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00:00 (dramatic music)
00:02 - So I want you to really lay your anchor down today
00:12 at 2 Corinthians chapter four.
00:14 2 Corinthians chapter four, verse 13.
00:19 2 Corinthians four, verse 13.
00:23 We having the same spirit of faith
00:28 according as it is written,
00:30 I believed and therefore have I spoken.
00:35 We also believe and therefore speak.
00:39 2 Corinthians chapter four, the 13th verse.
00:43 Let me reiterate for extra emphasis.
00:45 We having the same spirit of faith
00:48 according as it is written,
00:50 I believed and therefore have I spoken.
00:55 We also believe and therefore speak.
01:00 I want to use as a subject tonight,
01:03 don't cut me off while I'm talking.
01:05 Don't cut me off while I'm talking.
01:11 Would you look at the person beside you
01:12 and tell them if there's one thing that gets on my nerves.
01:15 If they cut me off while I'm talking.
01:20 Don't cut me off while I'm talking.
01:25 As Christians we are called to live a life of faith.
01:30 And the just, here it is, the just shall live by faith.
01:36 That's Habakkuk two and four.
01:39 The just live by faith.
01:42 We know that you need air to live.
01:47 You need water to live.
01:50 You need food to live.
01:52 But have we considered you need faith to keep you alive.
01:57 You need it on the same level you need air.
02:01 Same level that you need water.
02:03 On the same level that you need food.
02:06 You need faith in order to live.
02:08 According to Hebrews 11 and six,
02:12 it is faith that is pleasing to God.
02:17 It is faith that is pleasing to God.
02:19 Faith comes out of the Greek word pistis, P-I-S-T-I-S.
02:24 I don't wanna really unpack it today.
02:28 But isn't it amazing that faith has the same root as pistol?
02:32 That faith is a weapon that is explosive.
02:39 That faith is a weapon that will hit what it's aimed at.
02:45 Faith is a pistis, but in its original Greek translation,
02:50 it is a conviction of truth of anything.
02:53 And so I do not have faith in
02:58 what I don't believe to be true.
03:01 Yeah, I don't believe it to be true.
03:04 I don't have any faith in it.
03:05 Just as a definition, watch this,
03:08 faith is defined by its actions.
03:12 So how I act reflects on what I believe.
03:17 And so what I really want to, in this, our first installment,
03:24 I want you to use as a subtitle tonight,
03:28 and I'm gonna be dealing with it for the next 30 minutes,
03:32 is that faith speaks.
03:34 I want you to write that down, please.
03:37 Faith speaks.
03:40 I want to really just warn you
03:44 that this is gonna make you look at faith differently.
03:48 It's gonna look at your journey differently.
03:51 And your odyssey with God is gonna come a little bit clearer
03:56 because here it is, you cannot have faith,
04:01 here it is, in silence.
04:05 That's almost my thesis for tonight,
04:07 is you cannot have faith in silence
04:11 because the spirit of faith,
04:13 many people deal with the spirit of faith
04:15 in terms of giving,
04:17 but I want to talk about the spirit of faith
04:19 in terms of speaking.
04:21 And so the first scripture that I want to point you to
04:24 tonight is Hebrews 11, verse 13 and 14.
04:28 Hebrews 11, New Testament book of Hebrews,
04:32 chapter 11, verse 13 and 14.
04:35 I want to show it to you.
04:36 It's been right before you your whole life
04:38 and you didn't even realize
04:40 not only that you had access to it,
04:42 but maybe that was what was blocking you
04:45 is that you have not been unlocking faith properly.
04:49 Hebrews 11, 13 and 14.
04:52 These all died in faith.
04:55 This is the hall of fame of faith
04:57 of those who did great faith exploits for God,
05:02 both Old and New Testament.
05:04 You'll find in Hebrews 11,
05:06 not having received the promises,
05:09 but having seen them afar off,
05:12 were all persuaded of them and embraced of them
05:16 and confessed that they were strangers
05:19 and pilgrims on the earth.
05:21 For they, here it is,
05:22 that say such things,
05:25 declare plainly that they seek a country.
05:29 And so their faith, here it is,
05:30 while it is that we know their actions,
05:33 all of the people in the hall of fame in Hebrews
05:37 spoke what it is that they believed.
