• il y a 2 ans
Transcription
00:00:00 [MUSIC]
00:00:10 In the book of Acts, chapter number 12, verse 1 through 14,
00:00:14 it would almost appear, and we're pretty organized, and
00:00:18 we're pretty structured.
00:00:21 And we put a great deal of effort and energy in trying to
00:00:24 present our best selves to you, but we don't always confer
00:00:28 between the worship team and the preaching.
00:00:32 But it sounds like that we did, because what they just got
00:00:38 through singing is in alignment with what I'm about
00:00:41 to preach.
00:00:42 >> Amen.
00:00:44 >> Acts 12, 1 through 14, there's probably more Bible
00:00:47 reading than you did this month.
00:00:49 >> Amen.
00:00:52 >> We're reading out the message Bible.
00:00:55 You can follow along if you want to.
00:00:56 You can look at the monitors on the screen.
00:00:58 That's when King Herod got it into his head to go after
00:01:05 some of the church members.
00:01:07 What in the world?
00:01:10 >> [LAUGH]
00:01:13 >> Why is the king going after
00:01:18 the church members?
00:01:19 Why are politics.
00:01:23 >> [LAUGH]
00:01:28 >> Going after the people of God.
00:01:30 >> [LAUGH]
00:01:32 >> He murdered James,
00:01:34 John's brother.
00:01:36 James didn't even do nothing.
00:01:39 When he saw how much, watch this, when he saw how much it
00:01:44 raised his popularity ratings with the Jews, he arrested Peter.
00:01:48 Said if killing one is good, let me kill another one.
00:01:53 All this during Passover week, mind you, and had him thrown
00:01:59 in the jail, putting four squads of four soldiers,
00:02:04 each to guard him, 16 to 1.
00:02:07 He was planning a public lynching after Passover.
00:02:16 That's what he was planning.
00:02:19 All the time that Peter was under heavy guard in the jail
00:02:23 house, the church prayed for him most strenuously.
00:02:28 That's why we gotta keep our intercessors up.
00:02:30 Then the time came for Herod to bring him out for the kill.
00:02:37 Time was right to bring him out for the kill.
00:02:41 This was a strategy, it had timing, it had a date,
00:02:45 it had a sequence, it had structures, it had order.
00:02:48 It's a plot.
00:02:50 That night, even though shackled to two soldiers,
00:02:55 one on either side, I love this.
00:02:59 I love this, y'all.
00:03:01 I can stop right here and preach on this all day.
00:03:05 Peter slept like a baby.
00:03:07 Glory to God.
00:03:11 When's the last time you slept like a baby?
00:03:13 And there were guards at the door.
00:03:17 I almost called it sleeping with the enemy.
00:03:19 'Cause if you can sleep and have inner peace
00:03:27 when your outer circumstances are totally contradictory
00:03:32 to everything, that's faith at its best.
00:03:37 Sometimes faith don't say a word, it snores.
00:03:39 And there were guards at the door,
00:03:44 keeping their eyes on the place.
00:03:46 Herod was taking no chances.
00:03:51 Suddenly, there was an angel at his side.
00:03:56 Oh my God.
00:03:58 Suddenly, somebody holler suddenly.
00:04:00 - Suddenly.
00:04:01 - Suddenly, there was an angel at his side
00:04:05 and light flooding the room.
00:04:07 The angel shook Peter and got him up.
00:04:10 Herod, the handcuffs fell off his wrist.
00:04:15 That's not how that works.
00:04:17 The handcuffs fell off his wrist.
00:04:22 Glory to God.
00:04:27 Something's getting ready to fall off of you.
00:04:29 Something that they thought they had locked tight
00:04:38 is getting ready to fall off you.
00:04:40 The angel said, "Get dressed.
00:04:44 "Put on your clothes." Peter did it.
00:04:46 "Then grab your coat and let's get out of here."
00:04:53 Ooh, let's get out of here.
00:04:56 Look at somebody say, "Let's get out of here."
00:04:58 Peter followed him, but didn't believe
00:05:03 it was really an angel.
00:05:05 He thought he'd taken some Ambien.
00:05:11 (audience laughing)
00:05:14 Don't sue me, Ambien, I'm just being funny.
00:05:17 He thought he was dreaming.
00:05:22 Can you imagine living in a way
00:05:27 that you think it's a dream?
00:05:29 That you're scared to believe that this is real?
00:05:35 He thought it was a dream.
00:05:38 They passed the first guard and then the second.
00:05:43 They came to the iron gate that led into the city.
00:05:46 It swung open before them on its own.
00:05:50 Good God have mercy.
00:05:55 And they were out on the streets free as the breeze.
00:06:00 'Cause the angel got into it.
00:06:06 At the first intersection, the angel left him
00:06:08 going his own way.
00:06:11 That's when Peter realized, "This ain't no dream."
00:06:16 I gotta stop there a minute and tell you
00:06:23 that when God answers your prayer,
00:06:26 sometimes it takes you a while to believe it.
00:06:34 Does anybody, can we be honest for a minute?
00:06:37 Have you ever had God do something for you
00:06:38 but you was afraid to lean on it?
00:06:41 'Cause you wasn't sure it was gonna last
00:06:42 and you wasn't sure, yeah, yeah, okay.
00:06:45 He said, "I can't believe it, this really happened.
00:06:49 "The master," look at how, look, look, look, look, look,
00:06:53 look at this, this is part of,
00:06:55 "The master sent his angel and rescued me
00:06:59 "from Herod's vicious little production
00:07:04 "and the spectacle the Jewish mob was looking forward to."
00:07:09 Still shaking his head, amazed, he went to Mary's house.
00:07:16 The Mary who was John Mark's mother.
00:07:21 The house was packed with praying friends.
00:07:24 Oh God, give me some praying friends.
00:07:26 (congregation cheering)
00:07:31 When he knocked on the door to the courtyard,
00:07:34 a young woman named Rhoda came to see who it was.
00:07:39 But when she recognized his voice,
00:07:44 Peter's voice, oh, she was so excited
00:07:49 and eager to tell everyone Peter was there,
00:07:53 that she forgot to open the door.
00:07:55 And left the answer to prayer.
00:08:00 (congregation cheering)
00:08:03 Standing in the street.
00:08:06 This morning, for what God is going to do,
00:08:14 for what the enemy has conspired
00:08:19 to circumvent what God is going to do,
00:08:22 my subject is, walk me through it.
00:08:27 (congregation cheering)
00:08:31 No, wait, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
00:08:34 This is not for the people who take no risk.
00:08:37 This is not for the people who see their way clear.
00:08:41 This is for the people who dare to go
00:08:44 into adventurous spaces that they have never gone before,
00:08:48 that you have never been trained for before.
00:08:51 It doesn't make sense that you would have this opportunity
00:08:54 that's been afforded to you, and yet you got it today.
00:08:58 I want you to throw your hands up and say,
00:08:59 walk me through it.
00:09:01 - Walk me through it.
00:09:02 - Father God, in the name of Jesus,
00:09:04 let the word be made flesh while it's being preached today.
00:09:07 I thank you for your power.
00:09:09 I thank you for your grace.
00:09:10 I thank you for your anointing.
00:09:11 I thank you for your consistency.
00:09:13 I thank you for your patience.
00:09:15 I thank you for your love.
00:09:16 I thank you for your grace.
00:09:17 I thank you for your hand of mercy over our lives.
00:09:21 I thank you, Lord, for the things you're about to do.
00:09:23 I believe you're for miracles.
00:09:25 In the name of Jesus, we pray.
00:09:27 Somebody shout amen.
00:09:29 - Amen.
00:09:30 - You may be seated in the presence of the Lord.
00:09:32 There is a word.
00:09:38 There is a word.
00:09:41 There is a word.
00:09:45 There is a word.
00:09:51 There is a word
00:09:54 from the Lord.
