Rising Above It

Oh, while we walk the pilgrim pathway, clouds will overspread the sky.

But when traveling days are over, not a shadow, come on sing.

Oh, when we all get to heaven, oh, what a day of rejoicing.

Oh, when we all see Jesus, we're gonna sing, we're gonna shout the victory.

Now it's onward to the prize before us, soon His beauty now will be whole.

Now soon, oh, I like this, gates will open and we shall tread on streets of gold.

Oh, when we all get to heaven, oh, what a day of rejoicing.

Oh, when we all see Jesus, we're gonna sing, we're gonna shout the victory.

Come on give Him praise.

I'm gonna tell you, you better praise Him in your flesh as much as you can

because we do not know the day and we do not know the hour

but I'm telling you the alarms about the sound

and then it's just gonna be all in spirit and truth of that new glorified body.

So you might as well get your practice in now.

They're gonna be folks very nervous in heaven.

They're gonna be nervous people in heaven, the quiet type.

Oh, Lord, when I see Jesus, get out to my way.

Hello?

And I'm like, oh, David, if you think I'm offending you down here right now,

you better hold on because when I see Him, it's on.

That's all I can say, it is on.

I long to see my Lord.

Did you long to see Him?

I want to see Jesus.

Hallelujah, I want to see Him.

Isn't that what the old songwriter said?

Oh, I want to see Him, look upon His face.

There to sing forever of His saving grace.

On the streets of glory let me lift my voice.

Listen, cares all past, home at last, ever to rejoice.

I can't wait to see Him.

I want to see Jesus.

The reality of my life, the reality of this life.

I want to see Him, look upon His face.

There to sing forever of His saving grace.

Now on the streets of glory, let me lift my voice.

I won't see Jesus.

The reality of my life, the reality of this life,

to pass us by, and every conflict that you've had in it

will matter no more.

Hallelujah.

Home at last ever to rejoice.

Hallelujah.

When in valleys low I look toward the mountains high

and behold my Savior there leading in the fight

with a tender hand outstretched toward the valley low.

Guiding me I can see as I onward go.

Now oh I wanna see him look upon his face

and there to sing forever of his saving grace.

Now on the streets of glory let me lift my voice.

Care's all past, home at last ever to rejoice.

My Lord.

If you have your Bibles turn with me to John's gospel.

John's gospel.

Of a late there's been a stirring of the anointing

in our church, especially deeply over the last month or so.

The Lord's been, there's been a shifting in the atmosphere

in the house of the Lord.

So much so that at a memorial service yesterday

I just threw down and preached for a little while.

I told him I said I would apologize

but I ain't gonna apologize for.

When you go to preaching about faith

and the faith of a believer who kept the faith,

fought the fight, finished the race, amen,

it just, I told him I said we got it backwards.

We always just get all giddy and we throw parties

when babies are born and then we just mope and groan

and mumble and bawl and squall

and loved ones who are serving the Lord leave

and the scripture says you would do it in reverse order.

We're to mourn when they're born.

Think about what these babies have got to face

in their lifetime if the Lord doesn't come, right?

Man, that makes my heart heavy

because I know what we've had to come through.

And their own set of problems, their own set of troubles

and the devil's gonna face them

if the Lord don't come get us, right?

So that should make our hearts heavy.

But when a believers fought the fight, amen,

and left this world with a testimony of God's saving grace,

we should rejoice, amen,

because it won't be long it'll be us.

John chapter five, beginning at verse one.

After this, there was a feast of the Jews

and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool

which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda,

having five porches.

And these lay a great multitude of impotent folk,

a blind, haught, withered,

waiting for the moving of the water.

For as an angel went down at a certain season,

you need to underline that,

into the pool and troubled the water,

and whosoever then first after the troubling of the water

stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.

And a certain man, there's another phrase to underline,

was there which had an infirmity 30 and eight years.

And when Jesus saw him lie and knew that he had been now

a long time in that case,

he said unto him, will thou be made whole?

And the impotent man answered him,

sir, I have no man when the water is troubled

to put me in into the pool.

But while I am coming, another steps down before me.

Jesus said unto him, rise, take up thy bed and walk.