05:40 What made them great was not just what they did.
05:43 What made them great is that they said it
05:46 before they did it.
05:48 I met many of you don't even understand
05:50 that your lead inhibition to accomplishing it
05:54 is 'cause you haven't spoken
05:56 what you're believing God for.
05:57 You haven't spoken it, watch this, to God,
06:01 and you have not spoken it to others.
06:05 Faith requires your voice.
06:09 I need you to write that down, please.
06:10 Faith requires your voice.
06:13 What are you believing God for,
06:16 and you can't believe it in silence.
06:18 I want you to go with me to Mark chapter 11.
06:22 Mark chapter 11.
06:23 I told you we're doing a whole lot of scripture work
06:25 because this is going to really hold us
06:28 for the next four to six weeks.
06:30 Mark chapter 11, verse 22 and 23.
06:34 And Jesus answering said unto them,
06:36 "Have faith in God."
06:38 This is Jesus speaking.
06:40 In Hebrews, we're hearing the language of the apostle.
06:43 In Mark, we're reading the transcript of the Savior.
06:47 Mark 11, verse 22 and 23.
06:50 And Jesus answering saith unto them,
06:52 "Have faith in God, for verily I say unto you,
06:55 "that whosoever," here it is,
06:57 "shall say to the mountain, 'Be thou removed,
07:01 "'and be cast in the sea,'
07:03 "and shall not doubt in his heart,
07:05 "but shall believe that those things," here it is,
07:07 "that they said will come to pass."
07:11 Here it is.
07:12 So in order for the mountain to move,
07:13 I'm not thinking about the mountain.
07:16 I got to articulate to the mountain
07:18 the authority of what it is that I believe,
07:21 that the mountain is going to be moved.
07:23 Why?
07:24 Because I believed it, but I said it.
07:28 Here it is.
07:29 That in this passage, Jesus is teaching that faith in God
07:32 means that you are speaking to the thing
07:35 that you are believing for.
07:37 The mountain has no faith,
07:40 so I'm not really talking to the mountain.
07:42 I am talking to the God that created the mountain.
07:46 That God, you got to move it
07:47 'cause the mountain don't know to move.
07:50 And so I am telling you to move it
07:52 because the mountain doesn't have the wherewithal
07:55 to move itself.
07:56 Jesus, you remember, spoke to a fig tree,
07:59 said to a fig tree, watch this,
08:01 "You got to grow.
08:03 "If you do not grow, I'm going to curse you."
08:06 Here it is, "'Cause you were not responding to my language."
08:10 And the tree withered and died.
08:13 You don't even understand the authority of your language
08:16 is not just to produce.
08:19 The authority of your language is also to cut down.
08:23 Do you have the faith for stuff to flourish
08:27 and do you have the faith for stuff to find its finality?
08:31 The language of your faith
08:34 is not just what I am going to produce.
08:37 I need you to hear this.
08:38 The language of my faith
08:39 is not just what I am going to produce.
08:41 The language of my faith is what I'm bringing to an end.
08:45 Y'all not saying anything to me.
08:48 Yeah, that some stuff is going to die tonight.
08:51 'Cause I got enough faith that this is the end of it.
08:57 Hallelujah.
08:58 I'm telling you, faith is birthed in your heart.
09:02 Faith is birthed in your heart
09:05 through the canal of your mouth.
09:07 Faith is birthed in your heart,
09:11 but it comes out of the canal of your heart,
09:16 of your mouth.
09:18 Hear this.
09:18 And so I need every person in this room,
09:20 every person online to declare and repeat after me,
09:24 there is might in my mouth.
09:26 - There is might in my mouth.
09:28 - Yeah.
09:29 Your mouth, watch this,
09:31 will deliver you,
09:33 your mouth will deliver you from harm.
09:37 Your mouth will deliver you from harm.
09:40 I need you to go to Proverbs 12 and six.
09:43 Proverbs 12 and six.
09:45 So you'll find out how it is that it delivers you from harm.
09:50 In Proverbs 12 and six, it says,
09:53 an upright mouth, watch this,
09:56 an upright mouth can deliver you from harm.
09:59 The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood,
10:02 but the speech of the upright delivers you from evil.
10:07 Do you understand why it is that the enemy wants you silent?
