Walk It Out Wednesday: Break the Barrier - Sarah Jakes Roberts and Touré Roberts

3:26 Isn't this why we're here? To encounter the presence of God together. We've had a long day. Maybe it's been a long weekend. It's just Wednesday. But in this atmosphere, we can get a second wind. In this atmosphere where we feel like we've been tossed to and fro, we can be anchored in his presence. fresh vision, fresh strength. We're here for a time of refreshing. Is anybody glad to be in the house of the Lord on a Wednesday night?

4:02 Man, to say something nice to the person beside you, telling you look good. You don't look like they got on your nerves today. I'm glad you made it. Thank God for those angels watching over you. Can you help me thank God for our family watching online? We miss you all. You all are a part of the family. Whether you like it or not, you are just stuck with us. I pray that you're having an amazing evening or early morning, no matter where you are. We are just so grateful that we get to be in the house of the Lord and for you to be a part of what God is doing here at the house. Can you again just help me welcome those who are watching online, literally from all over the world? And can I do something? If you're here for the very first time, you've never been to the Potter's House, would you just stand up? We want to love on you.

4:57 Oh, come on, somebody. We got, what's up? Welcome. Come on, y'all. Show our new family, our cousins. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Hey, cousins. Welcome to the house. We're so glad you're here. I believe that in your time here, you're going to learn what we learn about this place, or love what we love about this place, and that we have a way of making this big place feel like a beautiful family. And so thank you for being with us on this Wednesday night. I'm going to walk it out a little bit. On Sunday, God gave me a message called Break the Barrier.

5:32 And, whew, you talking about getting drug around. I did not I thought I was going to deliver the message I didn't know the message was going to deliver me but I really felt like God told me in my study in my prayer time that the effectiveness of them of the message was going to come down to how it was modeled and so I think one of the things that has created a disconnect sometimes when we talk about repentance and humility and the fear of God is that no one shows what that looks like in our private and our secret time. And so I just feel so honored and grateful that God would allow me to pour out my heart with or without my permission. The Holy Ghost just kidnapped me in front of everybody and y'all let them and we supposed to be family. But for those of you who weren't here or maybe you didn't get a chance to tap into the message, I want to share with you just a high level view of what I spoke about and then we have a few questions.

6:35 Then I want to toss it over to PT for us to get into communion. I spoke from 2 Chronicles chapter 7 verses 12 through 15. Can I encourage you guys, if you do not, let me tell you, I started doing something now. I will be honest, I have every intention on being a church mother in about 40 years. Every intention, I can't wait for it. And I will be insufferable, I just want you to know. But I started using my actual Bible instead of bringing my phone to church. And it doesn't make me any better than people who use their phone. But what I did realize is that having my actual Bible allowed me to highlight it, to put the pens in it as God was speaking to me there in the moment. I would use it for my personal devotion. But I just want to encourage you all, if you don't have a physical Bible or you haven't used it in a while, to break it out.

7:29 There's something about having undistracted time with God. And sometimes, if we're honest, we're on the phone, we're reading the Bible, but someone texts us, it takes us out of the spirit. And then one day I pray that I can leave my Bible with my children and they can see the scriptures and the things that meant something to me. So see this as a part of your legacy. Holy Spirit, lead us, guide us, help us to have questions answered that maybe we didn't even submit, questions that we didn't even know that we possessed. May they rise to the surface in this atmosphere. God, thank you for each and every person in this room. They are a part of your strategy for revival in the earth. You trust us. You trust our past. You trust our gifts, our talents, to create an atmosphere for your glory to dwell, not just in this house, but everywhere we go. So my prayer is that we will leave here setting the stage and laying the foundation for revival, that everywhere we go, there will be resurrecting power because it started first in us and then overflowed into everything that we do.

8:42 We bless your name, God, in Jesus' name. Amen. So my message on Sunday, I started speaking about sound, ultimately, and how in physics, in order for the body to produce sound, that it takes energy, matter, and molecules. Energy matter molecules, this is a physics definition of what it means to produce sound. And in the process of studying, I learned that energy, which is our breath, moves through our body and that energy gets into our vocal folds. And once in our vocal folds, it begins to disrupt the matter, the tissues and the organs that are a part of our vocal folds. And when that disruption happens, there are air molecules that begin to bump into each other because that energy has disrupted something.

9:36 And when those air molecules begin to get disrupted and bump into one another, they create sound waves. And those sound waves are how we produce our voice. That same exact sound wave is landing on your eardrum right now, and your brain is interpreting the disruption of molecules into my voice. When I was looking at this practically though, it just made me think about spiritually what it means for us to create a sound. That even for let everything that has breath praise the Lord, that our breath has to push through matter. has to disrupt molecules in order for our voice to translate into praise in heaven. When I thought about that spiritually, it made me realize that it's not just it pushing through molecules within our body, but sometimes it's pushing through our doubt. It's pushing through our fears. It's pushing through our stress and our worry.

