SPEAKER_00: There's times where you just need to linger in his presence.
SPEAKER_00: That's the only thing that can change you.
SPEAKER_00: It's not your own strength, it's not your ability, it's not your gifts, it's not your talents.
SPEAKER_00: It is in God's presence that changes us.
SPEAKER_00: David said, I desire your word more than my necessary food.
SPEAKER_00: But it is amazing the meals that we miss are actually the meals that we need.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna hunger for something.
SPEAKER_00: Why not hunger for the thing that gives you everlasting life?
SPEAKER_00: We get so focused on the temporal that we make this our home.
SPEAKER_00: This ain't our home.
SPEAKER_00: We passing through here.
SPEAKER_00: But some of us have kicked our feet up and parked here.
SPEAKER_00: This ain't my home.
SPEAKER_00: Paul said, we are aliens.
SPEAKER_00: If a little green alien came running down this aisle, y'all would be freaking out.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: When you enter places, people should be freaking out.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, they missed it.
SPEAKER_00: They missed it.
SPEAKER_00: The scripture says, in his presence is fullness of joy.
SPEAKER_00: Not half joy.
SPEAKER_00: Fullness of joy.
SPEAKER_00: It's only in his presence.
SPEAKER_00: It ain't money.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a relationship.
SPEAKER_00: It ain't Botox.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: I just the difference between happiness and joy is happiness is based on circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: Joy is internal.
SPEAKER_00: See, your circumstances can change and your happiness will go like this.
SPEAKER_00: But when you go through stuff and you know who's in you, it makes a difference.
SPEAKER_00: So my challenge before I get into my message is get into his presence.
SPEAKER_00: Everything you need is in God's presence.
SPEAKER_00: Everything you won't like nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Don't wait till Sunday for those moments.
SPEAKER_00: It can happen at your house.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: In your bedroom, in your bathroom, in your car.
SPEAKER_00: Times I have to pull over because I couldn't see, because my eyes are so filled with tears.
SPEAKER_00: Because God's presence is so real.
SPEAKER_00: But he only goes where he's invited.
SPEAKER_00: That's why some people can feel his presence in this moment and some don't.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta humble yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love y'all.
SPEAKER_00: I got one agenda this morning, and that's to provoke you to righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna do my job.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that you're here, ready to receive.
SPEAKER_00: You're not here to hear from Lamoris, you're here to hear from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So if we set your heart that way, God will get you something today.
SPEAKER_00: It's on you, it's not on him.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest gift that God has given mankind is free will.
SPEAKER_00: You get to do with your will what you will to do with it.
SPEAKER_00: That's on you.
SPEAKER_00: He loves you, he cares for you, he's for you.
SPEAKER_00: But you gotta do your part.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna share my testimony and I'm gonna get into this word and I'm gonna let y'all go eat.
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, you're too full to eat.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm originally from the south side of Chicago.
SPEAKER_00: I grew up in a housing project called Argale Gardens Housing Projects on the South Side.
SPEAKER_00: Well, my grandmother raised nine kids as a single mother on welfare.
SPEAKER_00: And when I was 10 months old, my mother was murdered at the age of 17.
SPEAKER_00: She had my brother at 14, she had me at 16, she was shot in the head at 17.
SPEAKER_00: I've never met my father, don't know who he is, to this day.
SPEAKER_00: My uncle was in a gang, he was murdered, shot in the head at 17.
SPEAKER_00: My aunt was in a domestic violent relationship, her boyfriend murdered her at 28.
SPEAKER_00: And I had another aunt that died from a brain tumor from asbestos in the projects.
SPEAKER_00: So my grandmother raised nine kids, four died, she raised nine grandbabies on welfare in the projects.
SPEAKER_00: I grew up with a huge question mark on top of my head, a four and mile line my hair.
SPEAKER_00: I did not understand why life happened to me the way it did.
SPEAKER_00: My grandmother did the best she could with what she had, but she had one rule in her house, and it was this I don't care what you do between 8 and 3:30, just don't come home.
SPEAKER_00: Mind you, school hours was vacation.
SPEAKER_00: She just raised 18 kids.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: No one in my family finished high school, nobody in my family went to college.
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't made to go to school.
SPEAKER_00: I went for two reasons.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, I got a free meal.
SPEAKER_00: I was on a hot lunch plan.
SPEAKER_00: I knew if I went to school that day, I would eat.
SPEAKER_00: I went to gym class.
SPEAKER_00: Red dodgeball print to the face.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the real dodgeballs?
SPEAKER_00: They got tickled me in my dodgeballs now.
SPEAKER_00: Kids be laughing.
SPEAKER_00: No, hit me again.
SPEAKER_00: My desk set next to the teachers.
SPEAKER_00: I was a kid that was suspended.
