Bishop TD Jakes - The Courage to Change Course

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:14):
This morning, the Holy Spirit has spoken to me. I
want you to go to Genesis twenty one, four through fourteen,
and there you will find the assignment that the Lord
has his spouse for me to share with you on
this Sunday morning. Genesis, chapter twenty one, verse four through fourteen.

(00:35):
It's our custom to stand for the reading of the word.
If you're a visitor and everybody stood up, you thought
they were leaving, but they're not. Genesis twenty one, beginning
at verse four, going through verse fourteen. And Abraham circumcised
his son Isaac, being eight days old, as God commanded him.

(01:02):
How old was he? He was eight days old. And
Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac
was born unto him. And Sarah said, God had made
me to laugh, so that all that here will laugh

(01:23):
with me. And she said, who would have said on
the Abraham that Sarah should have given children suck? For
I have borne him a son in his old age.
I don't know whether that's so good or not. But
and the child grew and was wean, And Abraham said,

(01:47):
Paul day he made a great feast. The same day
that Isaac was ween, he threw a party and Sarah
saw the son of hey Are the Egyptian which she
had borne under Abraham mocking. Wherefore she said, on Abraham,

(02:09):
cast out this pond woman and her son, for the
son of this bond woman shall not be heir with
my son, even Isaac. And the thing was very grievous
in Abraham's sight because of his son. And God said

(02:31):
on Abraham, let it not be grievous in thy sight,
because of the lad and because of thy bond woman.
In all that Sarah have said, under thee hearken unto
her voice. For in Isaac shall thy seed be called.
And also the son of the bondwoman, will I make

(02:52):
a nation, because he is thy seed. And Abraham rose
up early in the morning and took bread and a
bottle of water and gave it unto Hagar, putting it
on her shoulder and the child, and sent her away.
And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of bear Seba. Today,

(03:15):
I want to talk to you about the courage to
change course. The courage to change course. Don't minimize that,
don't sleep on that. That's not easy to do. The

(03:36):
courage to change course. I do sense a prophetic utterance.
I do believe that somebody is going to get a
word from the Lord that is going to be cut
to the continuity of your situation, that will begin to
liberate strongholds and yokes in your life in an area

(04:00):
that we seldom touch. The courage to change course. Shout Hallelujah,
spear it out. The Living God fall fresh on us today.
We don't want to operate in Wednesday's annoying or Sunday's annoying.
We want a fresh, annoyingty. Let fresh oil flow upon

(04:21):
us in this moment in the name of Jesus. And
I thank you in advance for what you're going to do.
I don't even have to see you do it. I'll
praise you now. You can do it later. Have your
way in this place, have your way in this place,
break some yokes in this place. Heal somebodies in this place,

(04:46):
change some lives in this place. Reach out, Lord through
the Internet, and let the power of the Holy Spirit
sweep over the viewing audience that's watching us through cyberspace.
I think you, Jesus, you can cast out a demon
on line. I thank you Jesus. You can rebuke a

(05:07):
disease online I thank you Jesus, you can give divine direction.
Do it for your people today. Do it for your
people today. Do it for your people today. In the
name of Jesus. Give him the best praise you've got. Amen,

(05:34):
you may be seated. Yes, sir, let's go to work.
It has been said about people that when people know better,
they do better, and that sounds really, really profound. But

(05:55):
over the years of my life, I wonder is it true,
because everything that sounds good isn't always true. When people
know better, they do better. I can't even say that's
always true in my own life, because there's a difference

(06:20):
between knowing better and doing better. I know I don't
have no business with dessert. I said I was gonna
watch my carbs. I know I should get up every

(06:40):
morning early and exercise about five point thirty and jog
about three miles. I know better. I know what to
eat and what not to eat. I know what is
healthy what is not healthy. I have been informed. I
have been educated. I know not to eat those oxtail.
I know, oh, y'all not gonna talk to me this morning.

(07:05):
I know I don't need those barbecue ribs and the
French fries the waitress even asked, you, do you want saladay?
And sometimes I just say no. I know not to
let them bring bread to the table because I know
if it gets to the table, it's gonna you know,
especially if it's hot and it's warm and they've got

(07:27):
good better. I know not to even risks bringing it
that close to me, because I know I'm not strong
enough to resist it. When people know better, they say
they do better, but it is possible. I know how
to do curls. I know how to bench pressed. I

(07:48):
know how to do le pulled down. I know how
to do it. I know the form. I know what
I ought to be doing. I know I should stretch
every morning. It is not the absence of knowledge that
always deters the activity, but the gulf between what we

(08:08):
know and what we do is often a wide gulf,
and we don't always reach across. While it is impossible
to do better if you don't know better, it's impossible.
You can't do better if you don't know better. Often
we still know better than we do. The truth of

(08:32):
the matter is doing better isn't always easy. Sometimes it's
real tough. Doing better isn't always easy. Doing better as
a husband or wife. Isn't always easy. We know what

(08:54):
we should be doing, but we don't always do it.
Sometimes we don't do better until we get in trouble.
Sometimes we don't do better until we're under threat. Sometimes
we don't do better until we have competition. Oh, it's

(09:17):
gonna be quiet this morning, Jesus Angels, y'all shout for
me this morning, because the people are gonna be quiet
doing better on the job. We know what to do.
We used to do it when we first got the job,
and we didn't take it for granted. We knew not
to take a two and a half hour lunch. We
knew how to be in our place. We knew not

(09:38):
to be on the phone and playing video games in
our office. We knew better. Yeah, you should wear some
strong shoes because I'm gonna step on some toes today.
But whether we know better and what we do is
two different things all day, especially when you realize that

(10:04):
the people we admire the most were people who put
into action what they knew, who grew and changed and
made corrections. They became our heroes because they had the
courage to change course. All of the people that we
highlight in our country and our history are people who

(10:25):
had the courage to change course. Leaders like Abraham Lincoln
had the courage to change course. It is not it's
we always honor people after they're dead, but in real
time speed our heroes were not popular because they went
against the course, and they swam upstream against the grain,