10:30 And so I believe that God put within our body a reflection of what happens in the spirit. I talked about our brain interpreting that sound, the disrupted molecules into sound, and how the Spirit allows for translation for us as well. That's why we have to have a relationship with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit helps us to discern people's temperaments. The Holy Spirit makes intercession on our behalf. That means I'm praying the best thing I know to pray, but I don't know the full will of God, I don't know what God is gonna do in my situation, but I pray anyway, recognizing that the Holy Spirit is translating my prayer. That always blesses me because sometimes I'm praying God open the door and the Holy Spirit is maybe translating, give her strength for when the door doesn't open.

11:21 So I'm glad that I have an advocate in the Holy Spirit, that I have a helper in the Holy Spirit, that I'm not out here just having to figure things out on my own. Then I transition into there being a sound from heaven when the Holy Spirit came, right, that even as I was talking about sound and how sound is produced in us, that the Holy Spirit came as a sound, like a mighty rushing wind. And so not only do we produce a sound, but heaven has a sound that descends upon us as well. When we're in worship and we just begin to feel lighter and we begin to feel God speaking to us, we feel a peace, it's like there's a sound, a frequency that is greater than the frequency of whatever's happening in our lives. And so that led me to think about those moments where it doesn't feel like our sound is getting through to heaven. Or that maybe heaven isn't getting, like did I change my number?

12:15 Like I used to be able to hear from you God, or I want to be able to hear from you God. And what are some of the things that stand in the way of sound? And so when using 2 Chronicles in seven, I used it intentionally because there was a sound produced in 2 Chronicles 7-5, you guys can read the whole Bible as PT would say, it's in there. Thank you so much. You read the whole Bible, it's in there. But in 2 Chronicles 7-5, there's a king named Solomon who dedicates the temple. And when he goes to dedicate the temple, him and all of the people of Israel, they're so excited about the dedication of this temple, that they get their tambourines, they got the organ, they got the keyboard, like they are ready to just dedicate this temple and send up up an incredible sound of gratitude to heaven, and they do it, and heaven responds. The glory fills the temple.

13:09 It's this beautiful moment of transition, of exchange between us and the earth, between us and heaven where there's an exchange of sounds. And I believe that that's what happens when we have high worship moments, that we're sending out our sounds. When praises go up, blessings come down. He inhabits the praises of his people. When I send out my praise, I begin to feel the presence of God. There's an exchange. But what happens in those moments where there is no exchange? And so one of the questions that we got over and over again was that I didn't talk about all of the barriers that keep our sound from reaching heaven. So the title, Break the Barrier, was meant to highlight some of the things that can keep our sound from reaching heaven or us from receiving heaven. And I want to say this, that praise is a sound that reaches heaven, right? He inhabits the praises of our people, of his people.

14:03 We see in Acts where the apostles had been arrested, that they began to praise and sing or pray, and the Holy Spirit would move, the chains would be broken, the prison doors would fly open. And so prayer is a sound that we release. Our prayer, our praise, our worship for sure. Intercession, and we see a demonstration of intercession in 2 Chronicles 7 when King Solomon begins to pray for his people. Now there's prayer, right, and each of us should have our own prayer life, but intercession is specifically standing in the gap for another, standing in the gap on behalf of someone else. Are there any intercessors in the room? Just wave at me, I love that. Sometimes when we're praying for our family members, we're praying for our businesses, we're praying for our coworkers, that's us engaging in intercession.

14:59 This isn't necessarily something for me. An intercession is certainly a sound that reaches heaven, but repentance is the sound that I was specifically tasked with sharing about on Sunday. And I believe that part of the reason why God laid that on my heart is I've just been sensing, as I'm sure anyone with any spiritual thermometer at all, is that we really need revival. We really need a spiritual awakening in our generation. And by generation, I mean anyone who is alive in this moment. Come on, somebody. And part of, you cannot manufacture revival.

15:41 You cannot manufacture it. It is just something that happens when people are gathered and God has decided this is the moment. So it's not like we could come in here together and say, you know what, we're gonna create our own revival. This is something that comes from heaven, but we can be postured for when the moment happens. And part of being postured for revival is repentance. And repentance is so important because a lot of times, I think especially now because we have such a, I'm gonna say critical, we have such a critical view of other people, and critical views of other people are often awarded on algorithms, that it can be easy for us to point out what other people need to repent for. Maybe not y'all, cause y'all are so safe and humble, But sometimes me and my flesh, I look at what people are doing, and I think to myself, you need to repent.