SPEAKER_00: I was the kid that was in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: I started game banging at 11 years old, and I was selling crack cocaine by the age of 14.
SPEAKER_00: I began to repeat the cycle in which I was in, because that's all I knew.
SPEAKER_00: By miracle, and I mean miracle, I made it out of the eighth grade.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how I did it.
SPEAKER_00: Didn't read a book, didn't do an ounce of homework.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: I would literally throw my books down and be outside 10, 11, 12, 1 o'clock in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: But my grandma, come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: My grandma was a hustler.
SPEAKER_00: My grandma died at 72 years old not having a driver's license.
SPEAKER_00: My grandmother was such a hustler, she would bum a ride off of you, and you would pay her gas money.
SPEAKER_00: My grandma can feed 15 people with$10.
SPEAKER_00: She walked to the school, met with the school board.
SPEAKER_00: I do not know what she said, but they let her brother walk.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: I made it to high school.
SPEAKER_00: By a miracle, my high school was 2,500 kids.
SPEAKER_00: I ended up being a four-year starter on the basketball team, and I was the man.
SPEAKER_00: No, free, I was the man.
SPEAKER_00: I could do whatever I wanted with whoever I wanted, however I wanted.
SPEAKER_00: I was turned about King Homecoming Cup prompt court.
SPEAKER_00: I was voted the most athletic out of my class.
SPEAKER_00: I was literally the most popular kid in my high school.
SPEAKER_00: But no one told me at the end of popularity was emptiness.
SPEAKER_00: Let me get 30 seconds to my high school students.
SPEAKER_00: Stop trying to please people you'll never see again.
SPEAKER_00: You kidding me?
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna impress people you would never see again.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna lose who you are for the sake of an opinion of another person.
SPEAKER_00: I would get high, my problems would change.
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't come off being drunk, none of my problems change.
SPEAKER_00: I was completely broken.
SPEAKER_00: I got recruited to play college basketball.
SPEAKER_00: Always wanted to leave Chicago.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, give her brother a scholarship to Alaska, send me to Africa, get me up out of here.
SPEAKER_00: I ended up scoring a 14 on my ACT.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you think can go to college with a 14?
SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand.
SPEAKER_00: You bet not raise your hand.
SPEAKER_00: You chilling with me at community college.
SPEAKER_00: Ain't nothing wrong with community college.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying, if you don't put in the work, you don't get the success.
SPEAKER_00: So I ended up taking a scholarship to a community college.
SPEAKER_00: I played one year of basketball there.
SPEAKER_00: And when I was 19 years old, I had an encounter that changed my life.
SPEAKER_00: I did not encounter religion, I encountered a person.
SPEAKER_00: And his name is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It came through my first cousin.
SPEAKER_00: He was the leader of a gang in our neighborhood.
SPEAKER_00: He had 300 people on his count.
SPEAKER_00: He meets this girl, walks her home.
SPEAKER_00: Her dad locks him in the living room, builds a relationship with him, and leads him to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I watched his life change.
SPEAKER_00: He set me down, told me the gospel, the greatest news ever given.
SPEAKER_00: I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior.
SPEAKER_00: It literally changed the entire trajectory of my life.
SPEAKER_00: I finished at that community college with an associate's degree, transferred to Olivet Nazarene University, got my bachelor's and master's degree.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the first in my family ever to attend college and get a college degree.
SPEAKER_00: I met my beautiful wife there.
SPEAKER_00: We'll be married 18 years, four kids.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: Some of y'all thinking really quick, what does this story have to do with me?
SPEAKER_00: We got two things in common.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, you gotta die to leave here.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta die to leave here.
SPEAKER_00: So the question is, how do you want to be remembered?
SPEAKER_00: People gonna talk about you at your funeral.
SPEAKER_00: What do you want them conversations to be?
SPEAKER_00: I am convinced with every fiber of my being that God has called you to leave a mark with your life.
SPEAKER_00: You are not here by accident.
SPEAKER_00: Everything God creates, He creates on purpose and for purpose.
SPEAKER_00: How many of y'all saw the sun this morning?
SPEAKER_00: It's still doing what God assigned it to do.
SPEAKER_00: Today.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you ate fruit this morning?
SPEAKER_00: You ate a word.
SPEAKER_00: As long as the earth remains, seed time harvest, cold in winter, summer and heat shall not cease.
SPEAKER_00: That's a promise.
SPEAKER_00: He says, You are made in his image.
SPEAKER_00: That word image means to take a photograph.
SPEAKER_00: God took a selfie and made you.
SPEAKER_00: You look like your daddy.
SPEAKER_00: None of those things are made in his image.
SPEAKER_00: You're made in his image, which means God has an assignment for your life.
