Keep the Peace - Bishop T.D. Jakes
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LearningTranscript
00:00:00 (upbeat music)
00:00:02 - So we're in the fourth chapter of the book of Philippians
00:00:14 and it is very interesting.
00:00:15 I've had a very interesting day.
00:00:19 Today I interviewed a young lady named Nicole Avant.
00:00:24 Her father was known as the Godfather.
00:00:29 He had done so many amazing things, Mr. Avant,
00:00:32 in the area of music and she herself has done quite a lot.
00:00:36 His daughter in the area of production
00:00:38 and she in the middle of the night got a phone call.
00:00:43 You'll hear the interview, it's gonna be on YouTube,
00:00:46 telling her that her mother had been murdered.
00:00:50 And it was all over the news
00:00:54 that Jacqueline Avant had been murdered.
00:00:59 You can imagine how difficult it was,
00:01:02 how shocking it was for this family
00:01:05 who were like black royalty
00:01:08 to find themselves suddenly thrust into the spotlight
00:01:12 in a chaotic way and couldn't even grieve properly
00:01:16 because there was an investigation and court sessions
00:01:21 and all of the things that go along with murder.
00:01:25 And the last words her mother wrote to her
00:01:28 was think you'll be happy.
00:01:31 Think you'll be happy.
00:01:33 She just wrote a book called Think You'll Be Happy
00:01:36 and it's just powerful.
00:01:39 Then the Ad Council asked me to help them coordinate
00:01:44 something on mental health and we did that
00:01:48 and it's out there on YouTube as well.
00:01:52 So my mind went to the scriptures
00:01:56 thinking about peace.
00:02:00 Yeah, thinking about peace.
00:02:03 The times we're in,
00:02:09 the season we're in,
00:02:13 where happiness is advertised to us.
00:02:17 Romantic fireplaces lit,
00:02:22 couples laying on bare skin rugs
00:02:26 celebrating their holidays with Chablis
00:02:30 and caviar.
00:02:33 And your rent is two months backed up.
00:02:37 And you hugging a 10 year old pillow
00:02:42 and sometimes it's hard to be happy
00:02:47 and to have peace because you have trouble
00:02:51 and you think everybody got something you didn't get.
00:02:55 Am I right?
00:02:56 So it can be difficult.
00:02:59 You got a family coming over
00:03:01 and the other side is coming.
00:03:03 And you gotta get your mind ready
00:03:08 'cause you know you got that one cousin
00:03:12 that's gonna say something.
00:03:14 I don't care what you do.
00:03:16 These green beans ain't right.
00:03:18 They don't taste right.
00:03:19 They don't care what you do.
00:03:21 And all of a sudden,
00:03:23 but isn't that a lot of power
00:03:25 to give a person to let them steal your peace?
00:03:30 One day, one holiday, one moment,
00:03:38 steal your peace.
00:03:41 A holiday that the world didn't even have it.
00:03:43 Most countries don't even celebrate Thanksgiving
00:03:47 and it will steal your peace.
00:03:51 A commercial you saw, something on Instagram
00:03:56 and it stole your peace.
00:03:57 Somebody doesn't like you and it stole your peace,
00:04:02 even if they're related to you.
00:04:04 I love you, but I cannot let you steal my peace.
00:04:11 So tonight we're gonna learn how to keep the peace.
00:04:18 Look at somebody and say, keep the peace.
00:04:21 Begin at verse four and let's study the word of God tonight.
00:04:26 I'm still in the vein of studying the word of God
00:04:31 that we might grow thereby.
00:04:32 Rejoice in the Lord always.
00:04:35 Delight, take pleasure in him again.
00:04:40 I will say rejoice.
00:04:45 Let your, now listen how he describes you.
00:04:48 Let your gentle spirit, your graciousness,
00:04:53 unselfishness, mercy, tolerance, and patience
00:04:58 be known to all people.
00:05:02 Look at your neighbor and say, is that you?
00:05:04 I mean,
00:05:14 in a society that rewards you for being hard, tough,
00:05:19 mean, quick-witted, outspoken, is that you?
00:05:24 Your gentle, let, let, let, let your gentle spirit,
00:05:29 let, that means you have an option,
00:05:32 let your gentle spirit, your graciousness,
00:05:35 unselfishness, mercy, tolerance, and patience
00:05:38 be known to all people, not just your people.
00:05:42 I got people, yeah, but them other people.
00:05:45 And then he almost comes off of this gentle challenge
00:05:52 with a warning.
00:05:55 The Lord is near.
00:05:58 Can you feel it?
00:06:01 The Lord is near.
00:06:06 So if you're gonna let your gentle spirit out,
00:06:10 you're gonna have to make a decision to be gracious.
00:06:15 You can't afford to let somebody set you off right now.
00:06:22 You can't afford to be merciless and full of gossip.
00:06:33 You cannot fill your head with trash.
00:06:40 And then pray for treasure.
00:06:42 Oh yeah, we already into it.
00:06:47 It's gonna be good.
00:06:49 And then he warns us, don't be anxious or worried
00:06:53 about anything, but in everything,
00:06:59 every circumstance and situation,
00:07:03 by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving.
00:07:08 Thanksgiving.
00:07:10 Wait, wait, wait, Paul, this can't be right.
00:07:15 This can't be right.
00:07:16 In every circumstance and situation,
00:07:20 I'm supposed to have a problem I'm praying about
00:07:24 and be petitioning God and do it with thanksgiving.
00:07:29 So I can't pout, I can't fall out and kick.
00:07:37 I can't walk around and let everybody know
00:07:39 I'm just not feeling you today.
00:07:40 That's what's wrong with it.
00:07:42 Don't roll up on me 'cause if you roll up on me,
00:07:44 you're gonna limp back because, no, no, no.
00:07:48 I gotta pray and have a spirit of thanksgiving.
00:07:53 Continue to make your requests, specific requests,
00:08:01 specific, don't just pray God bless me.
00:08:05 God bless me how, God bless her how,
00:08:09 specific requests known to God.
00:08:13 And the peace of God,
00:08:18 that peace which reassures the heart,
00:08:24 that peace which transcends all understanding,
00:08:28 that peace which stands guard over your heart,
00:08:36 and your mind in Christ Jesus, it's yours.
00:08:41 Finally, believers, whatever is true,
00:08:48 whatever is true, stop lying to yourself.
00:08:56 This is a pathway to peace.
00:09:02 Whatever is true, whatever is honorable
00:09:05 and worthy of respect, whatever is right
00:09:08 and confirmed by God's word, whatever is pure and wholesome,
00:09:12 whatever is lovely and brings peace,
00:09:16 whatever is admirable and of good repute,
00:09:19 if there is any excellence,
00:09:22 if there is anything worthy of praise,
00:09:26 think continually on these things.
00:09:28 He didn't say there weren't other things going on.
00:09:32 But train your mind to think on whatever is true,
00:09:37 whatever is honorable, whatever is worthy of respect,
00:09:40 whatever is right, whatever is of God's word,
00:09:43 whatever is pure, whatever is wholesome,
00:09:45 whatever is lovely and brings peace.
00:09:48 That's why you can't sleep at night
00:09:49 'cause you're laying in the bed,
00:09:51 thinking about what's wrong, but God says,
00:09:53 I want you to train your mind to focus
00:09:55 on whatever is admirable and of good repute.
00:09:59 And if there is any excellence,
00:10:01 if there is anything worthy of praise,
00:10:04 think continually on these things.
