Hope to Hold on To - TWCC 9-13-26 10:30 am

[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to the way community church podcast.

[SPEAKER_02]: My name is Darahal and I'm the pastor of the way community church.

[SPEAKER_01]: We are showing people the way to life with Jesus and we are thankful that you joined us today.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you want any info about our church or if you're interested in becoming a member of our church, you can email info at the waycc.online.

[SPEAKER_02]: Also, if you like to worship

[SPEAKER_01]: Today, we're going to look at a book and a Bible that most people skip.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what it is about the book of Revelation, but perhaps people have fear or anxiety reading about the apocalypse.

[SPEAKER_01]: What we want to look there, the last two chapters of the book of Revelation and other leave, we can draw practical wisdom to help us to appreciate how we know God is at work in our lives.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I want to encourage you to follow along the transcript of his podcast,

[SPEAKER_02]: book of Revelation.

[SPEAKER_02]: Revelation is only in the air.

[SPEAKER_02]: Chapter 21 and Chapter 22, Revelation is will be will be.

[SPEAKER_02]: And we have the Bible and the Bible.

[SPEAKER_02]: search events, the wake community church, and you should have these words there for you.

[SPEAKER_02]: Keep it like God via a choir as they come down from the choir, same thing God for you.

[SPEAKER_02]: This month is back in charge of all those who we don't have any Sir Monique Lane that will connect for week to week We're going to just celebrate the lower and enjoy the presence of the lower and fellowship We're going to start this week in Revelation chapter 21 I'm going to reverse 10, 3, 20, 1 And then we're going to go down to chapter 22 And reverse 1, 3, 2 Again, Revelation, 21, verse 10 through 2

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_02]: And then Revelation 22, verse 1, 2, again provide these notes for the Bible, and search events, the way community church, and you should see them there.

Revelation 22:1

[SPEAKER_02]: The Word of the Lord says in Revelation 21, verse 10, and he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.

Revelation 21:10

[SPEAKER_02]: Having the glory of God, her brilliance was like a very valuable storm like a storm of crystal clear Jasper.

[SPEAKER_02]: It had a great and high wall.

[SPEAKER_02]: with 12 gates and at the gates, 12 angels and names were written on the gates which are the names of the 12 tribes of the sons of Israel.

[SPEAKER_02]: There were three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west.

[SPEAKER_02]: And the wall of the city had 12 foundation stalls and on them were the 12 names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb.

[SPEAKER_02]: The one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city.

[SPEAKER_02]: His gates and his wall, the city, his laid out as a square, and his length is as great as the width, and he'd measured the city with the rod 12,000 stadiums.

[SPEAKER_02]: His length with and height are equal.

[SPEAKER_02]: and he measured his wall 144 cubits by human measurements which are also angelic measurements.

[SPEAKER_02]: The material of the wall was Jasper and the city was pure gold like clear glass.

[SPEAKER_02]: The foundation stones of the city wall were decorated with every kind of precious stone.

[SPEAKER_02]: The first foundation stone was Jasper.

[SPEAKER_02]: The second sapphire, the third chowseldunny, before emerald, the fifth is Sardonix, the sixth sardy is the seventh crystalline, the eighth barrel, the ninth topaz, the tenth crystal praise, the eleventh chassing, the twelfth amethyst.

[SPEAKER_02]: and the 12 gates with 12 pearls.

[SPEAKER_02]: Each one of the gates was a single pearl.

[SPEAKER_02]: And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

[SPEAKER_02]: Chapter 22 verse 1 through 2, and he showed me a river of the water of life clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the land in the middle of his street.

[SPEAKER_02]: On either side of the river was the tree of life,

[SPEAKER_02]: bearing 12 kinds of fruit, yielding is fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

[SPEAKER_02]: Before you take your seat, don't you return to your name as a neighbor?

[SPEAKER_02]: If you almost let go, just want to remind you, hold on to hope.

[SPEAKER_02]: You may be seated in the presence of the living God.

[SPEAKER_02]: I want to talk today with that thought in mind.

[SPEAKER_02]: to hold on to hope, to hold on to.

[SPEAKER_02]: I can recall as a young man I looked up to my big cousin.

[SPEAKER_02]: His nickname was AJ.

[SPEAKER_02]: I looked up to him so much that I wanted my nickname to be DJ.

[SPEAKER_02]: But I didn't have a J to go with the D. And so I can recall that he was going to six flags

[SPEAKER_02]: And I beg them could I go and ask them and plead it with them.

[SPEAKER_02]: He said, no, you can't go because all you're going to do when you get there is cry and wine and I don't have time in the babysit.

[SPEAKER_02]: I said, please, I promise, I won't cry for won't learn.

[SPEAKER_02]: He said, I'll tell you what.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you go with me to six flags, you can only go on the one condition.

[SPEAKER_02]: You have to ride every roller coaster with me on the front row.

