Bishop TD Jakes - Leaning into Uncertainty - Potter's Touch

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Wow, are you ready. I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm ready.
So I want you to get your Bibles. Go to
the Book of Romans. That's where I'm going to be
working tonight, the eighth chapter of the Book of Romans,
and open up your heart for the Word of God.
And to those of you that just logged in, if
you did not get an opportunity to give through how

(00:33):
the class the prompters are going to come up giving
you an opportunity to sow into the Word, the rich
soil of the Word that I'm going to be sharing tonight.
I believe it's going to bless you, and I'm excited
about sharing it. Don't miss the opportunity to become one
with the text by allowing the Word to not only

(00:54):
attach in your spirit and in your heart, but affect
the way you give and the way you live. Okay,
we're going to be in Romans chapter eight, verse eighteen
through thirty, and if you're ready, we're gonna work through
this and it's going to be a good I got
my Bibles out, I got my paths out, I got
my no paths. I'm ready to get down in the

(01:15):
Word of God. Now I'm gonna be talking about leaning
into uncertainty, and that's not something we normally want to
lean into. That's something we normally back away from. But
I want to talk to you today about leaning into
uncertainty and what happens in the life of a believer

(01:35):
when we lean into uncertainty. We got a lot of
ground to cover tonight, so let's start. I'll be reading
out of the niv Okay, and I think you'll be
blessed Romans eight eighteen through thirty. I consider that our
present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that

(01:57):
will be revealed in us. For the Creation waits in
eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.
For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its
own choice, but by the will of the one who
subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be

(02:19):
liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the
freedom and the glory of the children of God. We know,
we know, we know that the whole creation has been groaning,
as in the pains of childbirth, right up to the

(02:39):
present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have
the first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly, as we
wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship the redemption of
our body. For in this hope we were saved. But

(03:00):
hope that is seen is not hope at all. Who
hopes for what they already have. But if we hope
for what we do not yet have, we wait for
it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us
in our weakness. We do not know, we do not know,

(03:23):
we do not know what we ought to pray for.
But the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless grows.
And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of
the Spirit. Because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in
accordance to the will of God. And we know that

(03:49):
in all things God works for the good of those
who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose,
for those God for those God foreknew. He also predestined
to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he might be the first born among many brothers and sisters.

(04:13):
And those he predestined he also called, and those he
called he also justified, and those he justified he also glorified.
Now tonight, brothers and sisters, the ladies and gentlemen, Christian friends,
and those who are just observing out of curiosity. We're

(04:36):
going to be talking about leaning into uncertainty. But as
they preambled to it, I want to point out that
we are we are dealing with the Book of Romans,
and that alone that Paul is writing to a church.
It is a church, a group of believers in Rome

(05:01):
that he looks forward to seeing. Most people think that
he wrote this while he was in Corinth in anticipation
of his journey to the Roman Church, and he writes
to them, and it is originally called the Epistle of
Saint Paul to the Romans, and then it has later

(05:24):
been abbreviated to the Book of Romans. We understand when
we look at this text that this is more than
just a letter. It is much more than a letter.
It's almost a dissertation, as it were, to the Roman Church.
But what I want you to notice is the term

(05:47):
Romans itself really flies in the face of the way
that we think about faith today, to think that faith
ignores culture. It transcends culture, but it does not ignore culture,
or we wouldn't have books like the Book of Hebrews
and the Book of Romans that are cut to the
continuity of nationalities, and yet we as Christians and believers

(06:12):
are often offended or or we raise our eyebrows at
the African Methodist Episcopal Church or or some the National
Association African National Association of Colored People. We raise issue
to anything that is specific to a nationality, or specific

(06:36):
to an ethnicity, or specific to a culture. But our
Bible is specific to cultures, being able to speak the
same truth but in the language that is accessible to
different types of people. Yeah, yeah, that's something to think about.
That's something to think about. And when we have these

(06:58):
contemporary debates around black Christians and white Christians and so
forth and so on, and we have this notion of
God's color blindness, we ignore the Greek Orthodox Church. We
ignore the fact that God doesn't have to go blind
to what he created. He can speak to the continuity

(07:23):
of each of us and love all of us equally
without having to look over anybody's uniquenesses to reach them. Hence,
we have the Book of Romans because there are better
There are certain examples that are given to the Roman
Church that would not be necessary to be given when
writing the Book of Hebrews or some other epistle, and