00:10:08 Center your mind, your mind, your mind,
00:10:12 put your mind, put your mind on them
00:10:15 and implant them in your heart.
00:10:20 The things which you have learned and received
00:10:25 and heard and seen in me, practice, practice, practice.
00:10:30 I didn't know we could do that.
00:10:36 I didn't know we could practice these things in daily life
00:10:42 and the God who is the source of peace and wellbeing
00:10:47 will be with you.
00:10:52 Somebody shout amen.
00:10:55 - Amen.
00:10:56 - Father, as we go into the word of God tonight,
00:10:58 let the word of God go into us.
00:11:00 As we go into the word of God,
00:11:03 let the word of God go into us.
00:11:05 As we learn the word of God,
00:11:08 let us practice what we are learning tonight
00:11:12 that it might be seen for we are the only Bible
00:11:16 many people will ever read.
00:11:19 I thank you in advance for what you're about to do.
00:11:21 Have your way in this place.
00:11:23 In Jesus name we pray, somebody shout amen.
00:11:27 - Amen.
00:11:28 - You may be seated, chill, relax, take a load off.
00:11:32 When we start talking and there's a couple of ground rules
00:11:38 that I need to be sure that you know,
00:11:40 that most of you know, some of you know,
00:11:42 but somebody might not know that God formed man
00:11:46 from the dust of the earth, from the ground.
00:11:49 So we're made out of dirt.
00:11:51 So don't try to pass yourself off
00:11:55 as being more than you are, you're a dirt bag.
00:11:58 That's all you can be according to scriptures,
00:12:06 you're a dirt bag in a suit, a dirt bag in blue jeans,
00:12:10 a dirt bag, a bald head,
00:12:13 a dirt bag with a clergy collar on,
00:12:17 you're made out of dirt.
00:12:20 That's what you're made out of,
00:12:22 that's why you have to bathe all the time
00:12:23 'cause the dirt comes out.
00:12:26 You're made out of dirt.
00:12:27 God formed man out of the dust of the earth
00:12:30 and breathed into him, he breathed into him
00:12:35 the breath of life, the breath of the Lord is spirit.
00:12:39 It's spirit, in the Greek it's pneuma.
00:12:43 That's why when you get sick and can't breathe,
00:12:45 they tell you you got pneumonia.
00:12:47 So spirit in the Greek is pneuma.
00:12:50 He breathed into him the breath of lives.
00:12:55 In the Hebrew is zoe, he gave him the breath of lives
00:12:59 and he became a living soul.
00:13:03 The soul in Hebrew is nephesh, he became conscious,
00:13:08 aware, aware, what we call alive is to be aware.
00:13:17 So I am triune in the sense I live in a body,
00:13:22 I am a spirit and I have a soul, okay?
00:13:29 Stay with me, I'm going somewhere.
00:13:31 My body tells me when it's cold.
00:13:36 My body tells me when the wind is blowing.
00:13:40 My body tells me all the experiences I have
00:13:46 without external circumstances, I am informed by my body
00:13:51 because in my body I have world consciousness.
00:13:55 In my spirit I have God consciousness.
00:14:00 God is a spirit and they that worship him
00:14:03 must worship him in spirit and in truth.
00:14:06 So I approach God in my spirit.
00:14:10 If I'm a Christian, I'm born again in my spirit.
00:14:13 If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation
00:14:16 but I still got a corn and I still got a bunion
00:14:20 so he didn't recreate my feet.
00:14:22 So if I was bowlegged before I got saved,
00:14:26 I'm bowlegged after I got saved,
00:14:28 he didn't change my legs, my bones,
00:14:33 my skeletal frame or structure, okay?
00:14:37 So in my body I have world consciousness,
00:14:41 in my spirit I have God consciousness
00:14:44 and my spirit is born again.
00:14:47 It's together, it's good.
00:14:51 I'm not being saved, I am saved.
00:14:55 I have eternal life.
00:14:59 I've been delivered except in my mind,
00:15:04 in my soul, I have self consciousness
00:15:11 and that's an interesting bag too.
00:15:14 So in my soul I have self consciousness.
00:15:17 That's where my memories, affections,
00:15:21 appetites, disappointments, scars, wounds
00:15:26 live in my soul, in my soul.
00:15:32 Jesus says I am exceedingly sorrowful.
00:15:40 Those are emotions, we have emotions in my soul.
00:15:44 Oh gosh, Lord at the emotions, regulating the emotions.
00:15:49 My soul is not emotions but it houses emotions.
00:15:55 So all of my emotions, memories, good or bad,
00:16:00 all live in my soul.
00:16:02 The word soul in the Greek is where we get psyche,
00:16:07 where we get the word psychology, where we get mind.
00:16:11 Let's see what's in there.
00:16:18 Aren't you glad, now it's just me and you here
00:16:23 so we can talk, okay.
00:16:25 Aren't you glad that God didn't put your mind
00:16:27 on loudspeaker?
00:16:28 At any given place, even in a place like this,
00:16:36 I still wouldn't want my mind to be miked.
00:16:41 Not even in church, not even in church
00:16:47 I wouldn't want my mind to be miked
00:16:49 because at any given moment my mind
00:16:52 will be thinking something that I'm glad
00:16:56 I can keep it to myself.
00:16:58 Yeah, I want to keep it to myself.
00:17:02 I want to keep it to myself.
00:17:03 I'll deal with it, I'm going to deal with it,
00:17:05 I'm going to rebuke it, I'm going to bind it,
00:17:06 I'm going to plead the blood on it,
00:17:08 but I don't want you to hear me wrestling
00:17:11 with myself about myself because myself
00:17:16 is just, it's a ball of confusion.
00:17:21 Of all parts of me that God would want to use,
00:17:29 the Bible said it is with the mind
00:17:33 that we serve the Lord.
00:17:35 It is with the mind that we serve,
00:17:39 no, that ain't it.
00:17:40 It is when you get through dancing,
00:17:44 it is with the mind that we serve the Lord.
00:17:49 So if I was Satan and I was going to attack you
00:17:54 anywhere, it would be in the mind
00:18:04 because if your mind is up under attack,
00:18:08 then your service is up under attack.
00:18:11 Then you respond under attack.
00:18:16 Then you snap at people and there is a constant battle
00:18:21 because God wants your mind to be changed
00:18:26 and the enemy wants your mind to be stuck.
00:18:31 It doesn't matter how old you get if you don't get better.
00:18:34 It doesn't matter how many scriptures you quote
00:18:39 if you don't get better.
00:18:41 And if I'm going to get better,
00:18:42 I have to get better in my mind
00:18:45 because that's my consciousness.
00:18:47 I have to live in here.
00:18:49 I have to live in here.
00:18:51 I have to process in here.
00:18:53 And as long as I have self-consciousness,
00:18:56 I'm alive because when I lose self-consciousness,
00:19:00 they don't want me anymore.
00:19:02 They don't, nobody, I don't care how much
00:19:04 you're in love with me, if I lose self-consciousness,
00:19:08 if my soul goes and all is left is my body, we bury it.
00:19:13 Because as many times as I hugged you,
00:19:20 I wasn't really hugging you when I touched your body.
00:19:24 I was, what I was hugging was what came out of your soul.
00:19:29 Soul.
00:19:30 I love your soul.
00:19:33 I might express it with my body, but I love your soul.
00:19:38 Yeah, I love your essence, who you are on the inside.
00:19:45 We show up in the world from a soulish perspective.