SPEAKER_00: You've been designed and born for such a time as this.
SPEAKER_00: The question is, what are you gonna do with it?
SPEAKER_00: The tragedy of life and death isn't dying, it's going past cemeteries and thinking of all the businessmen, CEOs, pastors, preachers, leaders, men and women dying and not living up to their God-given potential.
SPEAKER_00: The wealthiest place on the planet is not the oil you feels in the Middle East, it's in cemeteries around the world.
SPEAKER_00: Untapped potential.
SPEAKER_00: Because you allow life to do to you instead of you doing to life.
SPEAKER_00: Second thing we got in common, we all born sinners.
SPEAKER_00: You come that way.
SPEAKER_00: It ain't your mama's fault, daddy's fault, greasy, greasy grandpa.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, you are born a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: Adam jacked us up.
SPEAKER_00: It's all Adam's fault.
SPEAKER_00: Can't wait to get to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: I can wait, but you know I'm singing.
SPEAKER_00: Ain't in no rush.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm a beeliner for Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: Got a couple questions for that brother.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, you already know I got questions for David.
SPEAKER_00: Bro, what were you thinking, dog?
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: Of course I can't wait to see Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Like Jesus is gonna be like Lamorse, you need to go do something else, bro.
SPEAKER_00: I got too much.
SPEAKER_00: Get away from me, bro.
SPEAKER_00: But one of the first people I'm beelining it for is Adam.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be like, bruh, you realize you plummeted the entire human race?
SPEAKER_00: What were you thinking of?
SPEAKER_00: Adam's one decision put the seed of rebellion and sin in every human born.
SPEAKER_00: If I take two five-year-olds, put one marshmallow in the middle, how many of y'all know it's gonna be a problem?
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to teach a child of sin, it's in them.
SPEAKER_00: Your job as a parent is to hone it until they can give their life to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So sin is in man.
SPEAKER_00: That sin separated us from the holy God.
SPEAKER_00: See, God's desire was to dwell with us, to hang with us.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 1 and 2 is awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 3 jacked everything up.
SPEAKER_00: But God loved you so much that he wasn't willing to let you alone.
SPEAKER_00: So he said, You know what?
SPEAKER_00: I'm coming, Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_00: God came himself to die for you in the person of the Son, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And it's when you allow him to enter your heart, it puts you back in fellowship with God.
SPEAKER_00: It ain't nothing you can do, it ain't what you wear, it's what he wore, your sins.
SPEAKER_00: It's quiet in here.
SPEAKER_00: So until you meet the one who created you, you can't be on purpose for what he designed you to do.
SPEAKER_00: I see it every day.
SPEAKER_00: People with millions of dollars with no purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Every day.
SPEAKER_00: My wife and I have been working with pro athletes for almost 20 years.
SPEAKER_00: We have the privilege today of serving as a team chaplain to the Carolina Panthers.
SPEAKER_00: We were with the Bengals for eight seasons.
SPEAKER_00: So we've been seeing millions of dollars and people with no purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Because you can't have purpose until you connect to the one who gave it.
SPEAKER_00: And that's through humility.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is real.
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to find out later.
SPEAKER_00: If you die in your sin, you go where sin goes.
SPEAKER_00: You die in him, you go where he goes.
SPEAKER_00: The title of my message this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: Stop robbing people.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the premise of my message there's something that God has put in you to do on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And when you do not live it out, you rob people of what God wants to get to them.
SPEAKER_00: Whenever God wants to get something in the earth, he does it through people.
SPEAKER_00: So when you don't live out what God has destined and purposed you to do, you rob the world of what God wants to get to it.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna talk about Elijah for my next 12 minutes.
SPEAKER_00: That brother was fearless.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that?
SPEAKER_00: Remember he spoke to the heavens and they shut up for rain for three years?
SPEAKER_00: That brother prayed and it didn't rain for three years.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the power of God came down on Mount Carmel, killing 450 prophets?
SPEAKER_00: That brother living out his purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Remember he gave the woman an unlimited debit card to Walmart.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that?
SPEAKER_00: Remember he raised a boy from the dead?
SPEAKER_00: That brother is doing what God has called him to do.
SPEAKER_00: Remember then he prayed again, and it rained after three years.
SPEAKER_00: Giving glory to God by giving God his gift.
SPEAKER_00: And remember when it rained, our brother outran the chariot.
SPEAKER_00: Read your Bible.
SPEAKER_00: This was before Marvel.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: Flash couldn't touch Elijah.
SPEAKER_00: But then he received a message.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you ever received a message that changed your life?
SPEAKER_00: Where I grew up, if you got a phone call at 2, 3 in the morning, you know it was trouble.
SPEAKER_00: He received a message from a woman named Jezebel.
