Bishop Tudor Bismark -- Stretch The Gates
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00:00Psalm 118 verse 19, open to me the gates of righteousness.
00:30I will go into them and I will praise the Lord.
00:34This gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter, in this gate I will praise you.
00:43For you have heard me and you have become my salvation.
00:47The stone which the builders rejected has become the headstone of the corner.
00:54This is the Lord's doing and it's marvelous, it's marvelous, it is marvelous in our eyes.
01:03For this is the day that the Lord has made.
01:09We will rejoice and be glad in it.
01:14Save now I beseech thee, O Lord.
01:19O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity.
01:27In my very limited time, I'm going to try to get as much in.
01:31I'm going to preach, stretch the gates.
01:34If you want to hear the whole message, you have to stay for the second service where I will not have time constraints.
01:41Sorry, Diana.
01:44The definition of gates in the Bible is that gates of ancient cities were massive gates made of steel or iron, stone, brass, wood, and frequently sheeted metals.
02:01A lot of the gates were made of very sturdy timber from the teaks and the cedars of Lebanon.
02:10These gates were tall and wide.
02:12So when you read in Acts 3, the gate beautiful, this was a magnificent gate made of brass.
02:20I had a Joe Biden moment there.
02:22A magnificent gate made of solid brass.
02:26And so when Peter and John set silver and gold at Vainan, they were actually looking at a gate that looked like gold that actually wasn't gold.
02:37And gates hold significant symbolism, representing access, significant access to authority and significant access to areas of protection.
02:56When we go beyond the gates, they are often seen as a representation of spiritual and physical boundaries and play a crucial role in the concept of salvation and entering into God's presence.
03:10Definition of gates in the Bible.
03:13Gates were shut at nightfall in Joshua chapter number two and verse five, because it was at nightfall where cities were most vulnerable.
03:24And also it was there where marauders would race in.
03:27So in a needful curfew, gates were shut at sundown and opened at sunrise.
03:37And so the spies came in when the gates were opened and they escaped over the wall when the gates were closed.
03:44It's important for you to understand when gates open and when they close.
03:50They are also idolatrous gates in the scriptures.
03:53There are many. Acts 14 is one.
03:55There's another in Second Kings chapter three.
03:58Battering rams were usually used to pummel the gates to get them opened.
04:05And so if you are a gate for someone, if you are a gate for something, if you are a gate to some entity, expect to be battered.
04:19And so it is important then that we understand that there are times when gates are burnt and broken down.
04:27Nehemiah saw the destruction of the city of Jerusalem where the gates were burned by Nebuchadnezzar and his marauding Scythian troops.
04:37And Nehemiah came in his first act to rebuild the city, to rebuild the people, to rebuild the economy,
04:45to rebuild and resuscitate a nation that was broken was to start with the gates.
04:51Entryways. These are principal things that you must do.
04:55You have to build the gates.
04:58And in doing so you have to stretch yourself.
05:01You can't build the same size as they used to be.
05:06That's important to know.
05:09Gates were seats of authority.
05:12Gates in Proverbs 1 in verse 21.
05:16It was wisdom that was uttered and spoken at the gates.
05:21It was where thoughts were regurgitated from past and current men that were appointed as counselors.
05:33The council of the state were held in state meetings in the political gate of a city.
05:422 Chronicles 18 verse 9.
05:45The word was read for the first time in decades in Nehemiah 8.
05:51So the word was, the gate was used for the word to be released as is seen in Jeremiah 17 verse 19 through 20.
06:01And it's here that the Lord proposed, presented a question.
06:05Is there anything too hard for the Lord?
06:08He's asking that question at a gateway.
06:12And so when he's asking that question, he expects you to know there's nothing that's too hard for him.
06:20And so we now see in Genesis 8, 28 when Jacob is embarking on his life journey.
06:27He falls asleep and has a vision.
06:30And he wakes up from that vision.
06:33And he says, I didn't even know that this is the house of the Lord.
06:37He said he was afraid.
06:38He said, how dreadful is this place?
06:41This is none other than the house of God.
06:43And this is the gate to heaven.
06:47In other words, the gate to heaven is the house of God.
06:51And so Jacob discovered the gateway.
06:53He discovered the ladder that leads to all truth where angels ascend and descend.
06:58And Jesus said to Nathanael in John 1 sitting under fig tree.
07:03He said, I am that ladder that Jacob spoke of.
07:07I am the gate that leads to an open heaven.
07:11And so in Genesis 22 in verse 15, the angel of the Lord called Abraham out a second time.
07:19So the first time the angel of the Lord spoke to Abraham was when he was about to kill his son.
07:25Isaac was on the altar and the slaying dagger was already coming down.
07:30And just before he struck the heart of his son, the angel of the Lord spoke and said, do not give your son.
