Running On Empty

Open your Bible, 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, and meet me at verse 13,

2 Thessalonians 3 · chapter mention

2 Thessalonians chapter 3, verse 13.

2 Thessalonians 3:13

The apostle Paul tells the church, the saints here in this city,

he says, But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary in doing good.

Do not grow weary in doing good.

Then he tells us in Galatians chapter six, verse nine, he travels to another

city and he tells the saints in Galatia, he says, and let us not grow weary while doing good.

For in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

So first he tells us don't grow weary. And once again, he travels to another

city and another church and he says, don't grow weary.

My question that I have for you today, if you want to be honest with me,

talk back to me today, is do you ever get tired of doing good?

Come on, come on. Let me get some honesty in the house. Do you ever get tired of doing good?

Do you ever get tired of doing things the right way?

Do you ever get tired of being patient when someone's acting crazy?

Do you ever get tired of being kind when someone doesn't deserve it?

Do you ever get tired of being the bigger man or woman in the situation?

Do you ever get tired of disciplining your children?

Do you ever get tired of preparing meals for them?

These are all good things. These

are all right things. But do you ever get tired of doing these things?

I think it's interesting that the Apostle Paul is reminding us,

do not grow weary. Meaning the propensity is we are going to get tired of doing good.

We're going to lean in the direction of I don't want to do good anymore.

I want to do something different. I'm tired of doing what's right.

I'm tired of always being the bigger person. I'm tired of always having to sacrifice.

And Paul tells us here, don't get tired.

Because we get tired. We fatigue. and we're exhausted at times.

Recently, I saw a picture of myself and I said to Stacey, I said,

oh my gosh, I look really tired in this picture.

And she said, I meant to tell you that. I meant to tell you,

I saw that picture too, you posted it online and you looked really, really tired.

And I thought physically, I feel completely fine.

But there is an internal fatigue,

an emotional fatigue that happens to each and every one of us that causes us

to make our physical appearance look tired.

Internally, all the things that we carry Not only are we carrying where we shouldn't

be But we do Some of the cares of the weight of the world,

Some of the cares of our family Some of the cares of our protection,

Health And they say 20 times a day we think about money The cares of provision,

The cares of the political environment The cares of the wars and the rumors

and wars The cares of our family members that don't know Jesus Broken relationships that we have,

Unemployment, whatever the case may be We carry these things And it has an effect

on our emotions It has an effect on our soul,

And when I looked at this picture I thought, physically I'm fine.

But I think I'm tired emotionally. And I looked at it. I had to be honest with myself.

I give and I give and I give and I give. And when I stop giving, I just give even more.

And it has an effect on you. I'm talking about a tiredness that you get a good

night's sleep, but you still wake up drained.

Who am I talking to in here? Who knows what I'm talking about?

I'm talking about a fatigue and exhaustion that takes place where you feel like you've plateaued.

Even to the point, I don't think I can go any further than this.

How do I get to the next level? How do I get out of this rat race?

How do I get from point A to point B? I don't even know, and I'm tired of trying to figure it out.

I'm talking about an eternal tiredness where it causes you and I to even want to quit.

To give up. I've been waiting for this promise of God to come to pass,

and I'm waiting, and I'm waiting, and it's taking forever to come to pass.

And I believe God, and he said it would take place, but I'm tired of the wait.

I'm tired and exhausted from all of the naysayers and all of the distraction

and all of the things that are not working out.

I am just tired.

And I believe the Apostle Paul is talking to you and I today because there is

a fatigue and an eternal exhaustion that takes place where we just want to stop.

We want to quit. We want to give up. And this type of tiredness I'm talking

about, a nap won't help you.

A vacation won't help you. You can go to vacation and come back even more time.

Ask the Hollies about that.

You come home and I'm like, that wasn't it.

That wasn't it. And I believe that Jesus spoke to us about when we're in this

predicament, and we all are if we're honest with ourselves.

And he says in Matthew chapter 11, I love what he says in verse 28.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

He says, come to me.

All you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

The New Living says, come to me if you are weary and tired, and I will give you rest.

I want you to notice that Jesus is saying here, I'm not going to come to you.

You got to come to me. I'm not going to you.

You got to come to me. And when you come to me,

in exchange for your weariness and your fatigue and your exhaustion and your

mindset and your emotions, and you come to me this way,

I'm going to give you rest, but you have to come to me.

