Leaving the Old Life Behind|Didactic Training Session|04/15/2026

Break the Pattern: Why Your Sinful Nature is Limiting Your Future

Stop Serving the Past: Stepping into God’s Fullness


Are you feeling stuck in cycles that no longer serve your purpose? In this powerful message, Chief Apostle Leonard Lucas Jr. of Light City Church New Orleans delivers a timely word on the necessity of leaving old patterns of sin behind.

Many of us are unaware that our sinful nature acts as a ceiling, limiting us from the extraordinary blessings, peace, and elevation that God has prepared for our lives. To reach the "new," we must intentionally abandon the "old." It’s time to stop serving the nature that holds you back and start walking in the freedom of your divine calling.

In this video, you will learn:

How to identify and break recurring sinful patterns.

Why the "old life" is a barrier to God's current promises.

Practical steps to shift your focus from the flesh to the Spirit.

How to reclaim the territory the enemy tried to steal through limitation.

"The very thing you refuse to let go of is the very thing keeping you from where God wants you to be."

Transcript

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Thank you for joining the Light City Church podcast. In a few moments, you are going to be taught an amazing work of the Lord from our chief apostle Leonard Lucas Jr.

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And if this message is from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, the name of the Lord is worthy. Amen. The name of the Lord is worthy. How many of you know the assignment that God have you on at this particular time in your life? What is the assignment that God has given you? Have you written it down? Do you know what it is? How do you know what what what what you should be doing at this particular time if you haven't written it down? How do you know the trials and the tests that's coming your way if you don't know the assignment that has been assigned to you? Because every assignment that God sends to us, He has uh uh uh a trial that comes with the assignment. And many times we fail we fail the trial, therefore we never fulfill the assignment. And if you do not have what he has for you written down on a piece of paper, then you're not gonna have vision when the trial comes. When the test comes. There were people that came to Jesus and Jesus asked them a question. What was the question Jesus asked them? Do you believe? Why did Jesus ask them, do they believe? Why did Jesus ask these people who were Jewish people, do they believe? Because for 400 years they lived in a wilderness. For 400 years they lived according to a lie. For 400 years they did not have a miracle or a sign or a wonder. And they had gotten to the place where they were doing what was right in their own eyesight. We call it a time of darkness because of the 400 years. And isn't God amazing how he will allow his people to go through 400 years of darkness or allow them to go through 400 years as a fly flying around of slavery and to prove to see if they are committed to him. Isn't it amazing what God does as a trial and a test to prove your heart? And for the most part, we do not pass the test simply because we don't know that it is a trial that God has given us. What season you find yourself in that you're not comfortable with, nor do you understand? What is it that the Holy Spirit is quickening in your heart and it makes no sense to you? And how many verses of scriptures do you have that will confirm what you're going through? Or are you trying to get through this season in your your life without the word? Are you trying to go through all of the situations and the circumstances that you're comfortable with that you understand to get you through this season? Are you confessing his word that gives you the answer? Or are you believing the doubt and the fears and the unbelief that will pull you away from what God has called you to at this time in your existence? He has you in a particular area that you've not been in, or a particular area that you're not comfortable with. That's how God operates. And may I say this to you as well. It doesn't matter to God how much time you stay in the season because it's all designed to put the word of God in your heart. But the problem is you go through the season without the word, therefore the season is difficult because you're not standing on the promise, you're standing on the compromise. Did you get that word? C-O-M promise. You're standing on the compromise, you're compromising. But if you stood on his word, then the word is going to see you through. So when you come out of the word, you'll be ready to be a testimony to what you've gone through so that you can help others who are in the same season you just come out of, and you will teach them not to compromise the season, but to understand the season that they're going through and to let them know that if you wait on the word of God to finish its process in your life, you'll come out much better than when you went in. You need to understand that the God you serve, He has a system in place already. And if you don't understand the system that he has, then you're going to find yourself always frustrated and feeling miserable because you don't understand what's going on. And there are a lot of people today who say they love God, but they don't understand what God is doing at this particular stage of their life. Therefore, have you ever been through the wilderness? Or have you ever or have you ever been through the famine? How about have you ever been through the flood or the fire? You see, if you don't understand that God is the God who has created all of these experiences for you to go through to teach you something about Him. And every time