Humiliation | Part 6B

Have you ever looked around your life, took inventory of your situation, but yet your mind seemed to be disconnected from the reality of the goodness around you, and you could not understand why am I in such a struggle when I am better off than I have ever been in my life? Does that speak to anybody in here right now? The enemy went to sleep. I got her. She's down, he's out, it's midnight, it's over. They're going to be executed at the daybreak. It's over. Taking me a nap. You better sleep because you're going to need that rest for what you're going to see when you wake up to know what my God did while you were sleeping. Do you know that my God neither sleeps nor slumbers? Brother Jefferson, I want my enemy to go to sleep on me because you're going to have to rub your eyes and look in every direction to find me. Man, that's good. We ain't really got to the heavy part yet. Watch this. What verse am I in? Catch my breath. Verse 27, and the keeper of the prison awakened out of his sleep. Seeing the prison doors open and he thought he held the keys to. You thought you were in control of my future? You thought you could lock me down? Do you not know he gave me keys to the kingdom? You might have had the prison key, I got the master key. I got keys to open doors you don't even have. So this man said, they're going to kill me after this. So he drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing the prisoners had fled.

But Paul cried with a loud voice saying, man, don't hurt yourself. Don't do that. We're all here. Then he called for a light and sprang in. Look at these three words, and came trembling. And came trembling. The keeper came trembling. The keeper came trembling. Oh, the keeper came trembling. The one that put me in bondage came trembling. The one that thought he had me down came trembling. The keeper came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas. And notice the respect, serves. What must I do to be saved? I done seen God work in your life. This Jesus you preach is real. This God you serve is real. What do I got to do to be saved? Verse 31, they said, just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. And your house can be saved too. And they said, oh, you mean my house can be saved? Well, come on home with me then. And took him back to the house. The same hour, washed the stripes that he had given them. He and his family got baptized in verse 33. Somebody cooked up some food in verse 34. And they sat down and ate. For when a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies be at peace. The keeper said, we got to do something about this. So in verse 36, the keeper went and told the magistrates, said, hey, you got to let these people go.

And so they wrote a letter giving them freedom so they don't see no most wanted sign on telephone poles. See, not only did God get them out of prison, he had it documented by the magistrates they were free. That's a good word right there. Because when God makes you free of something, it's whole. If the collection agency stopped mailing you after three months, that don't mean the debt is paid. That might mean they're looking at some kind of court filing. Oh, damn, I'm in three months. Oh, glory to God. I ain't going to pay for that TV after all. Yeah, you still going to pay for it. Ain't funny for some people. You know my stuff. All right, go with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. And suddenly, and suddenly, you're gonna need the faith of an and suddenly God in certain seasons of your life. I'm gonna say that again. You'll need the faith of an and suddenly God in other seasons of your life. Because all of our prayers aren't answered with an and suddenly. Preachers may not wanna tell you this, but I'm about to. We don't wanna hear nothing about the God of unanswered prayer. We just seen the God of the yes, we don't wanna see the God of the no. But it's the God of the yes that'll build your faith to trust him when he says no. And to know that even in his no, there's a reason. And sometimes you gotta say no to something

so you can say yes to something better. So if he's saying no in my life, it's because there's a better yes that I just can't see yet. And I'm gonna say that again. You'll need the faith of an and suddenly God in other seasons of your life. I just can't see yet. And there might be something else working I don't know about. Oh man, this is gonna be good. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. If every prayer were answered with an and suddenly, I wonder what would happen to us. I wonder if our testimony services would be less about him and more about us. Oh yes, I just want to stand and give thanks to God for the faith he's put in my life. Yes, you see, I've called the thing that be not as though it were many times. I pay tithes of all my inquiries. Fast three days a week. Start my day with prayer, end it with prayer. Go to church every Sunday, read my Bible daily. And the Lord made a way. Who got the testimony here, the Lord or you? I had to cut them testimony services out. Watch this, 2 Corinthians chapter 12. If you're there, say amen. Paul's talking about his life.

