← Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Dufresne Ministries Podcast
The Flow Of Fullness | Joel & Amy Siegel | Tulsa, OK | Thursday AM | Miracle Crusade 2023
01:17:37
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- [00:01]
A
Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message.
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B
Praise the Lord.
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A
So entering in and coming in praise is where the miracles begin today. So learn this flow and learn to go wherever he leads you in praise and song, for then you will connect to the miracle flow where everything is possible in him we can go.
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B
Yes. Amen. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. Don't you love God's presence? Don't you love the flow of his spirit? You know, there is such a thing in every service as God's plan for that service. And so really from the time the service starts, we have to school ourselves, you know, into recognizing and responding to God's flow for that service. And there's going to be some similarities maybe in every service in that there's an order of worship that might be regular, you know, but then there's going to be, there's going to also be some variants, variables in each service. You know that you, you don't, you can't just go autopilot on it. Maybe I'm talking to those who maybe are in ministry and maybe those who are assisting, maybe those who are on stage. This is, this is vital in order to experience the fullness of God's flow. The things of God aren't automatic in many respects. They require cooperation, you know, and so never should it be the case that I sometimes I say it jokingly, but it shouldn't be the case that the people up on stage are worship extractors. You know what I mean? They're worship leaders. But it shouldn't be that they're having to pull it out of the people, you know what I'm saying? It ought to be. Matter of fact, Brother David sometimes has to encourage people. We hear him do it. Maybe lift your hands in the air. Right. Well, you know, in a perfect world, let's just say it this way. He shouldn't have to say hands up. Hands up. It's not a stick up. You understand? He shouldn't have to. Now, if you have to, it's appropriate to do so. Right? But how many know? It ought. For the born again person, the most natural response should be God responses. You know, we like Pastor Nancy, we were, we came up under Brother Kenneth Hagin and were students of his. Continue really to be students of his ministry. And he talks about once he was born again on the bed of sickness. He said, nobody had to tell me to praise the Lord. He said, I had nobody to teach me. There was no worship Leader saying, okay, come on, come on, come on. No, he said it was just the best he could because he was partially paralyzed. But he said, best I could, I'm lifting my hands and just saying, oh God, thank you. Just a flow of thanksgiving and praise and worship. Amen. That's natural for the, that's normal for the believer. And if I could say this, you know, there's many because I've had them. I pastored a church for 11 years in the Buffalo, New York area and it was a privilege to do so. It really was western New York. You guys are still up in western New York, ministering up there. And we'd have. Our area was very predominantly Catholic, like 80% the Catholic churches on the weekends would fill up. Our neighborhood would be filled with cars, five services on Sunday. The Catholics that come very, very faithfully. And most of our members were ex Catholics. And so you'd get visitors to the church. And it was not an evangelistic. Let's just say it was the anti. Tulsa, where we were, you know what I mean? Like Tulsa. You almost think, I know it's not the case, but you almost. When I lived here in Tulsa for eight years, not only was everybody I knew a Christian, they were all probably five fold ministers. Everybody in my circle was a minister. And so actually one of the joys of leaving, not that it was a joy to leave that, but one of the things I experienced when I left is like, oh, I got people to witness to again. Now don't get me wrong, there's plenty of folk right here that need Jesus, you understand that? But I was saying that for a very. Oh yeah, because we'd have people come to the church and visit. You're helping me today, right? Yeah. And we'd have people come to the church and visit and nothing, what we call wild going on, you know what I mean? Nobody running, taking a lap, nobody going down the front row and just going woo. Like, nothing like that, just praising God, worshiping God. And the ushers would tell me afterwards, he said, well, we had some visitors and I heard the man say to the wife, let's get out while we still can. What did they think we were about to do where they wouldn't be able to leave? You know what I mean? And so that might be an extreme version. You know, we would always have a Christmas Eve service. It was really big in that part of the country. So we'd do all music stuff Christmas Eve, a really big production. And all the people in the church would bring their family members, some of Them would be kind of liquored up a little bit, if you know what I'm talking about. But you know, what you do, you. Whatever's going to make you pleasant to be around, I'm okay with it. And so you could see the trepidation on the faces of these visiting family members, like, oh, my God, I'm in church. Why did I agree to come? And so I remember one service, we got there, and I said, okay, we're all here. Lock the doors, just to freak them out. Amen. So my point was you wondered if I had a point. I usually do somewhere. But point being the flow of just the flow of praise and worship can be foreign even to some who are Christians or call themselves. Shouldn't be. Shouldn't be that you need a worship extractor instead of a worship leader. Amen. To pull it out of you. So there ought to be this flow. Now you might think, well, I thought you were ministering on prayer in these morning services. Yeah. Because praise, worship, Thanksgiving, rejoicing, that is really to comprise the largest part of our interaction with God. And what is prayer but our interaction, our interaction with God? Christianity is an interactive activity, you understand? It's not passive. You understand? It's never just come and occupy. I know Jesus said, occupy till I come, but that's different than just come and occupy. Some of y' all will get that. That's a scripture I quoted over in Mark 13ish. Read through there, you'll find it. Jesus said, occupy till I come, not come and just occupy. Different. Two different things, honey. And, you know, a lot of Christians, they just. Because it's a, you know, we're in the TV generation where, you know, I can just go to the theater. You know, you go to the movie theater and ain't nobody bugging you for any kind of response. Matter of fact, we'd rather you don't.
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C
Right.