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Paul has the ampedextrious ability to become all things to
all people that some might be saved. Some people can't
do that. Some people aren't multifaceted enough to speak to
different types of peace people and still be true to
the core mission of the church and the soundness of
the Gospel. But Paul exemplifies it to us in writing

(08:11):
to the Romans period. He bypasses through mail all the
other cultures and goes right into the substratum of the
unique nuances surrounding the Romans. Because Paul is grace that way,
and he says, I became all things to all people

(08:31):
that some might be saved, because he has the ability
to be translucent, as it were, and his thinking and
his theology to be able to blend into various settings.
Do you, And it's important to think about. But let
me stop playing around and get down to business. But

(08:52):
before we get too deep into it, I often wrestle
with what affects us the most. Do we as Christians
affect the culture without the culture affecting us? Or are
we affected by the culture? And why am I talking

(09:13):
about this? He says, I consider that this present suffering.
Let me put it right in the language that he uses.
I consider that our present sufferings are not worthy to
be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.
And I wanted to talk about our present sufferings and

(09:36):
how do we experience God. He's one God, There's no
question about that. Behold O Israe the Lord. That God
is one, and besides him there is no other. But
how we experience him has a lot to do with
where we are seated. Let me go down into this

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a little bit. I noticed when I was a little boy,
we used to sing songs like I'm going through. I'm
going through with the Lord's despise few It's a hymn.
You might not know it, but it was a hymn
that we sung. You can have this old wide world,

(10:19):
but give me Jesus. I'll take Jesus for mine. Long
as I got King Jesus, I don't need nobody else.
All of these songs are born toward or in the
midst of the depression, and we almost almost demonize success

(10:46):
as if it were success or Christ one or the other.
Give up the world, and come on and give up
the world, and give up stuff. And the church sung
a lot about that when they were broke. But when
times got better, people stopped singing those kinds of songs,

(11:11):
and they started singing songs like I am the Seed
of Abraham, that I'm blessed in the city, I'm blessed
in the field, I'm blessed, I'm blessed, I'm blessed, And
we start singing about blessings. And I wondered, as we
took that turn, and nobody's singing I'm going through, and
nobody's talking about silver and gold have I none? And

(11:33):
nobody's talking about suffering. I wonder if the culture affects
how we experience God. Let's go deeper. Can you think
with me tonight? Come and think with me tonight. I
know several CEOs of fortune one hundred companies that are Christians,

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that really love the Lord. But how they experienced God
versus this other group I know, for example, who are
incarcerated and locked up in prison and they are only
let out at certain times to worship the Lord from
a cell block is different from how somebody in a

(12:18):
third world country who may be on the lower end
of the economic spectrum of that country. They are all
praying to the same God, but how they experience that
God has a lot to do with where they are seated.
And I suggest to you, my brothers and sisters, that

(12:40):
the sufferings of this present time, not being worthy to
be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us,
is a declaration of where we are seated because the
suffering of this present time and this whole notion of
God being the God of the oppressed, and I embrace

(13:02):
it fully. And he cares about the old president, he
cares about the down trobles. Please don't misunderstand me. I
absolutely get that. I am a proponent of it. I
believe it, I understand it. My only questioning about it
is is when the oppressed cease to be oppressed, does
God cease to be their god? If he is the

(13:25):
God of the oppressed, when the oppression is over, are
they then forsaken? So the reality is, while we have
one God, we sit in different perspectives. And the bank
president experiences God in a different way from the job
applicant who is believing God for a job okay, And

(13:51):
the president is believing the same God, but not for
a job, And their faith is pointed in different directions,
and what they are happy about, and what they're excited about,
and what they claim to be a great message has
a lot to do well where you were when you
heard it. The greatest sermon you ever heard came from

(14:15):
not so much the lips of the preacher, but it
was great because it was ministering to where you were
seated at the time. Paul writes about the sufferings of
this present time, and I thought it was interesting to
talk about it tonight because of the sufferings of this

(14:37):
present time, and even in this present time in our country,
in our world. The sufferings of this present time depends
on where you are seated. Whether the sufferings of this
present time is the fear that your retirement, your for
a one K plan is going to be eaten through,
or whether the sufferings of this present time is that

(14:57):
you lost a job and your children have an EA
in two days. We don't even suffer a lot, but
we all suffer, yes, the successful sufferer, the unsuccessful sufferer.
No one escapes suffering when it's suffering time. And I

(15:22):
want to suggest to you that the suffering is more
paramount in this Western culture that we live in, because
we have for years taught that express a God that
almost started to sound like Santaclaus. It's yours, you know,
it's mine. What God has for you is for you.

