Episode Transcript
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This concludes this week's City News comar information regarding other church activities, please
visit our website at www do Cityrefuge La dot org. Well we give
God glory again, and I'm tellingyou that we are living in a time
when we have been separated physically,and we haven't been around each other in
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church, we haven't congregated. Infact, the congregation thing is all about
over and they're getting ready to shutdown again. So I came on with
my mask today to say to allof the children of God, we can
follow the rules so that we canget back to whatever the new normal will
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be. We need to follow therules. We need to wear our masks
whenever we're in public. We needto consider the people that are around us,
realizing that so many of us canbe asymptomatic, and that is not
having any signs at all, buthaving the virus and being able to spread
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the virus when you don't have asign at all that something is wrong.
And so what I'm saying now islet us all do our part. We
are Christians. We understand how tobless one another, and we understand how
to live for others. We understandself sacrifice, and we understand that we're
not always comfortable when it comes tomaking other people's lives better, so we
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should not have a problem at allfollowing the rules. Again, as I
said when this thing began, weare disciples. We understand discipline, we
understand how to do what God wouldhave it to do, and we don't
get caught up in politics. Politicsis all world system. We operate there
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because we live in the world,but we are not of the world.
And we understand that theocracy is overand above democracy, oligarchy, anarchy,
monarchy, any kind of key youwant to put to it. Theocracy is
the greatest of all. So whereyour face covering is out in public,
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if you don't feel sick, youcan still be sick, and someone around
you might not feel sick, butthey are sick, and then they spread
it to you. You take ithome, You hug your children, you
hug your grandmother, you hug yourmother, your father, your husband,
and next thing you know, it'srunning through the house. So when you're
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out in public, please, forGod's sake, where the face covering.
Secondly, wash your hands, andif you don't feel well, please stay
at home. The governor's gonna shutit down again. Somehow we're gonna get
shut down. And I'm saying,I don't want this thing to keep going
on and on into perpetuity. Ifwe have power to change it so that
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we can get back to some normalcyin our lives, so that we can
celebrate and clap our hands, havechoirs singing behind us, dance and shout,
hug, love one another. Andwe want to get back to it.
But we got to help to doit, because if we don't do
it, it's not going to happenuntil a vaccine comes. So please,
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please, members of the church andpeople of God, please please, we
gotta get rid of this. Wejust got to get rid of it,
and we do our part and it'snot hard to do. Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you againfor this opportunity to come and talk
to your children, and we justlove you because we realize that we're only
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here because of your grace. Rightnow. Had it not been for your
grace, we could have been caughtin this pandemic in a manner that we
could have been out of here bynow. But you saw fit to keep
those of us that are still herehere, and you took home those that
you wanted to take home or youallowed to take home by your grace.
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And we just thank you now forthe work we still have to do.
I pray that you will touch thosewho are on the front line, keep
them those who are working hard forthe salvation of health. For others,
I pray God that you will justcover them, cover our government. We
need our government to move. Weneed our government to move from a federal
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point of view so that we caneven this thing out. So Lord,
we ask you to do that.Those who aren't sick, I pray God
that you just help us reduce thenumbers naturally or supernaturally. And we pray
for those who have lost lung lonAgain, we pray God that you will
move in a mighty way on theirbehalf, that your comfort will be exhibited.
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Now give us the power of yourword, and I claim it done
in Jesus' name. Amen. Wewere talking and a little bit about the
ethics of responsibility, and I wouldlike to go, if I may to,
I would like to go to Exodus. Yes, Exodus, and I
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was talking about in a great way, in a great manner, in relationship
to the fact that our Moses estayedin Egypt, or enjoyed Egypt so much
that they couldn't move for the benefitof what's happening to us today. I
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was thinking as we were, asI was meditating on this message, and
looking at the overall picture of thetime in which we live, and just
looking at the contemporary environment, lookingat the politics of course, looking at
the theology from many who should understandhow to operate in the scriptures, to
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the way that all of us wouldbe blessed for those who are struggling with
the whole issue of racism from aChristian point of view, looking at that
and then looking at the pandemic andthe way it's ravishing people who are less
off financially than other people, andthen to bring up the whole issue of
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black lives matter, and it hitme that black lives matter economically, black
lives matter politically, black lives matterphysically, but also it is important to
understand that black lives matter even inthis pandemic situation, which means that there
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are certain decisions that are being madeor not being made that's going to further
put stress and strain on people ofcolor and people like you and me because
of the decisions that are being madeon a higher plane and a higher echelon
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that you and I have no powerover at this point, and those decisions
are going to be made that willhurt, hurt. They're twenty three million
Americans right now who have Obamacare,and it seems to me quite ludicrous,
or quite well, ludicrous is asgood a word as any to remove the
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defense, the only defense that somepeople have. Black lives matter financially,
and I know that we're taking quitea beating financially. I know it because
I get the word, I getthe word, I get the requests.
I get so much that I canit's overwhelm It's more than I can handle.
I'd have to be the Bank ofAmerica to handle it. So the
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issue here is that people are hurtingand suffering, and then if we take
away their healthcare, if we takeaway their healthcare with no substitution, now
we're talking twenty three million Americans inserious trouble. Black lives matter, not
only physically, but it matters economically, and in the middle of this pandemic,
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it matters seriously if we don't haveany health care and we're the highest
risk for the disease. So I'msaying to everyone who's hearing me, we
have to pray seriously, seriously thatthe court does not move in a partisan
way, but that the court movesaccording to the law with the people in
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mind. Because I thought this wholedemocracy was that government is for the people
and buy the people. So I'mpraying, and we're praying together because I
know many of you that are membersof the City of Refuge and other churches.
Many of you that are hearing metoday would be in a cataclysmic extirpatient
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financially and physically if all the defenseis moved. We messed up the offense.
Now if they take away our defense, then we're in serious trouble.
So put that on your prayer list. Friday night coming, We're going to
pray that the Lord will make usas a people, help us to make
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the right decision in this matter.We're going to exit us. I promise
that we're going to deal with Mosesand our moseses that did not leave Egypt.
I want to go to Exodus.And in Exodus in chapter three and
verse eight, the Lord says,I am come down to deliver them out
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of the hand of the Egyptians,to bring them up out of that land
onto a land, and a largeonto a land flowing with milk and honey,
unto the place of the Canaanites,the Hittites, the Amorites, the
Perizites, the Hibites, and theJebusites. Now therefore behold, the city
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of the children of Israel has comeunto me. The cry rather of the
children of Israel is come unto me. And I have also seen the oppression
wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. ComeNow, therefore I will send THEE unto
Pharaoh, that thou mayst bring forthmy people, the children of Israel out
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of Egypt. And Moses senator God, who am i, Oh Lord,
who am I? That I shouldgo unto Pharaoh and that I should bring
forth the children of Israel at Egypt? He said, certainly, I will
be with THEE, and this shallbe the token unto THEE that I have
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sent THEE. When thou hast broughtforth the children out of Egypt, ye
shall serve God upon this mountain.And Moses said, unto God, and
I think verse twelve, we shouldmake a note of that. And Moses
said, unto God, behold,when I come unto the children of Israel,
and shall say unto them, theGod of your fathers had sent me
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unto you, And they shall sayto me, what is his name?
What shall I say unto them?And God said, unto Moses, I
am that I am. And hesaid, thus, shalt thou say unto
the children of Israel. I amhath sent me unto you. And God
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said, more of unto Moses,shalt thou said unto the children of Israel.
The Lord, God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the
God of Isaac, the God ofJacob, had sent me onto you.
This is his name forever, andthis is my memorial onto all generations.
And of course he told him togo gather the people. I'm concerned very
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deeply about the issues of religion andthe effect it has on people. And
just to bring you up to speed, when I first opened up, and
this, I think is about partthree, when I opened up on the
whole issue of you kill the wrongone this time, and this is a
part of that whole segment. AndI'm on my way to the greatest wrong
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one that has ever been killed.I'm on my way there. I don't
know when we'll get there, butwe're journeying that way. And I open
with the whole issue of Karl Marxand his errant, very errant, and
I want to emphasize his errant statementwhen he wanted to say simply that religion
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is the opiate of the people,and that faith in a religious environment anaesthathized,
and it makes the unbearable bearable.Things are as they are, he
is saying, because that is thewill of God. That's how he puts
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it in God, and made somepeople rich and others poor, some people
rulers, and others ruled. Religionwas the most powerful means, then devise
for keeping people in their place andmaintaining the status quo. His whole point
was it robbed their lives with ritual, It dignified their tears into prayer.
