The Blessing of Desperation // Friends (Part 4) // Lyle Phillips

Welcome to Transformation Church podcast, where we represent God to

the lost and found for transformation in Christ. We're so

glad you're here and wherever you're listening from, we believe

God will transform your life. Do today's message us in church?

Good morning, Good morning? Come on, could we put our

hands together for King Jesus this morning? I think you

can do a little bit better than that. Come on,

go crazy for your King one time. Jesus.

You are good, Jesus, you are worthy, Jesus, you are holy,

and we are grateful that you are in the room today.

We say thank you Jesus that each and every time

we call upon your name, you join us in fellowship.

I don't know about you, Church, but I am so

grateful that even when I am undeserving of the presence

of Jesus, when I call upon his name, he is

so faithful to show up so much quicker than any

other friend I have. The Bible says he is the

friend that sticks closer than a brother. So I don't

know about you this morning, but I am grateful that

our God is in the room. We're not just singing

about him, singing songs about him as though he is

some distant deity. No, our God, our living God, who

is alive, resurrected on the third Day, is right here,

right now in this room with us, and you have

his full attention? Does he have yours? I'm gonna ask

this out over here, because y'all didn't really seem so sha.

I'm just wondering, does God have your full attention today?

Transformation Church? Come on, I came here for a reason,

and that is not just to give a good word,

I hope it is. But I came here today to

give God a crazy praise because God has been good

to me. Has he been good to you? Come on, now,

decide it's your turn to catch up a little bit

day out. Did you a moment ago? Come on, let

me see you give God a crazy praise. Come on,

just a little bit longer, just ten seconds. Give them

what He's worthy of.

Jesus, you are deserving of it, all, all praise, all glory,

all that I've got.

God. I came to this place today to give it

to you, and we say thank you now for your

presence in this room. We are so humbled by your power,

by your presence, by your grace. We are thankful for

the cross of cavalry. We are grateful for the blood

that you spilled and poured out that covers a multitude

of sins. We are grateful for your body that was

broken open for the healing of our bodies. We are

thankful for the free gift of salvation that we didn't

have to do anything to earn or deserve. But because

of what you did, you purchased us, You ransomed us.

And we are grateful that you've brought us to your

house today in our right mind, standing up on our

own two feet to give you the praise that you

so deserve. We bless you in Jesus' name, We pray,

and the church said, come on, put your hands together

for King Jesus. One more time. You can be seated.

Give somebody a high five on your way to your seat.

Tell them you smell good today. Tell the person on

the other side say I'm glad I'm sitting next to you.

Are you happy? Are you happy? Church? You might need

to notify your face. All right, smile a little bit.

We're in the house of the Lord. No reason to

be sad in this place. We got a good God

in the house today. I am so grateful to be

here Transformation Church. What a blessing, what a privilege, what

an honor to be in this house. I don't know

if you are aware of it or not, but you

are a part of something. Really, Do you know that

you are a part of something special? God is doing

some amazing things in Transformation Church. I know I'm not

giving you, guys any new news because you see it

every single week, but I want you to know. All

over the world, every single place I go, I always

hear testimonies of how your church, somebody say, my church,

of how your church is blessing and watering and refreshing

and pouring out not only to different cities in this nation,

but nations all over the world are being refreshed because

of your surrender and your sacrifice. So I want to

say thank you and bless you and remind you that

you are a part of a special house that God

is using for such a time as this. Do you

believe that one of the reasons why you are a

part of such a special house is of course the

mercy and grace of God. But also sometimes the mercy

and the grace of God is made manifest through our friends,

and through our leaders, and through our pastors, and I

know I speak for everybody in this room and everybody

watching online today, we are grateful for the gift of

Pastor Bishop Reverend Mike Todd. Now, honestly, if I was

Pastor Mike and I was watching online and y'all gave

that golf clap, I would be tempted to be disappointed.

He has not been here in how long six weeks?

Four weeks. I haven't been at my church for six weeks. Okay,

So I'm coming off sabbatical today. I know he's finishing sabbatical.

I'm coming off sabbatical today preaching for the first time

on a Sunday morning today. So listen, I'm just wondering,

could y'all get up on y'all's feet and honor Pastor

Mike and Pastor Natalie Todd for the gift that they

are to the body of Christ. Come on, you can

do a little bit better than that. We thank you

Jesus for our pastor. We thank you God for this

renowned leader in your hand that has been anointed by

the oil of God. Wow, a leader to this generation, truly, truly,

and I don't know how he does it. I honestly

don't know how he does it. I came here for

a faith tour. He gave me a little faith tour,

and I thought I knew how people like to criticize him.

But man, after we posted some pictures together online, people

came from me and you see, I gotta and I

told you so anointing. So I don't really care what

people have to say about me. What I'm preoccupied with

is what Heaven has to say about me. But man,

after that, I realized, I said, this man of God

is really anointed if he's got to put up with

all this and he has kept his surrender switch on

this entire time. Let me tell you what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna jump in this man's prayer corner, his amen corner.

I'm gonna jump in his fan club, and I'm gonna

intercede for him like a praying church mama. Yeah, y'all

don't know what I'm talking about. See, if you really

want to be on somebody's prayer list, you go to

a praying church, mama, And that's how I'm praying for

your pastor. You don't really want to go ask no

man to pray for you. I mean I'm sorry to

say it, but if you talk to a brother and

you say, hey, will you pray for me, bro, They'll

be like, yeah, I'll pray for you, bro. And then

on your way out of the church in the parking lot,

they be like, man, I'm praying for you. And you know,

deep down you're not like you might be when you remember,

but not really. But if you ever get on a

praying church mama's prayer list, let me tell you right now,

you ain't never gonna get off. You will get a

voicemail at three am in the morning. You'll listen to it.

It's just tongues. For the first ninety seconds, they're just

praying in the spirit. Hey boy, I know where you're

at right now. You somewhere you're not supposed to be. Yeah,

how many of you guys grew up with praying church mamas. Oh,

I grew up with some praying church mamas. You see,

I'm from the same neck of the woods as Pastor Charles,

who I also want to honor this morning as a

wonderful man of God. Can we give it up for

Pastor Charles and Pastor Abbey and everything that they do

for the Kingdom of God here in transformation. This is

my Kentucky brother, y'all. So when he said Scottsdale Road,

I said, oh, I know where that's at. You see,

my testimony is in the neck of the woods that

Pastor Charles grew up in. You see, I was not

always walking with Jesus. I didn't always have it together.