07:36The provision is behind you.
07:38And then when Abraham offered the ram in place of his son, which is Jesus offered in place of us.
07:47The angel of the Lord spoke the second time.
07:50And in the second time, when the angel of the Lord spoke, the angel of the Lord said, which was God.
07:55The angel Lord means that God in a theophany spoke and said, by myself, I sway to, he took an oath.
08:06And in that oath, he promised to bless Abraham beyond his craziest dream.
08:16And the scripture says here, he swore and said, because you have done this thing and you've not held your son.
08:24That in blessing, I will bless you.
08:26Abraham discovered the gate.
08:30And then the blessing continued to say that in blessing, I will bless you.
08:34Multiplying or multiply you.
08:36Your seed will be as the stars of the heavens and as the sand, which is by the seashore.
08:43And your seed shall possess the gate of your enemies.
08:50Notice it's the gate of your enemies.
08:55Whatever enemy you have, you will possess their gate.
08:59In other words, you will have, you will change counsel against you in that gate.
09:07You will change judgments against you in that gate.
09:12You will change destiny for you in that gate.
09:17Rebecca was an amazing woman, 2460 of Genesis.
09:23And they blessed Rebecca, that's her family.
09:26And they said to her, you are our sister.
09:30You be the mother of thousands of millions.
09:34That's only possible if you're a fish.
09:36But what they're saying here is you have the potential and what's coming out of you.
09:41There'll be thousands of millions.
09:44And let your seed possess the gate of those which hate them.
09:51Your offspring.
09:54She didn't even know that they couldn't have kids.
09:56They tried for 20 years.
09:59Isaac was 40.
10:00And when he was 60, he entreated the Lord for his wife.
10:07And she heard, he heard from God, God heard from him.
10:10And she was pregnant with twins.
10:12And of course, the enemy, Rebecca's family, included the gate of those that hate them, who are Egypt, hated Rebecca's seed.
10:25The Amalekites in 17 of Exodus hated Rebecca's seed.
10:30The Moabites, who constantly tried to curse Israel, hated Rebecca's seed.
10:35The Philistines hated Rebecca's seed from when they first are introduced as the Israelites' arch rivals.
10:46Goliath hated Rebecca's seed.
10:49But look what that got him.
10:51It got him stoned.
10:53The Babylonians hated Rebecca's seed.
10:57King Herod and all the Herods, from Herod the Great to Herod the Terrible in Acts 12, hated Rebecca's seed.
11:05The Roman soldiers hated Rebecca's seed and crucified him.
11:09But all of those that hated Rebecca's seed, the seed of Rebecca went eventually to possess the gates of those that hated them.
11:20So don't worry if you're being hated on.
11:23The person or the entity that's hating on you, just smile, because they're presenting to you their gate.
11:31Someone say, stretch the gate.
11:33Tell your neighbor, say, stretch the gate.
11:36And so when we're dealing with Rahab and Jericho, the point I want to get out here is that Rahab was kept alive after the walls came down.
11:49And the messengers that were sent to the city of Jericho went specifically to get her and her family out of her house.
11:59And Joshua adjured them at that time and said,
12:02Cursed is the individual who builds the city of Jericho.
12:08And cursed is that person, that curse will cost them the life of their firstborn son.
12:16And cursed is the individual who lays the foundation to set up the gates of Jericho.
12:23And so the Lord was with Joshua and his fame was noise throughout the country.
12:30So when the scripture says the Lord was with Joshua, the Lord honored the curses that Joshua spoke.
12:38And so in 1 Kings chapter 16 verse 34, which is a little scripture, a verse stuck in the middle of a major event.
12:48It's like the major event is taking place.
12:52And so the presenter says, we'll be right back, we're going to a commercial break.
12:57And in this commercial break, they put the scripture in, which is really kind of like sort of out of place.
13:04In the days of Hiel, the Bethlehemite or the Bethelite, which means the house of God.
13:11He built Jericho and laid the foundation of Jericho and his son, Abiram, his firstborn died.
13:21The name Abiram is interesting.
13:23It means intellectual, creative and free.
13:29So brothers, this is 550 years after Joshua spoke that word.
13:37And then his second son, Seagab, which means fortified and the slide is too small.
13:44It means to be fortified and to be raised.
13:46His son died.
13:48And so if you're building anything, don't be too excited to build rashly and without doing some research.
14:00You got to do some research.
14:02If you're building anything, including a marriage, find out where the brother comes from.
14:09And better find out where the sister comes from.
14:14Judges chapter number 16.
14:18Samson was constantly hitting the Philistines and destroying the Philistines.
14:26And so one night he went to see, he went to a little car industry in the city.