[SPEAKER_02]: You still want to go?

[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_02]: My mouth said, yes, but my heart was saying, no, but I wanted to be with my cousin so bad, I was willing to risk it all.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I went to my mom, told my mom, he said I can go with him, she gave me a backpack full of snacks, she gave me $26 $1 bills, and I wasted every single one of them in the arcade.

[SPEAKER_02]: But that day, I learned the valuable lesson as I rolled these rollercoasters with my big cousin.

[SPEAKER_02]: We got on the first one in the front row and I once the bar came down over my left, I wrapped both arms around the bar multiple times and I bent down almost in fetal position, close my eyes and scream to the top of my lungs, the whole ride.

[SPEAKER_02]: I did that for about two or three of the rides.

[SPEAKER_02]: Then I started to notice a difference in my posture and his posture.

[SPEAKER_02]: I was wrapped around the bar, head down to my knees, eyes closed, but he was sitting with his arms raised up, eyes wide open, enjoying all the twists and turns and all the ups and downs.

[SPEAKER_02]: About halfway through, I realized the difference between him and me and towards the end,

[SPEAKER_02]: I made it through the first couple of coasters all right.

[SPEAKER_02]: So let me try this next one the way he approaches it.

[SPEAKER_02]: So as we got towards the end of the day, you wouldn't believe it by the last roller coaster.

[SPEAKER_02]: I was front row, hands up, eyes wide open, still screaming to the top of my lungs for the whole ride.

[SPEAKER_02]: And without the scuba that's I reflect upon that experience is this.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's a difference in maturity between those of us who have yet to learn that what you thought you was holding on to the whole time was really holding on to you.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm gonna talk to the believer in the house who's so afraid of what the next season might bring because you cannot anticipate the twist.

[SPEAKER_02]: turns, ups and downs of what tomorrow holds because you find yourself moving at a speed that you wish could slow down and your knee jerk reaction is to grab on to God in fear like if you let go, you will be let go.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I want to encourage you to realize that there are other believers under the sound of my voice who used to approach life the way you do, but then now some of us have a whole different approach.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's not that we're not scared, it's just that we trust more than we fear.

[SPEAKER_02]: And we realize that I can let go, I can lift up holy hands, I can enter his gates with thanksgiving.

[SPEAKER_02]: and I can enter his courts with praise, watch her because what I used to hold on to, I realized the whole time is holding on to me.

[SPEAKER_02]: Is there anybody in 2026 who can testify?

[SPEAKER_02]: Reverend, if God went holding on to me, I wanna made it thus far in there.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so I want to give you hope to hold on to so that you can appreciate how hope has been holding you.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's really what the book of Revelation is all about.

[SPEAKER_02]: The book of Revelation is biblical apocalyptic literature.

[SPEAKER_02]: It is the part of the Bible that opens our minds to the phenomenon that will happen as time gives way to eternity.

[SPEAKER_02]: It is part of scripture that helps us to see how things as we know it will end and will materialize in two things that are yet to be seen.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I think what's interesting is that revelation is the only book of the Bible that promises a blessing to those who read it, but yet it's probably the most unread book in the Bible.

[SPEAKER_02]: For some of us, the Bible only have 65 books.

[SPEAKER_02]: Genesis the Jew.

[SPEAKER_02]: You so scared or revelation, you get the Jew and just turn back to the beginning.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you read in a paper Bible and you skip revelation, your revelation page is probably still stuck together right now, because they've never been opened.

[SPEAKER_02]: But it's the only book in the Bible that promises a blessing for those who read it.

[SPEAKER_02]: No wonder then, Satan would try to disturb our peace to make us afraid of even reading the words that are the only words to promise to give us a blessing.

[SPEAKER_02]: Genesis, don't promise a blessing.

[SPEAKER_02]: Matthew, don't promise a blessing.

[SPEAKER_02]: The book of James, don't promise a blessing.

[SPEAKER_02]: Isaiah, don't promise a blessing.

[SPEAKER_02]: Revelation says, blessed are those who read and heed the words of this prophecy.

[SPEAKER_02]: So if I had to ask you, give me a full little word to describe the way your emotions respond to what you think is in the book of Revelation.

[SPEAKER_02]: Chances are that word would be fear, but I wanna challenge you to make that word hope.

[SPEAKER_02]: Let me run that back.

[SPEAKER_02]: If I ask you to describe to me in a four-letter word, your emotive response to the idea that time is going to end, chances are that emotive response will be F-E-A-R, but today I wanna challenge you to make that response, H-O-P-E.

[SPEAKER_02]: for that's why God gave us a peek into the future.

[SPEAKER_02]: He didn't give us a peek into the future, so we could be fearful.

[SPEAKER_02]: He gave us a peek into the future, so we could remain hopeful.

[SPEAKER_02]: What you mean, Ralph?

