Get a Grip - Touré Roberts

0:49 It says, In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, went to him and said, Thus says the Lord, set your house in order, for you shall die and not live. and he turned his face toward the wall and prayed to the lord saying remember now oh lord i pray how i have walked before you in truth and with a loyal heart and and have done what was good in your sight and and hezekiah wept bitterly and it happened before isaiah had gone out into the middle court that the word of the lord came to him saying return and tell hezekiah the leader of my people. Thus says the Lord, the God of David, your father, I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Surely I will heal you. On the third day, you shall go up to the house of the Lord and I will add to your days 15 years. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. And I will defend this city for my own sake and for the sake of my servant, David.

2:04 Then Isaiah said, take a lump of fig. So they took and laid it on the boil and he recovered. And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, what is the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord the third day? Then Isaiah said, this is the sign to you from the Lord that the Lord will do the thing which he has spoken. Shall the shadow go forward 10 degrees or go backward 10 degrees? 10 degrees and Hezekiah answered it is an easy thing for the shadow to go down 10 degrees no but let the shadow go backward 10 degrees so Isaiah the prophet cried out to the Lord and he brought the shadow 10 degrees backward by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz let's pray Father thank you so much God for your word It is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.

3:02 At the entrance of your word brings light. Hallelujah. God, I thank you for the rich love that you have for your people, everyone under the sound of my voice. And God, so may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight. Lord, I thank you for the spirit of wisdom and revelation and insight and knowledge and prophecy and accuracy and articulation. That I might reveal the mysteries of heaven to the end, not for pontification, but for the transformation of your people. I pray, God, that you would feed us to the full and that we would leave changed in Jesus' name. Amen, amen, amen. God bless you. Please greet somebody in a kind way as you take your seat.

3:55 get a grip that's that's the title of this message i wasn't getting you together i was saying get get a grip um there there is there is a a different way that god wants us to move through life not just for this season because what we're walking through right now is not another season but what we're walking through right now is something that the bible calls the end of an age that's what we're dealing with we're dealing with not just a season you know we always talk about season that's wonderful because we are often season minded but god is age minded we think in seasons, he thinks in age. And in this age, in this end of the age, and you know, I love Matthew 24.

4:58 I love Revelation. I love the whole Bible. Anybody with me just love the word of the Lord. It is wonderful. But in this season, we're very much living out Matthew 24 right now. If you don't believe me, just look around. It is amazing how our bishop talks about it. You can put the newspaper in one hand and the Bible in the other hand, and you just see the parallels in a way that is clearer than ever before. And in these seasons, these times, they demand a greater degree of intentionality. Say intentionality. A greater degree of intentionality greater than any other time before. So we cannot afford to, in this end of the age period, to be moving about casually or reactively or randomly. Not now. We can't be reactive. We have to be insightful, and we have to be very, very intentional, and we can't be random. The Bible talks about not dealing with a slack hand. Now is not a time to be dealing with a slack hand. Now we have to be diligent. The Bible talks about how the hand of the diligent will be made rich. So we have to be intentional and we have to be diligent and we can't be moving in blindness and ambiguity. We're going to have to be like David. You remember in scripture where David, we knew that David was anointed. We knew that David was a great warrior. We knew that he had great victory in his rear view. He had great victory in his rear view. But there would be moments where he would say, shall I go up? I feel the Holy Ghost. Just turn to your neighbor and say, make no assumptions.

6:48 I see my friends, the Crookwoods there. God bless you. Good to see you, Christian. I'm actually doing a great work. I'm sorry. I had to call everybody out, but I just saw you there and your glow was hitting me. Make no assumptions. Pray about everything. so that you can decipher between a good idea and a God idea.

7:14 I feel like taking a curve. I feel like taking a little turn real quickly. What if I told you that one of the greatest risks to you in this season are good ideas? Oh, we're going to have some fun today. Yeah, yeah, good idea, but it's not a God idea. and we're moving into a time where everything matters. I need to slow down. I'm getting ahead of myself. We're moving into a time where everything matters. The Bible talks about walking circumspectly. Have you seen that? And if you break that Greek word down, circumspectly, that word literally means accurately or appropriately. So our life and our walk is not random. Got to feel the Holy Ghost. The steps of a good man are ordered. Watch this.

8:08 Your ordained walk has been preordered. So what we're trying to do is we're trying to figure out what was ordered. I didn't say that better. God, before you knew me, no, no, you knew me before you put me in my mother's womb. So before I knew me, you knew me. and you ordained me for something. So the majority of our life is trying to figure out what God knew. about me that I don't know about me. Are you tracking with me? Before I formed you in your mother's womb, I knew you, I sanctified you, I ordained you. I've already worked you out. And so your life is trying to work out what God worked out because your very existence, watch this, was motivated by a strategy.