SPEAKER_00: In 1 Kings 19, the scripture says this.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jezebel sent a message to Elijah saying, So let the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life of one of the prophets, the prophets you killed, I'm gonna kill you.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says he ran from a woman.
SPEAKER_00: Don't disrespect ladies.
SPEAKER_00: He just called fire to kill 450 people.
SPEAKER_00: He hears a here's a hears a message, and he runs.
SPEAKER_00: So let's pick up the story.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Kings 19, starting at verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: So he arose and ate and drank, and he ran and he ran in the strength of that food 40 days and 40 nights.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, keep going, Lamorsa.
SPEAKER_00: King Paul's 40 is the number of testing.
SPEAKER_00: Did God tell him to run?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, come on.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all looking at me like I'm crazy.
SPEAKER_00: It says, He ran as far as Horeb, the mountain of God, and there he went into a cave and spent the night in that place.
SPEAKER_00: And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, What are you doing here, Elijah?
SPEAKER_00: So he said, I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel have torn, have broken your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword.
SPEAKER_00: I alone am left, and they seek to take my life.
SPEAKER_00: Then he said, Go out, stand on the mountain before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind torn to the mountains and broke the rocks and pace put in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.
SPEAKER_00: And after the wind, an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.
SPEAKER_00: And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.
SPEAKER_00: And after the fire, a still small voice.
SPEAKER_00: So it was when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave.
SPEAKER_00: Suddenly a voice came to him and said, What are you doing here, Elijah?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts, because the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword.
SPEAKER_00: I alone am left, and they seek to take my life.
SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord said to him, Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you have arrived, anoint Hazel as king of Assyria, and you shall anoint Jehu, the son of Nimshe as king of Israel, and Elijah, the son of Shaphat of Abel Moholah, you shall anoint as prophet in your place.
SPEAKER_00: Woo! Isn't it amazing?
SPEAKER_00: We get anxious when we read a lot of scriptures because of the real generation.
SPEAKER_00: You feel like you can even come to church and read the Bible because we're so used to 30-second commercials.
SPEAKER_00: We don't serve 30-second God.
SPEAKER_00: God does not microwave things, he bakes them.
SPEAKER_00: Let's get into the text.
SPEAKER_00: Here he is, Elijah, the prophet, the man of God, living out his gift and purpose.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says he was on a mountaintop of Carmel and he ran into the cave.
SPEAKER_00: How do you end up on a mountaintop but in a cave?
SPEAKER_00: Number one, give no space to fear.
SPEAKER_00: He heard a word, and fear gripped his heart.
SPEAKER_00: See what you allow in you determines what develops in you.
SPEAKER_00: She didn't send a troop of soldiers, she sent didn't send 10,000 men, she sent a word.
SPEAKER_00: See what you hear matters.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that faith comes by.
SPEAKER_00: Fear and faith is of the same substance.
SPEAKER_00: It depends on where you sow it.
SPEAKER_00: You can faith is stupid.
SPEAKER_00: You know how much faith it takes to believe you're gonna get away with robbing a bank?
SPEAKER_01: That's a lot of faith.
SPEAKER_00: You think you're gonna run up in here, blah blah blah bling, and run out with cash?
SPEAKER_00: That's faith.
SPEAKER_00: You can faith stupid.
SPEAKER_00: You can faith thinking you can change somebody in your marriage.
SPEAKER_00: That's a lot of faith.
SPEAKER_00: If God can't change them, what makes you think you can?
SPEAKER_00: God Almighty.
SPEAKER_00: You know the Bible says God blew a nostril and split the red T?
SPEAKER_00: God blew a booger.
SPEAKER_00: You think that God who named two trillion galaxies.
SPEAKER_00: Every star by name can't change somebody, but you can.
SPEAKER_00: This brother ran on his own accord from a mountaintop to a cave because of fear.
SPEAKER_00: What is fear?
SPEAKER_00: Here's my acronym F-E-A-R.
SPEAKER_00: False evidence appearing real.
SPEAKER_00: Any CSI people?
SPEAKER_00: I was watching the CSI episode one time.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta hurry up.
SPEAKER_00: And this professor, he was a he had a double doctorate degree and whatever, but he was crazy, killing people.
SPEAKER_00: So he would kill somebody and mix up all the evidence, and then the CSI people will come in, look through the evidence, and go on the trail.
SPEAKER_00: They'll be going to the west side.
SPEAKER_00: This brother already on the east side.
SPEAKER_00: He was planting false evidence, and that's exactly what Satan has done in many lives in his room.
SPEAKER_00: He's told you you're not good enough, not smart enough.
SPEAKER_00: You remember what happened yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: You know where you come from, you know your last name.
SPEAKER_00: Look at your lineage.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know that even look in the mirror and don't see yourself the way God sees you is a seed of the enemy?