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B
I mean, I. Especially if there's kids in the theater. I try not to. I built my own in our house because I don't want to go where somebody's rustling bags and people are talking and kids are talking. I just. I start to lose peace. And I can't. I can't lose my peace, can't lose my piece. So we top gun it in our basement. Yes, we do. And if you don't think it sounds good, you should come over. Anyhow. No response required in the movie theater. No response required. Although people will respond in front of their TV all the time. Yeah. And even in preaching, you know, you're watching preaching on your iPad, preaching on it. People respond all the time. I don't think they should have said that. That's not how Pastor Nancy Dufresne preaches it. Why are they saying it that way? That's a wrong response. That's a wrong response. No, that's why you need to come. That's why you need to be there. Christianity is interactive. Response required. Response required. And people wonder why they always bugging me to respond. Why are they always trying to get me hands up, hands up. Why are they always doing it? Because those actions contribute to the flow of God. The withholding of those responses, the withholding of those spiritual actions hinder the flow of God. Could you turn to a scripture today? Because I think you're wanting that. Could you turn to the fifth chapter of First Thessalonians? Bless him, everybody. You know, if you're not comfortable, and many people do say, well, I'm just not comfortable with all that praising out loud. It's just too loud, and I'm just not comfortable. Well, personally, I don't care if you're comfortable or not. God doesn't care. I mean, we gave you a good chair. That's comfortable. The temperature is okay. What more do you have to have? Praise the Lord. I'm not comfortable praising. You're going to have difficulty when you die, because when you go to heaven, they don't tone it down. It's amped up, like you wouldn't. You can't imagine. Brother Jesse Duplantis had an amazing experience where he had a visitation and really God allowed him to visit heaven. And he said, you know, you'd see things there. And the only response you could bring was glory to God. And he said, when you said that everybody around would go, would answer, glory. And he's looking at something and going, glory.
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C
And everybody go, glory.
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B
It would be an easier transition for all of us if we would be practiced at spiritual responses. Spiritual responses help the spiritual flow. Greater spiritual responses. Not now you can give spiritual responses not in the spirit. You can really mimic spiritual responses in the flesh. But there's a genuine version that we want, right? Because that. See that? I'll show you. I'll show you. First Thessalonians, chapter five. You know, I thought about 25 scriptures, was thinking about, you know, 25 scriptures. This was not one of them. But this morning, when I was preparing. But that's all right. Verse. I know where I am. I'm just trying to see what we want to do. Look first. Look first at verse 23, okay? Verse 23 is so familiar. It says, the very God of peace sanctify you wholly or completely. And I pray God your whole what spirit and what and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ? Well, he gives us keys to that preservation earlier in the chapter. And because part of it, Part of it requires our cooperation, it's not just up to God. So verse 16. What does verse 16 say? Rejoice when you're happy and you know it.
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D
Huh?
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B
Is that what it says? When you're happy and you know it? Clap your hands good. Oh, you guys are responders. Look at that. It didn't say nothing about when you're happy and you know it. What's it say? Rejoice evermore. Evermore. In other words, you know, from the time this is penned forward, rejoice, Rejoice. Rejoice is not. It says nothing here about a feeling. Matter of fact, we know from James, chapter one, verse two. My brethren, count it all, joy. Didn't say feel it all. Did it say, feel it all, joy? No. And he said, count it all, joy. When you encounter diverse or different tests and trials. He said, count it all, joy. Consider it an opportunity for pure joy. Well, I don't know about you. I'll just talk about my tests and trials. I mean, we experienced one in between the. We were out at a prayer conference just a couple weeks ago. Between that time and this week, we had what we would call hell break loose in some different things. I'm kind of used to it. And there's two ways. Listen, there's two ways to have trouble. I don't know what's so funny. There's two ways to have difficulty. Out of the will of God and in the will of God.
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C
We knew when it started.
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B
We knew when it started. This was in the will of God trouble. This was get our focus. Try to. Try to get our focus on something else. Try to get us focusing on the problem. Try to get us to skirt. Try to get us to where we're not where we need to be for ministry. And we just. We had to just count it all joy. Well, how do you. How do you count it? So that would be included in rejoice evermore when stuff hits the fan. That's how you say it here in Tulsa, when stuff hits the fan. How do you rejoice evermore during that? Well, you have no feelings. I didn't feel joyful. You know, some of what we experienced is, okay, this thing that was creating money is no longer. It walked. Hello, Bye, bye, bye, bye. And that's not good, except it happened like three different times in a couple days. And finally it was starting to get funny. And listen, don't feel sorry for me. This has happened over and over and we get. Not only get to the other side of it, we end up better. Amen. And really, already at least a third, maybe two thirds of it is back. I'm still waiting to find out. But anyhow, changed already is what I'm saying. But we cannot. Now, I don't use the phrase we can't afford when it comes to items, things like that, but I will use that phrase. We can't afford to respond according to feelings. We cannot afford to respond in the natural, the way natural circumstance would dictate our response. Because the response in the natural would be fall on the bed and cry, why, God? Why?
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C
I've served you. I've tried so hard to do.
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B
I've tried to be faithful in ministry.
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C
I've written books for you. Yes, I've done. I pastored in Buffalo.
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B
When we were. We went when God had dealt with us to go to Buffalo. And at that time my cousin. We were talking with you guys yesterday at that time, my cousin had recently received the Lord. Now, for a couple Jewish people, that's pretty good. My cousin's older than me. He's in his. He's in his 70s now. Well, in his 70s, I'm in my 30s. That's a lie. That's a lie. Shouldn't lie. But anyhow, my cousin was a developer. He was a developer in land developer and stuff in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and had, I mean owned at that time, it was still up and coming. And he owned a lot of businesses and places and all kind of stuff. And he said, why don't y' all come start the church here and we'll finance it.
