The Potter's House Podcast
Episode: Walk It Out Wednesday: Set the Record Straight – Pastoral Panel
Date: December 18, 2025
Host/Panel: Pastor Benchard Dobbins, Dr. Oscar Williams, Pastor Sarah Jakes Roberts
Episode Overview
This “Walk It Out Wednesday” features a dynamic panel discussion unpacking the previous Sunday’s sermon, “Set the Record Straight,” delivered by Pastor Sarah. The panel—Pastor Benchard Dobbins, Dr. Oscar Williams, and Pastor Sarah herself—dives deep into the theme of faith, delay, and how God’s promises intersect with our seasons of waiting, struggle, identity, and transformation. The conversation centers around Genesis 18 and the story of Abraham and Sarah, exploring the historical, emotional, and spiritual layers of “setting the record straight” in our own lives, and how God invites us to see ourselves and Him differently.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. The Power and Diversity of Revelation
- The panel reflects on how a single message or scripture can spark radically different revelations for each individual, based on their circumstances and heart posture.
- Quote:
“God can say one word, and it reached 10,000 people in 10,000 different ways.”
— Pastor Benchard Dobbins [04:25]
2. Historical Context Matters
- Dr. Oscar Williams and Pastor Sarah discuss the need for understanding scripture through its historical and cultural context—reminding listeners that Abraham and Sarah’s journey took place amidst a pluralistic society full of competing deities, and they were forging fresh faith in a new God.
- Quote:
"Abraham is being introduced to a God over and over again... He was using Abraham as a witness to who he is."
— Pastor Sarah [10:19]
3. Delay, Doubt, and God’s Timing
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The gap between promise and manifestation can span years or decades (e.g., Abraham waiting 20+ years from God’s word to fulfillment), sparking doubt and internal questioning.
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The group stresses that God's promises operate outside of human timeframes. Delay is neither denial nor a sign of God’s weakness.
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Quote:
“God does not utilize the word time. We do. Time is boundaries for God. God has no boundaries.”
— Pastor Benchard Dobbins [15:04] -
Quote:
“Some of us have given up on what God said because we fall under the circumstances that we think God is really concerned about our current condition. God does not care about your current condition. Your current condition has nothing to do with his promise.”
— Pastor Benchard Dobbins [15:51]
4. Naming God through Experience
- Drawing from Hagar’s naming of God and Abraham’s “Jehovah Jireh” moment, the panel stresses how we come to know new facets of God’s nature through hardship and process—not just through comfort or victory.
- Quote:
“You can never name Him to be a healer if there was never sickness in your body.”
— Pastor Sarah [18:15]
5. Pain as Preparation and Testimony
- Dr. Williams reframes pain, loss, and struggle as essential to our spiritual maturity and testimony. The “in-between” stages (between potential and performance) build the glory that manifests in our lives.
- Quote:
“All of us have this great potential, but the reason we don’t perform at the level of our potential is—in between potential and performance is pain.”
— Dr. Oscar Williams [19:13] - Quote:
“What do you do when it seems like God has not come through?...in the midst of you waiting in this process, you have to learn how to give Him glory even when it hurts.”
— Dr. Oscar Williams [20:28]
6. We’re Models for Others’ Faith
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Our journeys aren’t just about us. God makes us “advertisements” for His faithfulness, sometimes using us as living proof for others by letting us survive what should have destroyed us.
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Quote:
“Is it possible that we’ve been selfish the whole time waiting on our blessing, not knowing whose faith we were cultivating in the process?”
— Dr. Oscar Williams [24:35] -
The “ram in the bush” story is re-examined—not just about Abraham’s faith, but for Isaac too, showing that both mountaintop and near-death experiences introduce us to new revelations of God.
7. God Is Uniquely Holy and Wholly Sufficient
- The panel explores how the God of Israel (and of Christians) differs from “mini gods”—He’s not compartmentalized, but sovereign over all. This is contextualized against the backdrop of ancient and modern idolatries.
- Quote:
“My God is the God of peace and the God of the storm. This is a different kind of God.”
— Pastor Sarah (clip) [28:00] - Quote:
“Why would I worship the universe and the stars when I could worship the God who made the universe and the stars?”
— Dr. Oscar Williams [47:10]
8. Excuses, Identity, and Limiting God
- The conversation moves to how our excuses, self-perception, and embracing of “facts” (what’s happened to us) can limit our ability to walk in God’s truth about us.
- Quote:
“Excuses are the fruit of dry ground.”
— Pastor Benchard Dobbins [51:54] - Quote:
“God is not gaining or losing power. God is power.”
— Pastor Benchard Dobbins [53:33]
9. Laying Down Facts for Truth
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The core of “setting the record straight” is sacrificing the sum of our negative experiences, failures, and shame (facts) on the altar, and instead embracing God's truth and promises.