00:19:51 The mother who made mistakes for 20 years,
00:19:56 now more seasoned and more mature,
00:19:59 same mother comes back to the daughter wiser and says,
00:20:03 I know I said some things that may have hurt you,
00:20:07 but I may look the same, but I'm not the same.
00:20:12 I've been changed in my soul.
00:20:15 Changing my soul is a difficult process.
00:20:20 Changing my hair is easy.
00:20:23 I'm bald headed, but I can change it.
00:20:25 Yeah, I got a few quarters, I can go down there
00:20:30 and have dreadlocks if I want them.
00:20:32 You know what I'm saying?
00:20:34 I got big old jaws, I was born with big jaws,
00:20:38 but I can change them, I can take this off my jaws
00:20:40 and put it back and move stuff around.
00:20:45 But I'm still me because moving things around
00:20:49 from place to place,
00:20:51 (audience laughing)
00:20:54 I ain't going to look at nobody,
00:21:00 'cause all that stuff been moved around,
00:21:04 but you still, you didn't marry the container,
00:21:09 you married the content.
00:21:11 So people are attracted to the box,
00:21:15 but they go home with the product.
00:21:18 Okay, so you can change the container,
00:21:22 but if you don't change the content,
00:21:26 I show up and experience the world
00:21:29 based on the healthiness of my soul.
00:21:34 In the CBS the other day,
00:21:39 they don't have anything for my soul.
00:21:43 David said, "No man cared for my soul."
00:21:49 So they wanted my money, they wanted my body,
00:21:51 they wanted my time, they wanted my attention,
00:21:54 they wanted my influence, they wanted my affluence,
00:21:57 no man cared for my soul.
00:22:02 We're going to get into some stuff tonight.
00:22:07 I got you listening, I like my church quiet.
00:22:11 My church is at its best when it's quiet,
00:22:15 'cause when you quiet you're thinking,
00:22:18 when you're shouting you're responding,
00:22:20 when you're quiet you're thinking,
00:22:21 how healthy is your soul?
00:22:25 You fine, you fine, you fine, I give it to you.
00:22:31 How fine is your soul?
00:22:34 How healthy are you in your thought life?
00:22:44 Let's talk about it tonight.
00:22:47 Let's go to Romans 12, one through three,
00:22:49 and look at it for just a moment.
00:22:51 Here Paul is writing to the church at Rome.
00:22:59 The church at Rome will become very, very important
00:23:04 because the epicenter of spirituality
00:23:07 has been in Jerusalem, but it's about to shift to Rome.
00:23:11 And so it's very important that Rome be rooted and grounded
00:23:14 because Christianity thrived in Rome, not in Jerusalem.
00:23:19 It was birthed in Jerusalem,
00:23:22 but it did not strive 'til it got to Rome.
00:23:25 So you had the Roman Catholic Church,
00:23:29 and out of that you had Martin Luther and the 96 Theses
00:23:33 and the Protestant movement, protest,
00:23:37 and everything Protestant, Methodist, Baptist, Catholic,
00:23:40 Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal,
00:23:43 whatever you wanna call yourself.
00:23:45 Lutheran all was in protest.
00:23:49 Protestant, Protestant, Protestant church
00:23:54 comes out of Rome.
00:23:55 It all comes out of Rome.
00:23:57 So the letter written to Rome is extremely important.
00:24:00 And Paul, who speaks, who is a citizen of Rome,
00:24:03 but is of the tribe of Benjamin and is a Hebrew by birth,
00:24:07 is sent to Rome, which is largely Gentiles,
00:24:11 to minister to them.
00:24:13 And Paul is of the upper echelon of Rome.
00:24:18 He has influence.
00:24:20 He is known by the dignitaries.
00:24:22 He is sought after as a scholar, a thinker, a theologian.
00:24:27 He is mighty.
00:24:28 And here in Romans 12 and one,
00:24:30 this man who spoke in several different languages
00:24:34 starts this text out on his knees saying,
00:24:39 I beseech you.
00:24:41 I beseech you.
00:24:43 I beg you, brethren, by the mercy,
00:24:46 beseech means to beg, by the mercies of God,
00:24:51 that you present your bodies a living sacrifice,
00:24:56 holy, acceptable to God,
00:24:59 which is your reasonable service.
00:25:02 Come on.
00:25:04 And do not be conformed to this world.
00:25:07 Now, now, let's go into the,
00:25:09 do not be conformed to this world.
00:25:11 Do not be conformed to this world.
00:25:15 Yes, do not be conformed to your world.
00:25:18 In other words, don't let what you're going through
00:25:24 get to you.
00:25:25 When Jesus was sleeping on the bow of the ship,
00:25:32 when Jesus was sleeping in the bottom of the ship
00:25:35 and the storm was raging around the ship
00:25:37 and Peter gets flustered and Peter lets the storm
00:25:41 that's on the outside get on the inside
00:25:44 till he doubts the sleeping Jesus.
00:25:48 The sleeping Jesus in the middle of a hurricane
00:25:51 is a picture of the peace of God,
00:25:54 that God can go through storms and snore.
00:25:59 It's indicative of how strong his peace is.
00:26:03 He is not conformed to the weather.
00:26:06 He does not react to the climate.
00:26:09 He does not respond to external circumstances.
00:26:13 Jesus is the only one asleep on the boat.
00:26:16 Peter goes down there, knocks on the door,
00:26:19 said, "Get up, Jesus, carest thou not that we perish?"
00:26:24 And Jesus gets up and rebukes the winds and the waves,
00:26:28 wipes sleep out of his eye,
00:26:31 and says, "Oh, ye of little faith."
00:26:35 What did he do wrong?
00:26:37 His emotions conformed to his environment.
00:26:43 I'm just not happy, I thought I'd be married by now.
00:26:49 So you're gonna delay your peace waiting on marriage.
00:26:56 Oh, excuse me, I'm not happy 'cause I am married.
00:27:03 So you're gonna let your spouse have your peace.
00:27:08 The storm on the outside has gotten on the inside.
00:27:16 That's what makes boats sink.
00:27:18 Clearly, the storm had not gotten on the inside
00:27:23 lest Jesus would have been wet.
00:27:25 And if Jesus would have been wet, he would have been woke.
00:27:28 Okay?
00:27:30 (congregation applauding)
00:27:33 So we have a dry Jesus in a hurricane,
00:27:36 asleep on a pillow.
00:27:39 I don't care how deeply you sleep,
00:27:42 if I turn the shower on you, you're gonna wake up.
00:27:45 We have a sleep Jesus and a wet boat.
00:27:50 The boat is wet on the outside,
00:27:55 but dry enough on the inside that Jesus is asleep
00:27:58 and Peter is panicked
00:28:00 because the storm that's on the outside
00:28:04 has gotten in his soul.
00:28:06 So the sleepy Jesus wakes up and says to Peter,
00:28:14 oh ye of little faith.
00:28:18 He rebukes not only the winds and the waves,
00:28:23 he rebukes Peter because Peter has let the external
00:28:27 become internal.
00:28:29 Watch this.
00:28:30 So when we read this text, do not be conformed to this world
00:28:35 it means more than whether you listen at hip hop or not
00:28:40 or whether you keep up with the latest fashions or not
00:28:43 or all the things that we take it to mean,
00:28:45 it may mean that.
00:28:47 It means more than acquiescent to the culture,
00:28:50 it may mean that.
00:28:51 But tonight it also means don't let your world affect you.
00:28:57 But be ye transformed from conformed to transformed
00:29:02 in the Greek metamorphosis where we get metamorphosis.
00:29:14 In other words, your mind must constantly be going
00:29:20 through a metamorphosis.