00:09:58 I'm wondering if you've ever found yourself in a situation
00:10:06 that you didn't really belong in.
00:10:11 This text is so opulent.
00:10:17 It is so exciting.
00:10:18 It is so excessive that it is easy to get caught up
00:10:22 in what happened without examining why it happened.
00:10:27 That's the way much of life is today.
00:10:31 We deal with the what.
00:10:32 'Cause the what is so flamboyant and difficult
00:10:39 and challenging and scary that very few people
00:10:44 have a tendency to ask why.
00:10:48 We pray about the what.
00:10:49 We ignore the why.
00:10:52 But part of the ability to be able to navigate
00:10:56 through something is to understand not only what happened,
00:11:00 but why.
00:11:03 If you get caught up in what happened without the why,
00:11:09 you will become emotional
00:11:12 because you will think everything that happened
00:11:18 is your fault.
00:11:19 I must address it.
00:11:23 Who's saying the mother or the father
00:11:25 that the child should be born blind?
00:11:26 We're always looking for somebody to blame.
00:11:29 The first thing they start talking about,
00:11:31 in time of calamity, who are we gonna blame?
00:11:34 Did the fire department get there on time?
00:11:36 Did they set the buzzer?
00:11:37 Did they send the signal?
00:11:38 Did they do an amber alert?
00:11:40 Because we always want somebody to blame for what happened.
00:11:46 But a lot of times, in order to be able to think clearly
00:11:51 and succinctly and intelligently
00:11:53 so that you can pray effectively,
00:11:56 you have to get beyond what is happening in your life
00:12:00 to why is this happening in my life?
00:12:06 Why is this happening in my life at this time,
00:12:09 in this way, in this place, so I know how to handle it?
00:12:12 If I don't know why it's happening,
00:12:14 I don't even know how to pray.
00:12:16 I don't know whether to rebuke the devil,
00:12:18 plead the blood, bind the witches, come against Satan,
00:12:23 or thank God for counting me worthy
00:12:26 to go through a test or development.
00:12:28 I don't know whether to repent because I did something wrong
00:12:32 or accept it as a test that I have to face,
00:12:35 or is this a season in my life I'm going through,
00:12:38 going at myself, sabotaging myself,
00:12:41 and I don't know whether I need a therapist or an exorcist.
00:12:45 (audience cheering)
00:12:46 I know I need a yeast.
00:12:48 I don't know whether it's a therapist or an exorcist
00:12:52 because I don't like what is happening in my life.
00:12:56 I don't like what's going on in my life.
00:12:58 I don't like being in trouble.
00:13:00 I don't know anybody in the room who likes being in trouble.
00:13:04 When I was raising my kids, I had a saying,
00:13:09 I'd tell them, "When we get home, we gonna dance."
00:13:14 I didn't mean the good way.
00:13:16 Yeah, yeah, and they knew right then they was in trouble.
00:13:20 My mother didn't have to say none of that.
00:13:22 She just looked at you.
00:13:23 She would look at you like you was crazy.
00:13:28 Your blood would stop moving through your body.
00:13:32 Your heart would stop beating.
00:13:33 They could not get a pulse on you anywhere
00:13:35 because without parting her lips,
00:13:38 the look announced to you, "I see you and I got you."
00:13:43 (audience laughing)
00:13:45 "And if you don't stop right now,
00:13:46 "I'm gonna get you right now."
00:13:49 If you're lucky, you're gonna wait 'til you get back home,
00:13:51 but if you don't stop, you're gonna get it right now.
00:13:54 And all of a sudden, you find yourself,
00:13:56 I don't like the feeling of being in trouble.
00:13:58 My pulse quickens, my stress levels go up,
00:14:02 my body goes crazy.
00:14:05 I have all this mental imagination
00:14:09 of what's going to happen.
00:14:10 She's going to kill me.
00:14:12 She's going to absolutely kill me.
00:14:14 Well, I had good reason to think she was gonna kill me.
00:14:16 My mother told me she could kill me and have another one
00:14:19 that looked just like me.
00:14:20 And she said, "They won't even know you gone."
00:14:24 And I was about four years old.
00:14:26 I thought, "Can you do that?
00:14:28 "Can you really just like replace a brother like that?"
00:14:32 You know, and you go from that kind of trouble,
00:14:36 you go from that kind of trouble to adult trouble.
00:14:38 The mortgages do.
00:14:42 The rent is due.
00:14:44 The wife and I are not getting along.
00:14:46 I have a daughter that's not speaking to me.
00:14:49 I have a son who's upset with me.
00:14:51 That kind of trouble.
00:14:52 And though you are experiencing adult trouble,
00:14:55 you experience it like a child.
00:14:57 I'm in trouble.
00:15:03 I'm in trouble.
00:15:06 You lay down at night, oh God, I'm in trouble.
00:15:11 I'm in trouble.
00:15:12 I'm getting ready to retire.
00:15:15 Got nothing to retire off of.
00:15:16 I'm in trouble.
00:15:19 The doctor says my creatinine is running high.
00:15:23 I'm in trouble.
00:15:27 They found a knot over in the corner of my breast
00:15:32 and the test hasn't come back yet.
00:15:38 I may be 50, but I'm experiencing it as a five-year-old.
00:15:42 I'm in trouble.
00:15:44 I can tell how everybody stops talking
00:15:53 when I come in the office.
00:15:55 I'm in trouble.
00:16:09 But a lot of the things, most of the things
00:16:12 that happen in our lives, we're actually just caught
00:16:16 in the crossfire of a bigger fight.
00:16:19 Ooh, this is so good.
00:16:22 You might be the victim.
00:16:26 You might be the pawn.
00:16:28 You might be the recipient of the tragedy,
00:16:33 but it is generally about something bigger than you.
00:16:38 It's bigger than you.
00:16:43 You hear people say, devil came in my room last night
00:16:48 and I had to wrestle with the devil all night long.
00:16:50 Come on, girl.
00:16:51 You know the devil ain't come in your room last night.
00:16:56 You know you're not that important.
00:16:58 That the devil would make house calls
00:17:00 and come to your house and spend the whole evening
00:17:04 wrestling with you in the room.
00:17:07 The devil only showed up a few times in all of the Bible.
00:17:10 And you mean the devil is over your house
00:17:12 drinking a hot latte and telling you
00:17:14 what all he's gonna do to you?
00:17:16 But come on, come on, come on, come on.
00:17:18 Come on, we gotta get down into this.
00:17:20 But we're experiencing trauma as a five-year-old
00:17:25 and we don't know the why, we just know the what.
00:17:29 We don't understand where it's coming from.
00:17:33 All we know is that we're in trouble.
00:17:36 And generally once you conclude that you're in trouble,
00:17:39 you start looking for somebody to blame.
00:17:41 And there are three different classes of thought.
00:17:46 One group of people blame spiritual elements.
00:17:49 It's always the devil, the devil made me do it.
00:17:52 My daughter Sarah says she's not here.
00:17:54 I'm gonna tell her this morning why she's not here.
00:17:56 Maybe she's watching online.
00:17:58 She broke my tiger in my living room.
00:18:02 When she was nine years old,
00:18:03 she broke the tiger completely into,
00:18:05 it was a beautiful tiger that we had behind the sofa,
00:18:08 beautiful tiger, broke it into,
00:18:10 I don't know what she did to break the tiger.
00:18:12 I don't know whether she was jumping up and down on it.
00:18:14 I don't know whether she hit Cora with it.
00:18:16 I don't know what happened to it.
00:18:18 But she broke the, when I confronted her, she said,
00:18:23 "The devil made me do it."
00:18:28 (audience laughing)
00:18:31 I thought, "Nah, I can't even punish you
00:18:34 "'cause I'm trying not to laugh."
00:18:35 Yeah, just totally disarmed me.
00:18:38 Just ruined all of my daddy fire
00:18:41 with the devil made me do it.
