Learning To Live With Our Mistakes | Pastor Paul McGee

Amen. Someone say thank you, Jesus.

Amen. Appreciate the spirit of the

Lord. You say, well, I don't have

anything to do with that. That's just him.

No, there's something about entertaining him.

He just enjoys attention. He enjoys attention.

Amen. We're so glad to be in the

house. Lord, this one, one service on

this Sunday. And so we're going to try to

make the most of it, right? I'm going to try to make the

most of it. Years ago, we used to do a

Sunday school picnic on the Sunday prior to church camp.

And then when we realized the people that went, that they were

also the ones that cooked and they were also the ones that

cleaned up, it was quite laborious.

And when they still needed to pack and all that, they entered

camp tired. And so you don't want to do

that. You want to try to be a little

refresh because you'll be tired when you come home.

Amen. And so we just stayed with one

service prior to camp. Just try to be mindful those

that do go. Amen.

We're going to be turning to Joshua chapter #9 this morning.

Joshua chapter #9 Haven't even told my wife this.

This is my prison story. We were staying at a hotel about

45 minutes from prison and we were wearing prison T-shirts, if

I could say it like that. Shirts that were like, you know,

Princess Within shirts. The one that I wore the first

day said Princess within on the front, on the back had all the

states that we have been to almost like a concert type

shirt. And we were not very far from a

Air Force Base there where we were staying.

And so there was a lot of Air Force personnel that likewise

were utilizing the hotel. And so that that first morning I

was done before my wife. That goes without saying that

nonetheless I was going down to get breakfast before we went in

because I knew he's going to be in there for a while.

And so I hit the button to to go down the elevator and the

elevator open and there were two women in there that were suited

up in uniform and and their stuff.

I walk in with smack dab on the front of my shirt Princess

within. Soon as I walked in, I seen

these ladies eyes go from my eyes to my chest and I thought

and I looked at them. I said, gals, I'm not a

Princess. And I turned around and then

continued to explain what it was all about.

And so we were all OK. So that's my, that's my big

prison story. Amen.

Joshua chapter #9 Joshua chapter #9 I'm going to start reading

with verse #14 if we can today. And so this is something that

I've been kind of touch and go with for ever since the month of

March of this year was the first beginnings of this.

And I want to read then in verse #14 and I'm going to the Bible

says and the men took up their vittles.

I want you to know I always thought that was victuals.

And then I heard I was listening to it be read to me this morning

it was vittles. I looked up the word and it is

pronounced as vittles. So just a learning for us all

today. OK, so vittles and ask not

counsel at the mouth of the Lord.

And Joshua made peace with them, and made a league with them to

let them live, and the Princess of the congregation swear unto

them. And it came to pass at the end

of three days after they had made a league with them, that

they heard that they were their neighbors, and that they dwelt

among them. And the children of Israel

journeyed and came unto their cities on the third day.

Now their cities were Gibeon and Zephira and Barolf and Kirjath

Jiram. And the children of Israel smote

them not because the Princess of the congregation had sworn to

them by the Lord God of Israel. And all the congregation

murmured against the Princess, but all the Princess said unto

all the congregation, We have sworn unto them by the Lord God

of Israel. Now, therefore, we may not touch

them. This is like diving in the

middle of the story that I'll elaborate a little further on as

we get into this today. And again, the title of my

message is not as intimidating as it may seem.

I want to minister this this morning.

Learning to live with our mistakes.

Learning to live with our mistakes.

Amen. Let's go to the Lord in prayer

right now. Father, I come to you, Lord, we

need you, Lord of this house today.

We're appreciative, Lord, of your Spirit that we have already

felt this far. I pray, O God, that that would

continue Lord, through the ministry of your word, You're

able, Lord Jesus, to help us to open our hearts and our minds

through what the Spirit may say today, God, and we will give you

the praise for what you accomplished through your word

in the lovely name of the Lord Jesus Christ that I prayed this

morning in Jesus name, Amen. God bless you today and you may

be seated in Jesus name. Mistakes, mistakes, just

mentioning the word mistakes. Sometimes our minds and our

emotions can go through a gamut of of differences of highs and

lows. Whenever I mentioned the word

mistakes, nobody wants to make them.

Nobody wants to make them, but the fact of the matter is we all

have made mistakes. Perhaps greater than the mistake

is the guilt, the shame that accompanies the mistake.