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C
So we were there when he said.
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B
It, looking over the sea of Cortez in his multimillion dollar palatial thing on the side of the cliff. He said, we'll give you a house. We'll give you. And God deals with this. Go to Buffalo, where you have 60 days of sunshine every year. I don't know how come I'm saying all this. Help me. Where was I? Huh? Yeah, Very good. Thank you.
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C
Oh, yeah, yeah. We went to Buffalo.
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B
I said, I can't come here. I'd love to come here. I can't come here. God already told us where to go. And it doesn't start with a C, it starts with a B. Buffalo Buffalo rhymes with snow.
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C
The first year we were there, we got.
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B
What did we get? 1 snow the whole year. We got the whole year's total in one snowfall, 105 inches. Yes, but we were. You never seen anybody so blessed to be in Buffalo. But anyhow. You want to lay down and cry, we did what you said we did.
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C
No, you can't do that. You can't do that. Not if you want victory. You can't do that. No, you've got to do what the Bible says do. You got to count it. Count it. Count.
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B
That's an accounting term. Count it all. Not feel it. So that lets me know this, that when the Bible says, rejoice evermore. And I didn't realize I was going to stop and preach on this verse, like for 40 minutes, but hey, here we are. But when it says rejoice evermore, it's not talking about necessarily things that have to have feelings attached. It's not talking about feelings of joy. It's talking about expressions of joy. Don't get me wrong, I like to rejoice with feelings. But I've learned how to rejoice without feelings if necessary. So how do you count it all? Joy. You give expression when you feel like crying. So what is just a level one basic, elementary expression of joy? Laughter. Ha ha ha. So I start counting. Ha ha ha. How many? Remember the count from Sesame Street?
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C
Anybody remember three wonderful ha ha ha's.
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B
Yeah. And I. And you just keep counting.
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C
You just keep counting. Just keep rejoicing.
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B
Not feelings. Expression.
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C
Rejoice evermore. Evermore.
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D
Ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha.
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C
And you know what that expression does?
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B
It helps drown out the thoughts of your demise.
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D
Huh?
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B
It helps drown out the voice of the enemy that wants to come and counsel you. Because, listen, he'll put his arm around you in times difficult. Come here. Come here. He'll say this. He'll say, mom, poor baby. Poor baby. You serve God. And this is what you got. You serve God. And look at you. Look at you. He said, now, I'll take care of you. I'll help you. You come over to the dark. Remember we talked about the dark side? You come over to the dark demon possessed side.
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C
I'll help you.
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B
Come on.
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C
You know that's. You can't be listening to the.
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B
He wants to have a counseling session.
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C
And he's the one that messed you up in the first place.
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E
No, you can't have that.
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C
You got to drown that out. And I'll tell you a great way to do it.
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D
Ha ha ha, ha ha.
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B
And count it. If you gotta count it, say, okay, minimum 100. Count it. 100. Ha ha ha's the thing about it is how many. Remember the old Tootsie Pop commercials?
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C
How many licks does it take to.
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B
Get to the center of the Tootsie Pop? Now one thing we know is we don't have any kids here because they'd be like, what are you talking about? Everybody knew that. Way to go. How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? Nobody knows. Nobody has ever licked their way all the way to the center of the Tootsie Pop. Why? What do they do? You lick it until you can crunch it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. See, you start, ha ha. By faith, without any feelings. You might say, well, how many does it take to turn your situation? You don't know because you'll. As you're doing it, God will inhabit those expressions because they're faith expressions.
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C
God will jump in it.
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B
And instead of doing it without the feelings, you'll start ha ha. With victory. You say, ha ha ha.
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C
Hey, hey, hey, hey.
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B
Come on.
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C
How many? Remember you all remember Fat Albert.
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E
Time, time, time.
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C
Gonna have a good time with you. Oh, pastor, come on.
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E
Yeah.
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C
You don't know how many dry ha ha's it takes because you ain't ever going to get there all the way. God will get in those expressions.
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E
Yeah, he will.
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B
And he'll turn and the situation will start turning around. Yeah.
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C
Rejoice evermore. The next thing it says is pray.
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B
You wondered if I was going to get on topic.
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C
Here it is. Here it is. Pray, Pray without ceasing.
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B
You're like, now you talking, Brother Joel.
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E
Now, Father, what are we going to do?
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C
No, that's not the kind of prayer it's talking.
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B
Because listen, the asking kind of prayer, you can't do that without ceasing. We don't ask without ceasing. Parents, raise your hand if you're a parent. And has your child ever been a toddler? With that in mind, what kind of person is it that asks without ceasing?
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C
A 12 year old. 12 year old. Not a mature person. Not Mommy. Can we, can we do this?
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B
Can we? Yeah, I already told you. Can we, can we. You can't ask without ceasing, huh? Well, what about that power generating prayer? You can't even do that without ceasing. Come on, you need a break.
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C
I'm giving you a break today. But praise, praise, worship. What did I say? That's the biggest part that is the.
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B
Biggest part of your prayer life that you can do that without ceasing. So can we say praise without ceasing? Come on. Right. So rejoice evermore.
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C
Praise without ceasing.
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B
Well, see, that's the other thing we had to do when, you know, when you get notice of this. This exploded and this crashed, and this is on fire, huh? How many people did they take with them from the church? No, come on, now. You've got to drown out the voice of the natural. Praise you, Father.