I couldn't always wear my clean Adidas to come up

and preach in the House of God. You see, whenever

Jesus found me, he found me in this rugged city

called Bowling Green, Kentucky. And I know y'all don't know

where that's at, but believe it or not, it's the

third largest city in Kentucky. It's actually, you know, a

pretty big city for Kentucky. But whenever Jesus found me

in Bowling Green, Kentucky, he found me in a drug

infested apartment where I had cocaine in the cabinet, I

was growing weed in the closet. I was a coke dealer.

I was a heroin addict. I was shooting up heroin

in this arm and met damphetamines in the other. I

overdosed over three times almost God, got put into rehab,

got checked into a State mental institution with a straight jacket.

I've been arrested more times than I can count. I've

been shot at more times than I can count. I

shot at people more times than I can count. And

I give God praise this morning because I'm still believing.

I'm still in my right mind. I'm cleaned up, my

soul's been purified. Christ has redeemed me. He set me free,

He's delivered me. I've been washed in the blood of Jesus.

He's filled me with the Holy Ghost. He set me

up on fire for his name. And now I have

the privilege of preaching this glorious gospel all over the

world because of the Cross. Yees see. I don't know

if I'm talking to anybody else in here that you

don't quite feel like you fit into church all the

time because you got a story behind you. Listen, if

you knew my story, you would be bewildered. How in

the world did somebody like you get a microphone? How

in the world do you have the opportunity to preach

the gospel of Jesus. Don't you know how dirty you were?

Don't you know how filthy your soul was? Oh? I

see the scars on your arms. I've seen the pictures

from your history. I know about you a little bit.

I remember whenever you got arrested for the tenth time.

If y'all saw my rap sheet, you would not believe it.

That thing is a book. It's not a sheet, it's

a book. I'm telling you the truth. This is about

his stick as this five pound bible right here. I

did a video not too long ago, and I was

just I was scrolling his all the time. I'm telling you,

I buried my best friend shot dead in the street

during a drug altercation, ran with a street gang. I've

been in so many fights and scuffles and battles on

the edge of death so many times, and I want

you to know if God could do it for me.

I don't know who I'm talking to. I really don't

know who's listening today. I don't know who's tuned into

this broadcast. But I came to tell you that he

is not a respector of persons. What he has done

for one, he'll do for another. And if he did

it for me, he can do it for you. I

don't know your situation. I don't know where you're at today,

and you may have a needle hanging out of your arms.

I was in the same condition. I didn't get saved

because I had access to a Bible. I wasn't watching

tvn there was no preacher or witness to me. But

Jesus himself walked into that room at three am in

the morning. Can I tell you. I thought it was

the police. The swat team had just kicked down my

friend's door down the street. I saw somebody walk past

my window about three am in the morning, and I

thought for sure I was going to get arrested. I

was rolling up some weed for the morning. I'm gonna

tell you right now what I was doing. And I

saw somebody walk past the window. I got up. I

looked out the window. I said, the police are here.

I'm about to get arrested. I know I'm in trouble.

My time has come. I'm about to go to prison.

I've already been threatened with fifteen to twenty years. See,

I ain't supposed to be here. I'm still supposed to

be locked up still to this day. I've been preaching

the gospel for twenty years. I should just now be

getting out of prison. Just now walk past the window.

I got up looked out the window. I said, oh,

I got to prepare myself. I'm about to get arrested.

And nobody was there. I didn't see anybody. And then

I went to the door and I looked through the

peepole because I thought for sure the police were there,

and nobody was there. I didn't see anybody. But you see,

I told you how to pray in church, Mama. See,

I grew up in this Holiness Pentecostal church. It was

very small, like the one Charles dad pastor, and I

used to take naps under the pew whenever the pastors

would run the pews. See, y'all don't know nothing about that.

Go to Brush Harbor meetings, y'all really don't know nothing

about that. That's like a tent revival outside one hundred

and three. And I remembered as a kid, I used

to pretend like I wasn't listening when my dad would

preach the gospel. But there was something about the atmosphere

when you'd get them glory goosebumps. You didn't know exactly

what was happening, but you understood something bigger than myself

is in this room right now. I don't know what

it is, but I think it might be Jesus. I

stepped away from that door where I thought the police

were about to come through, and I realized it wasn't

the cops coming to arrest me, but I was about

to get arrested, and it was Jesus himself. Now I

didn't see him like I'm seeing you, but he stepped

into that drug infested apartment and he spoke to me directly.

He said, in six months, you'll be dead or in

prison unless you come home to me right now. I

didn't know what to do, but I hit my knees,

I lifted my hands. Tears began to stream down my cheeks,

and I said, Jesus, I don't know how to walk

with you, but I do know that I've been walking

for hell for quite some time, and I'm going to

walk for you faster and harder and with everything I got.

And that was twenty years ago, and I don't know

anything else other than what I get to do today

here at Transformation, which is to preach the glorious gospel

of Jesus. I went and told my dad, I said, Dad,

I'm called to preach. He said, man, you gotta be

saved for like at least ninety days before you start preaching.

I said, I ain't waiting no ninety days, Pops. I

got a fire shut up in my bones. I need

to preach. He said, well, wait at least another three months.

I'll give you a Bible study on Wednesday night. I said,

I can't wait another three months. I started preaching at McDonald's.

I started preaching at Walmart past midnight. Let me tell

you right now, if you want to begin a deliverance ministry,

you just go to Walmart after midnight. There's all kinds

of people there that need the Holy Spirit. I read

in the Gospels where healings and miracles would take place

in people's bodies. So I would go stand by the

blood pressure machine. I'd wait for somebody to put their

arm in the blood pressure machine, and then they were stuck.

You see, they couldn't tell me, I couldn't pray. I said,

blood pressure a little high tonight, Yeah it is. What

don't go nowhere. We're gonna lay hands on you right

now in the name of Jesus. Blood pressure. We speak

to hoigh blood pressure, and speak to high blood pressure

right now in the name of Jesus. Somebody's gonna be healed.