And immediately the man was made whole.

And he took up his bed and he walked.

And on the same day was the Sabbath.

I wanna preach to you just a little bit.

I wanna thought, rise above it.

But as I was reading that, another title came to my mind.

I'm your man, huh?

I'm your man, you need a man, I'm your man today.

He said, I have no man, is that not what he said?

He said, I have no, well, I'm your man.

Father, I love you today.

My God in heaven, I feel you this morning.

Stirring deeply in our house of worship this morning.

And we do glory you, we do honor you,

we do magnify you for you alone are God.

None other, there is no other God but you.

And we praise you and we magnify you

in the name of your most glorious son

to be praised forever, amen and amen.

I'm your man, my Lord, that is hit me.

When we read this story, when we read this,

it's not a story, it's a record.

When we read the recording of this lame man,

it's not different, if you will, from where we are today

and what we have in our midst this morning.

That Bethesda being translated in the Hebrew tongue

means house of mercy.

And you're at a house of mercy and grace today.

God's mercy and God's grace, amen.

And that stop that we've just taken in scripture

and we're about to revisit this place called Bethesda

and this house of mercy.

It would be at the pool that an angel of the Lord

would come down at a certain season.

Now, that word certain means particular

but not necessarily clearly identified.

It just said certain season.

It could have been spring, summer, winter, fall.

I don't know, we don't understand.

We haven't been told well.

It was March the fourth.

All we get is a certain season, a particular time

at the moving of the Lord's wheel.

So we have a certain season and the water is to be moved,

to be troubled, to be stirred,

that someone may be healed of whatsoever disease

that they had.

And then for this first time,

the one who would enter the pool would be made whole.

But unknowing to the sinners around the pool that day,

he who created the waters was standing at the edge.

Hallelujah.

That day in that one moment in time, that certain season,

the creator of both the angelic messenger and the pool

and the water that was to be troubled had now visited.

The great, the almighty, the son of the living God

has passed by and has an appointment with this lame man

and this lame man's life was to be forever changed.

Terry, didn't even raise an eye.

You missed it.

Did you get it?

I even warned him.

I said, boys, I got a nugget for y'all this morning.

And he's reading the story that I just read to him.

This lame man's life was to be forever changed.

Amen.

And as a side note this morning,

the songwriter said there is a fountain filled with blood

drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunged

beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

When we think about the fountain itself being by the pool,

when we think about Jesus Christ himself

making his way to where all of these people who

are needing something in their life, a multitude had gathered.

And no telling how long they had been there

because they did not have the specific date and time

to show up.

It's not like getting there 30 minutes early

for your doctor's appointment and set to be done.

Y'all know what's going on right now.

I'm trying.

I'm trying.

They didn't have the exact time.

So who knows how long many of them had been there.

They had made their way to the Pool of Bethesda.

They had been there waiting for the particular moment

that the waves and the water would begin to ripple

and the troubling would begin to start.

And I don't know if they had centuries waiting saying,

OK, I don't know if they had a line drawn.

You can't cross.

I don't know if they had a line drawn, you can't cross this line.

So it's fair to everybody.

I don't know how it was.

But the moment that someone recognized that there was more

than a ripple across the pool, but there was a troubling

and a boiling and a turning up of the water.

You know, if I'm there needing a healing, I'm not going to say,

hey, let's get in.

No, I'm going to get in and say, hey, it worked.

Hallelujah.

I'm not going to give you a warning.

I'm not going to give you an alarm.

I'm not going to tell you when it begins to ripple.

I'm just going to get myself in.

I wonder how many, this is coming to my mind as I'm preaching this one.

I wonder how many when the wind blew and a ripple got up, jumped in,

and all they got was wet.

Huh?

I wonder how many had a sense of a false alarm.

Oh, that's it.

They jumped in and all they got was wet.

But my Lord, on the day that the recognition was there,

when the angel began to stir and the pool began to trouble,

the first one that recognized it got in, got more than wet.

They got made whole.

You understand wholeness is not just a thumb put back in place.

Wholeness is complete.

It's crowned on the head to the sole of the feet and in between the ears.

There's a wholeness being taken place.