[SPEAKER_02]: Because if he can show us that at the end of this ride, those who trust me, shall overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony, how does that give us hope today?

[SPEAKER_02]: Because right now, Ralph, I'm in the middle of the twist and turns.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm in the middle of the ups and downs.

[SPEAKER_02]: Some of us can't catch our breath, because the last 30 days have taken you to an all new load.

[SPEAKER_02]: Some of us are in twists and turns.

[SPEAKER_02]: You then proceed coming and you want to get off this ride fast.

[SPEAKER_02]: But God says, I'll give you a peek into the end so that while you in the middle, you can keep all holding on to the hope, because you know in the end, those who are with me shall overcome.

[SPEAKER_02]: Do I have any overcomers in the room?

[SPEAKER_02]: Who can be honest about the fact that I may not like it in the middle?

[SPEAKER_02]: But I'm gonna have hope to hold on to the end.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's why John wrote these words.

[SPEAKER_02]: He wrote these words because they were faithful and true.

[SPEAKER_02]: He wrote these words because they were sovereignly revealed to him by Jesus Christ and about Jesus Christ.

[SPEAKER_02]: We also wrote these words so people like you and me could hold on to the hope that God is still working on our behalf.

[SPEAKER_02]: Here's the big idea for today's message.

[SPEAKER_02]: And if you believe it enough, I want you to say it with me on the count of three.

[SPEAKER_02]: One, two, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, four,

[SPEAKER_02]: three.

[SPEAKER_02]: We can hold on to hope because God is still at it.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's never a question of or of if God is working.

[SPEAKER_02]: The question is am I able to perceive divine activity?

[SPEAKER_02]: Can I see the hand of God through my experience or am I so disheveled about what is apparent that I can't perceive was real?

[SPEAKER_02]: And my soul caught off by what my senses can determine that my spirit is not tapped in to see God's hand at work behind the scenes, even through things I wish I could avoid.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so there are a few things in Revelation 21 and 22 that will learn about the work of God.

[SPEAKER_02]: And my goal today is to help you not only take a peek at the end to renew your hope, but to start to see in the middle of your own story how God's work shows up.

[SPEAKER_02]: Because when God works, number one, we'll notice that God beautifies.

[SPEAKER_02]: When God works, God beautifies.

[SPEAKER_02]: Would you say, or ever, we in chapter 21, verse 10 through 11 again, he says, I was carried away by the Spirit to a great how mountain.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm going to show this city.

[SPEAKER_02]: But look at how that city is described in verse 11.

[SPEAKER_02]: Is described as having glory, brilliance,

[SPEAKER_02]: very valuable and it was so clear it was like a stone of crystal clear jasper.

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you see those words that describe the beauty of this city?

[SPEAKER_02]: The streets of pay we go.

[SPEAKER_02]: The gates are a single pearl and the gate is carved out of the pearl by angelic hands.

[SPEAKER_02]: The foundation stones of the city are 12 deep, and each foundation is a whole different precious jam and precious stone.

[SPEAKER_02]: If that was one word, we could use to describe this city that word would be beautiful.

[SPEAKER_02]: He is amazed by the beauty of what he sees.

[SPEAKER_02]: He only knew how to describe the gold.

[SPEAKER_02]: He said, the gold is so pure that the gold looks clear.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's how brilliant and beautiful this goal is.

[SPEAKER_02]: Now, for me, I like to travel and I appreciate the beauty of different types of geography.

[SPEAKER_02]: One of my favorite things to do is, if I'm flying into a city, as I land in that city, that just look around and behold the glory of the city.

[SPEAKER_02]: Now that I'm a golfer, I like to count the golf courses.

[SPEAKER_02]: Last time I flew to New York, I counted 20 golf courses for me to lose golf balls on.

[SPEAKER_02]: Right?

[SPEAKER_02]: I love to see the beautiful cities from an era of your view.

[SPEAKER_02]: Some of my favorite cities to drive through are Chattanooga, Tennessee.

[SPEAKER_02]: Savannah, Georgia.

[SPEAKER_02]: You drive through these towns, and you notice the beauty in nature and your all struck by the unique design with a rose God or the people who collaborated on the architecture.

[SPEAKER_02]: But there is a difference on which to hear me between New York City and New Jerusalem.

[SPEAKER_02]: because even though New York City is beautiful, it's still worldly.

[SPEAKER_02]: What you're made of, you can land in New York, amaze by the buildings, get on the ground and walk around and be like, hmm.

[SPEAKER_02]: Hmm.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_02]: Something.

[SPEAKER_02]: Hmm.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, some state, pot holes in the street, trash rolling down the street.

[SPEAKER_02]: People are not being cordial and warm and kind.

[SPEAKER_02]: I could talk bad about New York, my daddy from there.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's okay.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's beautiful from the area of view, but when you get on the ground, you realize, yeah, it's beautiful, but it's worldly.