We speak to hot blood pressure right now, in the

name of Jesus, you be healed. In the name of

the Lord Jesus. Here go fifty cent. Check it again.

We're gonna get a testimony right now, an instantaneous testimony.

And I can't tell you how many times people are like, well, baby, something,

I said, I know, something happened. That's the glory of God.

I said, Dad, can I preach? He said not yet.

So I went. I started going to rest stops. You'll

have rest stops in Oklahoma. You know, you pull over

the side of the road. I thought, man, people need

Jesus at rest stops. So I would stand by the

water fountain. I would wait for people to come get

a sip, and I would say, if you drink of

that water, you're gonna thirst again. I just gave Mark

chapter four. I said, you drink of that water, You're

gonna thirst again. And right before they took a sip,

they were like, I don't know if I I don't know.

If I want the water, I say, don't run from

the Lord He's I said, oh, you need the refreshing

water of Jesus Christ. And I got it and I

want to share it with you. And this is this

is how I started preaching. And believe it or not,

the same people that were around me when I was

a drug dealer in West Kentucky running with a street game.

They heard of my testimony, and they heard I got saved,

and they heard I started preaching the gospel, and so

this is how I got into preaching ministry. The same

blocks where I used to sell crack. They called me

and they said, listen, we know that if God could

save you. Yes see, they knew me when I was

living out of my car, when I was living in

that eighty seven baby blue box Chevy Pastor Charles, when

I had one of them, when I was living in

my car, and when I lived in the crack house

where there was no heat, no hot water. See, they

knew me in that time, and so they said, if

God could save you, why don't you come talk to

our young people. This is how I started preaching ministry.

So I was going back to the places. And this

is one of the reasons why Jesus said go back

to Jerusalem, because the first place that he sent them

was to the place of their greatest mistake. If you

really want to testify. It ain't always about the sermon.

It's about presenting your life. Because somebody with a testimony

is an eye witness. It is somebody who has seen something.

And the last I checked my Bible, Jesus said he

would send us out as witnesses, and witnesses are people

who have seen something, not somebody with secondhand information simply

parroting a message they stole from somebody else. They show

up and they say, I've seen something. So I showed

up in the hood. You know, all my friends, you

know as and gang bangers. They show up with the

flip flop paint and the twenty fours and everything, and

they come in and they say, we're gonna listen to

Low preach the gospel. What and Charles, they were like

this right here, like you know that youth group you

were preaching to, and they were listening to me. Okay,

let's see what kind of transformation that this man has

actually experienced. And then I got up and began to testify,

and I would tell about people getting saved and healed

in the miracles that I saw, and I was able

to share with them everything that I was witnessing. And

let me tell you. One by one, same gangsters, same

crack dealers, started coming up, putting drugs on the altar

because Hey, I man, I got a gun in my car.

Can you take it? I can't take it, bro, You

got to take that at the courthouse. I ain't. I

can't take it. Bro. We'll flush the drugs. But and

so this is how I started ministry. That was twenty

years ago. You know, I know a lot of Christians

in America, a lot of Christians in Tulsa, a lot

of Christians where I grew up. So I said, Lord,

instead of preaching it to people who have heard it twice,

let me go preach it to people who never heard

it once. So I moved to Africa. I mean, y'all

probably have never heard of me in your life. And

there's good reason for that. That's because most of my

ministry has been in Africa and in India. And so

I spent time in Africa, preaching the gospel in Africa,

helping plant churches over there, taking care of little babies

over there. And then I moved to India because I

heard that there were one point two million child prostitutes

in the nation of India. Now, let me tell you.

God didn't give me a specific word, a spoken word,

but I do have a written word. I know a

lot of times we said around, like, Lord, if you'd

give me a word, Well he has Matthew Chapter twenty eight,

verse sixteen through twenty. That's called the Great commission, not

the great suggestion. Uh oh, I'm gonna get into trouble.

This is just my introduction. If God's not saying no,

he's probably saying yes. Listen the way I read it,

two thirds of God's name is go. I said there

are one point two million child prostitutes in the nation

of India. Well, a lightning boat didn't fall out of

the sky and hit me in the forehead and say

go to India. Thus say it the Lord. But I said,

that ain't gonna happen on my watch. See. I believe

that we need to have a spirit, a different spirit

like Joshua and Caleb. I think we should have a

spirit like David that said I'm not comfortable. I think

we should have a spirit like Jonathan whenever he said,

I'm not gonna sit by satisfied in a stale mate.

While I got the enemies of God in my land.

Some Phyllistines in Tulsa. You think I'm gonna sat by

and just be an anointed bench warmer, like I'm just

gonna come to church, pay my time, serving kids, ministry,

and go to heaven when I die. No, I'm gonna

bring heaven right here right now where I live, where

I'm from. Let's go. So I moved to India and

I worked with churches over there too, and I'm just testifying.

It's just my story. It's a long introduction. But since

I've never been here, I figured i'd say, hi, y'all

had a doctor Anita Phillips here last week. Well, I'm

her nephew. You see the resemblance Pastor Lyle Phillips that

we're related. Look a lot alike, I can. I can

tell you right now. I took my braids down, so,

y'all family. So I spent I spent my time over

there rescuing kids from human trafficking. And that's what I did.

And during the time that I was there, I want

to testify Jesus. Because of the great the mercy and

the power of Jesus, we were able to take care

of over twenty eight hundred orphan children every single day,

educate them, feed them, house them, clothe them, and we

rescued over four hundred kids from human trafficking, child slavery,

and prostitution. So I'm just wondering transformation. Could y'all remind

me again, what is it that God cannot not do

with one life that's completely laid down to him. See,

this was the prayer that I prayed in that drug

infested apartment when I got saved. I said, God, I

intend to find out what you might do with one

life that's completely laid down to you. I intend to

find out what could life look like if I keep

the surrender switch on. See. I don't know where you

were when you got saved, but I know the state

that you were saved in. You were saved in a

state of surrender. None of us got saved because we

figured God out. All of us got saved because one

day the intimacy of the Lord got so strong that

we waved a white flag and we said, Jesus, I

give up trying to figure out how to do life

on my own without your help. I need you. I

depend upon you, and today I yield and I surrender.

