Welcome to God’s Swap Meet

Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

I want you to come with me to the book of Isaiah or Isaiah, if that's your persuasion.

Isaiah chapter 61.

Isaiah 61 · chapter mention

We're gonna hang out there for a little while.

I've met with the tech team and stuff, and let me just say this.

I don't know how we're gonna end this.

Okay.

I don't know how we're gonna end it.

We've got some alternative, you know, closing A, closing B, closing C.

But I really want to be available to allow the Holy Spirit to move in this house.

Um, I don't believe there's any person watching online or on any of the campuses as a part of our inmate family.

I don't believe there's one person watching who is here by accident.

Did you get that?

There's not one person who is here by accident.

God has lovingly navigated every step and ordered every step of your life to bring you to this place, to bring you online, to bring you as a part of this fellowship for such a time as this.

I I want to be available and I want us to be available for the the wind of the spirit and how he chooses to uh to manifest himself in this place.

In the book of Isaiah, chapter 61, uh, and many of you will recognize this as a uh um a messianic uh uh prophetic declaration and identification of Jesus who read in this passage in the book of Luke.

Isaiah 61 · chapter mention

And and the prophet says, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek.

Come down to verse three, because the the guiding verb, he has anointed me, he has anointed me, applies to the various phrases in the middle.

I want to count out at verse three.

So it says, The Lord, Spirit of the Lord is upon me, he hath anointed me to appoint King James says, unto them that mourn.

To give unto them, King James says, beauty for ashes.

Verse number one.

Give unto them the oil of joy for mourning.

And then the garment of praise, stay there for a minute.

There's an anointing upon me, he says, To speak to, to address, uh, to minister to, to serve.

To those who come into the presence of God, and I will um I will exchange with them.

That's what I want you to say.

Um, I I every time I come to Texas, I I learn more and more about your culture.

Your culture.

Um how many of you do not have a pair of cowboy boots?

Okay.

All right.

Oh, you're visiting too, huh?

Are you good at so I'm learning this this culture, this culture.

I want to share with you a part of my culture.

I'm from Los Angeles, California, okay?

So I'm just saying, if I mess this up, just say, well, he's from California, he don't know any better, no way, okay?

Um something happened toward the end of the uh 1970s in the wake of riots and all that.

Uh, an interesting entrepreneurial phenomenon during times when the economy was shaken and that kind of thing.

Um a Korean man who owned property, some of that property had been burned, some of that property was destitute, and he had an idea, see, that he would reappropriate his land and divide it up into spaces, see, and then rent those spaces out.

Uh, began with uh farm workers and people who worked outside in the fields and in the farms and ranches, and they would come in and they would rent these spaces, see.

And they would set up shop maybe for a weekend, for a few days, and then go back to their farms or ranches or whatever.

The key was they they would come with something, uh, maybe some crops or whatever, and then they would trade with people who brought something else, maybe you know, material or whatever, and they would they would trade.

It began with the idea of uh you bring something and you receive something.

Okay, you got that, you got the whole message.

The idea was you come with something and you you trade.

Obviously, it progressed to uh to money, but it began as kind of a trade, and it was called a swap meet.

It became a phenomenon that even today, this weekend, if you go to Los Angeles and certain parts of the city, you'll see signs that say swap meet, swap meet, swap meet.

And the idea was you bring something, see, and you return with something.

You um you you release something and you receive something.

And we call it a swap meet in Isaiah sixty one, God sets up a swap meet.

I I want to declare Gateway as a swap meet.

Uh I I I I I want you to be be mindful of what will happen and what does happen when you come to this place, whether it's online, whether it's in person.

Uh I suggest to you uh in the mode of the prophet, you've come to swap some things.

Tell just tell your neighbor, welcome to God's swap meet.

That's the wrong neighbor.

Try the other neighbor, tell another neighbor, welcome to God's swap meet.

And so the prophet says, the prophet says, first of all, um uh I will appoint to those who bring ashes.

And I'll swap with you, and I will trade ashes for beauty.

