Transcription
Go with me if you will to First Kings 3, verse 16 through verse 28. First Kings chapter 3: E 16 through verse 28. And when you have it, I'm going to ask you if you will, um, stand with me for the reading of God's word. And it'll be the last time I ask you to stand tonight. Now, if you stand again, it's on you. First Kings 3:1, 16 through verse 28. If you have in your Bible, smart device, or the screen, I want you to signify by saying, "I have the bread."
I have the bread.
Verse 16 says this: "Now, two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. One of them said, 'Pardon me, my lord. This woman and I live in the same house, and I had a baby while she was there with me. The third day after my child was born, this woman also had a baby. We were alone, and there was no one in the house but the two of us. During the night, this woman's son died because she laid on him. So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while I, your servant, was still asleep. She put him by her breast and put her dead son by my breast. The next morning, I got up to nurse my son, and he was dead. But when I looked at him closely in the morning light, I saw that it wasn't the son that I had birthed.' The other woman said, 'No, the living one is my son. The dead one is yours.' But the first one insisted, 'No, the dead one is yours. The living one is mine.' And so they argued before the king."
The king says, "This one says, 'My son is alive and your son is dead.' While the one says, 'No, your son is dead and mine is alive.'"
The king said, "Bring me a sword." So they brought a sword for the king. He then gave an order, "Cut the living child into two, and give half to one and half to the other."
Verse 26: "The woman whose son was alive was deeply moved out of love for her son and said to the king, 'Please, my lord, give her the living baby. Don't kill him.' But the others said, 'Neither I nor you shall have him. So cut him into two.'"
The king gave his ruling: "Give the living baby to the first woman. Do not kill him. She is the mother."
When all Israel heard the verdict the king had given, they held the king in awe because, Hallelujah, because they saw that he had wisdom from God to administer justice. And all of God's people said, "Amen." Right before you sit down, screaming, somebody tell them, "Save the baby."
Um, tonight, uh, we are in a, uh, uh, particular transitional time in Israel's history in the book of Kings, um, where we are in First Kings. We have, uh, have experienced, uh, the loss of Israel's beloved king. Now, when I say Israel's beloved king, I know many of you would say, "Okay, which one?" Well, although Israel had a lot of kings, even when they were a divided kingdom, northern kingdom being called Israel, southern kingdom being called Judah, even though we had Manasseh, Amon. When I say Israel's beloved king, there's an understanding. It's David.
It's David. Um, so beloved that we name our children David. So beloved that we don't refer to Jesus in worship as the son of Joseph. We call Jesus the son of, uh, the son of David. The Bible calls David a man after God's own heart. The Lord loves David after all he knows about David.
See, this is why some of us are so passionate in worship. Because many of you, like us, based upon what you know about us. God knows everything about us and He still loves us.
And I know what some of you want to bring up stuff about David, but I am so glad God is not like man. Aren't you glad? You know the Bible says, "Now unto Him who is able to keep us from falling and hear me and to present us faultless." Didn't say we were faultless. It says He has the ability to present us as faultless. I think often times when we talk about our salvation, we always talk about what Christ, um, took, but we don't often times make an emphasis on what He put. Yes, He took my sin. Hallelujah. But just because you were found not guilty, don't mean you're innocent. He didn't just take my sin. He imputed unto me His righteousness. And when you have done all you can do to be right, your righteousness in comparison to God's righteousness is as filthy rags. But the reason why I'm still alive is because when God looks at me, He sees Jesus.
Oh, Hallelujah. Somebody shout, "I am the righteousness of God."
He, he, he presents David. And when we talk about David, we think about Psalm 23. When we talk about David, we think about David and Goliath. Yes, there's some other stuff in there, but he's presented to us out of the love of God as faultless. But the Bible says at the end of his reign, he had a desire. He had a desire to build the Lord a house. He wanted to build a temple for the Lord. They had worship in Israel, but they were just using high places. Israel did not have a central place of worship. Often times we talk about the tabernacle of David where David set up a tent, uh, for the Ark of the Covenant and people would worship. They would worship there. He wanted to build a house for the Lord, but the Lord says, "David, I'm not going to allow you to do it because your hands are not clean." And I know you said, "Bishop, I thought you talked about how much, uh, the Lord loves David." And He does. He did. And He does.
