Hold on! your go through is for gods glory! - CoPastor Johnson

Fifteen four.

And what the Word of the Lord says on this

morning is for whatsoever things were written afore time were

written for our learnings, that we, through patience and comfort

of the scriptures.

Might have hope, might have hope.

I listened to Sir Williams on yesterday, and for those

of us that were not there, again, we want to

continue to keep Sir William lifted up in prayer.

And I know that's my name for him.

I just believe that God is calling him to be

more than just a sir. I believe we have a

young preacher on our hands, a man.

That's not a prophecy from me.

That's a calling I believe before he was ever even

formed in his mother's womb, just the word that we've

been hearing since I've known Sir William, even before he

was able to stand up here and bring forth little intercession.

Before I remember Christmas break in Easter were overseer wou

let him stand before the people. But as he's grown,

he's grown even in his language. And so that we're

not encouraging William to get puffed up, and I don't

believe he is.

I believe as we're encouraging him.

We want to continue to lift him up because he's

starting to mature in what God has called him to do,

so we want to continue to pray for him. But

the little intersection that he gave on last night was

about hope. So what Paul is saying here is that

we can get a lot of hope and encouragement, Sister

Tamika through readings and learnings of the Old Testament, and

we all need some hope, we all need some encouragement.

I don't know nobody, anybody anything, somebody, nobody that don't

go through something, and so on this morning, the Lord

stopped by Sister Tamika to give us some encouragement. Even

though we all need to encourage ourselves sometimes.

I always know that God knows what we're going through.

He knew about it before we ever got to it,

and so he always wants us to be encouraged. He

wants us to know that he knows, He knew before

you got there, and so he made sure whether you

encourage yourself or he sends somebody by to encourage you,

that you would get a word of encouragement. He never

wants us to give up a man. There's an expected

end for us all a man. So Father, on this morning,

we thank you for your loving kindness or tender mercies.

We thank you for your word God that.

Not only washes and cleanses us, but it encourages us.

God.

We thank you hallelujah for who you are, for all

it is that you're doing in this house.

Lord God.

We just asked that you will continue to lead God

and nurture us. God, continue to keep our heads it's

lifted up through your word God, through our praise and

worship of you, and for all it is that you're

doing in our life.

God, we just bless your holy name on this morning. God.

We thank you for your presence being in this house. God.

We thank you that every time we invite you in,

you come in and you sup with us. Lord God,

in the name of Jesus. We know that you will

already hear God, but we understand that in your words

you say that you inhabit the praises of your people.

God.

So as we praise you on this morning and you

started to inhabit God, we sense and felt your presence God.

So we say thank you for the presence of your

holy spirit, Lord God, which dwells not only in our bodies. God,

but even in the presence of this building. So we

say thank you on this morning. Thank you for your word.

God.

Thank you for using this vessel, Lord God, siting me

down by your spirit.

You may stand up, God and speak to your people. God.

I thank you that it would be less of me

God and more of you. God.

Help me to bring forth this word in the way

that you would have it to come forth.

God, and I just thank you for it now. God.

I asked that you'd have your way in this house,

Lord God, and that you would get the glory in

the honor out of all that I say, in all

that I do, out of everything that takes place in

this house on today, God, that you be glorified and

the devil would be horrified. God, that we are going

to another level in you God, and that he would

get no more out of us.

God.

In the name of Jesus, I pray, and I give

you all the honor and Jesus' name. A man, you

may be seated, Hallylujah. We want to continue to lift

up our overseer in his absence a man. He took

one of the granddaughters off to drop her off at college.

So continue prayers for him and the lady more as

I don't know if they're on the highway already headed

back or if they're still and ho They went to

drop Zarajah off for college in Houston a man, and

then honoring my husband, Elder Johnson, and then giving all

you wonderful beautiful saints of God a little honor. They're okay,

and I pray I got everybody out the way. The

Lord has given me something in y'all. It's kind of

always hard for me to put things together, and I

think that's a good thing too. I'll get something, and

then at the last many things go to moving around,

but on praying that the Lord helped me to get

this right. My lesson title which I had, ain't no

telling how many of them, but I'm sticking with this.

One. Hold on your go through is for God's glory.

We can't give up.

Hold on your go through is for God's glory, coming

from Romans fifteen. For so, what I started out with

was endurance, and we all have to endure. I don't

care who you are, saved or unsaved. We're all gonna

go through something and we have to endure. And the

reason I say we have to endure is because those

that don't endure give up. And if you give up

and you give in, then that you give up and

you give in to whatever it is that you're going through.

And I don't really know a lot of people that.

Have given up and given given in, even when I

wasn't saved.

You can find some alcoholics that don't give up and

give in. I have seen some of the drunkest people,

as drunk as they were, don't give up and give in.

And you say, well, how can you say that, and

they drunk, Well, I've seen them stat and not foul.

That takes endurance. Take it from an ex alcoholic. Get

drunk and be as drunk as you can be and

try to keep walking without falling.

That takes endurance. I wouldn't never a.

Drug addict, so I don't know how it is to

be on drugs and to stay stable.

But I can best believe you it.

Takes some endurance for them to stay stable. Try to

do a little marijuana and not fall asleep, and I

was able to do it. That takes some endurance. I

was an overeater, tried to stop eating and couldn't.

That took some endurance.