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to look at Instagram and compare yourself.
SPEAKER_00: You ain't got to do what other people doing.
SPEAKER_00: No, the Bible says you are fearfully and wonderfully made.
SPEAKER_00: That's real evidence.
SPEAKER_00: Then he says, How marvelous are your works?
SPEAKER_00: That means you are a marvelous work.
SPEAKER_00: You know the sun ain't complaining about shining.
SPEAKER_00: The sun that look at the moon and be like, bro, I'm too hot.
SPEAKER_00: So why would the image bearer do it?
SPEAKER_00: No, here's Elijah in a cave, hiding because of fear.
SPEAKER_00: Does fear have you bound from stepping out in faith to do what God has called you to do?
SPEAKER_00: Don't look to the right, don't look to the left, don't look down, look up.
SPEAKER_00: Then the scripture says he went into a cave and spent the night there.
SPEAKER_00: And behold, the word of the Lord came to him and said to him, What are you doing here?
SPEAKER_00: God asked him, Bruh, why are you still in this cave?
SPEAKER_00: I need you to go do what I called you to do.
SPEAKER_00: He's so bound by fear he can't hear the voice.
SPEAKER_00: See, we can't hear God when fear is ruling our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says, without faith, it's impossible to please God.
SPEAKER_00: So if faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, what are you putting in you?
SPEAKER_00: You got to be reading your Bible, praying, worshiping.
SPEAKER_00: You got to come to church ready to receive.
SPEAKER_00: You just can't come here.
SPEAKER_00: Some of y'all sit in the same seat every Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: Same seat.
SPEAKER_00: And get offended if somebody there when you get there.
SPEAKER_00: Offended.
SPEAKER_00: That ain't even your seat.
SPEAKER_00: You're in the seat of a visitor.
SPEAKER_00: You're in the seat of a prostitute.
SPEAKER_00: You're in the seat of a drug dealer.
SPEAKER_00: You're in the seat of a broken marriage.
SPEAKER_00: People need those seats.
SPEAKER_00: Could it be that your gift is to get your butt up?
SPEAKER_00: I can't believe he's talking to us like that.
SPEAKER_00: I just.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta know your audience, man.
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing here, Elijah?
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing here?
SPEAKER_00: Why are you still here, son?
SPEAKER_00: Follow my note takers, number two.
SPEAKER_00: You must ask yourself the question, what am I doing here?
SPEAKER_00: What am I doing here?
SPEAKER_00: God asked him this question two times, verse 9 and 13.
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing here?
SPEAKER_00: Do you know the heart attack rate increases by 35% on Monday mornings because people go to jobs that they hate?
SPEAKER_00: They show up to work and their hearts attack them.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us are in jobs because our dad was in the plant.
SPEAKER_00: Our granddad was in the plant.
SPEAKER_00: No, what has God called you to do?
SPEAKER_00: What cave are you in?
SPEAKER_00: We love our caves.
SPEAKER_00: You love video games in our caves.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: We love gossiping in our caves, posting on Facebook in our caves.
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing there?
SPEAKER_00: Get out the cave.
SPEAKER_00: There are seasons of life that you do what you have to do, but then the season comes when you do what you're called to do.
SPEAKER_00: And when you are doing what God has called you to do, that's when you're really alive.
SPEAKER_00: You live in purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: From a mountaintop to a cave.
SPEAKER_00: You're not here simply to exist, you are here to live.
SPEAKER_00: God didn't call you to fit in, called you to stand out.
SPEAKER_00: Six and a half billion people on the planet, not one of us have the same set of fingerprints.
SPEAKER_00: Not even identical twins have the same set of fingerprints.
SPEAKER_00: Why are you trying to be like everybody else?
SPEAKER_00: You're so unique, there'll never be another you.
SPEAKER_00: Right now, that you're gonna live out your purpose to get in God's will for your life.
SPEAKER_00: Not my will, but your will be done.
SPEAKER_00: On earth, as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: There's a will for you that's already written.
SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna jump in the story?
SPEAKER_00: I'm the last person that should be telling you this.
SPEAKER_00: My mother was a teenage prostitute.
SPEAKER_00: For 20 years of my life, I thought I was an accident.
SPEAKER_00: You kidding me?
SPEAKER_00: See, this has to be a revelation in you.
SPEAKER_00: You have to be fully convinced.
SPEAKER_00: I found one verse that changed my life.
SPEAKER_00: I formed you in your mother's womb.
SPEAKER_00: See, it does not matter how you start in life, it only matters how you finish.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you, because of your age, are on retirement, you didn't tapped out.
SPEAKER_00: That's boring.
SPEAKER_00: If you got breath in your lungs, there's still something for you to do.
SPEAKER_00: You dying a slow death.
