The Divine Paradox

I have a message from God and it's for everybody. There's some messages that may target a handful of people. It may be for some, but I promise you that this message that God has spoken into my spirit is for everybody. There's not anybody who's exempt from what I'm going to preach this morning by the help of God. Let me just read a couple of verses of scripture here from first kings chap 20 and then from revelation chapter 4. Re uh first kings chap 20 26- 28.

And it came to pass at the return of the year that Benh had numbered the Syrians and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel. And the children of Israel were numbered and were all present and went out against them. And the the children of Israel pitched before them like two little flocks of kids. But the Syrians filled the country. And there came a man of God and spake unto the king of Israel and said, "Thus saith the Lord." Boy, that's always a powerful powerful statement.

Thus saith the Lord. Because the Syrians have said, "The Lord is God of the hills, but he is not God of the valleys. Therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall know that I am the Lord." Revelation 4:8 says this, "And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him, and they were full of eyes within, and they rest not day and night." Everybody read this last ver portion with me. saying, "Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, which was and is and is to come." which was and is and is to come.

For some here today, he was with you. You can remember a time when he was. For some, today you're going through stuff. He is with you. For some who have not faced dark times yet, he is to come. He will be with you when you get there. My message today is simply this. The divine paradox. The divine paradox. God add his blessing to his word. And you may be seated in Jesus name. The Greek ci civilization that existed that golden age of Greece gave us many many things which still affect our culture and society today.

They they gave us such philosophers as Aristotle, Socrates, Plato. We have ukitian geometry and math and we've got we've got Platonic logic and we've got Aristotleian uh classification of living things. We use the Socratic method of teaching this questioning that that elicits a response of a question. They gave us so many things that golden age of Greece. And and uh they gave us this one thing that I'm going to talk about today. This word that's called a paradox. Paradoxon. It's a statement that appears to be contradictory, but when examined closely, it is proven to be true.

A paradox is something that is contrary to common belief or your expectation either. It's the twist in the plot that you really didn't expect to take place. And the ancient Greeks love these conundrums, these enigmas, these these paradoxes. Socrates developed one. He said, "I know that I know nothing." That's a paradox. How can you know that you know nothing if you don't know anything? Right? There is one that is my favorite. There there are many. The ship of Thesius that if you have a ship and you you start replacing the boards on the ship and you get to the point you where you've replaced all the boards on the ship.

Is it the same ship that you started with? And to and to complicate matters, if you take the boards that you salvaged from the ship and you build another ship, which one is the original ship? A paradox. It's contradictory. It's confusing sometimes. There's the grandfather paradox. Movies have been based on this. You know, the trilogy that's called Back to the Future. The grandfather paradox. If I go back in time, if I can get this Delorean with the flux capacitor up to 88 miles an hour and I go back in time, can I change the course of history?

If I prevent my grandfather from marrying my grandmother, and here's the paradox, will I be here? And if I'm not here, I can't go back in time to do this. So nothing ever happened, right? Paradoxes. Paradoxes. There is the seritis paradox which says if you have a heap of salt and you start removing grains of salt from that heap, at what point does it cease to be a heap? Paradoxes. My favorite is this one here. It's called the liars's paradox. And it simply says this statement is false.

Now if it's false, it's true. And if this statement is true, then it's false. Does it make sense? That's the liars's paradox. Let me just throw in here that there are some biblical paradoxes that we are very familiar with. Jesus taught and I'm sure that he was familiar with the Greek culture that had saturated his day. He said uh the first is going to be last. It's a paradox. He said, "In order, if you seek to save your life, you're going to lose your life. But if you will lose your life for my sake, you'll find your life." This is the only kingdom and the only judicial system that exists that says, "If you will declare your guilt, I will pronounce you innocent.

If you'll just confess your guilt, the Lord will declare you to be innocent. As far back as Isaiah, he was saying, "Oh, let's come reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, they can be white as snow." This is the only place where you can bring a sinstained garment, wash it in red blood and it becomes white as snow. If you wish to be free from the bondage of sin, you must become a slave of Jesus Christ. That's a paradox. You've got to understand that this kingdom, the entire kingdom is somewhat confusing to the world culture in which we live.