But I want to lift to you that forgiveness does not always eradicate all consequences. Okay, I'll go talk to this side of the room. I felt a little tightness from some of y'all. No, no. There are times when you have sold into the flesh, you reap in the flesh. I, I grew up with, um, with a, uh, in a small one-stop light town community called Gretna, Virginia. It's not, it's not Ormond Beach, trust me. Um, and there was a, a man in, in the town. He, he was, he, he was an alcoholic. He would drink all the time. I remember days it would rain and my grandmother would say, "Let's go down and get Chief out the ditch. Go down and get him out." But eventually he gave his life to the Lord and he got saved. And after he got saved, he found out that he had damaged liver because he had drank all those years. So he went to heaven. He went to heaven, but he could not do all that he wanted to do because he had sowed into his flesh.
I, um, I'm thankful for the teaching during offering time concerning seed time and harvest time and sowing and reaping. But every so often, I don't shout for harvest. There are times I shout for crop failure. Hold on. Hear me. Hear me.
So why would you shout for crop failure? Because the truth is, I don't want to reap everything I sow.
The Bible says, "Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap." And I want to give you 10 seconds to praise God for the grace of God that caused crop failure on some of your bad seeds. Come on, y'all. Take down your halo in this section. You haven't always been saved since you've been saved. You haven't dotted every eye. You haven't crossed every T. I need somebody to praise God for what the people around you don't know about. They look at your marriage, but they don't know your challenges. They look at your house, but they don't know your warfare. I need you to look at your neighbor, tell your neighbor, "He had mercy on me."
See, we always talk about grace. Grace is what He gave you, but mercy is what He held back off of you. I thank the Lord for His mercy. I'm so glad that He did not give me what I deserve.
Hey, me. Now, I ain't got to know your story, but the way you praise God ought to tell me something. And I can tell some of y'all ain't never did nothing. You ain't never been nowhere. But I need to hear the sound of some individuals in this room that said, "He could have took the breath out of my lungs." The wages of sin is death, but the gift. Oh, you better praise Him. You better praise Him. You better praise Him. You better give Him glory.
Glory. Hallelujah. Tell somebody, tell them, "He had mercy on me." When you see me shouting, I'm not shouting because I'm perfect. I'm shouting because I am forgiven. When you see me running around the church, it ain't because I got everything right. It's because He held it together until I got it together. He had mercy. So when I think of the goodness of Jesus and all He's done for me, my soul cries out.
See, this is a soul cry.
I need all the people who backslid before. Everybody else, you be quiet. If you never backslid, you don't, don't talk at this one. Send this one out. Some of us been in church all of our lives. We didn't leave the building, but we left God. All the backsliders. All the former backsliders. I want you to look at somebody, tell them, "Jesus could have came while I waited." But tell them, "He waited while I came."
Hey. Oh, you ought to praise Him because you made it back. You ought to praise Him 'cause you made it back. Everybody didn't make it back. Everybody didn't make it back. Oh, glory be to God. I'm sorry. I like coming to Calvary. I don't want to scare nobody, but I feel. I'm sorry. I don't have Tourette's. I got a memory. I just had a memory. I just thought about something that God saved me out of. I just thought about something God spared me from.
Please be seated. Please be seated. David, you can't. Hey, I'm sorry. You can't do it 'cause you got blood on your hands. But I'll do it with your son. David transitions, and transitions are always hard because people have a tendency to try to put words in dead men's mouths. Transitions are hard because just because someone is loyal to you, don't mean they'll be loyal to your children. You'll find out that your parents' friends won't always be your friends, right? Transitions are hard, right? Because people make bad decisions and emotional decisions when they're grieving. Transitions are hard, especially when you're the successor of someone like David.
