote most of the Proverbs. This is what he says in Proverbs 30.
18:42 I mean, 13 verse 20. Solomon says, walk with the wise and become wise.
18:52 Is that what it says in the Greek, in the Hebrew, in the Swahili, in English, in Japanese, walk with the wise and become wise.
19:02 Is that in the book? OK, for a companion of fools. Suffers harm.
19:13 Listen to the text. It didn't say a fool suffers harm.
19:18 It says a companion of fools suffers harm. So it means I don't have to be a fool to be harmed.
19:26 I just have to be connected to one. And then I become a victim of their unmanaged issue.
19:35 Did you hear what I just I become collateral damage. Walk with the wise.
19:44 I become like who I walk with, walk with the wise and become wise asset.
19:51 For a companion of fools suffers harm, liability, and you need discernment to see the difference.
20:06 All right. The apostle Paul says something similar in first Corinthians 15, 33.
20:12 The apostle Paul says this. Do not be misled. I just want to know.
20:21 Ten thirty. Am I preaching the Bible? That's it. Is it OK? Bad company.
20:31 Corrupts good character. It means I can have good character.
20:39 Now, this is what's scary. I can have good character and my character be corrupted by my company.
20:45 Now, watch this. This is first Corinthians. So this is in the Bible.
20:50 So it's it's it's first Corinthians. It's what Paul wrote to believers in Corinth.
20:56 So they're Corinthians. So he's writing to believers.
21:01 He's saying this to Christians. Just because I'm saved doesn't mean I can see.
21:14 Let me say that one more time. Just because I'm saved doesn't mean I can see.
21:19 And I believe some of our prayers need to be prayers that are similar to the prayer, the servant of the prayer that Elisha pray for a servant.
21:28 Lord, open his eyes. I've got the Holy Ghost, but open my eyes.
21:32 I pray, but open my eyes. I read my Bible, but open my eyes.
21:37 I need to be able to see something that I think is an asset and determine whether or not it's a liability.
21:47 Here's what's scary. He says, don't be misled, which means I can be unaware of the impact that somebody is having on me.
21:56 I can think I'm at such a place in my own development that I'm unaffected by my company.
22:05 So Paul says, don't be misled. Bad company corrupts good character. It's easy to be misled.
22:11 Why? Because corruption doesn't happen immediately.
22:19 Corruption happens incrementally.
22:23 So I don't feel when I'm being corrupted. I just see when I become corrupt.
22:35 Am I making sense here? I said, am I making sense here?
22:41 And this is essential. This is important because everybody is equally valuable in the eyes of God.
22:48 But everyone does not add equal value to you.
22:59 Therefore, we need the ability to recognize relational assets.
23:06 And the reason I keep using the word discernment is because in order to do this, we need more than our five senses.
23:16 We need more than our street smarts. We need more than our experience.
23:21 You need God to help you see what your eyes can't see, to help you hear.
23:29 Y'all missed it. See, because you can hear the same thing.
23:32 But when you hear what spiritually is, you can hear what other people aren't hearing.
23:38 We need this spiritually. Why Darius? Why Darius? Why Darius?
23:43 Because sometimes your relational assets show up looking like rehab.
23:56 Did you hear what I just said?
23:59 They end up looking like rehab. See, because there's three types of relationships you can have.
24:03 There are parasites.
24:10 Somebody say parasites. Yeah, these are biological organisms that live and are sustained at the expense of the host.
24:22 You got me. OK, so you got parasites.
24:26 Then what's this? You got partners. These are people who are willing to come alongside you with something that they bring to the table to aid and assist you in becoming someone or accomplishing something.
24:39 And then you've got promoters. These are people in life who help you access and attain that which you are unable to access and attain yourself.
24:54 Does that make sense? So you got the parasites.
24:58 Then you got the partners, which could be if you Paul, it could be Silas.
25:02 Then it could be John Mark. It could be Barnabas.
25:05 But then you got promoters and the promoters are rare because they're the ones that put you in rare air.
25:14 See, with a partner, if Paul, if Silas won't do it, Barnabas will.
25:18 If Barnabas won't do it, John Mark will. If Timothy don't work out, Titus will.
25:25 That's a partner. But the promoter, which is a person now that adds value.
25:34 Which is the asset that's rare.
25:39 So what you and I need is the ability to recognize rare.
25:47 And it seems like we live in a culture that doesn't realize that rare exists.
25:56 So we treat in common like it's rare and treat rare.
26:08 Treating rare like it's common. Come on, church.
26:12 I said, come on, church. And when you are mismanaging and rejecting the rare relationships that God is sending to your life,
26:21 you and I are mismanaging and rejecting God's divine provision.
26:26 It is the equivalent of drowning in a sea, praying and asking God to save us.
26:32 And someone comes along in a boat and says, do you want to get in the boat?
26:36 And we respond by saying God's going to do it. Child of God.
26:40 God just did it by sending. He just did it by sending the boat.
