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00:00 This is Bishop Dale Broder. Thank you so much for joining our YouTube channel today.
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00:19 And then if you're in the metro Atlanta area on a Sunday, check out one of our exhilarating services at 8.30 a.m., 11 a.m. or 6 o'clock p.m.
00:28 I'm thankful, I'm thankful, I'm thankful.
00:31 Our scriptural text today is coming from the book of Esther, chapter 4, verse 13 and 14.
00:38 You'll notice there these words, "And Mordecai told them to answer Esther,
00:46 'Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king's palace any more than all the other Jews.
00:54 For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place,
01:05 but you and your father's house will perish.
01:08 Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this.'"
01:18 I want to talk for a few moments about kingdom purpose, kingdom purpose.
01:27 As you may know, Haman had a terrible plot against the Jews to have all of them annihilated.
01:37 And little did he know that the king's wife, Esther, was a Jew.
01:46 And while she's now in a place of privilege, she could say, "This doesn't pertain to me and that's not my problem."
01:55 But yet she realized when her cousin, her uncle Mordecai sent the message to her,
02:05 "How do you not know, Esther, that you have come into the kingdom for such a time as this?
02:11 That you are more than just beautiful, that your beauty has a purpose.
02:16 It's designed to do something. You were born for more than just to seek pleasure.
02:24 Whether you realize that or not, you were born to fulfill purpose.
02:29 And whenever you fulfill purpose, you are fulfilled.
02:35 But the more things that you think that you can do to just pleasure yourselves, whether it is sex,
02:41 whether it's a new pair of shoes, an apoca book, or some jewelry, or a new car, or a new house, or a new man, or a new woman,
02:49 that only gives you happiness for a short season.
02:54 Let me just show you a little meme here to show you what happiness and purpose, how they are differentiated.
03:02 Happiness fueled by pleasure, notice that. It starts off, your heart is all on fire, blazing.
03:07 But notice as time goes, after about that first week.
03:12 Sometimes it's the first day, and the second day, and the third day, and the fourth day, and then you see it's petering out.
03:19 But now notice happiness fueled by purpose.
03:23 When you have happiness that is fueled by purpose, it is sustained as long as you stay connected to your God purpose.
03:31 As long as you're in the purpose, when it blesses you to be able to operate in your God call.
03:37 I still get fed by being able to operate in my God call, but you know the car, the last car that I got, the last piece of clothes that I got, that wears out.
03:49 So you have to connect yourself to kingdom purpose. What's my purpose?
03:55 I love something that Ralph Waldo Emerson said, he said that the purpose of life is not to be happy.
04:01 And so many people, I just want to be happy, I just deserve to be happy.
04:04 He said the purpose of life is not to be happy, it is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate,
04:10 and to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.
04:17 It's beyond yes, you're being happy. It ought to have some purpose attached to it.
04:24 And here Esther, this young woman connects her life to purpose.
04:33 Haman was a villain, Esther was a hero to her people.
04:43 Haman a villain to the Jews, Esther a hero to the Jews.
04:52 And I love something that Donald Miller said, he said that the difference between a hero and a villain is how they respond to pain.
05:03 Every person that is a villain, every bully in school has responded to pain in an inappropriate way and now that's how they are manifesting it to others.
05:15 It is a response to pain.
05:18 Every person who steps up and takes up and becomes a hero to a bully,
05:24 every person who stands up to a bully on behalf of another person is a hero because they also are responding to pain.
05:32 Because they know what it feels like for somebody to throw their weight around and to try to hurt somebody else.
05:39 And so now they're saying that what happened to me, I'm not going to stand by and sit silently and watch this happen to somebody else.
05:45 They are both responding out of pain, but one makes one a villain and the other one makes another a hero.
05:52 The difference between the villain and the hero is how they respond to pain.
05:58 How are you responding to what's hurting you?
06:01 How are you responding to what already hurt you?
06:05 Did you take an offense and you became resentful and then it later degenerated into bitterness?
06:12 I mean what happened to you?
06:15 How are you responding to the pain of not having an idyllic childhood?
06:20 That you didn't have everything that you wanted?
06:23 How are you dealing with that?
06:25 How are you handling the fact that perhaps your parents broke up?
06:29 How are you handling the pain of life's disappointment?
06:33 Because it will determine how you respond to that whether you become a villain or a hero in this life.
06:40 There is pain in our world, you cannot avoid it.
06:43 Pain is here and this is why I say schedule your pleasure because pain will schedule itself.
06:49 Pain will just say, "You know what, I need to show up." You'll wake up one day because you slept in the wrong position.
06:55 Anybody understand what I'm talking about?
