Stewards of a Chance - Bishop T.D. Jakes

But we're going to go to Matthew 25:14-27. When you have it, say Amen.

Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. Now, Jesus, wait. But Jesus is talking about the kingdom, and and and the parable is only a way of uh analogizing the kingdom. That the kingdom should be like. They give me my first verse again because I don't want the story to take precedence over the kingdom, because the story is just an illustration to show you how things operate in the Kingdom.

Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. He has just got through talking about the five wives and the five foolish virgins. Again, an analogy helping them to understand the kingdom. Somebody say, "I'm in the Kingdom." To one, he gave five bags of gold. To another, two bags. And to another, one bag. Each according to his ability. And then he went on his journey. Each one according to his ability, and he went on his journey.

The man who had received five days ago went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. Okay, so he had four. But the man who had received one bag, watch him, went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. In the King James version, it's his talent. It doesn't matter what it is, but whatever it is that God gave you and you hid, that's what I want you to get at. I don't want you to really picture a bag of gold and worry about that, but whatever it is that he gave you.

After a long time, the master of those servants returned and settled their settled accounts with them. He, that that God gives you, you're gonna have to give an account for what you did with what he gave you. Not an excuse, not a complaint, not a criticism. You're not going to be able to talk to God about haters. "I would have done it, but my haters were, you know." No, he said, "No, no, no, no, no. I invested in you. I invested you."

The man who had received the five gold bags of gold brought the other five. "Master," he said, "you entrusted me with five days ago. See, I've gained five more." "100% return." His master replied, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful with a few things. A few things. A few things. A few things. What you've been, what you've been working with." God said, "It's just practice. He's just testing you with what you've been working with, because I'm gonna put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness." Or, "Enter into the joys of the Lord."

The man with two bags of goals, "Okay, Master," he said, "you entrusted me with two bags of gold. See, I've gained two more." His master replied, "Well done to you, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things." All my faithful people ought to shout. This means for sake that being faithful is a test for promotion. And that if you are faithful over a few things, faithful means doing it when you don't feel like it. Faithful means doing it when it's hard. Faithful means doing it when you don't get credit for it, you don't get acknowledged for it. Faithful means going beyond convenience and spasmodic response and occasional commitment. Faithfulness, longevity, long-term, consistent service. He said, "If you be faithful over a few things, I'm gonna put you in charge over many things. Come and share your master's happiness."

Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. "Said, Master," he said, "I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid." Remember, this is kingdom principle. "I was afraid. I acted out of my feelings, and I went out and hid your goal in the ground. So here's what you gave me. This is what belongs to you."

And the master replied, "You wicked, you..." See how my voice changed? Just to add a little, you know, intensity to you. "Wicked, lazy servant. So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well, then you should have put what I gave you in deposit to the bank, so that when I return, I would have received it back with..." Oh, help me, Lord. As I take my first step into this text, make my hind's feet strong like a young roe, that I might have clarity of thought and nimbleness of mind. Plant my feet on solid foundations and let prophetic utterances ring all over this room. For many are being stirred to go into directions that they have never expected, nor have they anticipated it. Yet, it shall emerge in Jesus name. We pray. Shout, Amen. Thank you. You may be seated.

Everyone in this room, and everyone in overflow, has one thing in common. Regardless of the socio-economic level in life, their ethnicity, their background, their influence, their intellect, their education, regardless of any of that, they have one thing in common. That it's a common denominator that equalizes us in this moment. What we have in common is a chance. A chance. A chance might not be what you prayed for. It may not be what you asked for. You may have prayed for a thing, or for a person, or for a place, or for a time. But often, when you ask God for objects, he answers with chance. And then, as God author answers with the chance, you, at your own discretion, have the opportunity. How you respond to that chance. The kingdom, Jesus is teaching us here, is about the transference of chance. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The transference of chance. For God to allow me to have a chance is absolutely amazing. It is amazing, because most people only give chances to certain people. But in our text, God has so switched things around that the least likely have an opportunity to do the Almighty.

