Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Pierre: Come on, let's just
all pray together, shall we?
Father, I thank You in Jesus' name
that Your loving kindness will come
and invade this very moment.
Father, I thank You that in this
room, in our online church,
in our TBN family where they are
in their living rooms and at
their homes, that Your Spirit,
oh God, would give us the gift
of hearing, the gift of understanding
and willing hearts, that we will
move with a gentle grace of heaven.
Thank You, Father, that you birth
obedience in us, that we will be a
people that are quick to obey as
we receive the incorruptible word
of God. We love You, Father.
In Jesus' name.
And everybody shouts, Amen!
I want to share with you an
experiment that I read. Now they
took a whole bunch of mice and they
took one mouse and they put him
in solitude. And the rest of the mice
they kept in a group. Now it took a
large dose of a methamphetamine,
that is speed, to kill the mouse that
was in solitude. It took exactly
twenty times smaller dosage to kill
the mouse that was in the group.
Because you see, because of the hype
of the mouse in the group,
he created a frantic, bizarre
environment because of the speed that
was in his system. And all the other
mice that did not get any speed
administered to them died within
ten minutes because of the group
environment. Now I'm telling you
that because I sincerely believe
that the culture we live in is
on speed. I believe that we are
drowned with noise and we are buried
in a hurry disease. And somehow
there is a myth about hurrying in life.
First of all, in our culture we hold
this idea that he who runs the fastest
gets there first and gets everything
that is there to be gotten.
The second thing in our culture is
hurry tells us that if we hurry
it can buy us time. Now you and I
have seen this. I travel on a freeway
in our city that runs from north to
south everyday for 20 minutes.
We call it 390. And I can tell you this,
that I have seen people lose their
sanity just getting to work.
They are zig-zagging between the lanes.
They are flaring up their hands.
And they are throwing out their hands
of the car. It is just insane.
I have seen women do their makeup
everyday in the same car. I am ready
to make a citizen's arrest!
You know what I mean?!
I have seen people shave!
There is this one person, I promise you,
he's got the newspaper on his
steering wheel! And he is driving
with the newspaper somehow.
It's go, go, go, go.
Double time everything that you can.
You have seen it at shopping centers
where you buy your groceries how
people will literally, short of a stroke,
will get so angry because God forbid
they are the third in line!
And then they mumble and mutter.
They are nasty. It is all this
dirty water that floods from them.
Why? Because they've got to run,
run, run, run, run. And that
hurry disease goes in so many other
avenues of our lives.
You know there is another one that
I think is the biggest lie,
is that busyness equals importance.
That the busier you seem, the more
important people think you are.
Oh, this is even deeper.
Here's one.
Your productivity equals your worth.
In other words, the busier you are
the more worth you are.
I want you to know this.
I believe sincerely that God's desire
is for us to be fruitful.
Scripture is all about it.
So for you to be fruitful is Godly.
Here's one. If you want to keep your
job you better be fruitful.
Would you just fist pump your neighbor
and say, be fruitful and keep your
job, baby! That's how it goes.
You've got to be fruitful if you
want to keep your job. But here is
the lie. Here it is. Your busyness
and your fruitfulness never equals
your worth. You are as worth with a
fruitful job than without a fruitful job.
Busyness is not what makes you or
gives you any worth.
Now two years ago, I think it was,
in the United States they had problems
with a whole bunch of Toyotas.
I'm sure it's fixed now, so let
me just be clear. The problem that
they had was the accelerator got stuck.
That is not a problem, that is suicide.
You know what I mean?
Don't call me and say, listen, we have
a little bit of a problem with your car.
Your accelerator is going to get stuck.
It is like saying there is a bomb that
is going to go off any time.
And really what happened, and I followed
it on TV, an older gentleman, I think
he had a Camry or something.
And his accelerator got stuck.
And I mean the car was going like
top speed. Now they talked through
how they're going to stop this guy.
And the state troopers, which are our
traffic police, were trying to help
this guy. And the only logical sense
they had was to clear the roads looping
onto the freeway and they kept running
that car until it ran out of gas.
Now I bet you it is the first time
in anybody's life where they thanked
God they had no more gas! You know
what I mean?! But he got out of the
car with no gas. And I'm going to tell
you, if you and I live with stuck
accelerators, in other words all
we know is full speed,
busy all the time, I am going to
tell you five things that I think
are going to happen to you.
Number one, you are going to run out
of gas. Now for us, when we run
physically and emotionally out of gas,
we don't go like, oops, I'm empty!