There's not much that we do or don't do that

does not take some endurance. But in this case, Paul

is talking to the church in Roman and Rome about

using some help to help them endure or to keep faith,

or to keep some hope, to hold on to what

they just got, and he says, so it's gonna take

you some help, but there's something that can help you out,

and some stories from the old that will encarriage you

to carry home.

So that you don't give up.

Sister Tamika said before she called me up her sometimes

we need some encouragement. I want y'all to know that

y'all can encarriage y'rself.

And we can.

But sometimes it's hard to encourage yourself when you're going

through I've been there, and it seems like talking to

yourself just ain't good enough, because who the fart gonna

listen to you? Half of the time I got myself

into trouble that a man.

Or, I feel like I'm all alone.

I mean, I know God, I love God, and right

now I'm with God. But even when I wasn't with God,

I felt like I was all alone, especially if I

was going through a situation so if I can be

honest about me. When I wasn't saved and I went

through some hard situations and I was in a place

of endurance, then the enemy would come and start talking

to me. And at the time I didn't think he

was the enemy. I just thought that was the inn

er me saying, girl, give up, go through this.

This is too much, too hard. Let's get out, go

on and take them pills.

You don't have to do this no more. And I

would be talking to self, now, hold, don't do that.

You got kids, Ah, you got somebody take care of

them kids, Your sisters, take them kids. Endurance Endurance is

the ability to withstand hardship, adversity, or stress over a

prolonged period while maintaining faith and integrity. Often linked with

perseverance and patience, and for us it's in God's promises.

Endurance is seen as a virtue that develops spiritual maturity,

strengthen our character, and also builds hope in the believer.

So we don't just go through to go through. So

Paul is saying, I go through it for nothing. So

when you go through, I need you to know that

there's some stories in the old that will help you out,

because it's some people that us have been through some stuff,

and it's some stories to tell that can help you

when you get ready to go through.

So I only chose a couple of them, and I

chose one of my favorites. It was a woman named Hannah.

And Hannah had a her husband named Elkni, and elk

and I had another wife named Panana.

And Banana with such a little banana, the banana picked

at Hannah.

I did some studying this time.

I preached on Hannah before, but this time I did

some studying. There is not a time frame in the

Bible on how long Hannah had to put up with

Banana as her adversary. The story is in First Samuel,

starting at chapter one, but what it does say is

from the way it was written down in the Jewish

writing that it was possibly about nineteen years. That's a

long time, and for the Bible to literally call Panana

Hannah's adversary, because Satan is considered our adversary. Banana was

doing some picking, and I thought to myself, Banana was

doing some picking, but Hannah hadn't put these hands on her.

Hannah was some type of woman. What they say now

she didn't clap back at her, she didn't put these

hands on her. Hannah was some type of girl. So

I did some more studying. Hannah was a godfriend woman.

Thank God for God with Hannah, because if my adversary

kept coming at me.

Well, for those of us to know the story, we

know Hannah was barren, meaning Hannah could not have any kids.

Panina being the second wife, and we know this again

due to Jewish writing. Hannah is mentioned first when it

comes to Elkini's wife, so she would have been wife

number one. Banana wife number two comes in the story,

possibly again because Hannah could not have kids, and almost

back then, when a wife could not have children, it

was almost like as if it was a curse. And

so elk and I needed children. He had to have

a legacy. Hannah couldn't have kids, So let me give

me another wife. I need to have a legacy. He

gets him another wife, Banana her Baniga her. She comes

and Banana go to poping ow babies. Soon did she

go to Papa our babies? Reminds you of somebody, Abram Sabram.

And that's why Saber saying, girl, you got the gold.

Hannah couldn't tell her to go, so she studied popping

our babies. And the whole time she popping our babies,

she making fun of Hannah. So, because Hannah knew God,

all Hannah doing is crying and praying. How do you

know that that's not what the stories say pasted the jay, Well, it.

Was just the thought because she knew God.

The majority of us when we know God, that's what

we do when we go through.

We pray, we do we.

Keep it silent, we stay to ourselves. We might tell

a good friend if we have a good friend, But

it didn't seem as if Hannah had any friends. So

that's why when they finally get to the Temple to worship,

Hannah is so torn up, so heavy laden. And you

wonder why Jesus said, cast your cars up on me

all either the heavy lady, that I may give you rest,

because if you toting something around this all up on you, you

ain't gave it to nobody. Even though the Bible says

that God will give us a spirit of endurance, He'll

help us to carry that thing, sometimes that thing will

get heavy. And what we learned about Hannah is when

Hannah get to the temple. Hannah is so weighed down

that when she gets in the temple and she starts

to pray, they think this woman is drunk. So what

I see with me reading the story, because I'm a

visual person, so I don't just hear the story. I

see the story. Hannah runs up in this temple and

Hannah just lays before the Lord and she just start

crying out. And when she started crying out, I don't

know if the spirit of the Lord was up on

or what, but it says he thought she was drunk. Well,

you know how you start talking in tongues and it

ain't even you talking no more. Now, it's the spirit

making utterance through you. Man, this woman just starts crying out.

Oh my goodness, Lord, because this woman been making fun

of me, she been picking at me. She got these kids.