9:07 I feel the Holy Ghost. Your last name is strategy. I don't care what your first name is. Your last name is strategy. Because the only reason why you are here is because you were a brilliant thought in the mind of God. A thought so worthy that he brought you here. And he brought two people together. Look at all of the conspiracy that went into getting you here. and so so i'm not moving randomly because i realize that i'm not random come on i'm a strategy and and and i don't want a good idea at the expense of a god idea are we tracking can i take my time just a little bit so we have to be in this season family hear me we have to be in this season more measured than we have ever been before more measured what do I mean by measured?

10:13 I mean I'm regulated I'm controlled I ration differently I feel God so strongly I don't just do anything I don't just say yes no ought to be one of the most one of the most used words in your vocabulary right now chapter one of my books called the power of no that might have been one of the most powerful chapters I've ever written in my life thank you very much called balance shameless plug pick it up on the way out but no but no no needs to be your friend so now is not a time for the spirit of people pleasing Some of you can't even say no. You just try to say it.

11:04 You be practicing it. When they ask me, I'm going to say no. I'm going to say no. And you get in front of me and you be like, yes. No, because I've got to say no, because I need to be available for what God wants me to say yes to. Can we walk a little bit together? So we have to be measured. To be measured is both a disposition, right? But it's also a discipline, right? Because in order for me to be measured, I have to count.

11:50 I can be measured. The disposition of being measured is one who is regulated, One who is paying attention to what is being expended. But it is also the discipline of counting or taking inventory, taking and keeping inventory. You know, I'm going to tell you something right now. It's hard to be the real you. It takes work. It takes focus. It takes discipline. It takes strategy. It's hard to be the real you. You have to be intentional. You have to be thinking. There's this term called metacognition, and it literally means thinking about your thinking. In other words, I'm not just randomly thinking. I'm thinking about my thinking. Where did this thought come from? Did this come from God or the other person? Are you tracking with me? You got to be a bad mamma jamma in these times.

12:44 And so, this kind of, as it relates to being measured and taking inventory, this kind of leads us to our text over here dealing with Hezekiah. And first of all, there's so much preaching in that text that I'm not even going to try it. I mean it's just I mean from from healing and to prayer to life extension to lessons learned Hezekiah had a very very colorful existence yeah he was he was colorful and complicated but a great king by and large I mean he built up rebuilt the walls and systems and everything I mean he was great he prospered he thrived he did well but he had some mistakes along the way. There were a couple of times where he wasn't really trusting in God fully, got in a little bit of trouble, and he ended okay, but he could have done better. So there's a lot there, and as I can, I encourage you to study it all you want.

13:51 But for the sake of today, I want to pull out and look at a very powerful principle that we're going to glean from this account that we read about that I think is going to give us some very, very timely wisdom for this moment that we're standing in. So let's look at it really quickly. If we look at verse one, it says, in those days Hezekiah was sick and near death, and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, went to him and said to him, thus says the Lord, here we go, we all know this one, set your house in order, for you shall die and not live. Now, I want to be honest with you. I previously only understood that setting your house in order thing. I previously only understood that to be something about since Hezekiah was getting ready to die, according to the word of the Lord at the time, that he needed to gather his financial paperwork together. He had to get his life insurance policy, his will, his estate plan, get all that together so that you can, you know, leave that to them. That's what I thought it was about. I thought it was about paperwork. I thought it was about documents. I thought it was about that. But, and that's likely true to a certain degree, whatever it was during that time, whatever documents or whatever things you needed to do. But that is actually, that set your house in order, in order is not the most literal translation of that word that was used there.

15:23 The word that was used there where it says set your house in order, the word that was translated in order is the Hebrew word sawah, which means to command. To command. So what we're talking about is not so much, you know, set your house in order per se, get all of your paperwork together. What essentially God is telling him to do through the prophet Isaiah, watch this, is to take command over everything in your purview. Oh, it's about to get real good in a minute.

16:01 To have command over something is to have control, is to have an awareness or an understanding of it, of the things that you are overseeing, you're overseeing or you're governing something that you have been entrusted with. So to have command over his house, bring your house under command is about optimal stewardship. Oh, you got to get this. You got to get this. In other words, in other words, there are things under your control that you do not have control over. Oh, you're going to get this today. I promise. I swear you're going to get this today. There are things that I've entrusted to you and you might be familiar with them, but you don't you're not familiar with all the details or you're dealing with those too loosely I'm going to keep saying it until you get it keep saying it until you get it see if God is telling Hezekiah to get his house in order or better we just learned to bring his house into his command that means that it was not and God had been doing incredible things in Hezekiah's life. He was incredibly successful.

