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00:00 The scriptural lesson today is coming from 2 Corinthians chapter 1, 2 Corinthians chapter
00:04 1, verse 3 through 7 in the New Living Translation.
00:07 Notice there these words, "All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
00:15 God is our merciful Father," and notice this, "and the source of all comfort."
00:21 It didn't say to turn to a man or turn to a woman, turn to drugs and alcohol.
00:25 He is the source of all comfort.
00:27 Our God is the source of all comfort.
00:30 Notice this, "He comforts us in all our troubles."
00:36 Why?
00:37 "So that we can comfort others.
00:41 When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.
00:49 For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with His comfort through
00:55 Christ.
00:57 Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation, for
01:03 when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you.
01:09 Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer.
01:15 We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort
01:22 God gives us."
01:24 We're just talking today about comforted to comfort, comforted to comfort.
01:31 It is interesting how God works.
01:34 The Greek word that we have here translated as comfort is the word paraklesis.
01:42 Para means beside, klesis, it actually means to call.
01:46 It means to call beside.
01:48 He's our paraklesis.
01:50 He's our parakletos, and He's the one that actually comes in and comforts us whenever
01:57 you're going to have trouble.
01:58 Now, the reason that He sent a comforter, because He knew that we would have trouble.
02:02 Please, I don't want you to think that life is strange because you have trouble.
02:09 Trouble is normal to life.
02:12 Problems are normal to life.
02:13 You want to deal with issues in this life.
02:15 If you haven't yet, hang on.
02:19 It's coming down your way.
02:22 They know your address.
02:24 Trouble knows your address.
02:26 Some of you, He frequents very, very frequently, and it doesn't feel good.
02:33 And that's why whenever you have trouble, you need to be comforted because God moves
02:39 in us in unique ways.
02:42 Here's the way that He goes.
02:44 We go from comfort to discomfort to then greater comfort.
02:50 And it's a constant process from the womb to the tomb.
02:55 Comfort, discomfort, greater comfort.
02:58 You can't come to a greater comfort of living until you go to the discomfort of education
03:02 and skilling and having certain things.
03:05 I mean, when you come out of the womb, comfortable, warm environment, all cushioned with all of
03:10 this amniotic fluid and all of that.
03:13 And then all of a sudden, discomfort, contractions, pressing down, forcing you, making your head
03:20 shaped like a cone for a minute, trying to come out.
03:24 Uncomfortable, uncomfortable.
03:25 You were just in paradise.
03:28 Nice warm water.
03:31 I mean, you're just laying up there.
03:33 You've got all of your body fluids coming into a cord, all of your waste material.
03:37 You don't have to get up to go to the bathroom.
03:39 It's like having a catheter in.
03:42 You've got everything already built in.
03:44 So you move from this comfortable environment to all of a sudden going in trauma.
03:50 And the next thing you know, mama is in labor and contraction.
03:53 I mean, just coming down on, just bearing down and pushing you out of your comfort zone.
03:59 So you go from comfort to discomfort, but then to greater comfort, greater comfort.
04:06 It's greater comfort because when the baby was in here, the baby wasn't able to get the
04:09 breast milk.
04:10 You go to greater comfort, comfort, discomfort, greater comfort.
04:14 It happens from the womb to the tomb, comfort, discomfort to greater comfort.
04:19 It's a process of life.
04:21 So think it not strange whenever your life becomes uncomfortable and you start experiencing
04:27 trouble or going through a period in your life of suffering when you go through the
04:33 valley of the shadow of death.
04:37 But here's what I want you to always remember that whenever it feels like you're about to
04:41 die, when you're walking through the valley, and that's a real key word through, through,
04:48 through the word out is through the way out is through.
04:53 You go through the valley of the shadow of death.
04:56 Here's the thing that I want you to catch that though it's real shadowy and it looks
05:02 like death and it feels like death, whenever there is a shadow presence, it automatically
05:09 tells you that light is also present.
05:11 It's impossible to have a shadow without light.
05:15 And that's why that he's with us.
05:18 Even when you go through dark times and things are shadowy and you can't make it out and
05:22 you don't understand what God is doing.
05:24 But if you see a shadow, light is not far away.
05:28 In fact, the shadow is the evidence that light is present.
05:33 It takes light to cast a shadow.
05:36 So even when things are dark and shadowy to you, when you see a shadow, you know, the
05:42 light of the world is right there with you.
05:45 And that's why you see the shadow.
05:49 Here's what I would say to you.
05:50 The reason that God does not exempt us from trouble and suffering is because trouble is
05:59 an invitation to prayer.
06:03 Trouble is an invitation to prayer.
06:06 Trouble is an invitation to prayer.
06:08 Stress is an invitation to prayer.
06:12 My God, there are some people who won't pray under any other circumstances, but you get
06:15 in a, you get in a foxhole.
06:19 You get in a place where you feel like you're about to die.
06:21 I mean, people who are not even religious start, you know, trying to, I was on the plane,
06:27 you know, we, we, we suddenly dropped like 10,000 feet and just like about two, three
06:31 seconds.
06:32 Like your stomach just came up, you know, just right into your chest.
06:35 And I heard a lady behind me start praying one time and said, now I lay me down to sleep.
06:47 I mean, she, she, you know, I mean, maybe that was the only prayer she knew, but she
06:52 was coming up, you know, what, what, what, what she had.
06:57 She didn't impress me as a highly religious woman, but she was, she was giving it her,
07:01 her best shot.
07:02 Now I lay me down to sleep.
07:04 I pray to the Lord, my soul to keep.
07:07 If I should die before I wake, I'm like, pray on sister, pray on.
07:16 But trouble is an invitation to prayer.
07:18 Trouble is an invitation to prayer.
07:20 How do we know that James chapter five in verse 13, notice this is any among you suffering?
07:26 Is any among you suffering?
07:28 King James version says, is any among you afflicted?
07:30 You know what it means to be afflicted.
07:32 You know what it means to suffer.
07:34 Now notice what it says.