He's talking about how God opened him up to vision and gave him revelations of who he was. In verse one, he says, and gave him revelations of who he was. In verse one, he began to reveal himself to Paul. Paul got to know the Lord intimately and personally. And he saw the Lord in such majestic ways that in verse six, he says this. I'm in 2 Corinthians 12, six, watch what he says. He says, for though I would desire the glory. That word glory means brag, boast. God moved in my life in such amazing ways that I would really like to just brag and boast. Not in God, in himself. Are y'all with me? The Bible says knowledge puffeth up. In other words, knowledge can give you the big head. And Paul had firsthand knowledge and revelation given to him by God. And he's saying here, what the Lord revealed to me and showed me could have given me the big head. Now you've never met anybody arrogant about what they knew, but Paul was susceptible to that. He said, I desired it was in me. I wanted to brag, I wanted the glory. But thankfully he said this, what? I shall not be a fool. I'm gonna brag about what I didn't do. Can you imagine the apostle Paul bragging about what he did and then get to heaven?

And say, oh Paul, you wrote more of the Bible than anybody. But do you remember your one handicap, your one issue? And Paul be like, yeah, I had bad eyesight. Well then how did you write more of the Bible than anybody with bad eyes? He had bad eyes. He writes in his letters, you see the print, the size of the print of my writing. I write in large print because he had poor eyesight, but yet God's spirit moved on him and he writes more of the Bible than anybody else. Moses stuttered and yet God used him To speak to pharaoh to bring the children of israel out. Why are you letting your handicap or your weakness or your infirmity? Stop you from being who god calls you to be if he can take a man with bad eyes and write more the bible than anybody He shouldn't even use me His strength is made perfect in my weakness Paul knew his weakness He knew his natural weakness he knew his emotional and mental weakness So he said i'd be a fool in bragging I know I wasn't supposed to know this. I know I wasn't supposed to be able to do this. I'm gonna brag about it Sometimes it's hard When people come to you And they notice what the lord has done in your life And they start bringing up your life and testifying About you and about your family or your life Sometimes it's hard to even respond because you don't know what you don't want. You don't want to say well, you know If you just work hard Just work hard all I say to you work hard. Well, a lot of people work hard And you know you didn't work that hard Yeah

So you can't say that Well, here's what you gotta do you gotta get your education Well, we know by the way you just said that it wasn't your education Well, you know My point is is what do you do when someone acknowledges something great in your life And you know, you didn't do it. It came through you, but it wasn't from you That's when you roll all the glory back over on the lord and you speak of the sufficiency of his grace And his blessing on your life But you gotta articulate it in such a way that you're not making him biased toward only you Well, you know his blessing is on my life No, that's arrogant Even though the blessing might be on his life You see look I am who I am by the grace of god He has blessed me. He's been good to me in ways. I can't even explain But I give him all the glory so you got to get yourself all out of it get yourself out of it You got to sweep yourself all out You can't bring some of the glory to god and try to give him 85 And you get 15. No, he's got to get all of it And if all of and I had this happen to me, I had this happening people people come to me They'll say yeah. Yeah, but but you know you you you you no, no, no, no, please don't get me in here We're almost done watch this He said I want a glory I want to just brag But i'm not gonna be a fool verse 6 For I will say the truth But now forbear lest any man should think of me Above that which he seeth me to be Or heareth of me. He said I don't want nobody thinking any more me than what I am And we do just the opposite we want people to think more of us than we are And paul said I don't want nobody thinking more than me what I am that's the opposite of the world