10:12 Your mouth, watch this,
10:13 sometimes will operate in more authority
10:17 than a vial of oil.
10:18 Oh God, I can't hear nobody in here.
10:22 Is that whatever the authority the enemy thinks he has,
10:26 it is limited by how frequently
10:29 and what authority you use your mouth.
10:33 All right, let's go to Proverbs 12 and 14.
10:36 Proverbs 12 and 14 says something absolutely amazing
10:40 that I want you to hear, from the fruit of their lips,
10:44 from the fruit of their lips, people, I love this.
10:47 I never paid attention to this.
10:49 I never heard it preached in all my life.
10:51 Watch this, by the fruit of their lips,
10:53 people are filled with good things.
10:57 Oh my Lord.
10:59 Did you hear what I just said?
11:01 I said, by what I say is what my life
11:05 is gonna be filled with.
11:07 Maybe because you're always speaking negative things,
11:11 that's why your life always got negative stuff.
11:14 But if the authority is in my mouth,
11:17 and hear me, the good things are not always tangible things.
11:22 But I'm telling you,
11:22 you gotta speak what you want your life to be filled with.
11:26 I want love to be in my house.
11:28 I want joy to be in my house.
11:31 I want happiness to be in my health.
11:34 I want there to be health in my body.
11:37 I want my children to be brilliant and insightful
11:41 and to be creative.
11:43 But because you ain't speaking it by faith,
11:45 you are not filling it by faith.
11:48 Says what it is that you speak
11:51 is what your life is going to be filled with.
11:55 I need you to look at it.
11:56 Please look at it.
11:57 Proverbs 12 and 14, the mouth, watch this,
12:01 does so many, 12 and 14, from the fruit of their lips,
12:04 your life is filled with good things,
12:06 and the work of their hands brings them reward.
12:10 This is the same verse, right?
12:12 My life is filled with good things,
12:15 and the work of my hand is coming to pass.
12:19 So I am not just speaking.
12:21 I am working on what I am declaring.
12:25 See, many of you are not getting the fulfillment
12:28 of what you're believing for
12:30 because you just talking but ain't working.
12:33 Are you prepared to work on what you declare?
12:37 If you just naming it and claiming it,
12:39 it ain't going to happen.
12:40 But when you roll up your sleeves and say,
12:42 God, it's me and you now, I got to get this done.
12:46 I got to get this accomplished.
12:48 I got to cross this finish line.
12:50 I got to meet this goal.
12:52 What do you think is going to happen
12:54 when faith matches your sweat equity?
12:58 Faith is not for the lazy.
13:01 Faith is not for the incompetent.
13:03 But the Bible says in Nehemiah, they had a mind to build.
13:08 They didn't speak to the wall and say, wall, be finished.
13:12 They said, God, it ain't that many of us.
13:15 We ain't got that many resources,
13:17 and we ain't got a big team.
13:19 But God, if you'll add favor and grace
13:23 to what it is that we are working on,
13:26 we believe it's getting ready to come to pass.
13:29 There are people that are tired looking at you
13:33 'cause they can't believe you getting all of that done.
13:36 But they got to know it is not I.
13:39 It's the Christ that lives inside.
13:42 Because greater is he that is in me
13:46 than he that is in the world.
13:48 I'm telling you that God is getting ready
13:50 to release favor on your work ethic.
13:53 I didn't expect you to shout on that.
13:57 I said, God is going to release favor on your work ethic.
14:02 This is the hour for the industrious.
14:06 Those of you who are just lazy praisers, this ain't for you.
14:10 But for those of you that got a mind for it,
14:14 that even if I got to stay up late at night,
14:17 wake up early in the morning,
14:19 every scrap sheet of paper got me writing some idea,
14:22 some concept, some dream,
14:24 thinking of a way that I can get it done
14:27 without hurting anybody, without breaking the law,
14:30 while maintaining my integrity and my ethics.
14:34 How is God not going to bless it
14:36 when you believe in God to add more favor to it?
14:40 I need you to look at Proverbs 11 and 11.
14:43 Proverbs 11 and 11.
14:46 Proverbs 11 and 11.
14:48 I'm going to tell you what your mouth can do.
14:50 Let me tell you what your mouth can do.