17:34 He did all kinds of things. He was a very successful king. He had accomplished extraordinary things. At this time, he was 39 in that moment, and had been reigning, I believe, for about, I don't know, I don't even want to say it, but he had been reigning for a period of time. I know he's 39 years old but his command obviously was not fully over the things that he had I feel that strong let me make it practical what in your life what under your purview are you familiar with what you don't have command over there were things under his watch that he didn't have on lock I feel that and we're in a season right now where you don't just tell your neighbor no loose ends everything has to be tight i feel this in your work in your company in your marriage dealing with your kids we'll talk about in a minute everything needs to be tight so you got to understand when god gives you when god entrusts something to you he expects you to be lord over it life literally is about stewardship and we get too lackadaisical with things that are important to God okay I'm gonna take my time to do this thing right get your house in order so let's see what happens here in this text God says get a command over your affairs he confronted Hezekiah's with, I'm going to just call them big hairs.

19:39 He confronted big hairs. with the necessity of commanding his affairs in light of his mortality. Let me say that again. When you are acutely aware of your mortality, you move differently. we don't get it i promise when when you see see god introduces watch this we always talk about abundance but sometimes abundance ain't your friend sometimes you need the revelation of scarcity come on somebody you need the revelation of scarcity i don't have 40 years left you know as I was preparing I thought about something you know Jesus said the disciples asked Jesus when essentially when is the end of the world going to be and Jesus said nobody knows but the father and I'm wondering

21:07 Jesus can't lie and maybe and I'm sure the father did hide it from him But I wonder if him not revealing to him or to the world how much time was left was a strategy. You're tracking with me. In other words, if I know I've got 50 more years to live, I live differently from knowing that at any moment this thing can end. First thing the disciples want to know is, when is it going, when you're going to return? And he's like, I don't know. I ain't got nothing for you.

21:48 But I'm going to tell you, it's going to be like a thief in the night. What does that mean? Don't sleep. You hear me. There's something about understanding the futility and the brevity of life that somehow automatically, it's like it awakens something in us and we start moving through life with a greater sense of intentionality. Are we tracking?

22:19 So, so, so, so. So. people say just live your life and I understand and I think you should live your life but I kind of also think you ought to live your death what do you mean by that pt i mean i i feel like since it is inevitable that we ought to be living with a consciousness of mortality because there's something about the consciousness of mortality that makes us very serious and intentional about the moves we make are you hearing me live your life but live your death too live live in such a way that if he came right now right now you say welcome because i did what i was called to do everything that i knew to do i did that thing i lived in anticipation of your return i don't want to be the person saying lord I need more time. Let me go back like the virgins and get some oil. No, no, no, no, no. I want to keep some oil on me because I do not know the day nor the hour, the moment I got to be ready.

23:40 I move differently when I think like that. going somewhere I promise I move differently when I think like that I don't I'm going to be honest with you I'm not trying to scare anybody maybe a little bit but I'm looking around, and all of my Holy Ghost senses are going off. And I'm going to tell you, my fear is, you know, Jesus said, it's going to be, he said in the last days, he says it's going to be like in the days of Noah, they're going to be giving, they're going to be getting married, and I've been doing all these weddings, and I don't even do weddings, but I've been doing weddings. And everybody, it's almost like people are moving but they're not paying attention can I just we're going to get to it in a minute but I'm going to share my heart with you I'm like how can you move like that when it is obvious the Lord is making his way back why are you still playing see what you playing is is that's recreation you play when you don't have to work hello somebody that's when you play but jesus says i must work come on while it's day because nighttime comes when no man can work in other words i i've got to keep working doesn't mean you don't take a day to rest but guess what i'm resting with my sword My burden, we're getting back into it in a minute.

25:36 My burden is that we're sleeping a little bit. my burden is that we're not moving like God's not moving toward us and it just would seem like if we really believe the scripture and we really believed what the bible says not that God is going to bless me he has blessed me you say if you're blessed but that God is making his way back to me and he will have an expectation concerning what he entrusted to me. and so as a result of that i need to have a command take command over everything that is connected to me so let me talk about really quickly i'm going to move through these fast six things six things that are in our house that we must take command over.