(15:45):
I'm not against any of that, those songs, I'm not
against any of them, But I'm talking about how we
experience God and how we express that experience has a
lot to do with where we are seated. When God
says to Moses, I am that I am, it certainly

(16:05):
embraces the fact that God can be and do whatever
he wants to do, that he's sovereign, that he's absolute,
But it also expresses the fact that he is not definable,
because how we experience God is as diverse as the
eyes that behold him. And Paul writes in this text

(16:27):
about the suffering of this present time. He rips the
Western world scab away from our thinking that experiencing God
is all about stuff. Though God does bless his people,
it's not a transactional relationship, you know, it's not a

(16:51):
transactional relationship. It's not the kind of relationship where I
give you my life, you give me a car. I
give you my life, you give me a house. I
give you my life, you give me a degree. I
give you my life. You give me a wife. No no,
no no no no no no no. This is not transactional.
And I talked about this previously. Whether you have really

(17:13):
learned how to abase and abound this relationship cannot be
based on circumstances that might be occurring at this moment
in your life. And Paul now centers into NIV it says,
I consider, But I like the King James language here.
He says, I reckon that the sufferings of this present world.

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And listen, he's showing you how he thinks about suffering.
So when he's showing us how he thinks about it,
he says, I couldn't stop the suffering, but I changed
the way I thought about it. I reckon. I reason,
I rationalize that the sufferings of this present time are

(18:00):
not worthy to be compared on a scale, on a
scale compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us.
I want to get down into this because I think
it's important that you understand it, because this is the
time that all of us are experiencing some degree of suffering,

(18:20):
whether it's anxiety, whether it is reality, whether it is
impending danger, whether it is past trauma, whether it is
the loss of loved ones, whether it is the uncertainty,
the ambiguity of what's going to happen next. We're not sure.
We think that we have a vaccine coming, how that's

(18:42):
going to work. We're not sure how it's going to
work on different age groups and different types of body conditions.
We're not sure will there be any kind of side effects.
We're not sure how long will it take to get it.
We're not sure we think it will bring the economy back.
The ambiguity, uncertainty is itself is tortured to a soul

(19:07):
that likes to settle into absolutes. But what do we
do when we're going through a time where there are
few absolutes, and we are uncertain, and we don't know
when the phone rings, what's going to be on the
other end. When we open up an email. We don't
know what it's going to say when people text us.
We have certain anxieties because we're uncertain, because we're living

(19:30):
with uncertainty. But Paul says, if you can't change anything else,
change how you think about it. He says, I reckon.
I decided I think about it this way, that the
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be
compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us,

(19:53):
he said, I can change the suffering, but I changed
the way I thought about the suffering. Are you getting
to anything tonight. I couldn't change the fact that my
husband left me, but I changed the way I thought
about being left. I couldn't change the fact that I
lost my business, but I changed the way I thought

(20:14):
about losing my business. I couldn't change the fact that
we had to downsize our dream home and now I'm
back into apartment. But I changed the way I thought
about it. I reckon that the sufferings of this present world.
I couldn't change the fact that I had been infected
by the barriers, but I changed the way I thought

(20:34):
about it. I couldn't change the fact that I had
a miscarriage, but I changed the way I thought about it.
He said, I waited on a scale and decided that
the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to
be compared to the glory that shall be revealed. In
other words, I don't know how he was suffering. I

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don't know what was going on in the country at
the time. I don't know what was going on in
career that precipitated the writing of this letter. And I
definitely don't know what was going through his mind at
the moment that he picked up his pen and talks
about the suffering of this present time. Because he's suffering
in a way that he doesn't tell, and some of
us in the Bible class right now are suffering in

(21:18):
a way that we do not tell. It's just the
sufferings of this present time becomes a catch all category
for things that are not even mentionable. He doesn't tell
us with specificity what the sufferings were, but he does
tell us with great clarity how he thought about the
sufferings of this present time. I reckon. So the text

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starts out with how he thinks about it, that the
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be
compared to the glory that shall be revealed enough. He
threw his anchor forward. So what he does is saying
better is coming, better is coming, better is coming, and

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better is so much better that it's not even worthy
to be compared to the sufferings that I'm going through
right now. Our miniscule, their myopic in comparison to the
magnitude of the glory that shall be revealed. It's God
giving us double for our trouble. It's it's increase, it's abundance.

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It's the harvest being bigger than the seed. It's it's
the fruit being bigger than the root. He says, whatever
I'm going through right now doesn't even compare to the
glory that shall be revealed in a so much it so.
I may have lost some things. I may have lost
a limb, I may have lost some time, I may
have lost some friends. I may have lost some opportunities.