That's how you got saved, you know, the same state

in which you are saved is the same state in

which you are called to live. You're never supposed to

turn the surrender switch off. When you turn the surrender

switch off, you go from being a world changer to

an anointed benchwarmer. And then your Christianity gets boring. Listen,

I'm a pastor. I'm over caffeinated. I'll be honest with you.

You know, that's what we do. We get with people

and we have coffee. You know how many people tell

me say, Hey, Pastor, I'm just bored. I said, you're bored.

Were you bored with? Well, I'm bored with church. I'm

bored with faith, I'm bored with prayer. I'm bored with witnessing.

I'm bored with servant. I'm just bored. You know what

I say. I say, you ain't bored, you just disobedient.

Can I tell you this morning, Church, Your adventure is

found on the other side of your surrender. So if

you're not having fun walking with Jesus, maybe that surrenders,

which is off. Now I'm doing too much. Let me

get to the text, all right, I'm doing too much.

You're okay, I know we're just getting to know each other. Yah, okay, okay.

So here's what I want to do. I want to

give you a message that the Lord has given to

me from the book of First Samuel. So if you

have your Bible, open it up First Samuel, chapter one,

First Samuel chapter one. Now here's something I learned from

pastor Mike time. He said that whenever God gives you something,

you wring it out for everything that it's worth. You

don't give up on it too fast. Oftentimes, whenever God

will give us revelat will abandon it for the next thing,

because we love the new and shining. But who am

I to require a new word from God when I

have not done the last thing he told me to do?

Yet some of us are like, speak to me, Lord,

He's like, I did you didn't do that thing? Who

am I to abort the promises of God over my life?

And so God began to speak to me about this

subject that I'm going to share with you today because

I do think it's a gift to the body, and

it's on the topic of desperation. Will you say that

with me? Desperation? And so for the last I don't

know a year and some change, maybe I've been speaking

about desperation and sharing messages about desperation, and that's what

I want to do today. TC is that okay? Are

you in First Samuel chapter one, We're gonna read verse

one through twenty. Look at your neighbors, say you ain't

got time for that? Yeah, he don't have he don't

have time for for all. We're gonna try. Okay. So

here's thing. At my church, we stand for the reading

of the Word. And is that okay? Would y'all be

willing to just bear with me and stand for the

reading of the word. Amazing? So First Samuel chapter one,

the Bible says there was a certain man of rama

theme Zoe film of the hell country of Ephrium, whose

name was everybody say, Elkanah. That's the first character in

the story. You got to remember him. He's the son

of Jerom, the son of Ilihu, the son of Tohu,

the son of zeph and Ephrathite. Sometimes you read things

in the Bible and you're like, Lord, what did you

put that there for? But I want to remind you

you don't just read the Bible. The Bible reads you.

The Bible prophesies to you about the prophetic potential of

your lifestyle, because we're called to be living epistles, not

just to believe a word, but to live a word.

Who that's good law, That was a good word. I

know you're reading the Bible right now. That was a

good word. Y'all gonna have a new country, nephew after today,

I can tell you right now. And so first two,

it says that Elkina, everybody say, Elkina he had two wives.

Everybody say, uh oh, you see that's his first mistake

right there. I got one wife and she's here with

me today and her name is Alison. And I don't

know if you guys can see her, maybe the camera can.

Can you can pan to her? She's right here, Come on,

just come up a little bit, just a little bit.

She doesn't like this, but I know you hate it,

but just can you wave and say, hi, this is

my wife, Alison. Oh yeah, yeah, y'all get it now

you're like, okay, yeah, okay, yeah, I got it. Okay yeah.

Pastor Mike say you got a little soul. See you

made to a black woman okay okay yeah yeah yeah

yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. See I should have

used that up front you know, as a little favor.

But see, my wife is the walking, talking manifestation of

God's goodness in my life. See when we got married,

you know, she was as pure as the driven snow.

And you know, before I got saved, I was a tramp.

And so when I when I when I look at

my wife, I'm like, this is the walking, talking manifestation

of the goodness and grace of God in my life.

And I love you and I'll honor you, and you're

the best part of me. Love you so much. We

got three kids. We've been married for eleven years. Can

y'all believe that? Do we look like? How old y'all

think I am? You think I'm forty six? So, by God,

I mean thirty six? How old you think I am?

Thirty two? That's good. Listen the glory. There's no time

or space in the glory, so it's better than botox.

The more time you spend in the presence, the younger

you look. I actually turned forty next month, y'all, I

said twenty years, so you know it makes sense. So Elkina,

everybody say, Elkina. He had two wives. Everybody say, oh oh,

And the name of one was Hannah. Everybody say Hannah,

and we like her, So let's clap for Hannah Man,

Hannah who she's amazing at Hannah Man, she's incredible. But

the name of the other was Pinana, and she's not cool.

So let's boo her boom, Yeah you're yeah, yeah, we

don't like you, Penana. You you're ugly. I guess I

don't know. I mean I I you know, like in

the inner heart, I don't mean in the natural. I

don't know what she looked like. And Penana had children.

That's what's crazy is that sometimes the people who are

really bugging produce so much fruit, and then here you

are over here, you're a Hannah who we clap for,

you're bearing, And then you got to deal with the

experience of watching somebody who's not nice get blessed. All right,

we're gonna get into that in a second. And so

now this man, he used to go up year by

year do his city to worship and to sacrifice to

the Lord of Hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons

of el Hoff nine Phineas were priests of the Lord.

And on the day when Elkin, everybody say, Elkina, we

just want to remember sacrificed. He would give portions to Pennana,

his wife, and to her sons and daughters. But to

Hannah he gave, Hey, what's that say? Now? If you

grew up in churchy shouting right now? Double poor shed me? Lord? Right?

You know what I mean? We love a double portion?

He give a double portion because he loved her though

the Lord had closed her womb. How's she gonna be blessed?

But Baron, I don't know who's in the room today

or watching online today that you know you're blessed. You've

received prophetic words, you remember promises that you've heard from

God in prayer. But you look at the fruit of

your life and you say, am i Baron? So you

see here in verse six says and her rival, everybody

say her rival as Pennana Boo used to provoke her

grievously to irritate her because the Lord had closed her womb.

How many of you have been made fun of because

of something that God has done in your life or

not done. So it went on year by year. As

often as she went up to the house of the Lord,

she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept, and she

would not eat and elkan and her husband said to her, Hannah,

why do you weep, and why do you not eat?