I got to see her kids standing before me. I

want a baby. I ain't got no babies. I know

you don't shut up my wound. Go to First Samuel one,

chapter one. It wasn't like she was having some kind

of female problem. No, the Lord had shut up her room.

First Samuel one, chapter one, verse four. And when the

time was that, Elkanah offered he gave to Panana, his wife,

and to all.

Her sons and daughters. You got a whole bunch of kids.

He gave them portions, but unto Hannah, he gave a

worthy portion. Or he loved Hannah, but the Lord had

shut up her wound. Sometimes even some of the things

that we may be going through might not even be

something that we did or something that somebody else did.

It could be something that.

The Lord has done, or that the Lord has allowed

to happen. Go back to the definition of endurance. We

might have to endure because endurance is gonna help us

to get to a place where we can have perseverance

and patience in God's promise.

It brings forth virtue.

To help develop our spiritual maturity. It strengthens us in

our character and also bills hoping us. What this baby

said last night, I was in a foster home, I

was put up for adoption.

All of these things brought forth hope.

But what it did was help me to find out

that hope was what hope is Jesus. William's endurance helped

him to see that hope was Jesus. You'll find a

lot of people that's still setting in the foster home.

And to them, hope ain't Jesus. To them they still

sitting there complaining that I'm in a foster home. To

them there with a foster parent, and to them that

ain't hope that they got out that foster home. They're

still dealing with. Hey, I've been put up for adoption.

Hey my mamma let me go. My mama didn't raise me.

So it's whatever you get out of what you're going through. Yeah,

you cann carriage yourself. But William said, man, thank you

God that I got put in the home that I

got put in. Some people can go through something, and

instead of them getting something out of what they went through,

they're still complaining about what they went through, not trying

to see that what I went through made me who

I am today. The rape could have killed me, but

instead of the rape killing me, it made me more wise.

I know not to get in that situation again.

The drugs could have took me out, but they didn't.

Now that I'm not doing drugs no more, I know

not to do drugs again.

I see what happened to this drug addict?

So powerless said as a Christian telling the Roman church

man if y'all having some issues, just know that you

can learn from reading Old Testament. We the saints of God,

when we going through something. We've been talking about reading

and studying the Word to get closer to God. We

need to read and study the words so we can

learn something about ourself too. Maybe you're going through a

situation and you don't understand why you're going through that situation.

So many times were waiting on the preacher to tell

us what to do, the preacher to tell us how

to live, instead of opening the book up ourself.

But Paul say, it's for our learning.

And so even when we endure things, even when we

go through things, we go through them for a reason.

But we won't never know that if we don't get

into the Word. All of the Word was written under

the inspiration of God, the God that knows our our

beginnings from the end. He's already seen what we're gonna

go through. He already knew, So he's telling Sam, hey

write this down. It's more than these stories to be told.

But hey, write this from down. Somebody need to know

that Hannah was burying, and when Hannah cried out when

she got to the temple, I opened.

Her womb up.

Somebody needed to know that Hannah was stood for nineteen

years because we might not have to stand for which

stand for nineteen years.

I might not have nineteen years because when we get

to Jesus, wasn't nineteen years.

But we're not going there yet.

So Hannah, after being picked on for nineteen years.

And going through what she went through.

Behind her adversary, her adversary being a woman. The Bible says,

we rest are not with flesh and blood, but our

adversary's baniana. It's another allegory to help us to see

that it ain't always the person. It could be the

end of the what's in the person. So that's why

she couldn't put these hands on Panana. That's why she

didn't clap back at Panana. Thank you Holy Spirit, y'all.

That's a new one for me. I'm learning some of

these new up to date terms. Yeah, that clapback is

getting me, y'all. But anyway, Yeah, that's a good one.

But uh, because we we always want to do something.

The Bible says, our testing trials come to make us strong,

but as soon as we get mad at somebody, we

want to go off.

All us saints Christians say.

Sanctify, I feel with the Holy Ghost. I've been saved

all day, hadn't seen not once. Yeah, that's me raising

their hand.

That's me. Yeah.

But as soon as somebody says something you don't like,

you ready to fight. Jesus saying it ain't always in

what you do, but it's even in how you think.

Were your heart at what's your characteristics? Because that still

matters if we wrest or not with flesh and blood.

Because Hannah possibly could have said something, but again, just

due to reading the story, it does not look like

Hannah said anything. What it looks like is Hannah did

a lot of praying and that's why she prayed so much.

By the time that she got to the temple. She

didn't pray it and say anything about Panina. She just say, Lord,

do you see this woman keep picking at me? No,

she was worried about her situation. Lord, I can't have

a baby, so God give.

Me a baby.

Open my wound, you open my wound, and when I

have this baby.

I'm gonna get this baby to you.

Not once did she say anything about Banana nor her kids.

Cause you can best believe you ever seen a messy mama.

With her kids. Her kids was picking too.

When she was saying, now, nady moobu, you can't have

no kids in the kids was with her, laughing. She

didn't say nothing about Panana, No neither her kids. But

can we be that strong today? So go back, learn

that lesson, learn how to walk, walk in integrity, walk

in strength, hold the standard for yourself, and say, God,

I'm gonna walk upright.

And Holy Is you have called me too.

If I get in a situation just like this and

my adversary is coming at me through an individual, I'm

not finna say nothing to that individual. The blood of Jesus.