No, no, no!
We talk about emotional breakdown,
physical breakdown, people get sick.
What happens to you, you do not recover
from it in one day's rest. When you
run out of gas it is devastating.
Let me tell you a second thing that
will happen to you, I believe.
I believe in our rush we rob
ourselves from life's richest moments.
Now I do realize that God has wired
us all very different. Those who are
watching on TBN, you may be sitting
there and right now it feels like
ants are eating you, because you go
like, God wired me different!
I can feel your pain.
Because somehow I was wired for speed.
I just am. My favorite scripture in
the Bible, other people say their
favorite scripture is "The Lord is my
shepherd" or "And Jesus cried."
Mine is "The King's business requires
haste." I like to go fast!
I eat fast, I talk fast, I live fast.
Whenever we go to the airport,
short of breaking the law,
I will get to the plane first.
And I will prove that to you.
I always feel like a jerk when my
wife and my kids are behind me.
Then I go like, that's not how a
gentleman treats his princess.
Then I step back, I put my hand behind
my wife's back, and I push her forward!
Come on! I'm a gentleman and we are
going somewhere! And then the family
always stops me. We are on the plane
and they go like, it is unpleasant
when you are like this! It is not
fun, dad! You spoiled the whole
vacation! I go like, I know!
Come on, where's the drinks?!
I'm going to write a letter!
Do you know the feeling?
But let me tell you something that
happened, and I've shared this
before and I want to share it again.
I had the privilege to start a
congregation that God placed on my
heart when I was 26 years old in
South Africa. It's a beautiful church.
And a lot of the beautiful people
that were in that church are joining
us online with TBN right now.
The best memories apart from this
congregation here was that time!
But I remember my daughter was born
right about then, and my son.
And a couple of years ago, my daughter,
actually, not a couple of years ago,
a couple of months ago, she was doing
a school project and had all the family
albums out on the table. And I went
to go look and sit by her. And I
pondered through all these family
pictures when they were little, little,
little. And I became tearful.
And she goes like, come on Dad,
don't get soft on me now. You know
what I mean? You're not that old yet.
Come on, what's up? I go like, baby,
you know what the saddest thing is?
I can remember every one of these
vacations, but it was only my body
that was present. I was somewhere else
in my mind. I was building a bigger
church, getting more leaders,
proving myself that I'm anointed.
I was somewhere else. I could not
remember being present in any of
these pictures. Do you know why?
Because I lived with a stuck accelerator.
And I missed life's beautiful moments.
Now she's 17. She's not 2 and 3 and 4
anymore. She's 17! I cannot have
those moments back. You and I cannot
afford to live with stuck accelerators!
Let me tell you one more.
Lewis Grant calls it Sunset Fatigue.
He says at the end of the day
every, single one of us will go home
to the people that love us the most,
who need us the most, and the people
we made the deepest promises to.
And we are going to get home and we
are going to be drained, tired,
preoccupied, agitated. And we are
going to give the ones we love the
most the scraps, the leftovers of our
lives. He says this, maybe it is time
to save our best energy for the ones
we love the most. Can I get an Amen?!
Come on! That is true! Save our
best energies for the ones we love
the most! Number four, I don't think
anyone in this place, and those
who are joining us online and TBN will
ever really renounce your faith.
But do you know that living with a
stuck accelerator will cause you
to be so preoccupied that you have
no time for God? To be honest with
you, you're stuck right now. For most
of you, the only time you stop for
God is when you come to church for
an hour and fifteen minutes a week.
Out of all the time in the week,
one hour and fifteen minutes.
God, it's all I've got,
take it or leave it.
And I want you to know God will take
every second that He can, but you will
always settle for a watered down
relationship. The real life-giving
relationship you will never get to
because any relationship that is
flourishing requires time, even your
relationship with God. And lastly,
I believe living with a stuck
accelerator will cause you to lose
gratitude and the awe and the wonder
of life. What does that even mean?
You know, God has made things beautiful
for our pleasure. But when you live
with a stuck accelerator, every time
you get out of your house and you see
the lawn and grass grow, you don't go
like, God, you made it beautiful.
You go like, whose going to cut
this stuff?! I can't believe it's
always growing! I don't know what's
going on! You have not seen the
flowers. You have not thanked God
for a sunrise. You call Mondays crappy.
I just hate Monday! No, no. It is the
day the Lord has made. And from
the rising of the sun to the going
down of the same, the Lord's name is
to be praised. You could have been
in a coffin today. You could have been
dead. But God has given you a sunrise!