26:52 Six things. Can I teach today? Number one is your focus. Your focus. The first thing that Hezekiah does when God tells him to take command over his house is he turns his face. That's right there in the text. Hold on. I'll read it just in case you don't believe me. It's right there. verse 2 after god says set your house in order for you shall die and not live for you shall die and not live for you shall die and not live let me just can i just really quick let me just say something real quickly and just pardon the unorthodox manner but you're gonna get it when he says you shall die and not live why didn't he just say you shall die why do you have to add, you shall die and not live, is because that's the problem. We have a live consciousness, but not a die consciousness. So I move differently when I only have a live consciousness, when I have a sense of unlimited time. And he's saying, you're going to die and not live. So I want to disrupt, there it is, I want to disrupt how you're moving. Because you're moving like you're living, but you're not living like you're dying.

28:12 And the truth of the matter is we are just as much dying as we are living. In fact, we may be more dying than we are living. So this is a disruption in how he's thinking. And that's what I'm trying to do right now. I'm trying to disrupt how we're thinking and not to create some morbid perspective but to bring sobriety to you we had a crazy year this year i mean things that were unexpected rocked our world to show us don't you take nothing for granted you don't know the day nor the hour it may not be the last days, but it might be your last days.

29:07 I'm going to get this out. Your focus. Number one, your focus. The first thing he does, verse two, it says, then, it says, the first thing he does is he turns his face toward the wall. That's wonderful. We look at that, and we know it's the wall and, you know, the praying wall and all that kind of stuff. That's wonderful, but don't miss the fact that he had to turn his face. He had to turn his face toward the wall. He had to shift his focus. I have to take, if I am going to take command over my affairs, the first thing I have to take command of is over my focus. Are you hearing me? Everything and its mama is after your focus.

30:01 Are you hearing me? I mean, let me tell you, people are studying how to get your attention. They're studying how to make you look. I mean, right now, there is a strategy with your name on it to make you look at something, to rob you of your focus.

30:21 I was scrolling the other day. I tell on myself for a minute. I was just... And then it hit me. You're distracted. I was just, just faith, I was just a scrolling. Just, and here's the crazy thing. Jeff, I don't even know how I got on Instagram. you ever been there before you were going to word document or your notes or your text messages or whatever and my thumb just betrayed me Jan just Some of y'all quiet and you shouldn't be because you know exactly what I'm talking about.

31:22 I literally don't even know how I got there. Watch this. Which means the strategy against me is working. Do you think, family, come on, let's have a real conversation now. We're at the table now. About nine minutes and I'm done here. I'm going to try really closely. Nine. 9 p.m. Nine minutes. Nine minutes. That was a strategy. Watch this. Someone sat down and thought about you and said, how can I get you to spend as much time on my app away from your life, your purpose, your mission, your calling, your marriage, your future? and billions of dollars have been spent toward that end. Watch this to break your focus.

32:19 Oh And if I can't focus, I can't have command. first thing you have to take command over is your focus I uh there's a a man of God that I admire for this one particular thing.

32:52 He is radically focused. I mean, just, he just... And it's amazing. And sometimes being super focused, it'll get you in trouble because you have to have tunnel vision a little bit too. I mean, you have to have peripheral vision a little bit too, right? You have to learn how to be focused on what matters, but also have some degree of awareness of what's going on the right and the left not to break your focus so so you need that so sometimes i'm focused and sometimes my focus gets me in trouble because i'm just so focused on something sometimes that you know but i am developing a pretty good peripheral as well but when you look at Jesus this man was focus his face like flint toward Jerusalem toward his purpose focus is number one are we tracking these are things that you have to have command over focus is number one this is everything this is everything number two number two because we got to move through this is your family talking about what we have to have to command over our focus. You got to pay attention to your focus, right? Distraction is tricky. It's crazy. You don't know that you're distracted until you distract it. Distraction doesn't come and say, I'm distracting you. You just wake up with a headache and you realize you were distracted.

34:09 Number two is your family. Your family. You have to have a command over your family. How do you have a command over your family? First of all, intercession. It's kind of hard. You may have kids that live with you or kids that don't, I have all of it. some that live within and some that live without and so how do i have a command over them my intercession i have to live in the ones that live with us i have to send to school so how do i have a command over what's happening in their life intercession plead the blood of jesus every single day them teachers have no idea how covered they are they have no idea how restrained constrained by the holy spirit they are because my prayer works I'm gonna move through this quickly intercession you've got to pray you've got to cover everything that's con see the all these things are in your purview these things are your responsibility and if you don't step into it and have command over it then you're leaving a hole and you're leaving a gap so intercession number two observation you got to pay attention my wife we're busy all around the you know we go around the world sometimes together sometimes apart but guess what we linked up we're talking we're facetiming and it's not just physical observation how are we doing in the spirit how are we doing here are we communicating all these sort of things right because we're paying attention watch this we don't just sit around and assume the enemy is not working come on somebody Thank you.