00:18:44 A lot of people think the devil is the root
00:18:47 of everything that happened to you.
00:18:49 We blame the devil for everything.
00:18:51 Even if we broke the tiger, we blame the devil
00:18:54 because we are taught in this spiritual environment
00:18:58 that everything is spiritual and we blame the devil.
00:19:01 Other people blame other people.
00:19:03 They don't blame the devil, they blame other people.
00:19:08 My first husband was crazy.
00:19:10 My second husband was crazy.
00:19:12 My third husband acted like he didn't have no sense.
00:19:15 My fourth husband didn't appreciate a good woman
00:19:17 when he had her.
00:19:18 My fifth husband acted like he never complimented me
00:19:22 on my hair.
00:19:23 Now, after about five, you ought to start thinking,
00:19:27 "Maybe it ain't the man, it might be."
00:19:30 No, but y'all don't do that.
00:19:33 You know what y'all say?
00:19:35 "Ain't no good man left in the world."
00:19:38 It never comes up an issue that it might be you.
00:19:40 It's just, "Ain't no good man left in the world."
00:19:43 You dated five men out of eight billion people
00:19:48 on the planet and you have concluded
00:19:51 that the rest of us are all crazy
00:19:53 because you had a bad experience
00:19:55 and you have never considered yourself.
00:19:58 It's gotta be her, she crazy.
00:20:08 That's what the brothers say.
00:20:09 That's what we say about y'all when we break up.
00:20:12 Man, she crazy.
00:20:13 Crazy is a catch-all phrase.
00:20:17 You don't know what kind of crazy she is.
00:20:19 We don't do a complete diagnosis,
00:20:21 but when one guy tells you another guy's crazy,
00:20:23 all the other guys look at her and go, "Mm."
00:20:26 Okay, so you go down that road and we blame other people.
00:20:31 We blame other people.
00:20:33 We blame other people for being late.
00:20:35 We blame other people for not paying our bills.
00:20:37 We blame other people.
00:20:38 I don't understand.
00:20:39 This is what I don't understand.
00:20:41 I don't understand how you can borrow money from me,
00:20:45 not pay me back, and then blame me.
00:20:48 Now, you're mad at me.
00:20:49 Wait a minute, I'm the one broke.
00:20:51 I'm the one out the money.
00:20:52 I'm the one you didn't pay back,
00:20:54 and you rolling your eyes at me.
00:20:55 We blame other people for stuff we broke.
00:21:04 The third group is we blame ourselves for everything,
00:21:10 stuff we had no control over, things we couldn't fix.
00:21:17 We beat ourselves up about everything.
00:21:21 We defend ourselves in front of the attacker,
00:21:25 but when we get home alone, we blame ourselves.
00:21:28 I'm not enough.
00:21:29 Imposter syndrome.
00:21:32 I'm inadequate.
00:21:33 I can't do it.
00:21:34 Look at me.
00:21:35 I mess up everything.
00:21:36 We go all the way back to the first grade.
00:21:38 That's why I flunked the first grade.
00:21:40 That's why I went through a test.
00:21:41 That's why I made a F on my report card.
00:21:44 We go all the way back, all the way,
00:21:46 read a whole resume to validate why we are no good,
00:21:49 and we start attacking ourselves.
00:21:53 In our text, it is clear it does not leave it
00:22:00 to our imagination to conclude what category this is in.
00:22:04 Peter is definitely in trouble.
00:22:06 Yeah, he's gonna die in the morning.
00:22:09 Yeah, that's right.
00:22:10 He's gonna die in the morning.
00:22:12 But it is not the devil.
00:22:14 It is not the other disciples.
00:22:19 And the worst part is, it's not even Peter.
00:22:23 Peter has done nothing wrong.
00:22:27 Why do bad things happen to good people?
00:22:33 And you find yourself in this situation
00:22:39 where not only are you trying to endure the problem,
00:22:41 you're perplexed because you don't understand the problem.
00:22:45 I don't understand why you don't like me and you, my child.
00:22:49 And everything I ever did was for you.
00:22:54 I don't understand why you don't like me and I'm your son.
00:22:59 How could you not like your child?
00:23:03 And you go through all of these questions in your mind,
00:23:08 and when you come to church,
00:23:10 all we do is tell you is give him a praise.
00:23:13 But let me tell you what praise won't do.
00:23:17 Praise won't answer your questions.
00:23:22 Praise won't always resolve your issue.
00:23:26 Praise won't take the place of an apology.
00:23:30 You dance all over the church,
00:23:33 but you still didn't apologize,
00:23:34 and you don't have no peace,
00:23:36 and I don't care how fancy you that you can run
00:23:38 around this church until you need a water bottle
00:23:41 that says Father House on it,
00:23:42 and you still won't solve the problem
00:23:45 because praise won't fix what you need to fix.
00:23:51 I knew wasn't nobody gonna shout.
00:23:55 Give 'em a B1 shout, they need to shout.
00:24:00 Let me tell you something,
00:24:01 you're trying to figure out what is going on,
00:24:03 and the church comes to you and just tells you,
00:24:06 just praise the Lord.
00:24:07 Hey, I got a lump in my breast,
00:24:10 and I'm gonna give God the praise,
00:24:12 but when I got through dancing,
00:24:13 I still had a lump in my breast, and it's growing.
00:24:17 And what do I do when I find myself in this situation,
00:24:21 and I don't know who to blame,
00:24:22 and I don't know how to pray,
00:24:24 and I don't know how to respond to it,
00:24:26 and I don't know how to talk about it?
00:24:28 I don't have language for it.
00:24:30 I'm going through it, and I'm going through something.
00:24:33 Peter is going through something
00:24:35 that the other disciples could not relate to,
00:24:38 and he's going through it alone.
00:24:41 Even if they could relate to it, he can't talk to them.
00:24:45 I wanna talk to some people
00:24:46 who are going through some stuff alone.
00:24:49 (congregation applauding)
00:24:53 You're going through some stuff alone,
00:24:56 even though other people are around.
00:24:58 You're going through it alone.
00:25:01 Even though other people have an opinion,
00:25:03 you're going through it alone.
00:25:05 Even though other people might be talking about it,
00:25:07 you're going through it alone.
00:25:08 Peter is going through this alone.
00:25:11 There's no James, there's no John in the room,
00:25:13 there's no people standing around him,
00:25:16 'cause misery kinda enjoys company.
00:25:18 If I gotta go through it, let me go through it with somebody.
00:25:21 Let me go through it with somebody.
00:25:23 But most of the things that torment the soul,
00:25:26 we go through alone.
00:25:34 We go through alone.
00:25:35 And single people think they go through it alone
00:25:38 because they're single.
00:25:39 But married people know (laughs)
00:25:44 that being married doesn't mean
00:25:46 that you're not going through it alone.
00:25:48 That having somebody laying next to you
00:25:53 doesn't mean that they're going through it with you.
00:25:56 (congregation applauding)
00:26:03 Thank you for the 10 people that aren't hypocrites.
00:26:06 The 10 people that can admit
00:26:10 that you can lay next to somebody
00:26:12 and you can even spoon.
00:26:14 Alone.
00:26:21 Because this is a keen test for men.
00:26:27 Ladies, when you ask him what he's thinking,
00:26:29 and he says, "Nothing."
00:26:32 (congregation laughing)
00:26:33 It doesn't mean that we're not thinking nothing.
00:26:35 It just means that we figure we're going through this
00:26:38 - [Congregation] Alone.
00:26:39 - Alone.
00:26:40 Peter is going through this alone.
00:26:43 What did he do to go to jail?
00:26:48 Thank you, Luke, when you wrote the book of Acts,
00:26:52 you do not leave me to guess about how Peter got in jail.
00:26:57 He got in the crossfire of Herod Agrippa I's ego.