And all He wants you to do is slow down
to experience and extract the awe and
the wonder. You eat meals like you're
going to die if you don't eat.
Instead of thanking God for the food
that He has provided and extracting
the joy out of the conversation around
the table. There is another way to live.
And I believe God wants us to live
that way. Now let me tell you something.
The question is, how do we combat
a stuck accelerator. And I'm sure
every culture is very different.
I'm sure in Africa it is way different
than in America, but every culture
has its demands, I am sure.
Now in scripture we find this word,
solitude. Can you say that with me?
Come on, shout it out.
Solitude. It is not really a word
you can shout, so whisper it. Solitude.
Solitude. I'm going to tell you that
you have an internal world and an
external world. I'm going to give you
some words that I believe describe
what your internal world needs.
Listen to this.
Time, reflection, quiet, depth, slow,
breathe, ponder, exhale.
It's like I'm putting you in a trance
right now. Cause I can see people
just go like, yes! Oh yeah!
Love church today!
But then there is an external world
that sounds like this:
Fast, fragmented, noise, demanding,
now, speed, shallow, exhausting,
go, go, go! And while I say these
things your internal man goes like,
ohhhhhh! Why? Because you were not
made to thrive in an external world.
So what is solitude? Solitude is the
art of doing nothing for a specific
reason. Now men, be careful!
I don't want you to sit by the TV
and your wife goes like, honey,
whatchu doing? Sweetheart, I'm so
solituding right now! I love.
I'm like solituded out. Shhhhh!
Talk to the hand! No, no. Here's what.
As fasting abstains from food,
solitude extracts you from society.
It extracts you from noise, from TV,
from electronic leashes. It extracts
you from the company of others.
You cannot phone three friends to
have solitude. Solitude is when you
say no to three friends and find
yourself in quiet all by yourself.
And I believe for some of you looking
at me right now it is the scariest
thought on the planet to become
alone all by yourself. Because you
see, I believe we need to understande
one critical thing. This past week
at The Father's House we've been
having chapel services on Monday,
Tuesday and on Friday.
Wednesday we had the women gather.
Thursday we had the men gather.
Saturday we prayed togehter.
We had 2380 people come out this
week to gather. And in those times
we practice solitude. You know why
people are coming? Because they
desire an experience and a touch
from God Almighty. And if you've
not made your way out, you need to
come and experience God coming close
to His people! But here's what I
have discovered. As I read all
through the Bible, whenever somebody
had a God encounter, whenever
God came near somebody that transformed
their lives. It was not a feeling.
It was an encounter with God.
You find them more than often that
they were alone when it happened.
Remember Jacob? He wrestled God.
But I want you to go read what
happened, because he went on with
his company, his caravan of people.
Then he says let me go back and see.
It was only when he went back to
go see that he encountered God.
Let me tell you someone else.
Moses. God says Moses, go up on
the mountain and there on the mountain
I am going to give you my law.
I'm going to give you my decree.
I'm going to give you what I want my
people to know in guidance for the
journey to the Promised Land.
Come on, I would love for you to
read with me Exodus 24:16.
You guys at home, TBN, I want you
to read it out loud. You guys online,
wherever you sit, whisper this loud
enough. Everybody is going to read
it in this room. It says, in
Exodus 24:16.
The first thing that bothers me about
that scripture is that it took seven
days. Have you ever arrived when you
feel God wants to talk to you and
you go like, okay, I'm here.
Okay! Hey! We've got stuff to do!
Come on, who knows that feeling?
It's like, ooh, God, it's been a
minute! What's taking so long?!
You did say come away with me.
The first thing I want you to see
that God did is that a cloud
covered Moses on the mountain.
And I pondered and I wondered about that.
I said, God, what is the cloud that
covered Moses? The cloud always
speaks of the Holy Spirit in
the Old Testament. So it is almost
like the Holy Spirit encapsulated him,
isolated him. And this is what I
sensed the Holy Spirit was saying to
me for the first, since the moment
he came up on the mountain.
God had to separate the noise of
the people from Moses. So whenever
you are in your basement, and you
are in a room, and you say I'm having
a solitude with God, the moment the
children drop a glass and it breaks,
the moment you hear somebody kicks
the family pet, solitude is over.
That's done! And God knew that.
So he insulated, isolated Moses from
the people. But nothing happened on
day one. Nothing happened on day two.