And I ain't even got to say that loud, the blood,

thank you Jesus. I ain't even got to say that loud.

James said be slow to speak.

Now, he said be quick to hear, slow to speak,

slow to answer, slow to rap. So I ain't even

got to say it loud, because once I hear, once

she heard, she was being foolish, she'd have to say nothing.

Just went right on about her business. So after nineteen

years Hannah had endured all of this. Then Hannah just

kept believing in God. And again, some of us can't

even endure nineteen minutes. Let's known nineteen years, nineteen minutes.

Some of us are ready nineteen seconds. Some of us

are ready to fight. Some of us are ready to

say something. Some of us are ready to clap back. Y'all,

that's my new word, so you're gonna keep hearing it.

Some of us are ready to clap back. And I

can be honest, I'm one of them. Lord help me.

I always say, the Lord will give me messages, And

the whole time he giving me messages, he talking to me.

Learn how to be quiet, learn how to let some

stuff go. And it's not to let it go as

to saying that you don't want to work out a situation,

because in some situations, if you let those situations go,

they'll faster, they'll build up. And we don't want to

let anything build up to where we'll have bitterness in

our hearts or envy or strife any world, because then

then you're gonna let the adversary back in, because that's

what the adversary do. Yo, you get some bitterness in

your heart, now you're walking around with some things in.

Your heart that should not be in your heart.

That's gonna hold you back from God, because bitterness and

things like that separate us from God. We have to

have clean hearts. The body says, the Bible says, protect

your heart. There's things that we have to make sure

are right with us, not to protect us or keep

us from What would you want to say? Well, I

don't want to. I don't want to cause no confusion.

I don't want to not be in an argument. Now,

it's some things you need to sit down and talk

to some people about.

Now.

I don't want to fight with you. You ain't got

to put no hands on nobody, and you don't have

to clap back. But we need to sit down and

have a conversation because we need to work this out.

Because if you don't a little bit of livin or

spoil the whole loaf. So we don't need to leave

something unworked out. Now that's biblical. So I'm not saying

just let somebody treat you any kind of way, talk

to you any kind of way. Do you no, no, no, no,

no no. We need to work this out. Hey, baby, sister.

Girl, coworker, your boss.

Now, let's sit down. Let's talk this out, because I

need to work this out for my own soul salvation. Yeah,

I don't need no bitterness in me behind you. Let's

get this trade so that we can have some common

ground between us.

See.

So what Hannah did was even though she was taking

it to the Lord in prayer, she wasn't letting nothing

build up between her Paniana. So because she had that

work out, then when she went to the Lord in prayer,

she didn't have to go to the Lord about Panana.

Now I can go to the Lord about me and God, God,

this is what I want.

I need you to open up my wound. And once

you open up my wound, that.

Me and you gonna have this vow that when I

have this baby, I'm gonna get this baby to you

because I know you're gonna be the done this great

and wonderful thing for me because you closed up my wound.

So she was able to do that.

So that's kW going through some endurance and allowing endurance

endurance to have this perfect work in you.

It matured her, it grew her.

So she wasn't going before the Lord as like an

immature baby, because that's what somebody immature.

Would have did.

They wouldn't know Lord and just been picking to me.

She been calling me all out my name, she been

talking about me, she's been making fun of me.

And how many of you.

Know if you go to the Lord like that, how

God would be looking at you like, come on, now,

allowed this to happen so that you could grow, so

that you could mature. Endurance is not a passive waiting

when we're going through, but endurance the terms the effort

to continue to walk into following God's will even when

obstacles arise. James one two through four says, counted our

joy when we fall into diverse temptations, knowing this the

trying of your faith work with patience. But let patients

have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire,

wanting nothing if we don't allow ourselves to learn when

we go through see our test and trials. Don't come

to try us to see how we're gonna act towards

somebody else. They come to try us to see how

we're gonna act in the midst of that. Because if

every time you go through something, if you take what

you're going through to determine how you're gonna respond to

somebody else, then that's on you. You're gonna miss out

on it. Every time. It has nothing to do with

the other person. And so I've said this once before

a lot of times we're praying and we're saying, Okay, God,

I'm ready, Yeah, mature me, I'm ready to go to

how your heights some deeper depths, not knowing what you're

saying when you're praying that.

So then this situation comes, and.

This situation comes to test exactly.

What you just said.

I'm ready to go to how you heights in deeper debts.

So whatever that situation is, somebody all up in your face.

You lose all your money, you lost your job. God

is testing your faith. God is testing your commitment. God

is testing your walk. God is testing your prayer life.

Because God tests, but the devil temts. But even if

the devil tents, the devil can't do nothing to God.

Don't let him do.

But you're the one been praying. One.

Pter three and twelve says that God's ear is attentive

into the prayers of the righteous.

Right, you just prayed and said, Lord, here I am.

I need whatever I'm believing in you for a financial blessing.

I need you to work this situation out for me.

And God opened the door for that situation. But that

situation is gonna take you to be persistent or to

be more financial responsible in whatever area that is. And

then he puts it there and say say that that

door is open up for some finances. You get the money,

but you don't use it for what you just asked

the Lord to give it to you.

Fush, I mean, here the five hundred for your light.

Building, and you go buy some shoes, hurdle two fifty

for your water bill, and you take it and you

go out and kneath, bless me, Lord, I'm in need.