06:57 You'll be out of commission when you wake up.
07:00 You wake up and your knee has given out.
07:04 Your neck is in an awkward position.
07:07 You can wake up that way. It's amazing.
07:11 But what can we do when we see pain in our world?
07:14 What can we do?
07:16 I'm here to say that we can make a difference.
07:19 Norman Vincent Peale said this, that one person can make a difference.
07:22 He said, "You don't have to be a big shot. You don't have to have a lot of influence.
07:26 You just have to have faith in your power to change things."
07:30 You just have to have faith in your power to change things.
07:35 And you ask God to help you to be a difference maker in your world.
07:40 And let me tell you, it doesn't take a whole army to start a movement.
07:43 All it really takes is one person.
07:46 And anybody who thinks that one is too small of a number to make a difference,
07:50 you've never had a mosquito in your bed.
07:55 That's all it takes is one.
07:57 I mean, one gnat flying in your window and driving your car can nearly make you wreck your car.
08:02 One, not a swarm of them, one.
08:05 One going up your nostril.
08:08 That's all it takes. It doesn't take a swarm. It takes one.
08:13 And how do you not know whether God will have you to be the one that will fly up
08:17 and become an irritant to somebody that is full of demonic motives?
08:24 It only takes one to start.
08:27 I love something that Abdul Kalam said.
08:29 He said, "If a country is to be corruption-free and become a nation of beautiful minds,
08:35 I strongly feel that there are three societal members who can make a difference.
08:40 They are the father, the mother, and the teacher."
08:46 Now let me say this. You may not be a mother or a father, but you are a teacher.
08:51 You can be a teacher on some level.
08:54 You may be a teacher that some people call "uncle" or "unc" and "auntie."
09:01 You may be a teacher called "grandpa" or "grandma."
09:04 You might be a teacher called "cousin" or "big brother" or "big sister."
09:08 You might be a teacher that's called "friend."
09:10 You might be a teacher that's called "neighbor."
09:12 You might be one that's called "classmate" or "co-worker" or "beautician" or "barber" or "coach."
09:20 But you're a teacher.
09:22 And all it takes is one to make a difference.
09:26 Several years ago when I was inducted into the Morehouse Board of Preachers,
09:29 I was inducted along that day with Bishop Desmond Tutu
09:34 and also with Mahatma Gandhi's grandson.
09:38 And it is interesting. One of the favorite sayings of Bishop Desmond Tutu,
09:45 he says, "Do your little bit of good where you are."
09:48 He says, "It is those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world."
09:54 Do your little bit. You may think that my little stuff is not much,
09:59 but it's much to the person you help.
10:02 It's much to that one that you made a difference in.
10:05 It's much to that person, to that human being.
10:10 And let me just say this to you.
10:12 The devil, he doesn't mind you being seen.
10:16 He doesn't want you to be heard.
10:20 And that's why sometimes a whole lot of people can go out
10:23 into the street and march and nothing changes.
10:26 They are seen, but they are not heard.
10:30 And here's the principle of the kingdom of God,
10:33 that nothing is done in the kingdom of God until something is said.
10:40 Nothing is done in the kingdom of God until something is said.
10:46 Nothing is done until God says something in the earth.
10:50 Nothing is done in the kingdom until something is said.
10:55 And God is looking for people that will step up and start saying something,
11:00 start making a difference.
11:02 Tom Brokaw said that it's easier to make a buck,
11:06 but he said it's a lot tougher to make a difference.
11:11 It's easy to make money, but it's not as easy to make a difference.
11:18 And we ought to ask God, "God, help me to make a difference in the world.
11:21 Help me to make a difference."
11:24 And I just want to say this to you,
11:26 that if what God tells you to do does not intimidate you,
11:30 it is probably not from God.
11:33 [applause]
11:36 God will give you an assignment
11:40 that is bigger than the resources that you have to fulfill it.
11:45 I mean, if you look at the assignment that God places,
11:47 the dream that He places in your heart,
11:49 and immediately say, "Okay, God, I got that. I can handle that,"
11:53 then it's too small,
11:55 because God would never give you an assignment and a dream,
11:58 a vision, or a plan that you can fulfill without His help.
12:03 So there will always be gaps in it.
12:08 There will always be a gap between what you have and what you want or what you need.
12:12 There will always be a gap.
12:14 There's always a barrier between what you lack and what you want.
12:19 There's always a Red Sea in front of every promised land.
12:24 I know you got a promise.
12:26 I know that there's something that God has prophetically promised to you,
12:29 but there's a Red Sea in front of it.
12:31 And when you get the prophecy about the promised land,
12:35 they don't tell you about the Red Sea.
12:37 You stumble upon the Red Sea.