SPEAKER_00: Get alive, do something, mentor, pour out, serve.
SPEAKER_00: Do something.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna die empty.
SPEAKER_00: I ain't taking nothing with me.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: Every book, idea, sermon.
SPEAKER_00: You can't take it.
SPEAKER_00: Let it go.
SPEAKER_00: This is amazing to me.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says God sent, listen to this, a strong wind.
SPEAKER_00: I'm from the projects be, let a tornado come.
SPEAKER_00: I'm out of here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna grab my kids and my family, bless them all, y'all.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gone.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says an earthquake.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says fire be.
SPEAKER_00: We grabbing all the babies and we out.
SPEAKER_01: A fire!
SPEAKER_00: Brother, ain't move.
SPEAKER_00: You don't think fear paralyzes you?
SPEAKER_00: See, it's different from having fear and having a spirit of fear.
SPEAKER_00: See, if you get in a car accident, your heart gonna be racing, right?
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be sick and palm sweaty.
SPEAKER_00: That's fear.
SPEAKER_00: The spirit of fear will tell you to never drive again.
SPEAKER_00: See, the spirit of fear paralyzes.
SPEAKER_00: This brother paralyzed.
SPEAKER_00: And let me help you theologically.
SPEAKER_00: This is annoying to me.
SPEAKER_00: For years I heard this text.
SPEAKER_00: He heard a still small voice.
SPEAKER_00: Brother ain't hear no voice.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: If you ain't running from an earthquake, a tornado, and fire, you ain't hear no voice.
SPEAKER_00: They put it in the text.
SPEAKER_00: Research it.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because silence is loud.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all missing it.
SPEAKER_00: Get up.
SPEAKER_00: Listen.
SPEAKER_00: He thought God left.
SPEAKER_00: It's so quiet, he thought God left.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what God does.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this.
SPEAKER_00: This is amazing to me.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: So it was when Elijah heard it.
SPEAKER_00: Silence.
SPEAKER_00: It's quiet.
SPEAKER_00: Listen.
SPEAKER_00: He wrapped his face in the mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave.
SPEAKER_00: Suddenly a voice came and said, Elijah, what are you doing there?
SPEAKER_00: God stop you! You're talking about grace?
SPEAKER_00: Mercy?
SPEAKER_00: A third, fourth, fifth, sixth tenth.
SPEAKER_00: He fed them on the rug, protected them in the cave.
SPEAKER_00: But it's running out.
SPEAKER_00: It's quieter here.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, God has an agenda.
SPEAKER_00: If you ain't known the agenda, he'll find someone else who will.
SPEAKER_00: God ain't stopping because of your disobedience and stubbornness.
SPEAKER_00: It's a fear man.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want nobody to take my place.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, I will live this thing by faith, which is number three.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all my note takers.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta do it by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because God will rise up stones if you don't worship Him.
SPEAKER_00: A stone, B.
SPEAKER_00: A stone ain't got no soul.
SPEAKER_00: God, what is God saying in that text?
SPEAKER_00: I will get worship from my creation or from my created.
SPEAKER_00: There's no excuse for you not to worship.
SPEAKER_00: You got breath in your lungs.
SPEAKER_00: That's an offering.
SPEAKER_00: You don't need a tamarind, drum set, guitar.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: Your breath is an offering.
SPEAKER_00: Praise him.
SPEAKER_00: I don't got nothing to give, God.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you do.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, you can clap.
SPEAKER_00: You can wave.
SPEAKER_00: Got a wave offering, God.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, I got a clap offering.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't it amazing we put a demand on God for him to give us stuff, but we don't give him anything.
SPEAKER_00: Can't take advantage of God.
SPEAKER_00: Kidding?
SPEAKER_00: That's gonna happen on judgment day.
SPEAKER_00: People are gonna say, Well, I thought you loved everybody.
SPEAKER_00: God's gonna say, I do.
SPEAKER_00: I do love everybody.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I prove my love.
SPEAKER_00: I gave you my most prized possession to die for your sins.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, you can't take advantage of God's love.
SPEAKER_00: God ain't no sucker.
SPEAKER_00: He's pure justice.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna give you what to do.
SPEAKER_00: In film, don't lie.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, my athletes in the room.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: Bro, I seen a coach rewind a special teams play 10 times in a row.
SPEAKER_00: Dude was making excuses in the meeting room, bro.
SPEAKER_00: No, well, I ain't come off the shed.
SPEAKER_00: The block.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you did it?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I I start cringing.
SPEAKER_00: You know that's gonna happen when you stand before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna replay your life.
SPEAKER_00: No excuses.
SPEAKER_00: But if you found in him, he edits the film.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta walk by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Catch this.
