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00:00 (dramatic music)
00:02 - Find out.
00:08 And I want you to join me tonight in the book of Romans.
00:13 If you'll go with me to the book of Romans,
00:17 the media ministry asks that you'll help me
00:19 in this enterprise.
00:21 Just one verse that I wanna underscore tonight,
00:25 one verse I want to unpack.
00:28 And it says very simply that faith comes by hearing
00:33 and hearing by the word of God.
00:40 Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of God.
00:45 This is what I need you to do.
00:46 I'm gonna need your buy-in, I'm gonna need your help,
00:49 gonna need your participation on tonight.
00:52 Everybody who's on this side,
00:54 would you just yell out loud the word go?
00:56 Can I hear you say go?
00:58 Yes, would you say it again for me please?
01:00 - Go!
01:01 - Yes, everybody who, y'all enjoyed that too much.
01:04 Yes, everybody on this side,
01:07 I need you to emphatically declare out loud the word stop.
01:11 Would you say stop?
01:13 - Stop!
01:14 - Yeah, some of y'all gonna have to switch seats
01:16 over on this side.
01:17 Your word over here is what now?
01:19 - Go!
01:20 - Yes, your word on this side is what?
01:22 - Stop!
01:24 - The apostle Paul says that faith comes by hearing
01:28 and hearing by the word of God.
01:32 Hearing is probably our most critical sense
01:37 because it is through hearing
01:38 that you are able to met out instruction,
01:42 that you're able to get information.
01:44 It is through hearing that you're able to develop
01:47 and to cultivate authentic relationships.
01:52 A lot of people will talk,
01:53 but not that many people will listen
01:56 and even all the fewer who will understand
02:00 what it is that you are saying.
02:02 I don't know whether you realize that hearing
02:06 is so important that the weight of it
02:10 sometimes is not felt until you go into a foreign territory.
02:15 You go outside of the bounds of where people speak English
02:20 and you're trying to communicate with people
02:22 who have absolutely no idea what you are saying
02:25 and in turn you don't know what they are saying.
02:29 So you don't know how to get instruction,
02:30 you don't know how to get direction,
02:33 you do not know how to get from point A to point B
02:37 because you both are talking,
02:40 but neither of you are able to hear.
02:43 It is amazing, it is significant.
02:46 I want you to write it down, it's gonna help you later.
02:49 It is interesting to note that God created nothing,
02:53 he created absolutely nothing that does not have ears.
02:58 I want you to write that down, it's gonna help you.
03:02 If God created it, it has ears.
03:06 I better say it again.
03:09 If God created it, it has ears.
03:14 There was nothing in the universe
03:17 that God did not create that did not come with ears
03:22 because listening is so important to God.
03:28 I want you to hear what he said
03:30 through his darling son Jesus.
03:32 He said through his son Jesus,
03:34 "By faith, if you say to a mountain to move,
03:39 "then it is going to move itself into the sea."
03:44 He never said, watch this, God never said,
03:47 "I'll move the mountain."
03:49 The mountain is going to respond
03:53 based off of what it heard you say.
03:56 So mountains have ears.
04:01 Anything that God creates has ears
04:04 because listening is important to God.
04:08 You remember when it is that Jesus was on a small ship
04:14 and a boisterous storm came out
04:17 and the disciples woke him up and said,
04:20 "Master, carest thou not if we perish?"
04:24 And Jesus wiped the sleep from his eyes
04:27 and went right to the lido part of the deck
04:30 and said to, watch this, "Wind and waves, peace be still."
04:35 Hear this, "Because even wind has ears."
04:43 He spoke to the wind, peace.
04:45 He said to the waves, "Be still," and they both responded.
04:50 Watch this, wind has ears, water has ears,
04:55 and both of them responded to his voice.
04:59 Y'all are lost, all right.
05:01 You remember this runaway prophet by the name of Jonah
05:06 that God told him to go to Nineveh
05:09 and to speak a word of redemption and transformation
05:13 and Jonah did not want his assignment
05:15 so he went in the opposite direction
05:18 and went down to Lake Lanier.
05:20 When he got down to Lake Lanier,
05:21 you already know what's gonna happen on that boat.
05:26 He goes down to Lake Lanier.
05:27 When he gets down to Lake Lanier and pays the price
05:32 to go in the opposite direction again,
05:34 a boisterous wind comes out and ladies and gentlemen,
05:39 we find Jonah swallowed by a whale but not digested.
05:44 I said something that you missed.
05:48 The whale swallowed it but couldn't digest it.
05:54 It had him right in the pit of his stomach
05:57 but couldn't break it down.
05:59 Some of us get swallowed by grief
06:02 but you're never digested by it.