00:27:02 He got in the crossfire of a political decision
00:27:10 where the king decides to attack the church member
00:27:16 for strategic advantage to go up higher
00:27:26 in rank amongst the Jews.
00:27:28 Backstory is King Herod Agrippa I was partly Jewish.
00:27:35 He had been sent to this outpost.
00:27:41 He wanted to be their king,
00:27:43 but the Jews did not legitimize him
00:27:46 as being authentically Jewish.
00:27:49 So he's trying to get some Jewish points.
00:27:53 I don't know if Jewish people have points,
00:27:55 black people have points, but Jewish people,
00:27:56 I don't know if you all got points or not,
00:27:58 but he's trying to get some points.
00:28:00 And so he knows that the Jews don't like the Christians.
00:28:04 So he is hating on who they are hating on to gain status
00:28:09 so that he'll have more power to get where he's trying to go.
00:28:16 He doesn't even know Peter.
00:28:17 He doesn't even care about Peter.
00:28:19 He's not thinking about Peter.
00:28:20 He doesn't care about Christianity.
00:28:22 He doesn't care about what they're trying to teach.
00:28:23 He doesn't really care about Orthodox Judaism.
00:28:26 He cares about his career.
00:28:29 If you don't understand why you are being attacked,
00:28:32 you don't know how to respond to the attack.
00:28:35 If you don't understand that the bloggers get paid
00:28:39 by the hits they get,
00:28:41 then you'll think they're talking about you
00:28:44 because you're you.
00:28:44 No, they're talking about you 'cause people know you.
00:28:47 And people are gonna argue about you.
00:28:49 And the more they click, the more you click,
00:28:51 the more they get paid.
00:28:53 And you don't understand that talking about people
00:28:55 has become a business.
00:28:56 Some people don't do nothing for a living
00:29:03 except talk about people.
00:29:05 I mean, this is your full-time job.
00:29:07 What do you do for a living so I talk about people?
00:29:10 That's what I do.
00:29:12 And it pays really good.
00:29:13 'Cause if I talk about big people, I get a lot of hits.
00:29:16 And if I get a lot of hits, then I get paid a lot of money.
00:29:19 And if I get paid a lot of money,
00:29:21 I don't need to work any other kind of job.
00:29:24 All I need to do is say something titillating
00:29:27 and salacious enough to get you to click on it.
00:29:30 And the more clicks I get, guess what?
00:29:32 The more checks I make.
00:29:33 Thank you for clicking.
00:29:35 Thank you for arguing both sides of the issue.
00:29:37 Thank you for responding
00:29:39 because you're driving my algorithms up
00:29:41 and I am getting paid.
00:29:43 So they pick you out,
00:29:47 not because you are Luther Vandross
00:29:50 or whoever you are, James, whoever you are.
00:29:54 No, no, no, no.
00:29:55 They pick you out 'cause everybody knows you
00:29:56 and everybody's gonna click on it.
00:29:58 And you got caught in the crossfire.
00:30:00 Peter had pre-Sidereal Pentecost.
00:30:05 He was an influential Christian.
00:30:08 He had ignited the switch
00:30:12 that provoked the outpouring of the Holy Spirit
00:30:15 down on the people that cost 3,000 souls
00:30:18 to be added to the church that day.
00:30:20 Peter had influence.
00:30:21 Peter had such influence that Herod figured,
00:30:26 if I kill the first disciple and they like that,
00:30:28 if I get the ring leader, I will really be on top.
00:30:33 I'm gonna really be on top.
00:30:34 See, that's why every neck gotta pray for every head.
00:30:38 You can't get into a fight between the neck and the head
00:30:42 and argue about position.
00:30:44 You need to understand,
00:30:45 heavy is the crown that rests upon the head.
00:30:49 The higher you go, before you pray about going up,
00:30:53 realize the higher you go,
00:30:55 you're gonna get caught in fights that you didn't start.
00:30:58 You don't even know the person.
00:31:00 You don't know what's going on.
00:31:02 I called a friend of mine one day
00:31:03 and I was reading an article in the Chicago Sun
00:31:06 and the guy was just giving me the blues.
00:31:08 I mean, it was an entire op-ed
00:31:10 of which I was at least a third of the op-ed
00:31:13 and I didn't even know who he was.
00:31:15 And I called a friend of mine, I said, "Who is this guy?"
00:31:19 And he told me who it was.
00:31:19 I know now y'all wanna know who it is.
00:31:21 Y'all got all quiet like we at Starbucks
00:31:24 and I'm gonna tell you who it is.
00:31:25 Come on, please.
00:31:26 Now, I said, "Who is this guy?"
00:31:28 And he told me who it was.
00:31:29 You know, I said, "I never even met the guy."
00:31:31 He said, "Doesn't matter.
00:31:32 "It doesn't matter what you did or didn't do
00:31:38 "when you're in the crossfires of somebody else's ego."
00:31:43 (audience applauding)
00:31:48 There's something about what I just said
00:31:51 that felt prophetic.
00:31:53 As it was coming out of me, it felt prophetic.
00:31:58 Like somebody in this room is in a situation right now
00:32:01 and you are bearing the brunt force
00:32:03 of other people's decisions that are affecting you
00:32:07 but they are not because of you.
00:32:09 They have their own agenda
00:32:12 and you have to stop worrying about yourself
00:32:14 and worrying about your efficiency
00:32:16 just because somebody is trying to get in with the Jews
00:32:21 so that he can set up his kingdom.
00:32:23 It has nothing to do with Peter's theology,
00:32:27 his preaching, his teaching, his gifting,
00:32:30 his power, his favor, his anointing.
00:32:32 Yet, Peter is in jail.
00:32:35 It has nothing to do with him but he's in jail.
00:32:44 It was not even his fight but he was in jail.
00:32:47 It was not even his problem but he was in jail.
00:32:52 He has had no argument with Herod but he is in jail.
00:32:56 He has not ticked off the city but he is in jail.
00:33:00 Bad things do happen to good people.
00:33:12 God does not always order sunshine in the morning.
00:33:16 God does not always order blue skies and sea waves
00:33:22 and seagulls flying over your window.
00:33:26 That's not the way God works.
00:33:29 God will order trouble for your life
00:33:32 and allow you to get in trouble
00:33:35 because God is a present help in trouble
00:33:39 and if you want to be where God is,
00:33:42 God will let you get in trouble
00:33:43 so he can show himself strong in your situation.
00:33:48 I don't know who I'm preaching to
00:33:50 but God will put you in trouble
00:33:52 just so that he can show you how strong he is
00:33:55 and that he is the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
00:33:59 See, Herod was the king but Jesus is the King of kings
00:34:04 and the Lord of lords and what you got to understand
00:34:07 is the accountant doesn't have the last say,
00:34:10 the lawyer doesn't have the last say,
00:34:12 the judge don't have the last say,
00:34:14 the court don't have the last say.
00:34:16 God is gonna have the last say.
00:34:19 It may take some time, it may take some tests,
00:34:23 it may take some trial but what God has for you is for you.
00:34:28 What I want you to see in the first phrase of this text
00:34:33 is that this is a strategy of which he is being victimized
00:34:38 by a systemic strategy that set him up.
00:34:42 The Bible says that we are not ignorant
00:34:44 of the wiles of the devil.
00:34:46 The wiles of the devil is his strategy.
00:34:49 That Satan has a strategy that is tailor-made for you.
00:34:54 He has a strategy.
00:34:56 He intended for him to be arrested
00:34:58 and the Bible says that Herod thought in his mind,
00:35:01 if I kill him, it'll make me greater.
00:35:04 Let me tell you something, killing me don't make you king.
00:35:08 (audience cheering)
00:35:10 Killing me doesn't make me king, doesn't make you king.
00:35:14 But this is a strategy that he has employed
00:35:17 and he is bent and determined to make sure
00:35:23 that Peter does not get out.