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It gave social order metaphysical in theirinevitability. So if the world is to
be changed, religion has to go. I want to give you a quote,
he says, and I quote theabolition of religion as the illusory of
happiness of the people is at thesame time the demand for their real happiness,
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the demand to give up the illusionsabout their condition, is a demand
to give up a condition that requiresillusion. Criticism has plucked imaginary flowers from
the chains, Yes, so thatman may throw off the chains and pluck
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real flowers. Religion is only theillusory sun around which man revolves, so
long as he does not revolve abouthimself unquote. Now he is putting religion
in a place where it nullifies theoperation, the intellectuality, the cognition,
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the energy, the determination of theindividual. And he was too dead to
know. In fact, he wasthe substratom of communism. In fact,
what he didn't envision that under Stalinw You know, he thought he was
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speaking up some socialism was going tobe some wonderful utopic environment. But what
he didn't envision under Stalin was thathe was a substratum of the most brutal,
repressive regime in the history of humankind. Uh, the dream of utopia
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actually ended up in the nightmare ofhell, because that's what they did in
Russia. Now, his view ofJudaism, however, was hostile. Yet
when you look at the Bible,you'll find that the Bible was evolved in
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an act of defiance against the greatempires of the world. Should I go
over that again, you see commercein his socialistic substratom that built the Communist
Party, that brought all of thechaos into the world, North South Korea,
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the North South Vietnam, all ofthe eastern countries in Europe, the
oppression was so strong and indeed,and in fact, when you study it
carefully, you will find that socialismhad more classes than upper class, middle
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class, and lower class and poorpeople. So she did not envision that
this was the beginning of the mostoppressive regime in history. Of course,
you can throw in the Nazis andthe Neo Nazis and Hitler and all of
their oppression because of their supremacy.Conversation, and you can see now how
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man in seeking supremacy, in movingGod out, in becoming a God himself.
We're arguing now about people who aredealing with the with the Jesus and
taking Jesus out of the church.And it is so it is so limited,
and it is so man oriented,it is so religion oriented without being
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spiritual, because the Bible is notsimply a religious book, it's a spiritual
book. Let me just deal withthe Jesus peace while it's hot on my
mind. When you understand Jesus,you will understand that Jesus from his brethren
was Jewish. Jesus was a Jew, and I don't know many Jews.
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I haven't seen one yet who's gotlong flowing blonde here with blue eyes yesterday.
I've seen some blue eyes and Jews, but I've never seen a man
with the long flowing hair. AndI've never seen a six foot six bookstore
Jesus. You see, he hadno form of commliness, if you understand
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Isaiah. And when they were talkingto Jesus, he was making the point
about before Abraham was I am.And they were arguing with Jesus, and
they said, you're not even fiftyyears old yet, or he wasn't thirty
five. So there was no physicalitythat would attract you to him. And
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because he leaves himself out of oursensual perception, then I can conceive of
my Jesus in any way that Iwant to in terms of my spiritual association.
He did not come with the kindof physicality that I would have come
with. Oh man, i'd beensix foot eight or two hundred and fifty
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pounds of proportioned protopleasant, I'd havean eight pack. No, I'd have
a ten pack and I would beOh, man, he didn't come with
that because that's not the assignment.His assignment is spiritual. This is why
he said, and I can applyit here. Man looks at outward,
a parents, God looks at theleb, the immaterial personality function. It's
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a spiritual thing in relation ship.They so so, my brothers and sisters.
Having a picture of Jesus does notmake anybody more spiritual and close to
to God. So where we arearguing over a picture of Jesus. If
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I wanted to be black, fine, If the Asians want to be Asian,
fine. If they wanted to bea white fine, Mongolian fine.
I mean historically, you gotta understandthat all of that wasn't going to work
because he was physically Jewish. TheBible was not written by Caucasians. That
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were written or let me put itmore exactly, they were written by The
Bible was written by the majority,except for Luke was written by Semites.
Yes, Japus didn't write it.Ham didn't write it because the Bible's primarily
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function was to deal with the Jewshistorically, and out of that came Jesus
to introduce Christianity. The whole pointis he had to come into the world.
But the emphasis is not on hishow he looked, not on whether
or not you got a statue ofhim anywhere. That's insignificant. The thing
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is what do you have in yourheart? That's what's it all about.
So I've got that clear when weunderstand then that he had to bring And
the Bible now has always been indefiance of the great empires of the world
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the Bible. In the Bible,God looses the bounds of slavery from his
people. He does not impose themwith an opiate called religion. Oh my
God, let my people go thepower against Mesopotamia and of course Egypt.
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Let my people go. So whatwe have now is we have to go
back to the scene in the text, which is still poignant after four thousand
years. It has taken us totallyby surprise, even after all of these
years. And that's the text thatI'm reading in order for there to be
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any kind of deliverance. Everybody's lookingfor a plan, but God looks for
a man, and it is importantbecause in that man God operates his plan.
Moses is born, Moses is acommonly child, Moses is hidden Pharaoh's
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daughter goes by the river Nile.Pharaoh's daughter sees the child. Pharaoh's daughter
takes him home. Forty years inthe house, Moses is settled, enjoying
the things physically, but in hisspirit. He has been taught by his
mother the things of God. ButGod had to make a circumstance for Moses
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to break away. And the circumstancewas Moses walks into a situation where Hebrew
is being mutilated by an Egyptian,and Moses jumps in and kills the Egyptian.
Now the only other person in theroom is the Hebrew, and yet
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still it circulates and Moses has toflee. Forty years he's in Pharaoh's house,
and forty years he is on thebackside of the desert, forty years
complacent. Many times God uses events, Cairo's moments again, Cairo separate from
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Chronos. Chronos is just time passing, just my watch. But there are
certain events that changes the course andthe direction of nations, the direction of
the world. And let me letme just simmer it down, the direction
of your own life. God hasallowed certain events to take place that completely
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change the directions of mankind. TheBible says, he takes the king's heart
and he turns it like the riverwith meander. He has the power to
turn it. You know that hedid that when Mordecai was up against Hayman,
and of course in the night,God just turned his heart and the
Caius moment was established. In orderthen, for God to take Moses out
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of the comfort of being in Pharaoh'shouse, knowing he's designated to be the
deliverer, God has to allow anevent to take place that puts Moses now
on the backside of the desert.Moses, it seems, has a tendency
for complacency until certain events have totake place. The first event, killing
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the Egyptian was an event of theconflict between what he was taught, his
relationship to God through his mother's teaching, and the attitude and action of the
Egyptian against the Hebrew. Now,obviously, if he theirs on the side
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of the Hebrew, then what wasput in him was more powerful than what
he was enjoying physically, as theson of Pharaoh's daughter, you can't be
more Egyptian than that. Yet stillwhat was in him was so powerful that
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he chose the side of what hewas taught over and beyond the side of
how he was nurtured. Well,let's go over that again. He chose
the side of the word in himas opposed to the pleasures he was enjoying
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as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.He was willing to risk his life for
somebody who was a slave based onhow he was taught. I think this
is this is very pertinent and particularlypertinent when people who have been in the
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Bible for years and years are stilltrying to figure out and still trying to
ask other theologians and other people ofother colors. People are asking people like
me, uh, and and Iwas talking to a friend of mine and
he said, just a whole groupcame to him, and and they're asking,
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our Caucasian brothers are asking, howdo we get rid of racist How
do we have the strength over racistrace? What? What have your Bible
been teaching you. I'll give youa real simple way, my Christian brother,
to just get over the whole issueof racism. And that's just treat
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me the way you want to betreated. Do unto others as you would
have them do unto you. Imean, how how simple can it get
the Lord. The Lord simmered itdown. I mean, I mean,
he took this enormous burden of howto treat other people and he took it
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out of the philosophical arena. Hetook it out of the psychological Yeah,
he put it into psychological He tookit out of out of having to have
a mass theology. He took itout of all the ritual, symbolic pious
ness of having church. And hesimply said, if you can't figure it
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out, see how you want tobe treated, and then treat somebody that
same way. Moses is teaching.You've been in church all these years.
You've been preaching and passing and teachingpeople and collecting money. And maybe that's
all we just in the business ofchurch. Maybe that's all it is,
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just a business. We go thereand we say whatever we need to say
for people to respond according to whatit is we need at the time.
