[Music] let's go to work in the gospel of saint luke chapter number 22 verse 42 through 51 and then i will drop down to 55 and luxuriate the theology of this message by continuing the story from 55 through 62 we will be reading out of the king james version for no particular reason other than the fact that we both share being old i like the language i learned the language in king james go to it now luke 22 42-51 when you go to this you have stepped into the most stressful overwhelming conflicting moment in the life of christ himself the fortress of hell has come against him all of the legions of demons have come in concert for this moment when we step into this text all that he has done before is now on trial it is not just that he is on trial all that he has done before is on trial and all that he is is on trial good lord the disciples are standing around with him staring watching beholding thinking that they are part with him but the pressure has become so tight the need so great the wrists so high that even the strongest of the disciples begin to buckle up under the weight that jesus is standing up under we step into this moment and it is there not only so that we will have the beautiful continuity of the history of the circumstances that led to the crucifixion but there is an underlying message that i want to extract from a very familiar story for the edification of the church and where you are right now and i believe in my spirit that god is going to answer somebody's question today through the word of god so i want you to listen with the king here with an infinite ability to understand that god is talking to you and he has drawn you out here this morning so that he could sit by the fire and talk to you as a father would his son so that through it you might become better and stronger and richer in him are you ready saying father if thou be willing remove this cup from me nevertheless not my will but thine be done and there appeared an angel unto him from heaven strengthening him and being in agony he prayed more earnestly agony requires more earnestly when you're in agony you have to pray more earnestly when you're in agony you have to pray more earnestly if it weren't for the agony there wouldn't be the earnestly sometimes god will allow the agony to bring you to a place of earnestly if god didn't bring agony into your life you would not pray with more earnestly and his sweat was as as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground and when he rose up from the prayer and was come to his disciples he found them sleeping for sorrow and he said unto them why sleepy rise and pray watch rise and pray lest ye enter into temptation oh i didn't know that prayer was a deterrent for temptation that if i pray strong enough there are some temptations i won't enter in because of my prayer life that he will lead me around certain types of temptation and deliver me from evil because i'm a prayer warrior and while he yet spake behold a multitude watch this watch this watch this don't just read it watch it and while he yet spake behold a multitude of mob came a scandalous mob came and he that was called judas one of the twelve went before them and drew near unto jesus to kiss him but jesus said unto him judas betray us now the son of man with the kiss have you no class have you no dignity of all the ways to betray me you would betray me while being intimate with me [Applause] the height of betrayal is to do it with a kiss you could have pointed at me you could have described me to them but you took advantage of your ability to access me the fact that i allowed you to be able to access me you now use it against me and flaunt it to your friends that you can get to me all to my demise and my destruction when they which were about him saw what would follow they said unto him lord shall we smite with the sword they don't know what to do because the mob has come they've come with torches and weapons and lights and screaming and terror terrorists coming against jesus and one of them smote the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear his right ear and jesus answered and said suffer ye thus far and he touched his ear and healed him and when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the hall and were set down together i'm down at verse 55 peter sat down among them oh wait how can you cut the ear off a person and then sit down amongst them but a certain maid beheld him as he set by the fire and earnestly looked upon him and said this man was also with him and he denied him saying woman i know him not and after a little while another saw him and said god also of them and peter said man i am not and about the space of one hour after another confidently affirmed saying of a truth this fellow also was with him for he is a galilean and peter said man i know not what bout says and immediately while he yet spake the cop crew and the lord turned and looked upon peter it's a powerful thing it's it's not it's not that the lord said anything to him he gave him that look you know that look your parents gave you when you were showing off in church he just looked upon peter and peter remembered the word of the lord how he had said unto him before the crows thou shalt deny me thrice and peter went out and wept he wept bitterly can the church say amen this morning while you're standing i want to talk to you about delayed gratification if you're watching on the internet type that on the line delayed gratification because underneath the texture of this story and the continuity of the events i want you to see that jesus is teaching them the power of delayed gratification let us pray spirit of the living god come real close [Music] hover over this place in such a way that you bring clarity of thought and nimbleness of mine and endow me with the grace and the gift of being able to articulate that which defies human language as we stand on the precipice of this text we know this is the week separated from all other weeks there would never be or never will be another week like this week this is the week when all that you have professed has come to trial in this moment we are in such coinanea because there are many people in this room that all that they have professed has come to trial in this season that we're in right now all that we have sung about and shout about it's preached about and talked about and testified about has come to trial through the events that come against us in this moment and we have fellowship with you because we feel the weight and the pressure and the responsibility of responding to something that had we had a right to choose we would have avoided but we trust you when we can't trace you have your way in this place spirit of the living god fall freshly on us in the name of jesus we pray somebody shout amen you may be seated in the presence of the lord yeah let's go to work glory to god delayed gratification is a hard thing to teach particularly when you are teaching it to people who have been oppressed because when you have been oppressed whether in a marriage or on a job or in society you have waited so long for any inkling of success that the moment we get any inkling of success we need to be able to sport it it is therapeutic it is reassuring it is comforting but delayed gratification requires a degree of maturity that very few people have delayed gratification requires that you are seasoned enough to see the higher purpose rather than the momentary gratification of proving to naysayers that you got it going on when you make proving to other people that you are somebody your goal you fall short of your divine purpose because god did not create you to impress people because if you impress them what is the reward you are impressing people that have nothing to give you but an opinion and everyone has an opinion and few of them are changed by the accruments of our success our problems today center around the fact that we have a tendency to buy our wants and beg our needs because we can't wait for it we spend years in the wilderness of adversity rather than walking into the land that flows with milk and honey because we like the ability to have delayed gratification any goal that you're going after whether you're trying to lose weight or whether you're trying to build wealth or whether you're trying to start a ministry or whether you're trying to build a marriage or whether you're trying to open up a business you have to have delayed gratification if you open up a business and you start eating up all the profits and spending it as fast as you're making it your business won't last long you have got to open up the business and ignore the prophets if you have the strength to ignore the prophets long enough they will accrue in value and strength to the point that you can go beyond what we fall into the abyss of looking