There's a healing that took place on the first one that entered in

and whether they cared to admit it or not.

Even if you don't care to admit it this morning,

we are in a house of mercy.

And there's more than an angelic being coming to trouble.

The power and the presence of the sweet Holy Ghost is making its way here.

I'm waiting for a stirring.

I'm waiting for a troubling.

I'm waiting for the anointing to begin to cultivate in this house.

But what I want to know is, are you watching and are you ready?

Are you anticipating that God's going to move

and God desires to touch in our hearts and in our lives?

And as we are too awaiting for the Spirit of God to move,

and yes, Jesus is watching.

There are those, yes, around us as He is watching here who are troubled

and He needs to touch them.

He desires to touch us.

It is His will to touch you.

But what there's got to be within ourselves is a desire to be touched.

As I said a couple of weeks ago, God's not going to force His hand on you.

God's not going to push you over.

He's not going to make you take what He has to offer.

But He is going to walk up to the water's edge.

He is going to walk up and let you know there is a certain man who is there

at a certain season.

His name's not given, but his condition is made clear.

Can I tell you, everybody in the room don't have to know each other's name.

But when Jesus shows up at the house of mercy,

He knows exactly what is going on in each of our lives.

So as we have this lame man, he becomes our example.

And this example positions himself.

38 years he's been coming and going and leaving in the same condition.

I posed to you a question this morning.

How many years have you been going to church with the same condition

and leaving with it Sunday after Sunday, week after week, month after month,

year after year?

It's 38 years for this man.

He's had this enabling impotence in his life that kept him from living

a normal life.

Impotent means sick and weak and helpless.

Halt means having to stop every few steps and take often breaks

in order to get to the destination.

And withered means to shrink or to draw.

All of these people are there.

Oh, you remember the man that had the drawed up hand that Jesus spoke to

and he stretched forth his hand.

I mean, you remember these stories and these records of Jesus's healing power.

They are there.

And this morning, I don't know how many are halt.

You can't go as far as you want to.

But I do know this in this room alone, there's knees bone to bone.

There's hips bone to bone.

There's hypertension.

There's sugar diabetes.

There's heart conditions.

And there's cancer cells that have been making their way through bodies

in this very room.

So you don't have to go very far.

There's anguish in this room.

There's the grief of death in this room.

There's the sting of its power over our lives in this very room this morning.

So you've made your way to the house of God, which is the house of mercy.

And I'm telling you, there's more than an angel that's here today.

There is God himself.

Oh, Lord, the sweet Holy Ghost has come to this place this morning to meet you.

And I'm the man that's going to help you.

I'm the man that's going to introduce you.

I'm the man that's going to invite you.

I'm the man that's going to take you by the hand and lead you if necessary.

This becomes very personal.

It's a certain man, a certain man.

And here he is.

Understand as Jesus makes his way around the pool, there are hundreds,

maybe thousands around the pool laying there, hoping to be the first one.

Let me tell you, if you're five rows deep in this line, you're not getting in.

Hello?

If you're more than five rows deep, you don't have a prayer getting in.

Because a blind man is going to trip and roll in before you can get yourself up

and stagger in.

Hello?

I'm just telling you like it is.

If you were five rows deep, you didn't stand a prayer.

But how come for 38 years this man kept going?

Because that man didn't lose hope.

He never lost hope.

Why?

Because there was a season coming when healing was going to be made available.

My God in heaven, there's a season that is coming where healing is made available.

And that season is today, every day, any time we come together for where

the Spirit of the Lord is, there is a liberty.

And where there is a liberty, there is a healing virtue and the balm of Tiliad

and the stripes of Jesus Christ to apply to our life.

We don't wait on an angel.

Isaiah 43, fear not, for I have redeemed thee.

I have called thee by name.

It's personal with God.

Aren't you glad?

It's personal.

How many blind did he walk by?

How many lepers did he might go by?

I don't know how many he walked by.

But he walked by every one of them until he come to this man.

But here's the thing.

He didn't walk by us anymore.

Whoo.

He reacts and responds according to the faith of those who call out upon his name.

He'll find you.

Matter of fact, he knows exactly where you are.