The good news is, is that God, God says the kingdom is lacking unto a man who called his servants, his slaves, together and gave them bags of gold. Wait a minute. That's kind of weird, because you don't entrust wealth into slaves. That, that doesn't make sense. That, that wouldn't be the first thing you do. If, if you run an ATT, they say, "I'm going to turn the company over to the, to, to the people who are in the basement somewhere, and I'm gonna bring you up to the penthouse suite and let you run the organization." Not to belittle them. My father was a janitor, so don't get an attitude. But I want you to understand that there is nothing in the background of the slave that prepares them to execute on the level of decisions that are necessary to manage what has been allocated unto them. So it is a blessing, but it is also a burden. It is power, power, painful. It is stimulating, but scary. That these three men would be selected is a compliment. But the compliment creates a chaos. Whenever God compliments you with the chance, expect a certain feeling of chaos to go along with the chance.

That's how you know it's God. If it makes sense, it's not God. Whenever God does a thing, it doesn't make any sense. It, it ejects you out of the parameters of what you have allocated as your normatives and puts you in a place where you are dependent upon Him in a way that you wouldn't be dependent upon Him. Because God is not just going to give you that which you are prepared of, but often what you are scared of. God doesn't give you things that you are scared of, then faith has lost its job. Faith is in the unemployment line. Because I don't need faith to do what I already know how to do. I don't need faith to be a slave. I've been a slave when the story started. I don't need faith to be a slave. I need faith when you take me out of my comfort zone and away from that which is familiar to me and put me in a position for which there is nothing on my resume that brings me into alignment with what you're about to do in my life. I don't know whether you know it yet, but I'm prophesying to somebody already. I know I did say, "Yeah, I say unto thee." But I'm already speaking a word unto you about what God has been setting you up for. Hallelujah to God. He's been getting you ready to shift you into a realm that you won't feel prepared for.

Look at somebody, say, "I got a chance." Anytime people lose that feeling that they have a chance, they become manageable. They, they, they become difficult. They become erratic. They become critical. Uh, uh, Dr. King said that right? It's the language of the unheard. Anytime people feel like they have no chance, they get radical. They go over the ends. They get insane. That's why the enemy is after your feeling of hope. Because if you have no hope, faith has nothing to do for faith is a substance of the thing that you hope for and the evidence of the thing you don't see. But if you're not hoping for anything, if he can kill your hope, if he can convince you to stay in your place, if he can get you to shut your mouth, if he can get you to give up on your dream, if he can get you to get so discouraged that you terminate everything that God has in front of you, then faith doesn't have a job because you have no hope. That's why all the voices are talking in your head. That's why every time you get in the parking lot, there's a voice telling you, "You're an imposter, and you're fake, and you're a fraud, and you don't have no business in this role, and you'll never be a good mother, and you'll never be a good wife, and you'll never be a good husband." The devil is only lying to you. So whatever it is, he's been telling you, you're the opposite of that. If he's been telling you you're stupid, you're smart. If he's been telling you you're broke, you're rich. If he'd been telling you you're ugly, you're fine. If he'd been telling you you can't make it, you're stronger than an ox. He's a liar. So whatever he says, I want you to believe the opposite, so your faith can get its job back.

The kingdom is lacking unto this, because God will raise up the unlikely to do the Almighty. And he wants you to start talking on the level you are not seeing. Let the poor say, "I'm rich." Let the weak say, "I'm strong." Whatever you're feeling, he wants you to start talking those things that are not as though they were, because they will become. Whatever you say, for as a man thinketh, oh God, to you, as a man thinketh. That's a bad thing. Not as a man dances, not as a man's shouted, not as a man runs. As a man thinketh, in his heart, so is he. So we're going to testify to two or three people. Tell them, "I got a chance." "I got a chance." "I got a chance." "I'm 60, but I got a chance." "I'm 40, but I got a chance." "I got a chance of going back to school." "I got a chance about going back into business." "I got a chance about getting my house." "I got a chance about getting out of debt." "I got a chance out of building my family." "I got a chance for my children to grow." "I got a chance to be a good wife." "I got a chance to be a good husband." "I got a chance to save my marriage." "I got a chance to overcome this cancer." "I got a chance to defeat this lump in my breast." "I got a chance. I got a chance. I got a chair. I got a chair." Hell hates when you start talking like that. Demons hate when you start talking like that. Satan gets nervous when you start talking like that.

I got a chance. If I got a chance. If you, if you don't start saying that to yourself and begin to steward your chance, then 2023 is going to look like 2022, and 2022 is going to look like 2021, and 2021 is going to look like 2020. Because it's not the date that changes your world, it's your attitude that changes the world. I'm not worried about you having a new year. I'm worried about you having a new attitude, a new disposition. Come on, somebody, talk to me. If the only thing that changes is the date on the calendar, your own life is going to continue. But if I can speak a word that causes you to think differently, as a man thinketh, as a man thinketh, as a man thinketh, my God. If you can get it in your head, you could have been bowed over for 18 years, but if you can get in your head that you are loose, immediately you'll straighten back up.