[SPEAKER_02]: New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 is beautiful because it's heavenly.

[SPEAKER_02]: When I'm saying this, we need to be careful not to be swept away with the appearance of a thing until you can discern the origin of a thing.

[SPEAKER_02]: Because there is a difference here in me church between worldly beauty and heavenly beauty.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's a difference between worldly wisdom and heavenly wisdom.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's a difference between worldly success and heavenly favor.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's a difference between our worldly bodies and our heavenly bodies.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so the question for the maturing believer is, how do I know if something that appears to be beautiful is worldly or heavenly?

[SPEAKER_02]: and as an interpretable clue in verse 11, and at interpretable clues, it is clear as crystal.

[SPEAKER_02]: Heavenly beauty has a purity to it.

[SPEAKER_02]: worldly beauty just looks appealing, but there's still something opaque under the layers.

[SPEAKER_02]: worldly beauty is hard to see through, but heavily beauty is translucent and transparent and there's a purity to it that only God could give, is that anybody who can testify or help me to start to perceive the difference between worldly and heavily beauty.

[SPEAKER_02]: Some of y'all still can get over the fact that I'm in the scariest book of the Bible.

[SPEAKER_02]: You like red for real?

[SPEAKER_02]: Brother, you can have went to any other book of the Bible, but you're going to turn to the end, and you're going to tell us that this scary book is really about hope, because what you're trying to say is that whenever God builds something, He makes it beautiful, that's exactly what I'm saying.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you don't believe me, let's leave the last page of the Bible on the Zoom out, pan left.

[SPEAKER_02]: Let's go to the first page of the Bible in Zoom in on Genesis 1 and 2.

[SPEAKER_02]: What you'll discover in Genesis 1 and 2 is that every day God created, the Bible says he saw what he made that it was good, then it was evening and morning the next day, that when he made a garden, he made the garden so beautiful that he put the man in the middle of the garden and told that man, I want you to perceive the beauty around you that I have made.

[SPEAKER_02]: So that whenever you go anywhere else in the world, and you don't see this, I am beauty, I want you to get your garden tools and your expertise, and I want you to make the rest of the world as beautiful as this part of the world.

[SPEAKER_02]: All I'm trying to say is on the first page of the Bible, God is Creator.

[SPEAKER_02]: On the last page of the Bible, God is recreator, and everywhere in between, all He's doing is making what was ugly, beautiful.

[SPEAKER_02]: Some of y'all can't shout, because you're in the midst of an ugly situation.

[SPEAKER_02]: And all I've come to tell you is hold on to your hope, because you know God ain't done working until what you think is ugly, ends up beautiful.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's that 10 people in the house,

[SPEAKER_02]: Who's ever survived the ugly season who can testify forever you ain't the only one who's been through something that you can believe God will put you in but now you sit in the beauty of after what you've gone through and you can testify There shall be glory after this you want to give God praise for the fact that even if I go through the ugly Ultimately God I make it beautiful

[SPEAKER_02]: If you got on jewelry right now, let your jewelry preach to you because maybe I read about one of the stones or one of the metals that you got wearing on your body right now.

[SPEAKER_02]: I want you to appreciate the jewelry on your body now and wasn't found in nature that way.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you got on some gold or some silver or some white gold or some platinum or diamonds or sapphire, understand, they weren't found in nature that way.

[SPEAKER_02]: You can't just go out to a tree and pick a diamond earring off a tree and put it in your ear.

[SPEAKER_02]: Now, that metal hat to be orred out of the earth, dug out of the earth, that stone hat to be discovered, that metal hat to go through heat, a ugly process in order to become beautiful.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that stone hat to be cut down to the shape that the jeweler prefer for the piece of jury, the jeweler made for you.

[SPEAKER_02]: All I'm trying to tell you is is beautiful now, but it went through some ugly to get where it is.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that's a sermon for you and me that regardless of the ugly we go through.

[SPEAKER_02]: And in the end, we'll be purified, won't we?

[SPEAKER_02]: Because whatever God makes, he makes it beautiful.

[SPEAKER_02]: Let the church say beautiful.

[SPEAKER_02]: God beautifies within number two, God fortifies.

[SPEAKER_02]: I like this part.

[SPEAKER_02]: When you get down the verse 12 through 14, he starts to talk about the wall around the city.

[SPEAKER_02]: The gates around the city.

[SPEAKER_02]: That there are foundations under this city.

[SPEAKER_02]: And in every one of those pieces, he mentions the number 12.

[SPEAKER_02]: Now, this number 12 is a spiritual prophetic interpretive clue that God is at work because the number 12 signifies divine order or administration.

[SPEAKER_02]: In these few verses, I want to hear how many different twelfth it is.

[SPEAKER_02]: Is twelfth gates to the city?

[SPEAKER_02]: Is twelfth angels at the gates, protect the negates.

