John Kelly’s Message

Woo! Give God some glory, huh?

>> Come on.

Praise God. It's wonderful to be here,

to be here with all of you. And uh I'll

tell you, it's been great being at this

church. The administration has been

great.

praise and worship.

I don't know about you, but I've gone to

heaven a couple times

and uh it's just been just been awesome.

And you know,

I go to a lot of places

and I get with a lot of people, they

love to preach,

they love to teach, but I always ask

them, "Well, but how do you feel about

the people?"

Hello.

And you're blessed because you have

shepherds that love sheep.

Hello.

And they're a dynamic team.

It's an it's it's so balanced because

it's an apostolic prophetic team. And

it's just wonderful to be part of all of

that. And uh you can see me playing

around here. Technically, I'm not real

good at this stuff. Uh,

it's a I'm a whole other generation. I'm

just learning how to work on iPhone.

But, uh, when I when I first got saved

and after a couple of months,

I started going to this Pentecostal

church

and I'd be greeted at the door

and the man at the door would go, "Jesus

in me.

loves you.

And after about six weeks of that, the

seventh week, I walked in the door and

he went, "Jesus in me loves you." I

said, "Well, how do you feel?" He said,

"How how do I feel about what? How do

you feel about me?"

I said, "I know Jesus loves me, but I've

been wondering about you now for six

weeks."

But one of the things I I sense in this

church is family.

>> And you see, you can't be family without

love.

Is somebody with me?

>> All right. I want you to Well, you may

be wondering why I'm sitting down.

I feel like it.

>> Come on.

So,

I want you to go to Habac

and I'm going to be talking or Habacco.

I don't care how you pronounce them,

just get there.

And I'm going to begin with this.

Many of you already have heard this

before.

Very familiar verses

in Habac.

And as I'm thinking about Habac,

I'm thinking about a young man,

and he's somewhere

between 16

and 17 years of age.

We know that he's not even 18

because he's not a soldier.

And you can't be a soldier in the Lord's

army

until you were 18.

So, we know he's not a soldier.

And he's climbing up

this ladder.

And he's going up on the wall.

And out in the darkness

are the Assyrians.

And they have everyone inside

outnumbered

by a couple hundred to one.

And as he's climbing up

just before the midnight hour,

he gets on the wall in the ramparts

and he starts

walking down the wall

and he's behind

the soldiers on the wall

and they are there with spears,

bows and arrows

and pots.

of hot boiling oil getting ready for the

attack that will be coming. There'll be

no sleep that night.

And then he climbs

up into the tower

and that's where we meet him. We meet

him at the tower

because

all the men in the tower

are primarily between 16 and 17.

And he will not be the only one on that

tower.

There'll be at least three others on

that tower with him.

And that way that they're watching

north, south, east, and west on the

towers.

And the other thing that he knows

is that

just before the Assyrians attack, the

first thing they will do

is they will shoot the arrows

and kill every man on the tower.

Hello. He knows

tonight's the night I die.

Many years ago, I was in Sri Lanka.

I'm in this hotel in Sri Lanka, and

right outside my window is an old fort

that goes way back to colonial days, but

yet it was still a used garrison.

And about 3:00 in the morning,

I hear gunshots.

And that's when the civil war broke out

in Sri Lanka.

And the first men

that were killed that night were the

soldiers in the tower. The snipers hit

him right away,

immediately.

And so I've seen the reality of that.

And just imagine a 16, 17 year olds,

three of them, four of them up in there

and then it begins with

see this when you're in a situation when

you're between a rock and a hard place,

there's nothing you can do but pray.

Are you with me?

The only thing you can do when you look

at men in combat,

you're you're with a bunch of believers.

>> Hello.

>> Come on.

There's two things a man die does in

combat before he dies.

Number one, God forgive me.

God forgive me.

And then the second thing he does is he

speaks of a woman,

a mother,

a sister,

a wife.

Tell her I love her.

Mhm.

Four boys

knowing they're going to pray that

prayer

and

want God to to tell mother he loves him.

And then while he's praying,

he comes in to the presence.

Come on. How many of you this morning

got got a taste of the presence? Got a

Come on.

>> You know, it's it's like I know when he

is and I know when he isn't.

>> Hello.

And it may only be a moment.