He takes you to another level, He takes you through another level of experience. Remember when Daniel came out of the den of blinds and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo came out of the fiery furnace. They didn't go down, they went up. They were promoted. They excelled. They advanced. I'm gonna get some water tomorrow. They advanced. Because they passed the test, they stood on the word. What I like about them was they said to the king, listen, king, do your thing because I'm trusting God. Can I get a half a witness up in here? Is there anybody trusting God? Now let me say something to you. You may be trusting God with yesterday's faith. But yesterday's faith and yesterday's problems, you're no longer there. Where God have you today is in today into the now and tomorrow. And are you ready to go where God is taking you, or are you going to continue to criticize and murmur and complain about where you are and how you don't understand what's going on in your life? Am I talking to anybody here? So, you as believers, may I say this to you? I was sharing with an apostle today that one of the prophets was saying that the people in Zion are going to be the ones who will be going through the fire trying to figure out how they got there. Isn't it amazing how the church people, I'm gonna use that term, the church, quote unquote, people are going to be the people in a place called Oh my God. And they won't be facing the fire of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo, they'll be facing the fire of hell. Trying to figure out how in the name of God that I get here. Am I talking to anybody? Thank you. So you need to recognize and realize you're not ready. You're not ready to go where God wants you to go. You're not ready for the trials that God wants to teach you. Because you have proven that whenever God sends an assignment your way, you have proven that the assignment is too great. And you don't qualify because of the test that it takes in order to get to the fulfillment of the assignment. Isn't it amazing that Jesus had to go through to get to the cross to get up into the into glory? Do you not realize that God knew where Jesus was going and all of the things that Jesus had to go through to the point that Jesus even made the statement out of the book of Psalms, chapter 22? He says, My Father, my God, my God, what's going on here? Can you pass this cup away from me? You see, what Jesus didn't recognize and realize, in order for him to be the perfect Lamb of God, his blood had to be shed. And he had to go through the trials and the tests in order to get him there. And now that Jesus has gone through, God, the Bible tells us that before he went up into the heavens, he went down to preach to his brothers who were locked down in the prison, he went down to preach to them the gospel. And now he is seated in heavenly places. Why is Jesus seated at the right hand? Because no man ever created has gone through what Jesus went through in order to become who he is. You need to recognize and realize that life that God has given you is not a physical life only, but it's an eternal life. Where are you going to spend your eternal life after you've lived down here for 70 years? Do you now realize that 70 years is just but a moment? And so now that you have lived the 70 years, what will it be like when you get into the heavens? And it's going to be amazing that there are many people who say they love God, but they're not willing to go through what God wants them to go through to get to where God wants them to get. So so many people are going to be disqualified when Jesus comes with the keys in his hand simply because they made a decision to live a comfortable life and not the life that God wanted them to go through. May I help you? God wants to test you to see if you're worthy to come up and be with him. But if you don't pass the test, how can you get to where God is? You want to spend eternity with God when you can't spend a moment being tried or tested by Father. Father wants to take you through something to prove to you what's in your heart. Am I talking to anybody? The man come whose son is in trouble, and Jesus asked the question, He says, Do you believe? Why is he asking them, Do they believe? Because Israel had gotten to a place where they were no longer believing God. They knew about Moses, they knew about all of the stories that they had heard, but because they made a decision to turn away from God and for 400 years they walked in darkness, now Jesus comes on the scene, and the question that Jesus asked before a miracle could be done was Do you believe that I'm able to do what you knew or know God is able to do? Because Abraham and Moses and all our forefathers have proven that there is a God. Do you believe that God exists? And do you believe God can work the miracle out? And some of them, and one of the this man said, I believe, but I need you to help my unbelief. Are you in a state of unbelief? Do you not understand how powerful it is? How can you live with God when you don't trust him? There are many people who want to go to heaven and spend the rest of their existence in heaven, but they don't trust God in the earth realm. Now, why would God allow you to come live with him forever when he gave you a moment in time and you cannot trust him? What type of relationship can you have with a God you don't trust? What is a marriage when there is no trust inside of the marriage? What is a relationship that has no trust in it? You need to recognize and realize it would be very difficult for God to allow you to come up and be with Him forever when you don't trust Him in temporary. Somebody help me up in here. You need to recognize and realize that it's not hard to trust God, but you need to get to a place where you believe