26:51 Am I making sense, family? I said, am I making sense, family?
26:55 And many people are rejecting the help they need or fumbling the help.
27:02 You had it, but you fumbled it. You had it, but you blew it.
27:07 You had it, but you did not treat it as it was right as if it was rare.
27:13 And the reason this is the case is because very often.
27:20 Your relational assets show up looking like rehab.
27:26 I don't know if you're ready for this. Did you hear what I just said?
27:32 It was silence of the lambs at the 845 when I hit this rehab represents the help you need.
27:41 That comes in a package you didn't expect because your introduction to the asset is also an introduction to their imperfections.
27:57 Did you hear what I just said? It's in the text. Let me show you something.
28:02 Because remember, guys, remember, I want you to see the continuity passages all throughout Exodus.
28:07 You hear God telling Moses to tell the people I'm bringing them out of Egypt so I can bring them into this land that's flowing with milk and honey.
28:14 And I don't have time to deal with this. But Moses did not was not able to take Israel all the way in.
28:20 He could bring them. He brought them out of Egypt. But we talked about it last last week.
28:24 Right. The triggers and the anger and all of that, him hitting the rock instead of speaking to the rock and how that he became a person that what that God couldn't trust.
28:33 And that's why God did. So the book of Joshua details how Moses now goes off the scene and Joshua assumes leadership.
28:42 So Joshua is Moses's successor and the personnel shift from Moses to Joshua is representative of a personality shift.
28:52 You and I have to have to possess certain promises. The personnel shift is representative of personality shift.
29:02 This applies to life and in leadership as a leader. There are seasons you got to be Moses when the people are fragile.
29:09 They're traumatized and they're non-trusting. So you've got to be diplomatic, bureaucratic and overly patient.
29:17 Then there comes a season where there has to be a personality shift because the temperament that gets you out of Egypt is not the temperament that gets you into Canaan.
29:31 To get out of Egypt, you had to run. But to get into Canaan, you got to fight and running takes one kind of attitude.
29:40 But fighting takes another. And I don't know who this is for at the 1030 service, but I want to tell somebody in this room and online it's fighting season.
29:53 You've been passive long enough. You've been bureaucratic long enough. You've been politically correct long enough.
30:02 There's nothing wrong with it, but you're no longer coming out of Egypt. You're getting ready to go into Canaan land.
30:09 And as a result of that, you need to go from a lamb mentality to a lion mentality. I'm getting ready to take what belongs to me.
30:20 I feel like preaching at the 1030. Somebody shall take it. If you want peace, take it. If you want joy, take it.
30:29 If you want anointing, take it. If you want healing, take it. You must be willing to fight for it. I got to go.
30:43 Moses is diplomatic and he operates with ruinous empathy. It's an empathy that ruins people and ruins himself.
30:55 A unhealthy empathy. Would y'all come on? Please come. Y'all stop. Don't worship the golden calf. Please don't do that.
31:04 Come on, serve the right God. Joshua, completely different. Who are you going to serve? Who are you going to serve?
31:15 Joshua is different. He said, oh, you want to serve Baal? Serve Baal. But as for me and my house, we will.
31:25 This is a ask for me season. You've been pleading. You've been trying to convince. You've been trying to bring along.
31:33 You've been trying to beg. This is your season to say I love you, but I got to let you do you.
31:38 I'm just telling you, if you're looking for me, you'll find me on the next level.
31:45 If you're wondering where I went, you'll find me on the next level.
32:01 Watch this. So Joshua assumes leadership.
32:07 He assumes leadership and they're getting ready to occupy the promised land. So he sends two spies over to do some recon on the land.
32:18 Now, 1030, are y'all are y'all ready? I need you to take I need you to take your religious cap off now.
32:26 Don't take your spiritual cap off, but take that religious cap off because everything religious ain't right.
32:34 Because I'm getting ready to shake your tree. So he sends two spies over. All right, media, give me chapter two, verse one.
32:41 So they're supposed to go over and spot a land. That's what they're supposed to do.
32:46 They're supposed to go over and spot a land and come back and give a report.
32:52 I'm just going to read the Bible. All I'm going to do is read the Bible.
32:57 All I'm going to do is read the Bible. Joshua, the son of man, secretly sent two spies.
33:04 And he said, go look over the land, especially Jericho. Is that clear?
33:09 So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab.
33:18 Now, Joshua told you. See how tight it got in the room, right?
33:26 That's Joshua told you you need to go to the land and go to Jericho.
33:36 Put my scripture back up. They don't believe me. These men coincidentally.
33:47 Goes to the house of a prostitute named Rahab. And watch this. Just just in case some of y'all didn't keep reading the text,
33:57 then say they went in and said, oops, I'm in the wrong place. Let me leave.
34:04 Where is my church at 1030? It says, and they stayed there.
34:14 They stayed there. This is the enemy trying to use their impulses to undermine their assignment.
34:30 Their assignment was to gather intel and bring it back to Joshua so that he could devise a plan accordingly.