16:37 But part of what 2 Chronicles 7 and 14 tells us is that we have to have humility, that we have to be willing to search our own hearts for areas in our lives where we need to repent, so much so that I don't have time to clock your repentance because I need to be on my face myself. Come on, somebody. If God ever really shows you who you are, it'll help you keep your mouth off of other people. Baby, I got too much work to do on myself to be telling you how to work on you. If I tell you how to work on you, you need to say thank you, baby, because I took a break from the work that God is doing in me to offer you some insight, okay? That is the goal, is that we would begin to really ask God to show me myself. Man, and sometimes we want God to heal us, and we want God to bless us, and we want God to empower us so that we can have pride and ego.

17:30 God, help me build my ego. God, help me make my name great. But humility is when we say, God, really show me myself. Help me to understand where I'm messing up, where I think I'm getting it right, but I could be doing better. Where am I being judgmental? One of the things that I mentioned on Sunday is a lot of times when you get saved and you're like, okay, well, maybe my mother, let me say it right. She says, I don't drink or sleep. I don't drink or chew or hang with those who do. And I guess that was a saying they would say when people first got saved. But we think like, oh, if I'm not doing this, if I'm not doing that, I cleaned up my ways, I stopped doing all of the big things, then the fact that I'm gossiping, that's fine. I'm going to give myself a pass. Or the fact that I'm doing this, it's okay. I'll give myself a pass. And little by little, we pass ourselves out of righteousness.

18:25 We pass ourselves out of holiness. And it is part of our reasonable service the moment that we experience conviction to acknowledge and respond. Oftentimes we can't hear from God because we've gotten so desensitized by ignoring the moments where he convicted us. It's so true. You can train yourself to ignore conviction. and you can train yourself so much to ignore conviction that you'll be begging and pleading and asking God to show up in your life and to say something to you. And God's like, let's first work out that thing that I've been convicting you about because it's a barrier. God doesn't convict us to shame us. Come on, somebody. God convicts us because he loves us so much that he wants us to become all of who he knows we can be. You were made in the image of God. When I convict you, I'm trying to clean up the image so that you can look like me. I'm not trying to shame you. I'm not trying to hurt you. So don't let the fact that other people condemned you keep you from receiving that God wants to convict you so that he can transform you. We want transformation without conviction, and that's why we can't move. But when you realize that conviction is a part of transformation, you got to be serious about who you want to be in God. You got to be so serious that the moment the Lord convicts you that you don't mind moving around some friendships, you don't mind being inconvenienced because I have to be who God has called me to be. Come on, I have to be who God has called me to. God gave me a God-sized dream. That means I got to be who God has called me to be to tap into that dream. There's a generational curse I want to break. I can't do it in my own power. I can't do it in my own strength. If I could, those who came before me would have broken it. That means I need supernatural power. I need supernatural strategy.

20:21 That means I got to get in the presence of God and allow him to do a work on the inside. If there's anything in me that doesn't look like you, God, highlight it. Show it to me to make my heart sensitive again. You've had walls around your heart because you've been just trying to survive so much so that God can't get through to you. God, tear my walls down. God, help me to lose the excuses. Make space for God in your heart again. My heart is where he dwells. I can't afford to be bitter. My heart is where he dwells. I have to forgive you. I didn't want to, but he lives inside of me, and I got to make sure he's got a pure vessel to live in. I'm cleaning up houses. Anybody else in a season where they cleaning up house. I'm trying to make room for the master. I'm trying to make room for the king. He's going to take this shack of a vessel I am and turn me into a palace. I'm making room for the master. I'm living by holiness and righteousness from the inside out.

21:22 Righteousness is not an outfit. You can't go buy it at the store. Righteousness is not the length of your skirt. Righteousness starts with what's in your heart. It starts with what comes out of your mouth. It starts with how you treat other people. We can get to the close later. I want to focus on your heart. Man looks at the outward appearance. God looks at the heart. I want to see what's in your heart. I want to see what's in your heart. And the beautiful thing about allowing God to see what's in your heart is that you are just saying you can come on in, but you living in a glass house anyway. You live in, when you are in relationship with God, it's a glass house. You giving him permission says, I don't want you to just look at me, I want you to dwell within me and to help me clean up the brokenness that exists inside of me. And I cannot overstate that the Lord will clean up what has been damaged inside of you.