06:05 Is that you are engulfed but it does not have the authority
06:08 to break you down and after three days,
06:11 watch this, after three days, the Lord spoke to the whale.
06:16 He did not speak to Jonah.
06:21 He spoke to the whale and said, "Release him."
06:25 All of a sudden, the whale becomes nauseous
06:29 and hearing the voice of God,
06:32 the voice of God spoke to the whale
06:35 and the whale had to release Jonah, why?
06:38 Because everything God creates has ears.
06:43 I got to ask you something.
06:44 God has authority, watch this, over creeping things,
06:47 over crawling things, over flying things.
06:49 He even has authority over spirits.
06:53 All right, you don't believe it?
06:56 He asked the rhetorical question,
06:58 oh death, where is your sting?
07:01 Oh grave, where is your victory?
07:04 Because death has ears.
07:08 Y'all ain't saying nothing to me.
07:10 The grave has ears.
07:12 Now the question I've got to ask you
07:14 is mountains understand that at my voice,
07:16 when I operate in faith,
07:18 it's got to throw itself in the water.
07:21 If wind understands that if it is moving topsy-turvy
07:25 and hyperventilating, at the voice of faith,
07:29 it's got to come to a screeching halt.
07:31 Water is moving, watch this, and it is not even end time.
07:36 It is not even time for the tide to come in.
07:38 But when the voice of faith speaks,
07:41 then the water has got to be in submission.
07:44 A whale understands whatever it is that you're holding,
07:48 it's got to be released when you hear my voice.
07:51 I need you all to hear this very carefully.
07:53 Death understands you can only have my son for three days,
07:57 but there's going to be an authority
08:00 that is greater than death.
08:01 No man takes my life.
08:03 If I lay it down, then I got to pick it back up again.
08:07 Watch this, even the grave understands it has ears.
08:12 And watch this, I have absolutely no instance in nature,
08:16 whether it is a whale, whether it is wind,
08:19 whether it is water, everything that has ears
08:23 responds to the voice of God but us.
08:27 We are the only thing that has ears
08:33 but does not respond to the word.
08:35 Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
08:42 I'm trying to understand how it is
08:46 that you are not responding to his voice.
08:50 It's amazing, I can't even get past Genesis chapter one,
08:53 verse number three, is that God steps into nothingness
08:58 and says, "Let there be."
09:01 Did you all hear that?
09:02 Nothing has ears.
09:05 Y'all dismiss what I just said.
09:07 The earth is dark and is filled with nothing
09:14 and God says, "Let there be."
09:17 And it was, nothing heard it was supposed to be something.
09:22 And when nothing heard it was supposed to be something,
09:26 it then transformed into whatever he said
09:30 it was going to be.
09:31 If you were called while you were still
09:34 in your mother's womb and you saying at 42
09:37 you don't know what you supposed to be
09:39 it's 'cause you were listening to what he said.
09:42 Faith comes by hearing.
09:47 Hearing is so critical.
09:49 You remember there was a woman who has a issue of blood
09:53 and according to Levitical law
09:55 she is not supposed to be in communion,
09:57 she's not supposed to be in relationship,
09:59 she is not supposed to even be in corporate worship.
10:03 She's not supposed to be in corporate worship.
10:07 But I want you to watch what Luke says about this woman
10:11 because she had never met our Savior before.
10:14 The Bible says in the Gospels, she heard about Jesus
10:19 and she thought to herself.
10:24 She never thought about Jesus until she heard about him.
10:29 She had not met him.
10:31 But based off of what she heard about him,
10:35 she started thinking about him.
10:38 Ladies and gentlemen, I wonder what people's thoughts
10:41 are about God based off of what they heard you say about him.
10:46 [audience applauding]
10:48 Now, I wonder what she heard about him
10:53 that she would think to herself
10:55 something that does not align with church protocol.
11:00 She thought to herself,
11:02 if I can just touch the hem of his garment,
11:06 I can be made whole.
11:08 Where did this thought come from?
11:11 The thought came from something she heard somebody else say.
11:16 Watch this on a rumor.
11:18 Y'all ain't saying nothing.
11:20 Faith can be developed off of a rumor with no evidence.
11:25 God, I can't hear nobody.
11:27 That's why the enemy don't want you talking about God
11:30 because it will make people who never came to church
11:34 start thinking to themselves.
11:37 I wonder if God can bless me
11:39 when I don't have the rent money.
11:41 I wonder if God will heal me when I'm HIV positive.
11:46 I wonder if he'll open up a door when I got no degree.
11:50 But because you ain't talking about him,
11:53 folk ain't thinking about him
11:56 and therefore are not believing in him.