SPEAKER_00: Elijah had to anoint someone in his place because he didn't fulfill God's assignment for his life.
SPEAKER_00: God is waiting on you.
SPEAKER_00: God has called you.
SPEAKER_00: God has equipped you.
SPEAKER_00: He's anointed you.
SPEAKER_00: He has gifted you.
SPEAKER_00: And the whole point of having a gift is to give it away.
SPEAKER_00: So don't let circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: Well, how are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: Under the circumstances, what are you doing under there?
SPEAKER_00: Get from under your circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: You are the head and not the tail.
SPEAKER_00: You're above and not beneath.
SPEAKER_00: Greater is he that lives in you than he that's in the world.
SPEAKER_00: The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you.
SPEAKER_00: He don't visit, he lives.
SPEAKER_00: That's power.
SPEAKER_00: But fear and faith can't reside.
SPEAKER_00: You either give one leadership or the other.
SPEAKER_00: Every day you wake up, you get to hope.
SPEAKER_00: That's from God.
SPEAKER_00: Why is it so quiet in here?
SPEAKER_00: Last verse, I'm done.
SPEAKER_00: Gotta get to lunch.
SPEAKER_00: The lines are getting long.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this text, Hebrews 11, 6.
SPEAKER_00: But without faith, it is impossible to please him.
SPEAKER_00: For he who comes to God, he who comes to God, there's a prerequisite for the blessing.
SPEAKER_00: He who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligent gently seek him.
SPEAKER_00: So you gotta come.
SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know Jesus died by faith?
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever thought about this?
SPEAKER_00: He never died before.
SPEAKER_00: He died by faith with every reason to stop in between.
SPEAKER_00: We talking about Easter's coming?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus making it to the cross was not a tragedy, it was an accomplishment.
SPEAKER_00: He actually made it.
SPEAKER_00: That's the miracle.
SPEAKER_00: From Genesis 3 to Calvary?
SPEAKER_00: He made it.
SPEAKER_00: As soon as God declared the end from the beginning, he said, There will be enmity between my seed and your seed.
SPEAKER_00: He will crush your head and you will bruise this heel.
SPEAKER_00: It gave Satan a target.
SPEAKER_00: So every time babies came, he tried to abort them.
SPEAKER_00: It's quiet in here.
SPEAKER_00: Satan was winning from Genesis 3 to Genesis 6.
SPEAKER_00: You think this brother is about to win?
SPEAKER_00: He corrupted the entire human race to eight people.
SPEAKER_00: And God built an ark.
SPEAKER_00: He put the seed in the ark with one door.
SPEAKER_00: I am the door.
SPEAKER_00: It's quiet in here.
SPEAKER_00: The ark was a pitch of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: He saved them from destruction in the boat, in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's quiet in here.
SPEAKER_00: Easter here that's coming was an accomplishment.
SPEAKER_00: He made it through the boat.
SPEAKER_00: The boat wins.
SPEAKER_00: We get to Genesis 12.
SPEAKER_00: He calls this dude named Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: Leave your family and your country.
SPEAKER_00: The brother left.
SPEAKER_00: The seeds in Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: He paused at Hagar.
SPEAKER_00: Wow, the enemy always wants a duplicate.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta know what's real.
SPEAKER_00: God said, No, no, no, that ain't the promise.
SPEAKER_00: I got seed in you.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 22 comes, he says, take your son, your only son.
SPEAKER_00: The first time we see love in the Bible has to do with the father sacrificing the son.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the seed walking up the hill on the mountain of God that's 777 feet.
SPEAKER_00: Please stop it! You can't make this up.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody that raises the blade, God said, stop.
SPEAKER_00: Now I know.
SPEAKER_00: When does God know your faith when you live it?
SPEAKER_00: You can talk to everybody you want to.
SPEAKER_00: Your feet gotta match what you believe.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta hurry up.
SPEAKER_00: The seed is there.
SPEAKER_00: He raises, God said, stop.
SPEAKER_00: Now I know.
SPEAKER_00: Look, there's a ram.
SPEAKER_00: A ram.
SPEAKER_00: A ram caught in a thicket.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't a lamb because he was coming.
SPEAKER_00: Easter's coming.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't a tragedy, it was an accomplishment.
SPEAKER_00: He actually made it.
SPEAKER_00: Then Joseph got the dream.
SPEAKER_00: His family beats him and throws him in the hole.
SPEAKER_00: The children of Israel beat Jesus and threw him on a cross.
SPEAKER_00: It's quiet in here.
SPEAKER_00: Easter's coming.
SPEAKER_00: The brother did not curse God.
SPEAKER_00: He endured a pit, Potiphar's house, a palace to vice president.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: You can't stop seed.
SPEAKER_00: Easter's coming.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible put the children of Israel in slavery for 400 years to protect the seed.