And I begin to think about what does it mean to come to Jesus?

And there's a lot of things out there that describe what it means to come to

Jesus. Come to him in his word. That's true.

Set aside some time to get alone with him. I believe that's true.

Some people will even say, go to the mountains and just spend some secluded time.

Nothing wrong with that except, who got time to really do that?

Like, I'll just tell, Stacey, I ain't coming home tonight. I'm going to the

mountains because I need to get away with Jesus. He'll be like,

you better get your tail here.

No, no, no, no, no. What does he really mean when he says, come to me?

What is he saying when he invites us, an invitation, he's calling us,

come to me? You're going to get tired.

You're going to get weary. You're going to be fatigued. You're going to be exhausted.

You're going to want to quit.

What does that mean, come to me? Footnote, let me share this with you.

Jesus never said that he wasn't going to give you difficult assignments.

You are going to have difficult assignments. And he also never said he's going

to take them away from you.

So what are you supposed to do? You're supposed to come to him,

and he's going to refresh you and rejuvenate you and reinvigorate you so that

when you are in the difficult assignment,

you will have enough rest to complete the assignment that he gave you.

He's not taking it away from you.

Stop saying, Lord, take it away. It ain't going nowhere.

You got to go through it. you got to walk through it with rest but what does

it mean to come and I was thinking about this this might be a series I one of

the things that I do a lot of times before I preach is I,

pray myself on fire I do I try to pray myself get excited one of the the most

miraculous things about being a preacher and I've preached thousands of sermons

is every sermon I'm excited about That's a miracle.

That's a miracle. You get excited about everything. Not one time I got up here and wasn't excited.

You get excited about every single one of them. So I pray myself excited,

and I think myself clear.

My goal is to think very, what do you want to say? And as I was developing this

this week, I was thinking myself clear, and, Lord, what do you want to say?

And there was so much that I want to say that I can't say it all today.

So this may be a series, okay? I can't say it all today.

But one of the things I want to show you is Hebrews. Let's go there.

Hebrews, I believe, chapter 12.

And let's look at verse 2 and 3. I believe that's the passage.

There it is. Hebrews 12. We'll look at 2 and 3. Watch this.

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy, somebody shout joy.

Joy. Shout it like you mean it. Joy that was set before him endured the cross,

despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Look at verse 3.

For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself,

lest you become weary and discouraged in your soul.

Notice we're talking about being weary and discouraged in our souls.

And Jesus tells us here how to overcome that, the remedy for weariness and discouragement

in the soul. He starts out in verse 2, he says, look unto Jesus.

So the writer of Hebrews says, we got to look at Jesus. We got to put our focus and attention on Jesus.

We have to consider Jesus. We have to know what his word says.

We have to fellowship in his sufferings, know how he feels about things.

We've got to look at Jesus.

It says, who's the author and finisher of our faith. watch this,

who for the joy that was set before him.

Now, I got excited about this because I believe the joy that was set before

him or what I've been taught is the joy set before Jesus was you and I.

You and I are the joy that was set before him.

You and I are what brought him some excitement. met.

You and I is what caused him to get thrilled about what God told him to do, right?

But as I was looking deeper into this and spending some time with the Lord,

I feel like that's not incorrect, but I believe it's incomplete.

I feel like the joy set before him was finishing his race, right?

I feel like the joy set before him was completing his assignment.

So for the joy set before him, the completion of his assignment, he endured the cross.

And I feel like what the writer Hebrews is trying to tell us here is the joy

or what's going to keep us going is joy.

And what is that joy?

Completing the assignment that God's given you and I. If you're a parent, raise them children.

Amen. And then get them out the house. Glory to God. Amen.

We got one down, three to go, praise God.

If God's called you to be single, then you'd be the best single person.

You know how to be envious and make your life envious.

The others look at you like, my goodness, I want to be like them.

Because we have this whole thing that you have to be married in order to be

happy. That ain't true at all.

A lot of married people want to be single.

Nobody say amen to that And so you complete the assignment,

Although difficult, although grievous, although hard,

although tumultuous You complete the assignment that God has for you And it's

the joy that motivates you to complete the assignment And when I'm tired,

when I'm upset, when I'm emotionally drained, I start getting mean.

I'm just full disclosure. You two, thank you for your honesty.

I start getting mean. And I'm not a mean guy. And I'll get mean.