Or perhaps even greater sometimes is the the fallout or

the domino effect of consequences from per Southeast

a mistake. The feelings that come with a

mistake sometime can be very, very paralyzing and almost at

times prevent us from moving forward in other areas of our

life because we made a mistake in one area of our life.

Mistakes create a a nagging echo in our minds that if I failed

once, I'll fail again. Fear often times will grip our

chest as we entertain the thought of perhaps repeating a

mistake. We avoid certain areas of our

life, perhaps where we failed because of the reverberating

pain of failing there. We just kind of avoid that

space, avoid, avoid where we were when we failed or whatever

it may be, or the people that we were around when we failed

because that's where we failed. And there's a lot of pain that's

associated that and things can trigger in our minds and trigger

in our spirits that could cause us to relive that failure that

is now maybe years removed from us, but it's still seemingly in

our mind. And then, then there's the

judgement and there's the criticism that we find when we

think that we've cleared the summit of our mistakes,

something comes up. Maybe it's our own mind that's

criticizing us. Maybe maybe it's something that

someone says that that we've taken the judgement away towards

something and that's so far in the past, but it's still so real

to us today. And then at times because of our

mistake, we feel stigmatized by others, right?

There's a mark on us, there's there's a label on us.

And all of these type of things just exasperates the whole, the

whole difficulty of overcoming past mistakes.

And sometimes, you know, our reputations may have been

damaged. And so regaining trust and

credibility, it all seems very challenging because of a

mistake. And, and it's hard to navigate

the aftermath of a mistake. It's, it's hard sometimes to

find pathways of recovery after that.

And it can be very challenging when when you lack a supportive

network, perhaps of friends or or acquaintances or families in

order to do that. Joshua in our text this morning,

he knew the difficulty of making a mistake and he knew what it

was like to live with that mistake.

The Bible tells us here in Joshua nine that the Gibeonites

had come unto Joshua and the nation of Israel.

Israel is slowly moving into the land of Canaan.

They've already overcome Jericho and AI and they are making their

way through the land. They are on a conquest.

They are, they are pulling down altars in high places and, and

Pagan gods and, and they are going through the land and they

are apprehending and they are taking the land.

And, and so the Gibeon Knights hear of their approach into the

land of Canaan and, and they want to rather become friends

with, if you will, we could say it like that with Joshua rather

than an enemy. They don't want to be on the tip

of Joshua's sword, so to speak. And so they come under the guise

of deception and they come disguising themselves.

They come with, with clothes that are worn out and holes and

tattered and they come with old sacks that are upon their, their

beast of burden. Their, the wine skin are cracked

and broken that that they have used.

They, they got bread on their person.

But it's moaty, it's hard. It's starting to turn.

And they've traveled and want to give the appearance as though

they've traveled from a far away place.

And so they come and visit Joshua at the Israelite camp in

Gilgal. And they come with the olive

branch of, of requesting a peace treaty with the Israelites.

And they claim then that they were from a distant country and

a distant land. And they, they've heard about

the fame of their God and they've heard about the exploits

that they have done. And some of the Israelites and

some of the people that are hearing this, they're, they're

little suspicious of these Gibeonites true origin.

And so they even questioned them because of, of them being

suspicious. But the Gibeonites have

everything in order, right? They, they, they, they thought

this through. They have, they have the

presentation just right when they asked about them and about

their real intent. They, they provide for them.

You know, it's like look at our clothes.

When when we started this journey, this was nice fabric

and this was all put together. But this has been such a long

trip that over the whole of it, all our clothes have become

tattered and worn Outlook. Look at this bread.

We took this bread straight out of the oven the day that we

left. This was hot bread, but now it's

cold and hard as a stone and it's moaty.

So you know, all this is going on and take see these wine

skins. They, they were lush.

They were new wine skins, but the heat of the desert that we

traveled over, it's cracked these wine skins.

And, and so they, they put all these provisions before them as

though they had been on a long journey.

And then the mistake was made. The Israelites being led by

Joshua, he made a treaty with the Gibeonites.