14:33And when you spent the night there with this Gedla, the enemy said, when he gets out in the morning, we'll trap him in the gate and we'll kill him there.
14:43We shall kill him there.
14:46And Samson just chilled until midnight.
14:48Admit it.
14:49He just got up.
14:50He says to the girl, see you later, babes.
14:52And he just went and took the gates.
14:56Any person that's trying to kill you, waiting for you in the gate, they will not have success.
15:03If you're a Nigerian, you'd have said amen stronger.
15:07Any enemy that's planning to hurt you in any way, you will take the gates.
15:14You will take the gates.
15:16It doesn't even matter if it's in the midnight hour.
15:19But when you take the gates, you will demonstrate to them.
15:21You will put the gates where? On your shoulders.
15:24What is that government?
15:25You will have rulership over your enemy.
15:29Come on, Nigerians, you have rulership over your enemy.
15:34The iron gates, which is seen in Acts chapter number 12 and verse 10.
15:38Peter is in jail.
15:42And the Bible says that they killed James.
15:46And Herod saw that it pleased the people.
15:50And so he wanted to then kill Peter.
15:54But he couldn't kill Peter because it was the feast of Easter.
16:00And Peter was lying in the jail fast asleep.
16:04Knowing that he could not be killed because Jesus told him,
16:09you will be an old man when you die.
16:12And John will hold your hand.
16:15And so Peter knew that this was just a little threat.
16:19Sisters and brothers, turn to a neighbor and say, just chill.
16:24If the enemy has you in prison, just chill, baby, baby, chill.
16:30Because God is going to make a way for you.
16:34As Margaret Chabuka rightfully said,
16:37angelic activity is rife in this place.
16:41And so the angel came and kicked him and said, Muka.
16:45And when he woke up, he said, put on your shoes.
16:48And the doors began to open.
16:52But the last door was the iron gate.
16:56And the Bible says when they came to the iron gate that leads into the city,
17:03which opened at its own will, and they passed into the street,
17:09everyone at some point in your life, you will face an iron gate.
17:16Turn to your neighbor and say, it's an iron gate.
17:21Idris, you will face an iron gate.
17:25And when you face an iron gate, it's a sign that the city is waiting for you.
17:32I'm announcing to the city that whatever you have holding there
17:40is mine according to the word of the Lord.
17:44Every iron gate is a pronouncement and an announcement
17:50that what's been built there is for you.
17:56And the Bible says because he was in jail, the prayer warriors got together.
18:03God has a crafty way of putting people to the next level.
18:09You can't go to the next level without next level prayers.
18:15And so God arranged for Peter to be in jail,
18:20to mobilize the intercessors to go to next level prayers.
18:26Mary, the mother of James and the mother of John,
18:31the mother of the son that Herod killed in a public square.
18:36She should have been in mourning.
18:39They should have buried that boy before the sun goes down.
18:43But she mobilized a prayer meeting in her house.
18:48And the Bible says that they prayed without ceasing.
18:54Prayer was made for Peter of the church without ceasing.
19:03God will arrange for precarious things to happen in your life
19:10so that he can bless you beyond your craziest dream.
19:16But the blessing must attract intercessory prayer.
19:20You have to pray harder, longer and stronger.
19:27Turn to a good looking person and say the iron gate is about to reveal itself.
19:34Sometimes, I said sometimes, the iron gate doesn't show itself.
19:41But God will allow an incident for the iron gate to show itself.
19:47And Barry, when the iron gate reveals itself,
19:51by the authority of the gift in you, the gate has to move.
19:57You just raise your hand and say Shundi.
20:01And the gate has to move.
20:04Shout iron gate.
20:07Get out of my way.
20:10There are gates that God brings provision.
20:14There was a gate in Bethlehem.
20:17David said one day, I wish I could have a drink from the well of Bethlehem.
20:23His three generals broke through the garrison of the Philistines
20:30and came to a well at the gate of Bethlehem.
20:36Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
20:40He is a well and a gateway to your blessing.
20:44Whatever you desire, it's at a gateway.
20:51It's called the gate of provision.
20:54And so you have to stretch the gate.
20:57I said you have to stretch the gate.
21:00If you're wishing for something, you may have to stretch the gate
21:07to get what you are wishing for.
21:11These three generals, Shammah, Eliezer, they went with all they might and Benaiah
21:20fought the Philistines to get to the gate.
21:25You have to fight your enemy, but get to the gate.
21:30Fight your tiredness, but whatever you do, get to the gate.
21:37You have to fight your exhaustion, but whatever you do, you have to get to the gate.
21:44Tell a neighbor, get to the gate.
21:48You got to get to the gate.
21:50The Bible says there was a famine in Samaria.
21:54They were even starting to eat children.
21:58Four of the lepers outside the city said we've got to go to the enemy's camp.