00:29:23 Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.
00:29:28 So since my mind isn't new, though my spirit is new
00:29:37 or he wouldn't have called me brethren in chapter one
00:29:41 and I presented my body a living sacrifice in chapter one,
00:29:45 he's not talking to sinners, he's talking to Christians
00:29:49 who are being renewed in their mind.
00:29:53 Tap your neighbor and say he's not finished with me.
00:29:56 I am saved in my spirit, I shall be saved in my body,
00:30:02 I am being saved in my mind.
00:30:09 I have been delivered in my spirit.
00:30:12 If I take you to Corinthians I can prove it.
00:30:14 I have been delivered in my spirit.
00:30:18 I am being delivered in my mind.
00:30:21 That's why I don't want no mic on my head right now
00:30:24 'cause it's not finished with me yet.
00:30:26 I shall be delivered when this mortality puts on immortality
00:30:31 I shall be delivered in my body.
00:30:34 So my mind, you're catching me in the middle
00:30:39 of a metamorphosis, you're catching me while I'm spinning.
00:30:44 I'm in the potter's house, yeah,
00:30:46 but I'm also on the potter's wheel
00:30:49 and it depends on which side you look.
00:30:51 Well you're catching me where he may have shaped this part
00:30:55 but not that part.
00:30:57 He could have shaped my talent
00:30:59 and still be working on my character.
00:31:01 He could have shaped my character
00:31:03 and still be working on my discipline.
00:31:06 He could have shaped my discipline
00:31:08 and still be working on my mouth.
00:31:10 You're catching me in a metamorphosis.
00:31:13 Come on real people, real people,
00:31:15 real people talk to me tonight.
00:31:17 My mind is being renewed, transformed by transform.
00:31:22 Yeah, I'm so glad I'm in my church tonight
00:31:26 because I named the church the potter's house
00:31:29 not only because the Lord said so
00:31:31 but because I knew that I was called to preach
00:31:34 to people who weren't there yet.
00:31:37 Let all the people who are strong enough
00:31:43 to admit you're not there yet, clap your hands.
00:31:46 (audience clapping)
00:31:49 So everybody should be clapping
00:31:52 except the Pharisees and the Sadducees
00:31:55 who don't have the strength enough to admit
00:31:57 that God is not finished with me yet.
00:32:00 There's still some work that he's got to do in my life
00:32:03 but I wanna stop making excuses and get it done
00:32:06 so I can be transformed by the renewing of my mind.
00:32:13 So I can stop moving all of this stuff around,
00:32:17 fixing up all of this stuff that's gonna die anyway.
00:32:20 What I gotta be working on is the renewing of my mind
00:32:25 because it is with the mind that I serve the Lord.
00:32:29 It is with the mind that I make choices.
00:32:31 It is with the mind that I make decisions.
00:32:35 It is with the mind that I react to you
00:32:37 at any given moment and I would like to show you
00:32:40 the best of me but sometimes you catch me
00:32:43 in a turn and I show you the worst of me.
00:32:47 Come on somebody, you catch me spinning
00:32:49 or you trigger me or you say something
00:32:52 and I don't respond to you in the meek quietness
00:32:56 that I should have like Philippians talks about,
00:32:59 I wanna be in Philippians but I'm stuck in Romans.
00:33:03 (audience cheering)
00:33:06 I wanna live in Philippians but I am stuck in Romans.
00:33:12 I visit Philippians but most of the time I live in Romans.
00:33:17 I am trying to go through the metamorphosis
00:33:20 of being transformed by the renewing of my mind
00:33:25 and you don't know it 'cause you don't go home with me
00:33:28 but if you went home with me and you watched me long enough,
00:33:32 you gonna catch me in a turn.
00:33:34 That's why y'all ended up married to who you got married to.
00:33:37 You bought the container and you went home with the content.
00:33:42 Yeah, yeah, keep sitting there.
00:33:45 I'm gonna get them toes tonight.
00:33:47 I'm gonna get every one of them,
00:33:48 take your shoes off so you can get ready.
00:33:50 I'm coming right down your aisle.
00:33:52 Glory to God, look at her.
00:33:53 Man, have you ever seen anything so fine
00:33:56 in all of your life?
00:33:57 That's the box, that's the body
00:33:59 but you got to go home with the content.
00:34:02 Some of the finest people can be some of the meanest,
00:34:06 rattlesnake, cut your head off people you ever saw
00:34:10 in your life for man looks on the outward appearance
00:34:15 but God looks on the heart.
00:34:18 And if we are to be the Christians that Philippians says
00:34:24 we ought to be, we've got to have some surgery
00:34:29 on the way we think.
00:34:32 But if we do, Romans says that you may prove
00:34:36 what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God
00:34:41 that if you change your mind, God will change your life.
00:34:46 (congregation applauding)
00:34:50 If you change your mind, God will change your life.
00:34:54 The prodigal son took his father's wealth.
00:34:57 The first thing he did wrong,
00:34:59 he would rather have his father's blessing
00:35:02 than his father's presence.
00:35:03 In other words, daddy, I can't wait on you to die,
00:35:07 give me the portion of goods that fall to me now.
00:35:11 What father wants to hear his son say,
00:35:14 I can't wait on you to die to get the house,
00:35:16 give it to me now.
00:35:17 What a heartbreaking relationship between a father
00:35:22 and a son that the son is looking at his watch
00:35:25 waiting on you to die so he can get your stuff.
00:35:27 But this is reality.
00:35:31 And he got out there and he got a bunch of prostitutes.
00:35:35 Jesus says he got harlots and friends
00:35:39 who were only friends as long as he had
00:35:43 something to give them.
00:35:45 Watch out for people who don't see you
00:35:50 as anything other than an opportunity.
00:35:53 And you think you got followers
00:35:57 and you think you got friends
00:35:59 and you talk about how many people friended you
00:36:02 on Facebook and how many people are following you on X
00:36:05 and how many people you got following you on TikTok
00:36:09 and how many people love you and adore you,
00:36:12 you better be careful because most of them,
00:36:15 most of them will disappoint you
00:36:22 because they have a hidden agenda.
00:36:27 And it is very difficult to discern
00:36:30 somebody who really just wants you for you.
00:36:33 Or are they waiting for the portion of goods
00:36:36 that falleth unto them?
00:36:38 And the Bible says that when he ran out of stuff,
00:36:41 he ran out of friends.
00:36:43 And all of the harlots that slept with him
00:36:46 left him before he got to the hog pen.
00:36:49 And by the time he ends up in the hog pen,
00:36:51 he's in the hog pen alone.
00:36:54 And then it says the most amazing metamorphosis
00:36:58 happened in the most unlikely places.
00:37:01 For a Hebrew boy to be caught in a hog pen
00:37:04 is like being in a slum, in the gum.
00:37:09 Hebrews don't eat pork.
00:37:12 And he's not only about to eat the pork,
00:37:16 he's about to eat what the pork eats.
00:37:19 He couldn't be in the more worse place
00:37:24 and yet God doesn't care how bad the place is
00:37:28 to transform the mind.
00:37:31 For the Bible said his body didn't move,
00:37:34 but his mind moved.
00:37:36 His flesh didn't move, but his thoughts moved.
00:37:40 His legs didn't move,
00:37:42 but his mind went through a metamorphosis.
00:37:45 And the Bible said he came to himself in the hog pen.
00:37:52 He came, he had an awakening, he had an illumination,
00:37:57 he had a moment where he came to himself
00:38:01 and finally the potter has touched the head.
