BROTHER 2 BROTHER (Ep 2)

Navigating the pits, potholes and problems that are encountered on the path of success require DIVINE WISDOM! This episode helps those who are willing to further equip themselves to be victorious. 

"IT IS FINISHED "

JOHN 19:30

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Praise the Lord, everybody, on today. Minister Anthony Bonner here of Truth Turnt Up Ministries coming to you on the podcast The Gospel, The Game, and the Glory with another Brother to Brother episode. Brother to Brother is a platform where one brother comes to another brother who's a former NBA basketball player slash professional athlete speaking out to other professional athletes, whether it be uh professional athletes, excuse me, whether it be uh athletes that play professional basketball, baseball, football, hockey, track, boxing, lacrosse, soccer, it really does not matter. Our professions may be different, but the attacks of the enemy are exactly the same. He comes to steal, kill, and destroy. And we need to identify that and be better equipped as we enter this small circle, this small fraternity that God has blessed so few men to enter in, excel at, and escape whole. Hallelujah. Because it's all about being whole, my brothers and sisters. It's about uh fulfilling your potential holistically. That's physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, relationally, financially, and coming out of this experience, uh not broken, not destroyed, not upside down. Because being a professional athlete and everything that goes along with it, the emotional stress and trauma and pressure uh and sin, uh uh freely available sin, widely known sin, that's accepted, perpetuated, and encouraged in that environment will destroy a man. But yet, that same God who allowed you to be in that circle, in that atmosphere, did not put you there to be destroyed. He put you there to be a representative of the kingdom of God, to be a reflection of his goodness, of his light, of his love, and of purpose. And we can only do that as we embed ourselves in a relationship with him and embed his word upon our hearts and our minds and our spirits so that we're shielded and that we can successfully navigate the steps that God has allowed us to take in that circle. Whether we're just normal NBA players like I was for six years, whether we're uh all-stars, whether we're uh NBA champions, whether we're Olympians, whether you're sixth man of the year, whatever your role is, you still have an amazing platform. There are many eyes on you, there are many who envy you, who imitate you, who admire you. And now we have to ask ourselves, what are we gonna do with it? How are we gonna use it to its greatest benefit to glorify our Lord, our Savior, our King, who gave me the gift. I did not give myself the gift. We cannot fool ourselves into thinking we're something special with something we did not do. In the Bible, it asks a very profound question. It says, uh, hold on one second. Let me adjust my volume here. Yeah, amen. Back now. I was adjusting my volume, pardon that interruption. But yeah, I mean, there's nothing about us that uh is of us. Uh God even puts us on notice through the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 4 and 7. He poses a very profound question which none of us considers, uh, but is very real. We think we're special because the world tells us we're special, and we are special because we're specially made for God's glory. We're not special because we play in the NBA, we're not special because we have gifts that the average man doesn't have. We're special because we have a special father, a special creator. That's the end of my specialness, and I only operate that with humility and uh uh according to my uh connection to him and my transformation into thinking, living, and moving and acting like him. Now I become really, really special because I'm back in the place for which I was created to activate and experience the fullness of that uniqueness God has bestowed upon me. The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 4 and 7 says, For who maketh thee too different from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now, if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadest not received it? I'm gonna read that again because that's very profound, brothers. This is your brother talking to all my brothers out there in the land. What's different about you is nothing you have done. It's nothing your high school coach has done, your university has done, or the NBA has done. Yes, you've worked on your skills and you get some credit for that. But in your work, all you've done is shown yourself to be a faithful and a good steward over the gifts God has given you. And because of your faithfulness, you allow God to open another door for you. There are plenty of examples that we can look at, brothers who had uh equal gifts to yourself or even superior gifts, but they were not good stewards over their gifts. They did not make good decisions educationally, flunked out. Maybe you had to go to a lesser school, lesser school, and gave up some of the uh some of the shine they would get at another school. Maybe they made a bad choice in a relationship, uh, got a girl pregnant or got caught up in domestic abuse or some other bad decision on campus. The DWI got kicked out of school. Hallelujah. Maybe they just didn't work hard enough. And that closed some doors or limited some opportunities, or maybe even they just weren't good enough, or