But the truth is, if we'respiritual about it, then we understand that
the power is in the world andto practice the word. How difficult is
it to take the side of theoppress when you have been taught right,
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And that's what Moses did. Hetook the side of the oppressed. He
took the side of where there wasinjustice. He took the side where there
was no help, whereas there wasno blessing. He took the side of
the pain that others had to bear. That's what he did. And in
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order to take that side, wehad to give up a lifestyle that was
pleasureless. This is the difficulties wehave with our Moses is today to take
the side of certain people that arenot in your race. My evangelical brothers,
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you have to be willing to beostracized by others who do not follow
the principles of Scripture, but alot into supremacy over everybody else in the
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world. The reason why this diseaseis beating us up is because we're too
arrogant and pride and heartiness go beforedestruction and a fall. And look how
quickly our economy fell because we didn'tthink much of it. Oh, this
happens to everybody else in the world, but it does not happen to us
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because we are Americans. Notice this. When I made a move to and
I can say publicly now because it'spublic business, When I was asked to
be the senior advisor to the UnificationChurch, and I made a move to
make that association and my focus wason and I should have worn my shirt
today. Peace begins with me becauseI understood something that they have been living
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and it caught my attention, andthat is that you can't make America wealthy
when people are sick. And I'mnot only talking about this disease now,
I'm talking it'll never be wealthy whenpeople are psychologically debilitated, when people are
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deshumanized, when people are ostracized,departmentalized. What makes America a rich and
powerful is the health of its peoplein all categories. And you know,
listen, this is a country survivalof the fittest. This is a darwin
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is in place. Why because it'sstraight capitalism. But you have to understand
that if a few people who aredepartmentalize and ostracized, if they get sick
now I'm talking pandemic, the wholeeconomy is shut down. Now, if
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you're not smart enough to understand thatwhat caused the economy to come down has
to be removed for it to comeback up. Whatever caused it to falter
and to fail, you have tofix that to get it up. If
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you take the side of the oppressed, and the side of the little man,
and the side of the poor person, and the side of the person
who is facing injustice. If youface that side, you have to be
bold enough to be able to standagainst folk who don't have your view but
are in your space. You haveto be able to stand for what you
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know is theollogically and biblically right inface of opposition from those who are closest
to you. This is why Jesussaid, on one occasion, do you
think I came that everybody would betogether that families and house And uh,
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he said, I came, andI'm going to cause division, because when
you take a stand for what isright, you have to be able to
deal with the people who are aroundyou, and you have to be ready,
like John the Baptists, to loseyour neck, oh, rather your
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head. And it's a critical piece, very important, because here is what's
happening. We have a group ofpeople who will support the truth quietly,
risk less Christianity. That's what we'vecome to. Martyrdom, as far as
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we're concerned, is not of God. Martyring, my finances, Martyring,
certain relationships, Martyring, certain access, martyring, certain aggrandizing personal significance.
It has ceased to be a partof the Christian program because we have failed
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to understand that anybody who moves forthe favor of the oppressed, the sinner,
the person who is in trouble,sacrifices have to be made and they
have to be willing to give upa life style to maintain a calling.
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Moses is now in the backside ofthe desert and he's you know, he's
chilling. I've got away from Pharaoh. I'm some forty years out of it.
Now. If there's looking for me, they probably can't find me.
And now he's become complacent with thesheep. Now it's important to see how
God moves you from that place wherehe was just sitting in comfort zone.
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One incident changes his life, putshim in a place now where he's moving
into another comfort zone forty years,but he is taking care of the sheep,
which is probably something he never didin Egypt. See, there are
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times when God, in order totake certain things out of us, has
to move us into certain situations thatcaused us to have the kind of sympathy
and empathy so that when he getsready to take us to a higher place.
He has already prepared us forty years. He had to sit before the
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Lord, the revolutionary. You gottaunderstand now, expression of God in the
immutability of his being is now toMoses as a burning bush. Now the
cause for interpretation. When I joinedas the senior advisor for the Unification Church,
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I went in spite of and becauseI knew in my spirit that this
is a movement for the world.And with all the flack I had to
take, with all the questioning,with all the bishop is he's leaving Apostolic,
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He's leaving Pentecostum, all the bishop, Oh my god, what's going
on with the bishop? What peopledon't understand is when you're limited, when
you're myopic in your theological and spiritualvision, some of us need to get
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some spiritual glasses. Because this groupis prepared for this time. This group
is ready for this time. AndI'm glad to be a part of a
group that is moving for the unificationof the world. Because Europe is suffering
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economic now because of this disease,they're going to ban Americans from coming.
We're going to go back into shutdown, which means now the economy is going
to stutter again because we didn't fixit one time. We should have fixed
it with the rest of the world, and we should have unified the approach
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so that one group isn't healed andanother group is still sick, and another
group is getting sick and another groupis dead. We should have come together
all the leaders of the world shouldhave sat down and said, we have
a world problem that's messing with ourmoney. And America and Europe, the
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interchange financially is astounding. I'm sureit's got to be in the trillions the
money changes from companies and countries aroundthe world, multi national companies. And
the only way to solve that isfor everybody to come together. Now the
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Unification, Mother Moon, doctor hatjahanmun talking about peace and spreading peace and
I'm having peace valuies at church andcome under fire. But the vision was
already there, because here is avision. If we can bring religious leaders
together from all over the world.This has nothing to do with somebody trying
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to change a doctrine and trying topull you out of your denomination. This
is having not a corner vision,not around the corner, not oh my
god, not the neighborhood vision.This is a vision of the world.
And in order to have a visionof the world, you have to interpret
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a calling that's massive in your sight. You don't have to agree with my
calling. You don't have to agreewith how I interpret how I interpret,
because everybody's got to interpret what Godis saying to them. Isaiah had to
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interpret his calling, Ezekiel had tointerpret his calling. Everybody who has ever
moved into a spiritual realm where Godis moving on them to do his work
because you're looking for a plan.God's looking for a man, and God's
got to get that man in hishand so that he is malleable enough to
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operate the way God wants him tooperate in spite of what the opposition is.
And so so here's how God measuresthe strength of the individual or hear
how you should measure the strength ofwhat God is calling you to do.
And that is when I interpret mycalling for anything that God has shown me
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the need for. Am I willingto lose friendship with people who don't see
it and who don't have the intensitythat I have because He didn't call you
to do what he called me todo. And I had to interpret that
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calling in a grandiose way, becauseI got a grandiose job to do.
And if I don't see theanimity ofwho I am within the calling of God.
Notice, Notice, notice the firstthing Moses wants to say when God
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says end him down there is whoam I? Did I get that right?
Who am I? Who am I? I wonder? Do you see
the interpretation of your calling? Goddid not call you simply to make money.
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God didn't call you to, youknow, to preach to his people
who are oppressed and a lot ofinjustice. God didn't call you just to
put money in your pocket driver Cadillacor Rose Royce or whatever you drive.
God didn't call you to wear whateverwe wear and to live and call us
for that. When God reaches forMoses, Moses is comfortable, and God
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moves us out of our comfort zonesin order to do great work. So
Moses is asking because when he looksat what God is saying for him to
do, when he understands first ofall, that I already been betrayed by
these people. These people have alreadyhurt me. I've already been looked at.
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My man. I was living goodman. And because I stepped into
a situation. Now, look whereI am. Now, I've got to
be over here in the backside ofthe desert. Boy, I can't figure
that one out. That one reallygets me. I'm over here in the
backside of the desert. I wasdoing good until I started getting involved with
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what my mother told me. Iwas doing really good until I got serious
about the word. I was doingjust fine when I had no conscience for
the suffering of the oppressed. Iwas doing really great when I didn't think
about their children not having the sameprivileges that mine hath. I was doing
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good until I decided that maybe theBible is real and maybe God expects more
of me than I'm putting out.I was doing good until I start fooling
around with these four people down inthe inner city. I was doing well
until I start marching. Until theysaw my face on the TV as one
of the marchers. I was doingreally good. I decided to follow Jesus
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and decided to make a stand forwhat's right. So for everybody's asking,
how am I to live after this, Well, the only way to live
now is for God to provide.Once you have moved into His calling and
you have to be willing to losefriends. To be a friend of God,
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you have to be willing to changeyour lifestyle. Your family gets what
are you doing? Let me justgive an example of what I mean.
Here is Martin Luther King just living. Great young preacher, great young preacher.
And you have to ask yourself thisquestion. And I'm talking to my
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sisters. Now, if you weremarried to doctor King and he told you,
and I'm talking about the now,the now pastor's wife, the now
affluent woman of God in first ladynow, and he told you he was
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going down to Memphis to deal withsome workers, some workers who are oppressed
and financially distressed and treated like secondclass citizens. And he said, I'm
going down there, and I thinkI may lose my life. Do you
know the kind of vigilant prayer?And do you know how we would drive?
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If you were my I'd say thenetted And what am I gonna do?
The issue is there is something thatis in us that is so strong
and so powerful that it calls forinterpretation. Because God is saying what I
want you to do is so greatthat you've got to understand that. It's
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not a question of who you are. It's a question of whether I am
with you or not. So whenhe asked the question who am I?
Who am I? To go toPharaoh, Moses, understand how God works.
(46:45):
God didn't intend for you to deliverthe children of Israel one by one,
chilling one. You delivered the killthat Egyptian, you deliver this one.
He didn't intend for that. Godintended for all six hundred thousand men,
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two and a half to three anda half million people to leave,
all at once. God intended todeliver everybody, all at once. So,
Moses, you can't do this byyourself because asking who am I,
(47:31):
anybody in the world would ask whoam I? Because the vision that I
have for you is so brandiose,you can't do it by yourself. Money
can't buy it, politics can't solveit. You have to have a relationship
with Me in order to solve it. And this is why, because your
(47:52):
mother gave you the word. Andthat's why visionaries. I wish I could
talk to you about visionaries. Thevision of visionaries continue and continue and continue
and continue into generations because the visionis so grandiose that one generation can accomplish
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it. It takes the power ofmultiple generations and multiple people in conjunction with
the spirit of God to bring aboutthe grandiose vision that God gives individuals.