the word of God and believe what he put in that book is for you to live by. Do you not realize that there are people who say they love God and go to church every Sunday, but they don't trust God. They have insurance and I'm not against it. They have bank accounts, I'm not against it. They have every kind of thing to keep anything from happening in their lives so they don't have to trust God and His Word. Scripture tells us that before Jesus comes back, that there are going to be many opportunities for us to have to trust God. But are we ready to get to that place where we have to walk by faith and not by sight? Have you ever been through a season of famine where there was no money, no food in your refrigerator, and you didn't know how you were going to make it. But yet you have a you had a faith in God that got you through whatever it was you were going through. So I want you to recognize and realize that many people who tell who call themselves I'm saved, and they believe they're on their way up. But let me say this to you. Let me say that again. There are a lot of people who believe that they're going up, they're not gonna go up. Because you don't trust God. Because God can't even test you to trust Him. You you you are afraid to be to let's say you are afraid for God to trust you. You are afraid to be in a position to be tested. You don't want to be tested. But how can you have a relationship with God when He's the God who tries us and who takes us through? Go in the book of James, chapter one, a verse of scripture you are familiar with. James, the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad. Greenies, why are the 12 tribes scattered abroad? They are scattered abroad simply because they chose not to walk with God the way God wanted to. So God sent in various groups of people to come in at stages of their existence to scatter them all over the world. Even to this day, the children of God are scattered all over the world. Even we are scattered. We are Africans who are living in America. How do we get here and why are we here? America was already in uh uh uh dominated by a group of people and they weren't white, and now we're here. Why are we here? We are here because instead of serving God the way God wanted us to be served, wanted us to serve Him, we made a decision, Minister Lee, to serve sin and not God. And when you decide to serve sin and not God, then God's word says he's gonna scatter you and ship you off, lock your hands down, and you're gonna be in bondage to a group of people that he's gonna put over you simply because you made a decision not to trust God. Now, may I say this to you. Now that you are here in this magnificent country that God has afforded us to come into, it is a shame for you not to live in the abundance that God has. Come on, the shackles may be off our hands, but the shackles are still on our minds. The shackles are not on our minds intelligently, but far greater than the intelligent uh shackles that exist on us, then the shackles in our spirit realm. We are locked down, Minister Lee. We don't believe that God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above whatever we ask or think. We believe that he could do it for some people, but we're not one of the people. We believe that God will do it for this one, but he won't do it for that one. And the bet the worst thing about it is we are in this magnificent country, but we're still acting like the the chains that was once on our hands and our feet are now locked down on our minds, and we're still thinking like we're slaves when we were never meant to be slaves. God never meant for you to be a slave, he always wanted you to understand he loved you and he wanted to bless you, but you made it a this you made a decision to turn away from the love and the blessing of God to walk in the sin and the reproach of the word. And so now as a result of that, you are in a place of prosperity, but it's not flowing your way because you instead of turning back to the God who called you out, uh oh no, no, no, who created you in the beginning, who said to you by the way of Adam, I'm blessing you. And God told your forefathers that He's blessing your children, and now you are a product of the blessing now by way of Jesus Christ. But instead of living the life that God has promised you, you still decide that you don't want what God has. You don't trust him on that level. You want to walk in what you know, you want to walk in your own intelligence and your own understanding. Therefore, God cannot bless you the way he promised. So you're in a country where prosperity rules and reigns, but you're not a partaker of the prosperity because you choose to put the chains on your mind and in your spirit as opposed to allowing God to free you in your heart to serve him in spirit and in truth. Nobody can touch when Daniel was in the uh uh uh the Babylonian system, though he was supposed to be a servant, yet he rose to the most powerful position. When Joseph was in Egypt, he was supposed to be a servant, but yet he found himself as the prime minister of the country. You need to recognize and realize that when you serve God and you trust God, God is going to elevate you to the next level. And you will be the head and not the tail, I can't help nobody. You will be the head and not the tail. You will be the above only never beneath, but you are still locked down and you still say somebody's got control over you. May I ask you tonight to take the shackles off your mind so that you can be free to serve God in spirit and in truth. God says, I will scatter you, but God wants you to understand that I will bring you back to the land that I have given you. If you ever decide you're gonna do what I'm asking you to do, I will reward you, I will bless you, and I will elevate