12:39 That obstacle, that little detail is somehow conveniently left out,
12:44 the same way that it was left out with Joseph,
12:47 what his brothers were going to do,
12:49 and what Potiphar's wife was going to do,
12:51 and what the baker was going to do,
12:53 and the butler was going to do.
12:55 All of those little details were left out,
12:57 but God had shown him, "You're going to be the top dog."
13:01 But he didn't go into detail.
13:04 And you have to realize that there's always a Red Sea
13:09 in front of every promised land.
13:12 Every Popeye has his Brutus.
13:17 Every Batman has his Joker.
13:20 Every Superman has his Kryptonite.
13:23 Every genius has to battle his or her demons.
13:28 You just have to realize this,
13:30 that victory is always on the other side of a fight.
13:33 It's always on the other side of a battle.
13:36 There's going to be a fight.
13:38 There's something that you're going to have to fight to get through
13:41 in order to get to what God wants.
13:43 And understand that the Holy Spirit works best
13:46 when you get out of your comfort zone.
13:49 That's why he has you in an uncomfortable position at times.
13:53 Whenever your life is getting ready to shift or change,
13:55 you have to understand your life goes from comfort,
13:58 then all of a sudden God interrupts you with dreams,
14:01 plans, a desire, a vision in your heart.
14:04 You go from comfort to discomfort,
14:06 then to greater comfort.
14:08 In that order, comfort, discomfort, greater comfort.
14:12 But you can never come to the greater
14:14 without going through the corridor of discomfort.
14:17 And it is that discomfort where you will meet
14:20 the supernatural power of God coming into your life.
14:24 He comes right there in that uncomfortable place.
14:28 And the question is this,
14:31 when you see something bad getting ready to happen in the world
14:34 and then you're wondering, "Can I make a difference?"
14:36 You see, at that time in the Persian Empire,
14:40 where they were, Esther knew that
14:43 though she was the wife of the king,
14:46 she could not just go into the king
14:49 without his summoning her.
14:52 And to do so was to risk death.
14:57 And the only thing that would keep you from dying
14:59 is that when the king saw you coming and he didn't send for you,
15:03 he would have to extend the royal scepter to you.
15:06 And if he did, that gave you a grace to say,
15:09 "It's okay, come on."
15:11 And she didn't know whether she would be received or rejected
15:14 because if he did not extend the royal scepter to her,
15:17 she would have died.
15:19 And the question is,
15:22 do you have the courage to approach the king
15:25 without being summoned,
15:27 knowing that it could cost you your life?
15:30 Do you have that courage?
15:33 But then I would say this to you, don't just sit there.
15:36 Don't just sit there.
15:38 Do exactly what Esther did. Fast and pray.
15:41 Fast and pray. Fast and pray.
15:43 Please understand a fast is not a hunger strike.
15:46 A hunger strike is where you try to get somebody
15:49 to submit to your demands,
15:51 but a fast is where you submit to God's demands.
15:54 She fasted and prayed, and she said--
15:57 she told all of the other Jews, "Fast and pray with me."
16:01 And then she said, "Get a strategy."
16:03 She had to get a strategy.
16:05 "I need a strategy. I need to know what to do,
16:07 "how to do this thing," and then approach the king.
16:10 So you fast and pray, you get a strategy, and then approach.
16:14 Don't approach and not have a strategy.
16:16 Fast and pray to get the revelation of God,
16:18 to get the mind of God, to get your heart and mind
16:20 calibrated to the heart of God.
16:24 And when you go before the king,
16:28 you don't come like a pitiful pauper,
16:31 somebody who is not loved by their father.
16:34 Notice how Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 16 tells us to approach.
16:38 "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace,
16:44 "that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help
16:47 "in the time of need."
16:48 It's the same way that when you live in the house
16:50 with your mom and daddy, you don't ask for permission
16:52 when you want to go in the refrigerator and get something.
16:55 You just boldly go there and open it up like you paid for it.
17:01 Just boldly.
17:03 "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace."
17:05 If you need help, you got a loving father who's willing
17:08 and able to come to the throne of grace
17:12 so that we might obtain mercy.
17:15 She had to have mercy to keep her life from dying, Esther,
17:18 and she found grace to help in the time of need.
17:22 And I want you to realize that the kingdom of God
17:24 is an incredibly paradoxical kingdom.
17:28 Notice it is paradoxical that if you want to receive,
17:32 you have to give.
17:34 "Give and you shall receive."
17:36 See, that's a paradox.
17:38 If you want to be exalted, you must humble yourself.
17:42 That's another paradox, that if you want to be exalted,
17:45 humble yourself.