(10:50):
and they had to have courage to change the course.
That's not easily done. Doctor King had to have courage
to change the course. Nelson Mandulah went to jail to
change the course. You can get in trouble to change
the course. Corrections can often have severe consequences. Corrections can

(11:17):
often have severe consequences. Getting it right can have severe
consequences because see, you make a decision at one stage
in your life, and then later you know better, but
you're already in the situation. I never went forget. I

(11:38):
was teaching the Bible class one time, and I was
doing Q and A right here at this church, and
a young man says something to me. I will never forget.
He said, I am the world's best at getting into
situations and the world's worse at getting out. And I
think the reason it becomes so difficult to get out
is because sometimes it's become so complicated. It requires humility

(12:03):
that some people lack the ability to quiet their ego
enough to achieve the ability of change. Because sometimes you
have to go against what you said at this stage
to correct where you are at that stage, and until

(12:23):
you become strong enough to admit, yes, I said it,
but I was wrong, you can't bring about change. And
sometimes our ego will make you be loyal to a mistake.
I'm wondering if there's anybody in here who's ever been
loyal to a mistake. And it was a mistake, and

(12:45):
you knew it was a mistake, but you cut it
up the cost to fix it, and you decided you
would just take the easy way out and live with it.
Our decisions, you see, to correct our a miss stakes
can create disruption, and not only disruption for us, disruption
for other people. And when you look at what is

(13:07):
going to take to straighten it out, sometimes you just
don't do it. And when you don't do it, you
become trapped in a nightmare of regret. You'd be surprised
how long you can live in the prison of your problems.

(13:28):
You'd be surprised how long you can live a life
where you clap like you're free, You talk like you're free,
you move like you're free, but you're really not free
at all, because you are trapped in a complicated situation.
You can't get out, and you can't get in. You're
just stuck. And so you're clap stuck and you're singing stuck,

(13:50):
and you go to choir rehearsal stuck, and you go
to work stuck, and you come home stuck, and you
go to church stuck. And yes, you get your dancing
every now and then, but you go back to a
situation is stuck because dancing doesn't bring about change. I

(14:10):
don't care how much you praise the Lord. Until you
correct your past decisions. You are not going to get
the breakthrough that you need until you stop using shopping
for therapy. You're never going to have the credit rating
that you should have. No matter how much he's Jehovah Javra,
he can't be Jehovah Javra to you because as fast

(14:32):
as he pours it in, you leak it out. And
God is too much of a business man to keep
investing in a bankrupt system. And you know what it
takes to fix it, and you know the discipline that's
required to get your life together. But it's not always

(14:54):
true that people who know better do better at not
going better simply leaves you stuck. People often like the
stomach for it. I think to resc the pain of
changing course, the uncertainty of what would life be like

(15:20):
outside of the bubble of my normal. I hate my normal,
but I'm afraid of change, so I'd rather stick with
the devil. I know, are y'all not gonna talk to
me this morning? Have you ever grown up and rethought

(15:43):
your choices? Have you ever got more information and rethought
your choices? Have you ever looked back at your life
in retrospect and found yourself in situations that were based
on bad information, immature decisions, selfishness, emotionalism, pride, discontentment, and restlessness.

(16:04):
And now you're more mature and you're wiser, and you
wonder what you could have been had you started earlier
on the right road. I wish maybe it's somebody that's
streaming that needs what I'm talking about, and you laid
out at night and live with the frustration. Wonder what
would have happened had I not got myself stopped. We're

(16:31):
almost like the woman in the commercial help. I'm falling
and I can't get up. I change churches and I
can't get up. I changed spouses and I can't get up.
I change jobs and I can't get up. I changed

(16:52):
my major and I can't get up. I changed my
hairstyle and I can't get up. I change the way
I dress and I can't get up. It doesn't matter
what I got on, it doesn't matter what I look like.
I cannot seem to get up. So you give up

(17:13):
when you can't get up, and you decide to yourself,
maybe I just have to make the best of a
bad situation. I guess I'm really talking about making a
decision to live with regret. And you'd be surprised how

(17:39):
many people in this room are living with regret that
they could clean up, that they could fix, that they
could change, that they could alter. But sometimes the dilemma
is is it easier to live with regret or live

(18:01):
without it and cause the disruption that it's necessary in
my normal to see the growth that I longed to
see in my life? Are you hearing what I'm saying about?
Either way you go. Have you ever been in a

(18:23):
situation where either decision you made is going to cause pain?
Where am I real? People at? Have you ever been
weighing the pain? You know? When I got ready to
have back surgery, I wouldn't have had back surgery if

(18:46):
I wasn't in pain. But I had to weigh the
pain that I had before the surgery against the pain
of having the surgery. And it took me a long
time to make up my mind to have the surgery,
because either way I went, it was going to be pain,
and I had to decide. I ultimately decided that I

(19:09):
would rather live with the pain of recovery rather than
to live with the pain of ambivalence and indifference, and
the pain of ignoring and the pain of looking the
other way, and the pain I never will forget. I
was in Washington, d C. And I was in the

(19:30):
hotel room, and I was walking across the hotel room
and fell and hit a glass coffee table and shot
at the table, and I said, that's it. I gotta
do something about this. This is unbearable. I had been
laying on the floor in the back before I went
out to speak each night at the New Year's Revival,
because my back was in such pain that I couldn't

(19:53):
hardly take it. One time I sat down in the
service and I couldn't get up, and my security had
to come get me up out of the seat, and
I was in front of people, and little by little,
by little by little, I thought, this pain is too much.
The pain of ignoring, and the pain of looking the
other way, the pain of making the best out of
a bad situation, the pain of not wanting to make

(20:15):
any ways, the pain of dealing with my inability to
walk into the unfamiliar, to walk into the unknown. I
had never had surgery. I couldn't imagine what it would
be like. It didn't sound good when they described it
to me. They said, we're gonna cut into your back
four inches. I thought, no, mine, you know you're not