The problem with us is the onlygrandiose vision we seem to have is how
to make more money. But atthe end of the day, there is
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a vision that God gives that youput everything you have on the altar to
fulfill what God wants you to fulfill. And the altar now is not an
altar at the church. It's analtar of sacrifice at the feet of God
in order to do what he says, Who am I? Who am I?
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When I look at how great thisvision is? What all of these
people following me out of Egypt andknowing Pharaoh like I do, Who am
I? And the answer is,I am with you, And I'm gonna
give you a token And this isthe one I told you to march.
And I can see now I'm gonnahave to come back with this maybe on
Wednesday or next Sunday. God's willing, as the Muslims say, Inshallah,
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I am going to give you atoken. And when I think about this
particular sign and token that God isgiving Moses and I think about Gideon who
asked the same question, who amI? Because when God calls you to
a great vision, and when hechanges the dynamics at the Chiros moment,
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that is when he brings that change, that season change. He brings that
season change. When people are equippedfor that change he brings. Is that
change when he has somebody prepared.It ain't. It's not a change that's
gonna be caught catching somebody sleeping.Somebody's gonna be prepared for that change.
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He's preparing you right now for achange in your life. He's preparing you.
And quiet as it kept, thespirit was making intercession with groanings that
cannot be uttered. And God hadprepared you silently for the pandemic that you're
facing right now. You will notcapitulate, You will not fall short.
You will not lose your mind.Now I don't care what you lose,
(50:32):
but your strength is you will notlose your spirit. You will not lose
the word that's embedded in you,and you will not lose that calling for
the injustice and for the things thatpeople are suffering. Because God is not
about the economy. God is abouthis people. Did you think God cared
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how Egypt's economy would be totally devastatedwhen six hundred thousand men two and a
half to three and a half millionpeople slaves free labor under heavy oppression.
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Did you think God cared about itcollapsing and them not being as powerful as
they used to be. Do youthink God cared about them being pursued and
drowning Pharaoh's army in the Red Sea. He didn't care about that. What
God cared about is what you'll findall to the Bible, Mercy, love,
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justice, That's what he can about. If God cared about us being
in church every Sunday, singing anddancing and shouting and falling all over each
other, kicking over the benches,a hooping man shaking a bike. If
you think God cared about that,then he wouldn't have allowed us to be
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talking to you like this today.We would still be down there doing that.
He makes chiros moments, he movesthings, and when he moves things,
he then puts you in a situationwhere you understand the immutability of who
he is. And he showed thatto Moses in the burning bush that would
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not go out, And there mustbe a fire in somebody that will not
go out until what God has setbefore us will be accomplished. And whoever
you have to align with, andyou better be careful who God has send
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you to align with. But becauseof your myopic theological and spiritual disposition,
you can't make the right kind ofassociations and you can't network properly enough to
get something done. And that isimportant in every aspect of your life.
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And that's why when you say blacklives matter, if it matters financially,
then black folk got to get togetherfinancially. If it matters economically, that's
finance. Then we've got to networkour strengths. Yes, yes, yes,
and stop sitting around depending on somebodyto give you a hand out.
When you got when you're strong enoughto move out of Egypt into Canaan,
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God wasn't sending you on that journey. And when the leadership comes, then
you gotta follow that leader. Andwhen we talk about peace on earth,
we gotta follow the leadership that Godhas given us to enact that. Because
many of us are still in ourlittle Egypts, not only our financial Egypt,
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but our theological Egypt, are denominationalEgypt. We are still locked in
to the point where we can't move. And here's what God is saying.
I'm not gonna be with you ifyou stay in your short sighted, myopic
personal vision. But I will bewith you if you step out on this
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grandiose vision. I will be withyou because you can't do this by yourself.
And here's the token. I'm closingon that today. I don't know
how long I've been. I knowyou stay with me for a while and
then you go get something to eatand come back, or you know you're
at home. Notice carefully, thefaith that God is pulling out of Moses
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a little different from Gideon. BecauseGideon said, show me he fleeced it,
let the fleece be dry, andlet the dew be on the grass
around it. And God did that. It wasn't enough. He turned around
and said, now let the fleecebe wet and let the grass around it
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be dry. And he did that, and then he got some comfort.
Here's what God said to Moses.The token I'm gonna give to you is
when you come out of Egypt.I ain't given you nothing before you go.
The token I'm gonna give you iswhen you come out of Egypt.
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You will worship me on this mountain. There is a step that we all
have to take. The step wehave to take is to understand our calling,
to interpret our calling as individuals.And you cannot allow other people to
decide your interpretation of your calling,because your interpretation of your calling is going
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to be the fuel that moves youinto action. And the level of your
interpretation of your calling is the levelof your understanding what God would have you
to do. And when it's humongous, then it's indication is you can't do
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this by yourself if I'm not withyou, So you have to have Me
with you, and you have tohave the people around you who have your
spirit understand that's a critical piece becausepeople don't understand the strength of helping.
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I am in my own world.I'm a bishop of many churches. I'm
a bishop and pastor of a greatchurch. I can't get a preaching and
say I wish I had a church. I can't say that. I go
all around the world and yet stillwhen I see something that I can become
(57:22):
a help in. See God callsme not only to be ahead of a
church. Really, he's the head. He didn't only call me to be
a spinal cord. He has calledme to be arms and legs to other
(57:43):
spinal cords who he is their head. Understand that even though I have a
vision that God has given me forwhat he wants me to do, he
has also given me vision for connectionto other people's visions. And that's why
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you will take the side of theHebrew in spite of how it changes your
life, in spite of who runsaway from you. And God is saying,
it's a faith walk because you gottastep out on interpreting and you've got
to know in your spirit by faith. Notice now know by faith that it's
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me because what I'm asking you todo is going to be great. I
gotta come back and do the restof this. I hope you're not bored
with it. But I'm saying toall of you children of God. God
is saying to us in this hour, this season, this Cairos, take
the side of the oppressed, nomatter what you lose here and understand this
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that He will be with you.Father. I thank you for your word
today. I thank you for thespirit that I feel moving through the homes
of those who have tuned in.I feel that spirit of encouragement. Yet
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I feel that spirit of determination,I feel that spirit of intensity for doing
your will, and I claim thevictory right now, and I speak to
the lives of those who wanna besaved today. I wanna speak to the
lives of those who are saved,Lord, who need you now to just
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nudge them into doing unto others asthey want others to do unto them.
And I speak salvation to everyone thathears my voice. Make a way for
baptism, make a way for thereception of the Holy Spirit, make a
way for the Gospel to be enactedin the lives of those who desire it.
(01:00:07):
And I claim it done in Jesus'name. Amen, Amen, Amen.
When it comes to giving, andwe thank God for all of you
who have been faithful, yes,yes, when this thing started, twenty
twenty five percent down and still haveto pay notes and all those other things.
(01:00:31):
And I'm praying that God will turnyour situation around. If we shut
down any further, it's gonna bemore difficult. So I'll have to pray
for financial guessings to come from whereverGod has got to work it out.
But the website, of course,is a city of refuge La dot org.
(01:00:51):
The app is Noel Jones Ministries.And with that app, I need
five hundred people to subscribe to theapp today five I've got a wonderful series
coming in going to do the artof exceptional preaching, and it's only gonna
be for those who have that app. I need you to do that.
(01:01:14):
We're gonna do some special things,some webinars, and the app is going
to be very t for what I'mgoing to do. The cash up,
of course, is a dollar signCity of refuge La. The text to
give is c O r l Atwo eight eight eight three six four four
(01:01:37):
four eight three. C O rl A so eight eight eight three six
four four four eight three. Ilove you. Wear your mask. Get
your mask on. Come on,get your mask on. If you're going
out, get it on. Keepyour hands once, stay at distance,
(01:02:02):
and when you get your mask off, be sure that you're distance from others.
God bless you, Heaven, Smileon you. I can't wait to
see you.
This concludes this week's City News comar information regarding other church activities, please
visit our website at www do Cityrefuge La dot org. Well we give
God glory again, and I'm tellingyou that we are living in a time
when we have been separated physically,and we haven't been around each other in
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church, we haven't congregated. Infact, the congregation thing is all about
over and they're getting ready to shutdown again. So I came on with
my mask today to say to allof the children of God, we can
follow the rules so that we canget back to whatever the new normal will
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be. We need to follow therules. We need to wear our masks
whenever we're in public. We needto consider the people that are around us,
realizing that so many of us canbe asymptomatic, and that is not
having any signs at all, buthaving the virus and being able to spread
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the virus when you don't have asign at all that something is wrong.