you. Anybody listening? He says to you, the count. Everybody say the count. Say it again. He says, My brother, count in all joy. Everybody say, Count in all joy. One more time, count in all joy in the book of Acts, chapter 5, verse 41. He says that they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. My God, my God. They got to a place that they understood that the trials and the tests that God was allowing them to go through was not because of the devil. It was not because of sin. It was because God found them worthy enough to test them and to try them. And guess what, Minister Lee? They weren't afraid of the king's decisions, they weren't afraid of how what people said or thought or thought about them. They were willing to go through understanding that God had called them and they were willing to suffer whatever they had to go through. Come on, somebody, watch this. For the name of Christ. The reason why you knew where you are, because you think they're picking on you and you gotten personal and you're not trusting God. Therefore, you think it's all about you. But what we are going through is not because of us. What we're going through is because of his name. But then you don't bear the name, you don't carry the name, you don't know the name, and you don't know the power that's in the name. Therefore, you get into your feelings and your emotions and your misunderstanding, and you don't understand, and you don't know. Therefore, you are not a candidate to go into the heavenly realms of God because he can't trust you with the situation that he has you going through. Count, he says. The whole songwriter says, Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your blessings and see what the Lord has done. Do you not realize and understand that when you gave your life over to Christ, he gave you the ability to use the name of Christ? You are telling me that the name of Christ is not greater than the problems, the circumstances, and the situations you're going through hell inside of your soul because you don't know how to use the name that God has given you. You are looking at the situations, you're looking at what you're going through, but you don't understand that there's power in the name. The Bible tells me that there is no name greater than the name of God. You're not suffering because of the name, you're suffering because of your own foolishness and your misunderstanding of the season that you find yourself in because you don't understand the word of God. Because if you understood God's word, there is absolutely no reason why you should be down when he raised you up. There should be no reason why you're out when he brought you in. You should understand that there's no reason why you should be sick when he made you whole. There should be no reason why you're poor when he made you rich. Rich, when you understand the power that's in the name of God, you have the authority and the power, and there is nothing greater than the name that God Almighty has given you. Why don't you rise up out of your despair and get to the level that God has called you to? You're in a season now, and God is preparing. I can't tell you where you're going to go, and I can't tell you how long it will be before Jesus comes back, but he is preparing a day to come where the day will come. You'll have to just trust the name. He had a group of people, 5,000. One time it was 3,000. There was no money and no food. So you had to borrow a lunch. But because he understood the power that was in the name, he used the name of God and it stretched the food, and he was able to feed 5,000 men besides the women and children. May I say to you, the name of Jesus is able to sustain you. God told the prophet, I'm going to take you through a wilderness experience, and it's not going to rain until I say so. But you need to understand that if you stay fast, stand fast with me, I will feed you. And for three and a half years, the man of God was able to eat because God sustained him, because he understood he had to trust in God, and God was able to take care of him. You say, well, he gave him food from the bird's mouth. Well, some people didn't have that. You need to recognize and realize that God gave 600,000 people food for year, year after year after year, 40 plus years. They had what was called, what kind of food is this? But do you not realize it was food that God had designed for them that was able to keep them healed, that was able to keep them uh delivered, that was able to save them. You need to recognize and realize that the food that God provided was the food that was necessary for them to uh uh uh to live by, because that food was connected to the word of God. And when they partook of that food, it wasn't just physical food that they were eating, it was the spiritual food of God, that kind of food that God says that's at the throne of God, the trees, that that tree that had 12 different fruits, that if you partake of that tree, if you partake of that fruit, you'll have life that will live on the inside of you forever. It's so powerful that sickness cannot be inside of you. It's so powerful that uh uh uh uh emotional stress cannot be inside of you. You don't recognize and realize that there is a meal that God has for you if you eat it, it's for the healing of your soul. Our souls are under attack simply because we don't have the power. There were some sons who decided they were going to use the name of God, but they didn't have the authority to use it. Jesus even said to some people, yes, you prophesied and you did these things, but I didn't give you the authority to do so. May I say to you, if you hadn't been through the tests or the trial, you don't qualify to use the name. Oh my God. I'm not talking about the suffering that you have allowed to come upon you because