I'll be mean with Stacey.

And she'll be like, oh, you're tired. You know what? Don't talk to me anymore.

Go on over here. Get yourself. Go take a walk. You know, she'll say something,

hey, maybe go try to get away from here because you're being really mean to me.

Because when you're tired, there is no joy.

See, you're almost sad, depressed, oppressed, right?

When you're tired, and I'm not talking about physical tiredness,

I'm talking about eternal.

Not eternal internal internal tiredness where you're you're on the inside and when you're feeling,

internally tired you start getting weak and

you start getting sad and you start saying woe is me and I wish I could be further

along and I wish I could be like Pookie and Ray Ray and I wish this and that

was taking place and look at me, I'm insignificant.

Nobody cares about me. Nobody loves me.

Nobody is thinking about me. Nobody wants anything to do with me.

This is what happens when you get weak.

But Nehemiah 8.10 tells us that the joy of the Lord is our strength.

And so in order to get stronger, it's not simply just reading your Bible.

That's great. I would never discourage you to read your Bible.

You're going to have to read your Bible with joy.

And you're going to have to let the words on the pages cause joy to come into

your life, which will inevitably give you strength.

Paul is telling us, don't get tired of doing good.

And the remedy for that is the joy of the Lord.

You're going to have to include the joy of the Lord in your life when you're internally tired.

So when I looked at that picture and I saw how bad I looked or extremely tired

I looked, I said, you know what? I'm operating without any joy.

I've got to include joy in my life. What is synonymous with joy?

Memories.

When you begin to think about things that happened to you in the past,

good things, they bring you joy.

When the Lord does something for you and you remember it, joy comes.

When you start thinking about how he came through for you, joy comes.

When you start thinking about the good things that happen, joy comes.

When you start thinking about how he sets you free, joy comes.

And I got there and I said, I've got to bring some joy back into my life.

So I started to remember.

This is what the Lord did. and I'm reading the scriptures and I'm remembering

what the Lord's done for me.

And I hear what he did with the woman with the issue of blood.

And I say, this is what he did for me. Glory to God.

And I hear what he did with the lame man. I said, this is what he did for me.

And I started to get some joy back into my life.

And when the joy began to come back into my life, the energy came back.

And when the energy came back, the excitement came back. And when the excitement

comes back, then you are operating in strength.

Somebody say strength. See, it's the strength of the Lord that's going to cause

us to endure, and that only comes with joy.

With joy. When you are going through something, you have to include joy.

Matter of fact, in James chapter 1, let's take a look here. James chapter 1 verse 2.

James 1 · chapter mention James 1:2

James tells us, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,

knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

But let patience have its perfect work so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

So we're supposed to be mature, perfect, complete, lacking nothing.

But look at verse 2 once again.

He says, count it all joy.

Now, does that mean we're supposed

to get excited about going through a difficult time or season? No.

Does that mean that we're supposed to be jumping up and down,

doing backflips and jumping jacks because something bad is happening in our life? No, no, no, no, no.

You might be schizophrenic if you're doing something like that.

No. What does that mean? It means I'm not supposed to disregard joy.

I'm not supposed to eliminate joy. I'm not supposed to forget about joy.

Count it all joy. Include joy.

Put joy to work when you are going through difficult times.

You are going to go through some difficult times. You know that, right?

Some of you are going through some difficult times even as I speak online and

in the house. You're going to go through difficult times.

The remedy is joy.

I've got to enact the fruit of the spirit of joy, cultivate it,

and develop it so that it will produce strength and victory in my life.

Paul knew that we could get tired. That's why he commanded us not to get tired.

Jesus knew that we could get tired. That's why he said, come to me.

We have no excuse for being so weary, exhausted, fatigued, and tired because

we have the solution, which is the joy of the Lord. Come on, somebody say joy.

Say, the joy of the Lord is my strength.

The joy of the Lord is my strength. It's the joy, the excitement that's going

to bring you the stamina that you need in order to endure the circumstances

and situations that you're in.

When you are just simply being a mom and you're planning, maybe you're planning

dinners for the kids and you get monotonous and you get tired of doing it.

The joy of having children should bring you strength.

Come on. Everybody don't have children.

Amen? The joy of, you know what?

When my six-year-old, now she's seven-year-old, talks to me nonstop.

We woke up this morning. I was praying over the service and she comes running

in the room and started talking nonstop. and I was like please please leave.