07:35 Is any among you suffering?
07:37 Let him pray.
07:39 Let her pray.
07:41 Is any, is anyone Mary?
07:44 Let him sing songs.
07:46 Now notice this.
07:47 When you are stressed, when you're troubled, when you are suffering, you need to do your
07:52 own praying because I'm going to tell you this.
07:54 I mean, I know that there are other people that you can trust to pray for you, but when
08:00 you're in trouble, you'll be just like Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane that had Peter,
08:05 James and John, his three best friends.
08:08 And he came back and they were asleep.
08:12 And that's why you got to learn to do your own praying.
08:15 Because when you up at two 38 in the middle of the night and you, you, you've called sister
08:20 prayer warrior and you know she knows how to go in, but she's at home sleep at two 38
08:26 because she's not in your trouble, but you still up, you tossing and you turning.
08:32 And that's why the Bible says, is any among you suffering?
08:35 Is any among you afflicted?
08:37 Let him pray.
08:38 Let her pray.
08:39 Father, I stretch my hand to thee.
08:43 No other help I know if thou withdraw thyself from me, whether shall I go?
08:48 You know, you better do your own praying.
08:50 And in the same way, he says, if any marry, if any is married, if anybody is happy, you
08:55 do your own singing.
08:57 Don't let anybody sing for you when you're happy.
09:00 What do you look like if I'm happy and then I'll let you whistle for me, I'm going to
09:03 do my own whistling.
09:04 I'm going to sing my own song.
09:07 Listen, if I'm happy, I'm going to be happy and I'm going to sing.
09:09 I'm going to do my own dance.
09:10 You're not going to dance for me.
09:13 I'm going to dance myself.
09:14 I'm going to sing myself.
09:15 I'm going to whistle myself when I'm married, but when I'm afflicted, when I'm suffering,
09:20 Oh God, I'm going in.
09:24 He is my father.
09:26 I know him.
09:27 Listen, it didn't say at that time when you're suffering to call for the elders of the church.
09:32 There is a time for that.
09:33 That's when you're sick.
09:34 That's the difference between sickness and suffering.
09:39 I mean, when you're too sick to go and have them to lay hands on you, you have to have
09:43 the elders to come.
09:44 And I've been to a lot of bedside to lay hands on folks that they couldn't get up and come
09:48 here.
09:49 So they call for the elders of the church.
09:51 And so then that's when we go and we pray for them, the prayer of faith and the prayer
09:57 of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise them up.
10:00 It's that's, you see, I want responsibility is just to pray.
10:04 So I know that you can get too sick to even do your own praying.
10:07 You can hurt so bad that you can't even pray yourself.
10:09 That's why you got to have somebody else to pray for when you, when you're sick, because
10:13 you can be hurting so bad.
10:15 You don't have the strength to pray.
10:17 You, you, you, you, you're under, you're taking some medication and you just need somebody
10:21 else who knows the word of prayer to pray on your behalf when you're sick.
10:25 But if you're afflicted and you're just suffering, you're going through some trouble, you got,
10:29 you got a letter from IRS and they tell you that they're getting ready to audit you and
10:32 you owe some back taxes and all of this kind of stuff.
10:35 You better do your own praying.
10:38 You got a crazy spouse.
10:39 You've got a crazy son or daughter.
10:41 You better do your own praying.
10:43 You better do your own praying.
10:44 Somebody dealing with you and stealing from you.
10:46 You better do your own praying.
10:47 I'm telling you, if, if any among you is suffering, let him pray.
10:51 Let her pray.
10:52 Do your own praying when you're hurting, when you're suffering, pray, pray, pray.
10:58 Remember trouble is an invitation to prayer.
11:00 It's an invitation to prayer.
11:01 It's an invitation to prayer.
11:05 And when you are afflicted or suffering, you need to do your own prayer.
11:10 Call in the comfort of the Holy spirit.
11:12 Call him in, call him in, call him in.
11:15 Just, just call him in.
11:16 Remember, para kaleo para besides kaleo to call, call him in, call in the comfort.
11:26 You got to call him in.
11:27 I remember back in 1984, Ray Parker jr. came out with a song.
11:33 You remember that ghostbusters?
11:36 If there's something strange in your neighborhood, who you going to call?
11:42 He said, if there's something weird and it don't look good, who you going to call?
11:47 He said, I ain't afraid of no ghosts.
11:48 I ain't afraid of no ghosts.
11:49 If you're seeing things running through your head, who you going to call?
11:53 And then he said, an invisible man sleeping in your bed.
11:56 Who you going to call?
11:59 Do you know the Holy ghost is the best ghostbuster that I know?
12:03 You got a demon lurking around.
12:05 You better call the Holy ghost.
12:07 I bet you better go away in and do your para, you know, kaleo.
12:13 You better call in the comforter, call in the Holy spirit, the paraclete, the one that's
12:18 called alongside us to help when you're suffering.
12:22 Call in the paracletus.
12:24 Call in the helper, the one called alongside you to help, to comfort means to soothe.
12:31 It means to soothe.
12:32 It means to cheer up or it means to strengthen.
12:34 When you comfort a person, you are actually fortifying them, putting them back in strength.
12:40 It doesn't mean that you're lulling them to sleep.
12:43 You're putting them back in sleep in strength.
12:46 That's why if you are messed up in your mind, when you encourage a person, it's putting
12:50 them back in strength.
12:51 It's a form of comforting.
12:53 It is a prophetic function to comfort.
12:56 It means to soothe, to cheer up or to strengthen.
12:58 That's why first Corinthians of 14 three, he that prophesied speaketh unto men, unto
13:03 edification, exhortation, and comfort.
13:08 There's a whole ministry of comfort, a whole ministry of being able to bring consolation.
13:14 It is the bringing cheer and comfort and encouragement to others.
13:18 There's a ministry of being able to lift people up and encourage them and to strengthen
13:24 them.
13:26 It doesn't mean to make them comfortable in a weakness.