00:35:25 Now he might not know Peter
00:35:27 but he must know something about Peter
00:35:29 'cause this is ear-cutting Peter.
00:35:36 You know you got your Thomases and your Johns and your James
00:35:39 and then in every church you got a few Peters.
00:35:42 They say they love the Lord but if you flip them out,
00:35:46 it's a few of them in here, I won't point them out to you
00:35:51 but it's a few in here right now.
00:35:52 They look real safe, they nod and they clap in their hands
00:35:56 but down in the bottom of that pocketbook
00:35:59 is a nine millimeter.
00:36:01 (audience cheering)
00:36:04 I'm sorry y'all, this is Texas.
00:36:08 Gods and guns, okay?
00:36:12 Yeah, yeah, there are a lot of people in here right now.
00:36:15 Yeah, yeah, that they're, you know,
00:36:20 you can't tell it in church, go in the parking lot.
00:36:28 That's when you find out who's saved in church.
00:36:31 The parking lot will tell you the Christians,
00:36:33 the saints from Nainz
00:36:35 because they're all gonna be saints in here.
00:36:37 When they get in that parking lot and you cut them off,
00:36:40 you gonna find out how much Holy Ghost they really got.
00:36:43 Don't pay those tongues no attention,
00:36:46 just go in the parking lot,
00:36:47 you gonna find out who is who in the kingdom of God.
00:36:51 (audience cheering)
00:36:54 (audience applauding)
00:36:57 Thank you Lord for telling me what the king was thinking.
00:37:08 Because my first question,
00:37:12 whenever people do anything crazy who worked for me
00:37:16 or I work for or I work with,
00:37:19 my first question is, who are you thinking?
00:37:22 (audience laughing)
00:37:24 Whatever comes after what were you thinking
00:37:26 is not gonna be good.
00:37:27 But it is sincere, I wanna know what you were thinking.
00:37:31 The Bible tells us what Herod was thinking
00:37:34 and it had nothing to do with Peter
00:37:36 but he was gonna die in the morning.
00:37:40 Can you imagine dying over something
00:37:43 that had nothing to do with you?
00:37:45 He's not dying for his witness for Jesus Christ,
00:37:50 he's not dying for the magnitude of his ministry,
00:37:53 he's not dying because he healed too many people
00:37:56 and delivered, he's dying because Herod is ambitious.
00:38:00 Have you ever found yourself on death row
00:38:07 because of somebody else's ambition?
00:38:09 Married folks, let me talk to y'all.
00:38:13 Have you ever found yourself in trouble
00:38:16 because somebody was after your spouse?
00:38:19 (audience shouting)
00:38:22 I bet you better holler back at me right now
00:38:26 before I point you out.
00:38:27 (audience cheering)
00:38:29 And it's not that you burnt the toast,
00:38:32 it's not that you don't come home at night,
00:38:34 it's not that you're not a good wife,
00:38:35 it's not that you're not a good husband,
00:38:37 but somebody's plotting on you
00:38:39 and they got a strategy at work
00:38:41 and they're out to discredit you
00:38:43 and you find yourself in a situation
00:38:46 where you know they've been talking to somebody,
00:38:48 you don't know who they've been talking to,
00:38:49 but I've been married to you 20 years
00:38:51 and you ain't talk like this.
00:38:53 And here you come out to 20 years
00:38:55 and now you're talking strange.
00:38:56 You've been talking to somebody.
00:38:58 (audience shouting)
00:39:00 Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on.
00:39:04 Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on.
00:39:08 And Peter is thrust in jail and listen,
00:39:14 he gets 16 soldiers,
00:39:18 divides them into four quadrants.
00:39:22 This is respect.
00:39:25 This is respect.
00:39:27 The level of attack determines the level of respect.
00:39:32 If King Herod didn't know
00:39:35 that Peter was somebody to deal with,
00:39:38 he would've put one man on him to guard him
00:39:41 and that would've been adequate.
00:39:42 But he quadrupled the necessity
00:39:45 of putting enough guards on him
00:39:48 because Herod knows that if he gives Peter
00:39:50 half a chance to get up,
00:39:52 Peter will pull out his sword
00:39:54 and go to cutting off ears
00:39:56 and setting people free and breaking your,
00:39:59 and that same devil knows that about you,
00:40:03 that if he gives you half a chance
00:40:05 to get up on your feet,
00:40:07 that all hell is gonna break loose in that place.
00:40:10 Hallelujah.
00:40:11 And y'all don't hear what I'm saying.
00:40:14 He knows that you got power.
00:40:17 He knows that you got power
00:40:20 and he's attacking you because you got power.
00:40:23 High five somebody, say I got power.
00:40:25 I know I got power because I got problems.
00:40:31 If you got power, you gonna have problems.
00:40:35 The problems are a sign that you got power.
00:40:39 Nobody sends that level of problems
00:40:42 if you don't have any power.
00:40:44 You don't get 16 soldiers to guard a three year old.
00:40:48 You get 16 soldiers to guard one man
00:40:51 when that one man is bad and he's got power.
00:40:55 Somebody in here shout 'cause you got power.
00:40:57 (audience cheering)
00:41:00 You're under attack because you got power.
00:41:05 You're being besieged by the enemy because you got power.
00:41:09 He's put unnecessary guards,
00:41:12 but if it ain't this, it's that.
00:41:14 If it ain't that, it's the other.
00:41:16 Soon as you get through that, here comes something else
00:41:19 and it's all because hell is nervous about you.
00:41:22 Hell is nervous about what you're going to be.
00:41:25 Hell is nervous about what you're going to do
00:41:28 and he's increased the guards
00:41:30 to block you from getting where you're trying to go.
00:41:33 Do you hear what I'm saying?
00:41:35 But throw your hands up and say, walk me through it.
00:41:37 (audience cheering)
00:41:40 Walk me through it.
00:41:45 Walk me through it.
00:41:48 Walk me through it.
00:41:50 'Cause I will not die today.
00:42:03 Cool points to Peter.
00:42:04 He's got 16 soldiers.
00:42:08 He's handcuffed to two of them.
00:42:10 He's handcuffed to two Roman soldiers.
00:42:26 (snoring)
00:42:30 (audience laughing)
00:42:33 This is the greatest expression of faith I've ever heard.
00:42:42 Silent faith screams.
00:42:47 Silent faith screams.
00:42:52 Faith that will not become discombobulated
00:42:57 just because you're under attack
00:42:59 is faith at its best.
00:43:01 Running all over the office,
00:43:03 anointing the elevator with oil
00:43:05 might not be faith at its best.
00:43:07 Faith at its best is peace in the midst of the storm.
00:43:11 Faith at its best is peace in the middle of the storm.
00:43:17 And I thought to myself,
00:43:18 Peter, how did you sleep in prison
00:43:22 on the night before you were going to be killed
00:43:25 and Simon has just been beheaded?
00:43:27 Now, if you're gonna kill me,
00:43:28 you know, give me, stop by CVS and pick up something.
00:43:32 You know, I'm not for this dramatic stuff.
00:43:34 I like my head.
00:43:35 You might not like my head.
00:43:37 I know it ain't fine, but it's my head.
00:43:39 I want my head.
00:43:40 Don't cut my head off.
00:43:41 Cutting my head off would probably mess up my nap.
00:43:44 If I thought you was gonna cut my head off in the morning,
00:43:50 I probably wouldn't sleep that night.
00:43:52 Peter.
00:43:53 (snoring)
00:43:55 Shh.
00:43:56 Shh.
00:43:58 And so I asked Peter, I said,
00:44:01 Peter, how in the world did you go to sleep?
00:44:06 Chained to two guards in the inner sanctum of the prison
00:44:11 that even if you whip them,
00:44:13 you got 14 more to go before you get out and you sleep, dude?
00:44:18 Where did you learn how to sleep like this?