And why is your heart? Said? Am I not more

to you than ten sons? See it's a rhetorical question.

He might as well have been saying a hundred kids.

And after they had eaten and drunken, Shiloh Hannah rose.

Now Eli, the priest, was sitting on the seat beside

the doorpost of the temple of the Lord, and she

was deeply distressed. Everybody says she was desperate, and prayed

to the Lord and wept bitterly. Everybody says she was desperate.

And then she vowed a vow and said, Oh, Lord

of Host, if you will indeed look upon the affliction

of your servant and will remember me, and not forget

your servant, but will give to your servant a son,

then I will give to him to the I will

give him to the Lord all the days of his life,

and no razor shall touch his head. You've probably been

in that place before, vowing things to God. And as

she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth,

and Hannah was speaking in her heart. Only her lips

moved and her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli took

her to be a drunken woman. Everybody says she was desperate,

and Eli said to her, how long will you go

on being drunk? Put your wine away from you? But

Hannah answered, no, my Lord, I am a woman troubled

in spirit. I'm desperate. I've neither drunk, neither wine nor

strong drink. I'm desperate, but I have been pouring out

my soul before the Lord. I'm desperate. So do not

regard your servant as a worthless woman. For all along

I have been speaking out of my great anxiety. I'm

desperate and vexation. I'm desperate. And then Eli answered, will

go in peace, woman of God and the God of Israel.

Grant your petition that you have made to him. You see,

there's something about your heavenly father that he cannot quite

resist a spirit that is filled with desperation. The Psalms

would tell us that the Lord is near to those

who are broken hearted, that he can't help himself, but

he loves to associate with those who are of contrite spirit.

See it's amazing to me that we all want to

carry a spirit of breakthrough, but so few of us

are willing to be broken. But to the extent that

you are willing to be broken by the hand of

God is to the extent that you will carry the

spirit of breakthrough that the Lord wants to put upon

your life. Somebody say she was desperate, and she said,

let your servant find favor in your eyes. Then the

woman went her way and she ate. Now listen, when

y'all do that seven day fast and you go your

way and you eat for the first time, like when

you pull up to the chicken lay out there, you're

gonna pull up different. See, nobody rejoices when you read

this verse like and she went her way and she ate,

You're like, oh, yeah, whatever, it's no big deal. But

let me tell you that Monday, when you finished that

seven day fast and you like, look at my look

at my fruit looking. Yeah, I'm telling you, it's gonna

hit different. Look at my look at my fruit. See.

People don't they don't know. But when you break fast, man,

that's a that's a reason to rejoice right there. Verse

nineteen says they rose early in the morning, went and

worshiped the Lord, and then they went back to their

house at Ramah, and then Elkina knew Hannah his wife,

and the Lord remembered her. And in due time Hannah

conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel.

And for she said, I have asked for him from

the Lord. What I want to do with the remaining

time that I have today is speak to you from

the subject of the blessing of desperation, the blessing of desperation. Lord,

we thank you for your word. We know it's everlasting.

Flower may fade and wither away, but the word of

the Lord lasts forever, endureth forever. So God, we say

thank you today for the opportunity to come before your

holy Word. We asked that it would transform us, that

you would so accede into our spirit today that would

bear forth one hundred fold fruit. Yeah, let go. I

threw that in there at the end of the prayer. Listen,

he don't mind. God likes having fun. You know that

the devil don't want you to have fun in church

because the devil knows the Word too. And the Word

says that the joy of the Lord is your So

if he can steal your joy, he can steal your see.

So on your way to you see give somebody a

high five, say do you got the joy? Yeah? Yeah, yeah,

yeah yeah. So see this word desperation. This came to

me actually, Pastor Mike mentioned Pastor Brian Nera, who's from

Tulsa by the way, who is our executive pastor at

Legacy Nashville. All right, no love for your city? Okay, wow, okay,

Well listen when y'all if that's okay, if y'all got plenty,

just go ahead and send us whoever else. I mean,

I'll take Roosevelt next, I'll take Osby next, I mean,

whoever y'all want to send over to Nashville. Listen, If

you don't want your blessings, let me tell you I'm

gonna go because here's what I know. The hungry always

get fed. Here's what I also know. A hungry man

has no manners. People come in the church like, can

you pass the gray poupon? A hungry man has no manners.

I don't care what it looks like to you. You

can be uncomfortable with my blessings. Don't take it up

with me, Take it up with God. When I come

into the House of God, I want to come in

like Hannah. I want people to look at me worshiping

and say, is he drunk? Well, this is not the

wine that you suppose. This is no, no, no, you

remember Acts chapter two. No, I'm filled. See, I still drink.

I just switch brands. I'm filled with a different spirit.

So excuse me while I give my God a high

praise like Hannah because I'm desperate. And you see one

day Pastor Brian Nera, which by the way, Pastor Brian's

also one of our worship leaders, and we also have

an album coming up. That's right. I want to tell

you about it. I want to tell you about it

because listen, I also got crazy faith, and I'll do

a vision board and I'm already praying into a transformation

Legacy collab. I'll tell you right now, I'm already praying

into it. So, hey, don't get mad at me, Roosevelt,

We're gonna get you. I know your manager. She goes

to my church, her pastor, ha ha ha. Yeah, okay,

so see we already got some favor, we already high

see God's already made away where there is no way

my brother, so yeah, yeah, yeah. So Pastor Brian, so

he's also a worship leader, so he was singing one day,

and just like you, Osby, as you were singing, man,

he broke down. He couldn't continue. He pushed the microphone

out of the way, and God spoke to me, and

he said, go tell Pastor Brian that I am giving

him a gift of desperation. And that's what's happening for

you as well this morning, Osby, is that God is

giving you a gift of desperation. And here's what the

Lord told me to tell Brian, and here's what the

Spirit is telling me to tell you. You will always

be anointed as you are willing to be desperate. And

so I told Pastor Brian, as I'm telling you today, Osby,

that you will always be as anointed as you are

willing to be desperate. And he began to you know,

he was just crying out to God. He was pursuing Jesus.