13:30 That's an enabler.
13:33 You want to be a comforter, strengthen people in their weakness.
13:37 You're better than this.
13:38 This is not who you are.
13:40 You need somebody to remind you of who you are when you're in a desperate situation.
13:47 When King David was suffering, he turned to God.
13:51 I mean, who can you go to and talk to openly and honestly about what you are legitimately
13:57 feeling?
13:58 And there are sometimes things will hit you at a time when it's not appropriate to pick
14:02 up the phone and call somebody else.
14:05 But God is always available.
14:07 God is the ultimate confidant.
14:10 I know we need people too, but sometimes when you can't get ahold of people, you got to
14:14 call your father.
14:15 I'm telling you, you better call daddy.
14:17 You better call him.
14:18 You better call him.
14:19 When David was going through, I mean, he went through some dark periods.
14:22 When you go to high places, you know, you don't get to mountains without experiencing
14:26 valleys.
14:30 Mountains give us perspectives, valleys mature us.
14:33 And he was in some low places.
14:35 And one time he was in a low place.
14:37 He penned the words of Psalm 13.
14:39 Here's what it says in one through three.
14:40 He says, "How long, Lord?
14:41 How long?"
14:42 You're in a situation, you're waiting on God to come through for you.
14:45 "How long, Lord?
14:47 Will you forget me forever?
14:48 Lord, I'm getting old and my biological clock is ticking.
14:50 Hello ladies.
14:51 How long, Lord?
14:52 How long?
14:53 How long will you forget me forever?
14:56 How long will you hide your face from me?
14:58 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts?"
15:01 Have you ever been in a place where you were wrestling with thoughts?
15:04 When it's like, well, I wonder what's going on with them.
15:07 Why did that crazy person do this to me?
15:08 Why did they send me this crazy text?
15:10 What are they trying to do?
15:12 Have you ever wrestled with your thoughts?
15:13 He says, "How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in
15:17 my heart?
15:18 How long will my enemy triumph over me?
15:21 Look on me and answer, Lord, my God.
15:24 Give light to my eyes or I will sleep in death."
15:27 David was going through.
15:29 He reached out to the ultimate confidant, cried out to God.
15:34 Let me just tell you this, that the intensity of pain and fear is always lessened whenever
15:40 you have somebody there with you.
15:44 If you just have somebody, I don't care who it is.
15:47 It can be a three-month-old baby sitting in the car seat.
15:51 If you get lost and you're driving around, I just feel better.
15:56 I don't care if it's an infant in the car seat.
15:58 You just turn to the baby and say, "What are we going to do?"
16:01 I mean, there have been times, I mean, I've had the conversation, I've said, "I think
16:04 we lost.
16:05 What are we going to do?
16:06 Which way should I go?"
16:07 I just feel better just having somebody, if it's a dog, a cat, a parakeet, whatever, you
16:18 just feel better.
16:19 Am I the only one who feels that way?
16:22 Just to have somebody in the car with you, somebody, you know, when you're going through
16:27 something, you need to talk to them, "Hey, hey, hey, what are we going to do?
16:31 We know they can't even answer us back."
16:34 But it just makes us feel better to know that we are not alone.
16:38 We are not alone.
16:40 We are not alone.
16:43 We're not alone.
16:44 My son was just teaching in Acts on Friday about how prayer is presence.
16:51 Prayer, prayer is connection.
16:55 And I told you, sometimes you'll have a person that just, you can have somebody on the phone,
17:01 it's like, "I think I heard something downstairs.
17:03 Wait, stay on the phone."
17:07 They're not even there, but it's just to be connected.
17:10 It's just like somebody to just be a witness here, you know, that if all of a sudden go
17:16 silent or if I scream out, "Call the po-po."
17:21 You just feel better just having somebody on the, anybody else like that, just, they
17:27 don't even have to be saying anything, but just to have the connection and to know it's
17:31 like you feel like you're carrying somebody with you and if somebody comes after you,
17:35 they can't do anything but just say, "Ahh, ahh."
17:38 You know, hang up and then call you some help.
17:41 But you just feel better because you got somebody on the connection with you, walking in a scary,
17:50 unpredictable situation where you don't know what you're going to find.
17:54 You don't know what you are going to find.
17:58 And so you just need to have somebody on the other end.
18:03 And hopefully they got another phone so they can already have 9-1 already dialed.
18:08 It's amazing.
18:12 But somehow it shields us when you just have just one other person.
18:16 But there's a good reason, a really good reason I believe that God does not totally shield
18:22 us from trouble because no one is exempt from the problems of life.
18:28 And it's amazing the different types of things that we do to try to soothe ourselves whenever
18:33 we experience trouble.
18:34 I mean, for some people it's a nice warm bath, it's a long shower, it's a walk out in nature.
18:42 For other people that take different alternatives, this is weed.
18:50 For some other people it's unhealthy foods, you know, salty foods and fatty foods and
18:57 sugary foods that they start having cravings.
19:00 For other people it's pornography.
19:03 It's an escape from a certain kind of a pain of your current reality.
19:09 For other people it's sex.
19:10 For someone else it's just someone to talk to.
19:14 How do you soothe what's troubling you?
19:18 And I will say this, that wrong words are irritating, but right words are always soothing.
19:26 Here's what I want you to realize.
19:29 When God addresses you, hear me carefully, when God addresses you, His right words are
19:36 like dressing a wound.
19:41 To address is to like dress the wound.
19:46 They nurture something, they comfort something that has been hurting us so when God speaks,
19:52 one word from God can change your life.
19:55 And that's why if you ever get in a confused situation, you need to, first question that
19:58 you need to ask, is there a word from the Lord?
20:04 Is there a word from the Lord?
20:05 You know how sometimes mothers would say to the father, they said, you know, such and
20:10 such is going on with our daughter, such and such is going on with our son, you need to
20:14 address that.
20:17 It's just like a wound, there's a wound there and you need to dress it.
20:22 Your words dress it.