Bible says David's son Absalom even wanted the throne. Hallelujah. And he tried to take it. He tried to usurp authority. He tried to impute himself. And I want you to know, if it's God, it doesn't have to be forced. If it's God, you don't have to stab nobody in the back. If it's God, you don't have to be manipulative. You don't call it a God thing when you lied to get there.
You don't have to assassinate somebody else's character to get favor. Bible says Absalom felt like it belonged to him 'cause Absalom was attractive. Uh, he thought his looks were enough to get him there. He had a whole bunch of hair. He said, "This ain't no weave. This is mine." Scripture says, uh, he got caught up. The very thing that he took pride in got him caught up. That's what I'm telling you. Uh, gifted people need to stay submitted. Now, I know some of you think your gift makes you a wonder. But the very thing that brought you in the room can sabotage you if you don't submit it to authority. I don't care how wonderful you can sing. I don't care how creative you are. I don't care what your resume is. You better find yourself submitted to somebody who's not impressed with your gift, but they love your person.
Oh, he, he. Oh, he had hair down his back. But the very thing he took pride in got him caught up. He got caught up and and it left him vulnerable to the enemy and he got destroyed. He got killed. But here's Solomon. Solomon now is in this seat. He's been ushered to the seat of authority and leadership, being his father's successor. And Solomon has a conversation with the Lord in a night vision. And the Lord asked him, "What is it that you want?" And we're here in this camp meeting. We're here in this revival. And the Lord is asking, "What are you here for? Is this another good church experience, or are you really coming for a God experience? What is it? What is it that you? What is it that you want? What are you really pursuing?"
And Solomon says, "I want an understanding heart. I want wisdom for what? For the assignment." Amen. I want you to grab somebody by hand and just speak it. If it's your honest confession, tell them, "I want to fulfill my assignment. I'm not in competition with anybody else. I'm not trying to be better than anybody else. I want to do well what God has called me to do." No, I'm serious. I was saying to the Lord at the hotel before I came, I said, "Lord, I want to make You proud tonight." I, I'm serious. I become. I'm, I'm at a different point in my life 'cause I realize that people are fickle. They will celebrate you today and then they will attack you tomorrow. I want to make sure at the end of the day that I am pleasing God. This costs too much to do. This has got to be more than a habit, a hobby, or a habit. I want to make sure I'm pleasing God.
Tell your neighbor, "I want to do it way over." And He said, "That's what He said." Out of all the things he could have asked for. And that's why sometimes we need revival. 'Cause sometimes revival for us is a recalibration, reminding us why we're doing what we're doing. I believe the reason why some of us are so easily burned out and exhausted is because we've lost track. We've got off-kiltered concerning what we've been called to do. You will never be successful trying to fulfill somebody else's assignment.
You're supposed to look at other people's lives for inspiration, but not for competition or not even for a reference point. God is doing something different with you. He's doing something different with your marriage. He's doing something different with your family. And you can celebrate somebody else without saying, "You're next." You may never be next at doing what somebody else has been called to do.
He said, "I want to do my assignment." Well, give me wisdom. He was saying, "I cannot do this by myself. If you can do it without God, God didn't call you to do it." Hope I'm not boring y'all. Y'all okay over here? Y'all good?
If, if you can do it, oh, I can do that. No. The calling of God supposed to make your knees shake. The calling of God supposed to put a quake in you. If you still can come up here and lead worship and you never get nervous. Come on. I don't care how often you do it. I don't care how many times you do it. You got to make sure the steps stay uneven. No, really. If you go to go to Israel and you go to Jerusalem, Apostle Ray and I have been there together. The Second Temple steps are the, are the steps, uh, to the temple that would have been considered Herod's temple. And it would have been the temple steps that Jesus walked up. And as you see, uh, the particular, uh, measurements and precisions with all of the ancient ruins in Israel, you would get to the temple steps and realize that the steps are uneven. And the question is why? You can't say because they didn't have computers and they didn't have advanced engineers. Because we're still trying to figure out how they were able to move some of the stones they did without our technology. Your rabbis will tell you that the steps to the temple were made uneven on purpose.