17:46 And if you want to save your life,
17:48 you have to be willing to lose it.
17:49 You've got to give it up.
17:51 You have to surrender your life.
17:53 And if you want to be the greatest in the kingdom,
17:55 you have to become the servant of all.
17:58 And then here's another paradox,
18:00 that "the last shall be first and the first shall be last."
18:04 Isn't that interesting?
18:06 He begins to go after the least,
18:09 the lost,
18:12 the left out,
18:16 and the last.
18:18 He's going for them.
18:20 Here's another paradox.
18:21 The world says, "Show me and I'll believe you."
18:24 The kingdom of God says, "Believe me and then I'll show you."
18:27 It's a total difference in how it operates.
18:30 The world says, "Show me and I'll believe you."
18:32 God says, "Believe me and then I'll show you."
18:35 Then here's another interesting paradox,
18:37 is that maturity in the kingdom of God
18:40 is to become like a child.
18:44 If you're going to come into the kingdom,
18:46 you've got to come like a little child.
18:47 That's why we have to be born again,
18:50 because maturity in the kingdom of God
18:52 is to become like a child.
18:55 That is simply to say that we are to maintain
18:58 a childlike dependency upon God.
19:03 Whenever God calls you to do something
19:05 and you don't feel qualified, trust Him.
19:10 When you don't feel qualified,
19:12 it forces us to develop a strong prayer life with Him,
19:15 a dependency on Him in order to make it all happen.
19:19 God has an interesting sense of humor
19:22 that He doesn't always send you into a battle
19:25 in the areas of your greatest strength
19:28 so that you can depend on Him.
19:30 That's the craziest thing in the world.
19:33 I don't understand why God would take Peter.
19:37 Peter was one of those dudes,
19:39 the Bible referred to him,
19:40 it says that he was ignorant and unlearned.
19:44 And yet God would send Peter to the Jews
19:48 to do ministry and conversion,
19:50 and he was regarded as ignorant and unlearned,
19:54 as an assigned to the Jews.
19:57 Paul, on the other hand, a well-learned man,
20:00 fluent in five different languages,
20:02 understood the law.
20:04 He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
20:06 He knew the law backward and forward.
20:08 Why didn't God send him to the Jews,
20:10 but God didn't send him to the Jews?
20:12 God sent him to the Gentiles
20:13 that knew nothing about Jewish history.
20:17 He sent each one into their area of weakness.
20:22 Do you know my real first ministry
20:25 was not sent into an area of my strength
20:27 where I could use my vocabulary?
20:33 No, no, no, no, I was sent into the prison.
20:37 I started doing prison ministry when I was 15 years old.
20:39 I was going to the prison, had 2,000 inmates there.
20:42 And I went every single month for several years.
20:45 And here I am, erudite and sent into a prison.
20:51 I don't know anything about misbehavior.
20:55 I never got detention.
20:59 Now, the one time--
21:00 I did get put out of class one time,
21:02 only one time, and let me tell you my crime.
21:06 My tickle box turned over,
21:09 and I couldn't stop laughing.
21:12 And the teacher said, "Okay, Mr. Browder,
21:14 "if you think that that's so funny, just get out."
21:17 And I had to leave outside and stand outside of the room
21:20 because I couldn't stop laughing.
21:24 And then God sends me into the prison,
21:27 maybe so that I could understand
21:29 what it means or feels like to be put out
21:33 of a place over something that I felt like I couldn't help.
21:39 And God gave me incredible acceptance in the prison.
21:44 It became one of my favorite places to do ministry,
21:49 though I had never been stopped for a traffic violation.
21:54 And here I am in the prison to people who have broken the law
21:57 and are behind bars serving time on a prison farm,
22:02 2,000 of them.
22:04 And God gave me an ability, though that life is foreign to me
22:07 because I didn't know anybody in my family who was in jail.
22:11 And yet here I am, a 15-year-old,
22:15 in the prison during ministry.
22:18 God has a sense of humor.
22:21 So I had to depend on Him.
22:24 I had to depend on Him.
22:27 And in that prison, I saw the gifts of the Spirit work.
22:32 I saw people healed and words of knowledge come forth.
22:35 The power of God fall.
22:37 I saw people come and surrender their lives to Jesus Christ,
22:40 and I'm in the prison, and I've never done anything
22:44 but be put out of the class because I couldn't stop laughing.
22:47 That was my crime.
22:50 God has a sense of humor, and so God might send you sometimes
22:53 into areas that you have no experience
22:56 so that you'll weaken those areas,
22:59 so then He becomes your strength.
23:02 He has a way that God will call you to do something,
23:05 and you're like, "Lord, I don't even know what I'm doing here,
23:08 "but I know You told me to come down here, and I'm--here I am."