But I thought, no, no, I am joyful that she's using her words,

that she's talking to me, that she wants to be around me, that she's decided.

And I stopped, and I gave her my attention, and we talked about nothing.

Absolutely nothing, but it was the most joyful conversation.

Come on, turn it around, amen. Find some joy in your circumstances.

Locate it. Look for it. Count it all joy.

Okay, man, I'm frustrated. I'm tired here. Where can I find some joy?

Where can I find the joy? Because the joy is going to give me the strength, the strength to endure.

The joy is going to cause victory to come into my life.

The joy that I have, the world didn't give it, and the world can't take it away. Amen.

This joy that I have, the joy of the Lord is what causes you to be successful.

We have no reason as believer saints to ever be sad and depressed.

Now, you may have some excuses, but we don't have any reason to be because we have the joy of the Lord.

And guess what? Happiness is circumstantial, but joy is eternal.

The worst thing that can happen to you and I, if you're born again,

the worst thing that can happen to us is we die and we go to heaven.

If that don't give you any joy, I don't know what else will give you joy.

Hey, this didn't work out. I died and I went to heaven. Glory to God.

That's eternal joy right there. That's what causes us to endure,

knowing that we have the treasure in earthen vessels on the inside of us.

And at the end of all things, I'm going to heaven.

That's the joy of the Lord that gives you strength.

Whatever you're going through, you're going to have to include joy.

The tendency for the world is to make you sad. and you get weaker as you get sadder.

Every time you're sad, you're going to be weak.

But when you start enacting and invoking the joy that's already on the inside of you, like laughing.

Just laughing.

Laughing creates joy. Many years ago, I had a really good friend and mentor.

He was, I'll just be full disclosure, he was my pastor.

And I was really close to him. And we were friends.

And he was my pastor. We were friends. I was at his house a lot.

Hung out with them. And then the Lord started talking to he and I about,

me starting my own ministry. And he was on board with it.

Yes, let's do this. This is what the Lord wants. And man, we're excited.

And then at one moment, I don't know what happened. One moment,

he didn't get excited about it anymore.

Just right in the middle of it, he was like, this is wrong. I'm like,

we've been talking about it.

And he began to say it was wrong. And I began to pray about it.

And I just, I sensed in my heart, this is the direction we were supposed to go.

And talked to some mentors of mine that said it, but he was like,

no, no, we're not supposed to do it anymore. It's wrong. It's wrong.

You know, you need to stay here and let's not do it anymore.

And I remember having a conversation with him. And I remember thinking,

respectfully, hopefully, I've got to obey God.

God's telling me to do this. At one point, he knew it was, and at some point,

he changed. But I've got to obey God.

And I said to him on this phone call, we were talking, I said,

man, I've got to obey God.

I mean, God's in this thing, and I've got to obey God. And he said something

to me that made it seem like we would not talk again.

I can't remember exact words, but it made it seem like that was the last time

we were going to really talk. And it hurt me.

It hurt me. It really, really hurt me.

And I thought, man, I've just lost a pastor or friend. I was crushed.

Then one of Stacy's friend's parents, and they actually, Stacy's friend may

be watching right now, they watch online.

Stacy's friend's parents needed a computer desk.

I had a computer desk at home that I was giving away.

And so we told them, like, oh, well, have them come get it. And so they came,

and this was probably one of the worst days of my life because I knew that our,

I knew that relationship was probably over.

And I said, well, come get it. And they came like 9 p.m. I remember they came

pretty late to come get this computer desk.

And they came. I said, come on in. You know, y'all have a seat. And we began to talk.

And they began to talk about some of the craziest stuff you have ever heard in your life.

I mean, they were conspiracy theorists.

And as they were talking, I started laughing.

And I could not stop laughing. And they were telling me things like,

I don't even want to tell you what they're telling me. But it's some of the

conspiracy stuff I had never heard in my life, right?

And I kept laughing, and he kept saying, you're laughing because it's true.

You're laughing because I said, no, no, I'm not laughing because it's true.

I'm laughing because this is crazy.

Oh, my goodness. I mean, I remember one of the things that William Shakespeare wrote the Bible.

I mean, it was all over. He had all type of stuff going on.

And he was on and on. They ended up staying at like 1 in the morning.

And he's telling me this stuff, and I'm laughing. And he kept saying,

you're laughing because it's true. And I'm like, that's not why I'm laughing, right?