Amen. We have what we call Psalms of Ascension. Yes, sir. "I was glad when they said unto me." These are Psalms of Ascension. These are songs that pilgrims would sing as they are ascending to the place of the presence of the Lord. The steps are uneven. I want you to tell your neighbor, "The steps are uneven."
I know I got some runners in here and you run up steps and if you have steps in your house, you don't stare at the steps when you're walking up the steps. Why? Because you already know your body has physical memory of how far your knee needs to get up in order to go to the next step. Because every step is measured in the same distance. But if the steps are uneven, that means every step has to be a careful step. My God. That means you got to go up with your head down so you can come out with your head up. And some of us are so casual that we're producing casualties. But let the steps be uneven again. I need Your wisdom. I need Your power. I need Your intel. I can't do it without You. I can't do marriage without You. I ain't never raised children in this culture before. I've never done ministry in this space before. I need You.
And that's what Solomon says. I need You. I need Your wisdom. Because every assignment of the Lord is going to cost you something. Every new place God takes you is going to require something. We like in this culture, we've produced a crossless Christianity. Crossless, that all we got to do is say something and we good. But let me tell you something. Hallelujah. It's not just confessing with your mouth. It's believing in your heart. It's got to be more than something you say. It's got to be something you respond to. And the question is, what does faith look like? I know you say you believe. Even the demons believe. But what does your faith look like? Jesus says, "If any man come after me, he must first deny himself." Y'all get up off me. Talk to me. And take up his cross and follow me. And now we got a generation that will wear a cross around their neck, but they don't want to wear one on their back. You want to tattoo it on your chest, but is it in your heart? It's more than fashion. It's more than jewelry. It's more than a song. It's a life laid down.
Ask your neighbor, "What did it cost you?" What did you walk away from? Paul says to us in the book of Hebrews, if he's the writer, apostle, me and you can debate about that later. Let us lay aside every sin and weight that so easily throws you off. Every sin and weight. We know what sins are. Sometimes, uh, I can get criticized 'cause, you know, just depends on, you know, we have scholars all over the place and, uh, sometimes people say, "You don't preach against sin enough." I said, "Well, let me tell you something. Sinners know they're in sin. I don't want to keep preaching the problem. I want to preach the solution."
Glory be to God. Hallelujah. You ain't getting saved by being reminded constantly how bad you are. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. But sin, it's clear to us what sin. It's missing the mark. It's disobedience to God's word. It's rebellion. And I know we got, uh, we got categories of sin, but the Bible says all unrighteousness is sin. As I was growing up in the Pentecostal church, you know, the worst thing you could do is smoke cigarettes. All right, cigarette smokers, don't run out of here 'cause you're going to look guilty. Ain't nobody got to know. Now, it was grace for the gossipers that call themselves intercessors. But the cigarette smokers, that was, you know, we know it's sin.
But then there are some things that we say, "Well, that's not a sin, but it can be a weight." See, uh, sin is something you need to repent of. Huh? A weight is something you need to release. Just because it's not sin does not mean you don't need to give it up. Is it slowing you down? Is it pulling you down? And this is why there's a danger in comparing your life to somebody else's life. Because what somebody else can do and be good, it may be a hindrance to your walk. And I know, oh, let me leave it alone 'cause I know I got a whole lot of social drinkers in here. But let me tell you something. For some of us, we can't socially drink. Ain't nothing social about it for us. We come through a bloodline of captivity. We come through a bloodline of addiction. So while you're doing it, I, I'm not better than you. I just got to know my limitations because I cannot bring deliverance to a place I'm intoxicated by.