(20:37):
gonna cut me up like you slicing ribs, had a barbecue.
The devil is Alie. But the pain, the pain. You're
weighing pain. I wasn't weighing promises. I wasn't weighing miracles.
I wasn't weighing God's purpose. I wasn't weang what God
was gonna do in my life. I was trying to
go the way of least resistance. The real truth of

(21:00):
the matter is we get trapped. We get trapped. We
get trapped in our relationships, we get trapped in our health.
We get trapped in the argument masks, no masks, vaccine,
no vaccine. I heard this, I heard that, I heard

(21:21):
the other. We get trapped until being trapped makes us
sick and somewhere with a respirator in our mouth. Don't
tell me, because we're the ones that bury people. So
we know. We know. We talk to the families, we

(21:44):
deal with the people who didn't have the courage to
change course. In fact, you have to have the adaptability
in life to be able to change course. It's not
like you get it right and it stays the way
you left it. Life keeps changing, and its life keeps changing,

(22:06):
and seasons keeps changing, and circumstances keep changing. You gotta
be flexible enough to change on a dive and switch
this way and turn back this way. And if you
don't make the right switch at the right time, you
find yourself stuck. And you wake up one morning and

(22:26):
you realize, I'm getting older and I don't know what
it feels like to have lived my best life. I've
not lived my best life. I've not lived at the
top of what my potential was. I've not reached the
zone of possibilities of what I could be. I've not
fulfilled my purpose. I've not finished my core. I don't

(22:47):
get any crown for me because I wasn't living my
best life. I was surviving my whole life. I know
it's hard to shout this morning, but just keep breathing.
And rather than to be free, we peer through the
bars of depression, watching others move forward where we are stuck,

(23:17):
going in circles. In our text, today we step into
the text that reads like a dream come true, a
dream deferred and finally realized that Abraham, in his old

(23:40):
age would finally have a son. It is absolutely amazing.
It's exciting. It's invigorating that this old man whose body
was as good as dead, and his wife with her
wrinkled knees, has got in the birth position and delivered

(24:05):
him a baby at a season in her life that
it was illogical. I don't know who I'm preaching to,
but whoever I'm preaching to today, what is at stake
in this message is that God wants to give you
a blessing that doesn't even fit the season of life
you're in. He's gonna give you a blessing out of season.

(24:33):
He's gonna give you a blessing that's out of step.
He's gonna give you a blessing that's gonna make people
laugh when they hear it, because nobody's gonna believe that
a person like you could be in a position. In fact,
some of you right now are in a position that
would blow people's mind because you haven't always been on
the flip flop, and you haven't always been decon wonderful,

(24:57):
and you haven't always been missionary price. And if your
all friends could see you now, yeah, yeah, yeah, somebody shout,
it's late, but it happened. Taking on the line is late,

(25:17):
but it happened. It's late, but it happened. It didn't
come when I thought it would. It didn't come through
who I would like for it to come through. It
didn't even come high I would like for it to come.
Let me say it like the old folks do. He
may not come when you want him. Oh, but he's

(25:39):
we're talking about a finally moment here. We're talking about
a finally moment. We're talking about a finally moment that
happened to a man that's one hundred years old. He
has waited a long time. When you have waited a
long time or blessing, it will make you give God

(26:03):
the praise. See, some of y'all get stuff too easy,
if you get it too quick, But after you suffered
a while, when God comes through for you, it'll make
you want to I want those of you that have

(26:34):
been waiting on a blessing to get this word from God.
It's still gonna happen. Oh y'all don't believe it, but
the Lord said it's still gonna happen. Just because it
didn't happen when you plan for it to happen doesn't
mean that God's not gonna do it. It's still gonna happen.

(26:56):
Tell your wrinkle knees it's still gonna happen. Tell your
birthdays is still gonna happen. Tell your situation that's still
gonna happen. Go back into that ragging their house and
say it's still gonna happen. I'm gonna give about fifteen
seconds for somebody to praise them like you've got a

(27:19):
determination that it's not too late. It's still don't happen.

(27:52):
It's still do happen. It's still going happen. It still
don't happen, It still don't happen. It's still gonna happen.

(28:13):
It's still gonna happen. It's still gonna happen. It's still
gonna happen. You need to get your faith out of jail.
It's hand. It's still gonna happen. Look at somebody's hands.
Still gonna happen, kind of on the line. It's still
gonna happen. Yes, yes, yes, shut yes. Make your wanna celebrate,

(28:47):
make your wanna celebrate, make your wanna cop your hands,
make your wanna do your dance, make your wanna turn
around in a circle, make your wanna do the shuffle,
make you wanna sheep been shocked, Make you want to
run all about it. It's still gonna happen. Yes, that's right,

(29:30):
says the praise him up there praising. You don't need
no music, you don't need no handcop. Sometimes you've got
to throw your own party because God just spoke to you.
He's spoke in your spirit, he spoke in your belly,
he's spoke in your heart. It's still gonna happen. So

(30:17):
look here, I sit with me a minute. So Sarah
is having a party because she said, who would laugh
that God would do it for me, that I would
give Abraham a child. It is old age, she said,

(30:42):
God have made me to laugh. She said, who would
have thought that at this stage in my life? God
would make me to laugh? And all that hear it
will laugh with me. And while she's laughing, Abraham is

(31:05):
going through the ritual of circumcising his son. Pay attention
to that. I'm going to deal with that a little
bit more in a minute. Abraham, according to the customs
of the time, circumcised his son as God had commanded
him to do when he was eight days old. Okay,

(31:29):
eight days oh, eight days old. I told you last week.
Eight is the number of new beginnings. This is a
happy moment. He's eight days old and Abraham circumcises him,

(31:49):
and he finally gets to circumcise his son born of
his wife in his house and he's eight days old
when he did it, and I was studying it, and
I was thinking about it being his first son by Sarah,
and it was eight and he was eight days old,

(32:12):
and I thought about this being the eighth month and
the first day of the eighth month, and we're in
it today, and God gave me this word for this day,

(32:35):
at this time, eight days old, first son eight one.
God is about to yoh, noh, hear what I'm saying.
Tell everybody around your something's going to happen in here
this morning. He'say, eighth month. It's the first day, he say,