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But I refuse to give up my hope. Hope centers
around the glory worry that shall be revealed in us. Now,
what kind of glory that is I cannot describe to you.
I do not know whether that glory is tangible or spiritual.

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I do not know whether that glory encapsulates the way
that I suffer. I don't know that God is going
to return it to me in the currency of my suffering,
or if the suffering is going to be the economic
currency of a transition. That is to say, I take
currency and use it to get other things. I don't

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know whether God is going to reward me in the
way that I suffer, or the way that I suffer,
is a down payment on a glory that is much
bigger and more important than how I suffer, he said,
But I know it is not in vain. My suffering
is not in vain. My suffering is not abuse. My
suffering is not that God has turned me over to

(23:55):
the enemy and allowed him to have his way with me.
My suffering is going to a result. I tell you
what I like to think about it. It's like the
suffering you have before surgery is very painful. I generally
don't get a surgery unless there's enough pain that drives
me to the hospital and makes me have to have
a surgery. And at the point that I get ready

(24:17):
to have suffering, you have surgery. I have suffering to
trade pains. I know when they rolled me into the
operating room, I am going into the room because of pain.
And I know that if the surgery is successful, I
will still have pain afterwards, but it won't be the

(24:38):
same pain. The pain before the surgery is a pointless,
endless pain. The pain after the surgery is the pain
of recovery. And it's a little different in the way
I process that pain, because now I know that that
pain is healing and not just aggravation. Does that make

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sense to you? Are you? Are you tracking with me?
Are you tracking with me tonight? Because because because where
we're going with this. He goes on to talk about
the creation, uh waits in eager expectation for the children
of God to be revealed, and and then he goes
into this whole siloquy, as it were, about the whole

(25:26):
creation groaning and travailing in pain. The whole creation is lurching.
Imagine a woman on a birthing table with her legs
up and her knees pointed toward heaven, and her feet
planted down on the floor, and she's writhing in pain
and her stomach is rolling and rocky. He said, that's

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what's going on with the whole Earth's travailing. But look
at how he describes the pain of the whole earth.
He says that that the world has gone into travail.
Good God, a mercy. You can say what you want to,
but the world has gone into travail, lurching and writhing,

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and earthquakes and and and and hurricanes and tornadoes and fires,
and the world has gone into travail and and ethnicities
Ethnos against Ethnos. The Bible says generation in the last
day's generation shall be against generation. The Greek word there
is Ethnos against Ethnos. Ethnicity is fighting with ethnicity. And

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the world has gone into a travail travailing. The world
is travailing, the economy is travailing, the stock market is travailing.
The financial health is well is travailing, the the the
the the interaction between nations is in travail. The whole

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earth travailth and pain until now, and not only they,
but we, but we are selves. Let me find it
in the NIV. I'm quoting out of King James. Wait,
let me find it in the NIV. He goes on
talking about but we are shelves who have the first

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fruits of the spirit grown inwardly. They've grown outwardly, but
we grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adapt
adaptation to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. He says,
even the Church doesn't escape. We're seeing the outer travail

(27:40):
of the world, but we areselves also grown inwardly. I
want to talk to some people tonight who have been
groaning inwardly. We have the first fruits of the spirit.
But that does not mean that we do not groan inwardly.
That does not mean that we are not in the

(28:01):
lurches of transition, and that we are not dealing with uncertainty.
The whole earth is travailing, Yes, it's travailing with uncertainty, destabilization.
Those things that used to be established are now shaking.
Those things that used to be absolute are now abstract.

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Those things that used to be a certain and trusted
influence have now ambiguity and are questionable. And everything now
is debatable. Everything, everything is debatable, Everything is debateing. You
can't say anything on any platform that doesn't raise debate
with somebody somewhere. There's gonna be a fight about it.

(28:47):
If you say it's a beautiful day, somebody's gonna say
not to me. Whatever it is, good morning. Who says
good morning? Why are you saying everything is debatable today?
Because the whole earth is groaning and in travail, and
people are not polite when they're in pain. And we ourselves,

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even those of us who have the first fruits of
the spirit, we also grown not so much outwardly, but angwardly.
We growan, We grown because of the uncertainty. We're grown
because we're waiting, and we're in a holding pattern, and

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the glory hasn't been revealed yet, and we're in the
middle of the suffering, and we crouch down into our
faith because that is all we have. It's the thing
that we hope for, that this is gonna make sense

(30:03):
in a minute, that the sufferings of this present time
will not compare to the glory they shall be revealed
in us. And so we who have the first fruits
of the spirit, grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for
the for our adaption to sonship, which he defines as

(30:24):
a redemption of our bodies. I won't get lost into eschatology,
I really could, but the groaning, ultimately you realize it's
what I'm groaning for is to be out of this
this shell. I'm in, this decaying shell. I'm in decaying physically, decaying, emotionally, decaying, financially.