rich it is far better to be a thing than look a thing but in our haste to be impressive we will take the shortcut of looking like we have something that we do not and when we do that we forfeit the opportunity to actually be what we are professing because it is expensive to require immediate gratification in a marriage it's expensive to require immediate gratification on a job it's expensive to require immediate gratification i have learned the things that come quickly do not last the things that are the most valuable and most important take time to accrue and to build up and the time is necessary it is not just god holding back things from you it is god giving you an opportunity to build up to be able to withstand the harvest that he's getting ready to drop on you the harvest that god has for you is so big that he has to break your habits he has to break your habits so that you can enjoy your harvest your habits are destroying your harvest he would have invested more but he knows he can't trust you because your gratification becomes more important than his will and anytime your gratification becomes more important than his long-term will he has to hold back what he would have given you because you can't handle it i was visiting one of my spiritual sons and he picked me up in a jaguar and the jaguars are very nice and expensive car is not my kind of car because i'm too big they make great they make jaguars for little people little cute people a little five foot four cute people i got too much legs and accessories and stuff and and and accruments and supplements to be comfortable in the jaguar but i got in the jaguar i folded myself down like a piece of luggage and i fit down into the jaguar and i rode in the jaguar and he took me out to an impressive restaurant and we had a good time and we had a great time and when we got back to the hotel i got out of the car and i slammed the door i didn't mean to but i slammed the door i slammed the door hard enough that he got mad that i slammed the door but he respected me too much to show that he was mad but inside he was mad because i slammed the door and he asked me later what's wrong with you and i said what's wrong with you [Applause] he says what do you mean i said let me tell you something you will never have anything because you like the ability to wait you got more car than you got money you got more carding you got house you got more car then you got college tuition for your children you got more car then you got savings you got more car than you got mutual fun you got more car then you got church you got more car than you got ministry you got more car than you got people and you're trying to get the people to sacrifice and they don't see any sacrifice on you see jesus said if you suffer with me you'll reign with me he does not disconnect the continuity between suffering and raining he said you can't just leap into reigning without going through suffering suffering justifies the rain suffering teaches you things that make you able to maintain the reigning with him so he says i will not allow you to reign with me if you forsake the suffering with me and we lose over and over again because we lack the ability to wait he said what do you think i should do i said you should you should trade it in you should trade your car in this is the test of sonship i said you should trade your car in and get a jeep i didn't expect him to do it because most people say they are your sons only mean see see the real test of being a son is chastisement the bible says that if you endure chastisement you're a son you're not a son when i'm saying things that you like that don't mean anything anybody will follow you as long as you're saying things that you like but sonship is proven when i say something that you don't like and you submit to it i've taught you before that the root word to submit is to submit to the mission submission submission means that there has to be a mission that is greater than your need for gratification and you submit to the mission but the problem with most of us is that we have no sense of mission instead we only have a sense of moments so we have things like shopping therapy because we want to feel good in the moment and we think that everything should happen in the moment but the truth of the matter is anything worth having takes time anything that's worth having takes commitment anything that's worth having takes suffering there are no shortcuts to it it requires suffering it is not just patience that i'm teaching about this morning because patience alone is not enough to deliver what god gave me to give to you today you can have patience and still not have the ability to have delayed gratification patience just means our weight and we have a lot of church people who are stuck in the weight mode they're waiting on god to do something when in fact god is waiting on them to do something so patience alone is not enough delayed gratification requires that you have patience and strategy i want you to write this down patience plus strategy equals gratification patience plus strategy equals gratification if you have patience and you don't have a strategy you're just waiting but when you know you're waiting with a strategy in mind you know ultimately it will lead to gratification because you are not waiting because you're tired or because you procrastinate or because you're lazy or because you don't care you are tired on schedule you are waiting on schedule you are sitting on schedule you are denying on schedule you're driving a lesser car on schedule because you got a bigger vision than a car i never will forget when we were in west virginia and you remember we were in west virginia we bought our first really really really nice home and we were entertaining a couple and they made fun of our car and they said you can't drive this kind of car up to this kind of house he said you can't you need to get rid of this rust bucket that's what he called my car rust bucket you cannot drive this kind of car up to this kind of house i said driving this kind of car is what got me this kind of house well y'all don't hear what i'm saying i i i drove the car i knew it looked bad i know it was i know i know it was kind of rusty i knew it was old i knew it was about 12 years old but i was driving it for a reason it was part of the strategy that the money that i could have been putting into payments i was putting into something that would build equity that would build i sacrificed on the depreciating asset so that i could build up the appreciating asset because i got tired of visiting better come on come on stay with me i got tired of visiting better and as soon as you get tired of visiting better and you want to start living in better you have to practice delayed gratification in order to be able to get there the reason this text speaks to me in such a powerful way is because this is one of the only times that we see jesus lose the disciples had never seen jesus lose from the marriage at cana to the woman with the issue of blood to the sour phoenician woman to over and over and over again to blind bottom hairs every time jesus healed a man whether he'd been by the pool for 38 years or whether he had a withered arm we saw immediate results he called lazarus from the grave and immediately he got up out of the grave he stopped the widow of name stopped her in the middle of a funeral processional touched the casket and immediately the boy got up he cursed the fig tree and when they came back the fig tree was dead he spoke to zacchaeus and said this day i shall be at your house and this day he was at the house whenever jesus spoke a thing it became whatever he said he healed the lepers and told them to go show themselves to the priests and before they could get to the priest they were already healed he came to the disciples walking on the water jesus was a winner everything he did was winning matthew mark luke and john all gang us to teach us that jesus is a winner and this week contradicts all that we understand about jesus because in this week the disciples the students the mentor the school of prophets that were coming up under him were following him into a loss he was teaching them a message that is critical for us to learn that sometimes you have to lose to win oh god this is so good i'm gonna get the cd myself sometimes you have to lose to win when the wind is big enough a lose always precedes it don't let the loose fool you it's a tactical maneuver to bring you to an expected end it doesn't matter what you had to go through if you ever had to build a house while you're building a house that drives you crazy the contractors get on your nerves everything gets on your nerves the bank gets on your nerve the zoning committee gets on your nerve the permits get on your nerves the extra money you had to