Hey, where it's really not a sin, but is it a weight? How close is it to bringing you into captivity? Sins and weights. It so easily besets us. And I know when we go into times of fasting and I hear people say, "Oh, I'm fasting this week. I'm not going to smoke weed. I'm fasting this week. I'm not going to fornicate." Let me tell you something, and I want you to hear and an apostle can clean it up later. But giving up sin is not considered a sacrifice to the Lord.
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God. This is the part right here which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable will of God." Yes. I bring this sacrifice to you, Lord. I'm giving up my gambling. I sacrifice it. No, that's not a sacrifice. Amen. That is a response to your faith in God. You know, I love God and because I love God, I make this decision even against myself. See, you haven't chose God until you had to deny you. You cannot build your belief system based upon your feelings. Your feelings are too fickle. This is why tonight, for some of you, to experience the deliverance in your life that you need, you need to get out of your head and get in the spirit. This is why when you find a church, you don't find a church that just entertains you. You need to be under a ministry that will challenge you. If all you do is come and hear good songs and be inspired, inspiration will inspire you. Motivation will motivate you. But the preaching of the gospel will transform you. Speak the truth to me even if it's against me. Speak the truth to me even if I get angry. Speak it to me until I get delivered. His word is quick and it's powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. I want you to pull on somebody. Shout, "The word pulled me out." No, the word pulled me out. You ain't heard the word until it started convicting your spirit. You ain't heard the word until it starts making you uncomfortable. Pushing somebody, tell them, "Keep coming. Keep coming until the thing that has a hold on you starts losing its power. Keep coming."
That's why it's important. I don't have to be in a loud. Well, I, I do need to be in a loud church, but I don't have to be in a loud church, but it's important to me that I'm in an anointed house. I need the anointing. Maybe some of y'all don't need it, but I need the anointing because of the demons that I'm fighting every day. I need the anointing. I need to come into an atmosphere that if I'm heavy, the anointing can break it off of me. I'm dealing with stuff in my blood. I need to be in, I need to be in an atmosphere.
So, so, uh, uh, I'm, I'm, I'm very ecumenical and I'm from a Pentecostal stream that operates with, uh, uh, liturgical ceremony. So, anytime we do ordination or if I go to the hospital, if I go to a funeral, I wear what you call a clergy collar. It's called civic attire. It's not, it's not about being, uh, uh, fancy. It's a uniform. Just like a police officer has a uniform. It's my uniform. I don't even have to, when I come with my car on, I don't have to show a badge or nothing. I just, I just walk in with my car and they be like, "Yes, yes." One time, I'm serious. It worked at TSA one time. Okay. I didn't have a pre-check or nothing. I had my collar on and a man looked at me, he's a father. You can come through. I said, "Yes, son. God bless you."
So recently, recently, um, I was at a store in Philadelphia because I needed another collar because my neck, uh, it's gotten a little wide since I seen y'all last. The Lord has really been good to me. So, my neck was kind of stretched out and I need another collar. And the woman told me, she says, "I'm going to give you this one, but I need to customize a collar and a shirt for you." She said, "Because your neck size and your body size is disproportionate because your neck size is the size of a really large man." That's what she told me. And she says, "We experienced this with preachers." She said, "Because you preach so much and because of your vocal cords in your neck, you begin to gain weight here. It's like a muscle begins to widen and now your collar, even though your shirt fits, your collar doesn't fit." And when she said that, I got stirred up in the store. She said, "Okay, you're okay." Yes, I'm okay. Because the scripture came to me. The way a farmer controls an ox is that he puts a yoke around their neck. But if the ox keeps eating, if the ox keeps eating the grass, at some point the neck of the ox begins to expand. And the Bible says, "And the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing." I don't care what you're going through, what you're dealing with, what you're struggling with. Keep eating until it breaks. Keep coming until it breaks. Keep worshiping until it breaks. Keep shouting until it breaks. Hey, somebody open up your mouth and shout. Will you touch five people? Tell them, "It's breaking. It's breaking. It's breaking." That's why I had to come to revival. It's breaking. It's breaking. I don't just need the one day. I need the whole camp meeting because it's breaking.