The concept of ashes is, among other things, was a part of the culture of the times, and the covering even publicly with ashes implied repentance and confession.

Ashes, ashes.

Um it implied uh an open willingness to confess.

You hear phrases sometimes sitting in clap, uh sackcloth and ashes.

See, uh, it was a part of a culture that they would sometimes literally in public, you know, cover themselves with sackcloth and ashes, implying a repentant spirit.

And so the prophet says, I've I've been sent to those who bring ashes.

Ashes of repentance, ashes of confession.

New Testament says, if thou shalt confess, confess your sins.

Y'all have sin down here?

Yeah, I'm from California.

I don't know.

I'm just trying to, I'm just polling the house.

Yeah, yeah.

And so the Bible says, if we confess our sin, ashes is a symbol, see, of confession and repentance.

And he says, when you when you come to, God, I love your word, when you come to God in confession, he swaps with you.

And he says, I will give you beauty.

It's a picture of uh of a headdressing.

Often, uh, there is one right there, like that, right there.

Right there, right there.

No, seriously, stand up, stand up, stand up, stand up.

I need a camera real quick.

No, no.

This is no joke.

I didn't know that man was gonna be here.

I'll pay you afterwards.

Um, no, no, no, no, no.

The word beauty is a word for crown.

It implies regality, it implies purity, it implies cleansing, it implies acceptance.

So, watch what God says.

Let's swap.

You bring me your sins, I'll swap with you and give you a crown of beauty that that symbolizes, that symbolizes forgiveness.

God says, when you come to this house, you're coming to a swap meet.

Come with your sin and confession.

I'll trade with you.

Forgiveness, the cleansing.

I don't know if the praise team sings used to be an old song.

What can wash away my sins?

Nothing.

Oh, y'all know that song too.

No, because we don't hear that often enough.

We don't hear it anymore.

You know, it implies that we have it and it needs to be cleansed.

When you come to Gateway, welcome to the swap meet.

Because God wants to swap your sin for his forgiveness.

I got I got 19 amens on that one, okay?

Watch this.

Then he says, Bring your mourning.

I'll trade it for joy.

Let me work on that.

The word mourning implies a loss of an empty spot, a void.

Lost something that was there that was cherished.

Mourning means it's lost, it's gone, it's no longer there.

It could be a relationship, it could be a person in your life, uh, it could be someone who has stepped out of time into eternity, but as a morning.

It could be a dream, it could be an expectation, it could be that which you have anticipated and waited for and and and maybe fasted and prayed for, and it's gone.

It is the morning of a loss, and God says, Come, come, come, come on, come, come, come.

Let's swap.

Bring your lossness, and I'll trade it for joy.

Ah, God, I love the word.

He says, Come, come, come, come, come to the swap meet.

You you're uh you've lost something, uh, it's not there.

Maybe it was a dream, maybe it was your career, maybe it was something financial, but it's gone.

God says, but come anyway, and I'll trade with you.

I'll give you joy.

I love it.

Now watch David.

David helps us understand how and when and where God gives you that joy.

Okay, you you you you you remember this one?

Uh the Lord is my shepherd, and I shall not want.

Remember that?

Ye though I walk through the valley.

By the way, by the way, watch what David says, ye though I walk through, not into nobody on this side got it.

Let me try it on this side over here.

Watch what David, Davis, David David says, Ye though I walk through a valley, a shadow of death.

Watch this.

David says, the camera's still rolling.

Because while I'm in the valley and the shadow, God uh prepares a table and sends out invitations and prepares the table in the presence, somebody sees it, of the enemies.

And it is there in the valley, in the shadow, with the camels rolling and your hands watching, that he anoints your head with oil.

Somebody got that one.

God says, Let's swap, let's swap, let's swap.

Um the oil of joy.

When when when uh the prophets, prophets, kings, and priests were anointed with oil, and they would pour oil over the head.

They pour oil over the head, they pour oil over the head.

When when when when the uh kings, priests, and and prophets were anointed, they poured the oil over the head.