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There's always some kind of way of reminding me that
this is not it. Sh don't tell them, but the
acquisition of this old, wide world is not it. And
so we've grown within ourselves desiring to be clothed with
something that is not in conflict. Okay, I am now

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covered with something that is. The container is in conflict
with the content. The content is I have this treasure,
but I have it in earthen vessels. And the content
and the container are in constant conflict. The content is holy,

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the container is human. The content is divine. The container
is fleshly, the content is supernatural, the container is natural.
The content loves God, the container loves the world. And
there's a conflict between the content and the container that

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creates a discomfort and an uncertainty, because at times I
yield to the content and at times I yield to
the container. Oh wretched man that I am, who shall
deliver me from the conflict that exists between the content
and the container. There is a wrestling match. So I'm

(32:27):
tired when I lay down, and I'm tired when I
get up. How I desire to be clothed with that
which is from above, so that there won't be any
conflict between the container and the content leads me in conflict,

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and part of the conflict exists around the uncertainty. What
do you do when you need to be sure but
you are not sure? What do you do when you
need stability, but everything is shaking. The whole earth is travailing.
What do you do when you need to be able

(33:08):
to anchor into something that is absolute and yet everything
around you is trembling. And that's why I'm talking tonight
about leaning into uncertainty. The only way you can lean
into uncertainty is to put your hope in God. When

(33:28):
everything the Bible said, everything that can be shaken will
be shaken, so that those things that cannot be shaken
will remain. And all around you everything is shaking, and
you need something solid. I've read the stats on the
nuns in the church say that people are moving away

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from their faith, and people are moving away from God,
and they're saying that Judeo Christian principles are becoming antiquated
and so forth, and and that might be true, but
it's not my experience. I'm seeing people run to church
and run and online, and I'm saying numbers escalating every
day as people are running away from the shaking of

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the world, trying to find something that is solid to
hold on to. So I've read the reports, and thank
you Barnes for your reports and the stats and all
that you offered up. But my experiences to me. Whether
people want to accept the labels we put on them,
that's a different conversation. They don't like the labels. But

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the solidness of having a solid faith when everything around
is shaking is important to dealing with the uncertainty of
the times. No, Hebrews eleven and one tells us how
about these times? It says now. Faith is a substance

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of things hoped for. It is evid of things not seen.
It is the evidence of things not seeing. It's the
only proof I've got left that where I'm at will
not last, that the sufferings of this present world are
not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall
be revealed enough. I embrace that by faith. So when

(35:21):
I lean into uncertainty, I lean into the uncertainty, not
because I lack uncertainty, but because I have faith as
an anchor that has gripped into what I'm hoping for
and not what is shaking and falling apart. My faith

(35:44):
is the substance, the substratum, the ingredients of the thing
that I hope for. My faith is the eggs, the butter,
and the milk and the sugar of the cake that
I hoped for that if I've got the raw ingredients

(36:05):
of faith, I've got the ability to deliver the thing
that I hope for. It is the evidence admissible in
court of the things not see. I submit my faith.
So Paul says, this is how you think in times
of uncertainty. He says, you've got to reckon that the

(36:27):
sufferings of this present time don't even compare to the
glory they shall come out of it. I like what
they said Exodus. The Bible says that when Farah got
ready to persecute the children of Israel, that he learned
something that the more he afflicted them, the more they grew. So,

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in other words, the greater the suffering, the greater the growth.
The more he tried to make it hard on them,
the more they exploded and multiplied. And if the enemy,
the principle this world, had been wise, he would have
never crucified the Lord, the Bible says, for had he
been smart, he wouldn't have crucified the Lord, because suffering

(37:10):
brings increase. For I reckon, so this is how I
think about it, that the sufferings of this present time
are not worthy to be compared to the glory that
shall be revealed in us. Are you getting something out
of this tonight? So we started out talking about what
Paul things that he reckons. This is how he thinks

(37:33):
about it, and the reason how he thinks about it
is important because how you think deals with where you've
grown inwardly can be best combatd not by what you
say outwardly, but how you think about it. Because you're

(37:56):
not groaning on the outside, you groan inwardly. Let's visit
that again. It's important that we understand that the whole
creation has been groaning, as in childbirth in this present time.