22:31 He truly is a healer. He truly is a restorer. He truly will give you vision and creativity so much so that even if it isn't in your family, God says, I can deposit it because you are part of my family. And so we have to receive that as our identity and we gotta be serious about it. And so, okay, let me, okay, all right now, here we go. 2 Chronicles 7, verses 12 through 16. You should really read honestly five, six, and seven. If you read five, you'll see what happened when they dedicated the temple. If you read six, you'll see what happened when Solomon began to pray. And if you read seven, you'll see God's response to Solomon's prayer. But I want to talk about the barriers that I saw within this text that can keep us from being postured

23:24 to release the sound for repentance. The first one, if my people, let's stop right there. If my people, okay, the beauty of being his people in this context is he is saying prior to this, King Solomon says like when they sin against you and they turn their back on you, When you allow them to be captured by other people because they didn't follow your ordinances, when you send plagues to the land because they weren't obedient, God will you hear from heaven? And the Lord responds and he says in this text, if my people, they will be my people even when they aren't acting like my people. So when I think about what this looks like in practicality, I realize that there are moments when I have done things that I didn't look like a child of God. I didn't sound like a child of God. And so I disowned myself from being a child of God.

24:20 But God doesn't disown us. So in this text it's saying, if my people, one of the barriers that can keep us from having our sound released is that we don't receive our identity as being God's people. Because of our behaviors, because of how someone else may have judged us, because of how someone else may have not received us, We can say, I guess I can't be God's people now. That happened to me when I got pregnant as a teenager, and I got pregnant as a teenager and at the peak of purity culture, where if a girl got pregnant or was doing things outside of marriage, she was damaged goods. Nobody wanted to touch her. There was this analogy they would use that it would be like giving a sucker to one person and by the time they pass it around to anybody, would anybody want that sucker? That's what it's like for a girl who's had different experiences. And so embedded in my mind was this idea that because I have messed up, because I have broken the rules, I can no longer be God's person.

25:21 So I got to figure out how to make things work on my own. And I didn't realize until I started cultivating my own relationship with God that He still wanted me. You understand? And He still wants you. And there's nothing you can do that can change that. So if you are in this room and for some reason you find it difficult to believe that God could still want you because other people turned their back on you, I am telling you the most beautiful gift you can give yourself is beginning to understand the character of God. That's why we read this book. We read this book not to get all of these rules to make us better than other people. We don't read this book for all of these regulations so that we can make sure that we're walking around here as goody two shoes. We read this book because it reveals to us the character of our God. And when we understand the character of our God, when I start saying stuff like he'll never leave you nor forsake you, I'm not just talking in hyperbole.

26:19 I'm talking about what I've seen happen in my life and what I've seen happen for thousands and thousands of years. When he should have left, when he could have turned his back, he wouldn't do it. I'm his people. If he did it for them, he will do it for you. Do you understand me? Even when they went through grief, God was still with them. Even when they were messing up, God was still with them. Moses was a murderer. David was an adulterer and an abuser, and God still kept showing up for him and showing up for the victims of those who experienced those tragedies. God says, you're still my people, and there's nothing you can do about it. Do you understand that? So, you got to receive that as your identity. So, for me, if my people was about identity? How do I make sure that I begin to rewire in my mind what it means to be God's people? And when I receive that I am one of God's people, regardless of what I have done, it changes the way that I show up in the world.

27:19 When I realize that He won't disown me, then I can hold my head up a little bit. A lot of us would make better choices if we realized that we had been adopted, that someone still wanted us regardless of what we went through, and God offers us that. So if my people who are called by my name, so one, identity, I gotta receive that I'm God's person. The second thing, who are called by my name, I gotta answer to what it means to be a child of God. Cause sometimes we're God's child in secret. But we're answering to who we used to be in public.

27:53 Or we're answering to who other people have known so that we don't disrupt their experience of us. So one of the barriers that can keep us from being postured for repentance is that we are answering to who we used to be, who other people want us to be, but we're not answering to who God has called us to be. They're called by my name, I marked them. And so when I say I'm calling on the children of God, this is a moment for the children of God to stand up. This is a moment for, not your fear, right? Because some of us answer to fear. Some of us answer to shame. When God tells me to do something, I answer because I'm called by his name. I'm called. When he raises a standard for how I'm supposed to show up in the earth, I respond because I'm called by his name. So that's the second barrier. The third barrier, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, humble themselves.

28:47 And that's where things got tricky for me on Sunday because I thought I was teaching y'all and demonstrating, and I ended up here humbled myself. Do you understand? That word humble in the Hebrew, it means humiliate, right? And one of the things that I want you to understand, this isn't humiliate as in embarrass. God help me. This isn't humiliate like embarrass. But to be honest in such a way that you don't come to God with your highlight reel, that you don't come to God with all the things you did well, that we come to God with the realities. I don't think I said this on Sundays, but sometimes there's not enough distance between us and God that we begin to become so impressed with our achievements or our accolades or so impressed that we're so much further than the other people around us that there's not enough distance between us and God. And sometimes we're so busy boosting ourselves up and boosting up our confidence that we forget that we have this privilege to be in the presence of God that we didn't do these things in our own strength and our own might. I don't come to God with my biography. I come to God with my scars and my wounds that He has breathed on. I come to God with my fears and my doubts in the areas where I know He's still trying to perfect the work He's doing because I want to give Him direct access to where I need to be developed. If God has to get past your accolades and get past your dreams, then that's a lot of work to do. He'll do it, but I like to come to God empty.