11:59 There were two men, two blind men
12:03 who were sitting by the roadside, watch this,
12:05 and they heard that Jesus was passing by.
12:09 Watch this.
12:11 They heard what the 21st century church never preaches.
12:16 They heard, watch this, Jesus is coming.
12:20 Oh God.
12:22 Did y'all hear what I just said?
12:24 They are sitting by the roadside
12:28 and do not have the gift of sight,
12:31 but they hear Jesus is coming.
12:35 And when they hear Jesus is coming, watch this,
12:38 there is no choir, there is no praise team.
12:41 When they hear Jesus is coming,
12:43 it demands a shout out of them.
12:47 God, help me.
12:48 They begin shouting,
12:50 son of David, have mercy on me.
12:54 See, some people are not shouting
12:56 because they haven't heard Jesus is coming.
13:00 Oh, you just keep hearing money's coming.
13:04 But there's gotta be a name above every name.
13:07 That at the name of Jesus, every knee must bow,
13:12 every tongue must confess.
13:16 What are you hearing that makes you call for him?
13:21 What are you hearing that makes you believe
13:26 that the sound of my voice has such authority?
13:30 Here it is, that it will make God
13:33 not just hear me, but respond.
13:35 The Bible says that he's somewhere between Tyre and Sidon.
13:40 And because he's right outside of that region,
13:43 they keep crying out, son of David,
13:45 have mercy on me.
13:47 Watch this, and the disciples
13:48 are trying to make them be quiet.
13:51 And the more they try to make them be quiet,
13:53 the louder they scream.
13:56 Watch this, because they have gotta project their voice
14:00 louder than their antagonists.
14:03 My voice has gotta be greater
14:06 than the negative stuff that's coming at me.
14:09 Y'all ain't saying nothing to me.
14:11 Whatever is trying to limit, block me,
14:14 reduce or shrink me, I gotta be louder than that.
14:19 So the more they tell them to be quiet,
14:22 the more they project their voice,
14:24 son of David, have mercy on me.
14:28 Now the Bible says it is a maddening crowd.
14:30 And because it is a maddening crowd,
14:33 watch this, Jesus can't see them for the crowd.
14:36 He can't see them, but he hears the scream.
14:40 And something happens, I need you all to watch this.
14:43 Something happens in that sacred text
14:45 is that because they keep projecting son of David,
14:48 have mercy on me, something I had never read
14:51 in any of the synoptic gospels is Jesus stood still.
14:56 Oh my God, he responds to my sound.
15:01 Can you imagine the sound of faith makes God stop?
15:06 Oh, Jamal, you got to say that again.
15:09 The sound of faith puts a mandate on heaven
15:13 wherever it is that you go and stop right there.
15:16 Can I give it to you in a contemporary gospel context?
15:19 While on others thou art calling, please don't pass me by.
15:24 All right, y'all are almost there.
15:28 Everybody, you've already got your word.
15:30 Everybody on this side, what's your word, please?
15:32 - No!
15:33 - Come on, say it with authority.
15:34 - No!
15:35 - Yeah, now, everybody on this side,
15:36 would you give me your word, please?
15:38 - Yeah!
15:39 - Come on, say it with authority, please.
15:40 - No!
15:41 - Now, listen, isn't it amazing?
15:43 Isn't it amazing?
15:44 I've got two contrary sounds.
15:47 I got two contrary sounds in one room.
15:52 One is telling you to go
15:54 and the other one is telling you to stop.
15:58 And you got to figure out which sound am I going for?
16:01 What am I responding to?
16:04 It would be appropriate etiquette and protocol.
16:06 Here it is that Jesus would have responded
16:09 to the sound of the disciples.
16:12 'Cause the disciples are saying, "Stop."
16:15 Yeah, it is the voice of the disobedient saying, "Go."
16:22 (congregation cheering)
16:25 It is the voice of the reprobate that is saying, "Go."
16:35 Listen to me, faith comes by hearing
16:38 and hearing by the word of God.
16:41 Did you pay attention to the last miracle
16:44 that Jesus performed before being crucified?
16:47 The last miracle Jesus performed before being crucified,
16:52 the Roman soldiers had come to arrest him.
16:55 And he asked, "Do you think I'm some kind of common thief?"
16:58 This is almost Slick Rick.
17:00 "Do you think I'm a common thief
17:02 "that you are coming to arrest me
17:04 "with swords and with shields?"
17:06 Watch this, "And all I came to do was heal people."
17:10 Watch what Peter does.
17:11 Peter, watch this, pulls out his sword,
17:16 pulls out his switchblade.