But you don't take it and use it on your need.

You take it and use it on your won't Lord,

I'm finnah, start paying my tithes. I promise you, I

am God. What is ties ten percent of what come in?

And then as soon as you'll come in, come in

where your ten percent go. I mean, I'm just saying

we have to be careful about what we're saying, because

we're talking to a god that not only knows all,

but he see y'all.

We ain't hiding nothing from him.

But we open in our mouth to say all of

this stuff, and in some of it we literally taking

it and putting it on the altar because we're praying it.

You know, Lord, I'm trying to get healthy.

Yep.

This is my year to get healthy. Lord, and I'm

gonna eat right. I show him and that that was

my prayer for a long time. I show him, Lord,

teach me how to eat right. And then he lay

all that healthy food there. And then I was at McDonald's.

Didn't even like McDonald's. Still don't like McDonald's, but I

was there. Come on, let's go out of meat, let's

go get some tacles. But out them prayed. Lord helped

me the fast. I want to be closer to you, Tyler.

Here I am Lord, more me, less for you. You

got a whole opportunity two hours to lay before the Lord,

spend some time with him, get in the word.

And this was me on that phone. But I'm saying.

Less of me, more you. Because God is a just God.

God holds hisself accountable and does that. He's faithful to it.

So when you ask him for something, he gonna do

what he said he was gonna do. Oh, you're gonna

do what you said you were gonna do. Endurance, because

I'm just saying, hold on, yo, go through ain't for you.

It's for God's glory. Everything that we do when it's good,

it's for God's glory. We're asking him to help us

to get to a certain place.

It's gonna take some endurance.

It takes endurance to go to high your heights and

deeper depths.

We just don't get growth because we want growth.

None of us made it from kindergarten to high school

because we went in a classroom and sat at a desk.

Work.

And even them babies learning ABC's and one two threes,

they endured some things.

I know I do homedake care for that.

And y'all my baby just getting ready to go to

school and he's a hand for but he's extremely smart,

extremely smart. And what helped him to get extremely smart

he had to be still and he's a busybody, and

at first to get him to be still was one

of the hardest things. But once he started liking the

little flash cards and stuff, it was a breeze to.

Get him to sit there.

And it did the exact same thing God, God is

telling us today. It helped him mature, It helped him

to get to another level. It helped him to build

himself up because he was able.

To sit and endure.

Enduring it's just being able to persevere in a place

where you are for a limited time. So when he

got to the place where he could sit in that

chair for five or ten minutes, he was able to

get it. When we get to the place where we

can sit in that place that hurts the most for

a little while, then we can get it. And so

when Hannah got to that place and she was able

to get to where she needed to be, she was

able to get it. Our work is a work which

takes place on the inside and then it's displayed on

the outside, so that a lot of times is what

causes us to feel like it's this pain because on

the inside, God is making us over. We'll never be

the same again, and we're not supposed to be. And

I think that's what hurts us the most, because the

more that we go through, the more should be changing us.

Metamorphosis hurts. We know that metamorphosis hurts just by.

Looking at the caterpillar turned into a butterfly.

That's a painful. Transition. Transition hurts. Transition hurts we as

humans want the easy way out. It's very rare that

you'll find somebody that wants to go through some pain.

You want to go through the pain for the stuff

that you want. I ain't never had a tattoo, But

if it hurts, raise your head, don't hurt it.

Do hurt? Oh? They say, some said do, some said don't.

I don't think any of us in heredren had any

kind of face lifts or any kind of Okay, so

I want to ask that question. I see some mothers

in here. It hurts. We've only babies.

It hurts.

It's some things that we go through in life that

we're willing to go through the pain for. But it

hurts to be transitioned from a sinner to a saint.

I don't know who told people that it was easy.

I don't don't And if they and they need to

stop telling people that it's not easy and the journey

is not easy. But it shouldn't be. Christ never said that.

He said, come on now, because in order for y'all

to live for me, y'all got to remember, y'all got

to die to yourself. He even told them to pick

up their own cross. You got to pick up a

cross and carry it. You gotta die to yourself. And

then he told them I didn't come to bring peace

on earth. None of what he's saying is easy. I came,

and I'm gonna cause the vision between mothers and daughters,

fathers and sons, mother in laws.

And daughter in laws.

Where's all this easy stuff coming from. I'm gonna make

you over. You're gonna get a whole new makeover. You

won't be you no more. And then you got an

enemy who's gonna be messing with you the whole time

that you're trying to get it together. It's gonna be

a battle field going on in your mind, your flesh,

and your spirit, gonna be a war with one another.

And we still think that's supposed to be a cakewalk.

So then you find people that ain't really serious about

the walk, so they like endure what I'm enduring. What

So that's why you find a lot of people to

just wait on the pastor to tell him how to

do it, the preacher to how to live.

No, he gave you a whole.

Book of instructions and stories, so Paul said, read them,

learn from them, and as you learn from them, then

that'll help you when you're going through. So Hannah was

stood and the starting on the Bible doesn't say again

how obviously it was. Again, she didn't do all the

clap backs, she didn't do all the fighting. But we

know that when she got to that temple that she

cried out. And when she cried out, she cried out.