20:24 Now you can further injure it by coming in with sharp words and stabbing it.
20:29 Or you can put a sterile gauze on it to keep infection and resentment and bitterness from
20:38 forming in the heart of a child.
20:40 And this is why the Bible says fathers, provoke not your children to anger lest you discourage
20:46 them, break their spirits because you didn't dress them, you stabbed them, you wounded
20:51 them, you attacked them.
20:55 And so problems though are revealers.
20:59 They reveal things for us.
21:02 Problems show us if nothing else, they show us where we need fortification.
21:05 Fortification, I didn't say fornication.
21:09 Fortification.
21:12 Problems show us where we need to be strengthened or comforted.
21:17 Notice what Proverbs chapter 24 and verse 10 says, if you fall to pieces in a crisis,
21:23 there wasn't much to you in the first place.
21:25 Woo, my God.
21:27 Now listen, I don't mean this as an attack.
21:29 And listen, I didn't write this by the way.
21:33 These are not my words.
21:35 But if you fall to pieces, you know, in a crisis, there wasn't much to you in the first
21:41 place.
21:43 You know, if you fall to pieces in a crisis, it's not to say that you were a bad person.
21:48 It's not even to say that you were a weak person.
21:50 It is to say that you were a person who was not properly anchored.
21:54 You just weren't anchored.
21:56 There is a significant difference between being weak and being anchored.
22:02 Problems will blow you away even if you're strong, if you're not anchored.
22:06 And so it's not a matter of strength.
22:08 It's a matter of being anchored.
22:10 When your life goes through a storm, you got to be anchored and trust the one who called
22:17 you.
22:18 Here's, I want you to realize this.
22:19 Your purpose never changes, even in a storm.
22:21 God does not shift and reassign your purpose because you go through a storm.
22:26 Your purpose is still your purpose.
22:28 It is crazy.
22:29 It's crazy that if I go through a dark period in my life, if I'm, if I'm going, it's like
22:34 sitting on a train and I go in a dark tunnel and I can't see out of the window, but I was
22:40 looking out of the window, but now I can't see because I'm going through a dark tunnel.
22:44 Ever been in a dark place?
22:46 Ever gone through a dry period?
22:49 If you go through a dark tunnel, that's not the time to say, Hey, Hey, let me out of here
22:53 and start freaking out.
22:55 You sit back and trust the conductor.
22:59 And I'm just telling you that is a conductor that even while you're going through darkness
23:03 and you can't see out of the window to the left nor to the right, trust the conductor,
23:09 trust the engineer that's up there.
23:11 They can see what you cannot see.
23:13 Their perspective is not the same.
23:15 There's a light on the front of the train that you can't see from your seat.
23:19 He is never in darkness.
23:21 He is light.
23:23 Trust the conductor whenever you go through a dark spell.
23:27 And just remember that even strong people fall to pieces if they are not anchored.
23:32 You got to have somebody when you go through a storm to anchor you.
23:37 Sometimes the very children that you taught will rise back up and start feeding you the
23:41 very stuff that you fed them.
23:42 And I'm telling you, it'll bless you.
23:45 It will bless you.
23:46 It will bless you.
23:48 And a beautiful thing even about anchoring.
23:50 Sometimes you're stressed out and freaking out over stuff.
23:53 But sometimes all you need is a good night's sleep.
23:58 Sometimes a good night's sleep will anchor your soul.
24:00 Because you know, if you don't sleep well at night, you're sort of irritable the next
24:03 day.
24:04 You'll snap at people and be sharp with them and cut them off.
24:06 And it's just because you're tired.
24:08 You're just tired.
24:09 And so sometimes you just need a good night's sleep.
24:12 I love the words of John Standback that said that it is, it's a common experience that
24:17 a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has
24:22 worked on it.
24:24 What a blessing that is.
24:26 Sometimes you'd be surprised that sometimes you can just commit things to God in prayer
24:29 at nighttime and you wake up in the morning time and you'll just know what to do.
24:34 Somehow you just have a knowing.
24:35 You don't know what time it entered into you, but you can just wake up with clarity and
24:40 you know what to do.
24:42 You know what to do.
24:43 You know what to do.
24:45 But every person who is great, whoever becomes great, they become great.
24:52 You know why?
24:53 Because they have addressed a problem in life.
24:55 Just think of anybody that we consider to be great.
24:58 They are considered great, not because of what they did for themselves, but because
25:02 of what they did for someone else.
25:04 Whether it is mother Teresa, whether it was Gandhi, whether it was Martin Luther King
25:08 Jr., whether it was Nelson Mandela.
25:11 If anybody that we esteem to be great, they are great, not because of what they did for
25:15 themselves, it's because of what they did that made the life of other people more comfortable.
25:21 And here's what I would say is that whenever a person starts a business, that business
25:26 should be an answer to a problem.
25:28 Otherwise it will flounder, it will fail and it will be unfulfilling.
25:34 If what you produce is not an answer to somebody's problem, it's in vain.
25:39 You're wasting your time and it's going to be unfulfilling to you in the long run.
25:44 Now I know that the God of all comfort comforts us in all of our trouble, in all of our suffering.
25:51 He comforts us.
25:53 But I would say this, don't just suffer for the sake of suffering.
25:59 Don't just suffer for the sake of suffering.
26:01 Here's what I would say.
26:02 Stop unnecessary suffering by employing wisdom.
26:07 Stop unnecessary suffering by employing wisdom.
26:10 How many of you all know people, please don't raise your hand because you'll incriminate
26:14 your family, that did stupid stuff to bring stuff on themselves and they caused their
26:21 own suffering.
26:22 Because of something stupid that they did and they wrecked the car that you paid for
26:29 and they drove your insurance up and they did this, just stupid stuff.
26:34 And they get in trouble with stupid stuff, stuff that you know that they know better
26:38 than.
26:39 You know they know better.
26:40 I know they know better.
26:42 And it just messes you up.
26:44 Stop unnecessary suffering by employing wisdom.