(32:57):
eight month. It's the first day something's gonna happen any
here today. And when the child was eight days old,
Abraham circumcised to Sun. And the interesting thing said, I'm
just talking to you. The interesting thing, yeah, Hey, The

(33:31):
interesting thing about the text is when you read the text,
it reads it as if it is all one occasion.
But there's a time lapse here because we know that
Isaac is eight days old when Abraham circumcises him, and
then we read that when he was weaned God Abraham

(33:54):
through a party, okay, and we know he wasn't weaned
that a days. So there's a time lapse in the text.
So the writer is only gleaning highlights of significant moments

(34:16):
in the life of Abraham. And that's all life is.
It's significant moments. It's not hours or days or weeks
or months. All that matters is significant moments from eight
days old when he circumcised him to however he old
he was. When he weaned him, nothing significant happened. But

(34:42):
when he was weaned, Abraham throws a party and it
was an amazing party. He through the party, no doubt,
quite a distance from when he circumcised his son. Now,

(35:04):
circumcision is the cutting away of the part of the
flesh on a man that was originally a religious sign
of being a Hebrew. It is not the covenant that
God made with Abraham, but it is the sign of

(35:27):
the covenant. So God made a promise to him and
then used a sign of circumcision to indicate that he
had a contract with God. The circumcision put blood on it.

(35:47):
I was doing some real estate business with some investors
and they asked me, do you have any skin in
the game what God wanted you. God's going to do
the work, but he wants you to have some skin
in the game. Oh, y'all, don't hear what I'm saying,
because when you got some skin in the game, you

(36:08):
don't violate the covenant when things get tough, because you
got some skin in the game. And God says, I'm
gonna do it for you, but I want you to
have some. Y'all ain't gonna talk to me, Yeah, yeah,
yeah yeah, because you won't quit when you got some
skin in the game. You won't just walk away easy
when you got some skinning game. When you don't have

(36:29):
nothing invested. It's easy to walk away when there is
no no skin in the game. This circumcision that starts
the text permeates the text itself. I'm going to pick

(36:53):
it up later and weave it into the text to
show you the text is all about circumcision. The text
is all about circumcision. The courage to change course is
all about circumcisions. And I'm going to tell all the

(37:14):
women so you don't so you can know. And I'm
saying this circumcision hurts, not a little bit, oh who
a lot, Yeah, circumcision hurts. Change. I love him. I've

(37:44):
been waiting on him to come back to church. I
need him. Changeing course hurts. There's no way for you
to make significant change and not hurt, because you gotta

(38:12):
have some. He did it on the eighth day, and
then he begins to celebrate, and he throws a party,

(38:33):
and things couldn't be better. He got his promise seed.
His wife is happy. Life is good. It's hard for
life to be good when y'all girls ain't happy. It's

(38:54):
not that we're not happy, but when y'all are not happy,
it's contagious. An unhappy woman is worse than COVID, because
you can vaccinate for COVID. For the unhappy woman, they
steal in the laboratory, trying to fix something to make

(39:17):
it easier to live with an unhappy woman. You can
be happy, but when you come home and she's not
happy all of a sudden, I know you can't say
amen because you sitting beside her, But just wiggle your
told and I will hear it. I will hear the
vibrations on the rug. It couldn't be better. Sarah is happy.

(39:43):
She laughing. Ain't nothing like the laughter of a happy woman.
She's laughing. He's got his son, his promised seed. He's
got it. In his old age, God has strengthened his loins.

(40:08):
I don't blame him for throwing a party. Any time
you let all don't see alis know that it's time
to get the popcorn out, roast through some hot dogs.
Have you a barbecue blow or what's so? It is

(40:31):
a happy moment. Everything is going wonderful. And then Sarah,
the Bible says, looked out and saw Ismael Hagar's son

(40:51):
by Abraham, mocking Isaac, and the party was over. She
stopped laughing, put the cake back, take the hot dogs

(41:13):
off the grill, put the party had away, stop the music.
She mad again, what you mad about? Now?

Speaker 2 (41:24):
I looked out the window, and do you not know
what I saw? That woman's son.

Speaker 1 (41:41):
Was mocking my child. Now, if you want to make
a woman mad, I mean even them little quiet, nice,
dainty little women who walk around with lace on their
toes and had got their fingernails with glitter on it,
they turned into gorilla warfare. If you mess with one

(42:02):
of them kids, Sarah said, put the cake up. Some's
gotta be done. This girl had lost her mind. Her
boys out there mocking my boy. You got to do
something about what you're gonna do. But what you're gonna do?
I just want to know what you're gonna do. I
just wanna know what you're gonna do, about what you're

(42:22):
gonna do about this. I tell you no, I'm gonna
tell you what you're gonna do. Let me tell you
what you are going to do about this. Cast out,

(42:47):
put her her and her lap the head child, putting
both of them about. I don't care where they're gonna stay.
I don't care where they're gonna live. But she gonna
get up. I ebonized it just a little bit. But

(43:11):
and all of a sudden, all of a sudden, he
is gone from cutting to casting. He is gone from

(43:33):
cutting to being asked to cast out the blonde woman
and her son, which incidentally is his son. When Sarah
says it, she says, cast out the blonde woman and

(43:53):
her son. But she knows, as his son beside, don't
have no skin in the game. And when you don't
have no sin in again, skin in the game, is
easy to tell people what they are to do about

(44:14):
their situation because you don't have no skin in the game. Now,
if this would have been me, this text would have
been longer, because when she said cast out the bond
woman and her son, I would have got right back

(44:36):
up in her face and said she wouldn't have been
here in the first place if you had no broader
in here. It ain't like I asked you for this woman,
This was your idea in the first place, And now
you want me to fix what you wanted me to do.

(45:08):
You see, Hagar was never Abraham's idea. It was Sarah's
idea because she thought it wasn't going to happen. And
when she thought it wasn't going to happen God's way,
she said, I'll do it my way. Henceforth, Ismael becomes

(45:32):
a child of the flesh. How many things have been
born in your house out of the flesh, out of
your unwillingness to wait, out of your impatience, out of
your frustration. How many decisions did you make without God?