00:44:22 And then I remembered how Jesus would sleep on the boat.
00:44:25 (cheering)
00:44:28 Y'all don't hear what I'm saying to you.
00:44:31 And the thing that Peter has learned from his mentor
00:44:36 is to sleep in the middle of a storm.
00:44:39 If you can keep your peace when all hell is breaking loose,
00:44:44 if you can refuse to react in a predictable way
00:44:47 when all hell is breaking loose,
00:44:49 God will find a way to bless you.
00:44:52 And sometimes the best response to the attack is,
00:44:56 the sleep says, I don't know what he's gonna do,
00:45:03 but he's gonna do something.
00:45:05 The sleep says, I don't know how he's gonna move,
00:45:08 but he's gonna move something.
00:45:09 The sleep says, I don't have the answer to the problem,
00:45:13 but I know who does have the answer to the problem.
00:45:16 The sleep says, the battle is not mine,
00:45:18 it belongs to the Lord.
00:45:20 The sleep says, stand still
00:45:23 and see the salvation of the Lord.
00:45:25 The sleep says, the enemies that you see today,
00:45:29 you shall see them no more.
00:45:31 The sleep says, when the battle is over,
00:45:34 I'm gonna shout the victory
00:45:36 and I'm gonna need some rest to get my dance on.
00:45:40 Touch three people and say, sleep through it.
00:45:48 Yeah, sleep through it, sleep through it.
00:45:49 Don't argue about it, don't fuss about it,
00:45:51 don't fight about it, don't get mad about it,
00:45:54 don't get upset, don't cuss nobody out about it,
00:45:57 just sleep through it.
00:45:58 He that hath began a good work in you
00:46:01 shall perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
00:46:04 I don't know who I'm preaching to in this building,
00:46:07 but God says, sleep through it.
00:46:09 Don't get even, don't get revenge, don't retaliate,
00:46:14 just go to bed because God has determined your end
00:46:18 from your beginning and when it's all over,
00:46:21 he's gonna give you a breakthrough.
00:46:23 I need a 30 second praise break.
00:46:25 I'm getting my peace back, I'm getting my peace back,
00:46:42 I'm getting my confidence back, I'm getting my trust back,
00:46:46 I'm learning how to just go to bed
00:46:48 and leave it in God's hands.
00:46:50 I'm leaving my children in God's hands,
00:46:52 I'm leaving my wife in God's hands,
00:46:54 I'm leaving my marriage in God's hands,
00:46:57 I'm leaving my future in God's hands
00:46:59 for the Lord knows the way that I take
00:47:02 and when he has tried me, I shall come forth as pure gold.
00:47:07 Somebody give me an old fashioned hallelujah
00:47:11 and a pentecostal.
00:47:12 And while he was sleeping,
00:47:39 you know God does his best stuff while you sleep.
00:47:41 When God got ready to bring Eve into the world,
00:47:45 he put Adam to sleep because God doesn't need
00:47:49 your participation in order to bless you.
00:47:52 When God gets ready to give you what you need,
00:47:54 you can be sleep and he can still pull out of you
00:47:58 what he placed inside of you and cause you to prosper
00:48:01 and Abraham, he said Abraham, through thy seed
00:48:05 shall all nations of the earth be blessed.
00:48:08 Go to sleep and I'm gonna make a covenant for you
00:48:11 without you and Jesus hung his head
00:48:14 in the locks of his shoulders and died
00:48:17 till the sun refused to shine
00:48:19 and the ground began to tremble
00:48:21 and God was working the night shift.
00:48:25 (audience cheering)
00:48:28 Tell somebody, he's pulling stuff out of me in my sleep.
00:48:44 He's working it out for me in my sleep.
00:48:49 He's moving obstacles in my sleep.
00:48:51 He's turning it around in my sleep.
00:48:54 He's making a way in my sleep.
00:48:56 He's providing in my sleep.
00:48:59 I don't have to do nothing.
00:49:00 I don't have to say nothing.
00:49:02 I don't have to plant no gossip.
00:49:04 I don't have to retaliate.
00:49:06 I don't have to scheme and plot.
00:49:08 You stay up, I'm going to bed.
00:49:11 I'm covered, I'm protected, I'm loved,
00:49:15 I'm cradled, I'm taken care of.
00:49:18 I've got the blood of Jesus over my life.
00:49:20 Hallelujah, I'm blessed in the city.
00:49:23 I'm blessed in the field.
00:49:25 I'm blessed in my uprising.
00:49:26 I'm blessed in my down setting.
00:49:28 I don't know who I'm talking to,
00:49:31 but God said you've been up too many nights
00:49:33 and it's time for you to just go to bed
00:49:36 and rest in the Lord that he that hath the gift
00:49:40 of good work in you shall perform it
00:49:42 unto the day of Jesus Christ.
00:49:45 Who am I talking to in here?
00:49:46 (audience cheering)
00:49:49 (bell ringing)
00:49:52 Sit down, I'm just talking to you.
00:49:58 He slept like a baby.
00:50:08 Draw a line between sleep and suddenly.
00:50:13 Sleep and suddenly.
00:50:20 Suddenly there appeared an angel in the room.
00:50:25 Peter didn't do anything to call him.
00:50:29 In fact, I was trying to find the hero in this text
00:50:34 and I'm kind of confused
00:50:36 'cause I wanted to preach it was Peter's faith,
00:50:40 but Peter didn't even believe it was real.
00:50:42 (audience laughing)
00:50:45 And then I wanted to give the intercessors all the credit,
00:50:49 but they was praying for an answer.
00:50:51 When the answer came, they wouldn't even open up the door.
00:50:53 (audience laughing)
00:50:56 And when Rhoda told them that God had answered the prayer,
00:50:58 the people who was praying didn't believe it.
00:51:00 (audience laughing)
00:51:03 So where's my, yeah, now that's way back.
00:51:08 Where is my hero of faith?
00:51:11 (audience laughing)
00:51:15 Hero of faith in the text.
00:51:17 Where's my hero of faith?
00:51:22 Peter doesn't believe it.
00:51:24 The intercessors don't believe it.
00:51:28 And still there was a suddenly.
00:51:31 Maybe if Peter didn't do anything to get himself in.
00:51:42 (audience cheering)
00:51:45 Maybe he doesn't have to do anything
00:51:54 to get himself out.
00:52:00 Maybe if God sees fit to get you in trouble,
00:52:09 God will get you out of trouble.
00:52:13 And maybe you ought to stop sitting up at night
00:52:16 thinking what should I do?
00:52:18 What should I do?
00:52:19 What should I do about this?
00:52:20 Who should I call?
00:52:20 Where should I go?
00:52:21 What should I do?
00:52:22 What should I do?
00:52:23 Maybe you shouldn't do nothing
00:52:24 'cause you didn't get yourself in it.
00:52:25 And maybe you don't have to do anything
00:52:26 to get yourself out.
00:52:27 And maybe the best response is.
00:52:29 (audience cheering)
00:52:39 Sleep suddenly.
00:52:42 Sleep is the method of Jesus.
00:52:49 Only Jesus sleeps through tornadoes.
00:52:52 Hurricanes, stuff flying all through the air,
00:52:56 boat about to go underwater.
00:52:58 Ship being filled with water, feet wet, Jesus.
00:53:02 It matters who mentored you.
00:53:07 - Yes.
00:53:08 - I ain't gonna finish.
00:53:10 I ain't gonna finish.
00:53:11 If your mama was hysterical or your daddy was hysterical,
00:53:17 when you get in trouble, you become hysterical
00:53:19 because they taught you how to respond to stress.
00:53:23 As a little kid, you watch them react to trouble
00:53:26 and you learn this is how you react to trouble.
00:53:28 If mama cussed everybody out when she got in trouble,
00:53:31 then when you get mad, you cuss everybody out.
00:53:34 If she never said anything, you don't say anything.