And it's amazing because when you're in

the presence of God,

an hour's like a moment.

Come on.

Because you're no longer in chrono time.

You're in chairos time.

You're in time without limitation.

And so here he's caught up in no longer

that Cronis time. He's in prayer and he

he's in the presence of God.

And something happens

and he says this. And then

the Lord answered me and said, "Write

the vision. Make it plain on tablets

that he may run. who reads it.

For the vision is yet for an appointed

time,

but at the end it will speak and it will

not lie, though it terries. Wait for it

because it will surely come. It will not

tarry.

The moments

in the presence of God

assured him that tonight he will not

die.

Hello.

>> Because it's telling him

that he has a vision.

Come on. The one thing I know about

every one of you in this room, without

exception,

is that all of you have a dream or a

vision.

You may have had it when you were 9

years old, but you have it.

And come. Oh, this is going to be so

profound. what I'm about to tell you the

difference between a dream and a vision.

Dreams are with your eyes shut and

visions are with your eyes open.

But all of them are a picture of your

destiny.

They're a picture of your future.

And it's just something that you can't

forget. It's something that that you

cannot.

And the Syrians came and they ran over

Jerusalem and they took it.

And over 90% were slaughtered that that

that morning.

But not

not this boy in the tower

because he had a come on. See some

something God gave him. I I have people

all the time, all the time, I'll go to

certain places, you know, and and

especially places that are, let's put it

this way, think they're a little more

spiritual,

and they'll tell me about their dreams

and their visions, and I know they don't

have them.

C can I share something with you?

I was preaching

out of this scripture

in Chicago.

I was in what you call the ghetto. I was

in the hood. I was in a church of about

a thousand people in a movie theater.

When I got done preaching the sermon,

I walked off the platform over to that

side and I was supposed to walk off over

that side, but I for some reason I got

confused.

You ever get confused?

But maybe you're being led not knowing

it. And I wound up going over that side

and I started coming down the round and

right next to where you're sitting,

sister, right on that end chair,

was this

girl.

and she had three little boys at her

legs.

She had a heavy,

heavy wool coat on. This was August.

You don't wear heavy wool coats in

August.

She was maybe 5 foot three.

She was probably about as big as my

thigh.

skinny looking.

And when I went by her,

she grabbed my coat

and she just was crying.

She was crying.

And she said,

"I had a vision.

I had a dream,

but I lost it.

She told me

when nine boys

raped her

when she was 10 years old. She was on

drugs by the time she was 12 and a

prostitute.

At 12,

she was there with three little boys.

And she was not even 18 years old. She

was 17,

the same age as this prophet.

And this was her time on the tower.

And I looked at her

and I said to her,

"It's impossible

to lose a dream."

Come on.

I've had thousands of dreams that I

don't remember because they're not worth

remembering.

I've had nightmares, bad dreams, good

dreams.

But once in a while, I've had a God

dream.

And you see, a God dream

is your destiny dream.

And I said to her, I said, "What was

your dream?" I f I forgot my dream. I

said, "Honey, you you can't forget a

dream.

If you had this dream before all this

happened to you, what was that dream?" I

I I I saw a woman with white shoes and

white nylons and a white white skirt and

a white top and she had like a little

white hat on her head with a cross. I

said, "That's a nurse."

And she said, "I always dreamt I'd be a

nurse

and I wound up as a drug addict and a

prostitute."

She said, 'But I've been sober

for three weeks.'

She said, 'I got save you three weeks

ago.

And I said, and so I said, walk with me.

Walk with me. Just then, a couple women

came around her and they said, "Leave

the man of God alone.

I said, "No,

no. This is why I'm here.

This is why I'm here."

And I started walking with her.

And as I was walking with her, I had the

boys.

And the boys,

one of them, he put both of his feet

right on this foot and wrapped his arms

around me, the little one, and put his

head right here.

And then the the other one,

and I So, I'm trying to walk with this

kid on my leg.

And then the other one, the one that was

the next bigger, he's he's holding he's

got a hold of my jacket on the other

side. And then the bigger one is right

here. And he's big. He's big. I mean,

he's he's way big for a kid his age.

Matter of fact, I thought he was more

than twice his age. And he's about this

big, this kid. And he's pointing at me

and he's screaming at me. You touch my

mom, I'm gonna kill you.