Please y'all be seated. I'm going past my time. It's breaking. It's breaking. It's breaking. It's breaking. It's breaking. It's breaking. That addiction is breaking. Depression is breaking. Anxiety is breaking. That's what the enemy does. He'll stop making you feel. Ain't nothing changing. Ain't nothing changing. Keep eating and watch what happens.
Hey, I want you, I want you to hear me in the spirit. I want you to get rid of last season's garments because you'll never be able to fit in it again. Get rid of last season's garment. Will you look at somebody and testify to them? Tell them, "I got good news for you. What God brought you out of, you will never have to repeat it again." Oh, y'all not shouting. Y'all not shouting. Y'all not shouting. You will never. The yoke is not broken. The yoke is destroyed. It's just.
I know some of you, uh, you may, all of us learn differently, but I need everybody in this room to do a prophetic exercise. For 10 seconds straight, I want you to shake until you break everything off of you that the enemy tried to. Come on, do it now. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6. Get up off of me. Get up off of me. I got somewhere I need to be. I got a charge to keep. I got a God to glorify. Loose me. Loose me. Loose me. Loose me and let me go.
I need, I need, I need, I need to finish this. But I hear the, I hear the Lord speaking to me. I want you to lay hands on somebody's shoulder and tell them tonight, tell them tonight, you're going to experience a major breakthrough. Tell them it's not in your body. You're going to get a breakthrough in your mind. God is going to free you from overthinking. He's going to free you from insecurity. He's going to free you from hurting yourself, following your purpose. You're about to find out why the devil's been trying to keep you trapped. You're about to find out where he was holding you from. You're about to find out what the distraction was about. You're not going to lose your mind. You ain't got time to lose your mind. Have this man in you, which is awesome.
Please be seated, everybody. Please be seated. Oh God. Oh God. Oh God. Oh God. Oh God. Loose me. Loose me. Send the anointing that destroys. Send the anointing that chases demons. Send the anointing that breaks addictions. Send the release the arrow of the Lord's deliverance. Come on. Release the arrow.
Now, if you got enough faith to say this, I want you to say it and seal it with a praise. Look at somebody. Tell them, "There's a breakthrough just hitting my house." This ain't just a personal breakthrough. In my last shout, a corporate breakthrough happened for my house. I'm going to tell you, you're not going to obey God and lose your children. I'm telling you tonight, this deliverance is for your whole house. Go ahead, sister. Run. If you got to run, you know what you heard.
Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.
Everybody be seated as quickly as you can. Be seated. Receive it as quickly as you can. Oh God. Oh God. Hey. Oh God. Oh God. I'm sorry. Every once in a while, you'll go through a season where it calls for moanings and groanings. Oh God. Oh God. I need to hear the sound of a travail coming up out of your belly. Oh, you don't need a Bible for this. You don't need no words on the screen for this. Bring it out of your spirit. Out of your, out of your lives. Come on, daughters. Come out. Travail. Travail. Travail. Come on. Come on. You don't need music for this. There's a sound that this last season has produced out of you. This poor man cry. This poor man cry. Oh yes, he did. Oh, somebody. Oh yes, he did. "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and delivered him from all his fears."
In the next 15 seconds, God is going to deliver somebody from keeping playing out the worst-case scenario in your head. Hey, for the next 15 seconds, you better praise Him. Everybody in this room, did you keep, keep waiting for something bad to happen? God is breaking it off of you. Uh-oh. I need to hear a sound coming out of somebody. Oh. Oh. Oh, oh, yeah. Come on. Don't try to wrap your intellect around this moment. This is a spiritual moment. Come off of the dock and get in the water. Come on, get in the water. Oh Jesus, deliverance is coming to somebody in this room right now. I hear the sound of the travail. Say, "I hear the sound of war in men." I hear the sound of midwives. Oh, the Spirit helped thy infirmities. Oh, hey. Don't you underestimate the power of a cry. I need everybody in this room, you in a season you don't have words for, lift up your voice. Lift up your voice. Come on. This is revival. This is not a conference. Get it out of your mouth. Come on. Come on. Shut up. I feel a boom in the room tonight. Everybody that got a prayer language, come on, release it in the room. Oh, I'm sorry. The conductor got us held at one key right now. I can't move until the conductor releases it. Oh, hey.