[SPEAKER_02]: There are twelfth names of the tribes on the gates.

[SPEAKER_02]: There are twelfth foundation stones under the city and then there are twelfth names of the apostles on the stones.

[SPEAKER_02]: Because this city has been fortified.

[SPEAKER_02]: Now, we live in the modern city, so for us, fortification don't really translate.

[SPEAKER_02]: But I want you to think about the city of Atlanta, think about its geography, and think about 285 as a highway around the city.

[SPEAKER_02]: Everybody who's not from Atlanta has a 285 story.

[SPEAKER_02]: Hi, you just kept going, and going, and going, and going.

[SPEAKER_02]: Everybody from Atlanta also has a 285 story.

[SPEAKER_02]: of how some terrifying happened on that highway that you glad you lived to tell the story.

[SPEAKER_02]: Now imagine if 285 wasn't a highway, but it was a war.

[SPEAKER_02]: If 285 was a war around Atlanta, it would be a fortification war.

[SPEAKER_02]: and ancient cities were all built with the fortification wall around them to keep safe the people in and to keep out whoever they date they didn't want to get in.

[SPEAKER_02]: As long as the wall stood strong, the people in the city would sleep with peace.

[SPEAKER_02]: They could care less, who was talking trash, they could care less, who was shooting arrows, they could care less.

[SPEAKER_02]: What army was kept outside,

[SPEAKER_02]: They could care less, who was trying to fight against them as long as the walls were standing, they could sleep with confidence.

[SPEAKER_02]: But the moment the walls were breached, that spaled inevitable don't.

[SPEAKER_02]: So when John sees this city coming out of heaven, with a wall around it, it signifies, hear me church, security, safety, the fortification means that the city is strong.

[SPEAKER_02]: Now certainly I'll look at me like Red, why are you wasting your time going on and on about how strong this city is?

[SPEAKER_02]: I think the reason we can appreciate this is because our problem is we don't care about being weak as long as we look good.

[SPEAKER_02]: We don't care about having the gates open in the walls tore down long as the streets of pay we go.

[SPEAKER_02]: Long as I appear to be okay, we don't care about having real strength we got.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you spend more time thinking about the outfit you're going to wear the church, then ask yourself, when was the last time you spent quality time with God out of church, then you two concerned about looking beautiful and not being strong.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you care more about, if you're going to get out on time and get the web L's you going, because you are out fit that can work for church and for after church.

[SPEAKER_02]: But you'll remember the last time you fastened and prayed to seek the hand of God in your life, it could be that you were too concerned about how you appear and not about if you're actually strong.

[SPEAKER_02]: I want you to hear me, it requires maturity to care more about the architecture than the aesthetic.

[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, the Lord, I want you to build me strong, set me on a firm foundation, put a wall around my mind and around my life.

[SPEAKER_02]: Keep out what you don't want in and keep in, what you don't want the lead out.

[SPEAKER_02]: Is there anybody with a mature prayer who can testify?

[SPEAKER_02]: God, I care more about the architecture in my life than the United States.

[SPEAKER_02]: Hear me, but what's the Lord has strengthened you?

[SPEAKER_02]: Don't be afraid to be wonderful.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think sometimes we've got to choose between beauty or fortification.

[SPEAKER_02]: How we appear, or if we're stable, but notice when New Jerusalem is both.

[SPEAKER_02]: New Jerusalem is attractive and architecturally secure.

[SPEAKER_02]: New Jerusalem is beautiful and New Jerusalem, okay, you're gonna mean like I'm not preaching to you.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm talking to you.

[SPEAKER_02]: The brilliant mind that person in this room, who goes into other spaces where you are a minority and for fear of not being allowed in that space, you act dumber than you really are.

[SPEAKER_02]: So you can make people who have a title above yours feel more secure because then I had a joke problem that I was insecure to begin with.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so because you all want to lose your job, you just act dumber than you are.

[SPEAKER_02]: So you can keep your okay, okay, okay, I'm talking to them the brown skin I'm talking to the black woman in this room who can't hide what you're working with if you try to Because you will sculpt it by the hand of all mighty God And then that many layers you can put on over it to hide it

[SPEAKER_02]: But you don't want to be armed, candy, and you don't want to be a victim to the patriarchy.

[SPEAKER_02]: So when you enter male, dominated space, you try to hide your wonder.

[SPEAKER_02]: So you can stay safe, but I come to tell you, girl, you ain't got to choose between me and beautiful, and be in strong.

[SPEAKER_02]: You can be both, because God don't make none ugly, and God don't make none weak.

[SPEAKER_02]: You don't have any sister in the house.

[SPEAKER_02]: You can testify, I'm both at the same time.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I hear you brothers say, here go another preacher, just panter into the women.

[SPEAKER_02]: Now I'm potten to let me talk to you too, because you the man, you know you the man, you walk around like you the man, until you walk into another room, where you think your manliness will be a threat to the people in the room.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so you pull your chest in a little bit, you drop your chair down too much, because you act small, so people around you will feel bigger.