14:52 Proverbs 11 and 11 says,
14:54 I will give you authority over an entire city.
14:58 Is that what your Bible says?
15:02 Says when you use your mouth,
15:05 I ain't just giving you a house.
15:07 I ain't giving you a grant.
15:08 I'm giving you a complete municipality.
15:11 Do you all understand the spiritual undertaking
15:16 of what we announced on Sunday?
15:19 Y'all ain't say hear nothing.
15:21 That for 25 years, Apostle Long preached on kingdom.
15:25 You can't have a kingdom without housing.
15:28 You can't have a kingdom without health.
15:30 Y'all ain't say nothing to me.
15:32 You can't have a kingdom without economy.
15:35 I'm telling you, when we put ourselves
15:37 in a strategic position to disrupt the authority
15:41 of the carnal, of understanding,
15:44 I'm not waiting for public housing.
15:46 I'm waiting for kingdom housing.
15:49 When I begin to flow into that level,
15:52 you begin to dismantle structures to let the enemy know
15:56 you ain't got no authority over here.
15:59 And I need you to see it through a spiritual eye
16:03 who is living on sacred ground.
16:06 Y'all dismissed that.
16:09 150 people will live in essence
16:14 on the grounds of the sanctuary.
16:17 In the Old Testament, only the priest could live in the house
16:22 but in the New Testament, when the veil is broken,
16:25 everybody got access to the glory.
16:29 Why?
16:30 Because you're operating on a kingdom principle.
16:33 God, if I don't run the city, let me create my own.
16:37 Y'all ain't say nothing.
16:40 That's the kind of faith
16:43 that you got to be able to operate in.
16:46 I need you to look at Proverbs 12 and six.
16:49 Proverbs 12 and six.
16:52 Proverbs 12 and six.
16:53 I gave you 12 and six.
16:55 All right, let's go to Proverbs 13 and two.
16:57 Proverbs 13 and two.
17:00 It says, "From your mouth," watch this,
17:03 "from the fruit of your lips," new international version,
17:06 "from the fruit of your lips, you will enjoy good things."
17:11 Did y'all read that?
17:15 I said, by what you say, you are now going to have
17:19 the access to the best the life has to offer you.
17:24 Oh my God.
17:25 Not second rate.
17:28 Whatever is the best is going to be at your disposal.
17:33 You are no longer surviving, you are excelling.
17:38 Many of you forgot Benjamin May says,
17:41 "Your greatest sin is not failure, it's low aim."
17:45 And so if you have adjusted to average,
17:48 it is a reflection of your faith.
17:51 Your faith ought to be convincing you, I deserve the best.
17:55 And I am not going to settle until I get the best.
17:59 And because I expect the best and I'm going to get the best,
18:02 I then speak the best.
18:05 So you got to operate in apostolic arrogance.
18:09 This is not my style.
18:11 This does not match who I am.
18:14 This is not what God created for me to have.
18:17 But God always saves the best for last.
18:21 I don't know where y'all are, but I feel like in 2024,
18:26 there is no middle ground.
18:28 Everything you get is going to be first class.
18:32 Everything you have is going to be top of the line.
18:36 Why?
18:37 Because your lips will speak
18:41 the best of what it is that I expect.
18:44 Proverbs chapter 15, Proverbs chapter 15.
18:47 I'm stuck in Proverbs.
18:48 Y'all got to forgive me.
18:49 Many years ago, about 10 years ago, God restrained me.
18:54 About 10 years ago, while I was pastor in Baltimore,
18:57 God only let me preach from the book of Proverbs
19:00 for an entire year.
19:01 It drove me crazy.
19:02 So now y'all are just stuck with it.
19:04 All right.
19:05 So Proverbs 15 and four, watch this.
19:10 Is your lips will bring healing.
19:13 Oh my God.
19:17 What you say, your body is going to have to respond to.
19:21 And now let the weak say, I am poor.
19:27 Are y'all laying here?
19:28 I said, and now let the sick now say, I am healed.
19:33 You all thought that was a song and did not know.
19:36 It is a faith declaration.
19:39 I need you to lay hands on yourself
19:41 because your body is under submission to your mouth.
19:45 Y'all didn't hear what I just said.
19:47 The strongest organ in your body is not your liver
19:52 or your heart or your lungs.