This ain't the end of a song, but there's something God is breaking in this moment. Some of you watching that from home right now, come off of your sofa and get on your face. I feel the Lord here. The breaker is in the room. His word is like a hammer. Hey. Hey. Hey. Oh God. We ain't conjuring nothing up. The Holy Ghost is here. He said, "I came to repair the breach." Hallelujah. The enemy's had access and free reign, but all the repair is in the room.
I'm not. Hey, the reason why it's been so heavy 'cause you're not just breaking this for you. You're breaking this for everybody you're connected to. I'm telling you, your children ain't going to have to fight your same battle. I surely I'm not telling you they're not going to have a fight. They're just not going to have yours. You are conquering this for a bloodline. Oh, I feel the Lord. Be seated if you can. I feel the Lord here.
When Israel was called into the sacrificial system through the Torah, when you gave God something, you didn't give God something broken. So that's what I'm telling you. The sacrifice can't be the sin you're giving up. They had to give God their best. They gave God things or what not that didn't have spots on it. Didn't have blemishes and birth defects. And this is why I'm convinced that we are more associated with worship songs than we are worship. It's not worship until it costs you something.
In this revival, in this camp meeting, the question is not what is God requiring you to give up. It's what does God desire from you? At some point, when you walk with God, you go beyond God's requirement to God's desire. Would God ask of you something that He gave you? Would God ask you to lay down something that He put in you? You have to ask Abraham. Come on, teach. Abraham. No potent seed with the wife with a dead womb. And the word of the Lord came in his ear, quickened his groin, and brought alive his wife's womb. And something that they thought they could never have, God gave it to them. And now we're at a part of a text where the Lord taps Abraham on the shoulder and says, "Bring me that boy. Lay him down." We understand laying down the sin and the weight. But what happens when God calls for something that He gave you? Something He put in you. An idea. He gave you a business that He gave you.
Bible says in this text tonight, you read it to prostitutes. Come on, scriptures. Come on, Arthur. You could have gave us a better backdrop so we'd be more sympathetic to their plight. But it was communicating to us that there's no child that's an accident. I want to talk to somebody in this room. Just because you were rejected by a parent does not mean you are rejected. Rejected is what happened to you, but you are not rejected. That's not your identity. The circumstance, the situation may have been wrong. The circumstance may have been traumatic, but there's no child that's an accident. No extra people in the world.
We are having a conversation about the prostitutes' babies. And the woman is going before Solomon said, "I went to sleep last night with my baby and I woke up to a dead baby." And in my grief, I started screaming. But then I took a look and said, "Hold on. This is not my baby. I know my baby. I carried my baby. I nursed my baby. I know my baby. God gave me this baby." But the woman said, "No, no, no, no. That's your baby. The dead baby belongs to you." And then they're going back and forth, back and forth. So Solomon said, "Bring me a sword and I'll cut the baby in half." And the woman that was the real mother said, "No, I release the baby. No more fighting. No more striving and struggling. I give up. I surrender." And some of us think surrender is weakness. It takes a strong person to know when you've come to your limitation that says, "What was she saying?" She was saying, "Save the baby." What did the other woman say? Oh, that's right. "If I can't have one, she can't have one either. Cut the baby in half." Solomon says, "So, this is the mother."