26:48 Now if you don't have wisdom, you know what to do about it.
26:54 You have to get the wisdom.
26:56 It was not accidental that Solomon asked for wisdom and understanding hard to be able to
27:01 judge the people.
27:03 He asked really for a heart of discernment, that was a wisdom.
27:07 Every time his dad would turn around, his dad would say, "Solomon, get wisdom.
27:10 Wisdom is a principle thing.
27:11 In all that getting, get understanding.
27:12 Solomon, Solomon."
27:13 Every time he opened his mouth, "Solomon, get wisdom.
27:15 Solomon, get wisdom.
27:16 Solomon, get wisdom."
27:17 So now, here he comes a big time, God allows him to write a blank check.
27:21 What do you want?
27:22 Anything in the world.
27:23 All he had heard of his life, "Solomon, get wisdom.
27:24 Get wisdom."
27:25 He didn't have to think twice.
27:26 It didn't take him two seconds to think of it.
27:29 Solomon said, "No, no, no.
27:30 Give me wisdom.
27:31 Give me an understanding heart.
27:32 I want to be able to judge the people righteously.
27:34 I need wisdom.
27:35 I need wisdom."
27:36 It had been put in him since childhood.
27:38 From the time he was born, he start telling that boy, "Get wisdom.
27:41 Have some sense so that you don't go through unnecessary suffering by in simply employing
27:47 wisdom."
27:49 James chapter 1 verse 5 and 6, "If you need wisdom, ask our generous God and He will give
27:55 it to you.
27:56 He will not rebuke you for asking, but when you ask Him, be sure that your faith is in
28:00 God alone.
28:01 Do not waver for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that
28:06 is blown and tossed by the wind."
28:09 And so I would say to you, just go ahead and seek God for that wisdom.
28:13 And if you don't seek God for the wisdom, please understand that when you seek God for
28:16 the wisdom, sometimes God brings that wisdom through human beings.
28:19 So it doesn't always have to come right from the horse's mouth.
28:24 It can come through somebody that knows God.
28:27 Sometimes that wisdom is in your mother, is in your daddy, is in your brother, your sister,
28:30 is in a neighbor.
28:32 It can be in somebody that you know because God's answer to every problem is always a
28:38 person.
28:41 So you pray and ask God for wisdom, God will put somebody in your path and you'll recognize
28:46 this is the wisdom of God.
28:48 This is not a coincidence.
28:49 God is talking to me.
28:51 Anybody know what I'm talking about?
28:53 So I would say stop unnecessary suffering by employing wisdom.
28:58 Here's the second thing that I would say, find meaning in necessary suffering through
29:03 perspective.
29:05 Find meaning in necessary suffering through perspective.
29:10 There are some things that you must go through.
29:13 The apostle Paul told Timothy, he says, "Timothy, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus
29:18 Christ."
29:19 You gotta go through this.
29:21 Change your perspective, change your perspective, change your perspective.
29:25 Remember Hebrews 5, 8, this is talking about Jesus.
29:28 Even though Jesus was God's sons, he learned obedience from things he suffered.
29:33 Not just because God just supernaturally infused it in him.
29:37 If Jesus learned obedience from things that he suffered, how much more are we gonna learn
29:43 from the stuff that we suffer?
29:46 So shift your perspective, find meaning in necessary suffering through your perspective.
29:54 Here's what I would say to you.
29:57 Turn your wounds into wisdom.
30:01 Turn your wounds into wisdom.
30:05 Turn your wounds into wisdom.
30:07 I would say it this way, turn your wounds into a message, not into an identity.
30:17 Don't let what happened to you become your identity.
30:21 Turn your wounds into a message.
30:26 Think of everything that happens in your life, it's sent like a message that is designed
30:30 to go into the future.
30:32 What is God saying?
30:33 Through this, God is going to use your failures and your successes for his glory.
30:40 He'll use your ups and your downs in sickness and in health, for riches and for poverty.
30:47 God will use all of it for his glory.
30:51 You know, just turn it.
30:52 Listen, please hear this.
30:56 You are not your wounds, but your wounds carry a message.
31:02 You are not your wounds, but your wounds carry a message.
31:09 Don't let your wounds form an identity.
31:14 Find the message and send the message for.
31:18 There's a message that ought to grow out of it.
31:21 And please understand that God will use, he'll use stuff that's uncomfortable to you to help
31:26 you to grow.
31:28 Psalm chapter 4 verse 1, "Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness.
31:33 Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress.
31:36 Have mercy on me and hear my prayer."
31:38 God, you stretched me.
31:41 You enlarged me.
31:42 You grew me when I was in distress, when I was under stress.
31:47 That's when you grew me.
31:49 Stress is a growing thing.
31:51 It really is.
31:52 You can grow more under stress.
31:54 It's uncomfortable, but it'll take you to a greater place of comfort.
31:58 And here's the thing that you will discover.
32:00 Life doesn't get easier.
32:01 We get stronger.
32:04 Life doesn't get easier.
32:05 We get stronger.
32:06 We get stronger.
32:07 We get stronger.
32:08 And see, the higher up you go, the higher up you go, the narrower, narrower you get.
32:12 The narrower things become.
32:13 The higher up you go, the narrower.
32:15 The less you can do and get away with.
32:17 The higher up you go, it's sort of like a pyramid.
32:20 It gets narrower.
32:21 The higher up you go, the more that happens.
32:24 And then see, 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 14 says this, "The love of Christ constrains
32:31 us."
32:32 It constrains us.
32:34 Some other versions don't use the word constrain, they use the word compel.
32:38 Now to constrain means to hold back.
32:40 To compel means to push forward.
32:41 Which is it?
32:42 I mean, does the love of Christ constrain us or does it compel?
32:47 I'm convinced that it does both.
32:49 And I want you to think of it like what happens with a tube of toothpaste.
32:54 You constrain it, you grip it and you squeeze it, that constrains it, but it also compels
33:01 the paste to come out of the other end.