19:54 Your strongest organ in your body is your tongue.
19:58 And you keep discounting it
20:00 'cause you don't understand what authority is in your mouth.
20:04 I dare you to lay hands on yourself and declare out loud.
20:08 I will be cancer free.
20:12 No heart attacks, no diabetes, no failed organs.
20:17 My blood is clean.
20:21 My oxygen is clean.
20:23 My limbs are strong.
20:25 I am anointed from the top of my head
20:30 to the sole of my feet.
20:33 He was wounded from my transgression,
20:36 bruised from my iniquity.
20:38 The chastisement of my beast is upon his shoulder
20:43 and by his stripes.
20:45 Hey, hey, hey.
20:50 May have some trials, but I am healed.
21:00 May have some disappointment, but I, hallelujah.
21:05 Hallelujah.
21:06 Hallelujah.
21:09 Hallelujah.
21:11 Hallelujah.
21:15 Hallelujah.
21:17 I dare you to just lay your hand on somebody's back
21:22 and shout, you are healed.
21:24 Hallelujah.
21:27 Your tongue, your tongue will speak healing.
21:31 Hallelujah.
21:34 Hallelujah.
21:35 Hallelujah.
21:38 Oh my God.
21:40 Oh my God.
21:44 I don't know if you remember that faith comes up
21:49 from the Greek word pistis, P-I-S-T-I-S,
21:52 which is the root word from pistol.
21:55 Is that you got to aim,
21:57 but the pistol don't mean nothing unless you shoot.
22:00 God help me.
22:01 I wonder if you have enough faith to aim it
22:04 at somebody else's body.
22:06 Oh my God.
22:08 Y'all are slow.
22:10 Did y'all hear what I just said?
22:12 I got enough faith, not just for me,
22:14 but there's something going on in the body of a loved one.
22:20 And I need their body to be regenerated while they sleep.
22:25 I need God to regenerate their tissue and their plasma
22:29 and their enzymes and their blood cell.
22:32 I declare, would you just, if you got crazy faith,
22:35 would you speak that loved one's name out loud?
22:39 I said, speak that loved one's name out loud.
22:42 Now shoot the bullet and declare out loud, they are healed.
22:47 Come on, come on.
22:48 Say it out loud, they are healed.
22:51 Hallelujah.
22:53 They are healed.
22:56 Hallelujah.
22:59 (congregation applauding)
23:02 Let me get out of Proverbs.
23:03 Let's go to the oldest book of the Bible.
23:08 Oldest book of the Bible is not the first book of the Bible.
23:11 Oldest book of the Bible is the book of Job.
23:13 Let's go to Job 22, verse number eight.
23:15 Job 22, verse number eight.
23:19 I love it.
23:20 Job 22 and eight says, if you declare a thing,
23:25 oh my God, it's coming to pass.
23:28 Hallelujah.
23:31 What do you need God to do before 23 ends?
23:36 And have you said it or have you just thought it?
23:40 And maybe you haven't spoken it
23:43 because you were not yet convinced of it.
23:45 Job 22 and eight says, if you declare a thing,
23:50 watch this, it will be established.
23:53 (congregation murmuring)
23:55 And so I am speaking it, watch this,
23:58 to lay the groundwork for it to happen
24:01 so that the thing has a platform to stand on.
24:06 Oh my God, my words are setting the stage for God's actions.
24:12 Oh my God, heaven is recording what I am speaking
24:17 because my declaration is forcing the hand of God
24:22 to begin to move on my behalf.
24:26 God help me because I am a joint heir.
24:29 Whatever he could do, I can do.
24:31 So convinced is he of my authority
24:36 that he says even after the resurrection,
24:39 greater things than these will you be able to do.
24:44 Y'all don't have that kind of faith.
24:46 Are you telling me as a child of God,
24:49 whatever my brother Jesus could do,
24:52 I can do the exact same thing?
24:55 So if you believe that, tell me why you don't lay hands.
24:59 If you believe that,
25:01 why don't you think bread is gonna multiply?
25:04 If you believe that,
25:05 why you ain't driving demons out of your children?
25:09 You gotta believe whatever it is that he did,
25:12 I'm gonna do the exact same thing and multiply that,
25:17 but I've gotta be able to speak it.
