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the art of life is to make sure
that you don’t get out of trouble
and be left with trauma
because trouble has an expiration date
but trauma can last for 30 years
[Music]
and so i had sat on a plane
for about 12 hours
left the beautiful city of dallas
flew to london
got out in heathrow
walked the corridors made the change
and then flew another nine or ten hours
to lagos nigeria
and then by car i traveled out somewhere
i had never been before
to speak to over a million people
i was in the hotel getting ready for the
event
pastor adeboye had invited me to
one of the biggest meetings he does
during the year
he’s huge all over the world but in
africa
it’s unexplainable
and i was getting ready to go
when i got a call
the phone rang
my son jamar had had a heart attack
and the doctors were trying to stabilize
him
and while they were telling me about it
he’d had a second one
and the airport was shut down for the
evening
and we had to pull all kind of strings
to get out of there
and i never got to preach to the crowd
one because
under battle you always have to keep
your priorities straight
don’t let the seduction of the crowd or
the allurement of the masses
make you forget about the commitment to
the few
jamar was my son
and i had to be there
and i wondered lord how in the world
could this be
happening had rushed him into surgery
and it didn’t look good
and i said this is a 20-something year
old young man
who’s vibrant healthy in good shape not
overweight
how could this happen
you we we want to understand
everything
but we don’t
so i flew for hours and hours and all
the while i stayed awake the whole time
saying god spare my son
because i don’t want to know the pain of
losing my child
and we want to understand why
and i got to the hospital i came down
the hall and he’s laying in the hospital
bed and he said i hear my daddy coming
and i walked in the room
i shaved his chest
i talked to him
i tried to get him ready for this this
surgery they were going to do
because they had to try to figure out
where this was coming from and the first
one hadn’t proven it
and i wanted answers and i learned
something
you don’t get answers because you want
them
that god doesn’t explain himself
for that matter the doctors don’t
explain themselves
i would’ve took an answer from anybody
they weren’t explaining much because
they weren’t sure why he had the heart
attack they couldn’t give me answers and
when i prayed and asked god why did i
have to go through this he chose to be
silent and the real issue becomes can
you trust god
when he doesn’t answer
because we want answers and we’re raised
in school to seek answers and then if
you get the answer right we reward you
and it makes us think that there’s an
answer
but sometimes life hands you stuff where
there is
no answer
now he recovered
and i’m happy about that he really
recovered but my point in talking to you
about seeking answers is that it’s a
dangerous thing
to seek answers
while you’re suffering that’s like
trying to diagnose a storm in the middle
of a tsunami
you have to get to the other side of it
and look back at it and see it in
retrospect because if you ask too many
questions at the wrong time you’re not
going to come up with healthy answers or
no answers at all
and the frustration becomes a
distraction because what difference does
it make why
you’re still dealing with what
and if you’re dealing with what you
can’t worry about why
so you’re dealing with what and
surviving what must take preeminence
over understanding why
i grew up in a little baptist church in
the hills of west virginia on the
mountain top and we used to sing an old
song we are tossed and driven
on the mighty seas of time
summer times and summer tempest off
succeed a bright sunshine in the land of
perfect day when the mists have rolled
away
we will understand it better
by and by
sometimes you have to realize
that you have to settle
to walk in the dark
to walk by faith and not by sight
to not
ask god to appeal to your intellect
because when you ask god to appeal to
your intellect you ask him to come down
to your level
when his thoughts are above your
thoughts and his ways are above your
ways he has to come down to your level
to explain himself and sometimes god is
not interested in your intellect he is
interested in your obedience
do you hear what i’m saying to you
because obedience is proven best when
you don’t understand
if i tell my child clean up the room you
don’t get to ask me why
i don’t have to explain to you we got
company coming over and we got this no
no no i said clean the room obedience is
better than sacrifice obedience is
better than understanding and god is
trying to teach us to obey him and to
trust in the fact get this that pruning
is not punishment
that you are not cursed because you had
a bad day
that god is not punishing you just