33:05 And that's what happens with your life, that God will constrict you, put you in a binding
33:10 situation where you can't do everything that you want to do.
33:14 And it constricts you.
33:15 He gives you, and God's doing you a favor when He does this, He gives you limited resources.
33:21 You know why?
33:22 Because necessity is the mother of invention.
33:25 You don't know how creative that you can be until you got to make a dinner off of a shoestring
33:30 budget.
33:31 Until you got to be able to take some cornbread and make some rice and beans you can't afford,
33:39 a beef and chicken and fish.
33:41 You got to know how to make do with what you got and you give everybody a big glass of
33:45 water and a big old piece of bread and you make potatoes.
33:49 You have to know, I'm just telling you, you get real creative when your resources are
33:55 scarce.
33:56 God will make you creative.
33:57 You, instead of running down and buying stuff, you learn how to get a needle and thread and
34:01 if you have to pull the drapes off the window to make a prom dress.
34:06 If you have to take a sheet, I mean you get really creative, you'd be surprised you will
34:09 do your most creative work when you are operating on a shoestring budget.
34:15 Anybody know what I'm talking about?
34:17 Where you can't afford all of the big stuff and all of this, that and the other and you
34:21 got to make do, you got to use an old cornbread plan when you don't have a cake plan.
34:28 I'm telling you, limited resources will make you incredibly, incredibly creative, incredibly
34:34 creative.
34:35 So it's about constricting.
34:37 Don't get mad with God when your life is being constricted because he's trying to compel
34:41 something out of you.
34:42 He's trying to squeeze what he knows is in you and until there is pressure put on you,
34:48 that's what contractions do to get the baby out.
34:51 God knows what is in you and see, if he listened to us, there would be time while we are trying
34:58 to deliver what God has planted in us, we would tap out and say, "God, I can't do this.
35:03 I can't take this pain, I can't take it.
35:05 I can't take it, Jesus."
35:08 And we would quit on God.
35:10 God doesn't pay us any attention because he has the right perspective.
35:13 He knows I'm delivering them.
35:16 Sometimes deliverance doesn't feel good, but after it gets out of your system, my God,
35:22 you feel so good.
35:24 I love something that Harry Emerson Fosdick said.
35:28 He said, "No horse gets anywhere until he is harnessed.
35:32 No steam or gas drives anything until it is confined.
35:36 No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled.
35:40 No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined."
35:47 So God has to constrict you when you can't do everything that you want to do and you
35:50 don't have the resources to do it.
35:52 God is constricting you to be able to press out of you something that you wouldn't get
35:57 any other way.
35:59 But hardship and resistance are the path to growth.
36:03 They are the path to growth.
36:06 Let me give you some things to remember when going through challenging times.
36:11 Number one, remember this, everything can and will change.
36:16 Everything can and will change.
36:19 You know why?
36:20 No problem lasts forever.
36:21 Just remind yourself this too shall pass.
36:24 Number two, you've overcome challenges before.
36:28 You've overcome challenges before.
36:29 You'll get through this.
36:31 Number three, it's a learning, growing experience.
36:35 Just tell yourself whenever you're going through challenging time, it's a learning, growing
36:39 experience.
36:40 Have a growth mindset.
36:42 See what it is, how I can grow through this.
36:44 What does God have in this for me?
36:47 Number four, not getting what you want can be a blessing.
36:51 You just don't realize sometimes you don't even know what you're asking for.
36:55 But when God does not give you certain things, I'm telling you, it can be a blessing in your
36:58 life.
36:59 Number five, when you're going through trouble, relax and have some fun.
37:05 It's not just about the destination, it's about the journey.
37:08 Learn to have joy in the journey.
37:10 Just relax and have fun.
37:12 I know that you're still going through some stuff, but make you a peanut butter sandwich
37:16 and take a blanket and go out in the backyard, you know, and some Kool-Aid, whatever you,
37:20 you know.
37:22 Just have some fun, you know, turn on some music and just dance.
37:26 You're broke anyway.
37:27 They turn your lights off, just, you know, just play a song on your phone, you know,
37:34 and just act like you, you know, out at an exquisite ball.
37:38 Just be creative.
37:40 Just have fun.
37:41 Number six, other people's negative opinion is none of your business.
37:46 You could be going through a hard time, you're wondering what people are thinking about you
37:48 and what — listen, are people not thinking about you as much as you think?
37:54 And then the other ones that may be concerned, you know, they're glad that it's happening
37:57 to you.
37:58 Here's number seven, your epic journey is creating an amazing testimony for the Lord.
38:04 I just want you to just have perspective.
38:06 Whenever you're going through challenging time, remember that your epic journey is creating
38:11 an amazing testimony for the Lord.
38:13 And number eight, there's always something for which to be thankful.
38:18 Find gratitude in whatever — I know in the worst of situations, you're not thanking God
38:22 that it happened, but in that thing, find something and say, "Lord, I thank you.
38:28 You know, I'm having a hard time, Lord.
38:29 It could have been worse."
38:32 Just find something for which to express gratitude.
38:34 It'll shift you and it'll lift you.
38:37 I do remind you that the only thing that grows in a comfort zone is mediocrity.
38:42 It's the only thing that grows in a comfort zone is mediocrity.
38:48 We remember, you know, the Barnum and Bailey circus.
38:52 One of the statements that P.T.
38:54 Barnum said, he said that comfort is the enemy of progress.
38:59 Comfort, it is the enemy of progress.
39:03 And just remember this, life is hard for two reasons.
39:08 Number one, because you're leaving the comfort zone.
39:10 And number two, because you're staying in the comfort zone.
39:14 Choose your heart.
39:15 Choose your heart.
39:16 It'll be hard if you leave the comfort zone, but it'll be hard if you stay in the comfort
39:21 zone.
39:22 Choose your heart.
39:24 Some people believe that just because you come into a situation in life in the name
39:31 of peace, they assume that you are not prepared for war.
39:38 I remember when I was in elementary school and I just, you know, I cannot identify with
39:43 people wanting to kill themselves because they are bullied.