(45:56):
And by the way, wouldn't you hate to live in
this You got two women in this house? Yeah, yeah,
I can stop right there. That's the end of it,
right there. I got two women in the house, they
don't like each other, and I got two sounds in

(46:23):
the house. One is born of the flesh and one
of them is born up the promise. And just just
sounds like a mess. But Abraham lived with it because
sometimes change creates such disruption that you just make the

(46:46):
best of a bad situation. How did Abraham go from
throwing a party for his son to the biggest fight
with his wife ever recorded. The fight was so big

(47:06):
they didn't have to call the police. God had to come. Now,
you know that's domestic violence. When God has to come.
Y'all are really fighting when the only one who can
break up the argument is gone because Sarah has asked

(47:31):
him to cast out the bond woman and her son.
And I believe that Abraham was bond to the bond woman.
Bond woman actually means that she was a servant, a slave.
But I want you to understand that you can't spend

(47:51):
that much time with somebody. You can't spend that many
nights with someone listening at them talking about their dreams
and their hopes of what happened to them when they
were seven and when I was twelve my dog died
and all of that. And after a while, there's a
bond to what you bond with, you become bond too.

(48:16):
There's only twelve that can say man. The rest of
them is using that mask as an excuse, because as
long as you got your mask over your mouth, you
don't have to say nothing. You can say I said
it under my breath. What you bond with, you become
bond too. And Hagar had become unnecessary flesh. She was

(48:53):
attached Ismael was his flesh. And God is now doing
to him what he started out doing to his son.
For to cast out the bond woman and her son
is circumcision, and Abraham is good at giving it, but

(49:29):
now he's got to receive it. Oh, he's been circumcised
in his body, but not in his relationships. And there
is no way to get out of this without blood.
This is gonna hurt. And yet in order to get

(49:53):
his house together, he had to have the courage to
change course. In fact, in all fairness, I have to
give Sarah some credit. Sarah is making a correction because
she is no longer the woman she was before. I

(50:23):
want to talk to some people who are no longer
the woman you were before. And yet you've got kids
angry with you about what you did before. You've got
spouses angry with you over what you did before. That

(50:45):
ain't just for women. Let's talk to some men who
have got some wives that are angry with you over
what you did before, and the kids don't like you
over who you were before. The problem is people never
give people room to change, to grow, to evolve. And
even though we are Christians, we are the world's best

(51:09):
at alienating people over what they did before. And it
takes courage to correct or to change course, because if
he changes course, what will become of Hagar? Where will

(51:33):
Hagar go? Where has the ring of Isaac's flesh? God?
Hagar is cast into the wilderness. And when God comes down,
God does not talk like Sarah. See sometimes sisters can

(52:00):
be right about what you said, but wrong about how
you said it. You said, cast out the woman, the
bomb woman and her son. God comes down and says,
I know, Ismael is your seed. Understanding is important to

(52:26):
bring about change. You can't just look at it from
your perspective just because you don't have no skin in
the game. Abraham has skin in the game. Ismael is
his son too. Ismael is his son. But Ismael is
your mistake. Stay with me, Stay with me, Stay with me,

(52:53):
stay with me. I'm going somewhere. I'm gonna get it
back to you in a minute. Because everybody in here
has Ismael. Everybody in here, male or female, has nothing
to do with gender, has something that you would bond
to because you bond with that created a problem that

(53:14):
you lived with, whether it's baby Mama, drama or whatever.
It is or baby daddy drama. You went out with
him here a dog. You went out with a dog,
You picked the dog, You like the dog, You brought
the dog home, you went to bed with the dog.

(53:36):
You had a baby with the dog. Now all you
can see is he a dog. Well, what does that
make you? I guess you're a dog lover because save

(54:01):
he raped you. See, until we take responsibility for the
mistakes we made, we cannot change course as long as
you push it off and I like it was just them,
and you tell the story where you are always a hero.

(54:21):
This woman would have never been in Abraham's life. You
brought the woman into his life. You came up with
the strategy of them sleeping together. You told him to
have a baby. You made this woman of your slave,
had made her sleep with a man that she never
picked to sleep with. And now it's all blown up
in your face, and you would like it's his fault.

(54:58):
But what is amazing the text is God comes down
and says to Abraham, harken unto the voice of your
wife's arrived, because a woman is right, even though she
said it wrong, she is right. And what is happening

(55:21):
here is correction. Now I'm almost finished. In order to
have correction, you have to have the challenging responsibility of
trusting God to handle our mistakes. God says to Abraham,

(55:52):
leave Hagard to me. I know Ishmael is your son.
I will make of him a great nation. But you
can't take your mistake and your miracle and put them
all in the same house and make it work. There

(56:16):
has to come a cutting away, a cutting away. You
can't change course if you can't cut you can't change
course if you can't cast out. And the challenge is

(56:36):
to trust me with the collateral damage. Who am I
preaching to trust me that I don't need you to
take care of Ismael, God says, my grace is sufficient

(57:09):
for your mistakes. My grace, my grace, my grace, My
grace is sufficient. You don't have to live in this chaos.
Your spirit has been in a state of constant disruption

(57:29):
because you won't change course. And I don't want you
to live in this constant, chaotic, stressful environment of forlornment
because your mistakes in your miracles are cohabitating in the
same space. All I need from you is some courage

(57:57):
to change course. If you don't change course. You're gonna
mess up your destiny. If you don't change course, you're
gonna mess up your future. If you don't change course,
you're not gonna be in the place you need to
be to become who I created you to be. If

(58:19):
you don't change course, you're gonna spend the latter years
miserable because you won't own up to your mistakes and
acknowledge that you were wrong and you won't fix it.
And all the dancing and all the shouting and all
the giving you do over top of it will not
take away from the fact that you still need the

(58:41):
courage to change course. Who is here needs the courage
to change course? You know what they say? The definition
of lunacy is to continue to do the same thing

(59:03):
expecting a different result. You can't be the woman you
want to be and the woman you used to be
at the same time. You cannot be the man you
were created to be and the man you used to
be at the same time. And you know that now.