because you’re going through suffering
they feel the same but they’re not the
same the intention is quite different
between pruning and punishment
pruning is the reward of having
something of value
it’s how god lets you know that you’re
valuable he he wouldn’t prune you if you
were a dying bush
nobody prunes a dying bush
he prunes you because you’re fruitful
but pruning feels like punishment and if
you’re not careful you will feel like
you’re punished and if you will by that
you’re punished then you will believe
that you’re cursed
god doesn’t cut to kill us
he cuts to heal us
i had to trust god when they cut in my
back four inches
and operated on my back and i had to
learn how to walk again
i had to trust god as i preached on
sunday mornings and couldn’t walk
i went to washington dc and preached i
had to lay on the floor in the back of
the church
the pain was so great
and then when they got ready to
introduce me i came out
and i preached because when the
anointing was on me and the spirit
started moving and the energy got up it
was like i had no pain i only made one
mistake i sat down after i got through
preaching instead of leaving and when i
sat down i couldn’t get up and there in
front of everybody they they had to help
me up out of my seat the one who
preached
power and anointing and glory couldn’t
get out of his chair
and this oxamoron between strength and
weakness between victory
and being paralyzed
it’s the human experience
truth and trust
hold hands they hang out together we
need both to see the the crushing from
god’s divine perspective
we have to look at it from god’s
perspective to avoid our limited view
we cannot see what god can see
we can see to the corner but god can see
around the corner
and if you just trust him
when all hell is breaking loose
if you trust him with tears running down
your face
if you trust him through a bad season
and a storm and i and it’s okay to be
scared you can have fear and faith at
the same time
i was afraid for my son and yet i had
faith for my son
you can have fear and faith at the same
time
jesus said which of you if your son asks
for bread will give him a stone or if he
asks for a fish would you give him a
snake if you then through all of your
evil ways know how to give good gifts to
your children how much more will the
father
give what you need
to his children
god knows what you need
even when you don’t
like what you need
that is crushing
[Music]
my brother and i decided to go into
business this was like when i was in
west virginia was years ago and it was
always our dream to have a family
business because my father had a family
business so we decided to go into
business together and we opened up a
windows and siding company and we were
going to do windows inside and i didn’t
know anything about windows society but
i learned pretty quickly i knew
something about business and we were
doing okay and west virginia gets cold
you need windows and you need siding and
we were selling and we hit a tough spot
because you do that in business you you
run out of capital you run out of
resources you got to pay your staff you
got to make your payroll you got to pay
for your building you got to pay for
your materials you have to do all of
that kind of stuff and my brother who is
my older brother and could always talk
me into anything including letting him
cut my hair when he didn’t know how to
cut here
he could talk me into anything he talked
me into putting up my car as collateral
to get a loan to sustain the business
and it was kind of like the haircut
when i looked in the mirror i found out
he couldn’t cut hair and when we got
through struggling in business i found
out i didn’t have a car
i literally sat in the living room
looking through the window as they drove
my car away
this is after going through a long
period of being without a car
and i needed a car because i had two
kids
and i thought to myself why
me
why me
i serve you i’m preaching
i’m working i’m laboring i’m loving i’m
trying to take care of this family why
me
and when i finally got an answer back
the answer was why
not me
why not you
what exempts you from suffering
if jesus went to the cross
if paul got locked up in jail
if joseph got thrown into a pit
if the woman was there with the issue of
blood why
not me
so when you face a dilemma and you run
into a crisis and you’re trying to
figure out what in the world is going on
in my life and it feels like you’re
going backwards instead of forward and
you trusted the wrong person or you made
the wrong decision or the business
didn’t turn out like you think and you
have a setback you have to remember a
setback is a set up for a comeback
that’s right
and you can’t go into the valley of
despair and throw yourself a pity party
and and luxuriate in the pain
of your own self-indulgence
and ask god why you
when god spared not his son why would he
spare you