[SPEAKER_02]: But I come to tell you, man, the God wants to learn, has 30 to from the inside out, you don't have to be scared about.

[SPEAKER_02]: who's intimidated by your masculinity.

[SPEAKER_02]: You can walk into any room with your chest health.

[SPEAKER_02]: And with your head held up, is there any brother in the house who can give up praise for the fact that if I bow before God, I can stand before any man.

[SPEAKER_02]: The Bible says God beautifies the God.

[SPEAKER_02]: Bible says God fortifies.

[SPEAKER_02]: He makes strong.

[SPEAKER_02]: But then number three, we see that God multiplies.

[SPEAKER_02]: Now, we keep seeing this number over and over.

[SPEAKER_02]: This number 12, but then some interesting happens when we get down to verse number 12, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: It starts to move from just describing the fortification of the city to describing other numbers for 16.

[SPEAKER_02]: It says that the city is laid out like a square.

[SPEAKER_02]: Is the length, is as great as it's with, okay?

[SPEAKER_02]: I know y'all didn't come to church to go to school, but here we are, nine-grade geometry.

[SPEAKER_02]: You got a wish, you got a length, you got height.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you want to know area, you multiply all three never mind.

[SPEAKER_02]: Don't worry about it.

[SPEAKER_02]: The number 12 comes up over and over again.

[SPEAKER_02]: Then all of a sudden, when the city is being described, we see a new number 12,000.

[SPEAKER_02]: And the text says that it's length within height are equal.

[SPEAKER_02]: Now, what is 12,000 stadium?

[SPEAKER_02]: 12,000 stadium is approximately 1,500 miles.

[SPEAKER_02]: That means that we get in a car now and drive 1,500 miles north will be passed Ontario Canada by the time we stop.

[SPEAKER_02]: God's city is 1,500 miles this way.

[SPEAKER_02]: 1,500 miles that way and 1,500 miles that way.

[SPEAKER_02]: Then it says that the walls of the city, verse number 17, are 144 qubits by human measurements, which are the same as angelic measurements.

[SPEAKER_02]: So the fortification law is 144 qubits.

[SPEAKER_02]: What is that rare?

[SPEAKER_02]: That's 21 feet, no excuse me, 216 feet thick is how thick this wall is.

[SPEAKER_02]: So it's like getting an elevator and pressing 21.

[SPEAKER_02]: and going up 21 stories.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's how thick the wall is.

[SPEAKER_02]: The idea is that this city is the most vast, beautiful, sturdy, magnificent piece of architecture that the human I will ever see.

[SPEAKER_02]: But it's not that blows me away.

[SPEAKER_02]: What blows me away is the math and the text.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you look at verse number 16, it says that it's 12,000 stadium.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you look at verse number 17, it says it's 144 Cubans.

[SPEAKER_02]: The whole time we've been seeing the number 12, now these other two numbers pop up.

[SPEAKER_02]: But fifth grade math taught us that there's not a big difference between the number 12 and 12,000.

[SPEAKER_02]: The only difference is place value.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, he did, was take a zero and put it in the lawns place, put it in the tan's place, put it in the Honduras place, help me teachers, then there's a comma, and then you got 12, the difference between 12 and 12,000 is increased value.

[SPEAKER_02]: Then there's another number in the text, 144.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know about you, but I'm a little hud kid who's trying to prove the people I was smart.

[SPEAKER_02]: And when I really try to prove how smart I was, I would go through all my time's tables.

[SPEAKER_02]: And when I got to the hardest one, the proof how smart I was, how I asked was 12 times 12.

[SPEAKER_02]: You only know when 12 times 12.

[SPEAKER_02]: I know when 12 times 12, if you know 12 times 12, you smart.

[SPEAKER_02]: Church was 12 times 12, 144.

[SPEAKER_02]: So the difference between 12 and 12,000 is increased value.

[SPEAKER_02]: The difference between 12 and 144 is multiplication.

[SPEAKER_02]: Don't read the Bible so deep that you missed a simple prophecy right in front of your face.

[SPEAKER_02]: All is trying to tell you is when God got his hands on it, God math is different than human math, because God always increases your value and multiplies your good by his great.

[SPEAKER_02]: You won't have anybody in the house who can testify ever since I start walking in the way.

[SPEAKER_02]: The Lord has put a couple of Z-rolls on the end of my life.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's added.

[SPEAKER_02]: To my value, add it to my capacity, add it to my ability to forget, add it to my ability to understand his work.

[SPEAKER_02]: Is there anybody grateful for the fact that he'll take your good and multiply it by his great?

[SPEAKER_02]: Is there anybody who's benefited from some favor in this house?

[SPEAKER_02]: You ought to open your mouth and give God praise for the fact that he'll increase your balance.