So He says my mindset Sure, just thinks about to get heavy and we're gonna close watch this He said I don't want nobody thinking of me any more than what they think I don't need nobody putting me above who I am My neighbor can't even put a tv box out at the end of the driveway Without facing it toward my house And you're like I don't care that you bought no 72 inch tv Sticking that thing on the driveway big color picture facing my house Yeah Your husband come home, baby, did you see that? Oh, I saw it I don't care about that tv. Well, you know, we need a new tv They go down there and get an 85. You better have a big living room if you got an 85, man. I don't know where this come from. I need some chicken or something. We're going to have enough. So you go get your 85. Not only am I going to get a bigger TV, I'm having mine professionally installed. So the geeks come rolling up, yes. They go to dispose the box in the back of the van. Oh, wait a minute, now just set that body curve. Oh, let me turn that box around. I ain't nobody here, do none of that. What y'all talking about? We want people to think more of us than what we actually are. What is it in us that we got to make our role more important, our title bigger, our income larger? We're always trying to go up.

And God said that's not the way, that's not the way. He that exalts himself shall be abased, but he that humbles himself shall be exalted. When I do something in your life and when you do something, don't let the left hand know what the right hand did. So watch God jump in on this in verse 7. This is so good, church, please stay with me. Verse 7, lest I should be. Oh, don't miss that word. If you miss this word, I'm going to cry. Lest I should be what? Underlined circle, do something with that word, exalted, because exaltation comes after humiliation. Exaltation comes after humiliation. We're going to start studying it, Lord willing, next week. Lest I should be exalted. Next two words, how? Above measure. Oh, let's read that part out loud, everything we just read. And lest I should be exalted above measure. It's not that God doesn't want me exalted because he does, but he knows how much I can handle. He knows what I'm ready for. He knows how far I can go before that might ruin me. Oh, God will let you make big mistakes in a small room until you get it out of your system. And you'll be wondering, Lord, why haven't you enlarged my coast? How come you haven't made my way broader? Why haven't you enlarged my territory?

God said, because you're doing too much stupid, foolish stuff. Our kids are grown now. We didn't use that S word as they were coming up. We still don't, but forgive me, Lord. But it really is. God said, uh-uh, I know how much exaltation you can handle. I can't let you get to a place where it won't bring me glory. God said, oh, no, I done done so much, but I got to allow. Oh, this is going to be so good. I have done so much, but I'm going to have to allow something. I got to give you a little gift. It's going to keep you humble. Because if I can keep you humble, I can keep exalting. But if I can't keep you humble, I can't exalt no more. Because I only exalt the humble. I can't let what I'm doing make you proud. I can't let what I'm doing give you the big head. I can't let what I'm doing make you arrogant. I can't let what I'm doing make you feel more about yourself than you should. This thing right here is going to make me want to rip this carpet off the floor when you see what I'm getting ready to show you. It's going to explain so much that's going on in our lives. Before I read it and we expound on it, let me ask you a question. Have you ever looked around your life, took inventory of your situation, the tangibles, the stuff you see, your house, your life, the food, the clothing, the job, the car, the family, the health, but yet your mind seemed to be disconnected. from the reality of the goodness around you and you could not understand why am I in such a struggle when I'm better off than I have ever been in my life. Does that speak to anybody in here right now?

That frustrates me if I'm being honest. Why do I look at my life and see nothing but good? My family, our health, all our children love and serve the Lord. I'm not hungry, money's in the bank, living good, sleeping in a comfortable bed, got air conditioning and all this heat, a back porch swing to swing on in the morning and watch the birds in the birdhouse. I got it too good. Are you hear what I'm saying to you? And if I got all this this good, why is my mind telling me I got it so bad? What is going on in here that I can't enjoy all of this? And Jeremiah 17 says the heart is so deceitful it lies to you. And there have been times, I'm ashamed to say, that I be like, Lord, I'll go back to living in my little, my little big house. I go back to having less. I go back to that house Christian and I first started. I go back to whatever, just to have peace. As if I got a trade, the goodness of God in my life, as if I can't experience His goodness, good and have peace at the same time. Oh, you better look and see what God does right here. Second Corinthians chapter 12, Paul, Paul said in verse seven, lest I should be exalted. Lest I should be what? Exalted. Because exaltation comes after humiliation. Lest I should be exalted above measure. And only God knows what measure that is. So God said, I want you going up, but I got to, I got, I got, I got to always set the ceiling. Cause I know when you get to a point of hitting your self-destruct button and I can't let you get so high, you try to be me. I want to take you higher, but you're not ready. So I'm going to do you a favor. I'm going to send something that'll keep you humble. And this explains so much of the warfare that we go through in our lives. Look at this. He said, lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations. God was speaking to me. God was manifesting in my life. He was revealing himself to me, but in the middle of all this powerful manifestation of his goodness and his word that was given to me, given means it was a gift. A thorn in the flesh, thorns in the flesh irritate and they agitate, but they're not life threatening. You ever get a splinter? Oh, that thing will annoy you, but it ain't going to kill you. My daddy hated splinters so much one day and cause he was a carpenter. He was always getting splinters. He came on one day,

