I've Got Nothing Left to Give

0:41 Sometimes it's not in a whirlwind. Sometimes it's in a still small voice. That hand is lifted. The Holy Spirit is a comforter. When the dynamics of the Holy Spirit is that... that we miss is the Holy Spirit is the prescription. Listen to this. The Holy Spirit is the prescription for grief. said I'm going away and I know that's going to be hard for you but I leave you the Holy Ghost which is your comforter.

1:37 And as that hand is lifted, I need you to know that you are about to be robbed of grief. whatever has been heavy on you is about to be lifted. Whatever has been robbing you of sleep, God is getting ready to handle it.

2:00 Whatever it is that has been your preoccupation assigned to stress, God says, I'm going to meet it head on. I do not want you to minimize or confuse the gift of the Holy Spirit with jubilance. Sometimes it's sobering. As that hand is lifted, would you just take one moment and just worship him out of your pain.

2:31 Worship him out of what is missing. Worship him in spite of your deficits. worship him through your trauma And we give him glory. We give him praise. We give him thanksgiving. Clap your hands, O you people. Serve the Lord with gladness. Would you meet me in the book of Acts chapter 2?

3:26 Thank you, Music Ministry, for leading us in worship. Acts chapter 2. I'm grateful to God for all of you. Acts chapter 2. Be in prayer for our first lady who is preaching across town today that God would meet her in that place.

4:05 Acts chapter 2, verse number 1. when the day of Pentecost came, they were all in one place. You may be seated. When the day of Pentecost came, they were all in one place. I want to preach today using as a subject, I'm just trying to find my place. Look at the person beside you and tell them, that's all I've been trying to do. That's all. Just trying to find my place. British-born black writer Zadie Smith once said, Not belonging is akin to having the feeling one experiences while playing musical chairs, turning around and realizing you have nowhere to sit.

5:13 Abraham Maslow placed love and belonging as the third tier of hierarchy needs, positioned above survival. I want you to hear this. You cannot fully become who you are meant to be without experiencing the security of being wanted somewhere. without belonging, the byproduct is not feeling lonely. Without a sense of belonging, you feel unreal. It's hard fitting in when you're outstanding. You are made to feel ignorant because of your intelligence.

6:23 Your beauty is a scar to people who are basic. It's not that you were weird, you were wired different. You're not against so wins. You just prefer to blow yours out. reading is more inviting than channel surfing.

6:56 You would rather be social than on social media. You're not that interclosed, but you will search the world trying to fare what pairs best with poultry. you're trying to find a crew to travel and thrift not just to text and talk You want somebody excited about the away games who won't judge you if you just like playing video games. you just need somebody who will sit with you when you weep in the car and scream with you when you shout in the sanctuary.

7:45 Your problem is you have too much heart to be in a clique. You're too old to be in a crew. You just want a circle of a few good souls who are consistent in front of your face and behind your back. Being black in America is arguably the most documented case in Western history of a people systematically stripped of belonging. Consider the fact that at slavery, we're separated from tribe, language, and family, and those are the three ingredients for belonging.

8:44 Being classified as property removes your ontological being of a part of humanity. Diabolically, they understood, oppressors did, that if a people don't know who they are, they won't fight for where they're supposed to be. Can you imagine that your greatest liability is knowing what you deserve?

9:18 If you just didn't know what you deserved, you would just accept anything. You would take anything. You would tolerate anything. You would sit anywhere. But because you have the great understanding of self-worth, there are people who are offended by your self-esteem. Thank you. Dr. William Smith coined the expression racial battle fatigue, which describes the cumulative stress of navigating a society that signals daily that you don't fully belong. Can you imagine being hung because you actually thought you had the right to vote? Can you imagine being castrated simply for being a man?

10:19 Can you imagine your children being auctioned off as if your motherhood had no value? Can you imagine them sending nine and 11-year-old girls to go slip into the bed of master and you not say anything? And after you come through all of that and elect a black president and have members of the Congressional Black Caucus in the middle of the day, they'll redraw the lines because you woke up to realizing you were somebody? W.E.B. DuBois said, you've got to be careful not to adopt double consciousness, which is the painful awareness of seeing yourself through the eyes of a world that diminishes you.

11:16 You cannot, ladies and gentlemen, you cannot live in the cage of other people's perception. Have you ever wondered why it was that the day of Pentecost, which is the Holy Spirit entering the earth and the birth of the church, have you ever thought to yourself why this sacred day did not happen in a church, but happened in a room?

11:48 The answer is layered. At first, you've got to be mindful that Christianity was new and they had no buildings yet. Why are you telling me that, Pastor? I wanted you to know that because God does not insert himself in finished products.

12:09 He doesn't wait for you to have all of your stuff together. God will bless you. I don't know who needs to hear it. God will bless you before your paperwork is complete. God will do it before you receive the grant. God will do it before you were acknowledged by the state. He said, while you were in your mother's womb, I knew you and I had plans for you. And many of you are talking about you gotta wait till you get yourself together. That ain't when God works. God will meet you at your bottom level when you are at a startup and say, I am going to make you the first and not the last. Did you forget that when Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem to pay taxes, and every hotel they went to, they were told there was no room?

13:16 And I wanted somebody who's sitting next to you, behind you, to know there is no space for those who want to be in the status quo. there is no room for those of you who have resigned to being regular. God told me to tell you they are going to have to make room for you. They're going to have to make room for your creativity, room for your ideas, room for your anointing, room for what's on your life, room for what you're going to have to build. The rooms that they had before were for regular people. but for what you carry they're going to have to create