The Bible says without seeking the guidance of the Lord, he

makes a treaty with them. And it would just be 3 short

days later in about 25 miles that the Israelites would travel

and learn that these Gibeonites are actually their neighbors and

living within the land of pain. And they soon realize these

Gibeonites are people that they really should have taken out,

that they really should have dismissed from the land of

Canaan. But now they've made a treaty

with them. And upon discovering this

deception, there's a lot of emotions that are reeling in the

minds of Israel and the Princess of Israel and the leaders of

Israel. There are people that are

murmuring back and forth. There's some animosity that's

among the people because the people are disbelieving that

something like this could happen to them.

I mean, we conquered, we conquered Jericho and we, we

came out of Egypt and we we conquered, you know, some of the

other kings on the other side of Jordan.

We've been very successful. How in the world could this

happen to us? And yet it did someone say, man,

I want to pause just here before we go any further this morning

and under score why Israel was targeted with this.

They're targeted with this mistake, if you will, because in

Joshua too, we understand that the people that were in the land

of Canaan, they were overtaken with fear upon hearing the

success of the Israelites. They're overtaken with fear,

understanding they had slain the kings of Sihan and all the

Amorite kings. They were taken with fear when

they understood that God had provided a miraculous way for

this, this great nation to crossover the Red Sea.

And and that fear continues in Joshua 5, when they yet come

over another body of water, the Jordan River, in order to enter

the land of Canaan, a time when the Jordan was overflowing its

banks. And so by the time we get the

Joshua 9, there's already been this great crescendo, Amen, of

them marching daily around the walls of Jericho and a simple

shout bringing very, very thick walls down to the ground.

They've had two attempts against AI, and they came forth from

that Amen victorious. And the Israelites left it as a

smouldering pile of ruins. And so because of all of this,

This is why the children of Israel, and Joshua in

particular, is targeted, Amen, with the Gibeonites coming to

them by deception. You can read in your Bibles that

there's two different responses from the inhabitants of Canaan

and the kings of Canaan, and they are the same responses we

even get today. Our enemy likes to respond to

our successes and victories two different ways.

Either he's going to face you head on and fight you, or he's

going to try to deceive you head on or deception.

They'll have to strike a treaty with them, is what the

Gibeonites was thinking. We got to strike a treaty with

them without them realizing we are the enemy, without them

realizing that we are the opposition.

And so then the greatest vice for the children of Israel and

for Joshua is that they were going to have to live now with

their mistake. Someone say Amen.

Joshua 9 and verse 24. The Bible states these words,

and they answered Joshua and said, This is what the Gibby

Knights replied, Because it was certainly told thy servants how

that the Lord thy God commanded his servant Moses to give you

all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from

before you. Therefore we were so afraid of

our lives because of you, and I've done this thing.

What are you saying for them? They heard about what God had

planned for the nation. They heard about what God had

planned for the soldiers. They heard about their destiny.

And they were sore, afraid and reacted the way that they did.

Someone came in, please listen to me today.

The if you feel like you are being targeted by the

opposition, if you feel like you are being targeted by the

opposition, it could be somehow you say, well, he the devil

can't read minds and all this stuff.

I get that. But he is very observant and he

sees the direction that your feet are pointed.

What are you saying? Today?

They had opposition because someone heard about their

destiny. They heard about where they were

going. They heard about where they were

headed. Can I tell somebody today?

Satan will always put the crosshairs on somebody when

their destiny is divinely ordered.

He'll always put crosshairs on somebody that has steps in a

direction that's going in a favorable way.

And if he can observe that and somehow just see a little of the

potential that's there, he'll put the crosshairs on your life

because there's only two ways he can react is fight you face to

face or deceive you. Someone say Amen.

When they learned of this, when they learned of this, he was

threatened. Their opposition was threatened.

What might that nation do if they reach their destiny?

Some of y'all feel inadequate. Some of y'all feel like parsley

on the plate. Plate, so to speak.

But your adversary has picked up on some of Europe's potential

and he's a little bit shaken in his boots right now because he's

thinking if Erica Goldsmith ever reaches her God-given destiny,

if RE Singer ever tramples all the ground that God has for him,

you know what he's saying. I can't even chance the

possibility. So I got to do something about

it right now. Honey, you're not even there

yet. But Satan is already fearful and

threatened about your trajectory, about where your

feet are put. Well yes, I'm I'm convinced

today that we've succumbed to mistakes sometimes that hell

hopes we will have to live with. I'm convinced that our adversary

desires that there will be some nagging moment that will

materialize into a mentality that we won't be over be able to

overcome soon. Look at the word due to Israel's

oath that they made with the Gibeonites, which was under the

umbrella of deception. I thought it was a far country,

didn't know it was the ones that was the opposition.