God didn't speak on day three.
God didn't speak on day four.
God didn't speak on day five.
I think the miracle bigger than
God eventually spoke was the fact
that Moses remained.
God didn't speak on day six.
But God spoke on day seven!
And then I ask, God, why did you
speak on day seven? And this is what
I felt the Spirit of God said to me.
It took God six days to quiet the
noise inside of Moses before he could
hear the voice of God. So when I
heard that in my spirit, I said,
God, I wonder how much You have to
say to me, but You can never quiet
the noise in me? Until I eject
the noise, until I say no to everything
that demands of me, God, I wonder
how much am I and I wonder how much
you are missing the voice and the
whispers of heaven. Because somehow,
God, our God, chooses to whisper to
His children. (whispering) And the fact of the
matter is, when God whispers, if you
do not pay attention, you're not
going to hear a thing that He
is saying to you.
(Whispering this part very quietly.)
is saying to you. Because right now
as I am speaking you are listening
like you've never listened to any
other message I have ever preached
in my entire life! (applause)
Jesus had three years of public ministry.
He started when he was 33 years old.
And he was crucified three years
after that. I worked out in our
calendar days, I sure the Jewish
calendar could be different.
It's only 1,095 days that he had.
Now for me, if I followed the path
of Jesus, but I start at 33 and I
retire at 65, which ain't gonna
happen, so stop praying! I would have
exactly 11,680. Now if I am
Jesus' campaign manager and He's
got three years to make His point,
I'm going to tell him, Holy Son,
we've got to rock-n-roll! You can't
tell me you're tired! You can't
tell me you want to rest.
We've got to trend, baby!
We've got to get on Facebook.
We've got to get on Twitter.
We've got to get some miracles going!
We've got to get this thing pumping!
We've got to write some books!
We've got to get on TV with
Piers Morgan on CNN.
We've gotta get on Oprah!
Baby, we could get on Oprah!
We're going places!
You know what I mean, Jesus?
We have got to go, go, go, go, go.
And they thought that's how it was.
Because the Bible says Jesus was
doing signs and wonders. Then the
disciples came to him and they said
this, Jesus, everybody is looking
for you! Which means we are
trending, baby! Do you know what
Jesus said? Come away with me and
let's find a place of solitude so
that we can rest. If I'm the campaign
manager, I go like, no, no, no, no!
Rewind that! No, no, no, no, no, Jesus!
You don't understand!
We've got to achieve things,
build churches, get people saved!
But you see, Jesus knows what gets
peopled saved is the crystal clear
voice of God that speaks! He knows
what gives direction to the lives
of men and women is when they hear
the voice of God. He knows what is
more important than the demands of
people, than trending, than Facebook,
than being on TV, than being liked
by the world is to be in a place
where you constantly hear the voice
of God! Because as I look at you,
for some of you right now, your
life is enveloped by the voices
of others. What you do is because
others told you to do. How you
live is because others told you
to live. What you eat is because
others tell you to eat. You are
living a life because you are
following the voice of other people.
And I'm hear to tell you God says
if you could only hear My voice.
Because when you were in your
mother's womb I knew you!
When you were floating substance
I knew you! I wrote your days in
my book of life! I know your
beginning. I know your end.
I know what will make you happy.
I know what will make you sad.
I know what will make you grow.
I know what will make you shrink.
I'm here to tell you and speak
life-giving words to you!
But you've got to come away with me.
Now, our lives are like this container.
The disciples lives were like this
container. And constantly, I love
this one scripture in Mark 1:35.
It says:
You know why? Because Jesus knows.
I don't think anybody in this church
has a life that looks so crystal clear
where the sediment of demand and
confusion. For some of you, I think
it looks a little bit like this.
But for most I think we live a life
of constant shaking, baking, and
buzzing, baby. We think about our
values and we can't find them within
our soul because we look internally.
And it is just muck. You go like,
I wonder what I'm going to do with
my life. You look internally.
It's muck. Who am I going to marry?
You look internally. You don't even
know if you like yourself. What am
I going to do? I do not know.
All the time. You go like, oh,
would You please just show me?!
And you work harder and you run faster.
And I'm here to tell you,
if Jesus was here he would say,
stop. Would you come away with me?
Into a place of solitary, so that the
agitated sediment of your life can
settle down. So that the water of
your spirit can become clear. So that
you can hear My voice. That all the
toxic thoughts can settle down.
That all the demands that are
soul-destroying can settle down.
So that I can give you rest.