And I knew right then and there that God was

giving me a word to share with the church that

we need a fresh impartation of desperation. We have forgotten

what it's like to be desperate. We've become so comfortable

in the midst of all of the things that we

are offered through the local Church in the West that

it cost us almost nothing to be Christians here, when

it cost Christ everything on the cross to save us

so that we could become Christians. Today, I want to

talk to a group of people who are willing to

get a little uncomfortable because they want to be involved

in whatever it is that Jesus is doing on the earth.

So I was telling Pastor Brian this, and you know,

I was like, Okay, Lord, well, I want to research desperation.

If you're giving me a word on desperation, then I

want to research it. And here's what I did. I went,

like any good preacher, I went to Google, right, because

what I like to do I'm a Bible nerd. So

what I like to do is I like to go

to Google, and I like to get the world's definition

of a word. And then I go to the Word

of God, and then I go to you know, the

Bible Dictionary, and I use all kinds of apps, and

I look at God's definition of a word because I

want to choose God's definition of a word over the

world's definition of a word. Right, And that's what I

did here in the scripture, because whenever I looked up

the names penana and Hannah what they mean in the Hebrew.

I learned that penana actually means corner. You know, that

thing you run your shoulder into when you're trying to

go too fast around a corner. Come on, don't nudge

a pinana if they're sitting next to you. But you

know who I'm talking about. You run into a pennana

out at the supermarket, You're like, yikes, Man, she a corner.

That's a penana, you know. But Hannah, Hannah means blessed favored.

God's been gracious to me. How many Hannah's I got

in the room today, So I'm like, Okay, Hannah, who's

blessed favored by God? She's desperate right now? God, what

do you mean by desperation? I look through the whole

Bible for a good definition of desperation, and when I

went to Google, here's what the Mirriam Webster's definition of

desperation was. It says having lost hope, moved by despair,

extreme suffering, and intense anxiety. I said, Okay, Lord, I'm

thankful for the impartation of desperation, But I want to

say I don't want the world's definition of desperation. I

want God's definition of desperation. And so I went to

the scriptures and I looked up every single scripture that

I could find with the word desperation used in the

Greek and the Hebrew. And here's what the definition of

desperation is according to your Bible. It is having lost hope,

moved by despair, extreme suffering, and intense anxiety. And you

know what I'm talking about. You know what I'm talking

about because I was like, Lord, you're telling me, you

want me to go preach a message the impartation of desperation.

You're telling me you want me to go tell people

that to be desperate is blessed. And this is what

the definition of desperation is. I don't think I want that,

But how many guys know God is really into not

just giving you what you want, but giving you what

you need. He'll give you what you need. I mean,

it's like underwear in your stocking on Christmas. It ain't

always what you want, but by a year later, you're grateful,

Granted gave you their Mondays. That's what the gift of

desperation is. It's like underwear, because you know when you're

desperate and you go through valleys with the Lord, you

become anointed so that you can stay sustained on the

mountaintop whenever attention comes your way and visibility shines in

your direction. You see, fruit doesn't grow on mountaintops. Fruit

only grows in the valley. Some of us get angry

at God when we go through valleys of desperation, but

what we didn't realize is that the traversing through the

valley is actually God's answer to our prayer when we

cried out to him in the sanctuary and ask him

for the gift of desperation that he wants to pour

out over my life. God make me desperate. Yeah, it

might look like extreme suffering, but I know in that

moment I'm buying oil. I'm as anointed as I need

to be for the battle that God has called me

to fight.

And I don't know about you, but I want to fight.

I didn't get saved to sit on the sideline. I'm

trying to take out some goliaths with a slingshot, you

know what I mean.

I'm trying to like stand there in a lions then

and not be eating. I'm trying to walk on water.

I'm trying to see the dead raised and the lepers cleansed.

I'm trying to see babies fed and prisoners get set

free and saved. I'm trying to see revival take place

in my generation. Listen, I didn't get saved just to

sit around and play paddy cake with the devil every

now and then. I got saved, and I'll show up

the church to preach the gospel to give the devil

a migraine. I don't know bye about you, but that's

why I showed up today. And I'm desperate, and I

want you to know I'm still desperate. So when I

read through this this thing of Hannah here, I'm like, Okay,

God wants us to be desperate because he rewards desperation. Now,

there's all kinds of blessings that come as a result

of desperation. If you look at verse seventeen again, you'll

see her pastor blesses her to receive peace verse seventeen.

Verse seventeen again, to get answers to her prayer. Verse eighteen,

she receives favor. Verse eighteen, she no longer has to fast.

Verse eighteen, she no longer feels sad. Verse nineteen. She

freely worships. Verse nineteen, the Lord remembers her. Verse twenty,

she conceives and gives birth, and verse twenty her prayers

are answered. These are all of the blessings that come

as a result of our willingness to get desperate for

what God wants to do in our life. Well, let

me tell you, if you're gonna stay desperate for God,

and some of us have already decided by default, we're

no longer desperate because you know, you come into church,

people like how you doing, sister, and you put on

your church clothes. I'm blessed. How you feel. I'm highly favored.

And you know you just got in a fight with

your husband on the way to the House of God.

Oh I'm good, Praise God. You know you're yelling at

each other in the car. You wrote down the window

we blassd Hallolujah. But there are blessings that come with

being desperate. But let me tell you, the enemy does

not want you desperate because he realizes what God will

do through a desperate people. What he wants us to

do is mail it. In turn the surrender switch off.

Become an anointed benchwarmer, never contribute anything but simply remain

consumers for the rest of our lives and go to

heaven when we die, not take anybody else to heaven

with us. That's what the enemy wants. And so I

realize in this passage of Scripture that there are various

distractions to desperation that I want to share with you

because I think they're important for you to be aware of.

I'm gonna share them with you in five minutes. The

first one is competition in comparison. The enemy wants to

provoke you to a place of competition and comparison, because

competition and comparison will kill your desperation. You remember it

said her rival Chelsea, that her rival, you know, I

look that up in the Hebrew as well. Rivalry in

the Hebrew means a tight space. It means a narrow space.

It means a constrained space. And that's what your life

looks like. Whenever you take the bait of competition and

comparison from the enemy, your life gets real tight, it

gets real narrow, it gets real constrained. And no longer

are you concerned with being obedient to the will of

God in your life. You're just trying to beat somebody else.

At what you believe they're doing better than you are.