[SPEAKER_02]: And if you hear numbers and think money, you miss everything I just said.

[SPEAKER_02]: because God beautifies, God fortifies, God multiplies, I'm done, God supplies.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you go to chapter 22, verse one through two, it says that in this city, there is a river flowing.

[SPEAKER_02]: And the idea is that this river is flowing from the one who's sitting on the throne.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, I know you ain't come to church to go to fifth grade geography, but here we are.

[SPEAKER_02]: We know rivers are normally sourced by snow cat mountains that when it gives warm outside the snow melts and the snow comes down the mountains and it sources the river or there's a process of evaporation and precipitation.

[SPEAKER_02]: where there's water in the ground, the heat soaked up the water to the clouds.

[SPEAKER_02]: The clouds move to another part of the land.

[SPEAKER_02]: When the clouds get too heavy to hold all the water, the clouds dirt out all that water, that water collects again in bodies of water and it continues in the process.

[SPEAKER_02]: But this river, don't need no smoke cap mountains.

[SPEAKER_02]: This river, don't need evaporation and precipitation in the process.

[SPEAKER_02]: This river has a steady source because it's coming from the throne of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_02]: And the Bible says that this is the river of life.

[SPEAKER_02]: and it's flowing down the middle of this vast city.

[SPEAKER_02]: And on each side of the river, there's the tree of a life, and the tree uses fruit every month over and over without fail.

[SPEAKER_02]: Now, we've seen this tree a life before.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's showing up on the first page of the Bible because when God created us in the beginning, He created us to have life eternal.

[SPEAKER_02]: We chose to have knowledge instead of life.

[SPEAKER_02]: So he cut off access to the tree a life until he could reopen access at the end of the book.

[SPEAKER_02]: So here we are now with the tree a life available to us and the text says, every month, the fruit shows up on the tree.

[SPEAKER_02]: Every month.

[SPEAKER_02]: Every tree bears 12 different kinds of fruit.

[SPEAKER_02]: What you're mean around, so it's not just an apple tree or an orange tree, no such tree of life.

[SPEAKER_02]: One month they may have a parent.

[SPEAKER_02]: Next month they may have a peach.

[SPEAKER_02]: The month out of the day may give you an orange.

[SPEAKER_02]: Every month without fail, new fruit that shows up on the tree of life so you can drink from the river of life and eat from the tree of life freely.

[SPEAKER_02]: Now, some of y'all lie around, what they got to do with us here in the earth?

[SPEAKER_02]: Because what that reminds us is that God supplies.

[SPEAKER_02]: Whenever God is at work in your life, God in His supernatural power will always make sure that every month you got everything you need.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, y'all think I'm making this up.

[SPEAKER_02]: I want to talk to the person who's the entrepreneur

[SPEAKER_02]: I wanna talk to the bread when they're in the house.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you're only in the bread, the house won't have bread.

[SPEAKER_02]: I wanna talk to the CEO of the business on it.

[SPEAKER_02]: I wanna talk to the one that whoever brings the bacon in, you gotta be the one to cook the bacon.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you got anything to do with helping somebody else subsist or ex-sist, this point is for you.

[SPEAKER_02]: But if you ain't never need it, God, then you need it in your life.

[SPEAKER_02]: And you never had something that made you one day with the Lord gonna show up again next time like you did this time.

[SPEAKER_02]: Just sit out the next five minutes of this sermon.

[SPEAKER_02]: But if you had a need that you knew only God could meet and he keeps on meeting the need, even if it's not as much as you want, it's always as much as you need.

[SPEAKER_02]: Hold on for three minutes.

[SPEAKER_02]: Now, there are some of us, if you manage in the budget in the house, you can tell yourself I'm gonna be a faithful budgeter.

[SPEAKER_02]: But something happens every month that can bust your budget, don't it?

[SPEAKER_02]: You start in January, I'm gonna do my budget.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's a new year, new me.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not gonna do everything I did last year.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm doing good.

[SPEAKER_02]: You start in January, cool, it's a new year, new year, new year.

[SPEAKER_02]: But you gotta pay off December.

[SPEAKER_02]: Budget Buster.

[SPEAKER_02]: You get the February, you gotta old-flame, you trying to keep the flicker going.

[SPEAKER_02]: Or you find a new thing, you trying to see what it's about.

[SPEAKER_02]: Valentine's Day, budget Buster.

[SPEAKER_02]: Then come March.

[SPEAKER_02]: You just bought these kids clothes, and then all of a sudden now, they've got a little warm outside, and they don't outgrew everything.

[SPEAKER_02]: You bought them, plus you found out Easter is early this year, and so you can't come back to the way and your old Easter clothes.

[SPEAKER_02]: Budget busted.

[SPEAKER_02]: Then here come April.

[SPEAKER_02]: April, you got a birthday to celebrate, or a anniversary to celebrate.