He don't have to come and find you.

He said, I have called you by your name and you are mine.

He would further say, when you pass through the waters, I'll be with you.

And when you go to the rivers, they'll not overflow you.

When you walk through the fire, thou shalt not be burned.

Hallelujah.

Neither shall the flame tend to lit itself up against you.

He knows exactly what pool you're sitting by this morning.

He knows that you're in the sanctuary of the Hopewell Church of the living God.

He knows that you are here.

He knows whether you've come in faith or not.

He knows where you come expecting or not.

He knows exactly the role you're setting up.

And it doesn't matter if you're six rows deep or seven rows deep.

You've got the same opportunity as the one on the front row.

It is determined by the faith and the expectation of the heart of the believer.

Gotta have a little breathing room here.

Get Lord enough praise by working with you.

Luke 1 and 5 says there was a certain priest whose name was Zechariah.

Mark 525 says there's a certain woman which had an issue of blood.

Mark 725 says for a certain woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit, made her way.

There's three different needs from three totally different people who made their way to Jesus,

who didn't sit by the pool.

They just made their way to Jesus.

My God, you're gonna make me preach all of this.

Some of you already had them and I wish you'd just praise him like you already there.

Amen.

It helped me get over to it.

There were certain people with certain inclination with certain situations and crises in their

life and every one of them that made their way to Jesus left different than they showed

up.

Hallelujah.

There were certain lepers.

Come on somebody.

Amen.

I'm telling you there's certain people in the house of the Lord today.

There's young and old.

There's male and female.

We're all here and if we'll make our way to Jesus, there are no limits.

If you'll take the limiter off, come on, let's back up a few weeks.

If you'll take the limits of doubt off your life and begin to proclaim your faith and

hope in Jesus Christ, you don't have to wait for anything to trouble because it's already

troubled.

He's already stirring.

If two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them.

I need two or three who'll stand up and glorify him.

If you gathered in his name, if you gathered in the power and the glory of his name, hallelujah.

Hey.

Hallelujah.

It doesn't matter where we are.

It does not matter what we are going through.

Are you hearing me?

It doesn't matter what you're going through.

Jesus always knows where to look for you and where to find you.

Even so, he knows when to approach.

You cannot be hid by anything.

Ask Adam.

He tried to fig leaf, it didn't work.

Hello.

Ask Elijah.

He was under a juniper tree.

Didn't get him anywhere.

Ask Moses.

He was on the backside of Midian's desert.

It didn't get him anywhere.

Amen.

Ask Gideon.

Gideon's threshing wheat at the wine press.

Not only did the enemy find him, but God found him.

God found him first.

He said, Gideon, what are you doing here, son?

You're a mighty man of valor.

Here's Gideon, the weakest wimp in the whole family.

Here he is hiding in fear.

Amen.

For the enemy's sake.

He's at the wine press with his wheat harvest.

Everybody knows you don't go to the wine press with a wheat harvest, but that's where Gideon

is.

He thought he was hid from the enemy.

He thought he was hidden from everyone and he was going to get his wheat threshed and

get everything going.

But then God showed up and called him a mighty man of valor.

And I can see, oh, Gideon, who?

Me?

Gideon had no confidence in his own ability or he'd have took his weapons and went to

the threshing floor and double dog dared the enemy to show up and take his harvest.

But no, he was hiding and he wasn't a man of confidence.

He wasn't a man of great stature, but God knew what was in him.

Can I tell you, you may not think very much of yourself this morning, but God knows what

is in you.

And here's what is in you this morning.

Greater is he that is in you than he that is in this world.

I'm telling you, he knows what's in you.

He knows where you are.

He knows where to find you.

You can have a pity party under your own juniper tree, but then God's going to send refreshment.

He's going to refresh you.

And he's going to speak to you.

You can't hide.

Jesus saw him.

The Bible says lying there.

He saw Zacchaeus out on a limb for him.

I've been out on a limb for him.

I stepped out on one about five years ago.

It looked like a dried limb and look when you weigh what I weigh, you don't get on dried

limbs.

Huh?

As a kid, anybody ever rolled hickory saplings?