(59:27):
But the problem is you just can't bring yourself to
change course because of all the people that it would
hurt for you to change And how long will you
make those people more important than your destiny, God said,

(59:55):
turned them over to me. Oh God, I'm talking to somebody.
I'm talking to somebody. I don't know who it is. See,
the Lord sent me here to lose somebody this morning,
to liberate somebody this morning. You've been in bondaged. You
can't even be your best self. You can't do your

(01:00:15):
best work, you can't be who you were created to
be because you're stuck in a situation that you help
to create, and you're guilty, and you feel guilty, and
you're overcompensate because you're guilty, and you're in this situation
because you're guilty, and you're stuck because you're either way
you move, somebody's going to get hurt. And if you

(01:00:38):
don't move, it's going to be you. Lift your hands
up and say, God, give me the courage to change course.
That means I might not get to say everything I

(01:00:59):
want to say. That means I gotta hold my peace sometimes.
That means sometimes I got to bite my lip. That
means sometimes I've got to learn another discipline. That means
sometimes I gotta bleed. But if I have to bleed
to be better, I'm willing to bleed. I'm willing to

(01:01:19):
bleed a little while to be better for a long time.
See I realized that if I didn't have the surgery,
the pain would never go away. And if I had
the surgery, I would have pain for a little while,
but eventually the pain of recovery will go away. See

(01:01:44):
circum season hurts real bad, but it doesn't hurt real long.
Putting out the Bond Woman hurt real bad, but it
didn't hurt real long. And you got to decide, are

(01:02:05):
you willing to have a little momentary discomfort to be
where you are called to be or are you so
concerned about the disruption that your change creates that you're
willing to be a prisoner in your own life the

(01:02:28):
rest of your life. That's what this text says to be.
That's what I get out of this text. That's why
this text is important to me, because every time I
ever made a change, somebody got hurt. When God called
me to come to Dallas, somebody got hurt. In West Virginia,

(01:02:51):
there are people who don't like me. Now I've been
here twenty five years and they still mad. There are
other people that accepted and they're glad about it. They
see it, they get in but there are some people
that just simply refuse to get over. And I had
to decide, am I gonna spend the rest of my

(01:03:12):
life honoring your expectations of me? Or do I get
to live my life the way God called me to
live my life. You leave when you want to leave,

(01:03:33):
You come when you want to come. You miss church
when you feel like missing. But if I'm not here,
you say I came to church and you wasn't there,
don't I get to be a person too. I'm gonna
break your chain today, the chain that ties you to
living up to other people's expectations all of your life,

(01:03:54):
the chain that circumvents you from reaching your destiny and
your purpose, so you can go ahead and fulfill what
God created you to fulfill. We are going into a
week of change. We're gonna change course. We're gonna change direction.

(01:04:21):
We're gonna change our focus, We're gonna change our attitude.
I don't care whether we get to have to worship
or preach it, or whether we just come in here
and lay flat out on the floor. I want a
gully waship, holy ghost, annoying and supernatural revival. Revival is
to wake up what's dead, to bring back to life

(01:04:44):
that has gone away, to restore, to bring back the
luster of really knowing God. I don't want to pass
the church people. I want to pastor saints, real believers
who are washed in the blood of the Lamb, who
really want to serve God. I don't want to pastor

(01:05:07):
people who just want to take God on a weekly
date on Sunday. Some of you all don't love God.
You date him. Y'all got a weekly date on Sunday.
But Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday belonged to you.
And if it's not Sunday, you don't have no skin

(01:05:30):
in the game. And you're asking God for a seven
day blessing with a one day commitment, and you've lost
your ability. And God sent me to say to you
that in order for him to do what you have

(01:05:52):
been praying about, you are going to have to be
disciplined enough to put some skin in the game. If
you don't put any skin in the game, God cannot
do what he wants to do in your life. But
if you present your body a living sacrifice before God,

(01:06:13):
God said, I will do a new thing, and you
and the former things in your life will be passed away.
I hear God talking to somebody. I don't know who
it is, but if you're ready for change, give him
thirty seconds of crazy praise.

Speaker 3 (01:06:52):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes a dam.

Speaker 1 (01:07:04):
Yes yes Lord, yes, Lord, yes Lord, yes Lord. And
I want somebody. Tell them I want change. I want change.
I need change. I need change on the inside. I
need change on the outside. I need change in my heart.

(01:07:26):
I need change in my spirit. Give me my anointing back,
give me my power back, give me my consecration back.
I gotta have some change for the devil I'm fighting
right now. I need a real holy ghost change. I
can't hear you praising God. I can't hear you. I

(01:07:54):
can't hear you. I can't hear you. I can't hear you.
I can't hear you. See the problem with the church.
We want to have a good service, but we don't
want to put any skin in the game. Open your
mouth and praising till you God skin in the game.

(01:08:29):
I'm gonna put some skin in the game. I'm gonna
put some skin in the game for the breakthrough I've
been praying for. I'm willing to put some skin in
the game. I'm willing to invest in it. I'm willing
to sew into it. I'm willing to work on it.
I'm willing to labor for it. I'm willing to hurt

(01:08:49):
for it. Lord here, I am just as I am.
I put skin in the game. Open your mouth and
give God some prayer. Yes, yes, yes, yes. It costs

(01:09:18):
sweating costs. It cost sweating costs. It costs sweating costs.
It costs sweating costs. Whatever it takes, whatever it takes,
whatever it takes. This is how bad I wanted. This

(01:09:51):
is how bad I wanted. This is how bad I
wanted it. I rearranged my schedule, I move and forgot
to move out change. I forgot to change. Whatever it takes.
I'll apologize, I'll live on the face. But whatever it takes,
I want change. Somebody, holler with all your minds. Tell

(01:10:49):
eight people I'm getting ready to change course. Go to
eight people. Tell them I'm getting ready to change course.
I'm gonna change course. I'm gonna change course. Before the
weekend over. I'm gonna change course. The Father week is over.
I'm gonna change course. The Father week is over. The
thought this week, the from this week, the farm this

(01:11:13):
week before this week, I'm gonna change I'm gonna change it.
I'm gonna change it. I'm gonna break that change. I'm
gonna break that yoke. I'm gonna change. I gotta change it.