[SPEAKER_02]: And you said you was gonna be good financially, but you know budget busted.

[SPEAKER_02]: Then, mate is right behind April, and then, mate, you got all these graduations.

[SPEAKER_02]: You got, you got a little guy, baby, graduating from kindergarten.

[SPEAKER_02]: You got a niece graduating from the eighth grade.

[SPEAKER_02]: You got twin nephews graduating from high school.

[SPEAKER_02]: You got a child who just graduated from college.

[SPEAKER_02]: Mother's day in the middle of mate, and if mama gone or mama here, you're gonna spend some money on mama.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're gonna go buy some roses and put it on her grave, or if she here, you're gonna lavish her with love.

[SPEAKER_02]: budget busted, June come, father's day.

[SPEAKER_02]: You love your mama more than you love your daddy, but you daddy saw what you did for your mama.

[SPEAKER_02]: And you don't want your daddy to be jealous.

[SPEAKER_02]: So you put flowers on his grave too, or you get him a tie on some socks, you know.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then now since we black black for real, the barbecue ain't full for July, the barbecue is June 10th.

[SPEAKER_02]: So June 19th, barbecue at my house.

[SPEAKER_02]: budget buster then here comes your life you said you're going to save your money in the summer but then you heard rev was off so you thought that meant you can be off rev ain't gonna be here hang on be here rev on vacation I'm on vacation so you all on the beach somewhere don't you think and the sand falling you home but the money stayed at the beach budget buster

[SPEAKER_02]: You get back home at August and Georgia doesn't move up the first day of school to the first day of August.

[SPEAKER_02]: These kids going back to school on August, negative one.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're like, hi, y'all know, it's not July, but it's not yet August, but you are already three days in the school.

[SPEAKER_02]: So you got about shoes and clothes and get their hair there.

[SPEAKER_02]: Today, haircut, school supplies, backpacks.

[SPEAKER_02]: They didn't come September, September you don't have nothing to do except you got a couple Virgos and your family like I do my mama birthday was the 11 my sister birthday the day my other sister birthday was four days ago and Virgos think they birthday every day during the whole month of September.

[SPEAKER_02]: So you saying Gail your birthday just today Miguel said no my birthday all 30 days budget

[SPEAKER_02]: Then come October and you graduated from an HBCU or you date somebody who graduated from an HBCU and every weekend somebody going home.

[SPEAKER_02]: For home coming.

[SPEAKER_02]: They're here going November, Thanksgiving.

[SPEAKER_02]: You gotta get some macaroni and cheese, one pan of mac and cheese, two 25.

[SPEAKER_02]: You invite all these people to your house, somebody break your toll, it don't tell you.

[SPEAKER_02]: Three 25.

[SPEAKER_02]: People keep touching your thermostat.

[SPEAKER_02]: Next month, Georgia Power.

[SPEAKER_02]: Get off my head, Georgia Power.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then we back in December.

[SPEAKER_02]: Even when you want to be a faithful steward, the way the economy is set up and the way our monks can move every month, there's a reason to need a miracle.

[SPEAKER_02]: But the shout-in news is that we've sent here in the ninth month in the year of our Lord, 2006, and you looking at me and I'm looking at you and you don't know what I've been through this year and I don't know what you've been through this year, but this is what I do know.

[SPEAKER_02]: For the last eight months to Lord, kept on showing up and he kept on meeting our needs.

[SPEAKER_02]: Stop now.

[SPEAKER_02]: Is there anybody who can give God a place for the fact that every 30 days he says fruit on the tree for little of me.

[SPEAKER_02]: You want to open your mouth and put your hands together for a God who provides for you and for your family.

[SPEAKER_02]: And if you can't clap your hands, you want to stand to your feet and just turn around.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just turn around.

[SPEAKER_02]: And your neighbor asks you, what are you spending around?

[SPEAKER_02]: All you ought to tell them is every time I turn around.

[SPEAKER_02]: He keeps on blessing me.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's not anybody in this house who can give God praise.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's not a fact that he'll supply your needs.

[SPEAKER_02]: He'll supply your needs.

[SPEAKER_02]: Hold on to your hope.

[SPEAKER_02]: I know it's ugly right now, but God beautifies you and no God is done when it's beautiful.

[SPEAKER_02]: I know it's shaky right now, but God fortifies you and no God is done when it's strong.

[SPEAKER_02]: I know right now in the middle of it that you feel like you subtracted, but God multiplies.

[SPEAKER_02]: and God supplies.

[SPEAKER_02]: I know you got a knee right now.

[SPEAKER_02]: One or two for you or people you love.

[SPEAKER_02]: That is unmet.

[SPEAKER_02]: But you know that God was in it when he sends you a fruit without a fail.

[SPEAKER_02]: Amen church.

[SPEAKER_02]: Amen, get a little hint.

[SPEAKER_02]: I've appraised a few words.