Here they are. They're allowed now.

They made this treaty. By their treaty, the Gibeonites

then are allowed to live. It's because they are allowed to

live that that raises the ante. Now.

It's not as though they're there and now they're just going to be

annihilated and killed. An oath.

There's been an oath made, and so they're going to be allowed

to live. And because they were Ian

Canaan, Israel would have to learn to live with what?

No doubt Joshua looks back on and says that was a mistake.

But now they're going to have to learn to live with their

mistake. The Gibeonites should have been

destroyed. Imagine if you will living with

something that should have never existed during your years of

living in your promise. This is what God said this, this

Canaan land is your promise. But now you're telling me I got

to live with a mistake in my promise.

Listen to me. Some of you are still yet

battling today. You've been blood bought, you've

been baptized as his name, you've repented you received the

Holy Ghost. But some of y'all still living

with your mistakes. You're living in your promise

and you're still living with the nagging memory of what once was

or what you once did. It's there intimidating.

It's there like a, like a. Somebody in a jury that's

constantly accusing, you've made it and yet the voice of your

mistake will raise it's voice and contest this.

Look, look here. I can imagine this is where I

wanted to get to. It's a land of hills and

valleys. It's a land that flows with milk

and honey. But it's also Israel now where

you must manage to live with your mistakes.

Someone say Amen here. Rest a constant reminder now,

Israel, every time you see the Gibeonite, the constant

reminder, We made a mistake, we messed up.

It's a living mistake, if you will.

It has a voice, it has a noticeable presence.

It's not going anywhere. All those previous suspicions

that they had when they first questioned the, the the the

Gibeonites, I'm sure they wish they investigated a little bit

more when they said pre adventure, ye dwell among us.

I'm sure that's coming back to haunt them right now.

That was the question. Yeah, I know you come like that,

but you might be living right among us.

But they didn't seek the counsel of God.

They went on and made, made, made the covenant, made the

deal, made the peace treaty. And now they got to live with

their mistake. Do you understand this?

This is nearly unavoidable. They both live in the same land.

The Israelites have to travel along the terrain of their

lands. And they can't do it without

seeing their mistake. They can't do it without

noticing the gibbonites. They're there.

They might go to the same well of water.

They might go. They might pasture.

Amen. Some of their sheep next to

their sheep. They're going to see them.

They're neighbors. The Bible says they do well

among them. They are there when they go to

bed and they are there when they get up.

They're half to learn how to live with their mistakes.

It seems to be inescapable. Amen, that the reality of their

mistake is always going to be there.

Someone say Amen. Do you understand that whenever

they're going to the feast, somewhere in the background is a

gibeonite that's lurking in the background.

Their mistake? Every great celebration now they

have in Israel, that's great. It's a time to celebrate, but

it's always flattened. Any chance of feeling good is

flattened. Anything that's currently we're

celebrating in life is flattened because they're living with

their mistake. When even Israel would feel some

type of resolve towards some type of accomplishment, their

passes by a gibeonite evoking all of that guilt and that shame

of a past event. They're trying to learn to live

with their mistake. Am I doing OK?

I believe sometimes some of us would be further along on our

journeys if it weren't for the mistakes that we must live with.

And it's not the fact. Please listen to me.

Well, it's not that we haven't repented over them, God

forgiveness from them. But there's always that dangling

memory that maybe God doesn't bring up, Maybe no one else

brings up, but it comes up. Past mistakes, sometimes in

service, hinder my worship. Past mistakes sometimes

challenge my growth. Past mistakes sometimes

intimidate my attempts to do other things for God.

Sometimes my mistakes make me question God's acceptance of me.

Listen to me here. I hope everybody's doing all

right. I don't know if we will ever

outlive our mistakes, but we can't adapt to living with them.

Someone said I don't know where you're at, Brother McGee.

Well, you will before I'm done. The Gibeonites are there in

Israel, and Israel cannot touch them.

Their past mistake is there, but they cannot touch them.

And what has happened has happened, and you can do nothing

about that again now. It's a part of life's framework.

So whereas you cannot do anything additional about what

has happened according to the Word, they could do something

with it, He said. You can't touch them, but you

can do something with them. Look at Joshua 9 and verse 19.