23:12 And we're looking in our childlike dependency.
23:16 See, that's a part of the paradox of the kingdom.
23:19 If you really want to be mature, depend on Him.
23:22 Whenever you get to that place where you're like, "God, I got this,"
23:25 He'll let you fall on your face.
23:27 It happened to Samson when he thought that he was strong,
23:30 and he went to do something, and because he had broken covenant
23:33 and still thought he could operate in this gift when he broke his covenant,
23:37 and his strength had left him because he thought it was him.
23:41 And the same thing will happen to you when you start thinking
23:44 that this is all about you, that it's your strength,
23:47 that it's your gifting, that it's your favor, that it's your ability
23:50 to be able to make it do what it do,
23:53 and you lose your dependency on Him.
23:56 It's amazing.
23:58 Job chapter 28 and verse 27 says this,
24:01 "Then he saw it and declared it."
24:05 He prepared it, yes, and searched it out.
24:09 This is a strategy of how God founded and established the earth.
24:16 The devil is in the detail, but success is in the system.
24:19 This is actually a system, and I want to show it to you.
24:22 God's method by which He established things in the earth.
24:26 Notice, "He saw it." What do you see?
24:29 "He said it." Remember, nothing is done in the kingdom of God
24:32 until something is said.
24:34 "Then he prepared it." Can I tell you this?
24:37 Prior preparation prevents poor performance.
24:42 Now, I know that's not exactly like Peter, Piper, picked a peck of pickled peppers,
24:46 but prior preparation prevents poor performance.
24:52 Prior preparation. He prepared for it.
24:55 You show what you're believing God for by what you're preparing for.
24:59 If God has said that you're going to live and not die, prepare to live.
25:04 If He said you're going to be the head and not the tail, prepare for leadership.
25:08 If He said you're going to go, prepare.
25:11 While I was a teenager, I'd wake up at 5 o'clock in the morning
25:14 and begin to pray for an hour in the Holy Ghost.
25:17 And during that time, one of those mornings, God inhabited my room,
25:22 and He showed me that I would be going to the nations as a young teenager,
25:26 that I would go to the nations.
25:28 And so I asked myself one day, I said, "If you are sending me to the nations,
25:32 what on earth am I going to say?
25:35 What am I going to say to them?
25:38 I saw it. God said it.
25:41 I began to then prepare, and then He executed it.
25:45 He executed it. He searched it out. Search out.
25:49 That word "search out" in the Hebrew, it actually means to examine intimately.
25:53 He discovered. He's trying to figure this thing out.
25:57 He studied it. We have to figure it out,
26:00 because God doesn't tell you everything.
26:03 You're going to have to search some things out.
26:06 It'll show how hungry you really are.
26:10 But here's what I was saying.
26:13 Notice the process. He saw it. He said it. He prepared it.
26:16 And He executed it.
26:18 Don't just see something without saying it.
26:21 And don't just speak up without preparing for it.
26:24 And don't prepare for it without executing it.
26:27 There are some people that have nice plans,
26:30 and they've never pulled the trigger on their plans.
26:33 And people see things, and they never say anything.
26:36 And people say things, and they never prepare for what they say that they're going to do.
26:41 And then they prepare for stuff that they never execute.
26:46 I want to encourage you today. Be more than just a nice person.
26:51 Be more than just a nice person.
26:54 You know why I say that? Because nice people don't change the world.
26:57 Be a courageous person.
27:00 Be a courageous person. Be a courageous person.
27:03 It is interesting. A little 11-year-old kid,
27:06 an 11-year-old little boy,
27:09 was asked the difference between a nice person and a good person,
27:12 and this is how he responded.
27:15 He said a nice person is a people pleaser.
27:18 A nice person will make choices in the interest of making everyone happy,
27:23 but may not be good for them.
27:25 And then he said a good person does not care about being popular.
27:29 They will do what they believe is right,
27:32 because they care about what is good for everybody,
27:36 not whether they are liked.
27:38 And I want to encourage us. We need to be good people, not just nice people.
27:42 Good people, good people, good people like our good congressman
27:48 who was John Lewis that was known for causing good trouble.
27:54 Good, good, but not just nice, but good.
27:58 Notice what Galatians chapter 6 and verse 7 through 9 says,
28:02 "Don't be misled. You cannot mock the justice of God.
28:06 You will always harvest what you plant.
28:09 Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature
28:13 will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature.
28:18 But those who live to please the Spirit
28:21 will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.
28:24 So let's not get tired of doing what is good.
28:27 At just the right time,
28:30 we will reap a harvest of blessings if we don't give up."