(38:18):
Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the fresh
fruits of the spirit grown inwardly, as we wait eagerly
for their adaptation to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.
For in this, in this hope, we were saved. But
hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who

(38:39):
hopes for what they already have. But if we hope
for what we do not have, we wait for it
patiently in the same way the Spirit helps us in
our weakness. The Spirit watches now, he's now showing you
the advantage that we who had the first fruits of

(39:01):
the spirit had is not that we don't grown. It's
that we've grown inwardly. While they've grown outwardly. We grown inwardly.
But he goes on to tell us in the same way,
the Spirit helps us in our weakness to hear. The
Spirit helps us in our uncertainty. The Spirit helps us
in our ambiguity. The Spirit helps us in our crisis.
The Spirit helps us in our pain. The Spirit helps

(39:24):
us in our trauma. The Spirit helps us in our depression.
The Spirit helps us in our fear. The Spirit helps
us in our anxiety. The Spirit helps us in our frustration.
And the Spirit helps us in our worry. It's not
then we don't have it, but the Spirit helps us.
Is there anybody out there that the Spirit helped If
you're out there and you're listening at me and the

(39:44):
Spirit helped you, I want you to type right now.
The Spirit helped me. The Spirit helped me. I would
have lost my mind, but the Spirit helped me. I
would have thrown in the tie, but the Spirit helped me.
I would have committed suicide, but the Spirit helped me.
It helped me in my weakness. Ah, oh, blessed name,
I'm about to get happy now in the same way

(40:06):
the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not
know what we ought to pray for. We do not
know said that, we do not know. We do not
know what we ought to pray for. We do not know.
We do not know what we ought to pray for.

(40:26):
We do not know. Everything is so uncertain that we
don't even know what to pray for. We don't know
whether to pray to keep the house or whether it
be better to let the house go. We don't know
whether to pray to keep the marriage or it be
better to let the marriage go. We do not know.
I can't tell you how many time they're talking to
people right now who don't even know what to pray for.

(40:49):
I don't know whether to pray for my daughter to
come back home, or pray for or not to come
back home. I don't know whether to pray for my
son to come out or you might come out here
and get killed. I don't know what to pray for.
We do not know. We do not know, we do
not know, we do not know. All of this is
about information. We do not know, we do not know.

(41:11):
It's funny because in verse twenty two, the Bible says
clearly we know that the whole creation has been growning
as in Pains of Travail. So in verse twenty two
we're talking about what we know, but now in verse
twenty six, we're talking about what we do not know.

(41:35):
How do you balance what you know? That's what you
do not know? And every last one of us has
things that we know simultaneously with things that we do
not know. We know that the whole creation is growing.
We do not know what we are to pray for,

(41:58):
but the Spirit itself intercedes for us through wordless growthings.
The Spirit interceeds for us. It's not just your prayer partner,
it's not just your pastor, it's not just the church mother.

(42:20):
The Spirit of God itself interceeds for us and our
weakness as we deal with what we do not know,
as we deal with leaning into uncertainty. We can lean
into uncertainty because we have higher intelligence. The Spirit itself
interceeds for us. Why does it intercede for us because

(42:45):
we do not know, We do not know, We do
not know, but he knows. We do not know what
we ought to pray for, But the Spirit himself and
it seeds for us through wordless groanings. And he who
searches our hearts knows the mind of the spirit, because

(43:07):
the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance to the
will of God. So the perfect prayer comes from within
my soul, not out of my head. In my soul,
not out of my head. When the Spirit takes over,
when the language of the Spirit takes over, when the
intelligence of the Holy Spirit takes over. The perfect prayer

(43:28):
comes from the Spirit, because he knows what is the
will of God for me, whether this is to be
endured or rebuked, whether this is to be suffered, or
whether it's to be stumped on. The Spirit itself knows,

(43:48):
and it makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot
be uttered. Are you with me? Verse twenty eight, and
we know, Wait a minute, we know. In verse twenty two,

(44:12):
in verse twenty six, we do not know. In verse
twenty eight, we know, we know, we do not know.
We know. We know that the whole earth grown up.
We do not know what to pray for as we are.
And in verse twenty eight, and we know that all

(44:35):
things God works for the good of those who love Him.
So we know that the world is trevailing. Okay, we
do not know what to pray for as we are
because we're in our weakness. But we do know that

(44:57):
all things work together for the good. I loved the
Lord that when the shaking is over, there's something coming
out of this. There is a reason that Paul says
that the whole creation and grown as travail on a woman.
That's pain with purpose. Travail on a woman's pain with purpose.