When did we buy into the live that defeating our

spiritual siblings is what communicates to God that we were

prepared to receive our next blessing. I got three kids.

You know I'm not gonna bless any of my children

when they come to me and tell me, hey, Dad,

I just stomped out my sister. Does that mean I'm

gonna get a blessing now because I just beat her up.

I'm gonna say, boy, instead of blessing you, I'm gonna

whoop you, so you're gonna get whooped. And somehow we

have bought into this idea that if I compete with

my brother, if I compete with my sister, and that

I defeat them, and I prove to everybody that I

am more deserving of attention and affection and affirmation than

they are. Somehow my heavenly Father is gonna be impressed

by my works and then reward me out in the

open for my competition. Here in my heart, no competition

and comparison will kill your desperation. Look at your neighbors say,

don't compete, don't compare. Now the next thing that will

kill your desperation is well meaning people. Yeah, yeah, well

meaning people, well meaning people. Did you hear Elkina? He said, hey,

why do you weep? Why are you fasting? Why are

you not eating? Why you're worshiping like that? Why you

always coming to church? Why you're going to Wednesday night

Bible study while you're doing the Daniel Fast, while you're

up all hours of the night praying. I can hear

you in the other room crying. Don't you know it?

Don't take all that? No, you see, well meaning people

will kill your flame. God wants to give you an

impartation of desperation. But elkin has in your life will

talk you out of it because they are discomfited by

your passion. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. See. The passionate always

offend the apathetic. Those who are moving are always going

to burn the biscuits of those who are stationary. So

why would you consult with people who are not on

fire for God? For how on far you should be? No? No,

I'm trying to be the most surrendered person in every

room I step into. Now because I'm trying to compete,

but because I'm not checking the atmosphere. How surrendered to Jesus.

Should I be in here just wondering how on fire

people are in here? No? No, I'm not looking to

anybody else to set the temperature of my faith. I'm

looking to Christ, Jesus, who went to the cross on

my behalf, to set the temperature of my faith. And

I'm not stepping into atmospheres like, Oh, I wonder how

things are going. Here is very dark. I don't know

if anything can happen. No, you are not a thermometer.

You're a thermostat. You set the atmosphere, you set the temperature.

You say. No, no, I came in here with Jesus.

I don't care about the well meaning people that used

to be on fire for God twenty years ago. Listen,

your anointing is not their anointing. Their anointing is not

your anointing. You've got to get your anointing with Jesus yourself.

It don't go on discount. I'm sorry to tell you, baby,

But the anointing that you need to live out God's

purposes in your life, there ain't no Black Friday sales.

It costs what it costs. And here's the last thing.

Here's the thing that will talk you out of your

desperation with a quickness. Are you ready for it? A

double portion? Yeah? Yeah, this is the closing I realized.

I realize that a double portion is it's popular church

language that whenever somebody preaches about it, we shout about

it because we all want a double portion. I want

a double portion. How about you? Come on, I want

a double portion? How about you? But you know what

a double portion is plenty for most people. You give

them double of what they need and they'll hush. Yeah. Yeah.

How many people you know, got a little money in

their pockets, stopped praising, got a promotion on the job,

stop coming to church. Man, I'm good now, Bro, you

know I got a double portion. I don't think I

gotta be desperate anymore. I think I'm cool now. I

think I'm comfortable now. I don't think I'm gonna be

at church. I don't think i'm gonna be at prayer meeting.

I don't think I'm gonna get involved with the fast

because I am so blessed. Listen, if the only time

you'll pray is when you want something, God will bless

you by not giving it to you, so you'll keep

on praying. Like if my wife said, I want a purse.

I want a real, nice purse. And I knew that

when I went and bought it for she'd stop talking

to me when I gave it to her. I never

give it to her. You know why, because I care

more about our covenantal intimacy than I do her temporary blessing.

Come on, that's a word for somebody. I know I

gotta close. I know I gotta close, But that's a

word for somebody in here. If the only time that

will pray is to get something, God will bless us

by not giving it to us, so we'll continue to

pray and stay desperate. I believe a key of getting

more of what you ask for in prayer is continue

to pray after you get it. If we're not mature

enough to pray after we get blessed, then we're not

mature enough to be blessed, at least not to the

extent that God wants to bless you. If you give

some people a double portion of what they need, you

will render them completely ineffective for the Kingdom of God.

I think the devil will pay you to be quiet. Yeah,

he don't mind a little money in your pocket, so

long as you calm down, how many people you know

they're so blessed that they're not around anymore, Like they're

not really even walking with God, and they're like, man,

I am so blessed. Listen, the blessing of God will

always lead to lead you to increased intimacy with God.

The favor of God will always lead you into more

fellowship with God. If what you call favor leads you

to a spiritual neuropathy, it's not a blessing. It's a

distraction to your desperation. We got people out here today

talking about distractions as though they're promotions and calling footholds favor.

We've got to remember. God wants to give you a

double portion. He's a good bridegroom king. But you must

remember the purpose of the double portion. The purpose of

the double portion is not so that you can consume it,

so that you can worship with it. Yeah, thank y'all

for coming, Come on up, Come on up. So listen,

here's the thing Elkin has said. Here, here's a double portion.

What was the purpose of the double portion? It wasn't

so that she could flex. God will give you a

double portion. He wants to reward your desperation and your faith.

But when you get the double portion, what will you

do with it? Will you consume it or will you

worship with it? Because the reason that we get blessed

is so that we have more to worship with, because

I'm not going to allow anything that this world has

to offer me to satisfy my palate to the extent

that I am rendered ineffective for the Kingdom of God.

Hannah would not be distracted by a double portion. She

got up and she got desperate. This is the word

that I felt like. The Lord sent me here all

the way from Nashville, Tennessee, at the end of my

sabbatical to tell you, is that God is about to

pour out over you an impartation of desperation unlike anything

that you have ever experienced before. Oh you think you've

been on fire for God before, But the latter shall

be greater than the former, says the Lord. Your high

water mark in God is not supposed to be the

first six months of your salvation. Oh that was when

I was really on fire. No, no, no, My Bible

says that I go from glory to glory, to glory

to glory, whatever awesome thing God has done in your past.