Come on, where you at?

You know what I'm talking about?

No more fun in this world than riding a young two and a half inch hickory sapling.

What are you talking about?

You skinny up as high as you can get.

You get up in the top of that thing and you just go to doing this.

Hang on.

Some of you would have a literal heart attack if you saw your seven year old up in a two

and a half, three inch round hickory sapling in the top of it going, woo, just riding around.

You would have a literal coronary.

Mama didn't care as long as it was woo and not a big cry.

As long as we were entertained.

When we went out in the morning, the screen door got latched to lunch.

Hello?

Oh, some of you don't know, you wouldn't do your kid that way and it's a different day

and I don't blame you.

But let them ride a hickory every once in a while.

Not a limb, the sapling.

Don't spare the limb either.

How did we get into this mess?

How did I get to a hickory?

They just, I just had a flashback.

Zacchaeus up a tree.

The Lord was coming by.

The scripture said for the Lord he wanted to see.

Zacchaeus, one of the most hated men of his day, tax collector and a crooked one at that.

A cheat.

Hello?

R.S. of his day.

But he wanted to see Jesus.

He let me know something was going on in the little man's heart.

Hello?

Something was going on in the little man's heart.

And so the only way he could even get a glimpse was he had to get up on a tree and get out

on a limb.

And when the Lord passed by, he stopped, I'm here to tell you, you may feel like you're

out on a limb somewhere, but God knows exactly when to stop where you are.

And he looked up and said, Zacchaeus, come down for I'm going to your house today, son.

My God, no better word than to know that Jesus is coming home with you.

I take him home with me every time I leave this place and every morning I get up and

every morning I leave.

I make my way back to the house and I know the Lord's going with me because his promise

to me was I'll never leave you nor will I ever forsake you, but I'll go with you all

the way even to the end of the age.

He knows where you're at.

He knows where you're at.

He saw the widow woman who gave her all, didn't he?

He was sitting over at offering time.

Maybe I ought to watch some of you like that.

I'm on the front row.

I just can't see what you dropped in that big bucket.

It doesn't matter to me.

It matters to God.

It's his church.

Amen.

It's his church.

You're his people.

But Jesus is setting aside with his disciples today at offering time and a little widow

woman come by and dropped her little might.

And Jesus said, stop the presses, stop the presses.

Boys, did y'all see that?

And they'd probably seen the pious Jews of their day, the Pharisees coming in, oh, with

the big ado about the change that they're dropping in and the silver and the gold that

they're putting in to go around the back door and take it back out.

Everybody look and see what I gave.

Everybody look and see what I've done.

But Jesus said, it is recorded now.

Look, when he says something, it's forever.

Oh, look at the widow woman she has given from her all.

She's given everything that she had.

My Lord, she's going to be blessed.

He didn't say he'd make us all millionaires.

He just said he would bless all of our faithfulness.

If you have money to glory, just be faithful to God with it.

If you got more than you'll ever need in your children's children will ever need, just be

faithful with God and to God while you're here below.

Just be faithful to him because he's recording.

He's watching it all.

And what he's seeing is faith.

He never knows the amount other than to say she has given of her all.

I told the church one time, I said, people think tithing is about amounts.

Well, you you you pay more than I do.

My return was this with the conversation.

I said, what do you give a 10 percent as the scripture says?

Well, yeah, I said, well, then I don't pay more than you do.

A tithe is a tithe.

Hello.

But as I've told you before, when you go to pray and they're telling people, well, if

you want to give what I give, I can just ask the Lord to get you down here.

And they changed their mind.

That's OK.

You know, that was back when I was broke.

I'm not broke anymore.

Hallelujah.

Why?

Because he saw my mind when my mind was being put in, when I was giving them all that I

had and all that I possessed.

He saw the day that I gave my last two dollars and had no way to get back to church on Sunday

night and no way to get to work on Monday morning.

Just enough gas to do one or the other.

To pastor Sunday morning, I had to be the church clerk.

I said, we need to count after church today.

I don't know that I can get back.

I've got two dollars and that'll get me to work tomorrow.

And while I'm sitting there, the Lord spoke to me.

I know his voice.

