Transcription
It's got to come through your womb. You may get midwives to help you birth it, but it's got to be your vision. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Quit expecting other people to have your baby. Sarah, your maid can't have your baby. Not it be the promise. Not it be something that God blesses. Not it be something that God will produce from. Not that it starts a lineage from which Christ will come. It cannot be born through somebody who lives in your house, Abraham. It cannot be a servant in your house. It cannot be some gifted somebody that you brought into town for a Revival, sir. No, it's got to come out of your wrinkled, dried up, dead, camp-cooperate body.
But God said, "I'll take your little stuff and make it stand up, and I'll make it work for you if you throw it in the [Applause] name." I mean, he'll take your insufficiency and the very thing about you that says, "I don't have enough this, and I don't have enough that, and it's too late, and I'm too old, and I'm too black, and I'm too white, and I'm too young, I'm too this, I'm too that, I'm too the other. I yell too much, or I'm quiet. I don't have a good preaching voice, or I..." It doesn't matter what you don't have. God will wait till it looks totally impossible, and he says, "Now I'm going to bless you, and I'm going to do it through you, and I'm going to take your body as good as dead, and I'm going to strengthen you until you stand up in a power that's not even your own." And you'll say, "Hey, ho, what is this that has come over me? This is not me. I've never been able to do this before." And that's why you know that this is the Lord's doing, and it's marvelous in our eyes, because I know in my flesh, I would never be able to perform like this. That's why when you get it, you'll say, "If it had not been for the Lord that was on my side." Hallelujah! Tell somebody, tell them it's going to come through [Applause] you.
Sit down. Let me tell you something else. Every problem, every problem is an opportunity for you to discover creativity. That's why God allowed the problem to come in your life so that you could stand back and assess the problem and look at the situation and allow something divine to rise up in you and create a solution. It's nothing but an exercise in creativity, Hallelujah. That's all the problem is. It's just an exercise in creative. David, that's why the lion has come down into the shepherd's field so that you could learn how to take less and do more with it. That's why you got more bills than you got money, 'cause God wants you to be creative enough to take less money and do more with it. He wants to teach you how to dress on a budget. He wants to teach you how to do it with no staff so that later when you grow and you got a staff and they start threatening you to leave, you say, "Been there and done that, baby. Hit the door." You got to be able to drive the bus in case they leave. You got to be able to direct the choir in case they start acting crazy. You got to be able to motivate your own leadership in case you get a Judas in the camp. You got to work. Oh, y'all don't hear what I'm saying.
See, some of y'all think I just showed up when I got on TV, but I spent years on the back side of the desert. I pastored from the piano for years, baby. My first tape ministry was a tape recorder in front of an amplifier. Now we've got enough duplicators to fill up an 18-wheeler, but we started with a $39.99 tape recorder in front of an amplifier. And if you wanted a tape, you had to get it next Sunday 'cause the deacon took home and put it on his stereo and duplicated one at a time. But I do not despise the day of small beginnings. My wife was the praise leader, and I was the minister of music, and then I jumped up and preached. But you know, it feels real good. And I want you to know that whenever I get into a fight with the devil, I don't tell him about how many members I got now. I don't tell him about how many stations I'm on now. I don't tell him how many countries I preached in now. I don't tell him how much staff I got now. I don't tell him anything about my budget now, because my strength ain't coming from this fruity stuff up at the top. I say, "I'm the same joker who whipped you down in the store." What? And if you fool with me tonight, I'll flip out on you. Woo! I feel something, boy. You better come get me. You got to pay your dues, baby.
But I heard him say, "After you suffered a while, I'll establish you, and I will make you." I feel something in here. Somebody help me praise God in here. I said, somebody help me praise God in here. Hallelujah! You got to be able to do it when you don't have any money. You got to be able to do it when people don't like you. Don't worry about who likes you and who don't like you. It's nothing but education. God is teaching you how to stand by yourself. You got to be able to preach after you cried all the way to church. Wipe the tears out of your face and preach the faith and the power of God. You got to be able to preach while somebody's rolling their eyes at you, sending out their spirit against you, hoping you choke on your word. You got to be dancing right in the devil's face and say, "Let me tell you, you going to kill me, huh? You going to kill me? Bring it on!" [Applause] Sit down, sit down, sit down. [Applause]
Touch your neighbor and say, "Don't panic. It's just a test." I know you got a little conflict, but don't panic. Don't panic, pastor's wife. Don't panic. It's just a test. [Applause] I'm going give you three more things when I... I'll sit down. Sit down. I'll give you these. I want to talk about if you're going to be creative, you have to have creative thought, right? Everything starts in the thought world. Everything you see, everything you see in this building started from a thought. Somebody who thought the drapes ought to be this color. Somebody who thought the ceiling ought to be this high. Somebody who thought the walls ought to be made out of this or that. And out of the abundance of their thought, the creative process begins. So when the enemy gets ready to come against you, if he can kill your thought life, he destroys your [Applause] creativity. That's why you got to be able to walk around with nothing and have big thoughts.
See, I, I grew up poor. I didn't know we was poor, but now I realize we was poor. I didn't realize for the reason we didn't have spaghetti sauce was 'cause they didn't have no meat. I thought you supposed to eat it with ketchup. First time I saw spaghetti sauce, I thought something was wrong with it. "What is this stuff in the spaghetti? I ain't eating this. Give me some ketchup." [Applause] And where the eggs in the can, the gold can with the black writing on it, and the dry milk? This stuff tastes funny, right? Mhm. But every Sunday, we would leave out of that little raggedy, wood frame, rickety, falling over, torn screen door house and get in that old 1957 Galaxie and go for a Sunday drive. And we'd drive through the rich neighborhood. We lived in the ghetto, but we didn't think in the [Applause] ghetto. We'd drive through the neighborhood, just wonder we didn't get arrested, but we'd drive through the neighborhood, slowing down at all the houses, wondering what it was like to live up in there. Oh, poor, broke little boy would sit there and imagine what it was like to sit on the front porch and drink lemonade. We didn't have no money. We didn't have no money, and I don't think had much credit.