That's why our church is full tonight. That's why our hands are clapping tonight. That's why we're dancing in the house tonight. That's why there's not a club in the city that's as full as the house of God tonight. All the polls, all the strippers, all the bars, all the clubs, and ain't none of them rocking like The Potter's House tonight. Make some noise up in this place. Thank you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Somebody said, "Party in the house." "Party in the house." "Party in the house."

Yeah, they sent me a note a minute ago. Said, "We got folks sitting overflow." I said, "That's just a sign that we're getting ready to overflow for 2023. God's gonna bring you an overflow." You're watching online, you better hear me real good. God's about to bring you into overflow. You're not gonna have enough room to receive what God is about to release in your life. That's why I'm trying to get your head ready for what God is about to do next in your life. If you receive it, highlight.

Let me give you a little bit more. Let me give you a little bit more. I can, I can feel, I can feel, I can feel it building in here. I can feel a hope building. I can feel encouragement building. You're stewarding a chance. God is going to make you a steward over a chance. And it's my job to make you recognize it when it comes, 'cause you got to be able to manage it. It's just gonna be a chance. It's not a check. It's a chance. And when God gives you a chance, the chance is going to give you the check. So stop hanging around the mailbox waiting on the check, because the power is not in the check. Slap somebody's head. Got a chance.

So, said, "Y'all got me excited." I feel like Elijah stopping by the widow's house, telling her not to bake a cake and die. God's given you a chance. I don't care what's going on across the street and in the neighborhood. God is going to make you an exception to the rule. I don't know who I'm talking to, but I'm talking to somebody.

Marianne Williamson wrote a poem that stood out in my mind, and I wanted to use it today to underscore what is happening here. She says, "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure." That's what we're scared of. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant? Who am I to be gorgeous? Who am I to be talented? Who am I to be fabulous?" We talk ourselves down.

So, Marianne goes on and says, "Actually, who are you not to be?" She says, "You are a child of God. You're playing small. You're playing small does not serve the world. You're playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won't feel unsure around you. Stop being a martyr for other people's comfort. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us, it is in every one of us. As we let our own light shine, we consciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated, watch this, as we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

I can see why Nelson Mandela quoted her in his address in South Africa, because it is the fear that stops us from snatching the chance. The, the, the householder gave them the goals, but they had to receive it. If you don't receive it, then the story stops with an offer. I can offer you anything. I can offer you my house, I can offer you my car, I can offer you my clothes, I can offer you anything. But if you don't receive it, now it takes a lot of faith for a slave to receive the master's wealth, because he has not seen himself in that light.

So the image you have of yourself. I've been reading these books about how I cite an image affects memory. And, and, and if you don't have a good image of yourself, it's going to affect how you remember yourself. So if there's nobody outside telling you, "Stay in your place," then there's a voice on the inside telling you to stay in your place. Because there is an association between eyesight and memory. We learn better when we can see it. So can you see yourself with what God is trying to give you?

It's interesting because we've been trained to preach to people who feel who are afraid of losing. But the real problem is people who are afraid of winning. Because if you are afraid of winning, you will self-sabotage. If you're afraid of winning, you will talk people out of loving you. If you're afraid of winning, you will do things to irritate them, to drive them away, and then cry 'cause they left. If you're afraid of winning, you will mess up the job that God gave you and then say, "They fired you." If you're afraid of winning, you will lose the house even though you could have paid for it, but you don't feel like you deserve it. And you will fall back down to the level of your comfort, 'cause you can't see yourself climbing to the next dimension.

And hear these three boys are given this opportunity to to handle the wealth that they didn't even work for or own. Can I go deeper? See, when you understand that they were slaves turned to stewards. See, a slave is not a steward. So when they are introduced to us in the text, they are introduced to us as servants or slaves. And then he gives them wealth, which makes them stewards. So they have gone from servitude to stewardship. When you go from servitude to stewardship, there's a sudden, there's a certain amount of pressure. If I'm driving somebody else's car, you see, when I'm driving my car, if I scrape the fender, you know it's my car and I might feel bad, but it's my car. It's okay. But if I'm driving somebody else's car and I scrape the fender, now I got to figure out what I'm gonna say when I get back home. Because I'm a steward. Notice I started out a servant and I graduated to being a steward. So in the kingdom, everything starts with service. So all of you who start as spectators are missing the transfer, because you got to go from being a spectator to serving. Because when you guess, when you start serving, you get on God's radar. Oh, y'all don't hear what I'm saying to you. When you start serving, you put yourself in proximity for God to do something. Some of you only want stage.