35:44 and engagement intercession observation and engagement you got to see your kids you got to be connected with your kids i sarah taught me something my daughter ella is 10 and uh i really man i'm crazy about all my kids and i was trying to like figure out how i can get a little closer to Ella and spend more time with her or whatever, right? And Sarah said something that was brilliant. She was like, stop trying to bring her into what you're doing.

36:22 Go and visit her world. so so she likes cheerleading so i'm asking her about tumbling and what do they call it stunts what is it called the stump stunt what is it i'm learning the point that i'm making is i'm learning about what's important to her because i don't want to build a relationship based on me trying to pull her up to where i am I have to go and visit with her on her level and that engagement builds credibility and it also allows me to be close enough to see and to sense are we tracking gotta have command over your focus you gotta have command over your family number three you gotta have command over your finances it's a big one I'm gonna read something real quick we're almost there I'm going to get this done in about five minutes Proverbs 23 verse 23 to 27 it says be diligent to know the state of your flocks be diligent flocks listen in the context your money your ecosystem there are times I'll be honest with you where the surplus was so abundant that I didn't pay close attention and one of the things that I'm learning is that surplus doesn't doesn't permit sloppy I saw something on Instagram the other day, and it said, yeah, you know, you know you're rich when you don't even look at the bill. You know you're rich when you're not. I said, no, that's called stupid. There's a difference between getting rich and staying rich. Hello, somebody.

38:11 And you have to act like you ain't rich when you're rich to stay rich. Anyway, be diligent to know the state of your flocks and attend to your herds watch this for riches are not forever nor does a crown endure to all generations you can read that when you get a chance the whole thing here's the point that i'm making you need to know and be able to account for every dime that's where we're at right now premium optimum stewardship watch this not because you're struggling but because God is looking for stewards it's like we're in the days of of Joseph in Egypt and Pharaoh had a dream that he couldn't quite figure out but it troubled him he knew something was wrong him and Hezekiah almost had that same kind of similar little thing Pharaoh has a dream in Genesis that something is off and he can't quite put his finger on it but he knows in his knower that he's perplexed by a dream that he has and he goes to the prophet The prophet Isaiah goes to Hezekiah and says, you're in trouble.

39:39 Watch this. Take command. There's a parallel. Because Pharaoh's dream ultimately was about a coming famine that will require him to steward, come on, his resources or to have command, a better command. and a strategy over his resources to endure, not only to survive, but to thrive in the famine. We're in a very similar time. What's your economic strategy? we have to bring our money god start dealing with me i'm just gonna be honest with you because i got two minutes god start dealing with me i've been spending less spending less and it's amazing it's interesting how how much you don't need Thank you.

40:36 but spending less and investing more spending less and investing and let me tell you something um you have to get to a point to where you're sexy and this let me use this term don't don't judge me but but you're sexy is not based on what you're wearing but it's based on that account growing. It's sexy to have an account growing to the glory of God so you can be a blessing.

41:11 I got to move. Take command over your focus. Take command of your family. Take command over your finances. More and more and more. Number four, you got to take command over your calling. This is so important. I put something on threads the other day, and I'm going to just read it to you. It says, you can't build what God has called you to build if your calendar is filled with things he never called you to. You can't, you can't. So, so look at the intentionality. your calendar is full of a whole bunch of good ideas. And then God calls you to do something, and you're like, oh, God, I can't do that until February of 2027.

42:04 No, I have to take command. See, I have to define what I know that God has called me to. I wish I had about two hours with you. I have to define what I know God has called me to and organize my life around the calling. Because the most important thing in your life is the thing that God has called you to do. And so now the calling is trying to fit into a crowded life full of things that either don't matter or you haven't managed your time and your energy. I'm just giving you a couple of more right now. You haven't managed your time and your energy in such a way that makes room for your calling. What has God called you to do that's still sitting in your iPhone? because you haven't organized, you haven't taken a command over the resource of you.

43:04 in such a way that that god's command over your life can even fit so in this season i pray i know we're getting close to the holidays i pray that you take time and you take a step back and you begin to go back through your notes god what did you call me to do what did you say and then as you plan out your life prioritize it according to what what you know God has called you to do because time is winding up. I feel it so strongly. This thing is not going to go on and on and on and on. I heard a great woman of God say once, procrastination is the arrogant assumption that God will give you tomorrow what he called you to do today. That is an arrogant assumption that I've got next week to do what God called me to do today, but I've got to create space.