And so what I'm saying now islet us all do our part. We
are Christians. We understand how tobless one another, and we understand how
to live for others. We understandself sacrifice, and we understand that we're
not always comfortable when it comes tomaking other people's lives better, so we
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should not have a problem at allfollowing the rules. Again, as I
said when this thing began, weare disciples. We understand discipline, we
understand how to do what God wouldhave it to do, and we don't
get caught up in politics. Politicsis all world system. We operate there
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because we live in the world,but we are not of the world.
And we understand that theocracy is overand above democracy, oligarchy, anarchy,
monarchy, any kind of key youwant to put to it. Theocracy is
the greatest of all. So whereyour face covering is out in public,
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if you don't feel sick, youcan still be sick, and someone around
you might not feel sick, butthey are sick, and then they spread
it to you. You take ithome, You hug your children, you
hug your grandmother, you hug yourmother, your father, your husband,
and next thing you know, it'srunning through the house. So when you're
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out in public, please, forGod's sake, where the face covering.
Secondly, wash your hands, andif you don't feel well, please stay
at home. The governor's gonna shutit down again. Somehow we're gonna get
shut down. And I'm saying,I don't want this thing to keep going
on and on into perpetuity. Ifwe have power to change it so that
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we can get back to some normalcyin our lives, so that we can
celebrate and clap our hands, havechoirs singing behind us, dance and shout,
hug, love one another. Andwe want to get back to it.
But we got to help to doit, because if we don't do
it, it's not going to happenuntil a vaccine comes. So please,
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please, members of the church andpeople of God, please please, we
gotta get rid of this. Wejust got to get rid of it,
and we do our part and it'snot hard to do. Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you againfor this opportunity to come and talk
to your children, and we justlove you because we realize that we're only
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here because of your grace. Rightnow. Had it not been for your
grace, we could have been caughtin this pandemic in a manner that we
could have been out of here bynow. But you saw fit to keep
those of us that are still herehere, and you took home those that
you wanted to take home or youallowed to take home by your grace.
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And we just thank you now forthe work we still have to do.
I pray that you will touch thosewho are on the front line, keep
them those who are working hard forthe salvation of health. For others,
I pray God that you will justcover them, cover our government. We
need our government to move. Weneed our government to move from a federal
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point of view so that we caneven this thing out. So Lord,
we ask you to do that.Those who aren't sick, I pray God
that you just help us reduce thenumbers naturally or supernaturally. And we pray
for those who have lost lung lonAgain, we pray God that you will
move in a mighty way on theirbehalf, that your comfort will be exhibited.
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Now give us the power of yourword, and I claim it done
in Jesus' name. Amen. Wewere talking and a little bit about the
ethics of responsibility, and I wouldlike to go, if I may to,
I would like to go to Exodus. Yes, Exodus, and I
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was talking about in a great way, in a great manner, in relationship
to the fact that our Moses estayedin Egypt, or enjoyed Egypt so much
that they couldn't move for the benefitof what's happening to us today. I
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was thinking as we were, asI was meditating on this message, and
looking at the overall picture of thetime in which we live, and just
looking at the contemporary environment, lookingat the politics of course, looking at
the theology from many who should understandhow to operate in the scriptures, to
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the way that all of us wouldbe blessed for those who are struggling with
the whole issue of racism from aChristian point of view, looking at that
and then looking at the pandemic andthe way it's ravishing people who are less
off financially than other people, andthen to bring up the whole issue of
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black lives matter, and it hitme that black lives matter economically, black
lives matter politically, black lives matterphysically, but also it is important to
understand that black lives matter even inthis pandemic situation, which means that there
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are certain decisions that are being madeor not being made that's going to further
put stress and strain on people ofcolor and people like you and me because
of the decisions that are being madeon a higher plane and a higher echelon
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that you and I have no powerover at this point, and those decisions
are going to be made that willhurt, hurt. They're twenty three million
Americans right now who have Obamacare,and it seems to me quite ludicrous,
or quite well, ludicrous is asgood a word as any to remove the
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defense, the only defense that somepeople have. Black lives matter financially,
and I know that we're taking quitea beating financially. I know it because
I get the word, I getthe word, I get the requests.
I get so much that I canit's overwhelm It's more than I can handle.
I'd have to be the Bank ofAmerica to handle it. So the
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issue here is that people are hurtingand suffering, and then if we take
away their healthcare, if we takeaway their healthcare with no substitution, now
we're talking twenty three million Americans inserious trouble. Black lives matter, not
only physically, but it matters economically, and in the middle of this pandemic,
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it matters seriously if we don't haveany health care and we're the highest
risk for the disease. So I'msaying to everyone who's hearing me, we
have to pray seriously, seriously thatthe court does not move in a partisan
way, but that the court movesaccording to the law with the people in
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mind. Because I thought this wholedemocracy was that government is for the people
and buy the people. So I'mpraying, and we're praying together because I
know many of you that are membersof the City of Refuge and other churches.
Many of you that are hearing metoday would be in a cataclysmic extirpatient
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financially and physically if all the defenseis moved. We messed up the offense.
Now if they take away our defense, then we're in serious trouble.
So put that on your prayer list. Friday night coming, We're going to
pray that the Lord will make usas a people, help us to make
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the right decision in this matter.We're going to exit us. I promise
that we're going to deal with Mosesand our moseses that did not leave Egypt.
I want to go to Exodus.And in Exodus in chapter three and
verse eight, the Lord says,I am come down to deliver them out
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of the hand of the Egyptians,to bring them up out of that land
onto a land, and a largeonto a land flowing with milk and honey,
unto the place of the Canaanites,the Hittites, the Amorites, the
Perizites, the Hibites, and theJebusites. Now therefore behold, the city
(10:24):
of the children of Israel has comeunto me. The cry rather of the
children of Israel is come unto me. And I have also seen the oppression
wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. ComeNow, therefore I will send THEE unto
Pharaoh, that thou mayst bring forthmy people, the children of Israel out
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of Egypt. And Moses senator God, who am i, Oh Lord,
who am I? That I shouldgo unto Pharaoh and that I should bring
forth the children of Israel at Egypt? He said, certainly, I will
be with THEE, and this shallbe the token unto THEE that I have
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sent THEE. When thou hast broughtforth the children out of Egypt, ye
shall serve God upon this mountain.And Moses said, unto God, and
I think verse twelve, we shouldmake a note of that. And Moses
said, unto God, behold,when I come unto the children of Israel,
and shall say unto them, theGod of your fathers had sent me
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unto you, And they shall sayto me, what is his name?
What shall I say unto them?And God said, unto Moses, I
am that I am. And hesaid, thus, shalt thou say unto
the children of Israel. I amhath sent me unto you. And God
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said, more of unto Moses,shalt thou said unto the children of Israel.
The Lord, God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the
God of Isaac, the God ofJacob, had sent me onto you.
This is his name forever, andthis is my memorial onto all generations.
And of course he told him togo gather the people. I'm concerned very
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deeply about the issues of religion andthe effect it has on people. And
just to bring you up to speed, when I first opened up, and
this, I think is about partthree, when I opened up on the
whole issue of you kill the wrongone this time, and this is a
part of that whole segment. AndI'm on my way to the greatest wrong
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one that has ever been killed.I'm on my way there. I don't
know when we'll get there, butwe're journeying that way. And I open
with the whole issue of Karl Marxand his errant, very errant, and
I want to emphasize his errant statementwhen he wanted to say simply that religion
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is the opiate of the people,and that faith in a religious environment anaesthathized,
and it makes the unbearable bearable.Things are as they are, he
is saying, because that is thewill of God. That's how he puts
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it in God, and made somepeople rich and others poor, some people
rulers, and others ruled. Religionwas the most powerful means, then devise
for keeping people in their place andmaintaining the status quo. His whole point
was it robbed their lives with ritual, It dignified their tears into prayer.
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It gave social order metaphysical in theirinevitability. So if the world is to
be changed, religion has to go. I want to give you a quote,
he says, and I quote theabolition of religion as the illusory of
happiness of the people is at thesame time the demand for their real happiness,
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the demand to give up the illusionsabout their condition, is a demand
to give up a condition that requiresillusion. Criticism has plucked imaginary flowers from
the chains, Yes, so thatman may throw off the chains and pluck
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real flowers. Religion is only theillusory sun around which man revolves, so
long as he does not revolve abouthimself unquote. Now he is putting religion
in a place where it nullifies theoperation, the intellectuality, the cognition,
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the energy, the determination of theindividual. And he was too dead to
know. In fact, he wasthe substratom of communism. In fact,
what he didn't envision that under Stalinw You know, he thought he was
(15:28):
speaking up some socialism was going tobe some wonderful utopic environment. But what
he didn't envision under Stalin was thathe was a substratum of the most brutal,
repressive regime in the history of humankind. Uh, the dream of utopia
(15:52):
actually ended up in the nightmare ofhell, because that's what they did in
Russia. Now, his view ofJudaism, however, was hostile. Yet
when you look at the Bible,you'll find that the Bible was evolved in
(16:15):
an act of defiance against the greatempires of the world. Should I go
over that again, you see commercein his socialistic substratom that built the Communist
Party, that brought all of thechaos into the world, North South Korea,
(16:38):
the North South Vietnam, all ofthe eastern countries in Europe, the
oppression was so strong and indeed,and in fact, when you study it
carefully, you will find that socialismhad more classes than upper class, middle
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class, and lower class and poorpeople. So she did not envision that
this was the beginning of the mostoppressive regime in history. Of course,
you can throw in the Nazis andthe Neo Nazis and Hitler and all of
their oppression because of their supremacy.Conversation, and you can see now how
(17:29):
man in seeking supremacy, in movingGod out, in becoming a God himself.