See, Anthony lost you when he said he was here at five o'clock in the morning. That you died right then, because you ain't, you ain't hearing no five o'clock in the morning. But, but, but, but the problem today with technology is that we have modeled stage, not service. We, we don't require our children to serve. So now, if you ask them to do something, the ellipses took out their man, and they feel it's abusive to wash dishes. See, I grew up in a house. I was a dishwasher. Mama didn't have a dishwasher, she had kids. She didn't have remote control, she had us go turn the station. You understand? You, you, you, you were in an ethos of servitude. Oh, y'all, y'all too young. Y'all, y'all don't know nothing about "go, I want you to take the trash out, cut the grass."

There's something that happens when you serve that's so important that the Bible said, even after Jesus had fed himself and was getting ready to leave, then he laid aside his garments and wrapped himself up in a towel and began to serve. When was the last? Oh, no. Who do you serve? Who do you serve? My wife teases me because if anything breaks in the house, I either get fixed or throw it out. I can't stand nothing broken down. Beanie's laughing because he knows what I'm talking about. If it's broken, it's gotta go. My chair looked like it was broke. I called him, I said, "Get it out." I can't stand nothing that don't serve a purpose. If you're gonna be there, you can't just be pretty, you got to do something. I'm not going to keep you because you're cute. You got to have a function. God says, "If you're gonna be my child, you gotta serve." Sometime. Do you hear what I'm saying to you? Am I preaching to the right house in here? We have lost the ethos of servitude.

And because we don't serve anybody, our marriages don't last. Because you can't serve and be selfish, and you can't be selfish and serve. And the reason our marriages don't last is because, with them, everybody wants to know, "What's in it for me?" The text starts out with servitude. It starts out with servitude. And it is to the servants that the master places into stewardship and hands this one five bags of gold. One man, he gave two bags of gold. And the other man, he gave one. Now, let me get this far. I know I'm not gonna get finished, but let me get this far. What confuses me about the text is that he, after he gave it to them, he left. Come on here. That's exactly where I'm going. God will give you something and not tell you what to do with it. God will give you a baby and not tell you how to take care of it. Y'all don't hear what I'm saying. God will give you a marriage and not tell you how it works. God will give you a church and not tell you how to run it. God is famous for putting you in situations and then not giving you information. It's not like he told them what to do with it. It's not like he said, "I want you to multiply what I gave you." It's not like he told them where the bank was or where to make the investment and how to do it. Because he stopped talking to them like servants the moment they became stewards. Because see, servants just follow commands, but stewards have to think. And God said, "For where he's getting ready to take you, you can't just follow commands and wait on doors to open. You will have to think and find creative ways to make the next move happen. Your next move is in between your ears. When your head shifts, your life is going to shift." Oh, God, do you hear what I'm saying? Can I go deeper? Who am I talking to? I'm talking to somebody. The battle is after your mind. And that's why all hell is breaking loose against your mind and your emotion. Because the enemy wants you so upset, so confused, so disturbed, so upset that you can't think. Because the breakthrough has to happen in your head before it happens anywhere else. Nobody told them to make it more. Nobody told them to make it more. Nobody told the little boy to give his lunch. Nobody told the one leper to turn around and go back. And yet Jesus asked him, "Where are the nine?" If you're gonna ask, "Where are the nine?" it seems like you should have told him, "I expect you to come back."

So the kingdom operates like this. It requires discernment, not commandment. You've been, "As soon as the Lord speaks, I'm going to do it. As soon as the Lord, if it be the Lord's, we are. And whatever you say, Lord, that's what I'm gonna do." But what, when, what do you do when God doesn't say anything? And yet he has an expectation. That means he expects you to think, because you are stewards of a chance. So you can no longer think like a slave. You were rewarded for being obedient. But now you've got to be creative. Oh, come on, come on, somebody. Somebody get this, because this is go. You were rewarded for being obedient. Slaves are rewarded for being obedient. But now you've got to be creative. And that's scary, because I'm creative without instruction. That means I gotta stop spending hours scrolling through my phone, looking at everybody's stories, because I need time to think. Because something in my 2023 is about to shift into another dimension. And, and there's a new skill set that has to be realized in my life for me to make it to the next dimension. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. The only reason I'm preaching this tonight is because you got a chance. I know that somebody in this room's got a chance. I've been praying for the last three days. I didn't know who was going to be here, but I said, "God, who you want to be in this room?" And I know I've got a word for you right now. You got a check. I don't care what the doctor said, the accountant said, the CEO said, the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker. The Holy Ghost said that God is going to give you a chance to turn the whole thing around. He's gonna put it within your reach and within your power to bring about a massive change. Who am I preaching to?