00:38:04 And he has been transformed by the renewing of his mind.
00:38:11 And he came to himself and I know his mind was new
00:38:14 because he had the same life, same father,
00:38:18 same hog pen, same slop
00:38:21 that he was about to eat.
00:38:22 The only thing that changed in the story was his mind.
00:38:26 And the moment his mind changed, his decisions changed.
00:38:31 And he said, I will arise and go to my father's house.
00:38:36 Aren't you the guy that just left your father's house,
00:38:39 ripped him off, took all his stuff and been with whores
00:38:42 and laying in the bed with sluts and tramps.
00:38:45 And all of a sudden, just when you were about to eat
00:38:49 what the swine did eat, he came to himself,
00:38:52 his appetites changed, his decisions changed,
00:38:56 his directions changed, his thought process changed
00:39:00 and what he left now looks good.
00:39:03 Be careful who you leave because you may leave who you need
00:39:07 and have to come back to him again.
00:39:09 And he's trying to practice because now that he's come
00:39:12 to himself, the only thing that has changed is his mind.
00:39:16 His father is still his father.
00:39:18 He has to practice.
00:39:19 How am I going to explain that I may look the same
00:39:23 but I am not the same?
00:39:24 I have come to myself.
00:39:31 I have come, that's the journey,
00:39:36 to Damascus?
00:39:40 No.
00:39:41 Jerusalem?
00:39:42 No, I came to myself.
00:39:47 The journey to myself may be longer
00:39:50 than the journey to my father.
00:39:52 There are a lot of people that have made a journey
00:39:57 to the father that have not made a journey to themselves.
00:40:01 So they like to be in religious places
00:40:04 and say religious things and have religious recitations
00:40:09 and they spout religious colloquialisms
00:40:12 because the journey to the father may not be as far
00:40:16 as the journey to yourself.
00:40:18 You can say the right things and go home in turmoil
00:40:23 because until you come to yourself,
00:40:27 then how can you fully come to your father?
00:40:31 Because you don't really know who you are.
00:40:36 How can you love me when you don't love you?
00:40:46 Oh, it's gonna be tough tonight.
00:40:48 So Paul says, "For I say through the grace given to me
00:40:57 "to everyone who is among you not to think,
00:41:00 "not to think, not to think, not to think of himself
00:41:05 "more highly than he ought to think,
00:41:09 "but to think solely."
00:41:10 He didn't tell you to think bad about yourself.
00:41:13 He just said, "Don't be arrogant."
00:41:14 I found out most arrogant people are insecure.
00:41:18 You have to be strong to be humble.
00:41:25 Some people cannot compromise enough to be humble
00:41:31 because they aren't strong enough.
00:41:34 They don't feel safe enough to be vulnerable.
00:41:39 They have not come to themselves
00:41:42 and they don't know whatsoever things are true.
00:41:46 Whatsoever things are true.
00:41:50 The truth is what sets you free.
00:41:54 Not your ideals, not your principles,
00:41:57 but grappling with your realities.
00:42:00 I am where I am.
00:42:02 I am the age that I am.
00:42:06 I am the skin that I'm in.
00:42:10 I am who I am until I embrace the truth
00:42:14 of what happened to me.
00:42:16 The truth liberates me.
00:42:20 Denial incarcerates me.
00:42:24 Truth is the emancipator.
00:42:30 So I have to come to myself so I can come to God
00:42:34 and present my body a living sacrifice.
00:42:39 How can I present something if I don't know what it is?
00:42:43 Somebody sent me a gift
00:42:44 and I just got a gift before I came here.
00:42:46 And the first thing I said, "Let's open it up."
00:42:49 Because I didn't come to see the box.
00:42:51 I want to see what's on the inside.
00:42:53 So if you're going to be a gift to God,
00:42:55 God said, "Let's open him up."
00:42:58 So if you get in a good ministry,
00:43:00 a good ministry will open you up.
00:43:03 A good ministry will make you come to yourself.
00:43:06 A good ministry will make you confront where you are.
00:43:09 A good ministry will strip you.
00:43:13 That's why Jesus died naked on the cross
00:43:15 because all things are naked before him
00:43:18 with whom we have to do.
00:43:19 And I don't care how much you paid for your clothes,
00:43:22 they cannot cover you, Adam.
00:43:24 A naked savior died for a naked world.
00:43:34 And the man and the woman were both naked and not ashamed.
00:43:39 I'm in Genesis now.
00:43:41 And so that naked Adam who sinned
00:43:45 is redeemed by the last man, Adam.
00:43:48 And he had to come on in the form of the first man, Adam.
00:43:52 So they stripped him.
00:43:54 And there on the cross,
00:43:59 the Lamb of God was at his best
00:44:04 when it looked like he was at his worst.
00:44:08 (congregation murmuring)
00:44:10 There are moments that the gospel will strip you.
00:44:15 It will strip you.
00:44:16 It will take your clothes right off of you.
00:44:19 It will strip your mask off.
00:44:21 It will mess up your makeup.
00:44:23 It will get in your business.
00:44:24 It will get in your life
00:44:26 because we have a naked savior stripped.
00:44:30 He poured out of himself his glory and his honor.
00:44:33 He laid aside his garments.
00:44:36 Over and over you see Jesus taking it off.
00:44:40 And now if our Jesus is taking it off,
00:44:43 why are you so busy in a coverup trying to put it on
00:44:47 when God is trying to take it off?
00:44:49 (congregation cheering)
00:44:53 Who told you you were naked?
00:44:55 God says to him,
00:44:57 what other animal makes clothes but us?
00:45:04 But us.
00:45:06 Because we have not ever gotten over our need to cover up.
00:45:14 And we go through a lot of expense to look good.
00:45:25 If you had back all the money you spent on looking good
00:45:31 rather than being good,
00:45:33 can't nobody beat us looking good.
00:45:38 We always did.
00:45:39 We look good.
00:45:40 Even all the way back to slavery, we look good.
00:45:44 Big hats on, nice clothes,
00:45:46 coming up your Sunday go to meeting clothes.
00:45:49 We were focused on looking good rather than being good.
00:45:53 Other folks spend less on looking good
00:45:56 and are more concerned about being good.
00:45:58 Which one are you?
00:45:59 Are you a look good or are you a be good person?
00:46:03 Are you more focused on how you show up in the world
00:46:08 rather than how you are inside?
00:46:12 And maybe that's why you can't sleep at night.
00:46:15 Because most of us sleep without.
00:46:21 So strip down to who you really are.
00:46:29 Are you good with you?
00:46:31 Peace means to be at one with oneself,
00:46:41 to be aligned with oneself.
00:46:48 I'm good with me.
00:46:50 I don't want your nose.
00:46:55 I don't want your toes.
00:46:58 I take what he gave me.
00:47:00 This text in Philippians toggles between piety.
00:47:12 Piety is the quality of being religious
00:47:18 or reverent like us.
00:47:20 Piety, sometimes it has a negative connotation
00:47:25 as pious, self-righteous,
00:47:27 but it primarily piety means to be religious,
00:47:32 to be God conscious.
00:47:34 Philippians 4, 4 through 9,
00:47:36 wrestles between piety and practicum.
00:47:40 Practicum is where we get curriculum,
00:47:43 where we practice what we've been taught.
00:47:46 There is a difference between being religious
00:47:48 and practicing what you've been taught.
00:47:54 Have you ever noticed that we can have 20 Sundays
00:47:58 and the same people come up every Sunday?