17:18 And I need y'all to see what Peter does.
17:21 Peter chops off the lead police officer's ear.
17:25 His name is Malchus.
17:26 He chops off his ear and the ear goes to the ground.
17:31 Y'all stay with me.
17:32 Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
17:37 But Peter pulls out a switchblade, watch this,
17:41 and chops off the ear of the lead police officer.
17:46 Now watch what Jesus does.
17:48 Jesus picks the ear off the ground
17:51 and places it back on the side of the soldier.
17:56 Now all this time, y'all been going to Easter programs
17:59 in the Fellowship Hall of the church
18:00 and you didn't even understand why this is so important.
18:04 The reason why this is so important
18:06 is that it was against Roman law
18:09 for you to assault an officer.
18:11 All right, stay with me.
18:12 If you assaulted an officer,
18:14 all the more pulled out a weapon on an officer,
18:18 you are, here it is, it is a zero tolerance,
18:22 a mandatory minimum that if you assault an officer,
18:26 you are to be crucified.
18:29 So the moment he chops off the soldier's ear,
18:32 the police officer should have shifted their attention
18:35 off of Jesus and arrested Peter.
18:38 Y'all ain't saying nothing.
18:40 So in that moment, Peter should have died.
18:43 So Jesus says, I know you were supposed to die,
18:47 but I'm going to block you from death,
18:49 y'all ain't saying nothing,
18:51 by getting rid of what it is you did.
18:54 Y'all don't know when to shout.
18:56 Here's the real shout.
18:57 So when he picks up the ear
18:59 and puts it back on the soldier's face,
19:02 the soldiers could not take Peter to court,
19:06 watch this, 'cause they got no evidence.
19:09 You every now and again, you ought to be shouting,
19:13 because there's some stuff you should have died over,
19:17 but God got rid of the evidence.
19:20 I need somebody to give God glory
19:23 that there's no evidence of what you did.
19:27 No evidence of where you fell.
19:30 Now watch this, Fosdick would call this cheap grace.
19:36 I need y'all to stay with me.
19:37 This is cheap grace that he just picked up the ear,
19:40 watch this, put it back on the side of the soldier
19:43 without the benefit of plastic surgery.
19:46 It is as if nothing happened.
19:49 God, I don't know who I'm talking to today,
19:52 but some of you ought to be giving God glory
19:55 that the healing that's getting ready to happen for you
19:59 is going to be as if nothing happened.
20:03 I can't find nobody in here.
20:06 I'm telling you, they left you for dead.
20:09 They cut you into pieces,
20:12 but God said, "There'll be no strand of what took place
20:17 "because I am restoring you."
20:20 He put back on him.
20:25 He put back on him what the soldier chopped off
20:29 because there is an absent of evidence.
20:33 It's the absent of evidence, ladies and gentlemen.
20:36 But the deeper understanding is that
20:39 if they're coming to arrest Jesus,
20:41 why would Peter not just cut off the soldier's hands?
20:46 Cut off the soldier's hands
20:49 'cause that's what you're going to use for handcuffs.
20:52 (chuckles)
20:54 How are your ears a threat?
20:57 And why is that the focus of what you're going to cut off?
21:03 Oh my God.
21:04 Because Peter understood the graciousness of our Lord.
21:09 He didn't want to run the risk
21:13 of the soldier being redeemed.
21:15 Oh my God.
21:18 So if I cut off his capacity to hear,
21:22 then he will not know, what's this,
21:24 without a ear, he'll never hear, "Father, forgive him."
21:28 For they know not what they do without a ear.
21:32 He would have no idea that Jesus was able
21:36 to declare from the cross,
21:37 "Today thou shall be with me in paradise."
21:42 He says, "I cannot, Peter, allow you
21:45 "to cut off this man's access to salvation."
21:51 In spite of how he treated me, I still want him saved.
21:56 God, I can't hear.
21:58 See, that's a different level of maturity.
22:01 When folk did you dirty,
22:02 but you still want to see them all right.
22:05 Y'all ain't saying, "No, we ain't ever going to be together,
22:08 "but I want you to be all right.
22:11 "I need you still to have access to the kingdom."
22:15 Says, "I'm putting this on you
22:20 "'cause I want your access to hearing the voice of God
22:25 "to not be interrupted."
22:28 44% of those who are in AARP,
22:31 44% of those who are in AARP say that they lost their hearing
22:36 it would impact their relationship.
22:39 How they are those specialists at Harvard Medical School
22:45 said, "It is easier," I want you to write this down,
22:48 "It is easier to come back from a stroke
22:50 "than come back from hearing loss."