And on and on and on. They went on and on and on.

And to like 1 in the morning, we finally gave him the desk. And I go,

Stacey and I, we go to the room.

And I said, and at this point, I have tears in my eyes. I've been laughing so

much. I said, I needed that.

I needed that. I literally needed to hear all that craziness. I needed to laugh.

I needed that because that was the worst day of my life at that point.

I needed to laugh. And I went to bed that night, tears coming down my eyes from

the laughing, but strong on the inside.

That laughing caused me to be excited, and it gave me strength,

and it caused me to go through what we went through.

The Lord told me in that separation from the pastor, he said, this surgery is of me.

He says, this is surgery and it's of me, but you're going to have to guard your heart.

And laughing was a way for me to guard my heart and guard my tongue.

And I just began to laugh. And I woke up the next morning laughing.

And that was probably 15 years ago. Yeah, over 15 years ago.

And I still think it's funny, right?

That they brought so much joy in the laughter.

Take time to laugh.

You want to be strong? Take time to laugh. Find you a funny clip.

Whatever you think is funny. I'm not going to give you some stuff I think is

funny. Whatever you think is funny and play it and just laugh.

There's one particular movie that I'm not going to tell you what it is,

but there's a scene that's about cornbread, okay?

And I watched this particular scene.

You're going to eat your cornbread. I watched that scene, and I laughed every single time.

It gives me strength.

Laughing, I believe, is a secret weapon. You know, the Bible says that God laughs.

He looks at the devil and he laughs.

The devil is doing all this chaotic stuff and the God is looking at him,

laughing at him. Maybe you ought to be laughing at the devil.

Amen. Maybe you ought to look at him like, you stupid devil. Ha, ha, ha, ha.

That ain't going to hurt me. Ha, ha. You think it is, but it's not.

You just begin to laugh. There's something about laughing. I may talk about it in this series.

There's something about laughing

that releases all type of positive endorphins on the inside of you.

They get your body lined up in the right way to be strong and victorious.

Come on, somebody just start laughing for no reason.

Look, y'all crazy up in there. No, we're full of the joy.

And laughing is contagious. You see how contagious it is? Come on, laugh again.

See, you can't even help it.

It's contagious. Joy is contagious. It's contagious.

And so start laughing. When you're weak, make that an indicator.

You know what? I need to start laughing. When you're upset about something,

you know what? I got to start laughing here.

I got to remember what Jesus done for me, and I need to find something to laugh at. Amen?

There's a couple different things I'll look at. That's just funny.

Stacey and I have inside jokes that are just funny, and we'll do it,

and we laugh 100% of the time, right?

It creates joy, and it's joy that will give you the strength to continue.

When Paul says, do not grow weary in well-doing, he's telling us this joy that

we have to add is going to cause us not to grow weary.

You're going to get tired, but now invoke joy.

Invoke the spirit of joy. Begin to just laugh.

Just start laughing. When I'm tired, I'll just start laughing.

Ha, ha, ha, ha. And then you do that a couple times and you really start laughing, right?

It's almost like an ignition. You turn the ignition on these new cars,

you just push the button, you just push it, and all of a sudden the engine starts.

I believe joy starts rolling when you simply just start laughing.

Somebody say, the joy of the Lord is my strength.

In this world, you real have tribulation. But be of good cheer. What is that? Joy.

Be of good cheer. Get joyful about it.

I have overcome the world. You're not joyful about the tribulations.

You're joyful that Jesus overcame the world. Amen.

Once and for all, he overcame. And so you're getting joyful about that.

I'm of good cheer. I'm excited. I'm thrilled.

I'm pleased because the joy of the Lord is my strength. Say amen to that.

When we get excited and we have to stay excited, there's a lot to be excited about.

There really is. There is a whole lot.

We're focused on the negativity so often and distracted by it,

that we forget what is exciting happening in our lives. Amen.

We get what's exciting happening in our lives. I was talking,

I met with a pastor just this week and, and you know, we're believing for a

new building and a new location and, and so on and so forth.

And, and sometimes full disclosure, that weight tries to get on me,

tries to jump on me and like, Oh, how much you only got about four more months.

What you going to do? What you going to do?

What's he going to do? And try to get on me. Try to get on me.

And if you let it get on you, it'll weigh you down.

And then you're really trying to figure out, well, what am I going to do?