It it presents to them a puzzle, an enigma that that cannot be solved because they cannot understand it with worldly wisdom. Then there is this divine paradox I want to talk about first of all from Psalm 104 and verse two it says that God covers himself with light as a garment. John 1 John 1:5 says this. This then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness. And then from 1 Timothy chapter 6 uh it indicates to us uh that God dwells in the light under which nobody can approach.

And then conversely and what seems to be contradictory to that first Kings verse 12 of chapter 8. The Lord said that he would dwell in the thick darkness, but he clothe himself with light and he lives in the light. But it says that he will dwell in the thick darkness. Psalm 118 verse 9 says or verse 11 says he made darkness his secret place and his darkness is his covering and it's his canopy around him and then as if to further emphasize this contrast and this paradox Psalm 139 verse 12 says says, "Yay, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day.

The darkness and the light are both alike to thee." So he he dwells in the light, but he clothe himself in darkness. And it makes no difference. And right now it's not making any sense to us because to God there's no difference and distinction between the light and the darkness. The message that I want to bring to us today, this divine paradox is that God is limitless. He has a foot in the darkness and he has one in the light. Don't relegate God to being a onedimensional God because what the scriptures have just told us is that light gives him no advantage and the darkness presents no obstacle to the God that we serve.

There is no difference in God. We as humans measure situations by degree of difficulty. But I can tell you today that there is no degree of difficulty with God. No matter what you've come in here with today, whether it's big in your estimation or small in your estimation, God does not measure situations by degree of difficulty. Whether it's dark or whether it's light, there is no advantage or disadvantage to him. The greatest obstacle that God faces is getting us to see that he is not like us.

He's not like us. He's not limited, brother Tony, by the things that I'm limited by. My God. And I know we say this and it's become almost a cliche phrase, but my God can supply all of your need according to his riches in glory. The hardest obstacle and the biggest obstacle that God has is trying to get his people to believe his word that he spoke. And when he said that he could do all things, brother, there is nothing that is beyond the scope and the reach of God.

In those intervening years between Noah and Abram, men went out. After Noah got off the ark, he built a an altar. It was practically the last time that anybody built an altar between Noah and Abram. Men did other things. They built a tower. They built cities. They built empires. They built things for themselves. And they made gods like unto themselves. They fell into idolatry. And there was also not only a divine paradox, there was also a pagan paradox. Gods with boundaries, gods with limitations who ruled over specific domains, gods were, if you look at the pantheon of the ancient world, the gods that existed, and there were many, but they were so many times onedimensional.

They were as limited as the people who created them. There were the Babylonian gods of Marduk and Ishtar and Sheamesh. There were the Canaanite gods of El and Bal and Deeon and Mole and Anet and Asher. There were the Egyptian gods of Rah, Isis, Osiris, Horus, Seth, Anubis, and all of these gods had a domain over which they ruled. A specific place that they had power in. And it was in this particular soil, a culture of Egyptian onedimensional gods that Jehovah God planted a people for his name's sake in a field that we would not consider in a field of less than ideal real conditions.

He planted them in a seedbed of slavery. He watered them with the tears of oppression and persecution. But when they went home at night, Pastor Brad, they went into their houses in Goan and they began to talk behind the doors. Having come out of a culture that had many gods, but behind closed doors, they said, "Listen to me, kids. The God of us is not like their gods. Our God is Jehovah God. Our God is the God that was the God of Abraham and of a Jac Isaac and of Jacob.

And in the middle of that darkness, they were being indoctrinated in a one God theology. When it got darkest at midnight in Egypt, God says, "I'm going to bring you out of that mess." Pharaoh's had his opportunity. Moses has stood before him and told him to let my people go. There was one reason why God wanted them out of Egypt, and that was so my people can praise my name. So that my people can come out of that darkness and worship me. The thing that went on just a few minutes ago is the thing that God is wanting from his people in this hour.

Not just in ancient Egypt, but the reason he brought them out through the doors that had been painted with the blood of a lamb, he brought them through the blood, out of darkness of that midnight, and he led them out into his marvelous light. Exodus 14 19 and 20. And the angel of God which went before the camp of Israel, I'll get ready and preach here in a minute. I'm on the runway still. Removed and went behind them. And the pillar of the cloud went from before their face and stood behind them.

And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. Now watch because God is in the darkness and in the light. It says, "And to the Egyptians pursuing them, it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these that he was bringing out of that midnight. It was darkness to the Egyptians, but God was there. It was light to the Israelites and God was there. The message, the clear message of what appears to be a confusing paradox is this.