(45:22):
That's not just pain because of brokenness. That's pain with purpose.
We know that the whole creation growneth in pain, and
we ourselves also without ourselves grown, are waiting for their
adoption of our sonship. We know, we know that we
they've grown outwardly, We grown inwardly, but everybody's grown it.

(45:45):
We do not know what to pray for. We cannot
use our prayer life as manipulation. We cannot use it
like which crap. We cannot do it, use it like
name it and claim it and blabbing and grabby we
something because we don't know now what to ask God
to do. We do not know, so the spirit itself
praying in the spirit, lifting your hands, you should do

(46:09):
it right now, lift your hands and start just praying
in the spirit, because When we start praying in the spirit,
we bypass our intelligence and our opinion, and our uncertainty
and our ambiguity, and the Spirit, who knows what is
the will of God, prays for us. If the devil

(46:34):
about you were in this by yourself, he's crazy. Because
you have inside intelligence. You have classified information available to
you through the spirit, and the Spirit is praying for
the will of God in your life. The Spirit is
not praying for you to get a car like your sister.
The Spirit is not praying for you to show all

(46:55):
your hate us how good you are and how God is.
As you know, fear is not praying from your perspective
and from where you are seated, or as a result
of your culture, as a result of your background, or
even as a result of how you experience God based
on your condition, whether you're the janitor or the president. Know,
the Spirit doesn't have to deal with your circumstances. It

(47:18):
prays according to your destiny and your purpose, because he
knows what is the will of God. We know, we
do not know, but we know that all things work
together for the good of them that love the Lord,

(47:42):
who are the call according to His purpose. One more
knowing and I'm done for those God for new he
also predestined. We know that all things work together because God,
for who was what this foreknowed me. He knew me

(48:03):
before the sufferings of this present time. He knew me
before I made the mistake I made. He knew me
before I got in trouble. He knew me before I
got here, he told Jeremiah, before I formed THEE in
the belly, I knew thee. I ordained me to be
a prophet unto the nations. I did not ordain you

(48:26):
to sit in a state of depression and give up
and die. I foreknew you. And here the Bible says,
for those God foreknew, He also pre destined, pre DestinE,
pre before the prefix before destined, end before end. God
pre DestinE, He fixed the end before because he foreknew

(48:51):
you before. We know for we know not twenty eight. Oh,
we know that all things work together. Why do we
know it because verse twenty nine, because He foreknew us,
And so we can deal with the uncertainty of the process.

(49:15):
Because we know that he predestined the end from the beginning,
and those that he predestined, he did it without them
even knowing it. He did it before they ever even
got here. And eventually that he called them made them aware,

(49:40):
and those he called he also justified them, made them clean.
See this is Romans eight where Paul is teaching. There's
therefore now that Roman's ain't won no condemnation to them
that are in Christ Jesus. He had to justify me
because I wasn't even good enough for what he called

(50:01):
me to. So those he called he then turned around
and justified, and those he justified he also glorified. For
I consider that our present sufferings are not worthy to
be compared with the glory, with the glory that shall

(50:23):
be revealed in us. We started with the hope of
the glory, and we ended with those he justified. He
also glorified. If you don't see glory yet, it ain't over.
If you haven't got to the glory, it's not over.

(50:47):
If you haven't seen the glory from the sufffering, it's
not over. So lean into the uncertainty, because you don't
have to make this happen. It's okay. It's okay not
to be okay, it's okay not to be sure. It's
okay in your weakness, because the Spirit itself maketh intercession

(51:12):
for us when we're worried, when we're tired, when we're stressed,
when we're fatigued, when we're uncertain. He that is certain
is praying for me right now. Did you know that
He that is certain, the Holy Spirit is praying for
you right now. And you don't have to know about tomorrow.