30:20 I like to come to God ready. Like, Lord, I know I messed up. Lord, I know that I don't have it all together and I don't have all the answers, God, and I'm coming to you low because one, I just recognize who you are and who I am in comparison to you. I'm not even worthy to be in your presence. We talk about the king of kings. There is not a king on this planet, not present or in the past, who could ever compare to our king. There's not a father on the earth, nor has there ever been who can compare to our father. The wind and the waves obey him. And you put your breath inside of me? God, you're still going ahead of us and making our crooked path straight. I don't know another goodness like this. I don't know another love like this. And you keep inviting me into your presence. You want to live inside of this broken vessel?

31:13 So there's something powerful about recognizing the distance that exists between you and God, but that God says, come on in anyway. I want to have communion with you anyway. I want to be in covenant with you anyway, because my strength can be made perfect in your weakness. I don't need you to come to me strong. I don't need you to come to me bold. I just need you to come to me ready. I just need you to come to me open. He created us naked. That was a sign. I don't need you to put on to be with me. As a matter of fact, you may have to take off to be with me. What is it that I've been putting on that I need to lay down when I come into the presence of God? Don't nobody in the presence of God care about how much money you have? I don't care about your degrees. I don't care about what's in your bank account. I don't care about your promotion. I don't care about your business. God says, I care about your heart. This is not a networking event.

32:07 This is not where you prove to me that you got it all together. I knew who you were before you even did anything great. I put greatness inside of you. I want you to come to me with a level of reverence. This is what it means to fear the Lord, not because I'm afraid. It means I got so much respect for who you are that the weight of your glory makes me fall to my knees. I know sometimes we get so caught up in the lights and the cameras, but sometimes you got to get ugly with it. You got to know that God's not looking to be impressed. He's looking to really bless. I'm looking to really bless you. And if I'm going to bless you, you can't show me where you're already blessed. You got to show me where you need my presence. You got to show me what I can do in your life. You got to show me where you're walking around blind. How could you be in this earth and not need the presence of God? I don't know what's going to happen from day to day, but he knows what's going to happen. So I bow down to the one who holds all power in his hands.

33:03 I bow down to the one who understands the end from the beginning. I bow down to the one who understands the way that I'm going to take. I bow down to the one who knows when I'll take my last breath. I don't have time to be wasting, waiting for you to see who I am. I got to get in the presence of God so I can know who I am, so I know how to create, so I know how to write, so I know how to raise these children. All of us, each of us in this room, we have an expiration date. And none of us know when it's going to be. But God knows when it's going to be. And he's willing to dwell with us so that we can maximize every single moment. So that you can make every lasting impact while you're in this earth. It is critical that we understand God was not bored when he created us. There was an intention that you can establish a part of the kingdom of heaven that no one else can but you.

34:06 Do you understand? This is not just about coming to church. This is about kingdom behavior. The kingdoms of this world shall be the kingdom of our Lord. And someone's got to be willing to take territory. and God's got territory with your name on it. So order my steps and give me the strength to take them. Clear my vision so that I can see clearly. Give me discernment so I understand what's a distraction and what's an assignment. God, help me to understand who I need to be right now in this earth with this family, with this background, with this history. God says, I can use it.

34:59 At this age, God says, I can use it. And because I can use it, the harvest is plentiful. The laborers are few. Very few people are willing to roll up their sleeves to become the type of people who can get in the presence and experience an impartation from God. and impartation has to happen from a place of humility. So we don't pray entitled prayers. And as hard as it is, sometimes we have to find a way, and I'm going to say this, this is going to sound crazy to some of you, but I'm going to say it because I feel like the language is going to resonate. Sometimes we have to forgive God for not answering those entitled prayers. Now, he didn't wrong us, but we felt entitled to a certain outcome. And because he didn't give us those outcomes, now there's distance between us.

36:00 But humility is understanding that maybe I was praying for something that wasn't in your will. So while I think I need to forgive God, God, I really need you to forgive me for trying to usurp my will over yours, for trying to force something that you were obviously trying to pivot me from, for trying to hang on to a vision of what my life should look like instead of consulting the Creator. So one of the things that I've had to learn to do is when I pray and I begin praying for certain outcomes, Jesus shows us this. He goes, if it's possible, pass this cup. But also, nevertheless, not my will but your will be done. You got to hold loosely what you're praying to God for. I want to make it known, I want to make it clear, but I also want to be in alignment with your will.