44:03 I have to structure my life in such a way that I get to be me, that I get to do what God has called me to do. Are you tracking with me? This requires intentionality. I'm going to tell you something right now. If you're called, it's not going to be easy. It's not just going to fall. You think Jesus' ministry was easy? He had to get up. Look at how disciplined he was. Why do you think his disciples were so powerful? They were powerful because Jesus let them in on his disciplines. What made Jesus Jesus? Well, he was the son of God. Yes, he was all that kind of stuff. But he had incredible and impeccable disciplines. He was focused. He fasted. He prayed. And the disciples were able to do it, not because they watched simply what he did, but they watched the type of person he was. he had to become the type of person that could do what he was called to do and that's why when they wanted him to stick around with the crowds and then the disciples was all excited because they were experiencing the fame they were with him like oh he said oh everybody's looking for you Jesus Jesus was like let us go into the next town I must be about my father's business he didn't even get stuck he didn't care nothing about the praise and the applause I feel the Holy Ghost he didn't care nothing about the applause of men. He was on a mission and he tells us, he said, because I know what's in man. They'll praise you today and curse you out tomorrow. They'll say you're the next best thing in the kingdom and call you a false prophet the next day. This is not about man. This is about God and his mission for our lives. Are you hearing me? And you have to be disciplined.

45:54 you have to steward and have a command over your focus over your family over your finances over your calling over your time I kind of touched on it's one of your greatest and most precious resources and check this out if there was a predetermined allotment of time assigned to your life and there is. Watch this. That means that every second matters. Think about that for a minute. If I only have 762,432 seconds assigned to my life then every second matters.

46:52 that means your time has already been assigned that's why the Bible says the vision is for an appointed time that means that time has been assigned so I can't be random and frivolous with it I gotta wrap this thing up because I want us to pray and then lastly your energy talk about what you have to command over recap one more time your focus your family your finances your calling your time and your energy your energy why your energy? because you're a limited resource the reason why the sabbath is in there is because if you never sabbath you run out of energy too soon when you create work function do you're creating out of the essence of you wish i can break that down real quick god is a creator we're creating god's image so when we live and move and function we cannot help but to create and if we and we create out of the essence of who we are. And we have to stop creating, stop moving, stop working in order to rest and recreate, tracking with me, so that we can continue to create. Why? Because we have a limited amount of energy. So you have to protect your energy. And so one of the things that I'm beginning to do, the busier that I get, is I'm not just factoring in whether or not I have the time. I am managing now the energy consumption. No, you got to be a bad mama-jama. I'm thinking, no, I can't take that because if I take that, I'm going to be coming off of doing two weeks in LA or two weeks in Ghana.

48:51 So I can't do that because I'm going to need three or four days to be dealt. Are you hearing the words that are coming out of my mouth. so what am i saying i'm saying family that we got to get a grip we got to get a grip over all of these areas of our lives because i'm gonna tell you i'm rapping. Let me tell you. I'm rapping because I want to pray for you. Because family, time is winding up.

49:29 And we don't know, family. We don't know. We don't even know what's going to happen in this country. I can be optimistic and pray and prophesy and the Lord's coming and restoration is coming and God's going to do all this kind of stuff. But at the end of the day, we don't know. I was in L.A. Sunday I was in LA yesterday and I've never seen this. I'm from LA. I've never seen this before.

49:55 Shorelines being washed up. In Long Beach. In Newport Beach. I hang out in Newport Beach. I'm talking about like water, underwater. I grew up there. I'm 54 years old and I've never seen it. Earthquakes in various places. right now in Saudi Arabia their main airport is shut down casualties Saudi Arabia wars rumors of wars all kind of stuff happening I ain't trying to scare you because the Lord has made provision but you got to get in the ark God wasn't trying to scare Noah he had already made a way of escape but Noah had to be sensitive sensitive enough to perceive the instruction of the Lord and build that ark that's what I'm talking about the ark of your life there's a lot going on we got elections coming up and I think come on somebody I think no I know that we need to pray that we need to be informed educate ourselves that we need to have a strategy and that we need to implement that strategy and then pray some more and let God do what he's going to do but that's not going to save the nation all that will do if things go well is buy us more time I'm not banking on that.

51:38 Now I'm going to be engaged. I'm not banking on that. Because that's not going to solve it. At best, it's just going to help for a little bit. We got to be thinking beyond it. and everything that God has given to us, everything, we got to be intentional with. Our prayer life ought to be on a whole other level right now. I'm afraid to not have my antenna up. I'm afraid, man, because I don't want to be like Jesus prophesied in the days of Noah. They were just doing their thing. They were boogying and dancing and partying and all that kind of stuff.

52:22 So when I see thousands of people gather to pray and seek God's face, that made my heart smile real good. Because I know something shifted over the nation as a result of that. Are you tracking with me? Will you get a grip? Will you wrap your arms around your family?