I believe because she was filled up with prayer. Hannah

did what Hannah needed to do to get to where

Hannah needed she needed to get to, and that was

in a place with God, to where she could get

God to do what she wanted God to do, and

that was to open her roomb up. So Paul makes

it clear in this text that the writing from the

warmer Days and which is considered to be the Old Testament,

were given to us to teach us how to endure

and how to be incurriage, just like those before us.

I stopped by today again to encourage you, sister Tamika,

encourage yourself to that we all will come to this

place one time or another, one situation on another, one

circumstance on another, one season on another, one trial or another,

a matter or whatever you decide to call it, it's

going to cause us to have to go to a

place where we're gonna have to endure.

My second person.

That I'm gonna use is gonna be Joseph. And we

all know Joseph as a young man. Joseph had a dream.

And again I'm gonna tell you, some of us may

not have to endure as long as these two people did.

But I thought of these two people because they endured

the longest. Joseph endurance was twenty two years at the

age of seventeen. Joseph had a dream. Some of us

have had dreams that have not come to pass. Some

of us have not only had dreams. For some of us,

God that showed us some things that still hadn't come

to pass. And I've had some of them. And so

whatever you have to do to see that dream come

to past, hold on, whether it's something you got to

do or you just waiting on it, hold on.

But we know for Joseph, Joseph had that dream.

Then Joseph's daddy sold him that colorful coat that poor Joseph.

Was in for it and didn't even know it. Bless

his little heart.

And I again see Joseph running around with his little

coat on, just showing it off to his brothers. He

wasn't trying to be pride for Sir William. He was

just happy. He had a coat of many colors. Look

what my daddy made me. But the more that he

ran around and showed that little cold, the more that

he ran around and told that dream that the Lord

had given him, they thought he was puffed up and

full of pride. He wasn't puffed up and full of pride.

He was just happy, just happy. And so his brothers,

out of thinking that he was full of pride, took

him and sold him into slavery. But I thank God

that they took him and sold him, because that wasn't

they first bet.

They first bet was to kill him.

You see how even in the midst of you getting

ready to go through, God would sometimes keep you because

he could have been dead, But because there was a

purpose and a plan for him, God wouldn't allow death

to take him out. So he was sold in to slavery.

Joseph's hardship. His endurance of his hardship was for thirteen

years because him being sold into slavery put him at

Potiphar's house and putting him at Potifar's house. I won't

go through the whole story because it's.

A long story. So he went from.

Being in the house as a slave to going to

prison because of Potiphar's wife. But that's where Joseph's story

kind of gets pretty good because in the midst of

being in prison, Joseph was able to be prepared for

God's use. Remember hold on, you'll go through It is

for God's glory. In prison, Joseph is turned into the leader.

He's a leader in prison. Also was a leader in

Potifar's house if it hadn't have been for Potiphar's wife.

But God is raising this young man up to be

a leader.

Joseph was thrown into prison due to Potiphar's wife, but

while in prison, he's able to get more preparation, preparation

for leadership and also preparation for stewardship. When it comes

to him being in prison, Joseph and y'all have to

excuse my notes. Joseph's preparation and perseverance, his preparation because

he had learned leadership roles not only in Potiphar's house

but also in prison. Joseph's prison also helped him to

learn to be patient, and I thought patience in prison,

that's about the only thing that you can learn in prison.

And sometimes our prison can be in our mind. Sometimes

our prison can be in the place that we're in

or the situation that we're in, and we think it's

a situation or a place that we're not gonna come

out of. And for us, that can be anywhere. Maybe

you feel like you're stuck in this position on your

job and God hadn't moved you, but you've been waiting

on him to move you. Maybe you're in a relationship

and I'm not talking about marriage, because that's your marriage

state there until you.

Can't go nowhere else.

Marriage is marriage, but maybe a relationship where it comes

to we're in a business relationship and hey, this just

ain't looking right, and maybe you feel like that's a

prison to you.

I say, take advantage of that.

I say, if it's a relationship on your job, take

advantage of that. Because he was in what it was,

literally a prison. But because we're using this as a

way for us to learn or way for us to

better ourselves, what we can do is take advantage of

where we're at and we feel like that situation or

that circumstance may be what I can't come out, take

that place where you're at.

And learn from that whatever it is I need to

get why I'm here, God show me.

Maybe I feel like I should be a little father

by now, but I hadn't moved yet. Show me, Lord,

what can I get out of this situation? What can

I get from this place while I'm here? Because it's

not always what we think it is. Sometimes we feel

like we need to be moved up, but the Lord

hadn't moved us up because we hadn't got.

What the Lord wants us to get from that.

And a lot of times we don't see it that

way because we sometimes always want what we want. We

don't invite God in I said that on Wednesday night.

The Lord is teaching me how to talk to my

Holy Spirit.

Each one of us have our own Holy Spirit, and

we don't recognize him as our Holy Spirit. And I'm

not saying everybody don't, but I know I hadn't, And

God say, why not?

He's yours.

That's how God can tell us that I'll be with

you and I'll never leave you.

Neither will I forsake you, because I'll be with you

to the end.

Once you get saved and you're sealed with a seal,

but you also have God's spirit in you. It's not

God himself. God can't just be in you, but it's

his spirit. And the Bible calls the Holy Spirit a him.

He in dwells in you. The Bible says he's in

you to give you truth. He speaks to you from God.

Good morning, Holy Spirit.

How you doing? What would you have me to do today?