spend get on you there everything gets on your nerve but the moment the house is built and you get all your furniture in and you move in and you settle down and you light your fireplace and you put your music on and you dim your lights you don't remember the contractor you don't remember the permits you don't remember the struggle you don't remember the pain because what's in front of you is greater than everything you went through and so you're not sitting in your new house fussing about the contractor because the gain is great enough to swallow up the agony of the process oh y'all hear what i'm saying and there's somebody that i'm preaching to god is getting ready to give you a massive gain and what i'm what i am sitting here to teach you is that you have to be willing to lose in the short run to win in the long run you have to do without on the short run so that you can have in the long run you have to be willing to be laughed at in the short run and spend 120 years having all your neighbors laughing at you building a boat in your backyard you have to go through 120 years of them making fun of you and saying you're a lunatic but they won't laugh in the end because when the rain comes they'll understand that you were working on something while you were waiting on something catch somebody and say i'm working on something yeah i'm working on something i might not look good right now but i'm working on something i might not be impressive right now but i'm working on something i might not have any money right now but i'm working on something i may be a student in school living off of roman noodles but i'm working on something i may have to study while you go to the basketball game but i'm working on something i may not get to do all the fun things that you get to do but i'm working on something i'm in the gym cause i'm working on something i'm in the field running cause i'm working on something i'm reading books at two o'clock in the morning cause i'm working on something i'm exercising because i'm working on something anytime you're working on something you got to go through a period of suffering and if you lose over here you're going to win over there who am i talking to this morning this is the first time that the disciples got to see him lose all he ever did was win at 12 years old they brought him into the temple and he warned up against the doctors and the scholars he won he outsmarted all of them at 12 all he ever did was when when his mother told him they ran out of wine he took water and turned it into wine and the wine could not resist the word for the word said turn the wine and the water obey and all they had ever seen him do was when but this week he was acting strange it was not unusual to see him go apart to pray he often went apart to pray even after he fed the five thousand he went into the mountains to pray and he came back walking on the water and it was fine and it was good but this was different this was a different kind of prayer this was a stressful agonizing tormenting prayer this was a prayer that made him want company because when you have delayed gratification and you're suffering you want friendship misery enjoys company but there are some places that god is taking you that you can't take anybody with you no matter how much they love you no matter how much they like you there are some things that god takes you through that you have to face it alone you have to face it alone i went in the labor room with my wife and i was in the room with her but when they said push they weren't talking to me when they pulled out scissors and did an episiotomy i didn't bleed the truth of the matter is i told everybody we were having a baby but when i saw them do what they did i said no we have no baby you have the baby and i'm praying for you [Applause] because some things nobody can do for you peter james and john have gone into the garden of gethsemane the place of pressing the place where all of the olive trees were kept the place where the only way you could get the oil was to crush the olive and it is ironic that a crushed jesus comes into a crushed place getting ready to be transformed from one element into another crushing is always standing in the way i wish i had some crushed people in here i wish i had a few people who had gone through some crushing times i wish i had some people who had lost a friend or lost a house or lost a spouse or went through something that crushed you and you didn't know whether you could take it and you didn't know whether you could make it and you wondered where was god in the middle of your situation i get tired of people always acting like you're on top of the mountain every now and then god orders a valley in your life and when god orders a valley in your life you got to be prepared to walk through the valley of the shadow of death and know that i'm going to walk through it i'm not going to stay in it but i got to walk through it because the valley comes to teach me god teaches in the shadows god teaches in the darkness god speaks in the night when god said let there be light he said it in the dark some of the greatest words you will ever get from god will not come from your successes they will come from your failures in the darkest moments of your life that's when faith stands up undaunted i don't need faith for victory i need faith when i have to lose to win [Applause] [Music] all over the bible it hints about it it talks about it we see it with jonah he had to lose to win he ran away from nineveh and went to tarshish and then got thrown off the boat the prophet of god the man of god the evangelist of the hour the one that was to speak to nations has now been capsized thrown overboard and swallowed up by a fish and went down down down to the bottom of the mountains he had to go down before he went up baptism itself teaches us this principle that before you can come up you got to go down going down is a part of the process if you go down you can come up we want to go up without going down but in order to get a great thing done you got to go down before you go up and jesus was at his wits in they had never seen him pray like this they had never seen him agonized like this he kept praying and coming back and checking on them and they were asleep and then he had to go back and pray again they had never seen jesus have to repeat the same prayer three times jesus said in the tomb of latter father i know that you always hear me but in the garden of gethsemane he has the same conversation with the father three times and the third time it was so intense it was intense somebody said intense it was until there's prayer and then there's intense prayer the prayer was so intense that he started sweating if i were to theme this text it would be blood sweat and tears because in the early phases of this text we will see blood sweat and finally we will see tears the truth of the mighty is is that jesus swept until great drops of blood started coming through the pores of his skin that's intense the book of hebrews says you have not yet resisted under blood you say you want deliverance you say you want out you say you want up you say you want better he said but you have not resisted under blood you want that comfortable lazy boy blessing that double portion blessing where you come down the house sashaying with the cute dress on and we put some oil on your head in the shape of a cross and lay hands on you and you want a double portion of the anointing you don't want to be homeless like i was almost homeless you don't want your lights to be cut off you don't want your water to be cut off you don't want your car to be repossessed i've never had anybody run down the aisle and say i want to go through the hell you went through no they don't want to go through the hell i went through they want the anointing that i have but they don't understand that the hell i went through is what created the anointing and you can't get the anointing until you go through the hell if you see me when i'm taken up you can have a double portion of my spirit but until you've been at gilgal until you have suffered at jericho until you have walked this thing out you don't get the reward without the pain you don't get success without struggle [Applause] you have to be prepared to lose [Applause] in order to win and jesus was bleeding out of his pores trying to understand this moment is there any ability to negotiate a settlement with god that allows me to have a massive win without a massive loss or father if it be thy will pass this bitter cup for me i want to redeem the people but i don't want to be beaten strip naked crown of thorns put on my head stretch wide hung high and die in the blazing palestinian heat until i collapse dead on the cross surely there's got to be another way to get to winning without losing and you're going