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C
Praise, praise, praise, praise.
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B
And sometimes that's just how we do it. You know, you might be shocked to know I don't carry the band with me everywhere I am. I wish I could. I wish I could. I wish when I needed to praise God and I didn't feel like it, I wish I could turn around and say, brother David, Brother Tony, do your. Do your. Do that thing that you do.
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C
We need praise.
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B
We need.
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C
You generate your own praise. You got to.
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D
Huh?
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C
You don't need no key changes.
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B
Just.
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C
Come on, just. And you don't even need it to be to music. You can just go, praise, praise, praise, praise, praise, praise, praise, praise. I praise you. I worship you.
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B
I just say it time after time after time. Just wake up in the morning, worship you, worship you, worship you. And at some point, my heart actually engages. I don't know about you. I don't always wake up feeling spiritual. You know what I mean? I wake up and Tulsa feel like God's in Tijuana, and it's. You ever been there?
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C
You're like, I was saved when I went to bed last night. I was saved last night. I don't know what's going on now.
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B
You just.
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C
No, just. Without any feelings at all. You can do this verse. You can rejoice evermore. You can praise, praise without ceasing.
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B
Now, you might think this isn't good news. This is.
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C
When do I get to. When do I get to have some.
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B
Me time where I just sit and marinate in how bad things are? Well, not the next verse, I'll tell you that. The next verse is worse than the rest, huh?
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C
Praise without ceasing. Look at this.
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B
Look at this.
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C
In everything. Unless things go south. No, there's no escape clause.
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B
There is no escape clause.
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C
In everything.
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B
Give thanks, you might say, I'm not thankful for it.
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C
It didn't say for everything. It didn't say, give thanks for everything, did it? It said in it. In everything, give thanks. Not thankful that it's there.
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B
If it's not of God.
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C
Thankful for the victory, Thankful for what the word said.
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B
And so that's just. Listen, I'm just kind of telling you how we roll. That's another thing we do. You know, if you would put. If you would record conversations between my wife and I when we're driving somewhere, we might be going to a meal. And if you just had a tape, like a recorder on, you know what you'd hear. Thank you, Father. Thank you. It's like we ignore each other. We just. She'll be praising. She'll be. I mean, she'll be praying sometimes. Praying in other tongues. Not sometimes. God, I gotta schedule an appointment sometimes. Are you gonna be free ever? But she's got assignments. But just. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. We'll be at the dinner table. Thank you, Father. Well, we've been married for, what, 32, 33 years? 30 something over 30 years. We're counting it all, but obviously not counting very well. And, you know, it's like we don't always just have a whole list. It's like we don't have to do the get to know you thing. You know what I mean? Like, so we just enjoy each other's fellowship with the Lord, and. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Master. And sometimes just. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And sometimes we do it when we don't feel like doing it, but as we do it, when we don't feel like doing it, as we continue doing it, as we do it evermore, as we do it without ceasing, as we.
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C
Do it in everything.
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B
It's not long until. Wait a second, wait a second, wait a second. We feel like it now. We feel like it. See, because when you're giving thanks, when you're giving thanks with a grateful heart. Come on. Right. When you're giving thanks with a grateful heart, it's like, oh, how can you say it? So my wife and I both came up as musicians, going to. We met in music school at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, is where we met. And breathing is a huge part. She was a vocal major. I was an instrumentalist. I was. And so breathing is a huge thing. And they actually teach you how to breathe. You might say I've been knowing that since the day I was born. Well, different kind of breathing. And there's something called the diaphragm. The diaphragm? I mean. No, it's a body part.
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C
It's a body part.
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B
And what it is, it's almost like this little plunger and that diaphragm, when you breathe correctly, that diaphragm goes down, and it creates a vacuum. And that vacuum almost instantly fills your lungs. So you might say, if I said take. Or if a doctor. You're at the doctor and say, doctor takes. Says, take a deep breath. Most people go and they're breathing really from the neck down, trying to fill up with air. That's not how to do it. That's how I do it. If you breathe from your diaphragm, your diaphragm goes down. You breathe from the bottom up. So if I said, take the biggest breath, there's a point to this. If I said, take the biggest breath you can, most people go, and it would take several seconds. But as a musician, they train you. I can fill up my lungs instantly by breathing from the bottom up, and I can't get any more in. Boom. What does. It creates a vacuum that fills you with oxygen from the bottom up. You might say, really? Anybody can do that? Everybody's got a diaphragm. Anybody can do that if you train yourself. But you have to train yourself to breathe that way, because when you're in, like, a musical flow, you get, like, a millisecond to take a breath. You can't stop and say, you know, not every song has, like, a lot of space in between phrases. Especially my song. Especially as fast as they were singing My Comforter, my counselor advocate in the industry.
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C
You got a lot of words going.
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B
Rolling, right?
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C
You got to breathe quick. You got to fill up quick.
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B
The point that I told you that.
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C
I had was, I'm trying to.
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B
When you're giving thanks, it's like pushing that diaphragm down. And the flow of God just flows in there and fills.
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C
Yes, the flow of God. The flow of God.
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B
What do we mean?
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C
What is the flow of God? It's the flow of his spirit that.
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B
Actually brings and delivers your answer to you.
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C
In everything. Give thanks for this.
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D
This.
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B
What do we mean?
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E
This?
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C
Rejoice, Praise, give thanks. This is the will of God for the worship leader.
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E
What? What?