Screaming at me. And these women are

trying to get him, get her in the kids.

I said, "No, no,

no. I don't care if I got to drag these

kids. They're going with me.

He can scream all he wants."

So I said to her,

"When you had that dream,

how'd you react?"

"Oh, I got better in school. I got all

A's

until I got raped and they put the drugs

in me."

I said, "Yeah, you know why?" She said,

"Why?"

I said, ' Because that dream was from

God.

See, when people tell me they have a

dream from God, you know how I know most

of them don't?

Because they're not willing to pay the

price.

Because

when God gives you a dream, it don't

come easy.

You got to pay the price.

>> Come on. And the price is called

sacrifice.

But the thing is when God gives you a

dream,

you wake up with a passion.

And you see passion is the very thing

that gives you the power to pursue.

It empowers you.

It's a grace

and it empowers you. See, we think of

grace as God's favor.

But when the apostle said, "But by the

grace of God, I am a wise master

builder." He wasn't talking about having

favor. He was talking about having

empowerment.

And so,

and the empowerment is the passion

because the passion

will give you resiliency.

And I spoke that word resiliency to her.

She said, "What does that mean?" I said,

"That means you don't quit.

That means you don't quit." I learned as

a kid when I started boxing in fifth

grade, I learned until I stopped boxing

in high school. I learned you don't quit

until the bell rings.

Hello. I learned playing football, you

don't quit until the whistle blows.

And I ain't hearing no bells and I'm not

hearing no whistles. and I'm not

quitting.

>> But I also told her, I said, "No, the

passion, you just keep it just keeps it

just keeps going. It keeps coming

and and you and it you come."

And then I said this to her,

"But the price

is always sacrifice."

I said, "You can become a nurse,

but but I'm going to tell you something.

You've got to get a GED.

You got to you got to get get with some

hospital or something that has a

program. You got to get in the program.

And you're going to have to be going to

school. You're going to have to have a

job. And you're going to have to be

raising three boys at the same time. You

can't be like the other mothers.

You got to just keep at it. You got to

keep on keeping on, honey. You got to

sacrifice.

You don't get anything in this world

without sacrifice. You don't accomplish

anything without that. People aren't

willing to sacrifice.

Never get ahead.

>> Hello.

And so

I told her sacrifice

and I said, "There's going to be times

you're going to be sitting on that bus,

whether you're going to work, coming

home from work, and there's going to be

tears in your eyes, or you just you're

just going to pass out and fall asleep."

And then I said to her,

"Honey, you got to stay focused

because there's going to be people

around you that are going to try to talk

you out of it.

Your biggest enemy sometimes is family

and friends.

Come on. They they want to pull you back

into their mess all the time.

And I said, 'You going to have to stay

focused. Keep your eye on the prize.

As Christians, we keep our eyes on the

prize. We keep looking forward to that

day where we stand in front of the

throne of God.

>> Oh, hallelujah.

>> So, it's very very important we keep our

focus.

And then I told her

I told her this.

I said,

"Those boys right there

will become what you become.

And the greater work that you do,

they'll do greater works."

>> And just then

her

She I as I was going to the end,

this woman tried to help her take her

coat off and I realized what do you hear

this?

She was wearing a slip.

She had no dress.

We're talking poor. You know what?

There's a difference between poor and

poor.

to poor.

She had nothing.

So the story I'm telling you took place

probably

right around 37 38 years ago.

I was in a church,

a black church.

Church I was with in the city was an all

black church.

But this church was in the suburbs.

Only church about 200.

I don't even think it was that

all black church. But everybody in it

was a doctor, a lawyer,

business person,

person in government,

everybody in that church,

that church, their offering was probably

the same size as that church that was a

thousand people.

Come on.

These were people that were in that

ghetto,

but they escaped.

Come on.

See, there's always those that escape.

There's always those that refuse to be a

victim and decide to be a victor.

>> There's always those that they may have

been may come on. They may had a part of

their life where they were overcome, but

they eventually overcome. They're called

overcomers.

See, we're singing about I'm an

overcomer. I'm an overcomer. Yeah, but

what have you overcome?

>> You got to be you got to overcome

something to be an overcomer.

>> Well, I was in now now that church I'm

I'm It's packed with overcomers.