22:06And while they were making their way, Elisha stood up and said,
22:11tomorrow at about this time, there's plenty in the gate.
22:16If you can only get to the gate.
22:19Don't die of famine.
22:22Don't have a nervous breakdown.
22:24Don't lose your mind.
22:27Don't hate on yourself.
22:29You got to get to the gate.
22:31Tell a good looking woman, say, baby girl, get to the gate.
22:36If you can get to the gate, I've got a feeling everything is going to be all right.
22:43I wish I had some time.
22:45I know that you've lost so much, but I'm going to the gate.
22:50In my 50th year of ministry, I've made up my mind.
22:56There's a gate I've got to get to.
22:58It's a race against time.
23:00I'm getting to that gate.
23:02You never know what God will do for you.
23:05Because if you can get to the gate, if you can get to the gate,
23:12your money will be stretched.
23:14What you couldn't afford today, tomorrow they'll be giving it away.
23:20Today you couldn't afford meat, but tomorrow you're eating T-bone steaks and browns.
23:27By the way, I had some, it's really good.
23:30I'm getting to the gate.
23:32Give someone a high five.
23:34Say, I've got to get to the gate.
23:37I've got to get to the gate.
23:39Chotham built a high gate.
23:42I said, Chotham built a high gate.
23:45If you're going to build a gate, build it high.
23:48I said, if you're going to build a gate, build it high.
23:51Don't make a low fence, build it high.
23:56The gates of Zion.
23:58The Lord loves the gates of Zion.
24:01Thank you, God of praise, for bringing us to the gates of Zion.
24:06Tomorrow when you sing as Curtain Raiser for Maverick City,
24:10you are going to be bringing the gates and opening it up for the city of Harare.
24:18Amen.
24:19The Bible says, enter into his gates with thanksgiving.
24:29Thank you for saving my soul.
24:33Thank you for giving me an awesome wife.
24:37Thank you for giving me six grandchildren and more on the way.
24:42Thank you for an awesome chair.
24:46Thank you, God, for the things you have done for me.
24:52Say, thank you, Lord.
24:55Say, thank you.
24:57Thank you for something.
25:02Don't mess with the mic.
25:03Keep the mic there.
25:04In the name of Jesus, I thank God for his many blessings.
25:11The Bible says in Isaiah 26, verse 2,
25:15Open you the gates.
25:17Say, the gates are opened.
25:19Psalm 118, 19,
25:22Open me the gates.
25:24Shout, open gates.
25:26Shout, the gates are opening.
25:29Shout, the gates are opening.
25:32Shout, the gates are opening.
25:35Samson took the gates of the city.
25:40Joab killed Abner in the gate.
25:43David's three mighty men took the gate.
25:46Jiu entered the gates of the city.
25:49Nehemiah entered the gates of Jerusalem.
25:53Jesus entered the gates of Jerusalem.
25:56Enter into his gates, sisters and brothers.
25:59Give God a praise.
26:01Give God a praise.
26:05Lot, Lot sat in the gate and received the angels.
26:14Samuel sat in the gate and anointed a king.
26:20Absalom sat in a gate and launched his political career.
26:26Boaz sat in the gate and found his wife.
26:31David sat in the gate and got good news.
26:36David sat in the gate and got the throne.
26:40Tell your neighbor, stretch the gate.
26:43You got to get to the gate.
26:45Jehoshaphat and the kings sat in the gates and they prophesied.
26:51Mordecai sat in the gate and anointed Esther.
26:56Can I say hallelujah?
26:59Can I say amen?
27:01Daniel, Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego sat in the gates and brought salvation to the city of Babylon.
27:13The man that was claimed from his mother's womb sat at the gate beautiful.
27:20But here comes Peter and John, silver and gold of Amman.
27:26This gate is going to open for you where you couldn't walk.
27:31This gate is going to open for you.
27:34But the sound man above monitor, shout, this gate is opening for me.
27:42Slap your neighbor a high five.
27:45Say, lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up.
27:52Ye everlasting doors and the king of glory shall come in.
27:59Who is the king of glory?
28:01The Lord strong and mighty.
28:04He is the king of glory.
28:07So lift up your heads, O ye people, and be ye lifted.
28:18Ye everlasting doors and the king of glory shall come in.
28:24Who is the king of glory?
28:26The Lord strong and mighty.
28:30The Lord mighty in battle.
28:34Gates open.
28:39Stretch the gates.
28:41The king of glory is coming.
28:43Stretch the gates.
28:45The Lord mighty in battle is coming.
28:47Stretch the gates.
28:49Breakthrough is coming.
28:51Stretch the gates.
28:55Breakthrough is here.
28:57Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
29:01I want about a thousand people to give him praise.
29:15I want about a thousand people to give him praise.