No, no, no. This ain't about what I'm going to do. Amen? It's about what the Lord's going to do.

And it'll try to weigh you down. I met with this pastor this week, and he said something.

I'll explain it. But he goes, you pastor a real church. I was like, what does that mean?

Like, what does that mean? and I start almost like, hold up now.

Don't talk about my church now.

And then he went to explain, now listen, just hear me out.

He went to explain that he pastors a home church. They meet in his house.

Nothing wrong with that, by the way.

And he said, yeah, we meet in our home. He said, but here you are,

believe in God to get a new building.

And he was joking with me when he said real church, but it told me we're much

further alone than we used to be.

And we need to thank God for that. Amen.

Amen. Sometimes when you look back at where you were and think about where you are,

you'll find a whole lot of joy to give you strength in that timeline right there.

Who am I talking to in here today?

You'll find a whole lot of excitement to say, look what the Lord has done. Hey, man.

Amen. You start coming and you get excited.

You'll be in the car driving. Ha ha, look what the Lord did. Look what the Lord did.

You'll be in a meeting and you start, what you laughing at over there?

I can't tell y'all. But it's the goodness of God that I'm laughing at.

It's the goodness of God that's bringing a smile on my face.

The enemy wants you sad, but the joy of the Lord is going to give you the strength

to continue and to finish the race and get well done, good and faithful servant.

How many of you want to hear well done? Well, you got to keep going and you got to include joy.

You got to have joy in your life because that's how you're going to get to the finish line.

I believe Jesus was trying to get to the finish line.

He said the joy set before him, I'm close to the finish line.

I'm going to endure this cross. Amen.

Amen. One more quick story, y'all want to hear another story?

We're all going to tell it anyway.

I saw this verse. Yeah, let's talk about it today. John 16. Let's put it on the screen, verse 21.

I believe it's John 16, 21.

A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come.

But as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish. for joy.

Somebody shout joy that a human being has been born into the world.

I was reading this verse thinking about the joy of the Lord.

Notice a woman when she is in labor.

I've been with Stacey a lot of times in labor and Stacey is one of the sweetest

women you'll ever meet except in labor.

In labor she has said some things to me that I will not repeat to you I'm like

come on baby you can push I'm like come on you gotta push shut up Devon okay,

okay okay all right I won't say that I won't say that okay all right I got your

hand here come on we got it I'm trying to help you're not helping okay okay I thought I was alright.

She's in labor And I heard that's some of the most painful pain you can ever experience.

Then you have someone that has a kidney stone. How many of you have ever passed a kidney stone?

I see hands going up. I heard that's some of the worst pain that you could have.

But what is the difference between labor and a kidney stone?

In labor...

You have the baby, the baby comes, we're excited, and a year later,

Stacy tells me, I want to have another baby.

You want to go through that again? No, I want to have a baby.

Well, what about the labor? I ain't thinking about that, I don't have a baby.

But in the kidney stone, I never heard somebody had a kidney stone say,

I want another kidney stone.

Give me another kidney stone. I just want another one. Am I right,

Kirsten? Is that what you said? No. I never heard nobody say that.

And they say both pains are some of the most hurtful pains you can experience.

Why would someone want to have another child but not have another kidney stone?

Because of the joy that the baby brings. So you're willing to endure all that

pain because at the end of it, there's a baby coming.

Is it possible that everything you're going through right now is just labor pain?

Is it possible that whatever you're going through, whatever pressure you're going through,

whatever pain and affliction you're feeling is simply labor pains,

and right on the other side of it is the manifestation of the end of your faith.

Hallelujah. It could just simply be labor pain.

You know, I know in the kingdom, in the kingdom, I said, men could get pregnant.

And I'm pregnant right now with promotion, with influence, with impact,

with impacting more souls, with reaching more people, depleting hell, populating heaven.

I'm pregnant right now, but there's going to be some labor pains.

People are going to talk about me. They're going to misuse me.

They might abuse me. They might misunderstand.

They might beat me over the head or attempt to. I got Steve to treat me.

But they might do all these things, and that's just simply labor pains,

persecution, labor pains.

Is it possible that what you're going through right now is simply a labor pain?

So if it is, then let the joy of receiving the other side of it compel you to

continue forward. Amen. Amen.

Amen. I got more to say, and I'll use the next few Sundays to say it.

But this is how you experience true life.