22:53 Johns Hopkins University says that,
22:59 "Every other sense that you lose, you can navigate around,
23:04 "but hearing is the most dangerous."
23:07 You can't hear a car coming, can't hear your baby crying,
23:12 can't hear that there's a burglar in your house.
23:17 You need hearing for your information.
23:20 You need hearing for your protection.
23:23 You need hearing for your understanding,
23:27 but can you hear and what are you listening to?
23:32 Come on, Paul, give it to me.
23:34 Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
23:39 Man cannot live, this is what Jesus told the tempter,
23:45 what he told Satan after 40 days of fasting,
23:48 says, "Man can't live by bread alone,
23:51 "but by every word that comes from the mouth of God."
23:56 I need to hear.
24:02 Yeah, I gotta be able to hear.
24:03 If every person who's on this side, wish a word, please.
24:07 - No!
24:08 - Yeah, everybody on this side, wish a word.
24:10 - Stop!
24:11 - Yeah, y'all's stop is kind of anemic.
24:14 Yeah, come on, I need a little bit more forcible.
24:17 Come on, give it to me.
24:18 - Stop!
24:19 - Thank you so very much.
24:21 All right, so you gotta understand,
24:23 bring me that chair for me real quick.
24:24 You gotta understand how faith is built,
24:27 how we function of faith, how we deal with faith
24:32 is so critical that it sometimes goes beyond our hearing
24:37 to our assuming.
24:42 A lot of you are not operating in faith by hearing,
24:46 you are doing it by assuming.
24:48 Every day you function at a level of assuming without hearing
24:54 so I just asked one of our tech team
25:00 to bring me a chair, watch this,
25:02 and I never in getting the chair got the instructions
25:07 on what was the weight capacity.
25:11 I sat in this chair with no information,
25:16 with no instruction and no caution.
25:19 I had faith it would hold me.
25:23 Oh my God.
25:25 Now, I have no relationship with this chair,
25:29 haven't been in this chair.
25:31 I don't have one like it at home
25:34 but because I've been in a chair,
25:36 I assumed it could do what the previous chair could do.
25:41 Oh my God.
25:41 So I sat in this chair, watch this,
25:45 as an operation of faith without knowing the builder.
25:49 All the more, I have no idea if this chair is from Ikea.
25:55 If we assembled this chair right here at the church,
26:00 God have mercy.
26:01 I don't even know if nails are missing from it.
26:08 I am believing, watch this,
26:10 that it can do what it looks like.
26:13 I also assume, watch this,
26:17 it's got the same strength as the chair you sitting in.
26:21 With no background, with no instruction, watch this,
26:25 and nobody told me to do it.
26:28 Who was I listening to that made me sit in a chair
26:34 I did not know?
26:38 Who was I listening to that gave me permission
26:43 to sit in a chair by somebody I have never met?
26:48 What gave me the confidence
26:51 when I know I'm not responsible for this chair?
26:55 I told myself to believe.
27:00 I listened to myself.
27:07 Here it is, with no experience.
27:10 I listened to myself with no understanding.
27:14 I listened to myself believing it was the right thing.
27:20 And I had to trust it,
27:24 and I didn't know whether it worked until I got in it.
27:28 You knowing you the way you know you,
27:35 how do you still have faith in you
27:39 and question the voice of God?
27:42 How many times have you fallen through a folding chair
27:48 knowing you had no business in it,
27:52 knowing that it did not have the weight to carry you,
27:56 but you said, "I'll trust it."
27:58 I need real quick,
28:02 the three of y'all from the praise team,
28:03 green, pink, orange, come on, quickly.
28:06 Yes, thank you.
28:07 Yeah, there you are.
28:09 Yeah, stand right there.
28:11 Yeah, facing me, the three of you, right there.
28:14 Young lady in the yellow, can you come to me real quick?
28:16 Yes, thank you so very much.
28:19 Dredge, come get this chair for me.
28:20 Thank you so very much.
28:22 Thank you.
28:23 Stand right here.
28:24 I'm coming.
28:25 Thank you.
28:26 Sailor, Robbie Stokes, come on, help me real quick.
28:30 Thank you.
28:31 All right.
28:32 How you doing?
28:34 Good.
28:35 How long you been going here?
28:36 Off and on since 2004.
28:41 She giving herself away.
28:45 Yeah, you been here the whole time I've been here?
28:49 The whole time?
28:50 Yes, you watched me online before I ever got here.
28:57 Yeah, then you came back.
28:59 Yes, I got it.
29:01 So you was watching me when I was in Baltimore.
29:04 Yeah, so you know my voice.
29:07 Yeah, so you knew my voice before I got close.