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Quote:
“Are you willing to lay down your facts to lay hold of His truth?”
— Pastor Sarah (clip) [56:04] -
The panel discusses developing honesty, spiritual “Selah” moments, and confronting why it can be so hard to believe—because we internalize other people’s narratives, past failures, cultural limitations, and our own doubts.
10. Silencing Internal and External Noise
- Strategies for quieting the noise of negative self-talk, doubt, past wounds, guilt, and other voices:
- Fasting and devotion (intentional sacrifice)
- Replacing negative words with God’s truth
- Surrounding oneself with voices aligned to God's will
- Daily gratitude and Word-based focus
- Quote:
“Sometimes you may have to cry a little louder than the noise to drown it out.”
— Pastor Benchard Dobbins [81:44] - Quote:
“You ought to look in the mirror and tell your own self, shut up... Because Jesus is passing by, and I need to get into the house of God so I can have an encounter with Him.”
— Pastor Benchard Dobbins [83:32]
11. Transformation and a “New You”
- The altar call focuses on stepping into a “better version” of ourselves—not negating our past, but refusing to be defined or imprisoned by it, even as we enter a new season (the new year).
- Quote:
“God says there’s still enough time left in a year for me to do what I promised.”
— Pastor Benchard Dobbins [91:36] - Quote:
“If you believe there’s a better version that you’re about to be introduced to, give God the best praise you have in this place... There’s a new me.”
— Pastor Benchard Dobbins [94:06]
12. God Will Make You Laugh Again
- Echoing Sarah’s transformation in Genesis 21, the episode ends with the promise that God will replace skepticism, sorrow, and years of resigned silence with joy, laughter, and testimony.
- Quote:
“God is getting ready to make you laugh again. This laugh is going to be different. This victory is going to be different. It’s going to be a laughter for something He told you a long time ago.”
— Pastor Sarah [108:06]
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
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“Your survival is the advertisement of who God is to somebody else. You are a walking billboard of glory.”
— Dr. Oscar Williams [36:15] -
“Sometimes the enemy is you. Sometimes you are listening to your emotions and your emotions lie to you.”
— Pastor Sarah [66:31] -
“The only person that can stop that word is you if you don’t believe.”
— Pastor Sarah [63:28] -
“Who told you you were naked? Who told you you couldn’t make it? I never gave you that information.”
— Pastor Benchard Dobbins [64:04] -
“If he doesn’t give you a new house tomorrow, he’s still God. If he doesn’t change your bank account tomorrow, he is still God. If he doesn’t cure you from everything you’ve been praying about, he is still God.”
— Pastor Benchard Dobbins [84:09] -
“Comfortability is a trick of the enemy that causes you to miss the next assignment of your life.”
— Pastor Benchard Dobbins [89:28]
Practical Takeaways & Questions Explored
- When doubt creeps in, return to Philippians 4 (“think on these things”) and Psalm 10:1.
- Quiet the noise: intentional fasting, daily devotion, drown out negative voices, confront and replace your self-talk.
- Don’t judge your journey or delay—God is using the process to prepare you, reveal Himself, and shape you into a testimony for others.
- Be honest about where you are—because God wants to meet you in your current reality, not in your performance.
- Your “facts” (history, pain, age, setbacks) do not override God’s truth.
- God still has time left in your year for fulfillment—don’t count Him out.
Key Timestamps
- 04:25 — The power and uniqueness of individual revelation
- 10:19 — Historical context of Abraham and Sarah
- 15:04 — God’s promises transcend time
- 18:13 — Naming God through experience
- 19:13–20:28 — Pain as a bridge between potential and performance
- 24:35 — Our survival as testimony for others
- 28:00–29:41 — What sets our God apart; modern-day idols
- 51:54 — The problem with excuses
- 63:28 — The only person that can stop God’s word is you
- 81:44 — Crying out above the noise
- 91:36 — “Still time left” for God's promise
- 94:06 — Declaration of “a new me”
- 108:06 — The prophecy: “God will make you laugh again”
Conclusion
This episode offers an engaging, honest, and thorough working-out of spiritual struggle from promise to manifestation. Through rich scriptural discussion, vulnerable testimonies, and practical advice, the panel “sets the record straight” on identity, faith, waiting, pain, and God’s relentless ability to bring joy and purpose out of skepticism and sorrow. Listeners are encouraged to relinquish limiting narratives, confront doubt, and prepare for a fresh season of testimony, transformation, and laughter.
Closing Call:
As you exit this season, expect to enter the next as a better, bolder, joy-filled version of yourself—because God’s not done, and He’s going to make you laugh again.