37:03 So one of two things are going to happen. God's going to answer it because it's aligned with his will, or the Spirit is going to make a translation that helps me to get aligned with his will. But for us, non-negotiable has to be me and the will of God. so if my bitterness if my unforgiveness is keeping me out of the will of God then I may need to humble myself because I think I thought better than you I know you that felt like I stepped on somebody's toes a little bit my toes too sometimes I think I think a little bit better than God like God I think You could have really did this differently.

37:48 Why did it have to be this way? I'm hurting. I'm grieving. And I feel entitled to it because this was a real loss for me. So humbling ourselves, even when we felt entitled, it allows us to really put God in his proper place. Because at the end of the day, I trust you. how can you still trust God because everything that God does he does well The only thing that got tricky about what God created in Genesis 1 was us.

38:29 That earth, she's still doing what she was told to do. That sun still sitting up there where he put it. The moon went to that store, didn't touch nothing, didn't ask for nothing. Everything God created is still functioning in the way God created it to but us. It ain't him, y'all. Thank you. It's a us thing. It's a us-y. Somebody say cheese. It's a us-y.

38:58 So there's something about what we believe or something about what we don't trust about God that has kept us from being able to function in the way that he originally created. And so every now and then, we got to check our motives, check our intentions, and we got to be willing to humble ourselves. because I want to show up as what God created. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and seek my face. PT's got this. Can I steal what you have about seek my face in front of everybody? I can steal it? Okay, I'm going to steal it. Okay. When I got to seek my face, I thought we're just seeking out what to know God well enough that we know what his face looks like. To search for him in scripture, through our worship, through our prayer. But then PT came along and he told me that the Lord had been talking to him about seeking his face. And that meant to look at what God was looking at.

39:56 To pay attention to what God was facing. And begin to point our desires in towards that direction. Our effort, our gifts and talents into that direction. Can y'all just clap for PT? That was a beautiful revelation. That's what you said, right? It ain't nothing worse than somebody jacking up your revelation. I messed it up. You can come up here and fix it. Okay. So we got to seek his face. That means that if we claim our identity, we answer to being called by his name, we find humility, and then we make it a part of our life to seek his face. And whatever interpretation lands for you, what does it mean for you to seek God's face in this time in your life? because one of the barriers is that we may be seeking other things. I'm his child. I answer by his name. I humble, but I'm still seeking my purpose, my death's mouth. What does it mean for you to seek God's face in this season of your life?

40:53 And turn from their wicked ways. It said pray and seek my face. And the reason why prayer is important, and the reason why I believe humility comes before prayer, is because how we pray from a place of humility is different when we're praying from that sense of entitlement. So it says to pray, humble themselves and pray. And when we begin to pray with that level of humility, our prayers, they just change. Our heart breaks for our nation. We recognize the areas where we need development. One of the things probably 10 years ago that God really started dealing with me about was integrity.

41:33 And sometimes we call it people-pleasing. where like I just try to make everyone else happy. And honestly, I think people pleasing sounds so sacrificial and so beautiful. But some could argue it's manipulation. Because I'm doing whatever it takes to make other people happy, even if it means I abandon my integrity. And so God started talking to me about integrity and being willing to disrupt people's experience of me in order to be true to who God's called me to be. and true to the type of woman that I want to be in the earth. So pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. That turning, these are the barriers, and turn from their wicked ways. That means that when I get finished going through this process, that I don't continue down the same path I was on. What does it mean to really have actual change? And think that through.

42:27 If there's an area of your life where God is convicting you, what does it look like for you to turn from that? to go in the opposite direction. And if you have a fear of loneliness, if you are afraid of rejection, if you're afraid of isolation, sometimes that can keep us from turning from those wicked ways. If we're afraid that if I don't have this thing to numb me that I may have to actually deal with the pain, maybe it means I'm going to have to go to therapy. I'm going to have to go to counseling. I'm going to have to get some support on the turn. I'm going to have to have accountability. I'm going to need to replace with something righteous the thing that was wicked. What is the righteous replacement? I was talking to my therapist the other day, and I'm glad PT caught the fast, because I was knocking back Starbucks cookies. Like, if this were a safe place where people wouldn't judge, one to two a day, every day, just knocking them back.

43:26 I don't even drink coffee, so I have no business at Starbucks. I don't like the cold drinks or nothing. Literally just trying to go to different ones so the one that I went to earlier wouldn't judge me for being the cookie lady. If I was to go a little bit deeper, I didn't want the kids to smell the cookies in the car so I'd spray a little something before I picked them up in the carpool line.

43:50 Okay, I need it this fast. But I was talking to my therapist and she was like, the next time that you're in this space where you're like addicted to sugar, You need to ask yourself, what in my life is so bitter that I need this sweetness? And sometimes you need to fire your therapist, because don't be in my business like that. I paid you to beat around the bush, not to go straight for the thing. You understand what I'm saying? Okay, so turn from your wicked ways.