25:19 I gotta ask you a question.
25:21 How do beggars have more faith than believers?
25:25 So the apostles one day went to church
25:32 and there's a lame man outside
25:34 and they got no shame that on the day of prayer,
25:38 they went begging for change.
25:40 They did not mind asking for money,
25:45 but didn't feel comfortable asking for a miracle.
25:50 I'm gonna show you the contradiction or contradistinction.
25:54 They thought it was easier to get money
25:58 than to get a miracle.
26:01 Let me go another way.
26:04 Why did they feel comfortable at the steps of the church
26:09 and never asked anybody to get them in?
26:11 Okay, let me go another way.
26:16 How is it, watch this,
26:18 what did they see modeled, Sister Winters,
26:21 what did they see modeled that the lame man
26:24 never asked the apostles for prayer?
26:27 Says, I don't want what's out of your mouth,
26:32 give me what's in your pocket.
26:33 Oh my God.
26:35 Is the church showing money or are we showing miracles?
26:47 This isn't an indictment on the apostles
26:51 because I would shudder to think if Elder Saylor told me
26:55 how many people called for emergency financial assistance
26:59 in September levied against
27:02 how many people called for prayer.
27:04 I'm scared of the answer.
27:10 Let me see your point and raise your point.
27:13 I'd have to ask Elder Saylor,
27:16 how many people who asked for rent,
27:19 who asked for tuition, who asked for utilities,
27:22 asked for the assistance and prayer?
27:25 Or were they satisfied just getting the money?
27:32 'Cause they had no confidence this was a place
27:37 they could get a miracle.
27:38 Oh my God.
27:40 Go a step further.
27:42 How many people who asked for emergency assistance
27:45 for rent prayed, Lord, maybe this is the door
27:50 for me to leave to get in a house?
27:53 Are we stretching recipients' faith
28:01 or are we making them comfortable
28:06 being complacent and dormant
28:09 and absent from a supernatural move?
28:14 Is us writing checks while it is goodwill,
28:17 is it God's will?
28:19 I don't know, I'm just asking you.
28:25 I'm asking you.
28:26 Is making donations ministry
28:30 if there's no sign and wonder behind it
28:35 or have we reduced the check to ministry?
28:42 So if they don't know no better, what's our responsibility?
28:46 So the people who are calling for assistance,
28:49 are we praying with them if they don't know to pray?
28:52 God, I can't hear nobody.
28:55 What are we speaking over them
28:57 so they not calling back two months later?
29:00 If I am declaring a thing, what am I establishing?
29:10 Talking, watch this, talking, this is point number two.
29:14 Talking means nothing without doing.
29:20 Would you write that down, please?
29:24 Talking is nothing without doing.
29:28 I hope y'all are gonna come back next Tuesday.
29:32 I hope y'all will.
29:35 Don't fool me.
29:37 Talking does nothing without doing.
29:42 Prove it to me.
29:43 I'm glad you asked.
29:45 Is, isn't it amazing as the first exercise of faith,
29:50 James Weldon Johnson in his creation,
29:54 a rendition of Genesis,
29:56 here's how James Weldon Johnson extracts
30:00 the original sacred text.
30:01 He says, "And God thought to himself,
30:06 "I am lonely."
30:07 Genesis says, "And God said, let there be."
30:14 So he operated in faith and spoke it.
30:19 And so in all of those instances,
30:23 all he did was speak.
30:25 And he realized that he was giving us a false premise.
30:29 So then he thinks to himself,
30:32 I need to make somebody.
30:35 I'll make me a man.
30:38 Watch this.
30:39 And so he moves from speaking to doing.
30:42 Oh my God.
30:45 And out of that, he takes the dust to the ground
30:48 and shapes it in his image and in his likeness
30:51 and breathes the ruach or the spirit
30:54 or the breath of God.
30:55 And then he becomes a living being.
30:58 He said, "Because if all I do is talk,
31:00 "then my children will think that's all they gotta do."
31:04 Oh my God.
31:06 Says, "I don't want them just talking.
31:07 "If they wanna build something of significance,
31:12 "they're gonna have to get their hands dirty.
31:14 "If they're gonna do something of significance,
31:16 "they're gonna have to do something
31:18 "that will take something of themselves."