he had a splinter so bad he broke out his pocket knife. I looked over there. I said, daddy, your blood. He said, son, I got to get rid of this splinter. My mama came over in the room hollering. I done told him, don't remove splinters with a pocket knife, please. Love you dad. There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, an irritant, the messenger of Satan. This is hard to read. You say, what was the thorn? He tells you the messenger of Satan. What's that? That's the messages of the enemy. God, listen. Oh my goodness. The enemy didn't need no snake to talk to Eve. And we don't know how he spoke to Jesus on the Mount. I know right here, God is saying, I'm tired of this enemy's message. God said, I can't let you get exalted above measure. I'm gonna allow the messenger of Satan. This is gonna be hard for me, I'm gonna be so mad to hear this, I'm gonna go ahead and receive it. It's in the Word, I'm preaching the Word of God. The messenger of Satan above of me. Why? Read it. Lest I should be exalted above measure. Do you know people, do you know that people will look in your life, they will see your marriage, they'll see your home, they'll see your children, they'll see your livelihood, they'll see your car, they'll see whatever they wanna see and think, oh, you're untouchable. Oh, you got the best life. Oh, you're living a high life.

Oh, you got it so good. And they don't understand that there is a war that you deal with every day that is beyond the house you live in. It's beyond the car you drive. It's beyond the experience of your life. You're dealing with a battle. You're dealing with a war. That's what's got you in prayer. That's what's got you in the Word. That's what's got you into worship. No, you got all the tangibles, but there's something going on right here you just can't seem to win. And while you're looking at me, talking about, oh, he thinks he's something. Oh, he thinks he's something. You think I think that about me. I'm dealing with too much devil to get proud. I'm dealing with too much drama to be proud. I'm dealing with too much warfare to be proud. It is so bad. It is so bad that not long ago, I'm sitting on my back, foreswing, looking at the goodness of God, wishing my mama and daddy could have seen what the Lord has done in my life. At the same time, I'm dealing with so much mental warfare, I'm mad at myself. Like, man, if my mama and daddy would have seen

what the Lord has done in my life and in my life, if they'd just seen, I'm like, Lord, if they could have just seen what you've done in me, but at the same time, I'm sitting in my swing, mentally distressed, mentally angry, just frustrated and no peace. And I'm wondering why, how can you have this much good and still be going through a battle? And God will allow it to keep you humble. Without it, you might not pray. Without it, you might get out of the word of God. He said, I can't let you be exalted too high. I can't let you be exalted too low. God will use the enemy to save me from myself. Well, I want to thank you for allowing me into your viewing area today. And I hope that you were blessed by the ministry of God's word. Our broadcast is made possible through the faithful financial support of our members and partners here in this viewing area. And I want to encourage you to prayerfully consider supporting the work of this ministry so that we can take the message of Jesus as the manifested word of God, reaching more people in more ways and in more places than ever before. Thank you for your support. I want you to know today about a savior who's ready to get you out of that situation

for Jesus's sake. That your father in heaven will get you out of your situation for Jesus's sake. And it don't even matter who you are.