52:44 Will you wrap your arms around your resource? Everything that God put in your hands, wrap your arms around it. every loose end, tighten it up get the house in order take a command we're the people of God there's one last thing God wanted me to tell you in that passage he says how do I know you're going to extend this grace to me this is Hezekiah what's going to be the sign and the sign, he was given the option of the signs. He said the shadow could move forward, which is the natural rotation of the sun, the shadow and everything.

53:39 He said, or it can go backwards. He chose backwards, and it went backwards. That's the sign of restoration. One of the things the Lord told me, and I feel this so strongly, I want you to stand with me. one thing the Lord told me is that if you get your house in order is that if you take this word of the Lord seriously and you turn your face to the wall and you bring everything that God has entrusted to you and you lay it at his feet and you become a good steward over it, God wouldn't give you anything that you didn't have the ability to handle. It's not out of control. You got it. He said if you come into alignment, you bring all these things into alignment, I'm gonna restore the years that the locusts have eaten. I'm gonna bring restoration. I can't turn back the clock My but I'm gonna accelerate you and position you like you were in position the whole time so I want to extend this invitation this is a multi-fold invitation if you're here first and foremost you got to get your soul in order I can't even imagine living in today's world without a relationship with Jesus that is a nightmare to me so if you're here and if you don't have to leave, don't leave.

55:10 We're out in just a few minutes here. We're doing pretty good on time. If you're here and you want to open up your heart to the Lord, you feel him knocking. You feel, you felt up into this moment like you just needed to, you needed to lean in. You feel like God's calling you and you need to say yes to that call. I want you to come and meet me at this altar. I'm going to pray for you. That's point number one. Point number two is if you have once opened up your heart to the Lord Jesus, but if you're honest, you've been doing like what the Bible says we all do from time to time. You've been astray. You've been out of alignment and you feel it. I want to describe it to you because I feel you in this room or watching. You don't even feel like yourself. and honestly you don't feel spiritually safe you feel like uncovered and you want to plug back in with the Lord if that's you I want you to come and meet me here at this altar right now because as you come into alignment I see you family as you come into alignment come on down as you come into alignment as you come into alignment restoration is going to take place. And here's the thing,

56:37 restoration, he says, I'll restore the years that the locusts have eaten. In other words, I can't, I'm not going to turn back the time, but what those years caused you to miss, I'm going to bring it back into you. It'll be like you were aligned the whole time. It's crazy. this is a crazy dynamic of the Lord and it's something that only God can do and I hear the Lord saying, and I'm going to make you whole because this is a covenant with the king. This has nothing to do with where you've been, has nothing to do with your family. You're in covenant with me, with the king, so you're royalty for real.

57:23 Here's the third point of this invitation. If you're here, man, You just keep coming while I'm talking. I want to say this right. If you're here and you're like, PT, I hear you, man. I need to get my house in order. I need to get a command over these things. And I need God's help to do it. If that's you, I want you to come meet me at this altar right now. I need to get. I'm called. I feel like sometimes my family's out of control. I got a problem with money. We can break that too.

58:19 We can break that. Sometimes it's a generational curse. hmm it's so interesting let me tell you something I don't I don't know what's going to happen in this economy.

58:47 I'm smart enough to know that the way things are moving is unsustainable. And I don't know how confident I am in those who are making decisions right now. That's just me. I don't trust, you know, I'm from the hood. I have a difficult time trusting anybody, you know. But I'm working on it. I'm working on it. I trust God. but I think it's interesting that a lot of people in the kingdom with good hearts are teaching us about economics, and they're not doing it, the ones that I know, are not doing it to get rich, but it's almost like God is trying to put this Joseph grace into the earth, teach us to get ready. And I don't think it's a coincidence that some people that are involved in that are here today. I mentioned the McDonald's are here.

59:44 Ashley and Chris are here and they teach that. and if you're here, yeah, I'm going to do this, and if you're here, and you just can't get your money, it's almost like you feel like, as it relates to your economics, you just cannot seem to win, and it's not, you know, and there are bad decisions, and all that kind of stuff, or decisions that, I don't like the term bad, Just ignorant. Most of the time it's just ignorance. We just weren't taught a lot of things, right? But that's not really what I'm talking about. I'm talking about you feel like there's a spirit,

1:00:27 generational curse, a weightiness. I want you to come meet me at this altar because that's going to break today too. That's going to break today too. Because you're going to need... to provide for your family, for your life. And you may need to move.