31:21 Y'all still ain't believing that?
31:23 Let's go to Daniel chapter three.
31:25 Daniel chapter three.
31:26 They arrested three young men without an arrest warrant,
31:30 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
31:32 Here's what's amazing.
31:33 They bring 'em up for a public hearing
31:36 and ask them why were they operating in civil disobedience
31:39 and not bowing down at the sound of the music.
31:42 Watch the language of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
31:47 Daniel chapter three, verse number 17.
31:49 Our God is able to deliver us from this fire,
31:53 and if not, he is still able.
31:57 Watch this.
31:58 They make their prayer, y'all not gonna like this part,
32:01 and still get thrown in fire.
32:03 (congregation murmurs)
32:05 Can your faith survive opposition?
32:09 - Wow.
32:11 - Oh my God.
32:12 Let me go another way.
32:13 Are you prepared for the consequence of being faithful?
32:18 - Yes.
32:19 - Yeah, we like the benefit,
32:22 but do you understand having faith can get you killed?
32:26 - Right.
32:27 - Oh my God.
32:28 Having faith will get you ostracized,
32:30 will get you marginalized,
32:32 will get you talked about, will get you abandoned.
32:35 Can your faith stand isolation?
32:38 - Yes.
32:39 (congregation murmurs)
32:40 - Said our God is able,
32:43 and even if he's not, even if he don't deliver us,
32:46 he is still able.
32:49 - Right.
32:50 - I dare not in this public setting,
32:53 maybe just for those of you who are at home,
32:55 I dare not ask you to make a declaration out loud.
32:59 Do you think God is able?
33:01 It's easy in mass hysteria of a crowd,
33:06 but I'm talking about in the dark night of the soul.
33:08 Do you trust God to deliver you?
33:13 Watch this.
33:14 And do you trust him if he don't deliver you?
33:18 - Jesus.
33:19 - Oh, come on now.
33:20 I don't want you to do it 'cause you in church.
33:23 If you don't get the raise, do you still trust him?
33:26 - Yes.
33:27 - Let me go another way.
33:28 If you get evicted, do you still trust him?
33:31 You lose the job, do you still trust him?
33:36 Mama never leaves the hospital, do you still trust him?
33:41 God, I can't hear nobody.
33:42 They never regain their memory, do you still trust them?
33:47 They're never able to walk on their own,
33:50 do you still trust them?
33:52 Our God is able.
33:58 But do you trust him out of inconvenience?
34:01 Everybody, colleagues preaches about Abraham and Isaac
34:05 and the ram in the bush.
34:06 But his was crazy.
34:09 Y'all ain't gonna believe it, Pastor Robin.
34:11 They ain't gonna believe it.
34:12 Is that, are you able to trust God
34:15 when the sacrifice ain't what you expect?
34:18 I gotta say this to you.
34:22 I'm scared to even preach it out loud.
34:23 I'm just gonna drop it right here.
34:26 Is that the ram, we say, we preach, we declare, we shout,
34:31 that he was saved by the ram in the bush.
34:33 And so the father never had to bring the knife down.
34:38 So his son was saved.
34:42 What nobody ever preaches
34:44 is when they got down from the mountain,
34:46 Isaac never talks to his father again.
34:50 Wow.
34:54 We have no conversation between Isaac and Abraham
34:58 from the moment he got saved.
35:01 Y'all ain't saying nothing.
35:02 'Cause I couldn't wrap my mind around my father
35:06 prepared to kill me.
35:08 Oh my God.
35:11 Let me go another step further.
35:12 I am not prepared because as holy
35:16 and as much accolade y'all gave to Abraham,
35:19 he never apologized.
35:21 Oh my God.
35:24 Can I go a step further?
35:26 He never explained that this is what God told me to do.
35:31 Could Isaac really trust him again?
35:34 Oh God.
35:37 Are you prepared to be faithful with no apologies?
35:42 Let me go a step further.
35:46 Can you be faithful when God don't give explanations?
35:52 Can you be faithful when you thought you were being betrayed
35:56 when you didn't know that was the blessing?
35:58 Oh my God.
36:01 And so we keep talking about, listen to me,
36:05 we keep talking about how the ram saved him
36:09 and we never deal with the fact he still lost his son.