to make me lose in front of my admirers one of my spiritual son said you don't know how stressful it is to have to preach with you in the building he said i have so much respect for you it makes it difficult for me to preach when i know you're looking at me i said it is just as hard on the father to preach in front of the son who admires him as it is for the son to preach in front of the father who's sitting there trying to train him because you think so highly of me it requires great stress for me to deliver up under the fierce intensity of your admiration your admiration becomes my aggravation [Applause] that you would believe in me is nothing but pressure to deliver up under such adverse circumstances is not easy and jesus is trying to negotiate to see if there is another option and the third prayer he says not my will but thine be done the surrender to the loss is shaking it's shaking it's it is so shaking that when he walks out this last time he tells his disciples sleep on you're not no matter how much you pray you're not going to change the process prayer will not change process prayer will not change process i told you a couple of weeks ago you can kneel down beside your bed and pray to your mouth is dry and you get white in the corner of your lips but when you get up you still got to make up the bed because prayer does not change process god will not make up your bed just because you knelt beside it are you with me here we are in the garden of gethsemane and we always preach about the cross but for me for me it's all about the garden the victory is won not on the cross it's in the garden the victory is one when you say yes to the process oh yeah the victory is not one when you get whatever it is that you're believing god for the victory is one when you are pressed to the point that you say though he slayed me yet shall i trust him when you're oppressed to the point that you're saying costs what it costs i'm going to trust him even in my pain in my agony in the hospital in a crisis in bereavement in suffering in agony when you can go to the cemetery and walk away and say he's still god that's the kind of stuff that makes hell nervous that's the kind of stuff that makes demons tremble that's the kind of stuff that makes the witch lose her spell [Applause] [Music] he never said he that out must all shots somebody out of shot he's still god i may not have a job but he's still god i may not have any money in my pocket but he's still god i may have gone through a divorce but he's still god i may be raising my children by myself but he's still god i may be homeless but he's still god see faith is not proven in victories faith is proven in peril and drama and struggle and denial and weeping and pain and when god gets ready to make you a great woman you'll know he's gonna make you great by how you suffer the greater the glory the more intense the story because you can't get this all out of a book you have to rock with it and roll with it and groan with it and weep with it and cry with it and crawl with it and stumble around and say where are you god i can't find you eli eli llama sabotage why have you forsaken me oh you can get technique you can get style you can get information you can get data but until you get guts [Applause] what good are your gadgets if you have no guts you develop guts in gethsemane you you develop guts when blood comes where sweat was blood sweat and tears you develop a great union after you've had a great fight you develop a great marriage when you've been unhappy and stayed anyway you become a great parent when you parent a troubled child anybody can parent a child is up on the dean's list and straight a's and no problems and polite but when you have to go get them out the strip club and stand out in front of the crack house and say jiminy your mama out here come on talk to me somebody where are the mamas i wish i had some real mama when when you gone through hell and come back you come back with something that you cannot buy [Applause] [Music] jesus now understands something that i'm trying to teach this morning and that is simply that it cost what it costs you can go and buy a vw and catch a sale you can catch levi jeans on sale you can go find a monster and negotiate but if you go to buy a rolls royce there is no markdown there is no discount there is no negotiation because of the quality god told me to tell you what he's going to give you is going to be amazing but it will not go on sale so there's no need of you sitting there waiting for it to drop down to the bargain basement so that you can get 40 off no it's gonna cost what it costs and with travail and tears and agony and suffering you shall enter in sleep on [Music] [Applause] going to sleep peter he said you should have been praying unless you enter into temptation the temptation to fluctuate the temptation to be unstable the temptation to vacillate is broken by prayer back up but instead of praying they were sleeping and the more you sleep the less you pray and because you are mighty men of valor you should have been praying not to enter into temptation he's not talking about a woman he's not talking about a club he's not talking about a strip club he's not talking about a joint he's not talking about a drink that's not the temptation the temptation is to offer a quick solution to a long process the temptation is to shortcut the strategy the temptation is to look for an easy way out oh peter was asleep so when jesus comes out from the garden of gethsemane as soon as he walks out of the garden and the garden of gethsemane is not a big place it's about as big as half of this stage maybe a little bit more with olive trees all over the place and jesus has been back in the inner sanctum of the garden of gethsemane way past where his people were you can't be a leader if you can't go past your people the bible says it this way he went on a little further they stayed there and prayed but he went on a little further and if you're going to be a great leader you got to go on a little further and when you go on a little further you got to go by yourself you don't have anybody holding your hand you don't have anybody staying up bringing your coffee in the middle of the night when you go on a little further you got to go by yourself if you're just gonna go through kindergarten grandma can help you but if you're going after your doctorate you got to go by yourself that means you got to be up when other people are in the bed that means you got to be reading when other people are watching the game it means you got to have the discipline because it costs what it costs and it's not going to go on sale somebody ought to shove me down somebody ought to shout me down somebody oughta shout me down somebody ought to shout me down [Applause] jesus walks out of the garden prayer rich [Music] and peter james and john come out faith poor and as soon as they come out of the garden here comes a railing mob imagine what happened on january 6th a mob has come a mob is coming where is nancy and bob has come and they said where's jesus can you imagine the other terror when people are not only assembled in a mob with weapons and lanterns they're calling your name where is jesus [Music] and then then then jesus does something that's utterly amazing it's not mentioned in my text but it's mentioned in the gospel of saint john he said i that speak him he and they all fell backwards i that speak am he and they all fell backwards he's letting us know that he did not succumb to the power of the mob he submitted to the prayer of with the father he says i can handle the whole mob i could swallow you up i could knock you off your feet i could bury you in the earth i could drown you in the jordan i could speak a word and you couldn't catch your breath i am not allowing myself to be shackled because you're stronger than me i am being shackled because i'm strong whether i'm shackled or not i'm strong with no car i'm strong with no friends i'm strong with no help i'm strong with no money i'm strong with no company i'm strong if you leave me i'm strong if you stay i'm strong if you cuss me out i'm strong if you allow me i'm strong if you're spitting my face ah that speak and he and they all fell backwards and old half praying half sleeping peter reached in and got his sword and cut off k office nephew's servant's ear watch this he cut off his ear of all things to cut off he cut off his ear and jesus stoops down and puts it back on again because how can he ever get better if he can't hear the enemy wants to cut off your ear [Music] he'll do anything to keep you from hearing what thus saith the lord you didn't hear what i'm saying you don't hear what i'm saying the enemy's after your ear that's why he sent your crazy girlfriend to cut off your ear her advice is cutting off your ear your