With the story of the prodigal son is being preached, and you read The Prodigal Son, the younger of the sons came to the father and said, "Give me the portion of goods that followed to me." All right, next verse. He divided unto them, not him, them, his living. One boy took his living and ran away from home. Yeah. Another one took the same amount of money and stewarded it. One spoiled it, one stewarded it. What I want you to see is, both of them got it. Everybody's gonna get a chance tonight, but everybody's not gonna manage the chance that they get. Somebody's gonna take the chance and it's gonna make you run out in the street. The other one's gonna take the chance and turn it into something. He gave one five, he gave the next one two, he gave him one. That right there would have killed us, because we would have spent the whole rest of the text arguing about, "What's wrong with me that you gave him more than you gave me? And that don't make no sense. I've been serving just as long as he had, and why did you give him five bags of gold? You only gave me two, and you gave me two, and I'm the only one over here got one." And let me see what you got. Let me look at what you got. Comparing yourself with somebody else is not wise. God gave you what you could handle. The Bible said he gave it unto them according to their ability. And God doesn't want to give you stuff that's too high for you. Stop asking for stuff just 'cause you see somebody else with it. You don't know what they had to pay for what they had. You don't know what they have to go through for what they had. You only want what God wants you to have, be it five, two, or one. I can be just as successful with two as you are with five, because the Bible said he took the five and turned it into 10. He took the two and turned it into four. Now he's got 10, and the other guy's got four. But both of them got a hundredfold return. 104 return is based on what you started with. If you got four, that's a hundredfold. If you started with two, you doubled it. If you got five, you turned it to 10. It might look like you got more, but you don't have no more percentage-wise than I do. Both of us got a hundredfold. So the five was a good investment. The two was a good investment. But this third steward of a chance, this third steward of a chance. Somebody said, "I'm a steward of a chance." Say it again. See, that's such an empowering thing because, first of all, you're saying to your soul, "I got a chance." Second of all, you're saying, "I'm a steward," which means I'm in charge. That means I'm in charge of my chance. That means it's up to me. That means it's up to me. So I can stop blaming the devil. I can stop blaming the devil. Because most of the things you call the devil is you sabotaging. Wait, y'all. There is no devil in this text. There is no devil in this text. Not in the Greek, not in the Hebrew, not in the Swahili. I don't care what language you're looking up, there is no devil in the text. The only devil was the enemy, the fear. The one man that ends up cast into outer darkness, said, "I did it because I was scared. I knew how you were. I knew how you reap where you don't sow. I know how you're a hard man." You know what he's doing? He's thinking like a slave in a steward's position. And what I want you to see is that this next shift requires a change in mindset. Write this down: Your mindset will control your assets. Your mindset is going to control your assets. It's not going to be a demon. It's not gonna be a witch. It's not gonna be a hex. You can stop burning sage in your living room. This is not the problem. Take the quarter out the cabbage. You don't need to get lucky this year. Let me explain to my other members what I'll tell you later about the quarter in the cabinet. It's a, it's never mind. I'll tell y'all later. It's just too much to explain right now. Your mindset is controlling your assets. And assets is not just wealth. Grace, wisdom, strength, ministry, your assets, relationships, families. Your mindset. Look at your assets, and they're reflecting your mindset. So the one man says to the master, when he came back, and when the master came back, I thought, "Wow, man, you're calling in on the carpet because you want to know what did they do with what you gave them, and you didn't tell them what to do with it?" And God says, "I'm not going to tell you everything. I'm going to give you a chance. I'm going to give you a chance. That's all I'm gonna give you. A chance." We're going into a new year. You know what that means? We got a chance. That's all this means. That's all this means. God lets you see another year to give you a chance. Now, what is he going to reap from his chance? Excuses? Complaints? Limitations? Fear? Or increase? God's gonna give you a chance. He said, "I passed by this tree for three years and I've seen no fruit. Why cumbereth it the ground?" You've been stuck in the same spot for three years. I'm thinking about taking you out. And then God says, "Leave it alone. I'm gonna let you dig around it and dung around it for one more year." I don't know who this is for, but you got a year to turn this thing around. This is your year. Let me tell them. I don't think they hit it. This is your year to completely turn this thing around. This is your year to turn the trajectory of your family around. This is your year for your daughter to see how strong a woman really is. This is your year for you to stand up and be the kind of man that your son wants to imitate. This is your year to break every curse and every bondage that makes you want to hide your gifts, your talents, your creativity, your resources. Come out, come out wherever you are. Come out, come out wherever you are. You've been in the hiding. You've been in hiding. You've got reason to be afraid. You've been through situations that made you afraid. But God said, "In order to receive this increase, you've got to come out of hiding." Come out wherever you are. Everybody who made your mind up to come out, clap your hands for 2023. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