God spoke to them basically to tell them, "Don't worry about your enemies in the dark cloud that's pursuing you. Just keep walking in the light. I'll take care of the darkness. You just take care of the light. Just keep walking on the path uh that I have prepared before you. And when the dawn comes uh and when the day breaks, uh you're going to turn around then and see the work of my hands. Uh that I never left you. I was in the darkness taking care of your enemies.

I was there to bring you out. I am here in your present distress and I will be ahead in your future. He was, he is, and he is to come. So he brings them out and into a covenant relationship with himself. And the first thing that God spoke in establishing his covenant with his people was this. We start the ten commandments by saying, "Thou shalt have no gods before me." Right? That's not the start. The ancient rabbis started the commandments like this. Exodus 20 verse two.

This is how it all begins. That God that you've been hearing about in your houses, that Jehovah God who was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he introduced himself to Moses and he said, "I'm the God of your father." His father was Amraham, but it not only am I the God of Amram, your father. I'm the God, the same God that 400 years ago spoke to Abraham. I was his God. I told Isaac, I'm the God of your father Abraham. I told Jacob, "I'm the God of your father Isaac and the God of Abraham." And he speaks to Moses and says, "I'm the same one.

You don't need another God. I when he established this covenant with Israel, he says to them, I am the Lord your God. That's how all the commandments start. And based on that, I am the Lord your God. You will have no other gods before me. Why was this so important? because they had come out of a culture that had gods everywhere. And he wanted them to know, don't look anywhere else to any other gods. Don't have any other go. Don't make anything that looks like a god.

I am the Lord your God. Uh in stark contrast to the nations with many gods. Uh, Israel's most foundational truth and revelation of God is this found in Deuteronomy 6 and verse 4. Shama Israel, Adoni Elohu, Adoni Ehad. I here, O Israel, the Lord our God. He said, you put it on your foreheads. You put it on your armbands. uh you tack it to the post of your houses and tell your children when you sit down in your house uh you tell them I'm I'm one God.

When you rise up you tell them about one God. When you go out the door you tell them about one God. When you come in the househ you tell them about one God. If anybody asks you children, who is your God? Is he like any other god? You tell them no. Our God is not like your gods here. Oh Apostolic Pentecostal Church, the Lord our God is one Lord. It is the most basic foundational truth uh in a culture that believes many gods. Here apostolic uh our God is one Lord.

If anybody asked you, is your God like the Mormons? No. Is your God like the Catholics? H. Is your God like the Lutheran? No. Is your God like the Presbyterians? Not at all. Name whoever you want to name. Because they have one person that superintends everything. They call him the father. Then they have another person. You're listening to me. They have another person that superintends salvation. He was the son of redemption, the sacrifice for sins. And then they've got another person who does all the heavy lifting called the heavy the the Holy Spirit that that does the work and the process of sanctification.

Our God is not like your God. We just call him Jesus. And in Jesus Christ, it pleased the father that all the fullness dwells in him. It's all in him. Don't go looking for another god because you're not going to find any other god. Not like our god here. No apostolic. The Lord our God is one Lord and his name is Jesus and it's all in him. So Ben Haydad and the Syrians came to fight against Israel and the first time they were defeated turned back at the turn of the year, new year coming.

Ben Hadad sees the Israelites as being vulnerable at this time and he brings his Syrians. Now it's very unique that Syrian comes from a root word which means the high place or they were highlanders. That was Ben Hayd's error. He had a god of the high places and he just figured that's what your god's like. And so he comes against Israel and he says some point, "Your God is the God of hills." He was he was looking at the God of Israel as though he were one of the gods of the pagans.

Your God, he only takes care of high places. So we're going to drag you into the low places. and we'll see what God you come up with when we get you in the low places. Which God we're going to call on at the time of the valleys. We know you've got a God of hills, but what about the God of the low places? I drive up to the ATM at the bank in which I bank. I put my little card in there. Sometimes it spits out a recipe for ramen noodle because I don't have, you know, with that balance that thinks I'm homeless.