39:49 Somebody was bullying me on my way home from school every day.
39:53 And just because I came in peace, they misunderstood that I was prepared for war.
40:02 I was a nice young man.
40:03 I minded my own business.
40:05 I didn't hurt anybody.
40:07 But this little dude, you know, he messed with me every day I was coming home.
40:11 So I planned it one day and I came in peace.
40:14 I came in peace.
40:16 But I had a rock.
40:17 No, no, no, I did.
40:20 I had a rock.
40:21 I sent him to the hospital because I had a rock.
40:26 And when he started his mess, I felt like David going after Goliath.
40:33 I released my rock and sent it into the rear of his head and I drew blood.
40:41 His mama had to take him to the hospital.
40:45 She was piping mad and came down to my house and asked to speak to my father.
40:50 My father went out on the porch and talked to this woman.
40:55 She came back in the house and patted me on the back.
41:04 And so I don't want you to ever think that because you come in peace that you are not
41:08 prepared for war.
41:15 It's amazing.
41:17 Please remember this principle that everything that God asks us to do makes us stronger.
41:23 Everything that God asks us to do makes us stronger.
41:28 Everything God asks us to do makes us stronger.
41:31 He's not going to ask you to do something that makes you weaker.
41:34 When God asks you to do something, He's making you stronger.
41:37 It may be uncomfortable, but it's making you stronger.
41:40 It's making you stronger.
41:42 And just remember, failure is the womb of success.
41:45 It's the womb of success.
41:47 It's the womb of success.
41:52 A man is great not because he hasn't failed, but it's because he hasn't let failure stop
41:58 him.
42:02 Failure is the womb of success.
42:04 It's the womb of success.
42:07 And remember, when you're going through a storm, it doesn't change your purpose.
42:11 Ed Stetzer said that the moment that we are in does not pause the mission that we are
42:14 on.
42:15 The moment that we are in does not pause the mission that we are on.
42:20 When you're on a mission, you're still the mission.
42:24 God doesn't change the mission.
42:27 It doesn't stop it.
42:29 Stay true to the mission that God has called you to.
42:32 And just remember that your purpose does not change in a storm.
42:37 Failure is indeed the womb of success because you have to go through some things.
42:42 Failure is a path to growth.
42:45 And if you don't believe that, if you're ever in a situation that failure is a path to growth,
42:53 when you're in the gym and you're lifting weights and you're doing sets that's called
42:58 burnouts and you go until you fail, until you can't lift it anymore, you start shaking
43:03 and you can't do it anymore.
43:06 That doesn't mean that you fail.
43:09 It just means that your body needs rest to recover and it's going to build the muscle
43:13 tissue bigger so that when the challenge is presented to it the next time you can go further.
43:20 So failure is the womb of success.
43:23 It looks like I burned out because I lifted until I couldn't do it anymore and I struggled
43:31 and had to give up.
43:32 I didn't fail.
43:35 I was in progress towards succeeding.
43:39 Failure is a part of that.
43:42 And that's why we stumble before we really learn to walk well.
43:46 We stumble but God's got a plan in mind and he's bringing us into a place.
43:53 I love something that Paul Meyer says.
43:55 He says, "By seeing the seed of failure in every success we remain humble and by seeing
44:00 the seed of success in every failure we remain hopeful."
44:06 And that's exactly our perspective.
44:09 But based on what God has done in you, what do you have in you to comfort others?
44:16 Remember whatever God is comforting you is so that you can bring comfort to others.
44:20 It's really about being able to bless somebody else.
44:25 And I just want to know who needs comforting in the sphere of your influence among your
44:29 family members, your neighbors, your coworkers, your gym buddies, your schoolmates, your team
44:35 members, whoever is in your sphere of influence, the people that you mentor.
44:41 Who needs comfort?
44:42 Who needs to be put back in strength?
44:46 There's something that you carry to strengthen people who are suffering.
44:52 And the apostle Paul reminds us in Romans chapter 8 verse 17 and 18, "And since we are
44:58 his children, we are his heirs.
45:00 In fact, together with Christ, we are heirs of God's glory.
45:04 But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering."
45:09 And yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory that will be revealed in us later.
45:17 Here's what I want you to hear through all of this that we are comforted to comfort.
45:23 Please understand your story is not about you.
45:27 Your story is about God's work in you.
45:32 Your story is not about you.
45:34 It's about God's work in you.
45:39 When God gives you a testimony, it's not about you.
45:42 It's about God's work in you.
45:47 You know what prophecy is?
45:48 It's the testimony of Jesus.
45:51 Ultimately, when you prophesy, it has to bring glory and point this thing back to Jesus in
45:58 some way.
46:00 It's not about you.
46:01 It's about the work of Jesus in you.
46:04 It's about the work of the Holy Ghost in you.
46:07 May I tell you that I have been praying for some years now from Lamentations chapter 5
46:12 and verse 21.
46:15 Turn us back to you, O God, and we will be restored.
46:19 Renew us as of the days of old.
46:23 Bring back the fire.
46:25 Bring back the passion.
46:28 Bring back the love.
46:29 Bring back the boldness to be able to tell people what God has done in your life.
46:35 The boldness to be able to lift up your voice like a trumpet and testify to the glory of
46:40 God.
46:42 The glory to be able to lay your hands on somebody, pray the prayer of faith, and watch
46:47 the Lord raise them up.
46:49 It's not on you.
46:50 It's what he does in you.
46:55 When Paul went down and started listing out all of these carnal things and carnal people,
47:02 he then turned to the saints and said, "And such were some of you."
47:04 He says, "You might be looking holy and like you were saints, but you haven't always been
47:08 that way."
47:09 He says, "You've got a testimony, and I'm here to remind you today on this Pentecost
47:14 Sunday that he sent the Comforter back to us to comfort you so that you can comfort
47:23 other folks that are suffering.
47:25 And we got a suffering world that's suffering with all kinds of depression and mental illnesses.