associations are cutting off your ear your so-called friends are cutting off your ear anything that stops you from being able to hear is cutting off your ear but jesus stood down [Applause] and put it back on again because faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of god and how shall they hear without a preacher and how shall they preach say they be sent if you cut off my ear my ear is the only exit out of my situation you can't get out of your situation if you can't hear he that has it here let him hear what the spirit said to the church i'd rather lose my toes than lose my ear i'd rather lose my legs than lose my ear because if i'm gonna learn anything if i'm gonna know anything if i'm gonna respond to command i need my ear the first thing the doctor does when they bring you out of anesthesia is call your name to see if you can hear i need my ears so i can hear if i'm ever gonna come out of this stupor i'm in i need to be able to hear my name being called jesus reached down and said i know he's gone and i know he's bad and i know he's working for the enemy but giving back his ear to give him back his ear is the grace to change there are some people in your life that you have cut off their ear and in so doing you have taken away their grace to change you cut them off because you were angry peter but you cut them off and left them condemned any time you cut somebody off they lose the ability to change and why can you accept grace for your sin [Applause] and be so offended at someone else's you have no right to cut off someone's ear because if i'm gonna get better it's gonna come through what i hear are you listening at me he cut off his ear jesus reached down and put it back on again and tells him i must do the will of my father you are not my friend if your friendship takes me away from delayed gratification because i have prayed three times and the father has convinced me that there is no way for me to gloat be glorified without being crucified and if you stop the crucifixion then you hinder the glorification and you think you're doing me a favor but let me die let me curl up in a nod and die let me be beaten with the cataline tales let me be ostracized oh but i've gotten ahead of myself i'm talking about physical pain when i have omitted the emotional pain that on the most tumultuous week of his life the people he hand-picked have betrayed him he chose judas and judas has betrayed him for 30 pieces of silver something he could run through in a week he has sold jesus for change what have you sold him for what have you sold them for what did the enemy offer you that was so hot that you sold your jesus for a weekend you sold your jesus for a promotion with a company that will later downsize and lay you off [Applause] what would you sell him for what have you sold him for you're watching me on the stream i have a question for you how much did it cost to get you to betray him how cute was she how fine was it some of you sold jesus and you got what you wanted but you don't want what you got [Applause] judah sold jesus for 30 pieces of silver and not one piece of it stopped him from killing himself and you could sell your jesus for something that would make you kill yourself you know why it's a trick type it on the line it's a trick it's a trick the whole 30 pieces of silver is a trick number one it won't last number two it won't bring gratification and number three it won't stop suicide it is the same 30 pieces of silver that made judas kill himself not one piece of that silver would stop the rope he dangled on and i came to warn you that you may get what you want but you may not want what you got [Applause] i stopped to talk about this because i can only imagine the toll it took on jesus hard jesus had put up with all of judah's antics and criticism and still left him on the board jesus had put up with judas criticisms and aggravation and still left him judas was jesus treasurer and he who handled the money sold him for money and before he could recover from that he says to him why betress thou me with a kiss the enemy who lives a distance from you or writes a blog about you or starts a rumor about you or talks about you at the beauty shop is never your judas your judas has to be close enough to kiss you in order to be judas your judas has to be the one you eat with and go out to dinner with he that sucks with me is judas i want to give you some homework identify your judas [Music] and still feed him identify your judas and still take him out to dinner identify your judas and still give him the cup jesus fed his judas jesus washed the feet of his students and you will know you've grown up when you can be nice to nasty you're not a grown woman until you can be nice to nasty you're not a great preacher until you can be nice to nasty you're not a great man until you can be nice to nasty until as long as you wear your feelings on your face as long as it's important to you that you let them know that you don't like them you are immature only a child pouts when they don't get what they want a mature person can control their emotions jesus fed his judas [Applause] and besides if you feed him you know where he is [Applause] y'all don't hear what i'm saying to you if you feed him you know where he is if you fall out with him you don't know what he's going to do you don't know where he is you don't know what's going to happen but if you feed him you can control his actions jesus told him what thou do is do it quickly he could only do that because judas was at the table can i go deeper imagine how jesus must have felt is it not tough enough to be turned over to the roman soldiers who hated being there in the first place is it not tough enough to be beaten to the point that he almost died on the whipping pose is it not tough enough to have your beard plucked from your face is it not tough enough to have the nails to dig into the metatarsals of your feet and bring your feet together and with one nail they nailed him to the tree i believe it's symbolic of the jew and the gentile coming together up under one gospel which is the church but they took one nail for two feet and brought them together and they nailed him to the tree and he bled out on the cross with nothing to wear but blood with no covering but blood he was executed before they called it crucified because crucifixion was a common execution imagine you knew you were on death row and this is the last week and the only people who came to visit you have now betrayed you i want to talk to people who have been betrayed to be betrayed means i have invested in you i have traveled with you i have fed you i have laughed with you i have opened up to you and i have talked to you never thinking for a moment that you had another agenda jesus was betrayed let us not be so distracted by the physical pain that we ignore the emotional torment [Music] because if he can be touched by how i feel he has to feel it first he can't just be a savior of my physicalities and not a savior of my mentality so surely he had borne our griefs surely he had borne our griefs so if you if you omit the emotional pain then when you have an emotional problem you can't talk to him about it because he doesn't understand but because he had borne our griefs and carried our sorrows he is not just a healer of our bodies he is a healer of our soul of our emotions of our memories of our brokenheartedness of our shame of our hurt of our humiliation of our disappointment [Music] jesus knows [Music] what disappointment feels like and it is exposed when he says betray us found me with a kiss a kiss don't mean they love you baby it might be how they identify you but it doesn't necessarily mean that they love you judas betrayed the epitome of the insult is that you could have pointed me out but because i gave you access to me you used to act against me and now you betray me i guess the worst betrayal in the world is false intimacy i'mma say it for the people on the other side the worst betrayal in the world is false intimacy that's why i like my enemies to be enemies [Music] i like my enemies to be enemies i like my enemies to say i don't like you i can't stand you i don't like the way you preach i don't like the way you look i like my enemies to be enemies because once i know your enemy i know how to handle you what confuses me is when you wear the camouflage of friendship and i give you access into the inner sanctum of who i am and now you betray me with a kiss [Applause] can i go deeper and peter have had a dispute a dispute that is strange peter do you love me yes lord i love you feed my lamb peter do you love me are you deaf jesus yes lord i love you feed my sheep peter do you really love me yes lord i love you but the problem is jesus is saying peter do you agape and peter is saying i fell ill [Music] watch how people