(51:36):
He already knows about tomorrow. And you don't have to
know about the next job. He already knows about the
next job. And you don't have to know about this
and that and the other. I know you want to know.
I want to know too. I want to know everything
he knows, but nothing before it's time. He knows how
to get me through this uncertainty, so I won't back

(51:56):
up from it. I'm going to lean into it because
he knows. Somebody I'm talking to right now, You've got
some decisions to make, and you can't seem to make
them to save your life, and you're going back and forth,
back and forth, back and forth. Get out of God's
way and let the Holy Spirit make the decision because

(52:20):
he knows what you have been predestined to do. And
stop making decisions out of discomfort. I'm just uncomfortable. I
can't put up. Shut up. The sufferings of this present
time are not were they to be compared to the

(52:40):
glory that shall be revealed in us. If I would
have given up all my life in times of great suffering,
I would have never made it to any level of
glory that I have gotten to see up to this point.
If I would have believed in the sufferings of my
present moment at difference dangers in my life, I never

(53:01):
would have made it to the next glory. Who those
how close you are to the next glory? If you
faint right now, you're gonna miss it. So tonight I
talk to you about leaning into uncertainty, and I know

(53:25):
it goes against the greater everything that you are to
lean into not being in control, and lean into not
having a definite plan, and lean into having to depend
on the invisible power of God. But isn't that what
being a believer, a Christian is all about? Is to

(53:46):
lean into the cross, believe it for the resurrection, lean in,
lean into it and get comfortable with it. Know that
God knows and that's enough. And those of us who
have the spirit of Christ will guide us into all truth.

(54:11):
Got close eyes right now, Close eyes right now, close
them and just reach out your fingers and say, Lord,
guide me. I can't see. I'm blind. I don't know
what tomorrow is gonna bring. But you start reaching out
with your fingers and say guide me, Guide me, God,

(54:32):
my finances, God, my business, got my marriage, God in
my life. I don't know. I'm through talking, like I know,
I'm through faking, like I know, I'm through pretending, like
I know I'm through trying to manipulate other people's lives.
Like I know. I'm an impostor, I'm a phony, I'm
a faith I admit it. I'm blind. I can't see.
I don't know, but I do know that all things

(54:55):
work together for the good of them that love the Lord.
And I do know that he that prays within me
knows what I have been predestined to do. And I
do know that I don't want to live my life
doing what I wanted to do or what other people
assigned to me to do. I want to live and
then finally die knowing that I have finished my course

(55:19):
and I have kept the faith, and I have done
what you created me to do. Can I pray for
you tonight. I know you feel like you're grouping in
the dark. I know you don't like the lights off.
I know you like control. I know you tantrum, having

(55:40):
tantrums and fits because you can't see. But I want
you to lean into this uncertainty and trust God as
the Holy Spirit guides you through. Thank you, Lord. Many
of us are facing times of uncertainty. How we see
God is a direct reflection of where we are seated.

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Where we're seated in the stadium of life right now.
Sometimes we don't even know what you're doing. We don't
even know what to ask you to do. We just
know to ask you to do it. We can't give
you direction, but we're ready to take orders, order our

(56:24):
steps in your word, in your will, and in your way.
The Dyne is the kingdom and the power and the
glowing forever and never and never and never never, never, ever,

(56:45):
ever never ever. Heymen, what I'm was saying forever and
ever and ever, I'm saying things falling off you, falling, falling, falling, falling, falling, falling, fallow.
Dye is the kingdom and the power and the glory
forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and
ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and
ever and ever ever, spirits falling off of you like rain. Amen. Amen,

(57:11):
Amen again, my brothers and sisters, thank you for allowing
me to share with you leaning into uncertainty. It's been
a joy. I hope you got something out of it.
Made the Lord God bless you real good. That's how

(57:32):
Bible class tonight. I hope something that was said tonight
lingers after this moment. Lean into it. It's uncomfortable, but
lean into it. It's against how you were tired of
raise would lean into it. You've been calling the shots

(57:55):
all of your life. But lean into uncertainty. God's got this.
Oh that bless me. I hope it bless you to
have a great knight. Thank you for the opportunity to
share the word of the Lord with you. If you
have not had a chance to invest into the Kingdom

(58:15):
of God before this night is over, if God gave
you clarity about something, if he spoke directly to you,
if he cleared up some painful place and change the
way you reckon the way you think. Don't let this
in without swing into the Kingdom of God, because where

(58:38):
else can we go to get this.

Speaker 2 (58:43):
But here?

Speaker 1 (58:48):
This is not at them all. It's not at the school,
it's not at the fair, it's not at the bank,
it's not at the grocery store. It's only for here,
full of God. And if you value it, don't take
it for granted. I'll leave that to your integrity. Have

(59:11):
a wonderful night, a peaceful sleep, Fluff your pillow up
under your head, and get comfortable.

Speaker 2 (59:22):
With We know, we know not, we know, we are
four known like I'm surround, and I'm surround and by ol,
good night. It may look like I'm surrounded, but I'm
surrounded by