47:30 They're suffering in their identities, in complexes, in their ego.
47:36 They are suffering.
47:38 And he's trying to raise us up, and I'm just here to tell you that these are prophetic
47:42 times now.
47:43 This is not a time just for the Logos.
47:47 This is a time for the Rhema.
47:49 This is a time for the Rhema of God.
47:52 God do it again.
47:54 Where is the Lord God of Elijah?
47:56 May we see miracles come back.
47:59 May faith rise up in your heart.
48:01 I prophesy in the name of Jesus to call the spirit of prophecy, exhortation, edification,
48:10 comfort, comfort, comfort bringing.
48:13 It is a new day now where you will arise and you will see my work that is already in you
48:35 now release it out of you.
48:37 For the waters that are there are not there to just stay as a well in the water of salvation
48:42 once you're saved, but it becomes transformed into a river.
48:46 And it is to spring up, it is to spring up, it is to spring up a well so that out of your
48:53 bellies you will discover it shall flow, flow, flow like living waters flowing out of your
48:59 belly and every place that that water shall go it shall bring healing.
49:04 And there is dryness in the land, but there is a river in you.
49:09 May the river in you transform the dryness of the land that is around you.
49:14 Oh God now, may you God so fill us, fill us God.
49:20 You've already done a work in us Lord.
49:22 Now do it through us for your glory, for your glory, for your glory.
49:26 God may you show through us God what Jesus has done in us, how he redeemed us.
49:33 Show his strong hand of redemption in our lives.
49:37 Oh great redeemer today, we give you permission oh Lord.
49:41 Stand to your feet, stand to your feet.
49:43 Slip one hand up to God.
49:45 I pray in the name of Jesus.
49:49 May your hand be like a lightning rod.
49:52 May that arm go up and be like a lightning rod.
49:55 That the power, the conduit, you'll become a conduit of the supernatural power of God.
50:01 He'll give you compassion, compassion in your heart to be able to sense the need and meet
50:08 the need.
50:09 May God's work of redemption in you now flow through you.
50:15 May he enable your mouth, give you the words and the boldness to speak what the redemptive
50:22 work and the blood of Jesus has done in you.
50:26 May he show you unique opportunities and quicken you in the moment of when the word should
50:33 be released, when the testimony should be released, when the story for his glory should
50:39 be released.
50:40 May God give you divine prophetic eyes and see the discouraged soul and that you will
50:46 strengthen the weak knees, lift up the feeble hands and speak and bring strength, strength,
50:56 fortified comfort in the name of Jesus.
50:59 In your own family, among your children and your grandchildren, your nieces and your nephews,
51:05 your coworkers, the people that you've met and that look to you for leadership.
51:09 May the glory of God so rise up in your life in strength, in power and in glory.
51:17 Spring up, oh well.
51:19 Spring up, spring up, spring up.
51:22 Fountain of God.
51:24 Be more sheer, yeah, you're more shaky.
51:27 There is a water, be shaky.
51:29 You ought to begin to go back in your personal time.
51:31 Many of you have neglected the gift of the Holy Ghost, praying in other songs.
51:36 Let it flow, let it flow, build it up, build it up like a battery.
51:41 Build it, build it, build it and release the anointing of God in your life in the name
51:47 of Jesus.
51:47 Hallelujah to Jesus.
51:57 Hallelujah to Jesus.
52:00 Hallelujah, I feel something in this house.
52:03 I feel something in this house.
52:06 Hey, yes, yes, yes.
52:11 Yes to your will God, yes to your way.
52:17 Have your way Jesus.
52:18 I dare you to give him permission to have his way in your life, to have his way through
52:23 you.
52:24 He's bringing you out of that dry spell.
52:27 He's bringing you out of the darkness.
52:29 He's bringing you out of the sorrow.
52:32 He's bringing you out of the depression.
52:34 He's delivering you from self-doubt.
52:36 My God, thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus.
52:45 Glory to God.
52:53 There's a river in you.
52:54 Let it flow.
52:55 Let the river of God flow.
52:56 Let the river of God flow.
53:01 It's not designed for the sanctuary.
53:04 It starts in the sanctuary, but it seeps out of the door and it's going to dry places.
53:09 The water is seeking the dry place.
53:11 It is this though it is beckoning.
53:13 It is calling it.
53:14 It's like the wheat in the field that is waving and saying, come this way, come this way,
53:20 come this way.
53:21 There's something in you that is calling deep calls under deep.
53:24 It's calling under you today.
53:26 It's calling under you today.
53:27 I feel something in the Holy Ghost today that God is saying deep calls under deep.
53:32 Let it flow.
53:33 Let it flow.
53:34 There's a river in you.
53:35 Let it flow.
53:36 There's a river in you.
53:37 There's a river in you.
53:38 We've been too self-focused.
53:39 There's a river in you.
53:41 Let it flow.
53:42 Let it flow.
53:43 Somebody needs your water.
53:44 Somebody needs your encouragement.
53:45 Somebody needs your strength.
53:46 This is bigger than you.
53:47 This is not about you.
53:48 We are comforted to comfort.
53:49 We are blessed to bless.
53:50 We are taught to teach.
53:51 We are fed to feed.
53:52 We are led to lead.
53:53 This is your time.
53:54 God is calling you.
53:55 Let it flow.
53:56 Let it flow.
53:57 There's a river in you.
53:58 Let it flow.
53:59 There's a river in you.
54:00 There's a river in you.
54:01 There's a river in you.
54:02 Let it flow.
54:03 There's a river in you.
54:04 There's a river in you.
54:05 There's a river in you.
54:06 There's a river in you.
54:07 There's a river in you.
54:08 There's a river in you.
54:09 There's a river in you.
54:10 There's a river in you.
54:11 There's a river in you.
54:12 There's a river in you.
54:13 There's a river in you.
54:14 There's a river in you.
54:15 There's a river in you.
54:16 There's a river in you.
54:17 There's a river in you.
54:18 There's a river in you.