they could have gotten injured. There's so many other things that happen along the way which are not in our control, but because of God's grace, because of his mercy, because of his plan for our lives, we're able to go on and experience something that really was beyond anything we can ask, think, or imagine, but it was all God's plan. And we need to know that. You know, we listened to that rap song by Drake, which I've heard several times, and I think it's amazing that he would come out and talk about God's plan. But the Bible says that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. God made Drake make that song. God wrote that on his heart. Snoop Dogg has made some gospel songs or some uh records representing God. Tupac Shakur made some very profound songs. Uh, even the song Biggie Smalls made, Ready to Die, the album. Those are profound things that are written on our spirit that God allows us to bring forth in the world through creativity, which ultimately glorify him. Because the Bible again says a man can receive nothing except it's given to him from above. The Bible tells us that God has created all things for his pleasure, yes, even the wicked for the day of evil. All of it is God's. The whole field serves God the good, the bad, the ugly, the politician, the professional basketball player, the baker, the trash man, the fisherman, the astronaut, the mechanic, the nurse, hallelujah, the lawyer. It goes on and on and on and on. Everything is God's. You are God's, my brother. You are God's property, and he has need of you. And he wants to invite you in partnership with him to be agents of change in yourselves, in your immediate families, in your larger families at large, your brothers and sisters, and mother and fathers and cousins, in your basketball teams, in your communities, in your foundations, in your cities, and ultimately in the world, because he's giving you that type of platform. The Bible says to whom much is given, much is required. There's much required of you, brothers. It's great that you can write checks or have Thanksgiving giveaways and Christmas drives and toys for kids. That is amazing. Now let's take it to another level. Let's do that and the most important thing. Let's do what Romans 12 says. And as your brother, I'm going to help walk you through a lot of this stuff as we develop this relationship and understand what it is God is saying. Because the Bible says, in all thy getting, get an understanding. If we don't understand what God is demanding of us or asking of us, or we're not clear on the steps that are required to be taken to experience the fullness of what it is he wants to do in us, to us, and through us, then we miss it. And as we miss it, the people that are assigned to us to influence, to help empower, to help lift up, to get into this high place of being connected to God through Christ Jesus and walking in purpose, then we've missed the purpose. Hallelujah. And we don't want to miss the purpose. Because the purpose is too great. We all have a short, fixed time to live on this earth. And in that fixed time, there are things we've been assigned to do. There are things that must be done. There are things that only we can do. Hallelujah. Because God is all powerful and he's omnipotent. He'll get them done. Yeah, he can use someone else to get them done. But this is about you. When you, you and I, when we transition and we stand before him on that great and fateful day that we're promoted to be back into his presence. We're gonna have to give an account of the lives and the gifts that he's given us to steward. How do we use it? It's like the parable of the three servants. The one had one talent, the one had uh uh uh three talents, and the other one had five talents, right? Like, do you bury the talents in the ground? Or do you maximize those talents? How do you use them and you steward them? Do you increase it? And I'm not talking about just financially. You know, we're talking more the intangible, unseen gifts that God has given us: the love, the joy, the peace, the kindness, the long-suffering, hallelujah, those fruits of the Spirit. But then also the wisdom, the understanding, then also the spiritual in-depthness of God's divine doctrine called the Bible. How we can apply that to our lives and become these new creatures who are the light of the world, who can walk through a neighborhood and simply bless it because the deeper we're in, the more that comes out of us. Just simply showing up illuminates the room. Just you can shake someone's hand and impart power and virtue into them and begin a healing process that you writing a $250,000 check can't do. See, we're talking about being prepared for the greatest good, the greater good, having two options, but yet always choosing to do the greater option, which will bring the greater good to the kingdom of God. Because you're God's servant, you're God's property, you're God's man, you're God's professional athlete. Yeah, you work for a professional basketball team and an owner who uses it as one of his businesses. But ultimately, the Bible tells you, let everything you do do it as you're doing it unto the Lord. What you do, you play basketball for God. For Jesus Christ in particular, his son, who's your Lord and your savior, who died on the cross for you to have the opportunity to play professional basketball, to earn the living you're earning, to live in the house you live in, to drive the cars you live in, have the freedom that you live in in the United States. God could have had you born in the Ukraine. You could have been born in Italy or Africa or Colombia or one of the other third near third world nations where basketball is not even celebrated and you operate in obscurity. Hallelujah. And it's like a needle in a haystack. We have to give God thanks. It says, in everything give thanks. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. In everything, give thanks. In everything give thanks. I want you to get that because you got to mature to this point where in everything we're giving God thanks. The bad decisions, the good decisions, the so-so decisions, because we understand when we're in position in God, which is in a relationship with Christ Jesus, that God can make everything work together for our good. But even when we make those bad decisions, brother, we can't stand there and go, oh well, God's gonna fix it. No, we have to repent. We have to seek God's forgiveness. And then we have to get back in line and grow in the grace and knowledge of God and not do it again. We can't keep making the same mistakes. The Bible says that when I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, and I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. God wants you to put away the childish things. You know you shouldn't be cheating on your wife. Come on, stop it. You know you shouldn't be sleeping with four or five women. Yeah, you want to be a father, but you know the proper order is not to have children out of wedlock. Maybe you come out of a situation where your dad wasn't around or not around consistently. You know how that feels and how that felt. Why would you want to put another child in that situation? You know what it feels like that women are emotional, that they are the help meet of men, that they were not created to operate in a dual role as a mother and a father, a caregiver and a nurturer. Why put her in that position and you know you're not gonna marry her? These are all decisions that we have to consider before we get caught up in the lustful act of sex or relationships that are not in line with God's great purpose of advancing his kingdom and his family, that are for the greater good or toward the greater destruction of our community and the plan God has for your life. I used to tell kids, African-American kids, that I taught in my school, you're either part of the solution or you're part of further uh spreading the def the dysfunction that happens in our communities. There's great dysfunction in our communities. But people of stature and influence like yourself, my brothers, can start a new wave of understanding, of acceptability of divine order, because when they hear you living it, encouraging it, and talking about it, then it becomes real. Because you're not a preacher, even though you are a minister of reconciliation. The Bible says once you believe in Jesus Christ, your job is no different than the one who accepts the calling of ministry upon his life and becomes a pastor or a preacher because you're preaching reconciliation, which means reconnection to God, coming back into divine order with God, laying down your life and walking with God, picking up your cross to be like God. Hallelujah. When we do that, then God renews our mind and we begin to make God like choices, godlions, receiving God like consequences, which is harmony, which is peace, which is order, which is righteousness, which is divine structure. We begin to put the enemy at bay so the strong man can no longer come into our house, our houses, and affect our homes and the atmosphere. Our children will no longer get sick, our wives will have the joy that they so truly deserve. Our finances will be right, our visions will be uh unlimited because we're so connected to God and we want to do his will that God is going to entrust upon us to do amazing things because God wants to establish the kingdom of heaven in earth, he wants to replace this kingdom of darkness with the kingdom of light, but he needs bold soldiers to do it, and the only way the soldiers can do that is Romans 12, 1 and 2, when he says, I beseech you therefore, brethren. God is saying, I beg you. Through the apostle Paul, I beg you. I'm imploring you, I'm giving I'm diligently urging you. Yes, I'm prompting you. He says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, cause you brothers. Like I'm calling you brother, brother to brother, by the mercies of God, that you present your body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Your body can't be holy if you're full of profanity. If every word that comes out of your mouth is profane or every other word, and you're talking like that just because you're around your homeboys and your teammates, but you know you can't talk like that around your mother, you can't talk like that around your wife or your children, or let me rephrase that, you should not. You can do whatever you choose to do and reap the consequences for it. But a real gentleman, a real man of God, a real man of substance, a real man of purpose, constrains his language, and he is appropriate at all times. He is appropriate because he's appropriately positioned in Christ Jesus to be a new creation. He begins to walk in and seek what it means to be a living sacrifice, to present your body a living sacrifice, and then to get to understanding of what it means to actually fulfill the duty and the calling of being a living sacrifice. We all know what a sacrifice is. You sacrifice money and give it away. You sacrifice