answer do you agape yes lord i feller phileo is brotherly love agape is the love of god peter do you agape yes lord i fillet and jesus decides to read him he says before the crows you will have denied me three times no i would never betray you this is some this is this is the complexity of the text i believe that peter really meant i will never betray you because we seldom know what's really in us [Applause] let me talk to y'all telling people what you'd never do stop telling people what you never do if the circumstances are right and the conditions are right you would be shocked what you are capable of doing the problem with peter it always has been his problem peter doesn't know himself the worst thing in the world is to be yoked to somebody who doesn't know who they are because how can i please you when you don't know who you are how can i satisfy you when you don't know what you want how can i be there for you when i don't know which you i'm there for come on come on come on go with me go with me a little while longer i'm headed somewhere i'm headed somewhere i'm headed somewhere i'm headed somewhere peter doesn't know who he is jesus continually all his life has been trying to tell him who he is simon simon thou art the rock cephas you're a stone simon you're not unstable simon means unstable you're not unstable you're a rock but i got to bring that rock out of you have you ever had something bring the rock out in you no they ain't talking to me let me ask y'all have you ever had something bring the rock out in you and you didn't even know you were a rock but when all hell broke loose and you were backed up against the wall and by time people got through betraying you you found toughness you didn't even know you had you found strength you didn't even know you had and there's this breaking point and nobody knows where it is but everybody has this breaking point where they flip on you and think enough is enough enough is enough no no no no no no you're not going to say that no no no no no let me tell you right now let me tell you just cause i've been quiet doesn't mean i'm weak just cause i've been smiling doesn't mean that i'm stupid just cause i've been nice doesn't mean that i'm crazy and now you got me down to the rock god wants to take you through enough stuff that he digs down to something solid you can't build a house on the dirt you got to build it on a rock and so you're going through things right now because god is digging you out peter doesn't know who he is and when people don't know who they are they respond in unpredictable ways so peter pulls out his sword and cuts off his ear cause peter's a fighter and he said i'll cut your ear off your ear right now i'll cut your ear off your head i will block you bro i will take you out of this world right now over jesus and even though he looks bad in this moment maybe this is me but he looks kind of good no maybe it's just my demand in mind but i don't mind having a peter around me every now and then [Applause] can i just be real with you it's something kind of attractive to me about somebody who's so with you that they would cut off an ear somebody who's so committed that they will defend you and fight for you and stand up for you and some kind of cool about it makes me want to give you an extra communion cup yeah yeah yeah you cut off a year you get an extra cup of communion you get another piece of bread i'm gonna do something special for you because i like the fact that you were cut off in the ear for me the irony of it all is that peter was only tough when jesus was looking the same guy who cut off in here when jesus was looking when they took jesus captive and they shackled him and they drove him away the same guy the saint honey do you hear me the same guy who would cut off an ear in an angry mob and risk his to defend jesus it's the same guy who ends up sitting with the enemy footnote beware of people with strange friends i pay attention to who you hang around because it's it's difficult for me to believe that you could love me and warm yourself by the fire of the people that's going to kill me oh i lost him on that jesus i lost him on that jesus i lost him on that jesus the saint you don't get it these are the same people the reason one girl recognized him is because she saw him in galilee the man recognized him because he was related to the guy that peter cut his ear off so peter who has cut off an ear is now warming himself by the enemy's fire which says to me what you're really about is belonging and now that you can't belong with me oh yeah y'all don't want me to dig down here [Applause] now that you can't belong with me i'm not even dead yet and you with them have you ever been amazed at these people that can hop around from one extreme to the other and today they're over here and tomorrow they're way over there and tomorrow they're way over there and they're they now peter peter peter the one who was a fisherman till jesus called him unlearned peter whose status is only a result of his relationship with jesus is now warming himself by the fire of who looks like the winner when jesus looked like he was winning he was with jesus when jesus looked like he was losing he was with them and watch people who keep switching sides all of a sudden you realize that they're more interested in winning then they're interested in you and if it's necessary to be with you to win i'll be with you but if something else comes along that i can win from i will warm myself by the fire and tell them i never knew feel that sit in that a minute sit in the fact that judas has just sold him and peter who was in the inner circle that was supposed to be interceding for him now has denied him not once not twice but three times and on the third time jesus brought the sermon through the crowing of a that didn't know when it growed that morning that it was preaching it was preaching to peter that jesus was right the cop crowed and jesus just looked at him and when he looked at peter no sorry when he looked in peter [Applause] peter webb soar how there is a book out called the gospel according to judas it's not a part of the canonical bibles it suggested judas betrayed jesus because he wanted to start an insurrection and he thought jesus was going to do his thing and overthrow rome and the trick backfired he was too smart for his own good now i don't know whether that was really written by judas or not but if it is true he was too smart for his own good peter on the other hand has a different story altogether he attaches himself with power here is the underlying story thomas we don't know where he is thomas has said i must go and die with him where is thomas wait excuse me bible scholars are here when jesus was on the cross where was thomas when they shackled him and they took him away where was thomas thomas had said i must go and die with him i don't read where thomas was nowhere around so you can't make decisions based on what people say can i can i go just a little bit deeper can i go see see because some of y'all got so much faith in the things people say to you you got so much faith in what they said you are setting yourself up to be wounded you're setting yourself up to be heard you're setting yourself up to be defeated you cannot go by what people say because people change let me tell y'all over there people change people change people fall in love if you can fall in you can fall out people fall in love they fall out of love they make commitments they make changes whenever they get ready and you cannot build your life on the words of people here's the big takeaway i want you to see it is i'm not criticizing the disciples no doubt i have had judas in me no doubt i've had peter and me no doubt i've been thomas and doubted i'm not criticizing the disciples the real point of the message is that they did not recognize jesus in laws they recognized him on the mount of transfiguration but they didn't recognize him in loss sometimes people only recognize you when you're winning i spent half of my ministry preaching in store fronts and i swear i could preach the same way being i do now there were no busloads coming to visit our church there were no cameras covering me there were no bloggers writing on me no nothing nothing because people react differently to you when they perceive you are successful that's why it's hard to get up [Applause] because anybody give you money if you don't need it my wife went to the car dealership and she was gonna get a car and they was taking her through all these changes and take her from office to office and go to the manager and doing all of that stuff she was sitting there telling me i came in there i had i had a fit i had a fit i had you y'all would be ashamed i'm sorry i had a fit i flipped out i said you go home right now and i told the man if she wants the