But I drive up to that ATM, put my card in, and the first message that comes on that screen is, "Challenge accepted." Challenge accepted. Ben Hayd says, "Your God, he's a God of high places. Let's see how well your God does in the valley." And God sends a message back to him that says, "Challenge accepted. Challenge accepted. Go tell Ben Hayd because he has dared to put me in." Oh, because I I can feel angels in this place right now. They attend this kind of word right here.

They attend this because it is Godexalting. Go tell Ben Haydad because he has dared to level me at the same level with the gods that they worship. You go tell him because of this I am going to beat you up in a place that you didn't expect it. I'm going to meet you in that valley. Ben Haydad knew his gods, but he didn't know Israel's God. Because our God, if you knew anything about the God of Israel, you would know that he started everything in the darkness.

Everything that you see was begun in the darkest place that you can imagine. Before the first light was turned on, God had already created the universe. Ben Hayd, if you only knew the power of our God. He started stuff in the darkness. He's the God that carved out the valleys and he is the owner of those places. This entire creation was laid out before the first light came on. That's where my God began in the beginning. Genesis 1 says, "God, if you can't get past that, you got a problem with our God." I believe that in the beginning, my God started with nothing and just began to create from nothing.

Verse two says, "And the earth was without form and void and darkness." Darkness. Everybody say, "Darkness." >> Oh, we think that he's only the God of the light. We think that he's only the God of the mountain. We think that he's only God when we're being blessed. We think that he's only God in our good times. But look at this. The earth was without form and void. And darkness was upon the face of the deep. darkness. The beauty of what could be was hidden under a shroud and a covering of darkness.

God had done marvelous things, but you couldn't see it because the darkness was over the face. It was over the face. It couldn't be seen. But it says this that the spirit of God, the beauty of what could be was hiding under a shroud of darkness. underneath the darkness. It says that chaos and confusing confusion was swirling about the nation uh of the creation the new thing that God was wanting to show everybody. But while darkness covered and was over the face of the deep, there was something over that.

The spirit of God, the spirit of God moved upon the face. The spirit of God in the darkness was hovering there. That Hebrew term means that he was fluttering, that he was hovering, that he was brooding and saying, "I've got something under there. I'm doing a work under there, and the darkness right now has imprisoned it." But with a few little words, he changed the face of everything. He just spoke and said, "Let there be light." And when he spoke those words, uh, the darkness had to flee because light came into the universe and he brought order and form.

He set the boundaries of waters above and those below. He formed the oceans. Dry land appeared. trees and grass spread and the roar that was chaos and confusion that was underneath all the darkness gave way to something in Job the 38th chapter. After God listening to Job ran on for 37 chapters, God finally speaks. And when he speaks, he says, "Who are you that darkeneth? You're creating darkness with your words. And I'm going to bring some light to this situation. Where were you?" And he went back to the beginning when I began to create all this.

Job, you thought that I had abandoned you. I didn't abandon you. I'm in the darkness as well as I'm in the light. and everything that I created when I flipped on the light. Job 38:7, he asked this question. Where were you when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? I want to know where you were because back there when I flipped on the light of creation and the angels that I had created in the darkness saw what was being unveiled there.

It says that they shouted for joy. That word there is ruah. It means to split the ears. I can imagine these holy angels that are in this place today that were back there. And when God says, "Let there be light." There was something so awe inspiring about that day. I remember the first time I went to the Grand Canyon. I stepped out there and I looked at that big hole in the ground and it just took my breath. It was that all inspiring. But when God turned on the light of creation, these holy angels that are in this place today, they let out an earplitting roar of praise because God had broken the yoke of the darkness because what darkness covers, God will hover over.

When the darkness is covering, God is hovering. He's not afraid of the dark. I got to hurry on. But when when David wrote that 23rd Psalm, the Lord is Yahweh Rohi. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Oh, when the lights on, he's leading me beside still waters. He takes me into green pastures. He does all of these great things when I'm in the light. But there is a turn in verse four of that psalm when he says, "Nonetheless," it's translated yay. We don't say yay a whole lot.

Nevertheless, he's pointing to that what his shepherd has been in the light. My shepherd. But he says, "Nevertheless, when I walk through the valley of deepest darkness, I'm not changing God's and God's not changing on me. When he's been my shepherd in the light, when he's led me beside still waters and green pastures, when I walk in that darkness, I've still got the same God." and he restores my soul in the darkness of the darkest times. Come on, you can do better than that. Give him a praise.