time for charity, you sacrifice uh some of your relationships that had to go. A sacrifice takes a part of you, it allows you to decrease in some areas. But this sacrifice that the apostle Paul is talking to you about that Jesus Christ first uh was an example of second, was the sacrifice without spot or blemish so that you could be the fullness of who God created you to be. God is saying, I want you to emulate that. I want you to be a copycat of that. I want you to forget about your life and think about the life I have for you. Yeah, I know you think you're having fun. I know you think it's a ball, I know you think it'll never end. But son, this too shall pass. One day the ball is guaranteed to stop. Who are you gonna be when the ball stops? Why not walk in your purpose earlier? Imagine in the natural, if you had started playing in the NBA at 12 or 14, you would have had a longer career. No, you would not have been ready emotionally or physically. It is simply an example. But imagine you start walking with me right now at 19, 20, 25, 32, whatever you are, the sooner you begin walking in it, the longer you can enjoy all the privileges of being my son, of being my servant, of being my vessel, of being my living sacrifice, so that I can bestow my love upon you, so that I can bestow upon you profound wisdom and understanding, so that your speech, the speech of your tongue, will edify, uplift, empower, impart, encourage all that hear your message. And just like all of the other great men and women that I've used throughout time, when I've sent them forth to give a message, he said, think not what you're gonna say or what you're gonna do, because when you speak, it won't be you speaking, it will be my Holy Spirit freely flowing through you because you're now my vessel, you're a vessel of unmatched power. Hallelujah. All for your father's glory. I said it for you in the book of Isaiah, in the 43rd chapter in the seventh verse. It says, Even everyone that is called by my name, for I've created him for my glory, I've formed him, yea, I have made him. God talking to you, brothers, even everyone that is called by my name, called by his name is not necessarily being called a Christian. You can be a believer. You can be a Christian, but even in Christianity, you got to make sure you're doing it the kingdom's way and not the way Christianity has been shaped by the culture. Because Christianity has escape clauses where you don't have to become a living sacrifice. You can just be a church member on a row. You can simply go to Bible studies or men's fellowships. But when you are a living sacrifice, that doesn't cost some of you, brothers. That costs all of you. That's God pulling you away from the sin, from the darkness, from the lustfulness, from the chase of elevation in the natural way in the world. God is trying to pull you into the kingdom. He's trying to make you walk upon that narrow path that he talks about in the book of Matthew in the Beaptitudes in the seventh chapter. When he tells you to enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. He says, Because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that findeth. God wants you to be one of the few, my brothers. One of the few. And not godly in act only, but godly in transformation, godly in understanding, godly in actually carrying it out and walking it out. Not religious, my brothers. A religious man and a righteous man are two different men. A religious man does things without understanding, and he does it not really expecting the full return on his action, like rosary beads or going to communion or going to mass simply because it's the thing to do according to the religion. But a righteous man doesn't necessarily have to go do those things because he understands that when Jesus Christ gave up his life on the cross or gave up the ghost, that at that exact moment reconciliation had happened, redemption had happened, complete restoration had happened, because the veil was torn, ripped from the top to the bottom, not from the bottom to the top. It was torn. Man no longer needed to have an intercessor, an intermediary. He no longer needed a priest to sacrifice on his behalf, to speak on his behalf to God. Man could now go to God Himself. Jesus Christ had taken away the stench of sin, the separation that had been caused by sin. The wrath, the wrath of God that had been bestowed upon man due to his sin. God put Jesus in place for all of that to be eliminated. So now Jesus says, You can just go into your secret place and talk to me, and I'll hear you and I'll honor you. Jesus says, I'm with you always to the end of the age. When you're driving in that Bentley, I'm with you, son. Yeah, when you're sitting up in the VIP lounge drinking up all the champagne and drinking everything that you know you shouldn't be doing, but you're doing it on a regular basis because you're young and you're immature and you think you have time. You think you're gonna do it later, not knowing I control the time and I've told you to redeem the time, which means be responsible of the time because you will run out of time. God is saying, give me that time. The more time you give me, the more I will give you the power to say no to those situations which kill, steal, and destroy your purpose, which kill, which kill, steal, and destroy your relationships with the woman you say you love. I'll give you the power to marry her. I'll give you the power to be a husband, which in turn will help her be a wife, because