44:23 No shade to Starbucks, but if Starbucks is one of your wicked ways, like, you may have to detour a little bit. Okay, and I will hear from heaven. I'll hear from heaven. If they're able to do these things, to be serious about denying themselves, to receive the fact that they belong to me, and they live a life where they answer to that. If they're willing to do that, then I can hear from heaven. I will hear that sound of repentance. That this is a people that are really trying to meet me where I am. You understand? Sometimes God meets us. He does. He meets us where we are, and that's beautiful. but we cannot be those who insist that God constantly meets us where we are. We got to ask God, how do I stretch myself to where you are? I don't want to keep living the same way where you got to rescue me from the same thing over and over again. I really want to break this pattern off of my life.

45:24 So who am I going to have to become in the process? So that's a recap. And one of the first questions was, could Sarah go through and name all of those barriers? And so it really is just in the text. If you break it down and look at it through that lens, you'll be able to see it hopefully yourselves. And God will give you your own revelation and interpretation. So I highly suggest that you read it. If you're just building your relationship with the Lord or just getting back in your relationship with the Lord, take these messages that resonate with you and get in your own prayer time and your own devotion and see what God expands about the revelation for you. See what God says to you directly so that when you come in, we're confirming or we're exchanging. That's what the first church, it wasn't just about coming to receive someone else's revelation. We would come in and we would have revelation to share amongst one another about how the Holy Spirit was moving and what we were learning and experiencing.

46:18 And that's a beautiful way to create and cultivate community. It can be intimidating to open the Bible when you haven't experienced, you know, faith in your life or you don't know how, the translations, and it can be a little overwhelming. I'm telling you, start at a place with a message that really resonated with you, whether it's this one or any other one, and begin to just read that scripture over and over and over again. I was listening to a lecture, and one of the things they did, they take one scripture and pull out at least 10 insights from that scripture. One scripture, 10 different insights For the more advanced level, he said 35. I want to say it was Ephesians 5 and 18 that he was using as an example, but he said pull 35 insights. He says, and I've had other classes do it, so I know it can be done, but you may have to read before and after to understand, to really get the full insight.

47:12 But I just encourage you to take a scripture and work it. Read it over and over again, understand how it fits, because biblical literacy is going to be so important for us as we continue to navigate what's God and what's not. Okay, one of the questions that we received is, I feel so much shame of the sins I subjected my life to after repentance. I let God down. I wasn't even aware. I didn't even want to admit it. After this Sunday, I humbled myself and knelt down and begged God for forgiveness. How do I move forward without feeling embarrassed and shameful to face God? This is an amazing question, and there's some things that she put in this question that I want to offer a bit of correction to. She said, I let God down. There's no such thing. God knows who we are. Come on.

48:06 God knows who we are. You may have let other people down. You may have let yourself down, but God knows the end from the beginning. So you didn't let God down. This is another thing I stole from PT, but this time I'm not gonna ask him, can I share it? But he's like, you can't disappoint God because to disappoint God would suggest that God had an expectation of you when he was wrong about that expectation. Ooh, that boy good.

48:36 So you didn't let God down. When we talk about moving forward without feeling embarrassed and shameful to face God, one of the things that I put in my notes that I didn't say that I think is worth writing down for any of you who have struggled with worth and even being in the presence of God can feel a little bit challenging. The presence is the one leveling field, level place, whatever the word is that people use. It is the one place where everyone comes in unworthy and everyone leaves worthy.

49:10 None of us are worthy of being in the presence of God. Your sin may be different from mine. Your scars may be different from mine. But none of us have lived a life worthy of being in relationship with God. When we get into the presence of God, it isn't just an opportunity for us to experience God's presence, but it heals us. It makes us worthy. It transforms us. He loves on us in such a way that we embrace who we are. I haven't always been able to tell my story without cringing or without worrying how other people feel about us, but God has loved me so good that it has cast out any fear I have of how other people will feel about who I am. And so you didn't let God down. And I want to challenge a little bit your perspective on who God is, because a lot of times we liken who God is to who other people have been in our lives.

50:07 And because we let our parents down or some type of an authoritarian figure in our lives down, we assume that we've let God down. we only know God as the judgmental one. And we haven't encountered the love of God or experienced the character of God's love in our lives. And if you look at, I think, just Genesis 1 through 4, you know, we see he creates humanity. We see that they eat from the tree. He kicks them out of the garden, but he still dwells with them because he still loves them. He's still dealing with Cain and Abel because he still loves them. So, he's still with them, not because they did everything right, but because of who he was. And surely if we looked at it through the human lens, we'd be like, oh, they let God down. But God had a strategy. Oh, I feel that. God had a strategy even in the letting down that would allow it to still work out for good, so it really wasn't a letdown. He was the lamb slain before the foundation of the earth. What does that mean? I know that they aren't going to get this thing right, so I already have a plan and a strategy that will break their heart open so that when I send the ultimate strategy, they'll be ready to receive salvation. What if what we're reading is God's heart, obviously God's heart, but also how God cracked our heart open so that we could receive salvation, so that we would be in such a place of humility that we realized we couldn't do it without God.

