“Remember this: you are strong enough to confront your history. Don’t turn away from your brokenness. Remember that you’re not doing this alone. God foreknew this moment would come. Every now and then we need a reminder that someone else has defeated a giant we must face. Allow this book to be that reminder. Instead of counting the reasons you have to be afraid, give yourself permission to be brave. You’ve already survived the trauma, but you can’t transform your pain into purpose until you’re willing to pick it up again. Roll up your sleeves, wipe your tears, and b”
― Sarah Jakes Roberts

This, this ain’t a double issue.
This is a character issue.
You don’t believe you have the character for it.
You don’t think you’re strong enough to build it.
You don’t think you can take another hit.
You don’t think that you have the communication for it.
You don’t think you have the talent for it and because you don’t believe it’s showing up in everything that you do.
But I bind the spirit of disbelief in this room in the name that is above every name, the name that is above the name that is above despair, the name that is above weariness.
I bind it. I send it back to hell where it came from.
And I say come forth in the name of Jesus, I say come forth, Dr Dr Dry bones, stones, Triones stones, drones, stones, drones, stones.
I’m calling every Trione the back back to life. Shall these bows live?
The prophet says, God only, you know God said if I asked it, I expect it.
And because God has been asking your dry bones to come to life, I’m come into agreement.
But if God asked it, yeah, that’s what Deliverance looks like.
Keep jumping sis. I heard God say you’re gonna jump into the next dimension. Keep going, sis.
I heard God saying you’re gonna swing your arms and look up and they’re gonna be wings.
I say God, hallelujah. Hallelujah.
What we preaching about? Hallelujah, where we going, family? You are the church.
You are the answer that the world needs. I know you’re tired of hearing about shootings.
But God says every time you hear a headline, I want you to hear the call up underneath it.
The call is saying, if you don’t get in position, then we might lose another soul.
If you don’t get in position, we might not be able to save these babies.
You count on somebody else to do it. God said I’m calling you to be a part of it.
I can’t do this thing without you.
But my God, if you would do it with me, we don’t even need everybody. One can chase 1000.
What 60,000 of us gonna do in this thing?
They say it’s nine million people in this country. What are we gonna do about it?
Yeah, that’s all right.
That’s all right. That’s all right.
Hallelujah. Break loose. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
We’re standing under an open heaven said Miranda and I dare not jump back into my notes when somebody just got what they needed.
Oh God, if you’re here, oh God, if you’re breathing, oh God.
If you’re moving, oh God, if you’re transforming, oh God.
If you’re changing, take pain, take my rejection, take my pandemic issues, take the spirit of less stuff off of me.
Remove me from this addiction, take the taste out of my mouth. I’m hungry for it.
Hallelujah Romans Romans five gives us a formula for hope.
Says tribulation produces perseverance, perseverance produces character and character produces hope.
What makes this formula problematic for me?
Sometimes I get stuck, persevering.
As a matter of fact, we have a culture that commences staying stuck and perseverance when I’m not at my best and I’m being petty.
We call it the struggle Olympics where everyone wants to talk about how they’re stuck.
Persevering. And without knowing it, we have a belief system that tells us that perseverance is the award.
So we don’t even have to move into character and then to hope because right now perseverance is where we build community and connection.
But perseverance is supposed to be a phase, but sometimes life gets you stuck and perseverance, man.
I’m just trying to make it.
I’m just trying to make it Jesus.
I don’t even know if I can move to a space of having character and integrity and faith and dependability because right now my only focus, it’s trying to make it.
I’m almost finished because y’all really rearranged my notes.
But um I enjoyed this text with Mary and John, not just for what happens in the moment, but because I look at the fool’s picture of her life.
I look at the moment when we find Mary and Luke one and the angel of the Lord says to her, blessed, are you highly favored amongst women?
He says, don’t be afraid.
You see what happened is that God introduced a word, a belief system that Mary was initially afraid of.
She didn’t believe that she had the character for who the angel of the Lord said she was.
And so she battles with this angel of the Lord.
It’s not the kind of battle that we think it is. She didn’t fight him.
But she allowed the thoughts of her inadequacy to have a confrontation with the word of who God says she is.
And because she has that battle, we see a different Mary when the conversation is over in Luke one and 45 it says blessed is she who believed when I write my Ebonics version of the Bible is gonna be blessed.
Is she who changed her belief system? Because she was willing to change her belief system.
There was a fulfillment of the things which were told her from the Lord thinking about her where she starts in Luke one, but where we find her in John 19, he says the angel of the Lord tells her he’s gonna be the king of kings and of his kingdom.
There will be no end. He gives her hope.
But something does happen in Luke two when baby Jesus is only a few days old, she takes him to the temple as is the custom of that time.
This hope that went from a word to a womb, from a womb to something she could hold.
She’s finally holding on to the hope of that word.
And she takes the hope of that word into the temple and, and one person sees the baby and then they celebrate it and they’re like now I can go on and see the Lord.
But this man Simeon says to her something that reveals that there is a dark side of hope.
Simeon says in Luke 2 34 he blessed them and Mary.
And then he says, behold, this child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel and for a sign which will be spoken against.
Yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul. Wait a minute, wait a minute.
No, no, no, no, no. He’s gonna be the king of kings of his kingdom. There will be no end.
You got the wrong one. He says, no, he is destined for the rise and fall of many.
But in the process of that hope being manifested, there’s gonna be a dark side of it.
And in that dark side, it’s gonna feel like a sword is piercing through your own soul that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.
Can I tell you something?
There’s a dark side of hope.
There’s a persevering side required to really access hope