28:36 People get weary and they quit doing something
28:39 because they don't see any immediate change
28:42 and they become discouraged.
28:44 But I want to encourage you, hang in there.
28:47 Don't be discouraged.
28:49 Don't become weary in well-doing. Hang in there.
28:52 Even if you don't see any immediate change.
28:54 I love something that Emma Watson said.
28:56 She said, "Don't expect change to happen overnight.
28:59 Even if it's not always visible, it's making more impact than you think."
29:04 And that is particularly true with children.
29:07 You'll be making an impact with a child, but then you'll be asking yourself,
29:10 "Is this child listening to anything I'm saying?"
29:13 It's like, "Am I wasting my breath?"
29:16 Because you don't see any change on the surface.
29:21 But trust when you're pouring the water out.
29:24 You have to trust that when I'm doing what is right,
29:27 I'm getting it out, God, but now you've got to help get it in.
29:31 If I do it, if I get it out, Lord, you help get it in,
29:35 but God cannot get in that you refuse to get out.
29:39 You do the teaching and God will help.
29:41 You lay your hands and the Lord will raise them up.
29:46 You do your part and God will do His.
29:49 Can I tell you the difference between good people and great people?
29:54 Good people inspire themselves.
29:56 Great people inspire others.
29:59 I said good people inspire themselves.
30:02 Great people inspire others.
30:05 Greatness is never based on what you do for yourself.
30:08 Greatness is always, without exception, based on what you do for others.
30:12 And so if you ever want to be great, you've got to become the servant of all.
30:15 And Esther became a great person because she found her purpose.
30:19 Not in looking in the mirror and taking selfies.
30:23 No, no.
30:25 Esther realized that her beauty was not about her.
30:27 God used that so that it would get the eye of a king,
30:31 so that she would be in a position so she could see.
30:37 God put her in a high place, the king and the queen.
30:42 He took her up on a high mountain,
30:45 not so she can say, "Now everybody can see me,"
30:48 but it was so she could see suffering, hurting people.
30:53 He didn't take her up there so that the world could see her.
30:56 He took her up there so that she could see the world
30:58 and then do something about it.
31:00 And she used the gift of the grace of her beauty
31:04 as her platform,
31:07 which came with an influence
31:11 that was able to shift the destiny of her people.
31:14 And this is what I would say to you,
31:17 that until you figure out your purpose in life,
31:21 let it be to show love,
31:24 to make a positive difference in the lives of others,
31:27 and to share your journey of faith to Jesus Christ with others.
31:31 Until you figure it out, until you get an answer from God,
31:34 "Well, I don't know what my purpose is."
31:36 Well, until then, show love,
31:40 make a positive difference in the lives of others,
31:43 and share your journey of faith to Jesus Christ with others
31:48 that God puts in your way.
31:51 Do that.
31:53 Our prayers should be just like the prayer
31:57 that Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane.
32:00 "Not my will, but thy will be done."
32:04 "Not my will."
32:08 Have you found your kingdom purpose?
32:12 And if you have not,
32:14 endeavor to love
32:17 and endeavor to be able to make a positive difference
32:20 in the lives of other people
32:22 and share your faith journey
32:25 of how you came to Christ in the lives of others.
32:30 Jesus so desperately wants to use people
32:35 who can see and identify with hurting, broken people.
32:42 Whatever God has delivered you from,
32:45 whatever you have mended from that broke you,
32:49 the broken become masters at mending.
32:55 I pray that God will give you a revelation
32:58 of your kingdom purpose,
33:02 not about the next thing to make you happy,
33:06 but the kingdom purpose of where you say,
33:09 "God, this is the kind of thing that I can do,
33:14 "and it keeps my light burning.
33:19 "This is not going to wear off."
33:22 Whatever you receive, learn that that enhances your mind,
33:29 but whatever you give enhances your heart.
33:33 If you want your heart to be enhanced,
33:36 there's something in your life
33:38 that you're designed to be able to give to others.
33:41 And when you give that, looking, saying,
33:44 "God, this is who I am.
33:46 "This is where I am.
33:49 "This is what I'm working with."
33:51 You may not think that your story is much,
33:55 but your story can be the difference
33:57 between life and death
33:59 for a person who's hanging in the balance.
34:02 And we have too many people in this day and time
34:04 in this culture that are taking their own life.
34:09 And one of the key reasons that they do that--
34:12 and I'm not talking about chemical depression--
34:16 but when you don't know why you were born,
34:22 you'll throw your life away on anything.
34:26 It was Martin Luther King that said the words
34:30 that if you are not willing to die for what you believe,
34:34 you're not fit to live.