Tell your neighbors, "I'm coming out." The reason I want you to tell your neighbors is you got to prepare the people around you for you to come out, because they have can become conditioned to you hiding your resources, your talent, and your creativity, and they've gotten used to seeing you in one dimension. And you need to warn them. I'm coming out.

You know, when Joseph was sold by his brethren, after being in the pit, he started out a slave of the Midianites, sold for 20 pieces of silver. But he went from servitude to stewardship in Potiphar's house. He shifted from a slave to a steward. And that means he started running everything in the house. He didn't own it, but he was running it. That means if he was running it, he was living in it. That means if he was living in it, he was exposed to it. That means if he was a steward of it, he was exposed to it and living in it, but he didn't have to pay for it. God's gonna put you in a position that you didn't even have to pay for. The doors that are about to be opened unto you. I gotta quit because I feel like preaching. I don't.

My God. My God. My God. My God. It's happening. It's happening all over this room. It's happening all over this room. God's gonna give you crazy opportunities. He's gonna put you in the places that you thought you would never get in. He's gonna put you in positions that don't make any sense. He's gonna open up doors that blow your mind. He's gonna break every yoke and every bondage that held you down. I'm not talking to the timid. They're afraid. Those that are stepping back and running away. I'm talking to somebody who's sick and tired of being sick and tired and say, "I'm tired of this situation, and this is my year of transformative thinking. This is my year to start reading new kind of stuff. This is my year to break my normal routine. This is my year to get out of debt. This is my year to break every curse on my life." Can I get 60 seconds of crazy, ridiculous, Holy Ghost, supernatural praise in this place?

I want you to see it. I want you to see it. You're gonna start out in servitude, then you're going to go to stewardship. After your master's stewardship, you're gonna go to ownership. At first, you're going to be a steward over somebody else's stuff. God's gonna give you your own. I don't know if you can handle this, but "our eyes have not seen, and ears have not heard, and neither have entered into your heart what God has in store for them that love him." If I'm talking to you, shout, "Yes."

Yes. Yes. Pull on your name and say, "If you don't want it, give it to me." If you don't want to give it to me, if you're scared of it, give it to me. If you ain't gonna take the shot, give it to me. If you're not gonna make the meeting, give it to me. If you're not gonna be committed, give it to me. If you're not gonna be consistent, give it to me. I heard the Bible say, "I'm gonna take that that you seem to have and give it to somebody over here." There's gonna be a transfer of favor and blessings and miracles. Hallelujah. This is my chance. This is my opportunity. Cancer, you should have killed me when you had the chance, but it's too late. Probing, it's too late. Depression, it's too late. If I survived all of that, I survived for a reason. God's got something in front of me that's worth the battle. 2022, I'm through with you. I'm crossing over.