My question to you tonight, what are you struggling with to trust God with? Are we no sin? But there's some people in this room, you got to process the fact that the idea you had for your life may not be what you thought it was going to be. Although you had prophecies and you had confirmations and you had a witness in your spirit, sometimes saving the baby is releasing it. I know you love your child and you're trying to save them and you're trying to rescue them. But there comes times when you've come to your limitation with your child. I know the problem with your marriage is your spouse. Of course, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. This revival is not about striving. It's about surrendering.
'Cause some of you are exhausted. You are mentally, emotionally exhausted trying to make it happen, trying to fix it. I'm talking to some people, some business owners. I'm talking about some people that's the head of your house. I'm talking about someone who's called to ministry. People have no idea how many times you didn't quit in your head. I'm not telling you to quit. I'm telling you to surrender.
If any man is going to find his life, the Bible said you got to, you got to lose it. And this is what has happened. This is what has happened to you. Yes, I'm talking to you. This is what has happened. Your relationship with man has affected your relationship with the King. People have failed you so many times. People have dropped you so many times. And now, it's not that you don't love God. I know you love God. I saw how you were worshiping Him. I saw how you praised Him. You keep showing up. That's got to say something. My question is not, is it, do you love Him? My question is, do you trust Him? Because you can love somebody and not trust Him. Will you trust the King with the thing you've been trying to save? Will you trust the King with the thing you've been trying to sustain?
The Bible says, she said, "But y'all, I can't let her win." Don't let your pride and your ambition destroy the thing that God birthed out of you. You may have to put it in another person's hand. You may have to trust it in hand. Whatever the Lord is requiring you to do, um, often times if you're a true prophet of the Lord, you will carry a message in your life before you preach it out of your mouth. Jeremiah, put that yoke around your neck so I can show my people. Isaiah, take the garment off so I can show my people. Hosea, marry a prostitute. Even Hosea's marriage wasn't about him. It was so God could show His people.
I want you to lift up your hands tonight. I want you to get a revelation. This season has not been punishment. It's been purpose. Some of you in this room, now it's time for you to have a "now I know" moment. And that's not you, it's God. Abraham laid down his son, and then the Lord says, "No, I got a ram in the bush." But he says, "Now I know. Now I know you really loved me because you were, you were willing to lay down what I gave you." There's a blessing, but it's on the other side of surrender. It's another level of worship God is requiring of you.
Several months ago, I was ready to walk away from ministry. Not because I was in some sort of scandal, not because it was bad. Actually, it was pretty good. But every level was taking something else from me. And the thing about a living sacrifice is as soon as pain is afflicted to it, it wants to come off the altar. And this is why you have to give God permission to tie you down while you're sober because Isaac wasn't a baby. Oh yes, it's going to cost you. But I heard a song and I would go to sleep and it would keep getting in my head and I kept hearing it says, "Is He worthy? Is He worthy? Is He worthy?"
This is why I asked you to be seated for a second because I didn't want to shout into this moment 'cause I didn't want it to be, I didn't want you to be moved by emotion. I wanted this to be a sober moment because there's some people in this room right now, God is requiring you to trust Him with something. It's not a sin. It's something precious. It's not a weight. It's something you love. As soon as you're ready, I want you to come and lay it at this altar. You know the Lord is talking to you. I'm not going to call you out 'cause if I call you out, you're doing it 'cause I asked you to do it. Somebody, you got to bring your child to the altar. You got to bring your marriage to the altar.
I love the word of God. Psalm 119 says, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." In other words, the word shows me where I am and it shows me where I'm going. I pray that the word today blessed you, illuminated, encouraged you in some kind of way. If you would like to stay in touch with our church and our ministry and what God is doing, there's a phone number on the screen. You can text that number and it will give you updates about what we're doing in our ministry domestically and around the world. I thank you for how many of you have supported us and all of our ministry endeavors. If you were blessed today and you would like to sow into the word of God, these are ways you can give. And remember that although a seed may leave your hand, it will never leave your life. This is Bishop Younger saying, whatever you do, don't stop here. Keep going.