34:37 And so many people have not come into their kingdom purpose.
34:40 There's a purpose for which you were born
34:43 that is bigger than you.
34:46 It's not about you. It's through you.
34:49 It's not about you. It's from you.
34:53 When the prayer of Jesus that he taught us to pray,
34:58 pray after this manner,
35:01 "Thy kingdom come.
35:04 "Thy will be done."
35:07 And he closed that prayer by this.
35:09 "Thine is the kingdom.
35:12 "Thine is the power.
35:15 "Thine is the glory."
35:17 It belongs to you, Jesus.
35:20 It belongs to you.
35:23 He wants the glory out of your life.
35:26 But the glory is in your story.
35:30 And until you tell your story,
35:33 you lock up God's glory.
35:36 No wonder he said, "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so."
35:43 There's something that we need to declare and say so.
35:47 Say it.
35:49 And when we release it,
35:51 somebody's waiting on your story.
35:53 You just be surprised of the hope and the courage
35:58 and the faith and the capacity to dream
36:01 that will rise up in some little boy, some little girl,
36:04 sometimes grown men, grown women.
36:06 Just because you grow up mature physically
36:11 does not mean that the little boy or the little girl
36:13 on the inside of you grew up.
36:16 And you may just unlock a little boy or a little girl
36:21 that's in a grown person's body,
36:24 but emotionally and mentally
36:27 they are still that wounded child.
36:30 Your story might be able to bring healing to someone.
36:34 There's glory in your story.
36:37 When you look back over your life
36:40 and think about every good thing that God has done
36:47 and say, "God, whatever, whatever you can use in my life."
36:51 And the only reason that we really have compassion for others
36:54 is because we've been there
36:57 and we felt something
37:00 and we've seen something.
37:02 We've experienced it vicariously.
37:05 And it gives us a capacity to be able to hurt
37:09 what others hurt.
37:12 I've prayed for a number of years,
37:13 "God, break my heart with the things that break your heart
37:17 so that I can love what you love and hate what you hate."
37:25 God wants us to feel like He does,
37:27 and that's why sometimes
37:29 it may not have anything to do with you personally,
37:33 but when you become an intercessor,
37:36 you begin to feel it as though it's affecting your own life,
37:40 like it's your body.
37:43 Sometimes when God's getting ready to manifest healing,
37:46 He'll sometimes let a sensation in your body
37:49 of that same condition
37:51 make you feel like you've got it.
37:53 And it's really God's signal to say,
37:55 "I'm healing this in them."
37:58 He's looking for intercessors,
38:01 somebody that will step out of themselves.
38:03 It's not about fighting for your own right and your own life.
38:06 When you give up your life, that's when you gain it.
38:09 It's when you give your life to something that matters
38:12 that's outside of you and something that is bigger than you.
38:15 That's when you start living.
38:18 Don't live small.
38:20 Dream no small dreams.
38:23 My friend Dr. John Edmund Haggai
38:27 said, "Attempt something so big for God
38:30 that it is doomed to fail except God be in it."
38:34 Live for the kingdom of God
38:39 and watch God transform your life
38:43 in a glorious, glorious way.
38:47 Bow your heads.
38:50 I just want to ask God
38:53 to give you a revelation of your kingdom purpose
38:57 if you're not in it.
39:00 And I pray that you never feel that you as one person
39:05 are too small to make a difference in the world.
39:09 It only takes a spark to get a fire going.
39:14 God is waiting on your spark.
39:18 But you don't get a spark
39:24 until who you are and where you are
39:27 hits a hard surface and friction is created.
39:32 And it is out of the friction that sparks fly.
39:36 The goal is not to get away from all friction in life.
39:43 God may be trying to light your fire.
39:46 Father, in the name of Jesus,
39:52 you're our blessed Father and we trust you.
39:57 We bring our hurts to you, our pains to you,
40:00 our brokenness to you,
40:02 and we are deeply thankful that you're able to
40:05 locate something absolutely beautiful out of that.
40:09 Father, we trust you with our very lives.
40:13 I pray, God, that you will open our eyes
40:17 that we might behold wondrous things out of your law.
40:21 Help us see the very purpose for which we're born.
40:25 You're the one who declared to us
40:28 that you know the plans that you have for us,
40:31 plans to prosper us and not to harm us,
40:33 plans to give us hope and a future.
40:37 We don't want to just live and die and accumulate things
40:40 and have our living to be in vain.
40:42 God, show us.
40:45 I pray that you will show every person
40:47 under the sound of my voice
40:49 their God purpose, their kingdom purpose,
40:53 where you have gifted them, equipped them,
40:56 and positioned them to be able to make
40:59 a unique difference in the world.