They poured the oil over the head, they poured the oil over the head, and the oil that flowed from the head flowed down.

There was no separate anointing for the shoulders.

There was no separate anointing for the back.

The only way the shoulders and the back received the anointing is that they were connected to the head.

Listen to me.

There is an anointing among this house, there is an anointing among gateway, and it starts with the head, and the anointing among this man's life flows down to those who have been spiritually connected because the anointing of all flows down and it flows down when you're even in the valley and the shadow and the weakness and the loss, and God says, Let's swap.

You bring me your morning.

God, I love your word.

I'll give you my joy.

I've been getting to this all night.

This is what I've been waiting for.

This is my assignment.

This passage is for someone who God sovereignly bought her.

I told my class yesterday, God's gonna bring somebody here.

Don't identify yourself, but this is your verse.

Welcome to the swap meet.

You bring your heaviness.

The word heaviness is related to one's eyes.

It's it's kind of an uh ophthalmological term.

It speaks of eyes with dim vision.

Heaviness means your vision is cloudy.

And God says, Come come, come, come, come, come to the swap meet, come, come, bring it.

Even with your dim eyes, which means you you you can't clearly see where you're going.

Come, come with heaviness, heaviness.

You you cannot see tomorrow.

You question the value of going into tomorrow.

Thoughts have run through your mind.

Maybe this life is not worth living.

Suicide has been considered.

Why?

Heaviness.

Why go on?

Why continue?

Why why what's the value?

It's not working anyway, it's not where it's supposed to be anyway.

And this word means you see no value and no reason for going forward.

And God loved you enough to bring you, maybe online, to bring you, maybe in the prison system, to bring you into this building.

To swap with you.

Your bring me your heaviness.

Your inability to see the future, to see tomorrow, to see the value in the next day.

Come, come, come, let's swap.

And I will trade it for a garment.

God, I love it, of praise.

God says, Let's swap.

See, that mind, those eyes which are in despair, who cannot see tomorrow or the future and see no value in going into it.

God says, I will anoint you with a garment of praise.

Now listen, it's not a garment like a coat that you put on.

See, uh that word for garment means uh uh uh a garment out of one piece, and it only has a hole in it to come over your head.

And then it drapes you and covers you in it.

I'll give it to you again again.

You missed it.

It's only one, you don't you don't have arms and sleeves, you you put it over your head, somebody sees it, see, and then you're draped and you're covered in this garment, which means it first must come over your eyes.

Y'all got it on this side over here, another way.

Those eyes that cannot see those eyes.

That are discouraged, those eyes that are dim, those eyes that are in despair, those eyes that cannot see the value of tomorrow.

Praise covers your eye, your eyes.

Watch this, and he says, I will give you a garment of praise when you cannot see the value of tomorrow.

When you're still in that valley, when you're still questioning why go on, when you're still in the midst of confession of sin, I will clothe you with praise.

Now listen, listen, listen.

Praise for the believer is not an additional, optional extra.

Say it again.

You're commanded to praise.

Psalm 146 begins, praise ye the Lord.

Psalm 146 ends, praise ye the Lord.

Psalm 147 begins, praise ye the Lord.

Psalm 147 ends, praise ye the Lord.

Psalm 148 begins, praise ye the Lord.

Psalm 148 ends, praise.

Y'all ain't got this yet.

Psalm 149 begins, praise ye the Lord.

Psalm 149 ends, praise.

Y'all got it.

Psalm 150 begins, praise, and then gets everybody in and says, everything that has breath.

So if you ain't breathing, this ain't for you.

Everything that hath breath, praise ye the Lord.

Y'all got that?

Flip over if you got a minute to Psalm 92.

That's what here's how I want to close.

Psalm 92 says, he says, the prophet says, I will make you as trees of righteousness.

God, I love it.

Isaiah says, I will make you as trees of I'll trade, I'll swap, I'll trade, I'll swap, then I will make you as trees of righteousness.

Psalm 92 says, the righteous shall flourish like a palm tree.