car bring it to the house if we decide to get the car we'll sign the papers in the house and we don't need to see your credit manager because if i decided i wanted it and he looked at me with shock and amazement because he was used to talking to people who were down and i wanted him to know don't fool with me don't don't know don't fool with me cause i got options don't fool with me cause i know the owner of the company don't fool with me because i called the general manager don't fool with me cause i got power don't fool with me cause i will fight you all day and for god sake don't you fool with my wife cause i will slice you and dice you like i own you and i got in my car and i drove off and i told the person who was with my wife don't you ever take her through that again don't you ever let nobody talk to her like that again don't you ever do that again because when people think they can say just anything to you they say just anything to you and the hard part about getting up is that people won't give you a shot and what i'm trying to teach you in the text i'll say this and how close they didn't recognize jesus losing he had always been a winner and you can always get a bunch of people to follow you when you win [Applause] now he's a loser where where where is thomas where they go peter why are you sitting over there with them judas you counting your money where did they go but what the disciples didn't know is what i'm trying to teach you is that for great wins you have to endure great loss this is where we contemporize the text jesus knew that the only way up was down jesus knew that the road to success was struggle jesus knew that there was no way to get the oil out of the olive but to crush it jesus accepted the process and he knew that the pain in his life right now did not negate the promise that was on his life in fact it initiated the promise that was in his life there was no way for him to be lord of all above the earth under the earth and in the earth without going to all three dimensions so he rebuked peter from trying to save him just as much as he rebuked peter for cutting off the man's ear and then peter denied it and here's the kicker jesus still kept fooling with peter [Music] now if you had got in the way of my destiny and if you had denied me and made friends with my enemies and denied me three times seemed like to me that would be a sign i'm gonna be you i know you and me we finish when you see me you go that way i'll go that way we christians so we got a heart we will nod at each other stay out of my face jesus invites peter to preach the inaugural address on the day of pentecost this is for every man woman boy and girl who's ever had a little judas a little thomas a little peter in them that does not mean that god is through with you that does not mean that god is through with you the reason they did all of that is for the first time in following jesus they had to learn delayed gratification the woman with the issue of blood was healed immediately the man with the withered hand was healed immediately the man who was sick of palsy was healed immediately i can show you case after case where they were healed immediately lazarus was raised from the dead immediately the water was turned to wine immediately this is the first time that they saw jesus in shackles do you know what it would feel like to see your leader your father in chains they did not understand delayed gratification they didn't understand that the rust bucket got the house they didn't understand that the saving opened up the door and we don't seem to understand that the best promises often come out of the longest delays and the reason the reason i'm preaching this message is that the lord told me to tell you you've been delayed but not denied the lord told me to tell you i don't know what it's what he's talking about but you don't know what he's talking about god told me to tell you he's still gonna do it god told me to tell you though the vision terry wait for it in the end it will speak and not lie god told me to tell you that he has not forgotten what he promised you and even though it looks like everything is going contradictory to what he showed you god said it's just delayed gratification and he told me to tell you that after you suffered a while he'll establish you and make you perfect and he told me to tell you that nothing that you suffered will negate anything that he promised you that he's still going to bring it to pass it may not look like it all week long it may not look at while you're hanging from the cross it may not look like it while they lure you in the grave but early sunday morning god said i will not lie to you when i get ready to snatch you up i'm going to snatch you up so fast it's going to blow your mind i just want to know who i'm talking to i want to know who this word is for i want to find somebody who's been on hold a long time and you've been waiting a long time and you've been delayed a long time and you wonder how god forgotten you and you wondered would god ever remember you and you thought maybe god had changed his mind and the lord sent me to preach this message to let you know i didn't change my mind it's just delayed gratification and god said after you've suffered a while i'm gonna raise you up and establish you i don't care how many stones they roll in front of you when i get ready to get you up i'll raise you by my power i'll raise you by my glory you don't have to play a trick you don't have to do a scheme you don't have to play a game god said when i get ready to raise you you don't have to flirt with the soldiers you don't have to make a deal with rome when i get ready to raise you i'll raise you up i'll raise you by my power i'll raise you by my glory i raise you by my strength because what i have spoken i have spoken and what i have said i have said and i swear god said i swear god said i swear god said i swear god said i swear i swear i'm gonna bless you i swear i'm gonna bless you give him 30 seconds of crazy praise i swear i swear i swear i swear i swear i'm going to bless you i swear i'm gonna bless you it might look bad right now but god said i swear i swear i swear i'm gonna bless you this word is for you is for the hell you've been going through is for the pain you've endured it's for the nights you've cried it's for the moments you felt like giving up god said i swear i'm going to bring you out surely goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life when they put you in jail goodness and mercy went to jail with you when they were beating your back goodness and mercy was there with you when they put you in the grave goodness and mercy was there with you and god said i always assigned two angels goodness is on your right side mercy's on your left side and the lord told me to tell you i got you covered i got you covered and when it's all over i'm gonna bring you out and when i bring you out you're gonna be more grateful because you suffered for it you cried for it you waited on it you're not gonna be like the other people who got arrogant god said when i bring you out you're gonna give me the praise you're gonna give me the praise because you're gonna know if it had not been for the lord that was on my side i would have been swallowed up but thanks be to god who gave me the victory i wonder if i can find ten people in this room a hundred people on the internet that what you got you know god gave it to you the door that got opened you know god opened it for you i want you to testify god will keep his word some of you were in abusive relationships some of you had to flee for your life some of you have been beaten some of you have been in jail son of you have lost your last time but didn't god do it he brought you up and while other folks are praising god for stupid stuff you're praising god because god remembered you and god brought you up and god brought you out and god brought you over and i don't care how crazy you act you earned the right to give god the praise you earned the right to give god the glory you earned the right to run up and down the aisle you earned the right to talk in tongues because you waited on it you prayed for it you endured it you praised him when it looked like it wasn't gonna happen but the lord said i saw every praise now i'm going to give you a beauty for ashes the oil of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness i break every heavy spirit in this house you've got to go this is your last sunday following me to church i break the yoke you've been in shackles with a heavy spirit but the holy ghost said i'm going to break it today move your feet move your hands let the devil know i'm loose i'm loose from the thing that bound me oh i feel like preaching now i'm loose from the thing that locked me up i'm loose from the thing that held me down i