We're arguing now about people who aredealing with the with the Jesus and
taking Jesus out of the church.And it is so it is so limited,
and it is so man oriented,it is so religion oriented without being
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spiritual, because the Bible is notsimply a religious book, it's a spiritual
book. Let me just deal withthe Jesus peace while it's hot on my
mind. When you understand Jesus,you will understand that Jesus from his brethren
was Jewish. Jesus was a Jew, and I don't know many Jews.
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I haven't seen one yet who's gotlong flowing blonde here with blue eyes yesterday.
I've seen some blue eyes and Jews, but I've never seen a man
with the long flowing hair. AndI've never seen a six foot six bookstore
Jesus. You see, he hadno form of commliness, if you understand
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Isaiah. And when they were talkingto Jesus, he was making the point
about before Abraham was I am.And they were arguing with Jesus, and
they said, you're not even fiftyyears old yet, or he wasn't thirty
five. So there was no physicalitythat would attract you to him. And
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because he leaves himself out of oursensual perception, then I can conceive of
my Jesus in any way that Iwant to in terms of my spiritual association.
He did not come with the kindof physicality that I would have come
with. Oh man, i'd beensix foot eight or two hundred and fifty
(19:33):
pounds of proportioned protopleasant, I'd havean eight pack. No, I'd have
a ten pack and I would beOh, man, he didn't come with
that because that's not the assignment.His assignment is spiritual. This is why
he said, and I can applyit here. Man looks at outward,
a parents, God looks at theleb, the immaterial personality function. It's
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a spiritual thing in relation ship.They so so, my brothers and sisters.
Having a picture of Jesus does notmake anybody more spiritual and close to
to God. So where we arearguing over a picture of Jesus. If
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I wanted to be black, fine, If the Asians want to be Asian,
fine. If they wanted to bea white fine, Mongolian fine.
I mean historically, you gotta understandthat all of that wasn't going to work
because he was physically Jewish. TheBible was not written by Caucasians. That
(20:41):
were written or let me put itmore exactly, they were written by The
Bible was written by the majority,except for Luke was written by Semites.
Yes, Japus didn't write it.Ham didn't write it because the Bible's primarily
(21:02):
function was to deal with the Jewshistorically, and out of that came Jesus
to introduce Christianity. The whole pointis he had to come into the world.
But the emphasis is not on hishow he looked, not on whether
or not you got a statue ofhim anywhere. That's insignificant. The thing
(21:27):
is what do you have in yourheart? That's what's it all about.
So I've got that clear when weunderstand then that he had to bring And
the Bible now has always been indefiance of the great empires of the world
(21:48):
the Bible. In the Bible,God looses the bounds of slavery from his
people. He does not impose themwith an opiate called religion. Oh my
God, let my people go thepower against Mesopotamia and of course Egypt.
(22:08):
Let my people go. So whatwe have now is we have to go
back to the scene in the text, which is still poignant after four thousand
years. It has taken us totallyby surprise, even after all of these
years. And that's the text thatI'm reading in order for there to be
(22:30):
any kind of deliverance. Everybody's lookingfor a plan, but God looks for
a man, and it is importantbecause in that man God operates his plan.
Moses is born, Moses is acommonly child, Moses is hidden Pharaoh's
(22:52):
daughter goes by the river Nile.Pharaoh's daughter sees the child. Pharaoh's daughter
takes him home. Forty years inthe house, Moses is settled, enjoying
the things physically, but in hisspirit. He has been taught by his
mother the things of God. ButGod had to make a circumstance for Moses
(23:23):
to break away. And the circumstancewas Moses walks into a situation where Hebrew
is being mutilated by an Egyptian,and Moses jumps in and kills the Egyptian.
Now the only other person in theroom is the Hebrew, and yet
(23:45):
still it circulates and Moses has toflee. Forty years he's in Pharaoh's house,
and forty years he is on thebackside of the desert, forty years
complacent. Many times God uses events, Cairo's moments again, Cairo separate from
(24:11):
Chronos. Chronos is just time passing, just my watch. But there are
certain events that changes the course andthe direction of nations, the direction of
the world. And let me letme just simmer it down, the direction
of your own life. God hasallowed certain events to take place that completely
(24:40):
change the directions of mankind. TheBible says, he takes the king's heart
and he turns it like the riverwith meander. He has the power to
turn it. You know that hedid that when Mordecai was up against Hayman,
and of course in the night,God just turned his heart and the
Caius moment was established. In orderthen, for God to take Moses out
(25:06):
of the comfort of being in Pharaoh'shouse, knowing he's designated to be the
deliverer, God has to allow anevent to take place that puts Moses now
on the backside of the desert.Moses, it seems, has a tendency
for complacency until certain events have totake place. The first event, killing
(25:33):
the Egyptian was an event of theconflict between what he was taught, his
relationship to God through his mother's teaching, and the attitude and action of the
Egyptian against the Hebrew. Now,obviously, if he theirs on the side
(25:53):
of the Hebrew, then what wasput in him was more powerful than what
he was enjoying physically, as theson of Pharaoh's daughter, you can't be
more Egyptian than that. Yet stillwhat was in him was so powerful that
(26:19):
he chose the side of what hewas taught over and beyond the side of
how he was nurtured. Well,let's go over that again. He chose
the side of the word in himas opposed to the pleasures he was enjoying
(26:44):
as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.He was willing to risk his life for
somebody who was a slave based onhow he was taught. I think this
is this is very pertinent and particularlypertinent when people who have been in the
(27:12):
Bible for years and years are stilltrying to figure out and still trying to
ask other theologians and other people ofother colors. People are asking people like
me, uh, and and Iwas talking to a friend of mine and
he said, just a whole groupcame to him, and and they're asking,
(27:34):
our Caucasian brothers are asking, howdo we get rid of racist How
do we have the strength over racistrace? What? What have your Bible
been teaching you. I'll give youa real simple way, my Christian brother,
to just get over the whole issueof racism. And that's just treat
(27:56):
me the way you want to betreated. Do unto others as you would
have them do unto you. Imean, how how simple can it get
the Lord. The Lord simmered itdown. I mean, I mean,
he took this enormous burden of howto treat other people and he took it
(28:22):
out of the philosophical arena. Hetook it out of the psychological Yeah,
he put it into psychological He tookit out of out of having to have
a mass theology. He took itout of all the ritual, symbolic pious
ness of having church. And hesimply said, if you can't figure it
(28:44):
out, see how you want tobe treated, and then treat somebody that
same way. Moses is teaching.You've been in church all these years.
You've been preaching and passing and teachingpeople and collecting money. And maybe that's
all we just in the business ofchurch. Maybe that's all it is,
(29:07):
just a business. We go thereand we say whatever we need to say
for people to respond according to whatit is we need at the time.