And the third or fourth time he said it, I obeyed.

Hello.

Come on now.

I know I'm not the only one, especially if it's your last two.

And he says, put it in.

Do what?

Put it where?

I'll never forget that they had to lean back in that chair and reach down and get them

to and said, put me down for two, pastor.

He never batted.

I just wrote it down on our way home.

We'd forgot to stop and get the mail on Saturday, opened up the mailbox.

There was one letter there and then it was a check for 200 bucks.

Now I don't know about you.

I don't know what you think or how you believe, but I don't think it would have been there

if I'd have took and scrounged my two dollars home.

That's just the way I have to look at it.

It probably wouldn't have been in there if I hadn't obeyed God, but I did and it was

and hallelujah is smooth sailing from that time on.

I'll tell you that story again.

Probably three or four years when it hits my mind.

He saw the widow woman, give her all.

He sees everything that concerns you and I.

Second Chronicles 16 and nine, the eyes of the Lord run to and fro.

First Peter three and twelve, the eyes of the Lord are ever over the righteous and his

ears are open under their prayers.

This man positioned himself correctly.

Then he stated his case.

I have no man to put me in to the pool, but yet he distributed great perseverance for

38 years showing up wonderful faith.

Many of us would have quit after the second time we didn't get in, but I don't know.

He may have developed friendships and camaraderie.

You know, misery loves to hang together.

It's like a magnet.

It'll find somebody else as miserable or worse.

Oh, that's the way it works.

That's the way that shadow works.

We'll draw because the enemy is going to see fit that you don't have anything connected

to your life.

It's going to build hope and faith.

Well, I know we can't get in.

We're in row nine this year.

So hey, how you been doing?

They couldn't even see the water.

You ought to look up pool of Bethesda and see where it's at.

So he states his case.

It becomes every man for himself.

Faith and perseverance will always pay off, church.

You hear me?

Faith and perseverance will always pay for you.

Isaiah 40, 31 says, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

The next step after your patience and your perseverance, the next step is a response

that is required on my and your behalf.

I've been trying to get to this point all morning.

Jesus commands him in verse eight to rise, to rise above it.

Listen to me this morning.

When you receive a command, he didn't, he didn't stretch out his hands and pray for

him.

He didn't spit and make a mud ball like he did in other situations.

He simply looked down at the man when he made up his excuse.

It wasn't an excuse.

It was a reason.

He's a lame man.

He didn't have anyone to help him into the pool.

Somebody took and dropped him off and left him laying there.

Come on.

And he tells the Lord when he asked him, will you be made whole?

Do you want to be whole?

Remember wholeness is not just simply healing.

It's completeness.

He said, do you want to be made whole?

And he began to say, it's not that he didn't want to be.

He just said, I do not have the resources that I need and I require to get whole.

But I'm here to tell you this morning, if that's your thought, erase it out of your

mind because I'm the man to point you to your resource this morning.

And it is God and God alone.

Christ is here to accommodate your need.

The question to us is like to him, will thou be made whole?

Do you have an excuse?

You've got to rise above.

Well, let me offer a few to you this morning.

We got to arise above some things.

You got to rise above fear.

You've not been given a spirit of fear, but you've been given the spirit of love and of

power and in the soundness of your mind.

You got to rise above being afraid to ask God and to believe God and to trust God.

You just simply have to do it.

You got to hear the command and let the command resonate in your soul and in your spirit and

let it come past and come through you and simply begin to obey.

You got to rise above affliction.

We cannot afford to allow our afflictions to overcome us, but rather we must overcome

them by the power in Jesus Christ.

We have afflictions as I've stated earlier, it's bone to bone.

It could be cancer, but folks, until the Lord takes us out, please don't allow that affliction

to have its authority over your faith, but let your faith have authority over your affliction.

Yes, we need resources.

Yes, we need help.

Just like that man, we needed aid from time to time, but his aid was standing before him.

The resource of all resources was standing in his presence and was about to do a miracle

in his life.

Got to rise above our affliction.

34 and 19 says, many are the afflictions of the righteous.

Hear this, but the Lord delivers them out of most of them.

Huh?

Delivers them out of them all.