41:02 Thank you that the flavor that they bring is necessary,
41:06 that the sound that you give to them is necessary,
41:09 that the look, the creativity that you give them is necessary.
41:14 May you, Father, lead them to the place
41:17 where they are most desperately needed
41:20 so that their gift will come alive within them.
41:24 I pray in Jesus' name
41:27 that you will lead them to destiny
41:30 and purpose.
41:33 We'll scream and say, "Here I am."
41:36 May it burn within their hearts with passion.
41:40 Give them eyes to be able to perceive what you're doing
41:44 and every person that you plant.
41:47 May they know that it's not merely a coincidence,
41:51 that this is a signal, a wink from heaven
41:54 saying, "Yes, this one, in this time."
41:57 This didn't happen by accident.
42:00 But God, help us to see what to do in that moment.
42:04 Even as we are like little children
42:07 wondering, "God, how do we handle this opportunity
42:10 that you've entrusted into our stewardship?"
42:13 I pray in the name of Jesus
42:16 that you will open the eyes of your precious people.
42:19 Allow us to be able to see you in a fresh and a new way.
42:24 Lord Jesus, unveil to us
42:28 the kingdom purpose that we are placed in the earth to do.
42:33 And we will be careful that
42:37 everything out of which you bring from our life,
42:40 that all of that glory
42:43 will be returned right back to you.
42:46 May it begin in our own homes,
42:50 in our own schools,
42:52 in our own environments of where we are.
42:55 Show us our next assignment
42:58 and release your glory upon us
43:00 so that you are glorified, Lord of all.
43:04 In Jesus' name, amen.
43:08 I pray you got something out of God's Word today
43:11 and that you leave here as difference makers
43:16 because you carry so much on the inside of you.
43:19 Stand to your feet, everybody.
43:22 How many of you are glad you came to the house of the Lord today?
43:24 I'm so glad you came. I'm so glad. I'm so glad.
43:27 And thank you for all of those of you
43:30 who were with us on Friday night
43:32 at the Georgia International Convention Center
43:34 as we celebrated in grand style.
43:37 What a glorious, glorious evening.
43:39 Thank you for all of those of you
43:42 that have been with us at any time on this journey
43:46 of the 32 years that we have been in ministry.
43:49 And now we cross over into year number 33.
43:53 It's going to be an exciting year.
43:55 Get ready, get ready, get ready, get ready.
43:58 God has some exceptional things,
44:00 exceptional things ready for us.
44:03 So this is the year of the Lord's favor.
44:09 It is.
44:11 You're not alive just to inhale and exhale.
44:15 It's time for you to do your thing now.
44:18 May God burn in you and then burn through you
44:21 and every place that you touch, set it on fire.
44:27 Leave a blaze behind you.
44:29 May they know that our God, who is a consuming fire,
44:34 was with you and moving in you and through you.
44:39 The glory all belongs to him.
44:43 I pray that God will use you even during this holiday season
44:46 for hurting people, broken people,
44:48 people who are reminded of the deep loss
44:52 that they have suffered.
44:54 Because for many, this will be their first year.
44:59 Even if it's your second or third,
45:01 sometimes the pain is still there.
45:04 You still remember how it used to be
45:08 and you're reminded about people
45:11 who were significant, meaningful in your life
45:14 who are no longer there.
45:16 [music]
45:22 Giving is an antidote to depression.
45:26 Serving others is an antidote to depression.
45:30 Setting our thoughts on the good things
45:34 that God has done for us and in us is an antidote.
45:39 But celebrating the life that we have
45:42 to make a difference in other people's lives
45:46 is the way to keep filling yourself full
45:50 is when you tap into your God purpose.
45:54 That's my prayer for you today.
45:56 Fathers, we leave this place, but never from your grace.
46:00 May purpose be stirred.
46:02 May it burn in them.
46:04 [speaking in tongues]
46:07 [speaking in tongues]
46:15 May discomfort come in your sleep
46:20 until a dream has brought clarity
46:25 to you on that which you are to do in the earth.
46:29 May you no longer be comfortable
46:33 while your work is undone.
46:37 May new fire come to your desires and your passions
46:44 so that the assignment may be finished while there is time.
46:49 Run with the fire. Burn with the fire.
46:53 Share the fire with others and the world.
46:57 Rejoice in passionate love for Jesus.
47:00 God, we give you glory for what you're doing in our lives
47:03 and for the wonderful privilege that we have to serve you.
47:08 As we leave this place, but never from your grace,
47:12 may you use us both now and forever.
47:15 In Jesus' name, amen.
47:18 We hope that you enjoyed that message.
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47:32 Thank you for what you do.