It's humid up here this morning. The Bible says, but all the

Princess said into the congregation, We have sworn into

them by the Lord God of Israel. Now, therefore here it is.

We may not touch them. Verse 20.

This we will do to them can't touch them, but this we will do

to them. We will even let them live.

Let's wrath be upon us because of the oath which we swear unto

them because of the mistake. And the Princess said unto them,

Let them live, but let them be. Note here hewers of wood and

drawers of water, and to all the congregation as the Princess has

promised them. If you go and look at verse 23,

Joshua even says he says they will not be freed from being

bond men, hearers of wood, drawers of water.

He states not just for the congregation but for the House

of my God. The reality of the situation

this morning is this. Our past mistakes are not going

anywhere. Our past mistakes, they happen.

It's they are there. Yes, again, we can repent

forgiveness, but they are there. They are ingrained in the

history of our lives. They have become a part of the

warp and the roof of what you are as an individual.

They continue to live, but not as masters.

They continue to live, but not as masters, he says.

They will not be freed from being bond men.

That which did master you now becomes the slave.

They were masters for a moment, but they're meant to be then a

slave for the rest of your life. I'm not done yet because Joshua

goes a little further in verse 27 and he restates this thing

again about hewers of wood and drawers of water.

And he gets even more detailed. He said for the congregation,

then he said for the House of God.

And then he gets more specific. He says for the altar of the

Lord. Someone say Amen.

Leviticus said that the fire on his altar shall never go out.

Part of the reason of the fire on the altar is the wood that's

on the altar. The fire never will go out.

Sacrifices can be placed upon the altar, offerings placed

there because there was a fire and because there is fire, that

fire is linked to the wood, he says.

I want you to take your mistake and connect it to the altar.

They're going to be hewers of wood.

The thing that worked against you, now it's going to be

employed to work for you. The thing that looked like it

was your demise, I'm going to take now and utilize it for your

success. What are you saying?

I'm saying everyday fires going up.

You know what's happening. The mistake is over there

chopping wood. The mistake over there is

splitting wood. The mistake over there is

dividing up and it comes to those.

They're employed at the altar and said, here's wood for the

fire today. Here's wood for the sacrifice

today. Here's wood for he.

God said I can take your mistake and you'll learn to live with it

by using it and keeping it connected to the altar and allow

someone say, man, if I'm going to have to live with it, it's

going to be the slave. If I'm going to have to live

with it, he'll be the bondsman. If I'm going to have to live

with that, he'll be the stepping stone to my success.

Yes, someone say man. So who's responsible in a sense

for keeping the fire on the altar?

Your mistake. They must supply the wood.

That wood would be used for burning offerings.

Burnt offerings. 5 different offerings in scripture.

Sin offerings, trespass offerings.

Is it not ironic that the sin that tripped you up, the mistake

would have to furnish the wood for the fire, for somebody

else's sacrifice, for atonement for their sin?

That's how you live with your mistake.

You employ it. You keep it associated and

attached to the altar that that they're going to be hearers of

wood, but they're going to be drawlers of water.

Again, water concerning the altar was used to cleanse

sacrificial animals. You read it off times that the

liver or the intros of the animal off times was taken out

and washed several times in scripture, different pieces of

animals that were sacrificed had to be washed in some episodes.

There are things called drink offerings in scripture.

They weren't always just just wine or things of that nature,

but it was water even mixed with wine, and sometimes it was water

by itself for that drink offering.

And so again, the attachment to the altar of being a drawer of

water is that you got to bring water, aiming for the purpose of

the purification and the sanctification of what's going

to be offered on that. Your mistake.

Your mistake is now involved in the purification process.

Your mistake is now involved in the sanctification.

Someone say, man, you know what that means?

It's like Gibeonites, we live together.

Gibeonites. My mistakes 10 is not too far

from mine. And I know every day that I see

it reminds me about who I was and what I once was.

But you're employed to the altar.

Your obligation is to the altar. You supply wood, you stoke the

fire for sacrifice. You atone for others mistakes

through your wood. They also provide that water.

It's for purity. It's for sanctification of the

offerings there. Because here's what Joshua knew

and here's what would go on knowing if I must live with my

mistake, I'm going to be keep it connected to the altar.

And can I say we can only successfully Amen, live with our

mistakes by making them serve and work for you and your

relationship to God. Supposed to be cooler next week.