So, if you're in a situation where you feel like

you stuck, where you feel like you can't move, and

so it might not be a job, thank you, Holy Spirit.

Maybe it's a situation. Maybe it's something that you done

got into and you don't know how to get out

of it. Okay, Holy Spirit, help me with this one.

What should I do now? Ask for that leadership, ask

for that guidance, and God, what would you have me

to do? Because Joseph was able to learn, he didn't

take Okay, well, I'm just in jail, or I've been

in prison, so why I'm here, I'm gonna sit down

and have Awards Me party again. These stories, these were

written for us to learn from him. Now nor Hannah

had Awards Me story, but neither was it a glorious story.

Joseph wasn't doing nothing, minding his own business, bragging about

his coat, and his brothers took him, sold him to

some gypsies. He get to a house. He's taking care

of a house because the woman wanted him. But he

had enough integrity for hisself that he said, no, I'm

not gonna sleep with you because you married. So then

she lies say, oh, he's trying to rape me. He

still didn't fight, He didn't argue. So if you're gonna

throw me in prison, throw me in prison. While he

in prison, because he has the gift of interpretating dreams,

he telled the the baker and the party, Okay, well

I'm gonna interpret child dreams. All I ask you to

do is when you get out, make sure that you

let him know that I'm down here. He just say,

go up there and tell them this is what I'm doing.

Just remember me.

So now neither one of them are boasting and bragging

about theyselves.

But they had integrity for who they were because.

They both knew God. We know God, have integrity for

your It ain't always got to be about everybody else. Again,

even Joseph didn't clap back.

No, just remember me.

Though some of us like Joseph were being positioned for greatness.

And because we don't understand that we're being positioned for greatness,

we are clapping back.

We getting mad at everybody but ourself.

So instead of saying, Lord, show me where I'm at

in this position, in this situation, what should I be

doing in this position in this situation?

Is something I need to do? Is it something I

need to know?

Not always talking about that other person or what's going

on here?

And see what they doing? Lord? And oh, lord's me God?

And oh look what they said. God?

No, Lord, show me me why I'm right here? So

what can I do?

God? Because one of the things that I'm learning is when.

It comes to a position of greatness, the more tougher

and the more heavier the weight of God's glory is

gonna be up on you.

Then the more heavier and the more.

Tougher the situation of the circumstance is gonna be up

on you. Because if you're gonna carry the weight of

God's glory, You're gonna have to be prepared for that.

And I'm just.

Saying that's why I said earlier, you got to be

careful about what you asking God for.

In prayer. Now.

Now, we was in here this morning, we were joking

about that bishop and that that that that pastor and

that preacher thing. And I'm just saying a lot of

people say the the bigger, the higher the level of

the greater the devil. Well, and that might kind of

be true, but I think i'd be more ware of

it about the Lord then I would be about the devil,

because if God is gonna trust you with some stuff,

you better make sure you able to carry that weight

that God fill trust you with. And if you still

getting mad about little busy stuff, and I'm just saying,

if little old bunty stuff's still bothering you, come on now.

And I'm just saying.

Because I'm just saying, and I'm saying it loud, and

I'm just saying it again because I'm telling you I

didn't heard it for my own self, because it ain't

nothing easy. And I'm saying that for my own self

because I don't heard the Lord talk to me. See

the Lord, when God called us into this army. This

is a warfare, and we ain't playing with no little WinCE,

no little obity devils. I don't care what nobody say.

That's why it's called a warfare. So it's not to

make us give up, and it's not to make us

throw in the town. And you'll see a lot of

people willing to give up. And we've seen a lot

of people throw in the town. You see her later

at a lot of pastors to say, Man, I'm not

willing to do this no more. The people too much.

The call is too much.

Man, it's a lot. It's a way to carry.

And so we have God not just gonna throw us

out there.

Under the bus. So you're gonna go through some things again.

Your testing trials come to.

Make you strong, not even if it's just not in leadership,

but in walking this thing out. Why would the Lord

throw you out there to the wolves. God ain't gonna

do you like that. So even as we go through

it gets harder, it don't get easier. The more weight

that you are able to endure, the more glory.

That you're able to give.

God, our tests and our trials come to make us

strong on you. The weight that you bear, you have

you have to test.

On the ones.

You have the test on the one side and the

trial on the other side. You look at it as

like a weightlifter. The weights be so heavy, y'all. He

has to put on the belt. He has to put

the belt that he wears, the belt to keep him

for when he get ready to bend down, to keep

the hold his stomach in. Because if he don't hold

this stuff again and he get ready to lift that weight,

it's how the weightlift the dode.

He has to open his legs. But he got that

belt on.

That belt has to be so tight because when he

get ready to travel on one side, chest on the other.

But when he go down like this, the squat our

stomach is right here. If you don't have that belt

holding that stomach in all that man's a woman's and

testings will pop out. That's the reason they wear them belts,

and they wear them belt so tight because that weight

is heavy. So if you don't have on the whole

alm of God, and I mean you got to have

it all on the belt, the breastplate of righteousness, the

hamlet of salvation.

You got to be real about this thing.

You can't just keep saying, Lord, I want to do this, Lord,

I want to do that. Lord take me here, God,

I got there. You can use me here, and you

can use me there, and then every time something happened,

nast war, it's me again.