(01:11:43):
Look at somebody said, I gotta change it. I gotta
change it. I gotta change it. They gonna change it.
The proper ain't gonna change it. The bishop ain't gonna
change it. The choir ain't gonna change it. The brother's
house ain't gonna change it. I gotta change it. I'm
gonna change it. I'm gonna change it. I'm gonna change it.

(01:12:04):
If you don't change the rock fuel crowd, if you
don't sage the rock ful crowd, Yeah, shave it, shage it,
change it, save it, shave it, save it, shave shave

(01:12:33):
it in my life, Shave it in my spirit, save
it and my father shaded in my heart. Shave it
in my life. Whatever it takes, getting behind me, let's
change see, let's shage see.

Speaker 3 (01:12:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:12:59):
M change just coming.

Speaker 5 (01:13:03):
Change just coming.

Speaker 6 (01:13:32):
Yeah, it's coming. It's coming. It's coming. It's coming, changes coming,
it's coming.

Speaker 3 (01:13:44):
Change its coming, It's coming.

Speaker 1 (01:13:47):
Holly a man, just come.

Speaker 4 (01:13:50):
Change this coming, chain this coming.

Speaker 6 (01:13:54):
It's come.

Speaker 3 (01:13:56):
Die It's time.

Speaker 4 (01:13:59):
Chang It's coming.

Speaker 6 (01:14:01):
Change this coming, changed it coming, Change this coming, change
this coming, Change is coming.

Speaker 5 (01:14:08):
Change coming in cho shot check.

Speaker 6 (01:14:18):
This comes it come it comes, It's coming, Change is coming,
Change is coming.

Speaker 1 (01:14:26):
To change is coming, Change is coming coming.

Speaker 2 (01:14:30):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:14:39):
Ye should say this coming.

Speaker 4 (01:14:43):
Say he just coming, shout change this coming, shout, page
it coming. Shout hey this comes, shouting coming home shame
coming shout and coming.

Speaker 5 (01:14:54):
Time is coming. Time it time this coming, na coming, Chaga.

Speaker 3 (01:15:03):
Come, I'm gonna say it, come it come.

Speaker 4 (01:15:05):
I'm gonna change.

Speaker 3 (01:15:06):
I lag you, I lag I lie you, I lie you, I.

Speaker 1 (01:15:13):
Die you, I lie you. Make the change, Make that change,
Make that change, make that change change change change change Wow,
change it coming.

Speaker 6 (01:15:33):
Change is coming, It's coming, coming, It's coming, coming, It's
coming coming, Change is coming, Change this coming, Change is coming.
H change is coming, Change change it coming. Yeah, change
it coming, change it yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:16:07):
Woah.

Speaker 1 (01:16:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:16:21):
You're ready.

Speaker 6 (01:16:21):
Get read it's coming.

Speaker 3 (01:16:24):
You're ready.

Speaker 6 (01:16:24):
Get ready.

Speaker 4 (01:16:25):
It's coming.

Speaker 3 (01:16:27):
Get your ready.

Speaker 6 (01:16:27):
You're read it's coming.

Speaker 3 (01:16:30):
You're ready. You're right.

Speaker 5 (01:16:31):
It's time.

Speaker 1 (01:16:33):
You're ready.

Speaker 2 (01:16:34):
You're right.

Speaker 6 (01:16:34):
It's time. You're ready.

Speaker 1 (01:16:37):
Get right, ride and time.

Speaker 3 (01:16:39):
Get ready.

Speaker 6 (01:16:40):
You're right, it's time.

Speaker 5 (01:16:42):
You're ready, get right.

Speaker 3 (01:16:44):
It's time you.

Speaker 1 (01:16:51):
Sorris church choice, sirs, it's a properly or.

Speaker 5 (01:16:59):
No it never the fly coming changhunt on the slhun
change on the flock coming shut huge change change change yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:17:17):
Change the coming change, the coming change is coming change
the coming change it tom change the coming change it come.

Speaker 3 (01:17:28):
Change is come.

Speaker 6 (01:17:29):
Jame is come change it to change it coming change.

Speaker 1 (01:17:34):
This to change is coming.

Speaker 3 (01:17:40):
Change is coming. Change this come rain is coming, Change
is coming.

Speaker 1 (01:17:46):
Chains get then No, I can't see it.

Speaker 5 (01:17:50):
I can see it. I get see hate.

Speaker 3 (01:17:53):
This I can see has come.

Speaker 4 (01:17:55):
I get see hay this I get see.

Speaker 3 (01:17:58):
I get see hate.

Speaker 5 (01:18:01):
I can't kill it. I can't.

Speaker 6 (01:18:04):
Kill change.

Speaker 3 (01:18:10):
Change Yeah, yeah, where's that talk?

Speaker 1 (01:18:49):
Come Yeah. I don't want anybody to do this before
I do. I want to eight one, a new beginning,
a season of change. Take eighty one out of there.

(01:19:12):
I didn't want anybody to do it before I do it.
I dedicate this week to God. August the first eight one,
the baby was eight days old. I decree and declare,

(01:19:41):
there will be change, There will be a cutting away,
there will be a casting out there will be a
singleness of heart, a wholeness and spirit. I'm not just
talking about you. I'm gonna do this for myself. I

(01:20:01):
want the courage, the courage, the courage, the courage, the courage,
the courage, the courage to change, the courage to change.
I'm running out of time. I don't have time to

(01:20:22):
play games the courage to change. You're watching online. Join
me if you want to. You're in the building. Join
me if you will. But I send this up, this
little seed that ain't much as a little seed, a
little seed offering to God. I offer up a sacrifice.