you'll be doing it according to my divine structure, not the structure of the world. Give me that time and I'll teach you how to be an amazing father to your children. I will teach you how to raise them up in the fear and the ammunition of the Lord. Give me that time and I will teach you how to think. I will give you wisdom. I tell you in my word, if any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God. He said, just ask, and I'll give it to you. I want you to be a wise man. I want you to be able to be a blessing to people every time a microphone is put in your face. Yes, you can talk about the game when you had a great game and they want to sing you or single you out. But I also want you to be equipped to drop a nugget. A nugget that will splash. It's like throwing a pebble and making it skip across the water. It creates ripples. I will put such profound wisdom in you, God says that when you're on NBC, ESPN, TNT, Peacock, whatever network it is, I will give you something to say that will be short and sweet, but yet will radiate throughout the world. And it'll be a divine seed planted in the hearts and minds of spirits, the souls, even the egos of people who won't even know what has happened until the time that I want them to experience what has happened. You will plant a divine seed in their heart. You will begin the process of renewal of their minds, all because you love me, you're obeying me, and you're seeking me. Read my word, my son. Remember what I did to Joseph, who was my holy servant, who married my daughter Mary, who brought forth my son Jesus Christ. He was his protector and his earthly father. Jesus was not conceived from Joseph's DNA, even though Joseph had divine DNA because he was a descendant of David, who's a man after my own heart. He's in that lineage. Joseph was a uh Nazarene. He was like Jesus of Nazareth. He was from the region of Nazareth. Hallelujah, the city. But Joseph was just, he was upright, he sought me so that I chose him to do something amazing, to be the steward of my divine family, to guide and protect Jesus, to move him to strategic locations because Pharaoh and the enemy of the world wanted to kill him. But Joseph could do something, my son, that I want you to be able to do. And it is the most important thing. It is not going to church, it is not just praying, it is not just doing outward acts, it's being able to hear my voice. I want you to get so deep into me that you can incline your ear to me. Joseph could hear me so that I could instruct him. When I told Joseph to take the young child down into Egypt because Herod wanted to destroy him, he did it. When it was time to bring Joseph out of Egypt, because Herod was dead, he did it. He heard my voice. I came to him in a dream. I spoke to him in a dream, and he could hear me. But he not only heard me, he acted on what he heard. That's what I'm trying to grow you up into, my mighty, mighty Son of God. I want you to grow up and hear me. I want you to hear my voice. I want you to hear my instructions, like you hear your coach instructions on your basketball team. And when he gives an instruction and he calls a timeout, he expects something uh intentional, something particular, something uh very direct to happen. Whether it's a pick, a screen and roll, you pop into a certain spot, you pass into a certain spot, you're defending your offensive man a certain way, guiding him to a certain spot, all these things have a desired end. You hear my voice has a desired end. But just as I said to my son Joseph, God is saying to you, my brothers, he says, Out of Egypt have I called my son. Out of Egypt have I called my son. I'm gonna say it one more time. Out of Egypt have I called my son. Your God's son, your God's chosen one. Egypt is a reflection of the world at large. All of the things that happen in the natural world, which has it upside down. The bad language, the demeaning or breaking down of another soul or spirit, the division, the social division, which you did not cause. Men have caused it through their greedy systems, of promoting the few, but oppressing and robbing the masses through their systems, the promotion of fatherless families, the acceptance of an overflow of alcoholic beverages in certain communities, but very few of them in other communities. The placement of fast food joints, fried food, food that will accelerate your deterioration on the earth because of your knock of knowledge in nutrition. Stores, high-value stores, though needed and appreciated to buy some of the essential items for our home, the Dollar Tree, the Dollar General, all of those stores, God bless them. Wish they were around when I was in college, definitely would have had a much better experience and ate way better, but yet you're not to base all your needs on those stores. Because they contain things which will steal your vitality. Eating the Raymond noodles every night, partaking of the dollar fifty giant sugar-infested sodas, all of the cookies, all of the candies, many of the some of the other things that are in there that are offered. They're good, but there's also some greater things that you have available to you that you cannot yet possess because you have not gotten in position with me to fulfill your inheritance. And this is for the people of God. Not necessarily you, my brethren, but these are messages you can take to these people because they're kings, they're priests, they're more than conquerors, they don't know it. We say we're kings, but if you're king, you have a kingdom. Your heavenly Father has a kingdom that he wants to give you, that he wants you to be a member of and spread its constitution. It's called the kingdom of God. Finishing verse 12. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. God is saying, This is the least you can do for me because you know you should have been dead. You know you should have AIDS. You know you should have done caught something by now. You know you should have you escaped death several times driving home with a DWI. You knew you should be locked up. You know you escaped some of them situations that only you and I know because I was there with you. Amen. And God was there with us, and forgive me, it's not a DWI, it's a DUI. You know, sometimes you get so uh caught up in it, I get tongue-tied. You'll hear that in a lot of the episodes, but let's charge it to the game and my excitement and my uh passion for the things of God, knowing that it's only his love, his grace, his power that has me in my right mind, has me purpose to be a blessing to my brothers who are now running the race of professional athletes and praying that they can experience the liberation, the freedom, the life that I've been able to experience on the other side, and uh accept God's invitation to be resurrected and recreated with a new identity and not operate in the old identity and simply just live off of the laurels of being a former professional athlete. Let's finish this up here in verse 12 and uh chapter 12, verse 2 of Romans. He says, And be not conform to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. He said, Be not conform to this world. God said, Don't be like that. Don't be like they tell you you have to be. Don't be the man that they tell you you need to be. Be the man I'm telling you you were created to be. Be the man I want you to be, be the man that's gonna be a blessing to everything around you and make stuff grow, not wither away. It's gonna make things increase, not decrease. A man that's gonna bring hope, not discouragement, a man that's gonna spread the message of life, not death, hallelujah. A man who's a man of all seasons, a man who operates in integrity, honor, and walks upright. That when the situation calls for a word of encouragement or inspiration or upliftment, he provides it. But when the when the situation requires a word of accountability, a word of correction, a word of truth, he's gonna give that a well and he as well, and he's not afraid of what it's going to cost him, hallelujah, or how it's going to break him down or or uh damage his image, because he's already presented his body a living sacrifice, he's my property. He signed over the rights to his life. He wants to be like me, his elder brother Jesus Christ, hallelujah. He wants to be part of the solution to the world and no longer spread its dysfunction simply because he's getting paid millions of dollars. He decided not to sell his soul to the devil because he understands what Jesus meant when he said, What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Hallelujah. He's thinking long-term, big picture, not only for himself, but for his wife, for his children, for his children's children, for his mother, for his father. Because you know the word of God says that him and his household shall be saved. God can save his whole house by this man's one decision. He says, Be not conformed to the word, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. Transformation is taking on another form. That's what the book of John means about being born again, being born of water and of spirit, not just joining a church, actually going through a process that allows you to experience a significant, drastic change in who you are. A new nature, not your dark nature that are attracted to darken things, but your new nature of light, your new nature of life, your new nature of divinity, of being divine, through your connection with the word, through the Holy Spirit abiding on you, in you, through you, so that you can be all that God has created you to be and desires you to be. That happens through the renewing of your mind, allowing the word of God to re-educate you, to rebuild you, to reconstruct you. And why is he doing it? So you can become a talking head? Absolutely not. He says that you may prove God wants to use you as proof that his word is what he says it is, that it'll do what he says it'll do, and because you have the highest platform, people see you, they look at you, they trust you, they believe you. Because you appear to be successful to them. You see, they walk by sight, not by faith. They don't know better. They judge that I'm with the people who are doing well outwardly and materialistically when it's not true. I walk with those who walk with me. Yes, I can bless who I want to bless, and I can curse who I want to curse. But they're ignorant of Satan's devices and they're ignorant of the word of God. Remember, I said in the book of Hosanna, the fourth chapter, my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. Their lack of divine knowledge keeps them on the outside. He says that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. There are things that are acceptable to me, and there are things that are unacceptable to me. Hallelujah in the name of Jesus. I have a perfect will and I have a permissive will. And my perfect will is what I've written in the book, what I expect, what I demand, what I desire to be carried out in your life. My permissible will are things that I