00:48:01 You can set your watch,
00:48:07 some of you are going to come up
00:48:08 in every day on altar call, every week.
00:48:12 If you have to come up every Sunday,
00:48:16 you don't have a practicum for your piety.
00:48:24 (audience murmurs)
00:48:26 Your schizo.
00:48:27 Your bipolar.
00:48:31 The Bible said a double-minded man
00:48:37 is unstable in all his ways.
00:48:41 I don't doubt your sincerity when you come.
00:48:43 I can tell you're sincere when you come,
00:48:46 but the seed didn't hit good ground,
00:48:51 it fell on stony ground,
00:48:53 and by Monday it's gone again,
00:48:56 and by Sunday you gotta repent again
00:49:00 because you don't practice it.
00:49:04 So, can I go further?
00:49:07 Okay, any time you got a question, interrupt me.
00:49:11 I'll take questions,
00:49:13 but let me make this one point before you do.
00:49:15 I was thinking about this,
00:49:20 and it really blew my mind.
00:49:22 My mother used to sell Avon.
00:49:24 She did everything.
00:49:24 I mean, she was a school teacher,
00:49:26 she ended up the Equal Employment Opportunities
00:49:28 Representative for the state of West Virginia,
00:49:31 and still sold Avon.
00:49:32 And then she started keeping the product
00:49:37 because they were collection items.
00:49:40 And at first, she would say,
00:49:42 "Someday they're gonna be valuable."
00:49:43 In fact, I have some of them that she collected.
00:49:49 And she started collecting them,
00:49:50 and collecting them, and collecting them,
00:49:53 and collecting them,
00:49:54 until they were in the drawers,
00:49:57 and they were in the attic,
00:49:59 and they were in the basement,
00:50:04 and little by little, the house got filled with stuff.
00:50:10 And it was all beautiful, wonderful,
00:50:16 smell good, aromatic,
00:50:19 collector's items,
00:50:22 but you couldn't appreciate it
00:50:24 because it was hoarded up in the house.
00:50:31 Hoarding.
00:50:32 Do you know what I mean when I say hoarding?
00:50:33 I didn't say whoring, I said hoarding, okay?
00:50:36 Hoarding is having so many things
00:50:41 that you cannot manage the clutter.
00:50:46 Your life is cluttered
00:50:49 until all of a sudden there's no room
00:50:54 for nobody to come in.
00:50:56 People, you know when you come in somebody's house,
00:50:57 they say, "Come on in, come on in and sit down."
00:51:02 And you'll be looking.
00:51:03 And you'll be looking and you'll think, "Where?"
00:51:09 Make yourself at home.
00:51:12 Come on in if you can get in,
00:51:14 we got all kinds of sayings to cover for it.
00:51:17 And there's all of this clutter in the house
00:51:20 and it's called hoarding.
00:51:22 It's because you are afraid to let anything go.
00:51:27 So you keep it all.
00:51:31 So I might need that.
00:51:32 Well, don't throw that away.
00:51:33 I might need that one day.
00:51:35 I might need that one day.
00:51:38 That's for company, when company comes.
00:51:40 I might use that.
00:51:43 I know that that chair is broken, but I'm gonna fix it.
00:51:46 I'm gonna fix it.
00:51:50 And so we hoard it.
00:51:51 And most generally, where you live
00:51:56 looks like how you think.
00:51:58 When you go to therapy and they take you in to therapy,
00:52:06 the first thing they start doing
00:52:08 is putting you on a schedule
00:52:11 because your lack of respect of time
00:52:14 is an indication of chaos.
00:52:18 And they teach you to straighten up your room,
00:52:20 make your bed, clean up your environment
00:52:22 because it will help you with your head.
00:52:24 Because if you can be comfortable in chaos,
00:52:30 it's because it reflects what's going on.
00:52:34 I'm messing with you.
00:52:38 I ain't gonna mess with you.
00:52:39 I'm gonna go over here.
00:52:40 I'm gonna mess with them a little bit.
00:52:42 So how do you like it?
00:52:45 Do you like it neat?
00:52:46 Do you like it nice?
00:52:47 Do you not like everything in its proper place?
00:52:50 Or are you afraid to let go of stuff
00:52:53 because someday you're gonna fix it?
00:52:55 And someday you're gonna use it.
00:52:59 And someday you're gonna need it.
00:53:01 And you pray for peace,
00:53:04 but you won't let go of anything.
00:53:08 So you keep everything.
00:53:11 You're on your third man still mad at your first one.
00:53:14 Stay with me.
00:53:17 No, no, no.
00:53:21 No, no, no.
00:53:22 You thought I was just gonna talk about milk cartons
00:53:24 and McDonald's bags and stuff like that.
00:53:26 I didn't get up out the bed to come out here
00:53:28 to talk to you about a Burger King bag
00:53:31 that you ain't got rid of
00:53:33 and that is in the trunk of your car.
00:53:35 Open up the trunk of your car
00:53:37 and ask yourself, does it look like your head?
00:53:40 How many people are still living in your head?
00:53:45 Some of the people that you are upset with are dead
00:53:47 and you can't bury them 'cause you say, I might need.
00:53:51 Keep the peace.
00:54:00 But how can you keep the peace if you keep the clutter?
00:54:06 (congregation murmurs)
00:54:09 And you're so cluttered.
00:54:12 And you're so cluttered.
00:54:15 And sometimes it's not stuff
00:54:17 and sometimes it's not past.
00:54:19 Sometimes it's busy.
00:54:21 Because as long as you're busy, you don't have to think.
00:54:26 So you make up stuff to do.
00:54:29 And if you don't have anything to do,
00:54:31 you will get somebody else's problem
00:54:33 and drag them home and try to fix them
00:54:36 because if you fix them, you don't have to fix you.
00:54:39 So you are attracted to broken people
00:54:44 because you like to work on them
00:54:46 so that you don't have time to deal with you.
00:54:49 And broken people who are attracted to broken people,
00:54:58 they like to fix people
00:55:00 so they're attracted to broken people.
00:55:02 And some people only love you broke.
00:55:05 When you start getting better, they don't feel needed
00:55:09 so they lose their attraction to you.
00:55:13 As long as you was on drugs, they was loving you.
00:55:16 I see what he can be.
00:55:18 I believe in him.
00:55:19 It don't nobody else believe.
00:55:21 I believe in what he can be.
00:55:23 You get off drugs, she walks out.
00:55:26 He walks out on you because you're better
00:55:30 because you no longer reflect the clutter I have
00:55:34 'cause I like to save junk.
00:55:37 And as long as I'm working on you,
00:55:45 I don't have to practice on me.
00:55:50 And I am conformed to the world
00:55:56 and not transformed by the renewing of my mind.
00:56:01 I'm gonna stop right there for a minute.
00:56:06 She said, "Don't do that."
00:56:08 (audience laughing)
00:56:10 Don't do that.
00:56:12 Cluttered minds.
00:56:15 Clean body, cluttered mind,
00:56:22 cluttered life, sleeping in clutter.
00:56:27 How do you get in that bed?
00:56:29 There's so much stuff in that bed.
00:56:33 How do you find a spot to put?
00:56:36 You don't clean the bed off.
00:56:38 It ain't about making up the bed.
00:56:40 There ain't nothing to make up
00:56:42 because there's so much stuff in the bed.
00:56:44 But you can find just enough space to curl up over there
00:56:48 and sleep in all of that
00:56:51 because it reflects all the stuff you go to bed with
00:56:55 in your head.
00:56:58 Peace on this earth, goodwill.