00:53:36 Depending on whoever your mentor was,
00:53:39 may not even be your mother, may be your father,
00:53:41 may be your auntie, whoever had the deepest impression
00:53:44 in your life, they taught you how to react.
00:53:47 Jesus taught Peter how to sleep.
00:53:49 Jesus taught Peter how to sleep.
00:53:57 Lord, teach me how to sleep.
00:54:00 Teach me how to just stop my wheels from turning
00:54:05 and my brain from spinning and me trying to figure
00:54:08 my way out and me worshiping the idol of my own intellect
00:54:13 as if I had to be smart to be delivered.
00:54:15 So then my intellect becomes my idolatry
00:54:22 because I think I gotta figure my way out of everything.
00:54:31 Teach me how to sleep because if I can get the sleep right,
00:54:36 then you can get the suddenly right.
00:54:40 Sleep suddenly, sleep suddenly.
00:54:47 You're watching online, you've been all worried,
00:54:49 all upset, been walking the floor, can't sleep,
00:54:53 can't figure out what's wrong with you,
00:54:54 trying to figure everything, can't cut your brain off,
00:54:57 go to bed.
00:55:01 Go to bed.
00:55:01 If you didn't do anything to get yourself in
00:55:04 and you don't have anything to repent about
00:55:06 and you don't have anything to apologize about
00:55:08 and you were just doing what God created you to do
00:55:10 and somebody threw you in jail, get in the jail
00:55:14 and fluff up under your shoulder and go to bed
00:55:18 because he's alpha and omega and the beginning and the end
00:55:22 and the first and the last and if he got you in it,
00:55:25 he will get you out of it and because all things
00:55:28 work together for the good of them that love the Lord
00:55:30 who are the called according to his purpose.
00:55:33 There's somebody say, I'm going to bed tonight,
00:55:35 that's what I'm gonna do.
00:55:37 In fact, I might not even wait tonight.
00:55:39 I might take a three o'clock nap.
00:55:41 I might just go home and get me a piece of chicken
00:55:45 and climb in the bed and go to sleep
00:55:47 and sleep to about five or six o'clock
00:55:50 and then get up and practice it again.
00:55:52 I'm gonna rest in the Lord.
00:55:54 I'm gonna rest in the Lord.
00:55:56 I'm gonna rest in the Lord in spite of my handcuffs,
00:56:00 in spite of my budget, in spite of my limitations,
00:56:03 in spite of my finances, in spite of my dilemma,
00:56:07 in spite of my child who's cussing me out,
00:56:09 in spite of my husband who left me.
00:56:11 I'm gonna rest.
00:56:12 These ain't nothing but handcuffs.
00:56:14 These ain't nothing but handcuffs.
00:56:16 They don't stop me from sleeping.
00:56:18 They tied up my hands but they didn't tie up my piece.
00:56:21 I'm going to bed, handcuffs and all.
00:56:24 I'm not gonna stay up all night twisting my wrist,
00:56:27 trying to figure out the combination,
00:56:29 trying to steal a key.
00:56:30 I'm going to bed.
00:56:32 (congregation cheering)
00:56:35 Angel appeared suddenly.
00:56:42 God is a suddenly God.
00:56:46 He will show up suddenly.
00:56:49 And see, this contradicts faith
00:56:51 'cause you wanna see him coming.
00:56:52 You want him to tell you what he's gonna do
00:56:54 and how he's gonna do it
00:56:56 and I'm gonna send an angel
00:56:58 and I'm gonna send it at 1035
00:57:00 and I want you to be dressed and ready
00:57:02 and at 1035 we're gonna blow this joint
00:57:04 and we're gonna get out of here
00:57:05 and we're gonna have to step over all these sleepy people
00:57:08 but if you wear your tennis shoes,
00:57:10 you're gonna be ready for it.
00:57:11 So don't wear your church shoes, wear your tennis shoes
00:57:13 so you can be comfortable
00:57:15 and then we're gonna crawl out,
00:57:16 we're gonna go through the window
00:57:17 'cause the door is closed
00:57:18 and when we go through the window,
00:57:19 I wanna measure you to make sure
00:57:20 you don't get stuck in the window
00:57:22 and then once you get through the window,
00:57:24 I'm gonna pull you out of it.
00:57:25 You want God to explain God's stuff to human ears.
00:57:30 God never explains how he's gonna do it.
00:57:37 He just does it.
00:57:38 He just shows up.
00:57:40 He just appears.
00:57:42 He just moves.
00:57:43 He just works it out.
00:57:45 Suddenly, somebody shout suddenly.
00:57:49 Let the devil hear you say suddenly.
00:57:54 Oh my God.
00:57:55 Suddenly, an angel appeared.
00:58:01 The angel didn't come in, it just appeared.
00:58:06 It just showed up.
00:58:08 The angel didn't walk in and disturb all the guards
00:58:12 and tell all the guards I'm coming.
00:58:13 You think you got Peter
00:58:14 but I'm gonna show you something today.
00:58:16 I'm gonna wear your behind out today.
00:58:18 You think you bad, pull your sword,
00:58:19 bring your shield with you.
00:58:20 No, the angel did not create unnecessary disturbance.
00:58:25 He just appeared.
00:58:30 It just shrunk.
00:58:34 It just moved.
00:58:45 Suddenly, an angel appeared.
00:58:51 For every prison you're in, there's an angel.
00:58:56 For every prison, emotionally, mentally, physically,
00:59:04 attitudinally, intellectually, for every prison you're in,
00:59:09 there's an angel.
00:59:10 Just one.
00:59:13 That's all you need.
00:59:16 One.
00:59:17 Though a host should encamp against me,
00:59:20 my heart shall not fear.
00:59:21 Though wars should rise against me
00:59:23 and this will I be confident.
00:59:24 One thing.
00:59:26 I just need one.
00:59:27 Angel appeared in the room.
00:59:30 Shook Peter, woke him up and told Peter, hurry up.
00:59:37 Now he wouldn't have had to tell me that.
00:59:42 I don't have no revelation for that.
00:59:45 If you're waiting on me to give a profound point,
00:59:48 I don't have a profound point for that.
00:59:51 Because if I was about to be beheaded in the morning,
00:59:54 God would not have to tell me to hurry up.
00:59:57 I would have beat the angel getting out of there.
00:59:59 I'd have been talking about, come on fool, we got to go.
01:00:02 We ain't got time for this fooling, we got to go.
01:00:06 We got to go.
01:00:07 The angel tells, Peter is so calm
01:00:11 that the angel has to tell Peter
01:00:14 to hurry up about his problem.
01:00:16 About his problem.
01:00:23 Hurry up, put your clothes on, put your shoes on.
01:00:27 Watch this.
01:00:31 I'm going to walk you through it.
01:00:35 This is the word of the Lord to you.
01:00:42 Hurry up, put your clothes on, put your shoes on.
01:00:47 Follow me.
01:00:51 I'm going to walk you through it.
01:00:56 I swear I don't have the address.
01:00:59 I haven't been living in your house
01:01:00 and I'm not laying up under your bed,
01:01:02 but somebody's been praying,
01:01:03 I don't know how to get out of this.
01:01:06 And God is saying, I'm going to walk you through it.
01:01:10 (audience applauding)
01:01:13 I know you don't have wings,
01:01:20 so I'm not going to operate on a level
01:01:24 and a dimension that you can't operate in.
01:01:27 I could fly out.
01:01:30 I appeared in, but since you a walker,
01:01:33 I'm going to walk.
01:01:37 (audience applauding)
01:01:40 Wait, Lord, we got to go through four quadrants of soldiers.
01:01:47 I'm going to walk you through every one of them.
01:01:51 And I would have thought that they were all asleep,
01:01:57 except the text says that at least one of them's eyes
01:02:01 was wide open.
01:02:02 But do you know people can be looking at you
01:02:05 and not see you?