But the truth is, if we'respiritual about it, then we understand that
the power is in the world andto practice the word. How difficult is
it to take the side of theoppress when you have been taught right,
(29:33):
And that's what Moses did. Hetook the side of the oppressed. He
took the side of where there wasinjustice. He took the side where there
was no help, whereas there wasno blessing. He took the side of
the pain that others had to bear. That's what he did. And in
(29:56):
order to take that side, wehad to give up a lifestyle that was
pleasureless. This is the difficulties wehave with our Moses is today to take
the side of certain people that arenot in your race. My evangelical brothers,
(30:19):
you have to be willing to beostracized by others who do not follow
the principles of Scripture, but alot into supremacy over everybody else in the
(30:41):
world. The reason why this diseaseis beating us up is because we're too
arrogant and pride and heartiness go beforedestruction and a fall. And look how
quickly our economy fell because we didn'tthink much of it. Oh, this
happens to everybody else in the world, but it does not happen to us
(31:04):
because we are Americans. Notice this. When I made a move to and
I can say publicly now because it'spublic business, When I was asked to
be the senior advisor to the UnificationChurch, and I made a move to
make that association and my focus wason and I should have worn my shirt
today. Peace begins with me becauseI understood something that they have been living
(31:30):
and it caught my attention, andthat is that you can't make America wealthy
when people are sick. And I'mnot only talking about this disease now,
I'm talking it'll never be wealthy whenpeople are psychologically debilitated, when people are
(31:52):
deshumanized, when people are ostracized,departmentalized. What makes America a rich and
powerful is the health of its peoplein all categories. And you know,
listen, this is a country survivalof the fittest. This is a darwin
(32:15):
is in place. Why because it'sstraight capitalism. But you have to understand
that if a few people who aredepartmentalize and ostracized, if they get sick
now I'm talking pandemic, the wholeeconomy is shut down. Now, if
(32:36):
you're not smart enough to understand thatwhat caused the economy to come down has
to be removed for it to comeback up. Whatever caused it to falter
and to fail, you have tofix that to get it up. If
(32:57):
you take the side of the oppressed, and the side of the little man,
and the side of the poor person, and the side of the person
who is facing injustice. If youface that side, you have to be
bold enough to be able to standagainst folk who don't have your view but
are in your space. You haveto be able to stand for what you
(33:22):
know is theollogically and biblically right inface of opposition from those who are closest
to you. This is why Jesussaid, on one occasion, do you
think I came that everybody would betogether that families and house And uh,
(33:42):
he said, I came, andI'm going to cause division, because when
you take a stand for what isright, you have to be able to
deal with the people who are aroundyou, and you have to be ready,
like John the Baptists, to loseyour neck, oh, rather your
(34:05):
head. And it's a critical piece, very important, because here is what's
happening. We have a group ofpeople who will support the truth quietly,
risk less Christianity. That's what we'vecome to. Martyrdom, as far as
(34:31):
we're concerned, is not of God. Martyring, my finances, Martyring,
certain relationships, Martyring, certain access, martyring, certain aggrandizing personal significance.
It has ceased to be a partof the Christian program because we have failed
(34:53):
to understand that anybody who moves forthe favor of the oppressed, the sinner,
the person who is in trouble,sacrifices have to be made and they
have to be willing to give upa life style to maintain a calling.
(35:14):
Moses is now in the backside ofthe desert and he's you know, he's
chilling. I've got away from Pharaoh. I'm some forty years out of it.
Now. If there's looking for me, they probably can't find me.
And now he's become complacent with thesheep. Now it's important to see how
God moves you from that place wherehe was just sitting in comfort zone.
(35:40):
One incident changes his life, putshim in a place now where he's moving
into another comfort zone forty years,but he is taking care of the sheep,
which is probably something he never didin Egypt. See, there are
(36:02):
times when God, in order totake certain things out of us, has
to move us into certain situations thatcaused us to have the kind of sympathy
and empathy so that when he getsready to take us to a higher place.
He has already prepared us forty years. He had to sit before the
(36:25):
Lord, the revolutionary. You gottaunderstand now, expression of God in the
immutability of his being is now toMoses as a burning bush. Now the
cause for interpretation. When I joinedas the senior advisor for the Unification Church,
(36:55):
I went in spite of and becauseI knew in my spirit that this
is a movement for the world.And with all the flack I had to
take, with all the questioning,with all the bishop is he's leaving Apostolic,
(37:17):
He's leaving Pentecostum, all the bishop, Oh my god, what's going
on with the bishop? What peopledon't understand is when you're limited, when
you're myopic in your theological and spiritualvision, some of us need to get
(37:40):
some spiritual glasses. Because this groupis prepared for this time. This group
is ready for this time. AndI'm glad to be a part of a
group that is moving for the unificationof the world. Because Europe is suffering
(38:08):
economic now because of this disease,they're going to ban Americans from coming.
We're going to go back into shutdown, which means now the economy is going
to stutter again because we didn't fixit one time. We should have fixed
it with the rest of the world, and we should have unified the approach
(38:34):
so that one group isn't healed andanother group is still sick, and another
group is getting sick and another groupis dead. We should have come together
all the leaders of the world shouldhave sat down and said, we have
a world problem that's messing with ourmoney. And America and Europe, the
(39:01):
interchange financially is astounding. I'm sureit's got to be in the trillions the
money changes from companies and countries aroundthe world, multi national companies. And
the only way to solve that isfor everybody to come together. Now the
(39:22):
Unification, Mother Moon, doctor hatjahanmun talking about peace and spreading peace and
I'm having peace valuies at church andcome under fire. But the vision was
already there, because here is avision. If we can bring religious leaders
together from all over the world.This has nothing to do with somebody trying
(39:45):
to change a doctrine and trying topull you out of your denomination. This
is having not a corner vision,not around the corner, not oh my
god, not the neighborhood vision.This is a vision of the world.
And in order to have a visionof the world, you have to interpret
(40:07):
a calling that's massive in your sight. You don't have to agree with my
calling. You don't have to agreewith how I interpret how I interpret,
because everybody's got to interpret what Godis saying to them. Isaiah had to
(40:27):
interpret his calling, Ezekiel had tointerpret his calling. Everybody who has ever
moved into a spiritual realm where Godis moving on them to do his work
because you're looking for a plan.God's looking for a man, and God's
got to get that man in hishand so that he is malleable enough to
(40:52):
operate the way God wants him tooperate in spite of what the opposition is.
And so so here's how God measuresthe strength of the individual or hear
how you should measure the strength ofwhat God is calling you to do.
And that is when I interpret mycalling for anything that God has shown me
(41:17):
the need for. Am I willingto lose friendship with people who don't see
it and who don't have the intensitythat I have because He didn't call you
to do what he called me todo. And I had to interpret that
(41:38):
calling in a grandiose way, becauseI got a grandiose job to do.
And if I don't see theanimity ofwho I am within the calling of God.
Notice, Notice, notice the firstthing Moses wants to say when God
(41:59):
says end him down there is whoam I? Did I get that right?
Who am I? Who am I? I wonder? Do you see
the interpretation of your calling? Goddid not call you simply to make money.
(42:24):
God didn't call you to, youknow, to preach to his people
who are oppressed and a lot ofinjustice. God didn't call you just to
put money in your pocket driver Cadillacor Rose Royce or whatever you drive.
God didn't call you to wear whateverwe wear and to live and call us
for that. When God reaches forMoses, Moses is comfortable, and God
(42:52):
moves us out of our comfort zonesin order to do great work. So
Moses is asking because when he looksat what God is saying for him to
do, when he understands first ofall, that I already been betrayed by
these people. These people have alreadyhurt me. I've already been looked at.
(43:17):
My man. I was living goodman. And because I stepped into
a situation. Now, look whereI am. Now, I've got to
be over here in the backside ofthe desert. Boy, I can't figure
that one out. That one reallygets me. I'm over here in the
backside of the desert. I wasdoing good until I started getting involved with
(43:38):
what my mother told me. Iwas doing really good until I got serious
about the word. I was doingjust fine when I had no conscience for
the suffering of the oppressed. Iwas doing really great when I didn't think
about their children not having the sameprivileges that mine hath. I was doing
(44:04):
good until I decided that maybe theBible is real and maybe God expects more
of me than I'm putting out.I was doing good until I start fooling
around with these four people down inthe inner city. I was doing well
until I start marching. Until theysaw my face on the TV as one
of the marchers. I was doingreally good. I decided to follow Jesus
(44:30):
and decided to make a stand forwhat's right. So for everybody's asking,
how am I to live after this, Well, the only way to live
now is for God to provide.Once you have moved into His calling and
you have to be willing to losefriends. To be a friend of God,
(44:54):
you have to be willing to changeyour lifestyle. Your family gets what
are you doing? Let me justgive an example of what I mean.
Here is Martin Luther King just living. Great young preacher, great young preacher.
And you have to ask yourself thisquestion. And I'm talking to my
(45:15):
sisters. Now, if you weremarried to doctor King and he told you,
and I'm talking about the now,the now pastor's wife, the now
affluent woman of God in first ladynow, and he told you he was
(45:37):
going down to Memphis to deal withsome workers, some workers who are oppressed
and financially distressed and treated like secondclass citizens. And he said, I'm
going down there, and I thinkI may lose my life. Do you
know the kind of vigilant prayer?And do you know how we would drive?
(45:59):
If you were my I'd say thenetted And what am I gonna do?
The issue is there is something thatis in us that is so strong
and so powerful that it calls forinterpretation. Because God is saying what I
want you to do is so greatthat you've got to understand that. It's
(46:23):
not a question of who you are. It's a question of whether I am
with you or not. So whenhe asked the question who am I?
Who am I? To go toPharaoh, Moses, understand how God works.
(46:45):
God didn't intend for you to deliverthe children of Israel one by one,
chilling one. You delivered the killthat Egyptian, you deliver this one.