And I

come off the platform

and this lady comes up to me, but couple

people, several people came up to had a

crowd. And then we went to a back room

just like you have a back room here.

Went in the back room and there was a

little group came in there and the

pastor said, "I got somebody special.

She wants to see you."

This woman comes up, 5 foot three,

gray hair,

kind of round.

That's all I'm going to say.

And she and I'm in this room with all

these people. I mean I mean the room

this little room is packed.

And she goes, "Remember me?"

Now let me tell you something.

When a woman comes up to you

and she's an older woman

and you're an older man

and you've had two lives,

the before and after.

Hello.

You got the BC before Christ and the AC

after Christ.

and she goes, "Remember me."

And and she may even have a kid with her

and you're thinking,

"I don't know if I want to remember her,

but I'm in trouble because I don't

remember her." I'm seriously my mind is

a blank. I am sitting there going, "Uh

uh uh go." I mean, what do you say when

a woman goes, "Remember me?" And you're

going, "Oh my god." I So,

and she goes,

"Remember

the gal that just got off drugs

and you told her she could be a nurse,

that her dream could be fulfilled?"

She said, "I'm her.

She said, "I got a job as a cleaning

lady in the hospital."

And she said, "And I found out the

hospital had full programs."

And eventually she said, "I got into

this thing

for for basically being being like a

medical helper or something like that."

It was just a three-month program.

And I got a job doing that. And then she

said, "I got a job as a licensed plaque

practical nurse. I went through licensed

plaque practical nurse training. Did

that for a while. She said, and then I I

went through training to be an RN, a

registered nurse. Hello.

you know, and I became a registered

nurse at the hospital. She said, "Then I

got my master's in administration."

And she said, "And today

I am the head."

Hello,

of all

of all personnel in that hospital except

for the doctors.

And then she showed me there were these

three huge guys in the room

and she introduced them to me as her

three sons and her one son went to

University of Michigan, played for the

Detroit Lions for two years

and he became

I'll tell you it later. The other one

went to the University of Michigan on a

football scholarship and he became an

I'll tell you later. And the other one

went to the University of Michigan on a

football scholarship and I'll tell you

later.

And so here they were, these three men

and they were thanking me.

They were thanking me. They were hugging

me and crying

and they were just putting all kinds of

money in my pocket and everything.

So I was between and I'm and I start

crying. I you know you get crying or

laughing or something in that thing

and she introduced me to the three boys.

I forget their names now, but she

introduced me to him and the first one

she said,

"He's a surgeon

in my hospital."

That was the one that played for the

Detroit Lions.

And she said, "My other boy," she said,

"Come on, honey. He's a lawyer.

And she said, "My other boy just got out

and he tried out for pro ball, but but

now he's going to graduate school."

And I said, "What are you going to be,

son?" He said, "Well," he said, "I was

thinking about being a doctor. I was

thinking about about being a lawyer."

And he said, "I decided I'm going to be

both.

[Applause]

And I said to them,

I said, 'You are what you are

because your mother is what she is.

And I said, your mother is the dream

walking.

She's a walking dream.

And when you live with a walking dream,

come on.

Come on. And you begin to become the

image of that dream.

And you begin to believe if she could, I

can.

And I said, you are what you are

because your mother

is a walking dream.

And them boys broke down cried.

Just crying.

But I want you to know

that I am st sitting here in front of a

bunch of dreamers.

Can can you all stand

please?

You know I just would like ask you to

stand.

Pardon me as I try to get back a little

composure.

Amen.

I want you to

say this.

First of all, I want you to take your

hand and go like that

and then put it right here and go, I

have a dream.

>> I have a dream.

>> I have a dream. And my dream

>> My dream

>> cannot be denied.

>> My dream

>> cannot be denied.

>> I have a dream.

>> Now turn to three people and tell them

that they have a dream that cannot be

denied.

How did How did that make you feel?

Didn't that feel good?

>> I want you to I want you dreamers to

feel even better.

>> Now turn to three people and tell them,

"I have a dream that cannot be denied.

[Applause]

and

>> I have a dream

>> that all of you

>> have a dream that cannot be denied.

>> Praise God.

North Palm

has a has a dream that cannot be denied.

>> God has a purpose. God has a mission for

this church that cannot be denied.

>> Amen.

Be blessed.