00:57:07 Really?
00:57:08 You're serving the Prince of Peace.
00:57:18 And yet you have no peace.
00:57:20 You're riding with Jesus who's sleeping on a boat
00:57:29 while you are a hysterical individual.
00:57:32 And don't let nobody tell you that only women are emotional.
00:57:37 'Cause Peter is freaking completely out.
00:57:44 And he is the only one on the boat who is a fisherman.
00:57:48 How can you be a fisherman and freak out on the boat
00:57:54 when you're the only one with the experience
00:57:56 to get us to the other side?
00:57:58 And I left you in charge of a life
00:58:02 that you lost control of.
00:58:04 Oh, I slipped that in.
00:58:08 That was like a right hook.
00:58:10 I left you in charge of a life that you lost control of.
00:58:15 And the reason you can't fix it
00:58:20 is because you cannot speak peace
00:58:24 if you don't have peace.
00:58:27 So a sleepy Jesus
00:58:34 can calm winds and the waves
00:58:37 because he had calmness in him.
00:58:41 He could speak calmness out of him.
00:58:44 But if you have no calmness on the inside,
00:58:47 why are you angry with your daughter for reflecting you?
00:58:52 She just got too much mouth.
00:58:55 Wonder where she got that from.
00:58:57 That boy just a hothead.
00:59:01 He just a hothead, you tell you what.
00:59:03 He just a hothead.
00:59:04 Just like you.
00:59:07 So raising children is wrestling with yourself
00:59:11 in another form.
00:59:12 Oh, Lord.
00:59:16 I want you, I thought y'all be shouting by now.
00:59:19 I thought y'all be dancing by now.
00:59:22 I'm not concerned as much.
00:59:28 I am concerned about the state that the world is in,
00:59:31 but I have to pull myself away from it
00:59:34 because what the enemy does is try to clutter your mind
00:59:39 with things you cannot control.
00:59:42 So he will either use issues that you can't control,
00:59:49 like I can't do anything about Ukraine.
00:59:52 I can't do anything about Palestine.
00:59:54 I can use my voice, but I can't go over there
00:59:56 and stop the killings and the murders.
00:59:58 I can't straighten it out,
00:59:59 but yet it just gets on my nerves just hearing it every day,
01:00:02 day in, day out.
01:00:03 I think it's terrible.
01:00:04 It's enough, why can't we just have peace?
01:00:07 And if the enemy can't get you focused
01:00:10 on things you can't control,
01:00:13 he will then take you into digging up things that are past.
01:00:18 So you miss the present talking about the past
01:00:27 and you don't even realize
01:00:34 that the enemy just ripped you off of today.
01:00:39 You lost today talking about all that stuff
01:00:45 that happened three years ago.
01:00:48 And you lost a day that you'll never get back again,
01:00:53 that nobody took from you,
01:00:55 but the enemy seduced you out of today
01:00:59 because you are living in yesterday and laying with ghosts.
01:01:04 You are laying with ghosts because you are a hoarder.
01:01:13 And some of the people who hurt you,
01:01:19 I'm not gonna forgive them till they're apologizing.
01:01:21 Excuse me, they're dead.
01:01:25 So if I can't get free until you say
01:01:30 what I need to hear you say,
01:01:32 then I have put the thermostat in your room
01:01:37 that controls the atmosphere in mine.
01:01:41 And now the thermostat has gone in the grave
01:01:48 and I'm hot in this room,
01:01:50 but I can't get it straight because I gave you the power
01:01:55 and I lost the power of myself.
01:01:58 And now I'm in therapy talking about how old I was
01:02:00 when I got potty trained.
01:02:02 And dance all you want to,
01:02:09 but if you have no practicum, you have no peace.
01:02:16 I gotta be real, I gotta keep it 100.
01:02:19 I gotta keep it 100, stupid.
01:02:25 You are 100% wrong.
01:02:27 Digging in the trash can might seem real, but it's wrong.
01:02:35 Because it's trash.
01:02:40 And it would be better outside of your head
01:02:44 than inside of your head.
01:02:47 Can I go further?
01:02:54 Okay, so we're in this situation now
01:02:57 that we have got to find inner peace.
01:03:01 Because people who have inner peace carry it with them.
01:03:07 They come into the room and they affect the atmosphere
01:03:12 because they are peaceful.
01:03:15 Despite all things.
01:03:19 My wife can walk into a room
01:03:24 and without saying anything at all,
01:03:28 she can speak peace.
01:03:30 Because Sarita can go to sleep standing up.
01:03:37 She doesn't need a pillow or nothing.
01:03:43 'Cause I know she watches.
01:03:46 And I'm gonna deal with it when I get home.
01:03:52 Standing straight up in a tsunami.
01:03:56 When she get ready to go to bed, she can go to bed.
01:04:02 And that calmness affects atmospheres.
01:04:13 By the same token, if you're an anxious,
01:04:18 irritated, frustrated person,
01:04:21 when you come home from work, the kids get nervous.
01:04:23 Anybody know what I'm talking about?
01:04:26 When certain people come home
01:04:27 and you glad that they came home,
01:04:29 but you don't know who coming in the door
01:04:31 and they bring the tension into the room
01:04:34 and everybody's braced for anything
01:04:36 and you prepared for everything
01:04:38 and you don't know if they drunk,
01:04:39 you don't know if they sober,
01:04:41 you don't know if they gonna hug you and start crying
01:04:43 or whether they gonna slap you upside your head
01:04:46 because they changed the whole atmosphere of the room.
01:04:50 You can, whatever is in you affects everything around you.
01:04:55 So Jesus was full of peace, so he spoke peace
01:04:59 and everything became what he was.
01:05:03 For instance, he is the light of the world.
01:05:05 So when he stepped into darkness,
01:05:07 he said, "Let there be light."
01:05:09 And there was light and it was good
01:05:11 and the evening and the morning was the first day.
01:05:14 It was the third day before he created the sun.
01:05:19 - Oh wow.
01:05:19 Wow.
01:05:21 - So we got three days of unexplainable light
01:05:27 because he said, "Let there be."
01:05:29 (mimics mumbling)
01:05:31 And the reason he could say that is because he was that
01:05:38 and it became what he said.
01:05:41 If you have love on the inside,
01:05:45 you can speak love and change the whole atmosphere
01:05:50 in the room, but if you have hate in your heart,
01:05:54 don't expect your kids to be loving
01:05:56 because they were raised and cradled and nurtured
01:06:00 in the malice and the anger and the frustration
01:06:04 and the bitterness of who left you and who hurt you
01:06:08 and who didn't pay child support and who didn't support you
01:06:12 and now he's running around with that other woman
01:06:14 and taking care of somebody else's kid.
01:06:17 Don't think that if you start bleeding,
01:06:20 your kids won't be stained.
01:06:23 (congregation applauding)
01:06:26 - When I was young, I got saved
01:06:36 and I grew up in the Baptist church.
01:06:40 I went to church, but I wasn't really in the church
01:06:42 and then when I got around the Holiness people
01:06:45 is when I really had to face off to me and get saved
01:06:50 and the Holiness was holiness.
01:06:54 You know what I'm talking about.
01:06:56 Where they be dancing on the edge of the right here,
01:07:00 right here, they be dancing all the way down here
01:07:02 like that dancing, jerking.
01:07:04 Jerking services over, drummer had stopped
01:07:07 and they take them out of the church
01:07:09 and they take them out like that
01:07:11 and they were all up under the power
01:07:13 and I said, oh God, give me that joy, give me that joy.