We got to be for real about this thing.

So God is saying, when you get ready to go

through or whenever it happened, you ain't even got to

get ready.

No, it's gonna happen.

Paul said, learn from the old, go back, get you

some of these old Testament stories, and it's some of

the new two power will be your greatest example. He

lived in and out of prison. He got beat, he

got whipped. We ain't even been beat yet. Some of

us ain't never been hit before, and we already crying.

He spend his time in prison, and we ain't been

locked up. Some of us don't even do prison ministry.

Ain't even been to the jail house. This man stayed

in prison, stay beat up for one reason or another,

but always Jesus, whether he was telling the truth about

Jesus or just saying Jesus. Some of us won't even

mention Jesus name. Set around sinners all day long, won't

say Jesus, walk the streets all day long, won't say Jesus.

But God is getting ready to have us do it.

So before we ever even get there, that get ready

because they're gonna talk about us, They're gonna shut us down.

But that's part of your endurance.

Prepare yourself, go back freed, some of the old stories, free,

some of the new stories. Put that weight on you

because that wait is for God's glory, so that God

can be glorified. We live it in the last and

evil days, and we've been sitting for two lords. So

get ready for the spirit of endurance that God has

already blessed us with. It's a spirit that God has

already given us. So do we have what we need

to bring forth? Glorying on onto God the way and

the more that we endure, the stronger and the more

mature that we'll become, because we are gaining the ability

to withstand in the midst of hardship and adversities. And

our hardship and adversities may not be like those of

them in the Bible, may not even be like some

of those now, but we're gonna have them.

So even in our light afflictions, somebody.

Clapping back at us because we said something, I'm sorry

that I told you.

That's my new word.

Clap clap, Somebody making us mad, A light affliction.

We got the tough enough. We have to toughen up.

We got to toughen up, get mad about every little thing.

We got to tell.

How can we say we soldiers in the army of

the Lord, and we always want to go back and

forth with somebody because if we if we if we

right there, and I'm saying, we at them, threw all

of y'all in here.

Y'all tough. I'm just saying, because if we.

Ain't ready, and we saying we're in the army of

the Lord, and we go out there and somebody say

something to us and we already ready to fight, we

can't take Oh you really ain't saved. And you start

trying to defend yourself. Oh you're a hypocrite, and you

start trying to defend your sayf yeah, what kind of

army are you that you gotta clap back?

Lord Jesus.

But Johnson, Ah, she ain't got her belt on. But anyway, again, Joseph,

Joseph was my second story. I mean, he persevered, he

went through, he endured, his endurance, his endurance. He was

used to bring out a whole nation, to save a

whole nation. I said, to bring out a whole nation

to save a whole nation. Johnson got me there. As

we endure, God is able to use us for his glory.

We must endure. We've been called to endure. We can't

keep giving up off a little bitty stuff. Y'all, toughen up.

We are the saints of the most High. Our Dad

is I of Father, which are in heaven. We belonged

to a God that sist hi and looks low with

his hand outstretched. God says, we are ambassadors in the earth.

We have to start seeing ourself the way God.

See us so that we can endure.

We can't keep giving in and giving up our little

bitty stuff. And when Power was talking to the church,

the church in Rome, is this church anyway? He was

talking to them because they needed to be unified. They

was going back and forth with each other about some

little bitty stuff. And we don't want to be found

going back and forth with each other about some little

bitty stuff. But in my clothing, the greatest example of

them all to endure.

Was Jesus.

Jesus endured like nobody else could because.

He endured the Cross.

Jesus and endurance was intense. He had a physical endurance

and emotional endurance. He endured suffering, he endured people talking

about him, never said a mumblet word, went to the cross,

They sped on him, they beat him. The Book of

Isaiah said he wasn't even recognizable when they got finished

with him, and he endured it all for us greatest

example of endurance. We didn't even have to go back

to the Old Testament for that one. And I think

if Jesus it's our greatest example of endurance and we

don't have to ever, Nobody can, ever, will ever have to.

Do what Jesus did.

How much more can we not endure some of the

stuff that we go through? And it's just somebody, Maybe

somebody said something, maybe somebody looked at you the wrong way.

Maybe that's.

Whatever. And I'm just saying that, and I hear you,

I feel you. And that's why I feel the message

because sometimes we do and we do it in our flesh,

because I believe always in our spirit, God is always

dealing with us too mature and to nurture us. We're

a small church, we're a little country town, and so

maybe we don't talk like and act like everybody else.

And that's fine.

I don't believe God has called us to be copycats.

You know, we're not gonna talk like everybody in the

other big churches and act like everybody just from the

other big cities. We are who we are vi p.

My pastor said it on last week. I'm just the

little countryman. And I couldn't wait to get that home,

to be around my people, and and and that's who

we are, and and and and I love I love

that about us. And in our own self way, we're

growing in the way which God.

Would have us to grow.

And so but I do see God growing us, nurture

and maturing us. And so when we go outside these

four walls, we want to be able to be who

God has called us to be.

According to His word, not.

According to somebody else's standards.

Now we might not.

Sound like somebody else, but we for sure want to

sound like God. It might not be in their intellect

and in their language, but we want to say what

God has called us to say. We want to look

like God. We want to sound like him when it

comes to the way God has called.

Us to live. If you understand what I'm saying,