I don't know. Sister McGee alluded to this

individual Gideon, in Scripture. He understood exactly what I am

speaking to you about today. He understood this tactic of

living with his mistake. He lived during the era of

repetitive mistakes in Israel. It's the book of Judges, right?

The cyclical cycle, sin, things get real bad, oppression.

God sends a deliverer delivering to everybody's like, yay, and

then back to sin. And we got this vicious cycle

that goes over and over. Gideon lived during those days.

He knew what it was like for this to happen.

It was a time so compromised that even whenever the Angel,

the Lord, come to see Gideon and speak with Gideon, it was a time

so compromised that Gideon even couldn't discern that he was

having an angelic visitation, though he was being visited by

an Angel. We're talking about some hard

times and it seemed he lived with his mistakes and only that,

even seemed that he lived even maybe with some mistakes of

those of his predecessors, those that went on before him.

So his mistakes and his father's mistakes, how heavy can it get?

Wait for a moment. Just listen.

I know who sits among me. Some of y'all not dealing just

with your mistakes. You think you're dealing with

the mistakes of your mom and your dad.

I got to live with it. You're kind of like Israel was

at that moment. Why did this happen to me?

But you got to learn how to live.

Gideon. He's dealing with his own

mistakes. He's dealing with the mistakes

of his forefathers. The Bible says that Gideon

encounters God through this angelic visitation, and the

Angel of the Lord gives very specific instructions.

His father had built an altar unto Bail.

His father had built this. This Grove, which was a Poe was

called Asherah Poe. Asherah was a false God had

built that and to Asherah. And so whenever God had a

conversation with Gideon, he says, Gideon, here's what I need

you to do. I need you to tear down your

Father's altar, and I need you to build an altar to me in that

place. I need you to tear down that

Asherapo. And here's what he said in

Judges 6 and verse 26. The Bible states these words.

And build. This is the word of the Lord and

the Gideon. And build an altar unto the Lord

thy God upon the top of this rock, and in the ordered place,

and take the second Bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the

wood of the Grove which thou cut down.

Listen, an altar to a false God, that's a mistake.

A asherah PO, a Grove built to a false God, that's a mistake.

But hear what God is telling him.

Cut down the PO. Cut down the mistake.

But then use the word from the PO and cause it to be the fire

at my altar. Come on, what are you?

What are you saying God? Here's what I'm telling you

Gideon, take the mistakes of your daddy.

Take your own mistakes and allow them to be the fuel for your now

present day commitment. Because now you're saying, God,

if you want me to go on paddle, I'll go on the paddle.

If you not do you don't want me to fresh wheat by the wine

press, I'll come out and work for you.

He says allow your own mistakes to become the fuel for your

present day commitment. I'm telling somebody that's how

you, you live with your mistakes.

You caused them to work for you. You can go to the verse I read

in Judges above there he and he even said in the scripture I

just read, he said take that second Bullock.

If you read in scripture that Bullock was a 7 year old

Bullock, he said take that 7 year old Bullock and offer it

appears a sacrifice into God. Do you know how many years that

Israel during this time was under the Midianite oppression?

7 years. What that means is all the years

they were being oppressed, there was a Bullock that was growing

all those days. Gideon's threshing wheat in the

wine press. There's a Bullock over here in

the stall that's gaining age, gaining weight.

It's not coincidence that God said take the seven-year

Bullock. I think God was illustrating to

Gideon, don't come out what you went through empty handed.

Come on, yes, don't come out of those years of what you suffered

and the load that you carried empty handed, but take that

which was growing over. The recess is over here and you

bring that as a sacrifice, that 7 year old bullet, you bring

that as a sacrifice and lay it on the altar until you're gone.

Can I tell you folks, you don't need to go through any trial,

any trouble without coming out with something in your hand.

That's one of the reasons why whatever God told Israel,

whenever you leave Egypt, you tell them, hey, we're leaving.

And the Bible says they spoiled Egypt.

They went out with gold, they went out with substance.

Why they weren't going to have spent 400 years in bondage and

not come out with something. I'm telling somebody today, Your

mistake's not your demise. Your mistake is not your

undoing. Your mistake is the fuel for

your present day commitment. Somebody needs to worship the

Lord. That's how we live with our

mistake. You'll make me work today.

Gideon made it work for him. Joshua made it work for them.

You going to stay with me today? I'll be conscious.