of your foolishness. I'm talking about the suffering that God's allowing you to go through because you're testing, not testing, you are walking in the authority of God. That's why he says, My brother, count it all joy. Count it all joy. When should I count it all joy, Theophilus? I should count it all joy when I go through something. My God. He says in the book of 2 Peter, chapter 1, verse 6, he says, and to and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and the patience what godliness. You need to recognize and realize as we go through this, uh, some things you have to add to your faith if you're going to walk in God. There's some things you need to understand that God will only give his name, uh, Minister Lee, to those who understand they've been through the trials and attests to use the name. The name of God is so powerful that it will deliver. How dare you use a name that has never been tested in your existence? How dare you tell me that God is able to supply all your needs when you got a hundred million dollars in the bank account and you don't need to trust God for nothing? How dare you tell me that God is able to heal when you got insurance and bills, I mean, and pills and everything that you can imagine. You ain't never had to believe God for nothing. Along that line, how dare you tell me God is able? You can't use the name because you don't use the name when you go through something. How dare you tell me in the name of Jesus I pray for you. My God, my God, my God. If the name of Jesus won't work for you, how dare you try to put it on me? How dare you think you can come and tell me I want to pray for you and use the name of Jesus when you don't trust the name of Jesus when you're going through something. Oh, I wish I was talking to somebody up in here. He says you need to understand when you fall, when you fall, when you fall, when you fall, when you fall. Verse 2 says, when you fall through various, various types of trials. May I say this to you? I'll never forget Ferdinand Carr came to me years ago, 40 plus years ago. He said, Man, there's 14 different wilderness experiences you got to go through. I wanted to hit him in the mountain. 14, we in the experience, 14. What? And he he was reading a book because you know Ferdinand liked to read a lot of material. He and he I missed that book. Give me that book a little bit. 40 went down through all those wilderness experiences, and I'm like, Jesus, I couldn't believe that there were so many wilderness experiences, and I couldn't believe I was in about a hundred of them all at the same time, and I didn't want to go through not one of them. You realize I was rebuking the devil in the name of Jesus and doing everything I could, not realizing that God was taking me through. What I did not understand where God was taking me, that He hasn't prepared me to go through what I had to go through. Was I ready for it? No. Did I understand it? No. But I still had to go through it. Thank God He allowed me to go through. Thank God I didn't quit. Almost 50 years, Mr. Lee, and I'm still here. And I'm more committed to the will of God today than yesterday. Hello. How many came along and try to stop it? How many came along try to destroy it? How many times I heard stories about Glenet Lucas? How many times they tried to say this, that, and the other. But let me tell you something. In spite of all of that, I'm still here. I didn't understand what I had to go through to be where I'm at today. But now I'm grateful to God that in spite of all the trials and the tests, guess what? I'm still standing. My God, I'm still standing. My God, I'll say it again. I'm still standing. If I'd have known I had to go through that with the people I trust, the people I gave money to, the people I gave cars to, the people I gave houses to, the people I gave stuff to, the things that I did for them. If I'd have known that that end result would be the way it was, I never would have done that. But thank God he didn't allow me to have the sense enough to understand. He had to get me to trust him and not what I was doing. Somebody helped me. He sent the right people at the right time to prepare me for this day, this hour, and of my existence. And now I can stand fast. And when I use the name of Jesus, guess what, Minister Lee? I don't need to speak no tongues when I use it. Hear what I'm saying. I don't need to go in the prayer closet. I don't need to fast and pray when I use it because it's the name of Jesus that got me through my wilderness. It was the name of Jesus that got me through my trials. It was the name of wilderness that got me through my misunderstanding. It was my the name of Jesus that got me through my unbelief. You need to recognize and realize when you learn how to trust in God, God and His power will get you through whatever you are going through. You need to recognize and realize where you are today and stand fast, stand still. Trust in God. How can you go to heaven and spend eternity when you don't like God? You don't like the way He operates. You can't stand people. Lord have mercy. You can't stand people. The people that God sends to you are called brothers and sisters. You can't stand them. You got stuff in your heart. Lord help me somebody. He says, when you fall into, God says, fall into what? Divers. Divers. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. I know some of y'all ain't been tempted, but let me tell you a little bit I know about temptation. Temptation ain't what you don't like to do. Devil ain't that stupid, and God certainly not that stupid. Temptation is what you want to do. What you like to do. When a person falls into temptation, that's what he really wanted to do. That's what he likes. A man sees a woman that he likes, there's certain kind of women you like. Minister Lee like a certain kind, I like a certain kind. I can't talk about the rest of these brothers. I'll talk about us. We've been married 50 years. What'd you say? Oh tomato said, I like it. Tomato said, I like a certain kind. I ain't gonna say what he said. But but but you know, there's certain kinds. Now, if you don't bring that kind in front of me, Mike, it ain't no temptation. But if you bring the kind that I like, Lord have mercy. I'm gonna look. When I minister Lee, I'm gonna look. Yes, Lord Jesus. And then I'm gonna have to fight the lust that will try to rise up to keep me from going so far. I wish I was talking to somebody. Now, let me say this to you. Let me look at me, look at me, look at me. If I had the opportunity to fall into sin, I would have. Oh Lord, I know y'all don't understand that. He said there's all kinds of temptation. What you mean, God? You mean to tell me I'm gonna be tempted? I'm gonna go through temptation in this walk. You mean to tell me I'm gonna go through something? He told you, don't do that, don't do this, and you fell off and went in and did it anyway. The way they set that thing up for you was so beautiful. It had to be God because it looked so good. I'm not talking about a man or a woman, I'm talking about whatever. The boss told you he was gonna give you, you just got off your knees and said, Lord, I need some more money. The boss said, I need, I'm gonna give you a razor and I'm gonna promote you to the next level. And you say, Oh God, he's gonna give you the amount of money you just got off your knees praying for. But what he did not tell you, you're gonna have to work on Sunday and Wednesday. And you know how many people that I know of in the church who works on Sundays and Wednesdays? Hello, somebody. You say well a man should be able to work when he wants to, and you're absolutely right. But guess what? It's always the ones that God's hand is upon, it's always the one God has called. Hello, somebody. I I I've been in this game long enough to understand. My, my, my, my. Church people go to go to work on Sundays and Wednesdays. Hello, somebody. They're gonna be the ones that the boss is gonna want them to come to work every Sunday. Not some Sundays, but every Sunday. And on that Sunday that you go to work, you can't tithe because you didn't come to church. And you seem to forget because you don't come, and Wednesday night, you don't come because you're too tired for what you've been doing on Sunday and Monday and Tuesday. I wish I was talking to somebody. How can God give you a blessing to pull you away from the trials and the tests that He's taking you through to get you to where He wants you to go? How can you say you trust God when you can't trust God because the world system had you pulled away from God's economy? Isn't it amazing? He told Jesus, look, bro, if you fall, you know the angels gonna pick you up. I know you're hungry. Come on, man, come on, create a little piece of bread. Jesus didn't have to create the bread because he was the bread. Somebody help me here. Jesus understood that he had a bread inside of him that was far greater than what the devil. Do you not realize all of the great black leaders who died because they bought into the lie of the devil that took them out of the church and took them into their success and their fortune and their fame, and they died early. Got them caught up in the drugs, got them caught up in the sex, got them caught up in everything that was wrong, and they died, and many of them died broke, and they walked away from the things of God. My God. You want to stay with God forever. How can you stay with God forever when you're not willing to go through what He wants you to go through? He says, You got to count it all the joy. He says, Knowing. Everybody say knowing. Say it again. One more time. You got to know something. He says this in the book of Romans, chapter 5, verse 3. He says, and not only so, but we glory in tribulation also, knowing that tribulation is working something in us. What is the tribulation that God is taking you through working inside of you? Somebody help me. Who in the name of God wants to go through tribulations? My God. Y'all talk about the great tribulation. You'll be ready for the great tribulation when you go through the tribulation. You don't need the great tribulation. God will take you through the tribulation before you get to the great tribulation. You need to recognize and realize that God's going to take you through a season where He tried you to see if you're going to hang in there. And what happened? You become weary in well-doing. Let me say that again. You become weary in what kind of doing? You become weary in what kind of doing? You tired when it's church time. You don't want to give when it's giving time. You don't understand why the church people do this to you. You don't understand that, yes, God has called you to greatness, but let me say this to you: you have gotten to the place where you don't understand and know with an intimate understanding of why God is allowing you to go through what you went through. I can look back in my life and say, I understand now what I didn't understand back then. When I first started, Sister Jean, all I wanted to do is get up on a Sunday and go home. But no, I had to live this life. Over the last almost 60 years that I've been saved, I had to learn how to live the life. I had to trust the word of God. I still do today. It ain't got no easier trusting God's word. I ask God, I'm wanting to know something wrong with Him. Don't you know? You can trust me? God said, Yeah, all right, I could trust you yesterday, but I don't know if I can trust you tomorrow. What I got for you tomorrow ain't got nothing to do with you yesterday. You can't you trying to take yesterday faith