Hallelujah.

Sometimes our healing is eternal.

Sometimes the Lord calls us to himself so that this old flesh could be ratified of the

diseases that attack it daily.

You realize we are dying daily, but the inner man can be renewed day by day.

When I'm down in the floor trying to paint baseboard, the inner man is praying for the

outer man so that it all comes together that I can get back up out of the floor.

It's not as easy as it was 20 years ago.

I'd have something to get a hold of to help get that knee past that one spot.

You know what I'm saying?

That one spot, once you get it past that one spot, you're good to go.

Right?

It's like my back sometimes.

My back's got this one spot that sometimes I'll have to get all the way down on my knee

to get my back straight to get back up.

It don't make no sense to me, but it's the spot that it works.

And if you have to discover the spot that it works, honey, just work it until it don't

work no more.

Then figure something else out.

But that affliction one day, if the Lord doesn't heal me here, one day there's going to be

a divine healing that takes place over this old body.

When I take my last breath, honey, this old body's going to be new.

You can put me in the ground, you can scatter me in the air, you can put me in the river.

It don't matter.

It's all going to come back together.

And when I receive this new incorruptible body, I'll paint baseboard in heaven and God knows

I hate to paint.

But I'll be glad to be the baseboard painter in glory.

Hallelujah.

And only the Lord knows how I've humbled myself to say that because I hate it.

But I'd do it for him.

I've rolled around this place.

Oh, Lord, scooting down side and elbow raw.

Let's move on.

These afflictions are conditions of distress, distress and great pain and suffering.

See, sometimes our afflictions are not always physical.

Sometimes they're familial or family, which calls great distress.

Hello.

You do realize that God and Satan are in this conflict for the same resources.

Well, what resources?

You and me.

The devil's trying to use you just as much as God desires to use you.

So the next time someone is causing you great distress, tell them, don't be a vessel.

Don't be a vessel.

Don't yield your members, your body.

Oh, Lord, the hens are cackling in the house.

I got to move on.

You got to rise above somewhere.

You got to rise above the hindrances.

You know, a majority of the things that keep us out of the house of God are hindrances

dispatched by the forces of darkness, the enemy.

I didn't say all.

I said most.

Are you with me?

Hurt feelings, misunderstandings.

Real shortcomings, sicknesses.

The big one is pet sin.

We allow pet sin to hinder us from receiving everything.

And you got to rise above some sin.

Whereby we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, Paul writing to the

church at Rome in the twelfth chapter.

Let us lay aside every weight and the sin that does so easily beset us.

Now I'm about to give a revelation to somebody.

God didn't make you do it and he's not going to make you stop doing it.

Let us.

You started it.

You stop it.

He'll forgive you, but you got to stop it.

Oh, really pastor, I was waiting on the Lord to deliver me from this.

He cleansed you.

You stop it.

Y'all okay?

It's not God's fault that this fledge is subject to addiction.

Sin did that in the garden and sin still tries to take control of it.

Adam and Eve, they took they ate and we are all paying the consequences.

You think about the sins that are so easily besetting you and keeping you from doing the

will of God.

God didn't force any one of them on you.

Matter of fact, he said, don't do it.

Don't seek the treasure.

What does our flesh do?

Overcome the hindrances of sin.

See the further this go, it's shouts good in the front, but when you get down to here,

it really gets quiet.

Here's another, you have to rise above the crowd.

This thought come to my mind last night as I was just going over in my head.

Got to get over the crowd.

Got to get above what other people think about what you need in the house of God.

You got to get beyond what your neighbor thinks about what might be going on in your life.

When you're sitting on your seat in here on any typical Sunday morning and the preacher

hopefully is really preaching the gospel straight and true, hot and firm and fast.

Pastors doing his job.

And you're sitting back here and you're looking around and I know you do it.

I used to sit back here with you.

I didn't always have to get on the platform.

I was a mid-sixties Catholic about six rows back on the left edge.

That's our spot.

And from that, if you'll notice that's the way I sit on Wednesday night.

I sit over here and I can see everybody.

Isn't that the way we do?

And then we start thinking, well, my God, I wish they'd stop.