I haven't seen too many palm trees here in Texas.

I told you I was gonna tell you about Los Angeles.

In my house in Los Angeles, we had a palm tree in the front yard, and there was this way, this unusual storm in Los Angeles, and the winds were blowing, and the winds were raging, and the rain was falling, and the winds were blowing.

It was a major storm unusual for Los Angeles, and in the front of my yard was a palm tree.

And in the midst of the palm tree of the storm, the palm tree spoke to me.

Palm tree said, Son, God wants you to be like me.

I said, First of all, you're a palm tree, you shouldn't even be talking to me.

I don't understand why you're talking.

He said, but God wants you to be like I said, what do you mean?

He says, trees of righteousness shall flourish like a palm tree.

I said, What do you mean?

He says, God put something in me called elasticity.

That's a pretty big word for a palm tree.

I said, He said, God made me and put something in me called elasticity.

I said, What do you mean?

He said, When the winds blow and the storms come, I might bend.

But I won't break.

Somebody has a testimony in this house.

When trouble was in your way, you might bend, you might weep, you may cut, but you still and you did not break.

Do I have some I did not break testimony?

You might bend, you might come, you might be drumming, you might get the home.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Wait, wait, wait, wait.

I ain't done yet, and my time is running out.

Watch this.

The palm tree kept talking.

He said, Someone look at me.

I'm not like any of the other trees.

The other trees have branches and leaves all along the trunk of the tree.

But a palm tree, all of its leaves are only at the top of the tree.

I said, What do you mean?

So that when the wind blows, and I might bend, but I don't break, no matter how strong the wind blows, it causes me to keep waving my leave.

I need about 95 praisers in here who will wave your leave.

Keep on the way.

Come on, give them a praise in his place.

Bless him, bless him, bless him.

Bless him, bless him.

Whatever you do, don't let the enemy take your joy.

Don't let him take your praise.

Because the joy of the Lord, I'm on that verse too, huh?

That's your strength.

And you are commanded to praise God.

Come on one more time and help me bless the Lord.

Hallelujah.

You shall flourish like a palm tree.

You might bend, but I won't break.

Now watch this.

Welcome to the SWAT meet.

Watch this.

Here's the whole message.

Everyone at the SWAT meet comes to do one of two things.

Some come bringing something.

And they go home with something else.

Watch this.

Some come to release something.

Some come to receive something.

Thank you, Father.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Every listen to me.

Listen.

Every person in this room, you and I are in one position or the other.

Some of us wanted to come with palms out.

To release something.

To release your mourning.

To release your failure.

To release your sin.

To release your weight.

But you can.

Listen to me.

Sometimes the best testimony that you can have is I can.

Don't ask me a whole lot of questions.

I'm here.

Sometimes the best testimony is I'm here.

I made it.

Listen to me.

Some of us are coming with hands raised.

Listen to me.

Some of us are coming.

With palms up.

Not palms out to release.

But palms up to receive.

What do you need to release?

What do you need to receive?

All over this room.

All online.

All as a part of our broader church community.

We're standing in one position or another.

To release.

To receive.

To that person who has considered suicide as an option.

Receive life.

You shall not die, you shall live.

Palms up.

Hands.

Palms to receive.

Hands to release.

Thank you, Father.

Hands to receive.

It does not matter who stands in the position of senior pastor.

This will be a place of sovereign presence.

A place where you can release.

A place to receive.

And it said, It's me.

It's me.

It's me, O Lord.

Standing.

In the need of prayer.

It's me.

Releasing.

It's me.

Receiving.

I want to pray.

And however the spirit has the Holy Spirit has spoken to you.

I love that.

You may want to come to this altar, you may want to remain in your seat.

You may want to just tarry for a while.

We don't tarry too much nowadays.

But we come to release.

We come to receive God of the ages.

Heavenly Father, you have navigated every step of every man and every woman in this house online, a part of our broader church family on every location.

You brought us here.

Now, Father, we come before you to release.

We come to receive.

And we release and we receive in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.