allow you to do that may not be necessarily what I want you to do, but I allow you to do it. You learn a lesson, and I work it out for your good. And my permissive will, you may make some decisions that may delay you and cause you to walk around the mountain 40 years and you not to get into your promised land sooner. So instead of experiencing the great things I have at you at 25, you may not get them to 65, all because of disobedience and ignorance. Or you may not get them at all, or you may get a small portion of it, my brothers. This is your brother. I'm not trying to be your chaplain, I'm not trying to be your pastor, I'm not trying to be anything but a speaker of truth from personal experience. Thus, the name of the ministry, truth turn up. I'm turning up the truth because the world has turned it down or tried to, and God has raised me up for such a time as this to sit on the wall, to blow the horn, to be a messenger of truth, to come in and take back what the enemy is trying to destroy in your lives, to better equip you to be a better version of yourself, so that your God, my God, your creator, my creator, your Lord, well, my Lord, who desires to be your Lord, but He's definitely both of our saviors because he died for the sin of the world, may be glorified through the gift that he's given you, and that millions of people can be reached. Because he said the end can't come to this gospel of the kingdom is preached. He didn't say the end was coming when everybody joined churches. He said the end is going to come when this message of the good news, how much God loves you, what he wants to do to you, through you, and for you, how we can live an everyday life in connection with him, how just his presence in our life can equip us to make divine decisions, not just good decisions, divine decisions, decisions that are going to uh be according to his good and acceptable and perfect will. Decisions that are gonna prove he is who he says he is. Let me pray for you, my brothers, as we end this session. As always, I'm available to you at all times. You have any questions? We're gonna make sure you can get my contact information. You can email, you can text, you can call, you can do whatever you need to. I can meet you in your city. I'm here for you. I've made myself a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God. I know it's my reasonable service. I know my life has been bought with a price. I'm not my own. When I did my own thing, I was trying to kill myself. I was trying to drink myself to death, sleep myself to death, pleasure myself to death through buying stuff, through being an idiot, being a fool, being the funniest one in the room, trying to be the suavest and have the best clothes and drive the nicest cars to be seen because I didn't know who I was. Something was missing inside of me. I didn't know my importance in the family of the God, of God. I didn't know that the God of the universe had need of me. I didn't know that he loved me enough that he would break me down. Yeah, I didn't know that God loved me enough that he would break me down to restore me and bring me back into the family. That he would make me lose it all so that I could gain it all. And the most important thing I've gained is his wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. God wants you to gain that same thing, my brothers. Dear God, O Heavenly Father, I thank you right now in the name of Jesus for this podcast, for this series, for these men and women under the sound of my voice. Bless them. We come against all tactics of the enemy to destroy their identity. Our identity is lined up according to the word of God, not what the world says, not what people say. What has God said? The creator of the universe created us in his image and likeness when he sent forth two by twos into the boat with Noah to create new life in the new land. There was a Plan, there was a purpose. When he sent forth Jesus Christ, O Heavenly Father, into the world, it said, For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. He's seeking and saving us, oh heavenly Father. And he's saving us for his purpose and for his glory. Not to build bigger empires, but to advance the kingdom of God, only that empire, to spread righteousness, oh heavenly Father, so that the earth can once again be filled with peace, with love, with joy, oh heavenly Father. And we know that won't be fulfilled until the new kingdom comes. The earth has to be destroyed. It is in the midst of being destroyed from within. Sin is destroying the earth. Darkness is destroying the earth. Pride is destroying the earth. Rebellion is destroying the earth. Ignorance is destroying the earth. But we thank you right now, O Heavenly Father, that you see it, you know it, and you're raising up other people who love you, who will walk in righteousness, who will share your message of righteousness, who will be vessels of light in dark places, to help those that are on the bottom get up. To help those, oh heavenly Father, that are crooked be made straight only through your word, through your spirit. Because the book of Zechariah says it's not by might nor by power, but only by your spirit. We thank you for your spirit. It's in the mighty name of Jesus. We pray and we receive the answer to these prayers because you love us, you equipped us, and you're always with us. In Jesus' name, amen. Hey, truth turn up, my brothers. Brother to brother, Minister Anthony Bonner here. Amen and amen. God bless you, brother. God bless you.