I'm trying to listen to the preacher.

Man, I wish they would just quit fiddling around.

They can't, they don't know, my Lord, they're getting set still and I couldn't even get

nothing out of church this morning.

I just got, just hindered me.

Huh?

Move up.

Look, it's vacant down here.

Ain't nobody gonna hinder you down here.

That's what I said.

Sister Jackie fell back three rows, but that's what we do.

Isn't it?

But you know what?

If you focus, we're people.

People are people and we've got to rise above the crowd.

Look, it was all Sister Kathy could do to him up three toddlers on a row.

Toddlers don't bother me.

What do you do?

It took Cheez-Its, it took Froot Loops, it took Honey Nut Cheerios and Cork Baggies.

And if she would, she told me one time, she said, I don't even know why I go to church

for.

And she's on the second row trying to do all this.

Hey, I have been preaching my guts out.

Grab one, wear a high-end out, set it down and keep on preaching.

Kids are kids.

Don't be hindered.

Come on, we got to get above some of these things and let our focus because I can close

my eyes and hear the word.

I've seen them clip fingernails.

I've seen them balance checkbooks.

I've seen everything that can be done in the church.

I've seen them eat hearty gravy and biscuits and leave their box behind in my sanctuary

and it infuriates me to no end.

I've seen it all, but I can't let a biscuit hinder me.

I can't let other things hinder me.

You can't let the crowd hinder you.

And when you've heard the word of the Lord and it's penetrated your heart and God's got

your attention and when an invitation is given, my Lord, get up and move.

So know what we'll do.

We'll say, my God, I didn't get nothing.

And no, you're right, you didn't.

The crowd is the crowd.

People are the people.

The larger hours grow, the more things are going to be going on.

Hallelujah.

Now get above the crowd, rise above so that you can hear and receive.

Well, preacher, you don't know how hard it is.

Yes, I do.

I told you.

Police throws back right hand corner from the podium.

That was our spot.

But somehow in all the distractions, here I am today.

Somehow through it all, here you are today.

You've got to get above the crowd, folks.

And when you hear what you need for your life, when an invitation is given, it really doesn't

matter what's happening.

It doesn't matter about the Cheerios.

It doesn't matter about the cheeses.

It doesn't matter about the checkbook.

It doesn't matter about their fingernails.

My Lord, what matters is that you do like this man and you have a response to the word

that is commanded over your life.

And he had a response.

He said, rise, get up and go.

Jesus didn't adorn him with oil.

He didn't lay hands on him.

He didn't put the clay on him.

He just looked at him and give him a command.

And the Bible says immediately, immediately when you get past the hindertes, when you

arise above the crowd, when you get beyond the afflictions, when you get beyond everything,

when you get beyond your feelings, hurt or whatever the situations may be, when we rise

above the thought, I just don't feel like it today.

That could be the day that the stirring of your soul takes place and God delivers you

of your affliction.

Pick up your problem and take it away.

That man felt the virtuous power of Christ when he received that command to rise.

Is that what we're hearing?

Remember that forever, oh Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.

Isaiah 40 and 8 says, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God shall

stand forever.

I'm your man this morning.

If you need one, I'm here to help you.

You say, well, you sounded like it.

It'll help you if you listen to it.

It'll help you if you apply it to your life.

If we can just rise above, get above some of the stuff that's trying to keep us down,

it's going to be even more distracting when there's over 300 in here.

But it is amazing how Christ can make his way through every distraction to where we

are and his word penetrate our heart.

And if we react and respond to his command, we too can be made whole.

To be made whole.

Father, I love you.

I love you this morning.

Lord I thank you for your faithfulness today.

Oh Lord, and again, I repent for foolishness.

According to your word, it pleased you that through the foolishness of the preaching of

the gospel, man's hearts are touched, man's saved.

I pray God that you move in the house today.

Every need, every need.

As we are gathered at the house of mercy, there's grace to be shared with us.

There's your grace to be made abundant for us.

If you're here in the house of mercy and you need mercy, I invite you to come.

Others are already making their way.

If you need a healing, he's our healer.

If you need deliverance, he's our deliverer.

You got to rise above and in everything.