the question is never why me it’s why
not me
i remember our ministry was thriving and
then in 2008 the economy collapsed
i had to lay off 40 people
i thought why me lord
he said why not you
other people are going through the same
thing why not you the lord was teaching
me how to lead
how to make decisions how to make tough
choices anybody can make easy choices as
a leader but in order to make tough
choices and have the spine and the guts
to be able to make a tough choice that
people don’t like and they’re murmuring
about it and they’re complaining about
it but it was necessary to do it and it
failed my lot to be able to make those
kinds of choices
why me
why not me
to him whom much is given
much is required
you can’t have the much given
and then avoid the much required
you have to make the tough decisions and
sometimes they are not popular it’s not
popular but it’s purposeful
and in the midst of seeking god’s
purpose you have to understand
that he has a plan for your life
trouble comes to us all
but what i’m glad about is that trouble
doesn’t last always
trouble doesn’t last
always
the art of life is to make sure
that you don’t get out of trouble
and be left with trauma
[Music]
because trouble has an expiration date
but trauma can last for 30 years
i didn’t write crushing just to get you
out of trouble
i wrote crushing to get you out of
trauma
the residue that holds on to you
that threatens to ruin your future
with the incidents from your past
the wind is high the thunder
is roaring the lightning is flashing
and the boat is shaking like something
you have never seen
before and the apostle paul is aboard
the ship with all of the passengers it’s
really a cargo ship and he’s headed
to rome
he thinks
but the storm gets worse and worse and
worse and many in desperation and in
fear they want to get out of the boat
because it’s gotten rough
but paul says save you abide in the ship
you shall not survive when it gets rough
we all want to jump ship
when it gets tough we want to get out of
it we we want to get out of it so to
stop hurting
but the ship was the solution to the
problem
and i know i know i know i know i hear
you saying to me oh bishop you must not
know your bible very well because the
ship fell apart
yes the ship fell apart but the people
didn’t
because some on boards and some unbroken
pieces made it safely to the other side
and had they gotten out of the ship
there wouldn’t have been a board to hold
on to
so we have to make a decision every day
do you stay in the process and submit to
the pruning
or do you jump ship
for your own comfort
only to fall into peril
even jesus had this choice
he taught a lesson that opposed many the
true meaning of the bread and the wine
many followers left
they were pruned from jesus because he
said unless you drink my blood and eat
my flesh you’ll have no part with me and
that was not a sermon they wanted to
hear and they wanted to avoid the
process not even understanding what he
meant
and then he asked peter
will you go away also
or will you stay in the process
and peter responds where shall i go in
your hands are the words of eternal life
for some of us quitting is not an option
we may cry we may why we may groan we
may fuss we may bicker
but we cannot jump ship
we must stay in the process what will
you choose to do when your ship is
tossed to and fro and the lightning is
flashing and the sky goes black and the
wind is high and you’re not sure what
the next turn is going to bring
when people are seasick and falling
apart and men are screaming and women
are in prayer will
you stay on board the boat
or will you jump off and go for
something that seems like it might be
better but could kill you
how you respond to trouble determines
your outcome
to embrace the sorrow of the season and
to trust god to bring you out of it is
what faith is made of
you cannot be comfortable and be
christ-like
in order to be christ-like he always
always calls you out of your comfort
zone
and when you say yes
i will stand
even though the boat is falling apart
there’s more power in the chips
than there is in my disobedience
looking at my life you can tell the
choice i made
i’m 45 years into ministry
i’m 39 years into marriage
i am not the kind of guy
that walks away from a fight
and i challenge you
today if you’re gonna make anything less
you gotta stay when it’s rough
and when it’s tough
and work together as a team
to make it better
i realize you can’t be married by
yourself it takes two to do that
but in every area where your decision
makes the difference
you’ll never be successful if you quit
don’t jump ship
stay in the process at tbn our mission
is to use every available means to reach
as many individuals and families as
possible with the life-changing gospel
of jesus christ thank you for helping
make
the gospel of grace go around the world
without you we couldn’t do it god bless
you
[Music]