got loose let your neighbor say i got loose i got loose i got my joy back i got my dance back i got my tongue back i got my power back you need to let the devil know i still got it i got it i got it i got it i got it i got it in my hands i got it in my feet i got it in my soul i'm gonna take a 60 second praise break everybody who broke a chain give god a praise hallelujah everybody who broke a chain give god a praise everybody who broke a yoke give god a praise everybody who refuses to be depressed give god a praise praise until you feel it praise it to your baby jumps praise it to you get your power back i can't hear you [Applause] i got it back i got it back i got the yoke off my neck i got the shackles off my feet now you're gonna see me resurrect there is a spirit of resurrection in this place this morning there's a spirit of resurrection and especially if you've been delayed i want you to force a praise i want you to make a praise i want you to create a praise we're gonna break this spirit this morning it's gonna break this morning it's gonna break out of your house it's gonna break out of your life i dare you to move i dare you to open up your mouth open up your mouth open up your mouth i feel like preaching somebody better take this microphone i'm gonna break it before i leave [Music] [Applause] [Music] i came to church for one reason i came to break that spirit off of my mind off of my neck off of my head off of my emotions off of my heart give me some shout music i want you to break that spirit this morning break it on your couch break it in your living room break it into your coffee table break that spirit yeah yes it's the spirit it's a spirit it's a spirit elbow your neighbor and say give me some room i gotta break this spirit it's not gonna get in the car with me it's not going home with me it's not gonna get in my bed tonight i'm gonna break this spirit i'm gonna leave it in the party's house a woman now i lose from your infirmity now i lose a loose said man let him go loose that creature kids yes yes here comes the spirit of expectation here comes the spirit of expectation here comes the spirit of expectation it's all in the balcony it's all in the fuse it's all in the pulpit everybody that's got an expectation give god a praise at this moment i got an expectation give him a praise happy [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the devil is frustrated he thought he had you tied up but you just got loose somebody just got their arm out somebody got one leg out but if you ain't got but one leg shake that leg i'm gonna shake that leg till i get the other leg free if i gotta shake my left and shake my right and then my left and then my right and then my left and then my right and then my left side my right and then my [Applause] man [Applause] all it is is delayed [Applause] gratification [Applause] when they understood it jackie they all came back peter came back thomas came back thomas thought it was over said unless i feel the nail prince in his hands i will not believe he thought it was over he did not understand delayed gratification jesus didn't rebuke him said thrust your hands into my side and see the nail prints in my hand and be not faithless but believe this was the plan the whole time nothing that happened surprised me i told you if they destroy the temple in three days i'll raise it back up again i told you except a grain of wheat falling to the ground and die it abide alone i'm right on schedule [Applause] i just took you another way [Applause] i got you there but i'm going to take you another way and everything i promise you you're going to get it and it may not be where you thought you was going to get it from and it may not be who you thought you were going to get it from but everything i promised you i will bring it to pass lift your hands and open your mouth [Music] open your mouth you online open your mouth [Applause] open him out to get out of character we're breaking spirits [Applause] [Music] we're breaking spirits we're breaking spirits we're breaking spirits shackling spirits limiting spirits handcuffed spirits they're broken by the power of god [Applause] the spirit of heaviness it's a spirit it's a demon spirit it's a spirit of heaviness it's a spirit of heaviness and it's got to break i forbid it to get in the car with you there's no room in your car for that spirit you have to leave that spirit in this building you have to leave that spirit today with this message you have to leave that spirit today it's delayed gratification but it's going to happen it's going to happen there will be a tomorrow the sun will come out again the blessings will overtake you the promises of god are yea and amen god will get you through this god will take you through this god will encourage you god will uplift you who am i talking to make some noise if i'm talking to you if i'm talking to you let me hear from you back i was preaching [Applause] i was preaching it's been about a few years ago and i was preaching on the 100-fold return and i was just preaching it because the lord gave it to me to preach and i got in the elevator to go upstairs to change i was wet and the lord said to me i've given you a hundred fold return and i said no you hate me because i thought if i had 104 return i would know it he said yes i have i said lord i ain't got a hundred fold return now he said you have it and then he said to me go get your house for praise and when i have my house of praise it appraised for a hundred percent more then what i paid for it i told my wife we got to move we sold that house for a hundred percent more than what i paid for it what am i telling you god will often hide your return i didn't even know i had it i didn't even know i had it i didn't even know i had it because i was looking at money i wasn't looking at the equity that had accrued while i had been endearing [Applause] i speak a hundred fold return over your life i speak a hundredfold return over your life in money in wisdom in favor in spirit in action i speak a hundred-fold return in energy i speak a hundred-fold return in your health and your well-being i speak a hundred full return you watch it on the internet turn the camera on me a hundred fold return my hundredfold return in your life in your life it may not come in the form you're expecting it but search for it search for it when god says he's going to do it he's going to do it he did it i had to look for it it was right up under my nose almost every blessing you see in the bible was in their house [Music] the pot of oil was in the house the handful of meal was in the house the blessing is in your house [Applause] a hundred fold am i telling the truth honey a hundred-fold return you ain't never seen such packing in all your life you know why i had to pack there is a time limit on a blessing you have to move in the moment or you miss it i was growing up in the elevator the anointing was on that moment i had to see that moment we had to be willing to move right then before the door closed there's a time limit on this blessing a hundredfold return i want you to write me about it i want you to text me about it i want you to tweet me about it a hundredfold return if some of you is gonna come through a relationship that you've had and you've underutilized you didn't even understand that god's gonna bring something out of that relationship that's more than what you expected some of it's gonna come through property some of it's gonna come through exposure but god is getting ready to add increase to your life increase to your life i speak promotion over your life i speak promotion over your life you receive it come on i speak promotion over your life i speak promotion over your life i speak promotion over your life and you that have waited the longest are gonna reap the greatest do something with me everyone that can everyone that can if you can't do it don't get mad everyone that can i want you to sow a hundred dollar seed right now honey i want you to sow it for us a hundred full return over your life everybody watching all internet everybody watching in different time zones everybody watching in different parts of the country you started to cut me off but you couldn't because god wants you to put something down on this promise a hundredfold return it's coming it's coming it's coming it's coming no murmurs don't give it complainers don't give it hateful people don't give it believers only believers only believers only a hundred fold return a hundred [Music] a hundred fold let me get a drink of water the devil don't want this [Music] put the text on the screen a hundred-fold return now don't give it if you're not gonna look for it don't give it if you're not gonna rust bucket for it delayed gratification [Music] you got to work for it may have to move forward it's happening [Music] you