01:02:07 (audience applauding)
01:02:10 You can be moving up
01:02:13 and the people in your office don't know it.
01:02:15 You can be getting loose
01:02:16 and the people in your house don't know it.
01:02:18 God can move in such a way that he can make you invisible
01:02:22 to people who think they're watching you.
01:02:24 They got surveillance on you,
01:02:26 but they can't trap you because God is bringing you out.
01:02:28 Who am I preaching to?
01:02:29 This is going to be so slick
01:02:33 that they walk through the guards
01:02:36 and God walked them through it.
01:02:39 I don't know who this is for.
01:02:41 I don't know why I'm preaching this today.
01:02:43 I really don't know.
01:02:44 I'm just as dumb as a mailman who cannot read the letter.
01:02:49 I'm just delivering the letter.
01:02:51 The letter says, God is going to walk you through it.
01:02:54 I don't know what it is.
01:02:56 You have to determine what your it is.
01:03:00 But whatever your it is,
01:03:02 God says, I am going to walk you through it.
01:03:04 You don't have to see your way clear.
01:03:06 You don't have to know how to get out of this.
01:03:08 You don't have to figure out anything.
01:03:11 God says, if you just follow me,
01:03:13 I'm going to walk you through it.
01:03:17 I don't know who that, who is that for?
01:03:19 Who is that for?
01:03:22 Who is that for?
01:03:23 Then I want you to make it yours.
01:03:28 I want you to touch somebody
01:03:29 and tell them God's going to walk me through it.
01:03:31 (crowd murmurs)
01:03:33 God's going to walk me through this season of my life.
01:03:36 God's going to walk me through this season of my life.
01:03:40 God's going to walk me through this season of my life.
01:03:43 God's going to walk me through the pain
01:03:44 of this present danger.
01:03:46 God's going to walk me through this political,
01:03:49 toxic environment I'm in.
01:03:51 God's going to walk me through my enemies
01:03:53 and my Judas's and my betrayers and my naysayers.
01:03:57 God said, he's going to walk me through it.
01:03:59 It's going to be a process, but little by little,
01:04:02 every step I take, he's going to take me a little bit further.
01:04:05 God is going to walk me through it.
01:04:08 Listen, as I prepare to close, not because I'm finished,
01:04:11 because the text ain't finished,
01:04:12 but I'm going to stop right here.
01:04:14 If God walks you through it,
01:04:19 no weapons.
01:04:24 (crowd cheers)
01:04:27 (crowd cheers)
01:04:29 Formed against you,
01:04:34 she'll be able to prosper.
01:04:38 Now, sit with me, stand with me a minute and think on this.
01:04:43 How many times in your life did God walk you through stuff
01:04:49 that you thought you couldn't get through?
01:04:52 Didn't he do it before?
01:04:57 Didn't he walk you through things
01:04:59 that you thought were going to kill you?
01:05:02 Didn't he walk you through some dangerous moments
01:05:05 that could have destroyed you physically, emotionally,
01:05:08 financially, mentally, didn't he walk you through it?
01:05:11 You lost your house, he walked you through it.
01:05:13 You lost your spouse, he walked you through it.
01:05:15 You lost your parents, he walked you through it.
01:05:17 You went through pain you didn't think you could take,
01:05:19 but God walked you through it.
01:05:21 The word of the Lord to you today
01:05:25 is I'm going to walk you through it.
01:05:30 The weirdest thing about the text,
01:05:35 as I hasten to close,
01:05:38 is that the angel didn't leave him till he was safe.
01:05:44 (crowd cheers)
01:05:53 When they were free as a bird, the angel went on his way.
01:05:57 One other thing I'll point out,
01:06:00 I got 20, but I'll point out one more.
01:06:02 Every obstacle on the way out
01:06:09 happened, opened automatically.
01:06:13 The chains fell automatically.
01:06:17 They walked through the guards automatically.
01:06:19 They got to the gate and the gate just opened.
01:06:24 Everything opened until they got to the believers.
01:06:29 When they got to the believers,
01:06:35 Peter is knocking at the door.
01:06:40 Why in God's name would you be knocking now
01:06:44 when every other door opened in front of you?
01:06:52 Because faith without works is dead being alone.
01:06:57 So God says, I'm going to open every other door,
01:07:03 but the last door is on you.
01:07:06 Now hear this good.
01:07:08 The last door is on you.
01:07:10 The last door is on you.
01:07:12 Because many, many people will not open the door to better.
01:07:16 (crowd murmurs)
01:07:19 They have been raised in trauma
01:07:27 and pain and sin and degradation,
01:07:32 and they'll knock at it,
01:07:35 but they won't open the door to better.
01:07:40 They know what to do.
01:07:42 I was talking to a girl about eating healthy.
01:07:46 I said, I know all this stuff.
01:07:48 Yeah, but it don't work because you know it.
01:07:51 You have to do it.
01:07:54 Don't eat processed foods.
01:07:56 And I don't want you to eat over three ounces of meat per day
01:07:59 and lean meat and all this.
01:08:00 I said, I know all of that.
01:08:02 I know all of that.
01:08:04 Extra heavens of vegetables and fruit and all that.
01:08:07 I know, I know it.
01:08:09 But until I do it,
01:08:16 it doesn't work.
01:08:19 So God says, I'm not gonna open every door
01:08:23 because here's the test of your faith today.
01:08:28 Will you open the door to the best version of yourself?
01:08:35 Will you open?
01:08:41 This is a simple thing.
01:08:44 It doesn't seem like it ought to be hard,
01:08:46 but would you open the door to happy?
01:08:49 After a lot of losses and a lot of pain,
01:08:54 has sorrow become your address?
01:08:58 And you knock it out because you like the idea
01:09:03 of happiness and peace and joy and contentment.
01:09:06 But the last challenge the Holy Spirit gave me
01:09:13 is you have the last door is on you.
01:09:16 And you have them people in there praying
01:09:20 for Peter to come.
01:09:23 Rona goes to the door,
01:09:26 recognizes Peter's voice,
01:09:28 won't open the door on what they prayed for.
01:09:32 How many times do we pray for things?
01:09:35 And then when it comes, we're scared of what we prayed for.
01:09:39 Let me break this down.
01:09:43 Let me, no, no, don't clap, don't clap.
01:09:45 Let me break this down.
01:09:47 I believe in God for a companion.
01:09:49 I'm praying I fasted.
01:09:51 I fasted three times, three weeks from three cigarettes.
01:09:56 You know, y'all got some fasts
01:10:00 we never heard of in our day.
01:10:02 I'm fasting from bubble gum.
01:10:04 I'm fasting from Instagram.
01:10:06 When I came up in church, we didn't fast from Instagram.
01:10:10 We fasted from food.
01:10:11 (laughing)
01:10:13 You've been on a 40 day fast, you look like it.
01:10:16 I was in Africa and they said,
01:10:19 this man's been fasting for 40 days.
01:10:21 I thought, oh, I don't believe it.
01:10:22 When I saw him, I said, oh my God,
01:10:23 he's been fasting for 40 days.
01:10:26 Brother came in there,
01:10:27 he looked like a skeleton in a doctor's office.
01:10:29 And then when somebody comes,
01:10:34 you open the door.
01:10:38 You prayed for a job.
01:10:40 And then when it comes,
01:10:42 I mean a job that fulfills your gifts in highest use,
01:10:47 you're scared of it.
01:10:48 You prayed for your family to be made whole,
01:10:54 but you ain't gonna apologize.
01:10:58 God is walking you through it
01:11:04 because sometimes we ask for stuff
01:11:09 that we won't open to.
01:11:11 God said, you're one door away.
01:11:22 (congregation applauding)
01:11:26 (upbeat music)
01:11:34 (upbeat music)
01:11:36 (upbeat music)
01:11:39 (upbeat music)
01:11:41 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Recommandations