Hallelujah. You're still the same shepherd whether the lights on or the lights off. Whether I'm in darkness or whether I'm in green pastures, you're still God. Hallelujah. Be seated for a minute. When is bad good? Here's another one for you. When is bad good? when God gets involved. And now we know that all things work together for all things. When I'm in the dark, when I'm in that prison, when I'm in that low place, I just got to keep reminding myself this is not an obstacle for my God.

It's not a challenge to my God. The same God that held my hand in the good times is still the same God. I'm not about to change on God, and he is not about to change on me. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is still the God that I worship today. So when God gets involved, bad becomes good. God in Revelation, John heard these angels at the throne saying, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, which is, and which is to come, not a different one." He was so impressed with it that he put it in the first chapter of his book.

little inversion, but he put the same wording in his in in the first chapter of his book, the God. Somebody needs to get a hold of this today because I'm going to pull your file card here in a minute. And I there there's got to be a response for the God who was and for some of you for the God who is and for others of you for the God who shall be. There's got to be a response. What what the Lord spoke to me is there's got to be a praise, a roar, just like angels when the light was turned on, when that bulb comes on in your spirit and you realize that the same God that saved you is the same God who will keep you through every circumstance of life.

When that light bulb comes on, there's got to be a roar of praise that erupts from your spirit. Hallelujah. God who was from those who have walked there in that place of darkness. I look at your faces. There are some of you in this house that have buried children. You've walked in valleys nobody should have to walk in. You've been in dark places. But you know what? You're still here. You're still here. You're still here. You're still here. I I've watched some of you others. You've buried multiple children.

Uh I'm looking at people today who have gone into that deepest darkest valley of life. Some of you have been buried infants. And and I'm talking to you. You can stand today because you are walking in this light. You stand today because the God was with you. He was with you. I I was talking to Bobby Jackson before service today. He's been here for almost 40 years now. Brother Willilifford. I remember I remember the four horsemen, you know, that would carry him up those steps in the front.

That big old wheelchair of his Bobby, you remember they would carry him up there, those dangerous steps. And then we got a chairlift that was about as rickety as the four that would carry him up. But he was he was faithful. My God, Bobby, you've been in this house of God for nearly 40 years now. I remember talking to you about the car accident that put you in that condition. But I want you to know that even in that darkness, God was hovering over that darkness because he had plans for your life to be in the house of God.

And here you are nearly 40 years later, still faithful and still worshiping God. There ought to be a praise erupt from some of you who have been there in that darkness. >> Hallelujah. He's the God who was He's the God who was uh He was there in your darkest valleys. He was there in your darkest times. Uh but here you are in the house of God. Oh, I wish it would get a hold of somebody. Bobby, I wish I could do it for you. Bobby has never been able to get out of that wheelchair.

But some of us have never gotten out of our chairs either. As much as God has done for us, some of us have been glued to those chairs for years. And we've forgotten that God was there. Brother Fred, in our darkest times, God has been there. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty which was I am so thankful that he was there. >> Oh, it'll get us in a minute. Don't stop praising on my account. I watched this precious lady faithful to the house of God. She don't live in a mansion, folks.

She don't drive a beamer. But here she is in the house of God to worship the God who has brought her through all of the trials and the temptations and the testings of life. He's a faithful God. He was Let me address another group. He is Some of you are going through some things right now. Right now, I want to tell you that God is with you. This group is here to testify that he was with them. But I'm here to tell you, Travis, that God is He's not a God of the past tense.

He is a God who is with you. And you're going to stand on the other side of this darkness. and you're going to shout out a praise to God who has brought you out. I'm looking at people who are in storms right now. Storms not of your own making. Storms that you didn't ask for. Family situations, financial situations, and all kinds of problems. May I declare to you that the God who was, he still is and he is with you in the even in the middle of your situation, if you can somehow find it in you to croak out a praise, to give out a yell, to give out a roar of praise, uh in the middle of your darkness, We've got some here that don't know what that's what brother Carton's talking about.