01:07:16 Give me that joy 'cause young people was just,
01:07:19 they was running all over the church.
01:07:20 They was jumping, they's dancing on pews, dancing on.
01:07:23 I've seen people dance on pot-bellied stoves
01:07:26 and not get burned.
01:07:27 I've seen the power of God move in such a way
01:07:31 that dead people got healed before the ambulance got there.
01:07:34 I've seen lame people start walking.
01:07:37 I've seen deaf ears unstopped.
01:07:39 I've seen God do amazing things.
01:07:41 People come in the church drunk and rowdy
01:07:44 and they rebuke the spirit and the person would sober up
01:07:47 and fall out on the altar and give their heart to Jesus.
01:07:51 I've seen drug dealers fall to their knees
01:07:54 and repent up under the power of God
01:07:56 but you cannot change an atmosphere
01:07:59 if you don't change your mind.
01:08:01 And the problem today is you've got so many things
01:08:06 pulling at your head that you can't begin
01:08:09 to clean up your room, your car, or your head
01:08:14 because you keep thinking you might need it someday.
01:08:19 I'm gonna keep this anger so if he ever come back,
01:08:22 I'll be ready for him.
01:08:24 I'm gonna keep this anger so when I run into his new way,
01:08:28 she gonna know I'm not the one, honey.
01:08:30 I'm not the one.
01:08:31 Yeah, I will, I'm gonna keep it.
01:08:34 I'm gonna keep her, I might need it.
01:08:35 But you're keeping the wrong stuff, baby.
01:08:39 She's not important.
01:08:43 He's not important.
01:08:46 If he ever run up on me, he gonna limp back.
01:08:49 I tell you that, I wish he would.
01:08:52 I wish, I wish, I wish, oh, he gonna be over there?
01:08:55 Oh, I'm strapped, I'm ready, I'm looking for him.
01:08:58 He ain't looking for you.
01:09:02 (congregation laughing)
01:09:04 You made it your life's mission to tell off somebody
01:09:09 who ain't thinking about you,
01:09:11 to drive your new car past their house
01:09:15 and their blinds are closed.
01:09:16 You wanna show 'em you got a new car
01:09:20 and they ain't looking out the window.
01:09:22 So tonight, what I'm challenging you to do
01:09:31 is to throw out all the junk,
01:09:34 clean up all the clutter,
01:09:38 and simply keep the peace.
01:09:43 So how do we keep the peace?
01:09:44 That's nice in theory, how do we do that?
01:09:46 Philippians helps us with that.
01:09:48 It tells us we have to practice
01:09:50 pulling our mind out of the sewer
01:09:54 of all the things that happened or didn't happen
01:09:58 or should have happened or could have happened
01:10:01 and with a discipline to choose to look at things
01:10:07 that are true, things that are lovely,
01:10:10 things that are of good report.
01:10:13 The Bible says if there be any virtue,
01:10:16 if there be any praise, think on these things.
01:10:21 In other words, think yourself loose.
01:10:24 (congregation cheering)
01:10:27 So mental health is important
01:10:30 because you could be spiritually saved
01:10:33 and mentally bound.
01:10:36 I'm gonna say that again.
01:10:40 You could be spiritually saved and mentally bound
01:10:45 and eventually backslide and say church don't work.
01:10:51 It don't work 'cause you didn't work it.
01:10:55 See, you gotta move from piety to practicum.
01:10:58 You have to practice this.
01:11:02 If I describe that in Philippians,
01:11:04 if I make that description
01:11:05 and that don't sound like you at all,
01:11:08 you got some practicing to do.
01:11:10 Put the text back up there.
01:11:12 Put the Philippians 4, let's put it back up there.
01:11:16 Rejoice in the Lord always.
01:11:18 Again, I will say rejoice, go ahead.
01:11:22 Let your gentle spirit, your graciousness,
01:11:27 your unselfishness, excuse me,
01:11:33 I had something in my throat, mercy, mercy, mercy.
01:11:38 You don't want mercy till it's for you.
01:11:41 You don't give nobody mercy, but then you need mercy.
01:11:46 Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.
01:11:52 You cannot obtain what you do not give.
01:11:55 Tolerance.
01:11:58 No, she not coming back in this house
01:12:02 'cause she didn't obey me
01:12:04 and you're not coming up in my house.
01:12:06 You don't tolerate nothing.
01:12:07 Make you uncomfortable?
01:12:13 Excuse me for moving you, John.
01:12:21 And patience equates to peace.
01:12:26 I will get there when I'm supposed to get there.
01:12:33 If it doesn't happen in my 20s, it'll happen in my 30s.
01:12:39 If it doesn't happen in my 30s, it'll happen in my 40s.
01:12:45 If it doesn't happen in my 40s, it'll happen in my 50s.
01:12:47 Everything that God meant for me to have,
01:12:50 I am willing to wait on it
01:12:52 because maybe I'm not ready for what I'm asking for
01:12:56 and I am willing to have patience
01:12:59 because if I can have patience, I can have peace.
01:13:04 If I can have patience, I can have peace.
01:13:06 In other words, I don't need no devil.
01:13:10 I don't need no demons.
01:13:12 I am already doing a great job of tormenting me.
01:13:17 The devil don't have to send nobody to persecute you.
01:13:20 You persecute yourself.
01:13:22 Look at you, you ugly.
01:13:24 Look at you, you should have been further.
01:13:25 How come you didn't go through school?
01:13:26 Look at you, you getting fat.
01:13:28 Look at you, you getting old.
01:13:29 You old, it's over, it's finished.
01:13:32 Why would the devil waste a demon coming to your house
01:13:35 when you doing a better job than hell itself
01:13:38 killing yourself?
01:13:39 You don't like you.
01:13:41 Look at how you talk to yourself and you pray for peace
01:13:46 but there's sudden destruction
01:13:48 and he doesn't have to use a demon on you
01:13:52 because you're a hoarder.
01:13:55 You're a hoarder.
01:13:58 I'm gonna say this.
01:14:02 If this message found you tonight
01:14:06 and I'm an antisocial, I don't like to be found.
01:14:15 Being found is uncomfortable.
01:14:17 It's uncomfortable.
01:14:18 I mean a message that really find you good, really good
01:14:21 and show you yourself really good.
01:14:23 It's like a closeup picture.
01:14:25 I think back the camera up a little bit, please.
01:14:27 Thank you.
01:14:28 Let's put a little distance on it.
01:14:30 A filter would be nice.
01:14:32 An unfiltered message where I really have to confront me
01:14:41 is uncomfortable but it is the only thing
01:14:45 that will give me peace.
01:14:48 It may not be comfortable but if it's true, it's important.
01:14:55 So yes, you have needs, that's true.
01:15:05 You have requests, that's true.
01:15:08 You don't have to give up thanksgiving
01:15:10 because you have a need.
01:15:14 It is possible to wait with grace
01:15:18 and to have gratitude that you are alive.
01:15:24 It is possible if you stop being mad at everybody
01:15:31 to start thanking God for your kidneys.
01:15:38 And your liver.
01:15:39 And your lungs and that you can see
01:15:43 and that you can walk and that you can read
01:15:45 and that you can hear.
01:15:47 And it's don't wait till you lose that stuff
01:15:50 to find out what really matters in life.
01:15:53 (upbeat music)
01:15:56 (upbeat music)
01:15:58 (upbeat music)
01:16:01 (upbeat music)
01:16:04 (upbeat music)
01:16:06 (upbeat music)
01:16:09 [BLANK_AUDIO]