51:31 There's no such thing as letting God down. And so the perspective on God that you have may be one that you have experienced from the experiences you've had with other people. And I would like to challenge you to read scripture specifically looking for God's love, to really seek out what does it mean to ask yourself this question when you read anything as it relates to God in the Bibles. What does it say about the love of God? That the woman was caught in the act of adultery and he shooed everyone away and said, who now condemns you? What does that say about the love of God? What does it say about the love of God that he was still there with Cain and Abel and trying to tell them, don't be upset because if you get upset, sin. What does it say about the love of God that he prepares us and helps us to understand the world that we live in? What does it say about the love of God? So ask yourself that question so that you can have a full picture of who God is.

52:27 Yes, there will be consequences. The rain falls on the just and the unjust alike. The scripture, if you read any bit of Bible, you'll see that everybody got it. You know, this idea that we was going to be living life and no harm would come our way and we wouldn't have any issues and any struggles, that ain't nowhere in here.

52:49 Everybody was fighting for their life in this book. We talk about I don't want to be God's strongest soldier. Everybody in this book had to be one of God's strongest soldiers. And so what strength did they receive from God in those moments where they felt weak? I look at the prophet Elijah, and when he wanted to quit and thought he was the only one who was trying to live righteously, and God says, come here, get something to eat and take a nap.

53:13 What does it say about the love of God that he's not constantly asking us to produce? That he's not constantly asking us to do something for him? That he'll take care of us and show us how to be in his presence. Okay, I did the six barriers. I talked about that someone wanted to know more about the powerful sounds that heaven can't ignore. And someone else says, how do you let go and overcome barriers? I'm struggling and constantly feeling stagnant, which is something that I think many people can relate to. Sometimes we want to overcome barriers that we have to dismantle. That's why, you know, the message wasn't just overcome the barriers. Sometimes there are barriers. Oh, and I feel this. If we just overcome them, the barrier will still exist for someone else. But there are some barriers that God wants us to dismantle for the pulling down of strongholds. Oof. When we pull down a stronghold, that means that that stronghold that we pull down is no longer a barrier anymore. It doesn't talk about us just hopping over the stronghold or going under the stronghold, but to dismantle it all together. There are some things in your life God's going to give you the endurance to overcome. He's going to give you the power to leap over things, but there are some things He's going to make you face head on because He doesn't want it standing in the way of anybody else. He wants you to be able to give someone with a real strategy how you overcome addiction for real. What are the tools you need to build the business for real? What do you do when you don't get the financing? How do you find life again after you've gone through divorce? There are some things you got to be able to tell somebody with specificity.

55:02 I know what it's like to not want to live anymore. I've been there. I didn't just overcome it. I sat in depression for a minute. Then suddenly there came a sound from heaven and I finally got the help and the resources I needed. Sometimes God is marinating your testimony so that it can give flavor to what someone else is going through. I know you just want to get out of the boat. I know you want the storm to stop raging, but I'm telling you, sometimes God says, I want to show you that you can be steady in the storm. Come on, Bishop, that when I am with you, that you can be okay, even in the midst of the world, going crazy. So sometimes we don't get to just overcome. Sometimes God won't allow us to just overcome because he's trying to teach us how to open our mouth and ask for help. Come on, private overcomers. I want to overcome, but I don't want anybody to know that I got something that I need to overcome. But you were not meant to do life alone.

55:58 It is not good that man shall be alone. You were overcome by the blood of lamb and the word of your testimony. You may have to open your mouth and let somebody know you're going through a test so that you can get a testimony. And let me tell you the power of opening your mouth and letting someone else know that you're in a test. They can give you the cheat code. Baby, I've been in a test like that before. I had to raise my children before. I had to build that business before. I had to get in the presence of God and undo that spirit of lust before. And I am telling you, not only can God do it, he can do it in such a way that you never long for it again. You need to hear somebody else's testimony. So you got the momentum you need to break the generational curse. You need to hear someone else's testimony. So you know what's normal and what's not. Is it normal for me to miss who I used to be? Yes, it's normal.

56:50 But sometimes you got to keep pressing forward anyway until you can no longer hear your old self calling your new self. Is it normal that I don't always feel close to God? Yes, it's normal and that's why you got to learn to lift