on where I'm taking you. Do you not realize where I'm taking you is far greater than you can go through? Do you not understand the hall the hell we went through to get to this level right here, the seven years that we had to suffer to get to where we are today? And we hadn't even started doing anything on this particular situation. This almost ran me. Lord have mercy. It wasn't just about the building, it was about everything that I had to go through in order to get to this level. It's just a physical structure. The money, the situation, the circumstances, the people, the situation. All kind of junk was coming down, not sometimes, but all the time. Had to trust God and believe it. Every step of the way, there was a trial problem, there was a test, there was something to say, stop, you don't need to go no further. But you have to trust God and get you to the end, because the end is better than the beginning. If I hadn't gone through that before, it wouldn't have been uh uh I couldn't have made it in this way. This was greater, this was bigger, and if the best is yet to come. And I'm more committed today than I am uh uh uh yesterday because I believe what he promised. But yet I understand, Minister Lee, that I got to understand something. I got to understand knowing, knowing, knowing, knowing, knowing, knowing. What did I need to need? Neither know, I need to know trying. I need a no trying. Are y'all ready, Light City? You don't like tries, you don't like tests, but trying times are coming. Can't go to the next level without trying times. You want to go home and watch as the world turn and drink your coffee and be left alone. But trying times are coming. You're worried about trying times? Trust God. All through scripture. 400 years Israel lived in Egypt. Trying times. And one day God brought them out of uh our Egypt minister league. They were not ready for what God did. They came out of Egypt, and them dumb people said this take me back. Their favorite song was Take Me Back, the Lord. Take me back to the leaks and the garlic, take me back. Do you not realize because you don't understand what God is doing, He's testing you to see if you are ready to go to the next level. Israel said, Take us back. Don't you remember the 400 years? Don't you remember the making of the bricks? Don't you remember all the stuff that they did to us? Uh and you telling me you rather go back to that. Sometimes you don't understand that the trine of your faith is so great that you with the God, you can go backwards. But God says, No, I'm preparing you for a far. Do you not realize what God is taking you to, taking you through today? It's not for today, but it's for tomorrow. And when tomorrow comes, you'll be the only one ready, Joseph, and you'll be able to deliver the world and to feed the world. Do you not realize that God is getting you ready for tomorrow? But you stuck in yesterday. You're stuck in right now when God is trying to get you to where He wants to take you, but you can't pass the test because you can't get through first grade. Do you believe? Do you believe? Remember when you first got saved? Boy, was that a wonderful time. I promise you the grass was greener. I promise you the sun was shining so bright, it looked wonderful. And one day it disappeared. I decided I was gonna fast to try to find it back. I decided I was gonna live better to find it back. I said I was gonna read more to find it back. Do you not realize it never came back? I was set up. Uh I've been I'm like the man that said if you hit the hit crack one time and it's so powerful that you start doing crack for 20 years, still trying to find the first face, first high. Let me tell you something. I've been looking for the first high, I ain't found it yet. God said, son, it's not about that what I allowed you to go through, it's about what I'm taking you through. And I was not ready to go through what God was taking me through. I was not ready. I was not ready. And if I was a cusser, I'd have been cussing God every single day. It wasn't right what he allowed me to go through. I didn't understand it and I didn't want it. What I wanted to do, Sister Alma Jean, was to be left alone. God, leave me alone. I'll go do what you say on Sunday and leave me alone. I told you my first member almost killed me. Hermanies Lemon almost took me out. That woman called me all day, all night. Oh Lord, have mercy, Jesus. She was a tormenting spirit. Didn't have no money. She got paid that little check on the on the on the first of the month. She wouldn't come to church for 15 days. So all her money was gone. Then she called me talking about come pick. Her up for church. I didn't have no gas to go pick her up, and I didn't want to go pick her up, but something inside of me saying, This is your first member, and if you don't pass this test, you can't get another one. Like, Lord, have mercy, Jesus. All day, all night. I hated that. Couldn't stand it. The trying. Somebody say, trying. The trying of your faith. Come on, somebody. It's the trying of your faith. It's not the trying of my faith. You don't have to look at me. It's the trying of your faith. Where are you right now with the trying of your faith? Where is God trying you, testing you to see if you're going to make it? To see if you qualify to go to the next level. Here's what happened to Moses. The scripture tells us that when Moses' mama looked at him, she said, there's something unique about this child. I can't tell you what she saw, but whatever she saw, she hid him for months. And when she could no longer hide him, she made an ark. It wasn't a basket, it was an ark that protected him. Now, who in the name of God is going to put that child, a baby three, four months old, in the river and let it float down and expect something good to happen.