He didn't intend for that. Godintended for all six hundred thousand men,
(47:09):
two and a half to three anda half million people to leave,
all at once. God intended todeliver everybody, all at once. So,
Moses, you can't do this byyourself because asking who am I,
(47:31):
anybody in the world would ask whoam I? Because the vision that I
have for you is so brandiose,you can't do it by yourself. Money
can't buy it, politics can't solveit. You have to have a relationship
with Me in order to solve it. And this is why, because your
(47:52):
mother gave you the word. Andthat's why visionaries. I wish I could
talk to you about visionaries. Thevision of visionaries continue and continue and continue
and continue into generations because the visionis so grandiose that one generation can accomplish
(48:13):
it. It takes the power ofmultiple generations and multiple people in conjunction with
the spirit of God to bring aboutthe grandiose vision that God gives individuals.
The problem with us is the onlygrandiose vision we seem to have is how
to make more money. But atthe end of the day, there is
(48:35):
a vision that God gives that youput everything you have on the altar to
fulfill what God wants you to fulfill. And the altar now is not an
altar at the church. It's analtar of sacrifice at the feet of God
in order to do what he says, Who am I? Who am I?
(48:57):
When I look at how great thisvision is? What all of these
people following me out of Egypt andknowing Pharaoh like I do, Who am
I? And the answer is,I am with you, And I'm gonna
give you a token And this isthe one I told you to march.
And I can see now I'm gonnahave to come back with this maybe on
Wednesday or next Sunday. God's willing, as the Muslims say, Inshallah,
(49:25):
I am going to give you atoken. And when I think about this
particular sign and token that God isgiving Moses and I think about Gideon who
asked the same question, who amI? Because when God calls you to
a great vision, and when hechanges the dynamics at the Chiros moment,
(49:49):
that is when he brings that change, that season change. He brings that
season change. When people are equippedfor that change he brings. Is that
change when he has somebody prepared.It ain't. It's not a change that's
gonna be caught catching somebody sleeping.Somebody's gonna be prepared for that change.
(50:09):
He's preparing you right now for achange in your life. He's preparing you.
And quiet as it kept, thespirit was making intercession with groanings that
cannot be uttered. And God hadprepared you silently for the pandemic that you're
facing right now. You will notcapitulate, You will not fall short.
You will not lose your mind.Now I don't care what you lose,
(50:32):
but your strength is you will notlose your spirit. You will not lose
the word that's embedded in you,and you will not lose that calling for
the injustice and for the things thatpeople are suffering. Because God is not
about the economy. God is abouthis people. Did you think God cared
(51:04):
how Egypt's economy would be totally devastatedwhen six hundred thousand men two and a
half to three and a half millionpeople slaves free labor under heavy oppression.
(51:27):
Did you think God cared about itcollapsing and them not being as powerful as
they used to be. Do youthink God cared about them being pursued and
drowning Pharaoh's army in the Red Sea. He didn't care about that. What
God cared about is what you'll findall to the Bible, Mercy, love,
(51:57):
justice, That's what he can about. If God cared about us being
in church every Sunday, singing anddancing and shouting and falling all over each
other, kicking over the benches,a hooping man shaking a bike. If
you think God cared about that,then he wouldn't have allowed us to be
(52:19):
talking to you like this today.We would still be down there doing that.
He makes chiros moments, he movesthings, and when he moves things,
he then puts you in a situationwhere you understand the immutability of who
he is. And he showed thatto Moses in the burning bush that would
(52:39):
not go out, And there mustbe a fire in somebody that will not
go out until what God has setbefore us will be accomplished. And whoever
you have to align with, andyou better be careful who God has send
(53:00):
you to align with. But becauseof your myopic theological and spiritual disposition,
you can't make the right kind ofassociations and you can't network properly enough to
get something done. And that isimportant in every aspect of your life.
(53:22):
And that's why when you say blacklives matter, if it matters financially,
then black folk got to get togetherfinancially. If it matters economically, that's
finance. Then we've got to networkour strengths. Yes, yes, yes,
and stop sitting around depending on somebodyto give you a hand out.
When you got when you're strong enoughto move out of Egypt into Canaan,
(53:46):
God wasn't sending you on that journey. And when the leadership comes, then
you gotta follow that leader. Andwhen we talk about peace on earth,
we gotta follow the leadership that Godhas given us to enact that. Because
many of us are still in ourlittle Egypts, not only our financial Egypt,
(54:08):
but our theological Egypt, are denominationalEgypt. We are still locked in
to the point where we can't move. And here's what God is saying.
I'm not gonna be with you ifyou stay in your short sighted, myopic
personal vision. But I will bewith you if you step out on this
(54:36):
grandiose vision. I will be withyou because you can't do this by yourself.
And here's the token. I'm closingon that today. I don't know
how long I've been. I knowyou stay with me for a while and
then you go get something to eatand come back, or you know you're
at home. Notice carefully, thefaith that God is pulling out of Moses
(55:01):
a little different from Gideon. BecauseGideon said, show me he fleeced it,
let the fleece be dry, andlet the dew be on the grass
around it. And God did that. It wasn't enough. He turned around
and said, now let the fleecebe wet and let the grass around it
(55:22):
be dry. And he did that, and then he got some comfort.
Here's what God said to Moses.The token I'm gonna give to you is
when you come out of Egypt.I ain't given you nothing before you go.
The token I'm gonna give you iswhen you come out of Egypt.
(55:44):
You will worship me on this mountain. There is a step that we all
have to take. The step wehave to take is to understand our calling,
to interpret our calling as individuals.And you cannot allow other people to
decide your interpretation of your calling,because your interpretation of your calling is going
(56:12):
to be the fuel that moves youinto action. And the level of your
interpretation of your calling is the levelof your understanding what God would have you
to do. And when it's humongous, then it's indication is you can't do
(56:39):
this by yourself if I'm not withyou, So you have to have Me
with you, and you have tohave the people around you who have your
spirit understand that's a critical piece becausepeople don't understand the strength of helping.
(56:59):
I am in my own world.I'm a bishop of many churches. I'm
a bishop and pastor of a greatchurch. I can't get a preaching and
say I wish I had a church. I can't say that. I go
all around the world and yet stillwhen I see something that I can become
(57:22):
a help in. See God callsme not only to be ahead of a
church. Really, he's the head. He didn't only call me to be
a spinal cord. He has calledme to be arms and legs to other
(57:43):
spinal cords who he is their head. Understand that even though I have a
vision that God has given me forwhat he wants me to do, he
has also given me vision for connectionto other people's visions. And that's why
(58:08):
you will take the side of theHebrew in spite of how it changes your
life, in spite of who runsaway from you. And God is saying,
it's a faith walk because you gottastep out on interpreting and you've got
to know in your spirit by faith. Notice now know by faith that it's
(58:34):
me because what I'm asking you todo is going to be great. I
gotta come back and do the restof this. I hope you're not bored
with it. But I'm saying toall of you children of God. God
is saying to us in this hour, this season, this Cairos, take
the side of the oppressed, nomatter what you lose here and understand this
(59:00):
that He will be with you.Father. I thank you for your word
today. I thank you for thespirit that I feel moving through the homes
of those who have tuned in.I feel that spirit of encouragement. Yet
(59:22):
I feel that spirit of determination,I feel that spirit of intensity for doing
your will, and I claim thevictory right now, and I speak to
the lives of those who wanna besaved today. I wanna speak to the
lives of those who are saved,Lord, who need you now to just
(59:44):
nudge them into doing unto others asthey want others to do unto them.
And I speak salvation to everyone thathears my voice. Make a way for
baptism, make a way for thereception of the Holy Spirit, make a
way for the Gospel to be enactedin the lives of those who desire it.
(01:00:07):
And I claim it done in Jesus'name. Amen, Amen, Amen.
When it comes to giving, andwe thank God for all of you
who have been faithful, yes,yes, when this thing started, twenty
twenty five percent down and still haveto pay notes and all those other things.
(01:00:31):
And I'm praying that God will turnyour situation around. If we shut
down any further, it's gonna bemore difficult. So I'll have to pray
for financial guessings to come from whereverGod has got to work it out.
But the website, of course,is a city of refuge La dot org.
(01:00:51):
The app is Noel Jones Ministries.And with that app, I need
five hundred people to subscribe to theapp today five I've got a wonderful series
coming in going to do the artof exceptional preaching, and it's only gonna
be for those who have that app. I need you to do that.
(01:01:14):
We're gonna do some special things,some webinars, and the app is going
to be very t for what I'mgoing to do. The cash up,
of course, is a dollar signCity of refuge La. The text to
give is c O r l Atwo eight eight eight three six four four
(01:01:37):
four eight three. C O rl A so eight eight eight three six
four four four eight three. Ilove you. Wear your mask. Get
your mask on. Come on,get your mask on. If you're going
out, get it on. Keepyour hands once, stay at distance,
(01:02:02):
and when you get your mask off, be sure that you're distance from others.
God bless you, Heaven, Smileon you. I can't wait to
see you.
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Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.