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C
No, it's the will of God for you. Rejoice, praise, give thanks. Now, these three verses, they're amazing, but it's the next verse that's the most amazing. What's the. What is.
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B
What did we just read? 18.
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C
What does verse 19 say? Quench not the spirit. Guys, this is not a different thought. This is part of the same thought. When you fail to practice verses 16, 17, and 18, you quench the spirit. What's it mean to Quench.
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B
Well, we know a fire.
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C
You want to quench that fire. If it's not a fire you want to have. You want to quench that fire.
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B
You want to. You want to. It means to suppress.
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C
That's what the word quench means.
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B
It means to suppress. Suppress means to hold down.
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C
If you ever came up.
- [37:18]
B
Well, you did come up in my era, because, you know Fat Albert and you know the other thing we were talking about?
- [37:23]
C
So you got to know about Sucrets. Sucrets. How many know what Sucrets are?
- [37:33]
B
Raise your hand if you know Sucrets.
- [37:35]
C
There's the tasty red ones and the nasty, funky blue ones. Take the red pill, everybody.
- [37:44]
B
Come on.
- [37:47]
C
Take the red pill. Sucrants were cough drops, but they always said cough suppressant. You take those Sucrets, it's supposed to.
- [38:03]
B
Hold that cough down.
- [38:06]
C
Hold that cough down.
- [38:07]
B
Suppress it. Listen, there's too many Christians taking spirit suppressants. They're not in the flow of praise. They're not rejoicing. Come on. Preaching to myself. Just letting you listen if you want to. They're not giving thanks, and that's suppressing.
- [38:29]
C
The flow of God. That would bring them their answer. But when you do rejoice evermore, when you do praise without ceasing, when you do give thanks in everything, you don't suppress the flow, you release the flow.
- [38:48]
E
Yes.
- [38:48]
C
You release the power into your life. You think, I'm just.
- [38:53]
B
I just got to. They just tell me I've always got to praise God. Okay, praise God. No, no, no.
- [38:58]
C
Engage your heart.
- [39:00]
B
You might start out without feelings, but.
- [39:03]
C
You'Re going to engage at some point here, you engage your heart, and I'm telling you, when you engage, God gets in. What does it. Where is it? Psalm. The 22nd Psalm. Is it the 22nd Psalm?
- [39:19]
B
Thou art holy, O Lord, who inhabits the praises of Israel. Yes. Thank you. 23. And it says what?
- [39:34]
C
Thou art holy, O thou that inhabit.
- [39:38]
B
O thou that inhabitest the praises, the praises of Israel. Yeah. You are holy, O thou that inhabits the praise. Now, what are we doing to this building today? We're inhabiting this building. What does that mean? That means we got in it. We got in the building. When you leave here, you're going to inhabit your car. What's that mean? You get in your car. You get in your car, and you might be giving somebody else a ride, and you might just say, inhabit the back seat. Inhabit the other seat. Right. Well, you probably wouldn't say that, but that's what they're doing. Inhabit. Get in it.
- [40:18]
C
Get in it.
- [40:19]
B
And with the car, you're getting in it to go somewhere. Now God inhabits the praises of Israel. Israel was God's people back when that was written. Of course, they still are in a sense, you know, in a different sense, but they still need to be born again. They still need to be born again. Don't look at me that way. I was a Jew on my way to hell. Don't tell me no different. You got to be born again. Day of Pentecost. Peter got up, preached to Jews, and he said, turn or burn. Come on. You got to be saved. You got to be born again. But. But the church today is God's people. We're his people. Huh? We're his family.
- [41:01]
C
We're his children.
- [41:03]
B
If he would inhabit Israel's praise, he'll inhabit our praise.
- [41:09]
C
I said, he'll inhabit our praise. He'll inhabit our praise.
- [41:13]
B
What?
- [41:13]
C
What's that mean? He gets in, I want him driving in my car. I want him in my situation. I want him in my problems. I want it because he can fix it. He can change it. He can turn it.
- [41:31]
B
But he's got to have something to inhabit.
- [41:33]
C
He's got to have something to get in. Would you please do me a favor? Give God a ride to your problem. Give God a ride. He's looking for a ride today. Amen. And listen, life needs to be a flow of this. There's not a whole lot of things in the Bible where it says, this is the will of God for you. There's a lot of encouragement.
- [42:03]
B
Do the will of God, you know, prove what is that? Good, acceptable and perfect will of God.
- [42:08]
C
But this actually says this, this. This rejoicing, praising, giving thanks. And what are all those things? Those are all spiritual expressions. This is the will of God. Now, there's one other thing. If you have the time, we got the word.
- [42:24]
B
Come on.
- [42:27]
C
If there's one more thing, if I can show you there where it also says, this is the will of God.
- [42:32]
B
And would you be shocked to know it's related. Can you go to the fifth chapter of Ephesians? I don't know. After preaching this, I can't imagine how can you turn without saying, oh, thank you, Jesus. Praise, praise. I'll tell you how you can. We're about to tell you how you can do that. Love you. Ladies and gentlemen, I want you to know right now, before I get into it, love you. Everybody say, I love Brother Joel. All right, we square. We square. Ephesians. Hey, Dolly, get me the amplified on this, if you can. Ephesians 5:15 says, See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Can I read some of this to you? In the amplified Bible, verse 15 says, look carefully then how you walk. Live purposefully and worthily and accurately, not as the unwise and witless. Don't be witless, but as wise, sensible, intelligent people. Well, that makes. That's a good encouragement, isn't it? Be wise, be sensible, be intelligent. The only thing is, what God calls intelligent and sensible, the world calls nonsense. Verse 16, making the very most of the time buying up each opportunity because the days are evil. Verse 17 again in the Amplified says, therefore do not be vague and thoughtless and foolish, but understanding and firmly grasping what the will of the Lord is. Whoa, here we are. And these are some heavy words that are being taught. He's saying, don't be a fool. You know, we might use different words today. Don't be an idiot. Don't be dumb. Ding a ling.