SPEAKER_00: See some things in your life that you think it's hard.
SPEAKER_00: God is trying to nurture something in you.
SPEAKER_00: So then he sends a deliverer, a shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: It's quiet in him.
SPEAKER_00: The seed leaves, walks on dry ground between water.
SPEAKER_00: It's a picture of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Easter's coming.
SPEAKER_00: It's quiet in here.
SPEAKER_00: Then we get the judges.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna skip the judges.
SPEAKER_00: We get roof.
SPEAKER_00: Here it is.
SPEAKER_00: A woman who is not of the seed.
SPEAKER_00: You know why racism sucks?
SPEAKER_00: Because God has never given man permission to demean his image.
SPEAKER_00: God put a non-Jewish woman in the lineage of our king.
SPEAKER_00: Naomi taught Ruth the ways.
SPEAKER_00: She meets Boaz, who was the kinsman redeemer, next of kin.
SPEAKER_00: In order for her to be grafted in, she needed a next of kin.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the son of man, our next of kin.
SPEAKER_00: He's our kinsman redeemer.
SPEAKER_00: It's quiet here.
SPEAKER_00: Ruth and Boaz, great-great-grandson, is a shepherd boy named David.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the seed facing a giant.
SPEAKER_00: There are no giants in your life you can't face.
SPEAKER_00: Not one.
SPEAKER_00: I'm done.
SPEAKER_00: Easter's coming.
SPEAKER_00: What are you gonna do with it?
SPEAKER_00: If God went through all those lengths to get you salvation, there's no reason for you to quit.
SPEAKER_00: There's no giving in, there's no throwing in a towel.
SPEAKER_00: What God has for you and a destiny that call he has in your life, you fight for it.
SPEAKER_00: You don't quit.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus fought to make it to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't easy.
SPEAKER_00: He was fully man and fully God.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says he opened out his mouth.
SPEAKER_00: He was led like a lamb to the slaughter for you.
SPEAKER_00: He endured, beaten, bruised, abandoned.
SPEAKER_00: God turned his back on his son so he can look at you.
SPEAKER_00: He put sins on his son so you could be righteous.
SPEAKER_00: What are you gonna do with it?
SPEAKER_00: See, all of humanity would be judged by one moment in history.
SPEAKER_00: One moment in all of history that happened on Calvary 2,000 years ago.
SPEAKER_00: One moment.
SPEAKER_00: Could this be your moment?
SPEAKER_00: How are you gonna respond to Easter coming?
SPEAKER_00: How are you gonna respond to live out your God-given call, purpose, and destiny?
SPEAKER_00: How are you gonna respond?
SPEAKER_00: That's when you're not God.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_00: I know we're over a little bit, but y'all stay for overtime games a whole bunch of times.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all done been watched a series.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're gonna do.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna open the altars this morning.
SPEAKER_00: If the Holy Spirit is nudging you, I'm talking to you.
SPEAKER_00: If your feet feel like cement, your heart beating out your chest, that might be God said, and you need to respond.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, however, it is, you need to do something by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Might be you come into the altar praying.
SPEAKER_00: If you're scared to come by yourself, grab a friend.
SPEAKER_00: We're in this together.
SPEAKER_00: There's no judgment in this house.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, all of us should be up here.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you need to make a decision for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Like for real.
SPEAKER_00: Like, stop playing.
SPEAKER_00: God don't do one foot out, one foot in.
SPEAKER_00: No, there's no gray in the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: It's black and white.
SPEAKER_00: You in or you out.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: Only Satan builds fences.
SPEAKER_00: No, God built kingdoms.
SPEAKER_00: Get off the fence.
SPEAKER_00: Get in the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: That's on you, not God.
SPEAKER_00: So they're gonna do a song, I'm assuming.
SPEAKER_00: As they sing, just respond.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Just respond to the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna try and convince you.
SPEAKER_00: Not my job.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going home after this.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, thank you for your ever-increasing love for us.
SPEAKER_00: I just sense your love.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that yes, we haven't done everything right all the time.
SPEAKER_00: But I thank you that you've been there with us all of the time.
SPEAKER_00: So, Lord, as your people respond to you.
SPEAKER_00: May they just feel your presence and feel your touches.
SPEAKER_00: We worship you with this song.
SPEAKER_00: May you be honored with our praise.
SPEAKER_00: So Lord, we just glorify you.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you for anyone that's out of assignment, Lord, when you just nudge them to get back in.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever it might be, they might have to do it by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Start a business, quit a job, get another job, break off a relationship that ain't good for them.
SPEAKER_00: Say I'm sorry in their marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever it might be, Lord, will you just lead them, guide them just to get in assignment?
SPEAKER_00: So be with your people, I pray.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.