But because of the word, I eat. This is my breakthrough year. Sound about crap about it. Dream about it. This is my year. This is my time. This is my moment. Yes. Yellow. Yes, Lord. There is a demonic influence that has been whispering in your ear, and it sounds comforting to say, "You don't have no chance. If you'd have been born somebody else, you'd had a chance. You know you don't have what it takes. You can't help it. You can't change it. You can't fix it." The whole reason I'm standing here is to tell you, every voice that has said to you that this cannot change is lying. Wait a minute. I don't know what your "this" is, but you do. Whatever your "this" is, you have long your faith to sleep, saying, "It is what it is." But it ain't what it is. You are the steward of a chance. Get your neighbor by the hand. We got hand sanitizer in the back. The person you are touching, at one point or another in their life, has said, "If I ever had a chance to do things over again, I would do them differently. If I had the chance, I wouldn't have said that. If I had the chance, I'd have took that job. If I had the chance, I would have bought that property. If I had that chance, I would have come to the altar. If I had the chance, I would have given my life to Jesus. If I had the chance, I would have preached the gospel." If I had the chance. God says tonight, you do. Squeeze that hand you're holding. You are the steward of a chance. That's all he's gonna give you is a chance. You can build on it or you can bury it. That's your choice. It's His choice to give you the chance. What are you going to do? Are you going to build or bury? Are you going to build or bury? Are you going to build or bury? Are you going to build or bury? I commit to you, I want to spend my, my this season of my life, my final years in ministry, helping builders build, helping entrepreneurs grow, helping fathers be fathers and husbands be husbands. Trying to help you to be the head and not the tail. I want to help you whose background does not align with your future. Your history doesn't align with your destiny. But God is going to do something amazing in your life. I have been praying all week about your mindset. Because God told me, "I can get all the opportunities I want to out here through all of my contacts, friends, and relationships, but if your mind isn't ready, you're going to spoil the opportunity." I'm talking to you online. There are doors getting ready to open. That's why I'm excited about the leadership conference. I'm being able to bring some things together I couldn't bring together before. And I'm trying to get your mind ready so when the door opens, you don't bury the chance. With that same stinking thinking that says, "I can't afford to invest in myself, but I can afford to get weaves, hair done, Gucci bags, Yves Saint Laurent. I can afford everything that holds me down and nothing that pulls me up." Because I'm satisfied to look rich as long as I take this picture and do this selfie and create this image. It don't matter that I don't have life insurance, I don't have health insurance, I can't send my kids to school, I can't bury my mama, I can't put her in a nursing home, I can't afford to do anything. I can't even buy lunch past next week. But look at my watch. Ain't it bad? Squeeze that hand.

We don't have to wait on nobody to come get us. We don't have to wait on anybody to come help us. We are the people we've been waiting on. God is going to put the chance in your hand. This is your word for 2023. You're going to have to get a mindset that doesn't match where you came from. You're going to have to be willing to be ostracized by those you started with to emerge into your next. Things are about to explode. I don't mean there won't be problems. I don't mean there won't be tests. I don't mean there won't be trials. I don't mean life is going to be life. People gonna die, people gonna get sick, all kinds of stuff is going to happen that has nothing to do with destiny. A thousand may fall at that right side, ten thousand may fall to your left side. That has nothing to do with what I'm going to do with you. It will not come nigh your dwelling place. I have a plan for your life. Squeeze that hand. The person you're touching is anointed. The person you're touching is talented. The person you're touching is gifted. The person you're touching has been endowed. The person you're touching has got a dream. The person you're touching has got a goal. The person you're touching, God has a plan for their life. The person you're touching has favor. The person you're touching has creativity. The person you have touched, the devil's trying to shut her down. The person you're touching, the devil's trying to take him out. The person you're touching, the devil's trying to make them lose their mind. But the devil is a liar. Squeeze into that hand. I squeeze faith into that hand. I squeeze power into that hand. I squeeze deliverance into that hand. I squeeze strength into that hand. I squeeze power into that hand. You're getting ready to enter into the joys of a master. You're getting ready to enter into the joys of a master. You get ready to be more than a conqueror. I want you to start praising God with that person like you are already there. Like you are already all in the balcony, all in the overflow, all in the back of the church. I want you to praise God like it's already done. Like it's already happened. Like it's already broke out. Can't hear you. Give the Lord some praise. Give him a Holy Ghost praise. Give me my Holy Ghost praise. A Holy Ghost praise. Don't stop until your breaks. Don't stop until it opens. Don't stop until you get frustrated. Give him a Holy Ghost praise. By the way, welcome to 2023. This is your new beginning. This is your new start. This is the day that the Lord has made. Somebody praise him in the new year.

Wait a minute. I said, somebody praise him in the new year. Praise him. Praise him. Right. Praise him. Back to your overcover. Praise him like he made a way for you. Let everything that hath breath.

All right. Look at your neighbor and say, "Baby, you gotta excuse me a minute. After all I've been through in 2022, I got to give God some praise." I owe him a praise.

Yes, yes, yes. Hey.

I could do this. Somebody. I can do this.