- [45:23]
C
Whatever, whatever, whatever word.
- [45:25]
B
I told you you love me.
- [45:27]
C
Whatever words you. Whatever words you might, don't do, don't be.
- [45:34]
B
You know, years having a church, and like I said, I pastored for 11 years in New York, and my wife leads a church now. The thing sometimes you see people do scratch your head a little bit. And I told Pastor Debbie Simons from Merced, California, who's been here with us all week, I told her one time, I said, I want to write a book on pastoral counseling. And I said, but there's not going to be any content in it. It's just going to be a title. And the title would be called, you're an idiot. And the reason I say that is because when I'd hear sometimes the things that people. This is the only thing I could think to say in response, which is.
- [46:22]
C
Why I'm not a pastor and why I don't.
- [46:24]
B
Because you wouldn't have a church left if you tried to do like that. But you guys have probably never had it happen, because nobody here. But you know, where I was, people would do things sometimes. And you think we taught you for.
- [46:39]
C
Years and years and years how not to do that. And then you go and do that.
- [46:44]
B
And the only thought that came to my mind was, you're an idiot. So I'd say, you talk to them, because I'm scared I might say that. But then Pastor Debbie said, well, I got a chapter, and her chapter is.
- [46:58]
C
Called what were you.
- [47:00]
B
You got to Say it the way you. What were you.
- [47:01]
C
What were you thinking? What were you thinking? But you got to do it the way she shakes her. What were you thinking? Witless, vague, thoughtless.
- [47:17]
B
Foolish, you might say.
- [47:19]
C
I didn't come to this miracle crusade.
- [47:21]
B
To be talked to like that.
- [47:23]
C
Well, I'm not calling you that.
- [47:26]
E
God did.
- [47:32]
C
If you don't understand and firmly grasp what the will of the Lord is. Now let's see. What is the will of the Lord?
- [47:41]
B
We already know from first Thessalonians 5, part of the will of the Lord. We know that. Rejoice evermore. Praise without ceasing in everything. Gives thanks. Now, what's the will of the Lord, Paul? What are you talking about here? That's the will of the Lord, verse 18.
- [47:58]
C
Do not. What is the will of the Lord?
- [48:00]
B
Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery. But ever be filled and stimulated with the Holy Spirit. Ever be filled. Ever be filled. In other words, you know, we read Rejoice evermore. Be continually. Can we say it that way? Be continually filled and stimulated. Stimulated with the Holy Spirit. There is such a thing as spiritual stimulants, and they're okay to take.
- [48:47]
C
We're to be filled with the Spirit.
- [48:52]
B
The next verse says, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Well, that's Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs is really in that same class as Rejoice evermore. Right. Praise without ceasing in everything. Give thanks. In other words, something's coming out of you. Now, if you don't want to be witless, if you don't want to be foolish, if you don't want to be unwise, you need to practice these verses that we've looked at today. If you don't, you're quenching the flow of God that he desires to bring to your life. Amen. Come on. I'm not threatening anybody. You're looking at me like so upset. So upset looking. This is not bad news. But we're to be ever filled and stimulated.
- [49:46]
C
Ever filled.
- [49:47]
B
Now, how do I know if I'm filled? Well, first of all, how do I get filled? Is this okay to. How do I get. How do I get full? You get full of the spirit by participating in spiritual expressions that we've talked about. You get full by giving expression to the things of the spirit. How do you get full of bologna and cheese? You take in bologna and cheese. Well, okay, because some of you said you had children at one time they were taller. One time they were smaller than that baby. Right? And that baby needs to be fed. And you put him in that high chair. And they see when our kids were little, they had this new invention. It was a bib with a big pouch on the bottom to catch all that food. I'm not sure we had that looking at my baby pictures. We didn't have that because I just had it everywhere, you know, and doing a little better now. But anyhow, You know how it goes. You put the food, you put the food in the spoon. You take the spoon in the food and you go up to the baby and you make eye contact, right? And you have a little rhyme, you have a little song. You say, come on, baby, open your mouth. When he opens that mouth, you put that spoon in and you wipe it. Keep it all in there. You wipe them off and then you go back for more. And the way we know. So what is that baby doing? He's taking in. He's taking in. He's taking in.
- [51:27]
C
Yeah.
- [51:29]
B
And so the way we know that the baby is full is he says when you go, you dip the spoon back in bottom of the jar and you're going back in. And the baby says, whoa, hang on a second, Mom, I've appreciated these strained carrots, but to be honest with you, I don't think I can handle just.
- [51:52]
C
One more bite of these. No, no, no, he doesn't have that kind of skill. He's an infant. He doesn't know how to say that.
- [52:00]
B
But you can still tell when that baby's full. And then the way you can tell is you go to put it in his mouth and you wipe it and he smiles and it comes. Yeah, it comes right back out the mouth.
- [52:16]
C
Yes, it does.