1:00:49 You may need to move, and I mean move in the broader sense of that term. You may need to move. You've got to be available to God. And I want to pray for that as well. we're going to be a prepared people. Eyes wide open. We're not going to be fearful. We're going to be faithful. Doing all right? Come here. Come here. You all right? Got you. Gotcha. Welcome home. Welcome home. We got you. Whole squad. Whole squad, we got you. We got all of you. We got all of you.

1:01:43 We got all of you. Laid straight down for you. And everybody that's close to us feels the same way. That's why we're here. You're not here for us. We're here for you. this whole movement was established because of people you are the heroes you're the focus and we will see we will see you be everything that God has created you to be because we're going to do it through prayer we're going to do it through prophesying we're going to teach practical things yes we will no one left behind nobody left behind I just want to be sensitive I just want to be sensitive, that's all. greatest decision I ever made you can just come while I'm talking was saying yes to Christ at 9 then at 26 I said yes to his will you can say yes to him as Savior Lord is a different story best decision I made was when I made him Lord and I didn't have all the details I didn't know, you know, like how I was even going to watch this.

1:03:01 I didn't even know how I was even going to walk out what I was committing to him. like i didn't like god i you know i'm looking at my life i'm looking at how i normally move and yet you're calling me to walk with you and i'm i'm scared you know i i have a determination but i don't even know like like and god says i got you i just need your desire i'm able to keep what you commit to me says the scripture i didn't know that there was this thing called the holy ghost. I didn't know that there would be a helper, an encourager, an empowerer. So, wow. So, God's like, yeah, just trust me. Watch this. Because I'm going to do right through you. All you have to do is learn how to yield. So, our work is just learning to believe and to yield. And God says, I'll be strong my strength is made perfect in your weakness when you say God I'm weak I need you got you covered anyone else you want to open up your heart to the Lord you want to recommit your life to God you're hearing that there's a weight that seems to not lift off of you economically he's going to do it in your mind first I want to pray into that really quickly Father I pray God for those who are heavy unnecessarily unnecessarily because your covenant your covenant is a covenant of provision you are Jehovah Jireh the God who provides you are provision you are the great I am so father where you find heaviness.

1:05:06 I thank you, God, that the anointing which destroys the yoke will put on the garment of praise. God, I speak and decree by the power of the blood of the Lamb as a covenantal promise for all who call on your name and call you Lord in Christ, that they have been grafted into the commonwealth of Israel. Hallelujah. That they've been grafted into exceeding great and precious promises concerning their lives. And I break in the name of Jesus every generational curse of all stripes and sorts because they're grafted into your lineage and your legacy and your promises. God, there's some here to whom much has been given and they fill a great weight because of the much and it feels even overwhelming and the question is God how am I going to have command over this so great a responsibility hallelujah and I pray in Jesus name that you would renew their strength I pray in Jesus name that you would renew their faith hallelujah I thank you that you will be strong in their weakness now God there's some who are saying yes to you for the first time you said in your word behold I stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come in and sup with he and he with me in other words I'll have an exchange God you've been knocking on the doors of the hearts of people here in this room and even watching via live stream.

1:07:02 And Father, as they are saying yes to you, I thank you that you are coming in, God. And you're sealing them with the Holy Spirit of promise. I want you to repeat after me. Heavenly Father, I thank you for your love. I feel it. Heavenly Father, I thank you for your word. Everything you spoke to me, I receive it I thank you for Jesus thank you for making him who had no sin all of mine all of my weakness all of my limitation all of my shortcomings you placed in his body nailed it to the cross and put it to death and as he was raised up free and victorious on the third day because I'm in him I'm raised up too in the name of Jesus may every chain break off of my mind off of my heart off of my body and off of my life I'm grafted in to precious promises and I can't be stopped.

1:08:30 My past is behind me. My future is amazing. Restoration is mine. I claim it. I receive it. I decree it. And it is so. In Jesus' name, amen, amen, amen. Now just give God a little bit of worship. Just give him a little bit of worship. Give him a little bit of worship. all things new all things new all things new for i know the plans i have for you they are good and not evil plans to prosper you and not to harm you to give you a future and a hope before i dismiss you if you're here and you say i need to get in this ark i've been coming to this church long enough i've been evaluating it but every time i'm here god speaks to me. It doesn't matter who's preaching. God speaks to me and I need to make this place home.

1:09:32 I want you, I have pastors to my left, to your right, my left. There's a QR code. Get connected. Get plugged in. There's so much more to us than Sundays. I love you very much and I'll see you soon. May the Lord bless and keep you. May he make his face to shine upon you and be gracious towards you. May he lift up his countenance over you and grant you shalom, shalom in Jesus name. God bless you love you very much see you Wednesday for walking out Wednesday before you go family at the