(01:20:46):
There will be changed. I decree and declare a new beginning.
I decree and declare a new beginning, in the midst
of all of this chaos and political antics and racial indifference,

(01:21:08):
in the midst of all of this turbulence, in the
midst of this pandemic, I decree and declare a change
in the name of Chesus. This is my garden of kyasseimine.
This is a place where I make up my mind,
not my will, but Thine be done. This is a

(01:21:29):
place that I cast out the bond woman. This is
a place that I cut away the flesh. This is
a place where I put some skin in the game.
This is a place where I decree and declare for discipline.
How many of you struggle to be disciplined? I decree
and declare for a greater discipline in your life, in

(01:21:52):
your business, in your affairs, in your finances, in your relationships.
You're gonna about being guided by your emotions, and you're
going to be guided by the promise of God. No

(01:22:12):
more guilt, no more shame, no more incarceration to your past,
No more nursing people's feelings that shouldn't even be in
the house. Cast out the bond woman. I want to

(01:22:37):
be new. I want to be you, the pastor what
you're talking about, You want to be renew Yes, Pastors
need to be renewed. Singers need to be renewed. You
can't keep giving out to people and not become depleted.
You need to be renewed. Deacons need to be renewed.
The elders need to be renewed. The saints on line

(01:22:59):
need to be renewed. The people in this building need
to be renewed. We need a renewal. Somebody shall Yes,
and it's just a little seed, But I'm gonna sow
it as a sign, as a sign that I'm committed

(01:23:21):
to the discipline that's necessary. I'm gonna stop running a
nursery for everybody else's feelings. But mind today God liberates

(01:23:52):
us from people, from the bondage of their expectations, from
the fear of their criticism, from the pain of their remarks.
Today we come into a new place of alignment. Admittedly
we've made some bad choices, Admittedly we've made some poor judgments.

(01:24:16):
But now that we know better, Knowing better don't mean
a thing. If you don't do better. Knowing that you
should eat right, ain't eating right. Knowing that you should save,
ain't saving knowing that you should shut your mouth? Don't
shut your mouth. It don't count till you do it.

(01:24:37):
How many are making a commitment, I'm gonna do this thing.
I'm gonna do this thing. Eight one a new beginning
and in fact, in fact today, in fact, as other
people are sewing and as they're giving. If there's a
person in this room and you need newness, Jesus came

(01:25:00):
to make us new and he put skin in the game.
He went to Calvary and he put skin in the game.
But if you don't put yours in. You can't have
new life. I cannot dwell in the tent with the

(01:25:22):
wicked today. Whether you're online, whether you're watching in Houston
or Atlanta, New York or Desta, whether you're in South

(01:25:48):
Dakota or South Africa, whether you're in Nigeria or Birmingham, Alabama.
I decree and declared that we'll be age. There will
be changed. I'm not waiting on nobody to come save me.

(01:26:09):
I'm not waiting on nobody to come get me. I
decree and declare there will be change. It may hurt
a while while I get the discipline to commit my
way unto the Lord. But whatever it takes, there will

(01:26:30):
be change. If there's a person in this room, the
only one I know who can help you to really
change your life, as Jesus, Abraham and Sarah argued all
the way until God came in the tent. When God

(01:26:52):
came down and came in the tent, he straightened everything out,
He put everything in order. He moved the flesh out,
he moved the spirit in the flesh out, and the
promise came in, and he gave Abraham the thing that

(01:27:15):
you can't buy in a store, and you can't get
with a degree He gave him focus. When the eye
is single, the whole body is full of light. But
a house divided against itself shall out stand. We praise
you with singleness of heart. We've had too many distractions,

(01:27:42):
trying to keep this one and please that one, and
please that one and satisfy that one, and not make waves,
and trying to compensate and over compensate overdoing it, giving
out a guilt day. We make a change. Friend. If

(01:28:02):
you're in this room and you don't know Jesus, if
you're in this room and you've said New Year's resolutions
and you've had moments where you've felt guilty and cried,
but you're tied to an addiction, and you're tied to
a problem, and you're tied to a way of living
and a way of thinking and a way of doing
things that's just dragging you down. You got to decide

(01:28:28):
which pull is stronger, the pull of the Holy Spirit
or the pull of your flesh. It is a gift
to come to God. The Bible says nobody can come
to God save the spirit draw him. It's a spirit.

(01:28:50):
If you are here and you are an unbeliever or
a backslider, and the spirit is calling you home. Hold
your hand up right where you are, hold your hand up.
I see you. I see you. I see you. Where
else I see you. I see you. I see you
holding up. How don't be saying hold it up. I
see you all the way in the back, I see you.
I see you. I see you. If the Holy Ghost

(01:29:10):
is saying change your life, oh your hand up, I
see it. I see you. The Spirit of God sees you.
I want you to leave. Put the other hand up
with it means I surrender. The fight is over. I
give up, and I want to pray with you. With
both your hands up. Father, you see those raised hands.

(01:29:33):
You see the ones that are online. You see the
ones that I cannot see. You know that their hearts
are open and they need a touch from you. And
right now, in the name of Jesus, in the middle
of a pandemic, in the middle of a world gone crazy,
in the middle of tough times and personal problems and
pass pain and trauma and abuse and all types of things,

(01:30:00):
we confess our sins. We've been wrong, we made some
bad choices, We've done some dumb things. Some of this
trouble wasn't saying some of it was us, But be
that as it made we come clean. Right now, come
into their hearts. We believe that you died for our

(01:30:23):
sins and that you rose for our justification. And right now,
right where I stand, with my hands up, I invite
you into my life, into my crazy house, into my
chaotic situation, into my contradictory circumstances. I invite you in
right now with my whole heart. I say yes to you.

(01:30:45):
I say yes to your will and yes to your word.
I say yes to you. I say yes to your way.
And whether I'm weak or whether I'm strong, or whether
I'm right, or whether I'm I'm wrong, I commit to
you right here and now I'm gonna walk with you

(01:31:06):
all the way back home. Lord, it sure feels good
to have a new beginning. This is my eighth day.
This is my new beginning, This is my fresh start.
This is the day that I cut away my flesh
and my fleshly choices. This is the day I say

(01:31:27):
yes to God. Now I want you to praise Him
right where you are and accept what he did in
your life. In Jesus' name,