34:38 But he wanted to use their weaknesses to ruin the plan.
34:42 But God says, I'm not going to allow the mistakes of the two spies to mess up everything for the whole nation.
34:54 So I'm a deal with them about where they spent the night later.
35:01 I'm a deal with them later about that. But right now, it's not about them.
35:05 It's about my people. And I can't let the enemy use their impulses to cause them to make a decision that affects the other people.
35:15 So this is what I'm going to do. What the enemy meant for evil.
35:20 I'm a work it for good. They shouldn't have been going to any house like that.
35:26 But since they were going to a house, God made sure they went into the right wrong one.
35:34 Y'all not ready. Let me go so I can do it for 1230.
35:38 I said, and some of you should be shouting because truth be told.
35:46 God made sure you were in the right wrong thing.
35:52 You could have been dead. You could have been exposed. You could have been out of it.
35:57 But somehow God made sure.
36:10 They just happen to go to the house of a woman who say, listen, I heard about y'all.
36:15 I'm not sorry. I heard about y'all.
36:19 And I heard about y'all, God. And everybody here scared because we heard how we dried up the red sea.
36:27 We heard of the things that he's done in the past. And so these people have come to my house looking for you.
36:33 I've told them you were not here. Now I'll save your life.
36:38 I'm actually to save mine. And what I want you to do is when y'all come into this land and take it, I want you.
36:47 I ain't got time. I want you to remember me.
36:53 I'm a let you down by this red rope and I'm a leave this red rope hanging outside my house.
37:00 So that when you're confident, when you're when your country comes in and in base and they see the red rope hanging out this window,
37:09 I want them to realize this is an untouchable house.
37:14 When you see the red, don't touch it. When you see the red, keep it alive.
37:21 When you see the red spirit, when you see the red, protect it.
37:26 When you see the blood, leave them alone. The reason you are still here is because when the enemy came in your direction, he saw red.
37:36 [Music]
38:03 So what happens is these men now got to make a decision because a woman that's given them these words is a prostitute who runs the brothel.
38:23 So it's the help they need in a package they didn't expect.
38:31 So they got to have the discernment to see the asset inside of the imperfect vessel.
38:37 Listen to me. If you religious and not spiritual, you let what she's doing stop her from doing what she'd been called to do for you.
38:49 And some people you're not getting what you need from who you need it because you're too easily offended by imperfections.
39:01 Whatever asset is in your life is going to have an imperfection somewhere.
39:06 It doesn't mean they're sinful, but it means that they're imperfect.
39:11 And some of your problem is the enemy has used such relationships in the past as an instrument of spiritual warfare to traumatize you to the point where what you're now calling discernment is suspicion.
39:26 So now people that you need and that you need quickly have to pass your suspicion test.
39:38 And so what you what we need discernment to do is to distinguish between imperfect and dangerous.
39:49 Rahab was imperfect, but she wasn't dangerous.
39:55 Y'all missed it. They could have went to the house of somebody who did not do what Rahab did.
40:02 And that person, if they had less courage, would have gave them up.
40:12 We have this treasure in earthen vessels so that the excellency may be of the power of God and not of us.
40:23 Lord, give me eyes to see.
40:28 Because I don't get to pick who you choose to bless me.
40:33 And I don't want the pain of my past to cause me to treat something that's rare, like it's common.
40:42 For me to think, oh, I can get another one. And then I realize, oh, I can't because God didn't make that many of them.
40:56 May God give us the ability to recognize where it's arrogant, prideful, not to recognize where I know.
41:09 I know what I'm married to is rare.
41:13 See, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not like I'm supposed to say that. I don't have to say that.
41:17 If I didn't mean it, I would just say nothing.
41:25 I know it's rare. So I try to treat it that way.
41:32 Why? You say you can get a whole bunch of people, not that.
41:42 Bring home bacon and fry it.
41:50 You got to have the ability to recognize rare.
41:54 Because every significant door that is swung open in my life has swung open by somebody on the other side.
42:08 And when gifts are equal. Character is the one that makes the difference.
42:16 How have you handled people?
42:23 Bible says Proverbs 16, 7, when a man's ways please the Lord, he'll make his enemies be at peace with him.
42:35 People who are mean spirited people.
42:39 God will call some of those people to leave you alone.
42:44 They'd be like, he'll go do hang on.
42:51 May God give me eyes to see.
42:57 The ones that he's sending to me.
43:01 To be an asset to me.
43:04 And that requires intentionality that requires nurture in those relationships that requires expressing appreciation.
43:12 That requires mutual support that requires showing up.
43:16 That requires praying and interceding.
43:19 Recognizing rare that doesn't make you weak.
43:22 That makes you wise to say God didn't make many of you, but he loved me enough to send you to me.
43:32 And I'm going to honor him by properly recognizing you.
43:39 Even though I see your imperfections too.
43:46 We got to go. Clap your hands if you receive this word today.
43:52 [Applause]