- [52:17]
B
Just comes right back out the mouth. Now I like that illustration because that's how you know he's full. How do you know he's full? What was coming in is coming back out. Now I was in Atlanta, returning. I preached about an hour north of Atlanta, this is many years ago, and I was returning my rental car. And when you return your rental car, how do they like you to return it? Full. Yeah. And so I'm at a gas station. Not a great part of town, truthfully, but I'm in a gas station. It was kind of a run down one, but it was, you know, you start getting close to the airport, you're wondering, am I going to find one? And so you get there and I set the gas, I started, I put the nozzle in and you know how you set it and forget it. That's what you're supposed to do. And I needed a full tank because I had been driving. And so, and then I looked over there. Well, well, there's a gentleman with a motorcycle and some parts on it that interested me. So I said it, forget it and went over to Chit Chat because he's filling up his bike and asked him about his thing and he answered the question. Then he looked and then he looked back. He said, hey buddy, your car. And because the equipment was old there, the auto shutoff feature. And I knew that my car was full.
- [53:47]
C
How did I know my car was full?
- [53:51]
B
What I was putting in was coming back out. Now we call that what part of the tank that we were putting that nozzle in. That nozzle goes in the mouth. They call it the mouth of the tank. That gasoline was coming out the mouth of that tank. That baby food was coming out of the mouth of that baby's tank. How do you know if a Christian's full? You don't have to ask them, are you spirit filled? You don't have to say, do you go to a spirit filled church? No, you don't got to ask them. You just got to see, is anything coming out? And where's it going to come out.
- [54:41]
C
Your eyeballs, your nostrils? No, it's going to come out of your mouth. There's going to be a flow of praise and worship and thanksgiving.
- [54:52]
B
So the same way you get full is the same way you stay full. We know you're full by what's coming out and we know you're not full by what's not coming out.
- [55:06]
C
And if there ain't nothing coming out, don't crucify the messenger. But you are vague, you are thoughtless.
- [55:14]
B
You are witless, you are foolish.
- [55:20]
C
And out of the will of God.
- [55:23]
B
You might want to come help me.
- [55:24]
C
Preach before I just sharpen my sword.
- [55:28]
B
Come on now.
- [55:28]
E
Yeah, yeah.
- [55:31]
C
It's God's will.
- [55:33]
B
It's God's will that you live full. And really we can talk about some.
- [55:38]
C
Of the other stuff we've talked about.
- [55:39]
B
It's all important, everything we've talked about.
- [55:41]
C
But you can talk about prayer from.
- [55:44]
B
The, you know, morning till night. You can talk about miracles and healings from morning to night. And again, these things are important. The word's important, the principles are important.
- [55:52]
C
But if you're not full.
- [56:00]
B
There's just not going to be the flow that there's supposed to be. I'll close with this. I'm pretty sure Brother Caleth Hagin right here in this town. Of course, his ministry was still is based here, but right here in this town in 1987, in the summer months, he was preparing. The week before his annual July camp meeting, he was in the nighttime, awakened, and he had a visitation. Part of it turned out to be a vision, but then part of it was just a meaning. Spiritual visitation wasn't necessarily a vision, but part of it was. Part of it wasn't. But so he's awakened and he starts having this visitation. Went on for about three hours. God dealt with him about some things that were lacking in the body of Christ, especially in the area of worship. And some of the things we're talking about and some of the issues the Lord brought up was people doing things, really spiritual actions, but doing them in the flesh, not in the Spirit. And some areas where people were just ignorant needed to be taught things like that. But in his book, the book's called Plans. Well, there's two books that came out of him, out of that experience. One of them is called Plans, Purposes and Pursuits. The other was called He Gave Gifts to Men also came out of that same experience. But it's on a different topic that the Lord was talking to him about.
- [57:32]
E
But.
- [57:32]
B
But in Plans, Purposes and Pursuits, Brother Hagin said, people ask me, what did the Lord emphasize the most during this extended visitation? And he said, well, it's easy. The thing he most emphasized was the necessity of believers being filled with the Spirit. This is the will of God. This is the. This is the will of God. Well, what's God's will for my life? Well, let's talk about the part he's already revealed. You want to find out God's will for the specifics of your life. Do his general will.
- [58:14]
C
There's part of the will of God that applies to everybody equally.
- [58:21]
B
Not just coming and occupying, occupying till he comes. How do you do it? How do you do it? How do you get full? Well, when you feel just empty, when you feel like just dry as can be, you just start giving expressions. Now, you need to be full of the Word too. But that's another part. You take the Word in and how do we know you're full of the Word? Word's coming out. You're speaking Word. How do we know you're full of the Spirit? Spiritual expressions are coming out. You're not a chronically quiet Christian. It's the biggest disease in the body of Christ, chronic quietness. When it's too quiet. Now, I don't mean noise to be noisy. You know what we're talking about When a response is required, when the Right thing would be for there to be a response when truth is presented and people just look. And way down like 20 seconds later, it's like a coin faintly dropping in a k ting. I asked you come bail me out. I don't know how to stop this. You got to come and help me. No. Empty chronic quietness. Chronic emptiness is a huge deal. Hallelujah. I honestly don't know how to stop get out of what I've gotten into. Hallelujah. Think we should just practice? Well, the first verse of those three, that trio of verse was Rejoice Evermore. Should we practice. Especially interested in those who don't feel like it. Well, you know. Listen, listen, listen. We got people that lead us and we already talked about this. We got people that lead us in worship, don't we? Would it be unscriptural for somebody to lead us in rejoicing? I nominate. Oh, yeah.
- [61:39]
C
She's not rejoicing for you. She's leading you.