You haven't faced that. You haven't been there yet. I'm not just talking to young people. I'm talking to some some adults here that you say, "I've never had great loss. I've never walked in those dark valleys. The Lord sent me with a message for those to tell you he is to come because someday you may walk into that doctor's office and he said, "I just read your scans and I don't like what I'm seeing here. You may not need him now, but you certainly will need him then." And I can tell you that the God who was with Nathan and Bethany, the God who was with Bobby Jackson, the God who was with Fred Bradley, the God who was with Olivia Johnson, the God who was with Dawn Bates, that same not another God, the God who was is, but he is also in the future.

that when you get to that point uh when you reach that dark place in your life uh you can trust him. Uh you can put your confidence uh in the witness that is about you today. That same God that was uh he will be in your future there for you. Come on, lift up a praise. Lift up a praise. Those of you who have been there, let out a roar of praise. Those of you who are there in the middle of the darkness, uh, roar out of praise.

Those of you who may face it in the future, you need to give God the praise right now. >> Here's the message God spoke into my spirit. garden. If you can get them to praise me going in, I'll get them to praise me coming out. If you can get them to praise me before they ever get to that Red Sea, I'll have them praising me when I bring them out. To those of you who have not been there, you ought to be giving God the praise this morning.

Not because he's brought you out, but because he's going to be there in your future, as faithful as he was to any generation. Our God here, O apostolic, the Lord our God is one Lord. He hasn't changed in 90 years of this church's history, and he's not about to change. Now our God is your God and your God will be the God of the next generation. Hallelujah. Oh yeah. It's it's just let me tell you where praise is right now. There's something covering the face of praise right now that's wanting to break out.

There's a praise underneath. You're thinking about the chaos and the confusion and the situations and the problems and all the things that you face in life. But my God is wanting to speak a word to you today. Let there be light so that when he turns on the light, you'll understand. Listen, I don't think we even need any music right now. There's got to be a song that erupts from the spirit of man. Sister Sue, Brother Mike, you've been in those dark places, but here you are in the house of God worshiping him.

It's flowing like an undercurrent. It's flowing like a river in this place. We're not going to sing a song right now until the praise, the high praise of God erupts from our spirit. Take your liberty in the Lord. Let there be a proclamation and a declaration. I believe God. It's building. It's building. Come on. Let there be a roar. Let it be a roar. Young Praise of God erupt. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Make make way for Bobby to come down here. Listen. He can't. He can't. But some of you can.

Some of you ablebodied young people who can need to lift up the and stand in proxy for Bobby Jackson. You need to stand in the place of him today. Come on, give God the praise. Give God the praise. Give God the praise. Yeah, you can dance in his presence. You just don't dance in his presence. We need to loosen ourselves up uh in the presence of God and give him the praise that he's worthy of today. He was He is He is the coming one. >> Yeah.

That's the music that God wants to hear. That's the song that he wants to hear. That's pleasing to his ears coming from the spirit of man. Come on. Come on. >> If you don't want to flood the front of this place, you do it right where you are. But there needs to be 100% cooperation. Every hand, every spirit lifted to God. You owe him everything. You should give him everything. Come on. Hallelujah. We did it. Hallelujah. >> Some of us need to understand that your impossibility is not so with God.

>> Sarah was too old to have a child. Rahab was a social outcast. And yet her house still stood when the walls of Jericho fell. Esther was an ethnic disaster as far as the kingdom of Persia. Ruth was a national disgrace to the Israelites. Hallelujah. Gideon was hiding as a coward in fear. David was too young for the draft. Simeon was too old to be a minister in the house of God. And yet he held the glory of God in his hands. Simon Peter was too unstable to give the message that he gave at Pentecost.

I'm talking about God can use your situation. He can use you right where you are. If you'll just give him the praise. Uh Paul said, "I was a persecutor. I was a blasphemer. I was consenting to murder." How be it for this cause I obtained mercy. >> I'm waiting on you. God's waiting on you to get this realization that you don't deserve to be here today. I don't deserve to be here today. How be it, for this cause I obtain mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering for a pattern.

What God did, this is how we have to view ourselves, folks. When God saved me, he saved the chiefest of sinners. And he made the doorway big enough so that anybody who comes behind me can get through that door. Thank you, Jesus. >> Come on. We got to believe that he can save the drug addict. He can save the alcoholic. He can save the prostitute. He can save the financially crippled. He can save the person with the biggest disaster of a family in the history of mankind.

I'm telling you, we just got to turn loose God and let him go. Let him stand in both places in the darkness and the light. Come on, let's give him one more praise of which he is. Come on. Whatever you think he's worthy of, that's what you want to give him right now.