29:11 Yeah, but based off of my voice from afar,
29:14 you said when it gets close, I'm gonna follow it.
29:17 (audience applauding)
29:20 I'm trying to show you something.
29:22 So when I'm asking you, you trust me as your pastor.
29:26 Okay, so this is what you got to do
29:28 is that if I am a pastor, you're a pastor,
29:30 the Bible says, watch this, my sheep know my voice.
29:35 My sheep know my voice.
29:38 Watch this, they know my voice.
29:41 And you will not know what is the vision
29:45 if you don't know my voice.
29:47 Yeah, and so if you have leadership,
29:50 then you got to be able to trust your leadership
29:54 and the voice of your leadership.
29:58 All right, all right.
29:59 You trust your pastor's voice?
30:01 Okay, thank you.
30:02 I trust you to follow my voice.
30:05 Yeah, so I trust you do.
30:06 I want you to put this on.
30:08 Yeah, put that on for me, please.
30:11 Yeah, there it is.
30:13 Thank you.
30:14 Can you see anything?
30:15 All right, let's go back two steps.
30:19 Yeah, stay right there.
30:21 You got my voice.
30:23 Yeah, thank you.
30:23 Everybody here, would you just give me your word, please?
30:26 - Yeah. - Yeah.
30:28 - Yeah. - Yeah.
30:29 And at the same time.
30:31 - Yeah. - Yeah.
30:32 Now watch this, I'm gonna be directing you like a choir.
30:35 (congregation laughing)
30:39 I'll be directing you like a choir.
30:41 And when I give you direction,
30:43 I want you to give your word.
30:45 And I want you to keep giving your word
30:47 until I stop you from giving your word.
30:49 All right, tell me your name.
30:51 - Tasha. - Tasha, thank you so much.
30:53 All right, y'all just start walking past her.
30:55 Thank you, just start walking past her.
30:57 Thank you, Tasha, spin around three times.
31:00 Thank you.
31:02 Yeah, come on.
31:03 - No! - Yeah.
31:05 - No! - Yeah.
31:06 - No! - Yeah.
31:08 - No! - Yeah.
31:09 - No! - Yeah.
31:10 - No! - Listen, listen.
31:13 Tasha, I'm gonna give you directions.
31:15 I'm gonna give you directions.
31:17 Y'all just keep walking past her.
31:19 I'm gonna keep giving you directions
31:21 and you're gonna have to stay focused on my voice
31:25 because when you have the voice in your life,
31:29 you have to block out what's going on around you.
31:31 (audience applauding)
31:33 When you have a voice in your life,
31:35 you cannot be dissuaded by all of the distractions.
31:43 Here it is, the Bible says something
31:45 I want you to be mindful of.
31:46 We walk by what?
31:48 - Faith. - And not by what?
31:50 - Light. - Yes, all right.
31:51 And so, Tasha, I'm gonna give you directions
31:54 and your responsibility is to follow it.
31:57 And know that while I'm giving you directions,
31:59 you're gonna hear different voices.
32:02 And your responsibility is to ignore the different voices
32:07 and follow the voice that is leading you,
32:10 even when you can't see that voice.
32:14 Hallelujah.
32:15 I'm gonna get you to your desired end.
32:18 I'm gonna get you to where it is
32:19 that you're supposed to be.
32:20 Bring me one of those, please.
32:21 Thank you.
32:22 I'm gonna get you to where it is
32:23 that you're supposed to be,
32:25 but it may take you a moment for you
32:26 to get to where it is that you're supposed to be.
32:29 Even when you feel lost, even when you feel dizzy,
32:32 even when you feel like you're in it by yourself,
32:35 your responsibility is to follow the voice
32:37 that is called over your life.
32:39 Ladies and gentlemen, do me a favor, please, come on.
32:42 - Go! - Go!
32:43 - Go! - Go!
32:45 - Go! - Go!
32:48 - Yes, listen.
32:50 Thank you.
32:51 All right.
32:52 So come on, walk straight.
32:53 Turn around, please.
32:59 Walk straight.
33:01 - Go! - Go!
33:04 - Go! - Go!
33:07 - Turn around, please.
33:11 Walk straight.
33:13 Keep walking.
33:18 Keep walking.
33:20 - Go! - Go!
33:21 - Go! - Go!
33:23 - Turn around.
33:25 Keep turning.
33:26 Keep turning.
33:27 Keep turning.
33:31 Stop.
33:31 Walk.
33:34 Turn.
33:37 Turn.
33:39 Stop.
33:40 Walk straight, please.
33:42 Walk straight.
33:43 Walk straight.
33:46 Stop.
33:47 Turn around.
33:49 Turn around.