36:14 Oh my God.
36:18 You don't know the grief of losing somebody that's alive.
36:23 Y'all ain't here.
36:28 You don't know the grief of having a funeral with nobody.
36:35 You don't know the grief
36:41 of having to cut off a family member
36:43 because your life is on the line.
36:49 Oh yeah.
36:50 Oh, y'all ain't shouting now.
36:51 Nobody ever comes back and tells us
36:56 what Abraham explained to Sarah.
36:58 Do you think Sarah was happy around the house?
37:03 What you done done, just drove that boy off.
37:07 He helping you.
37:09 You can barely manage this farm as it is.
37:12 You telling me you getting ready to kill him?
37:17 (congregation laughing)
37:18 Maybe, just maybe it would have been better
37:21 for Isaac to have died and come back.
37:24 Oh my God.
37:27 But I got to live with an open-ended testimony
37:32 'cause Isaac don't really know what he was saved from.
37:35 That there are people who don't even know
37:41 that you saved them and they mad with you.
37:46 Oh God, they got no idea you spared their name,
37:51 you spared their life, you spared their brand,
37:55 but they got no idea 'cause you ain't told them nothing.
37:58 Can you trust God in faith?
38:02 So I close by telling you this,
38:05 Jesus is on trial and there is no ballot.
38:10 There's no way for you to scan a QR code.
38:15 Who you vote for, you got to do it through your mouth.
38:20 There's only two people on the ballot, Jesus or Barabbas.
38:27 Ain't no secret ballot.
38:31 You got the voice who you with.
38:35 Who's on the Lord's side?
38:38 Come on, I can't hear nobody.
38:39 God was saying in other words,
38:41 when you are for me, ain't no sneaky link.
38:44 When you are for me, you got to say that thing out loud.
38:49 When you are saying you rolling with me,
38:52 why are you keeping that private and undercover?
38:55 But there ought to be something in you.
38:57 Every time I get a chance, I have decided to follow Jesus.
39:02 No, no turning back.
39:10 Faith does not come with the gift of silence.
39:14 It comes with the insistency of audibility.
39:19 So what I believe God for, I got to conceive it in my heart
39:26 and I got to birth it out of my mouth.
39:28 I want you to lift up that hand right where you are.
39:30 I'm not just hearers of the word, I'm doers also.
39:33 Listen to me, I didn't even get to where all I'm trying to go.
39:35 Y'all sidetracked me.
39:37 Listen to me.
39:39 I don't know where you are, but I believe that there,
39:42 no, I know where you are.
39:44 You in this NPR, you watching online.
39:48 You believing God, watch this, for a mountain to be moved.
39:53 You're believing God for something great
39:56 to come into your life.
39:58 You're believing God, watch this,
40:00 that you will have access to the best.
40:03 You're believing God that opportunities
40:05 are getting ready to be open for you.
40:07 You're believing God that God is going to amputate
40:10 the hand of your enemies.
40:13 You're believing it.
40:14 I need you to open up your mouth
40:15 and register your faith through your voice.
40:19 Come on, open up your mouth, even right now.
40:21 What am I believing God for?
40:24 What am I trusting him for?
40:27 I need him for healing to happen in my life.
40:31 I need healing to happen in my mother's knees.
40:35 Come on, I need healing to happen for my father's memory.
40:38 I need healing to happen for my sister's heart.
40:41 I need healing to happen for my brother's marriage.
40:45 What you got faith for?
40:47 Hallelujah.
40:50 Hallelujah.
40:52 Clap your hands and open your mouth.
40:55 Clap your hands.
40:56 Come on, clap your hands.
41:02 (congregation clapping)
41:06 Come on, I can't hear it.
41:07 Sound the alarm.
41:10 Sound the alarm.
41:14 Come on, open up your mouth.
41:20 What you believing him for?
41:21 What you trusting him for?
41:24 What you standing on?
41:27 Let the words of my mouth,
41:32 the meditation of my heart,
41:35 be acceptable unto you, oh God.
41:37 Hallelujah.
41:40 Hallelujah.
41:42 Whatever it is that you're believing God for,
41:47 I'm pushing you to speak it this week,
41:49 to trust God for it this week.
41:51 (congregation cheering)
41:55 (electronic music)
41:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]