He has plans to outdo himself. You gotta let your

future be informed by your past, your testimony. If God

brought me up from there, surely he gonna bring me

up from here. I want to be desperate. If you

are in the business of blessing broken things, God, then

I want to be desperate. We gotta remember what happened

whenever that little boy came to Jesus and said, I

ain't got much. I just got along John Silver's kid's meal.

So I don't know who I'm talking to, but maybe

in here today you feel like you don't have much.

All I got this little lunch. Would God really accept

the gift of my desperation? You see, the impartation of

desperation is cyclical. God will give you a gift of

desperation so that you can give him the gift of

your desperation. It's a cycle of love sickness. It's one

of the ways that we love him with what he's

given us. We say, God, I'm desperate for you again.

I'm desperate for you again. And Jesus he took that

little boy's lunch. It was just a few fish, just

a few loaves. You may have come into church today

thinking I don't have much. I ain't got much. Oh

I got is this little kid's meal. I ain't got

a whole lot of faith in God said that'll do.

I only need faith the size of a mustard seed

in order to move a mountain. It ain't got to

be big and the kingdom to be used. If that's

all you got, I'll use what you got left. I

ain't got a whole lot of hunger God, I just

got this little mustard seed of desperation. I ain't got

a whole lot. I've been blessed, I've been enriched. I've

not confessed my need or dependency in a while. But

God said, I'll use it. We can never forget what

Jesus did with that bread. Before he could multiply it,

he had to break it, and when he broke it,

he blessed it. Your God is in the business of

blessing broken things. God may have brought you here not

just to bless you, but to break you. What I'm

asking you Transformation Church, are you willing for God to

break you so that he can bring you into the

next place of His blessing, Because we'll have breakthrough to

the extent we're willing to be broken. If you don't

mind a stand to your feet, do in't want to

pray for you? You are in the business of blessing

broken things. The first group of people I want to

pray for today are those that have been without desperation

for a long time. Perhaps you have lived for Jesus,

walk with the Lord for a number of years, and

you no longer since the need to be as hungry

for Him as you once were. Can I pray for

you today that you would not retire, but that you

would refire. Some of us have allowed the flame of

first love to go out. We're not praying like we

used to. We're not fasting like we used to. We're

not going after God like we used to. We're just

going through the motions we got the religious calistenics. We

look the part, we do all the right stuff, we

say all the right stuff, we post all the right

pictures on social media, but we know on the inside

the flame and the fire of first love has gone

out and we are no longer doing the things that

we did at first. I want to pray for you

if you feel apathetic in your faith today, if you

feel lethargic. If you feel like you're going through the motions,

can I tell you right now in the name of Jesus,

that the Lord himself is in this house and you

don't have to wait for a man to lay hands

on you, but Jesus himself lays hands on you right now.

And if you know you need that, and you know

God's doing something in this room, I just want to

invite you. If I'm praying for you, just lift your hand,

and don't just lift your hands, lift your head toward having,

close your eyes and look at him, don't look at me.

In the name of Jesus. I pray right now, Holy Spirit,

that you would begin to fan the flames of first love,

and that you would ignite them again, and that passion,

a revival, a personal revival, would take place now as

you consume them. God, I pray over every single square

inch of their person. I pray that they would be

ignited with the fire of God. Jesus, we know that

you came to baptize us not only with the Holy Spirit,

but also with fire, and so we asked today in

the name of Jesus, that a baptism of fire would

come upon your church and that we would be completely

consumed by your passion God, and that our passion for

you would completely consume us. Father, I pray that you

would give us a gift of tears. I pray that

you would break us. I pray that you would remake us.

I pray that you would split us in half wherever

we need to be broken for you, so that our life,

this little alabaster jar that we call our lives, could

be a sweet smelling incense unto you, that all of

our lives would be worship. And if that's you, and

I'm praying for you right now, I just sense an

impartation of desperation that is coming into your womb, the

spiritual womb of your life. Now, I just want you

to say I receive it, I accept it. And if

you're in here today and you don't know Jesus, you've

not walked with Jesus before, maybe you're listening to me

and you say, I've never heard anything like this in

my life. And even though it doesn't make sense to

my natural mind, there's something happening on the inside of

me right now that I sense that I know that

Jesus is calling me. If you have never given your

life to him, or you are so far from him

that you've forgotten the last time that you were connected

or a church or a part of anything that resembled

walking with Jesus. I want to pray for you as well,

if you don't mind, just take a moment, close your

eyes by your heads. Lord, we say thank you for

allowing us to be in this holy place. If you're

in this place today and you want to receive Jesus

as your Lord, as your savior, would you just put

your hand up in the air if I see you,

if you're on watching us right now by streaming, and

it doesn't matter where you are in the world. Jesus

knows exactly where you are if you are not walking

with him, I just want to ask you put it

in the chat. Pull little emojia. I'm lifting my hands.

That's me. Pray for me, Church, pray for me. We'll

have somebody from our team that will connect with you,

no doubt. I think y'all do that. And so we

want you to know that Jesus he gave his life

on the cross for your life. I see several hands

even still keep them hold them high. I hold them high.

If that's you just lift your hand again. In the

name of Jesus. I see you up here, Father, I

thank you now. I see you up there. Is there

anybody else? I see you now? I would imagine there's

a few people online. And if that's you and you've

got your hand raised, I just want you. I want

to invite you to pray this prayer. Say Jesus, Come on, Church,

pray it with them. Jesus, I thank you for the cross.

I thank you for giving your life for mine. I

accept you today. I repented my sins, and I turn

from my ways, accept your grace, and I belong to

you all the days of my life. I am yours

in Jesus' name. Hey, man, if you prayed that prayer,

the Bible says that if you believe in your heart

and you confess with your lips that Christ was raised

from the dead, then you are saved. So we want

to say to you, Welcome to the kingdom. Welcome to

the Kingdom. Come on, Church, Could we bless those that

have prayed that prayer? And could we continue blessing the

Lord Jesus in Jesus name. Come on, we do a

little bit better than that. Thank you. Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus, thank you for joining us today. If

you said that prayer and accept it Jesus into your heart,

it's the best decision you could ever make. We want

to celebrate with you, and we have some tools to

help you on your journey. Text saved to A two

eight two eight two and to find out more about

TC text connect to A two eighteen a two. Be

sure to subscribe and share this podcast with your friends.

Thanks for listening. Now go out and live a transform life.