33:50 Turn around.
33:53 Stop right there.
33:54 We walk by faith and not by sight.
34:02 When you are feeling lost,
34:06 when you have no direction,
34:07 when you can't even trust yourself,
34:10 when you're unsure of where you are going
34:14 and what is happening next,
34:17 the voice of God will put you in a test.
34:21 How much do you trust me?
34:23 Do you believe that I can speak those things that are not
34:28 as though they already are?
34:30 Do you believe that I can create something out of nothing
34:34 even when you believe that nothing else was there?
34:38 I go away to prepare a place for you.
34:42 In my Father's house are many mansions
34:45 and in it there's a room with your name on it.
34:49 I hope you realize that God has already created something
34:52 with you in mind,
34:54 but he had to navigate your entire life
34:57 to see will you trust my voice
35:00 when I'm leading you where you've never been before?
35:03 Abram, I need you to leave your land
35:05 and go where you got no family,
35:07 where you got no friends,
35:09 but I need you to trust where I am taking you is better
35:13 than where you ever been in your life.
35:16 Faith comes by hearing
35:21 and hearing by the word of God.
35:27 The voice over your life can see what you cannot see,
35:32 has planned what you could not orchestrate,
35:36 has plotted what you never had in mind,
35:41 has strategically moved some things around
35:44 so that you would be in his divine will.
35:48 A story is told about a young boy,
35:53 his house caught on fire.
35:55 He was home alone and didn't know what to do
35:58 and he climbed up to the roof of his house.
36:02 His father drove up, saw all of the fire trucks
36:06 and the boy was on the roof
36:08 and the fireman kept trying to make him jump,
36:10 but he wouldn't do it.
36:12 The father stood at the bottom of the house
36:15 and said, "Timmy, can you hear me?"
36:18 Timmy said, "Daddy, is that you?"
36:21 Said, "Yeah, that's me."
36:24 Said, "Timmy, I need you to jump.
36:28 "The roof is about to cave in.
36:31 "The whole house is on fire."
36:33 And Timmy with tears coming down his eyes said,
36:37 "Daddy, I'm scared."
36:39 He says, "I know you're scared, but I'm going to catch you.
36:42 "All I need you to do is jump.
36:46 "It's going to save your life."
36:49 Says, "Daddy, I'm scared because the smoke is so thick.
36:54 "The flames are so high
36:56 "and I don't know whether I can make it if I can jump."
37:00 He said, "Timmy, you can make it.
37:03 "You just got to trust me."
37:05 And Timmy said something that really
37:08 is the sum total of our faith.
37:10 Timmy said, "Dad, I can't see you."
37:14 And his father says, "I know, but I can see you.
37:19 "And as long as I can see you, I can catch you."
37:24 Ladies and gentlemen, when you move by faith,
37:28 it'll feel like the whole house is on fire.
37:30 You choking on the fumes of your own mistakes.
37:35 You can't even breathe because of the scars of your past.
37:40 But the father is saying, "I see you."
37:42 Watch this, "Even in the moment you can't see me,
37:46 "I still see who it is that you are.
37:50 "I see where you are.
37:52 "And I needed you to take a jump
37:55 "that would change your life."
37:57 Tasha, faith comes by hearing
38:02 and hearing by the word of God.
38:07 Believing by faith, there's something amazing
38:10 that's getting ready to happen in your life
38:13 that you don't even know what you stepped into.
38:16 You don't even know what God is getting ready to do.
38:19 You don't even know how he's getting ready to fix it.
38:23 But everything that you went through in your life
38:26 was setting you up to follow the voice of faith,
38:31 to know your next move is going to shift something
38:34 for somebody who ain't even in this room.
38:36 Your next move is going to make somebody believe God
38:39 like they've never done before.
38:42 The next move is going to block somebody
38:44 from jumping out the window to soaring off the roof.
38:49 Tasha, if you can hear my voice
38:51 and you trust that God has something already planned
38:56 for your life, you've been spun around,
38:59 you've been bumped into, you've been made to feel dizzy,
39:03 feel uneasy, almost embarrassed.
39:07 But God says, "If you can hear my voice,
39:11 "I need you to trust me by faith."
39:13 Tasha, if you can hear my voice,
39:15 I want you to sit down right where it is that you are.
39:18 Sit down right where it is that you are.
39:21 Get back up.
39:23 That required no faith.
39:25 I want you to understand that God
39:29 has something prepared for you.
39:30 We quote it, but we don't even mean it.
39:34 That eyes have not seen.
39:36 That ears have not heard.
39:41 All of you, come on.
39:42 God is getting ready to use the people
39:45 that bumped into you.