- [61:49]
B
I'm going to jump in.
- [61:51]
D
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
- [62:16]
E
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
- [62:21]
D
Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
- [62:24]
E
Whoa. Ha ha Ho ho ho ho ho.
- [62:29]
D
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
- [62:37]
E
Yeah, yeah.
- [62:39]
C
Keep going. Somebody might say this doesn't make any sense. No, this is sensible. This is sensible. This is intelligent. This is intelligent.
- [62:51]
D
Ha ha ha ha ha.
- [62:53]
C
Show me some sense. Show me you got some sense this morning.
- [62:58]
D
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
- [63:04]
E
Hey, hey, hey, hey hey. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Hey.
- [63:12]
D
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
- [63:16]
E
Hey, hey. Ho ho ho. Ha ha ha. Hey, hey, hey, hey hey. Ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho hey.
- [63:28]
D
Ha ha ha.
- [63:34]
E
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
- [63:37]
D
Ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho.
- [64:01]
C
Have we reached Evermore yet? Are we at Evermore?
- [64:06]
D
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
- [64:09]
C
Oh.
- [64:10]
D
Oh. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
- [64:19]
E
Who?
- [64:26]
D
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
- [64:31]
E
Yeah.
- [64:32]
D
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
- [64:35]
E
Yeah. Yeah.
- [64:38]
C
That's how they do it in Long Island.
- [64:40]
D
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
- [64:44]
E
Hey, hey, hey. Ho ho ho ho ho ho ho.
- [64:49]
D
Ho ho ho ho ho ho ho. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
- [65:05]
C
Now what's amazing.
- [65:07]
B
What's amazing is how many Christian ventriloquists there are.
- [65:15]
C
It's a gift.
- [65:17]
B
You.
- [65:17]
C
You tell people praise the Lord, and they're able to do it with their mouth shut. You tell people rejoice and they're able to do it with. So they. We know they're not disobeying the word, so they must be doing it.
- [65:31]
E
No. You got to open your mouth. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
- [66:09]
D
Ho ho.
- [66:10]
C
This will help you. This will help you.
- [66:14]
D
Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
- [66:15]
C
This will heal you.
- [66:17]
E
This will heal you. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
- [66:22]
D
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
- [66:27]
E
Hey, hey. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
- [67:08]
C
You might say how long you have to laugh before you get disinvited from the miracle crusades?
- [67:12]
E
I don't know.
- [67:13]
C
I just trying to obey God.
- [67:15]
E
Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Keep licking the lollipop. Whoa. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Whoa. Glory. Glory, glory. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise. Praise. Praise, Praise, Praise. Yeah. Yeah.
- [68:00]
C
Now, some of you aren't empty anymore. You're 20%, 30% full. But if we stop this right now, you'd say, oh, thank God you're not. That's not full. That's not full. God's definition of full is quite different than our definition of full. God's definition of. When God fills a cup, it's running over. So we just gotta get. We gotta get some folk just a little further up. A little further up. You're not full yet.
- [68:38]
B
Amen.
- [68:39]
C
I mean, you paid a big price to be here. Let's get you full.
- [68:47]
E
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Yay. Yay. Yay. Hey, hey, hey. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, yeah, yeah, Yeah.
- [69:40]
C
That's beautiful. That's beautiful.
- [69:42]
E
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [69:52]
C
Did I say I'm excited? Sister Ruby, come here, come here, come here, come here.
- [70:01]
E
Come.
- [70:01]
C
Sister Ruby, come here. Come here. Come here, Come here. I don't know what's so hard about. Come here, come here.
- [70:18]
B
Yeah.
- [70:26]
E
Hey.
- [70:29]
C
Oh. Come here, come here, come here.
- [70:42]
E
Ha ha ha.
- [71:00]
D
He.
- [71:08]
E
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Yeah, yeah.
- [71:25]
C
Rejoice evermore praise without ceasing in everything.
- [71:44]
D
Hahaha.
- [71:50]
B
Yeah. I'll present you one more, one more thought, and then we're going to turn it over for whatever happens next. The Old Testament prophet Elisha was nearing his death, and the king came to see him and wanted counsel before the prophet left the earth. And the first thing that the prophet did was he put his hand on the king's hand and he said, take an arrow. Take bow and arrow. And he helped him shoot. He established direction, showed him direction. And then the next thing he said was, now, take arrows and shoot at the ground. Shoot at the ground. And this was representing his victory over the enemy. And then the king half heartedly took a couple arrows and like, he's like, this is dangerous. And it said the prophet was wroth. Wroth. And he said, because you gave a part, partial effort, partial participation, you're going to have a partial victory instead of full victory. I just would encourage you. Shoot all your arrows.
- [73:25]
C
Shoot out. Shoot all your arrows.
- [73:29]
E
Shoot all your arrows. Shoot all your arrows. Shoot all your arrows. Boom. Shoot all your arrows. Hey.
- [74:06]
C
In case you weren't all in, just wanted to give you that opportunity to get all in.
- [74:11]
E
Shoot all your arrows. Shoot all the arrows. Shoot them all. Shoot them all. Shoot them all.
- [75:02]
C
Shoot them all.
- [75:07]
E
It's sam. It's. Come on, Come on, come on. Hey, hey, hey.
- [77:19]
A
We trust you've enjoyed this message. Visit us@DefrainMinistries.org to learn of our upcoming meetings. Share your testimony, become a partner, or visit our online store. This program has been made possible by the friends and partners of Dufresne Ministries.