Here we all stumble and fall. Our mistakes, no matter how

paralyzing they seem, again do not have to define us.

And I understand. Listen, I'm not an ostrich with

my head in the sand. I understand.

As humanity, we put our mistakes on a graduated scale.

Bad. Not so bad.

Worse. Really bad.

Impossibly bad, Right? I see, I don't see, I don't see

these levels in Scripture. I don't see these levels

somebody needs to take. They're lying and say go chop

wood. Someone needs to tell their

addiction to go draw some water. Someone needs to take their

sexual abuse from their mother and father and say go get

something and connect it to the altar.

And it's so fresh in my mind just spending last week and

where we were, I was there with people that spoke, that were

arsonists, that were drug dealers, that we've had people

in there before, females that were overtaken with pornography,

armed robbers. One lady was left for dead with

so many stab wounds. And she always puts her mug shot

right on the front of the podium.

She will feel the power of the Holy Ghost.

Now. The ironic thing about her is

her and her husband own this business of opening up some of

the most delicate safes across the world.

She used to be a robber. They speak, they give their

testimonies. We go through the Little Aces

test about adverse childhood experiences.

You go through them, There's like 10 of them.

Usually everybody at least has one.

But according to where you are on that, it sets up the stage

for other things that you may face in life.

The possibility is greater. So the person that just spoke

before me had 10. That's as many as you could get.

I didn't have any. But you know what?

The same blood it took, The same blood it took for me with 0.

It was sufficient for the one with 10.

So, Christy, just tell that past mistake.

Go go chop on it. Go draw water.

Why, Brother McGee? Because that's how you learn to

live with it. You make it the servant and

you're the master. Now see the moment in time, you

were the servant and it was the master.

But now there's been a flip. It's the servant and you're the

master, and it's got to stay connected to the altar.

We bow our heads across this place today, learning to live.

I mean, I know this isn't the, you know, this isn't like any of

the programs out there. And bring a little black thing

in front of your eyes. They look into that light and

hit it like you forgot about it. It's all over.

Forgiveness happens, but forgetting it's there, God

chooses not to remember it. Boy, we are brutal against

ourselves. We might even ask yourself

sometimes, how in the world am I?

How am I supposed to go forward? How am I supposed to live with

this being part of the fabric of my past?

Make whatever it was work for you now.

Make whatever it was work for you now I got a sweet sister

named Stephanie Hughes. I I tell her she's my fifth

sister. I don't think she's a old as you

Polish. She might be.

I don't know, son. She committed arson.

She was in jail with a sentence, a felony.

She said God spoke to her that she was going to do like thing

is that her 2352 plan C Destiny 510 plan she was going to become

a nurse, going to become a nurse practitioner going to then her

10 year spot was to have a facility where she administered

people with emotional recovery center.

Felons don't get the opportunity to disperse prescriptions.

She was an addict and then had the felony.

Long story short, Dodd, she got not only a pardon from heaven,

she got a pardon from the governor of her state.

And she serves right now as a mental, I don't know her direct

thing, but a mental health, mental brain, neuro

practitioner. She's worked in a hospital where

they come in and they're everywhere.

And she prescribes medicine and she used to take all of this

garbage, heroin, you name it. What's going on?

She's using a mistake. She says it's going to work for

me now. The prison that she was in was

Peewee Valley in Kentucky. We did a prison conference in

Peewee Valley. Ever since then, you know who

goes in there consistently and hold services?

Stephanie Hughes. That's where she was

incarcerated. Why would why would this?

I don't know. Deception happened.

The thing now is you got to learn to live with it, so you

might as well make it work for you.

Drug addiction. Go cut wood.

We're going to the prison today to minister the word of God and

share with somebody that's hungry.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Felony.

Go drunk. Greet someone in the facility

today. These altars are open this

morning. There doesn't have to be any

divulging of what your mistake may have been, Amen.

Or how you graduated, or how you degree.

It doesn't matter this morning. But this altar is open today.

You need to ask God. God, teach me, teach me, Lord, I

want to learn how to live with this.

Teach me how to employ it. Teach me how to keep it

connected to the wound to the altar.

Teach me Lord, how to make it a water draw and a Heuer of wood.

Teach me, O Lord, teach me how to make this work for me.

I don't want it to be always intimidating to me and

overcoming to me. Help me God, teach me how to

make it work for me. Learning to live with my

mistakes.