39:46 (audience cheering)
39:51 To prepare a place for you.
39:54 Every person who's in this room,
39:57 I'm going to say something you done heard
39:59 it your whole life in church,
40:01 but I need to say it to you differently.
40:03 Would you lift up that hand?
40:04 I'm finished.
40:05 My time is up.
40:06 I want to say it to you.
40:08 I'm saying it to you, but I'm really speaking it over Tasha.
40:11 Now unto him
40:13 who is able to keep you from falling
40:18 and to present you faultless before the throne of grace.
40:23 May God rest.
40:25 May God rule.
40:27 May God abide with you.
40:28 Tasha, if you'll be seated right where it is that you are.
40:31 You keep trying to go back to the floor.
40:33 Listen to me.
40:36 Listen, it wasn't even what I planned.
40:40 I didn't talk to Tasha before this,
40:42 but how many people miss your assigned seat?
40:46 Going back to the floor.
40:50 God help me.
40:52 How many of us assume a lower level
40:56 when God has already prepared an elevated place?
41:00 I speak over your life tonight
41:02 that you are not going to miss your reservation.
41:06 God has already made a seat for you at the table.
41:11 I'm telling you, God has already prepared
41:13 what people tried to block you out of.
41:16 Hallelujah.
41:17 I bind everything in you
41:20 that assumes you should be on the floor.
41:22 I thank you, holy God.
41:26 I thank you, holy God.
41:27 I thank you, holy God,
41:30 that when nothing else would help,
41:33 it was your love that lifted me.
41:36 Those of you that are surrounding her,
41:39 take that off of her
41:40 because she's getting ready to see life differently now.
41:43 She's getting ready to see her future differently now.
41:47 Listen, two things I want to show you in our close.
41:55 The chair I was in is not the chair she was in.
42:00 Listen, what you see other people in
42:06 is not what God prepared.
42:08 And you're going to keep missing your blessing
42:12 dealing with the demon of compared expectation.
42:17 Secondly, secondly, I need you to see
42:22 not only is she in a different chair,
42:25 but her chair is in a different place.
42:29 What God is setting you up for
42:31 may not be in the position you assumed for yourself,
42:36 but it is still going to be in your safe place.
42:39 I need you to notice something lastly,
42:42 that none of the people who are surrounding her
42:44 that were going in contrary directions,
42:46 nobody on this stage moved the chair.
42:52 She assumed there was none.
42:54 A lot of what it is that we do,
42:58 we are ascribing blame for enemies
43:01 that have not been assigned.
43:03 Nobody moved your chair.
43:07 Nobody moved your position.
43:10 You went back to your lowest level
43:13 because that's where you assumed
43:15 you were supposed to go back to be.
43:18 But I loosed the hold of every satanic principality.
43:22 That you will stand in the gift
43:24 that you're supposed to be in.
43:26 Those of you who are inclining your ear towards God,
43:31 would you give God your best praise now?
43:33 Thank you so much.
43:34 I said, would you give God your best praise right now?
43:39 Come on.
43:42 I said, would you give God your best praise?
43:45 (audience applauding)
43:48 I want everybody standing,
44:00 I'm opening the doors of the church.
44:02 I think it is interesting to know
44:03 that the temptation of man,
44:06 the entrance of the serpent into the Garden of Eden,
44:09 is that Satan, Lucifer, Belzebub, watch this,
44:14 never showed Eve the apple.
44:17 He talked to her about it.
44:21 Faith comes by hearing.
44:25 What nobody talks about, Stokes,
44:26 what nobody deals with, Saylor,
44:28 is the fact that Eve heard Satan's voice before God's.
44:33 God help me.
44:38 Genesis 1 and 2, all God is talking to is Adam.
44:43 Y'all ain't saying nothing to me.
44:45 And because she did not have an ear for the voice of God,
44:49 she was susceptible to the sound of Satan.
44:52 Ladies and gentlemen, when you don't have a healthy diet
44:56 of hearing God's voice,
44:58 you will mess up what is the intention of your life.
45:05 I read something from a theologian the other day
45:07 that messed me up, Carrie.
45:09 The theologian says a lot of people who are gifted
45:13 think they are still in good standing with God,
45:16 watch this, because they're still being used.
45:20 Just 'cause God's still using you
45:25 don't mean that you in good standing.
45:27 Are you hearing his voice?
45:35 And are you responding to what it is that you're hearing?
45:38 Knowing mountains respond, water responds,
45:42 death responds, grave responds, whales respond.
45:46 And you're hearing the voice of God,
45:49 and you're still not doing what God told you to do.
45:52 (crowd cheering)
45:55 (electronic music)
45:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]