I love what David wrote
in Pslams 131:1-2.
I encourage you, everybody.
Let's read it out loud.
That means I am not filled with pride.
I'm not haughty. I'm not snooty.
I do not elevate myself above other people.
In other words, he's says I am finding
my purpose and I'm satisfied with that.
God, if it's not a millionaire,
I'm satisfied where I am and what I do.
I want to live within Your allotment
and Your measure for my life.
Then in verse 2 he uses this word.
Come on, read the first word.
Come on, shout it out.
Come on, shout it out!
He says I could do that, but instead.
I want to read to you what the Message
paraphrase says. It says this.
The word cultivate means to till,
to plow, to work, to dig.
I read this phrase, and it is so
beautiful. It says this: It is
the spaces between the notes that
makes the music. It is the spaces
between the notes. It is the pauses
and the solitude of your life that
gives meaning to your life.
So I want to suggest a couple of
things as followers of Jesus.
Denis, you can come.
I want to suggest that this week,
and those joining us online and
watching TBN, I want to challenge
you where you are within your setting,
within your city, your town, and
your culture. That you take up this
challenge. And with us here in
Rochester, New York, that we this week
practice slowing down. Now, I know
with some of you, you just go like
slow what?! No, please, God, no, no.
I'm going to help you slow down.
I'm going to encourage you this week
when you drive to work to leave
ten minutes earlier but take the slow
lane in. You know the lane where
all the people that the devil sends
to irritate you in life? That lane!
I want you to get behind them.
You know exactly those people.
Why do I want you to get there?
Because while you are driving slowly
with a radio that's off and a
cell phone that's off, I want you
to rediscover the awe and the wonder
of the beauty of creation. I want
you to look for the sunrise.
I want you to thank God for your family.
As you are driving, thank God for
your husband, even if he's a miserable
one right now. God, you've given me
the most beautiful, miserable husband
on this planet and I'm thankful!
(laughter)
God, You change him.
Thank you for my children.
Thank you for my job.
I want you to practice solitude by
slowing down in your car.
The second thing I want you to do,
because we all shop, especially
in this country, we go grocery shopping
weekly, not monthly like I know in
South Africa. Weekly we go.
And I want you to pick the checkout
lane where you find the woman or the
man with the most groceries and the
biggest box of coupons. You know?
That is purgatory right there!
You guys that don't understand coupons,
it's just very bad! I usually go to
the fifteen items only and I pile all
my stuff up into 15 groups. And then
I look at her. It's like, so what
are you going to do about this?
Because I just want to go, go, go.
But now, why? Why do I want you
to stand there? Because while you
stand there, I want you to pray.
And you whisper, Jesus, while I'm here
I want to be a conduit of Your grace.
Can you point to people that I should
be praying for right now? Let me
be the lifeline to people that are
here on the brink of divorce,
people that are depressed,
people that are in desperate need
of You, oh God. Let them catch my
eye and let me be Jesus, interceding
on their behalf. The third thing
I want you to do, I want you to switch
your TV off. I want you to switch
your TV off. Last Sunday I put a
big ol' towel over our TV. My wife
said it looked ridiculous, so I had
to take it off. But I wanted to
make a point in our home. Because
our TV is like background noise.
It is always on. There is just
about one in every room.
And in every room it is on always.
So it was quite the adventure for us
to have silence in the house.
Do you know how crazy it seems?
But have you ever heard yourself breathe?
Then you become paranoid that you're
going to stop. You go like,
what if I stop? That's crazy!
I've never heard myself breathe!
It's crazy. It's been hard to keep
the TV off. But it has become the
culture of solitude in our home.
We are engaging in conversation
around the kitchen table like
never before. Because we have
nothing else to do but come to our
chapel periods and our night events
and just living life at a different pace.
The last thing I'm going to encourage
you to do is switch your
cell phone off. The president is
not going to call. It is okay.
In all of our meetings our cell phones
are on. And not only does it do
this tweeting thing, but they buzz
when we put it on silent. So we sit
in meetings and when we talk and then
you here the vibration, you know what
happens? Everybody picks up their
phone. Okay, it's not mine.
It's somebody else. But every time
a phone buzzes we pick up the
phone because God forbid we miss
that we've got a new Twitter
follower. What if I put my cell phone
away but I become attentive to
something different? What if I
become attentive to the whispers and
the nudging of God in my life?
What if I say, God, when you tug
my heart I want to feel the buzz and
I want to be attentive? I'm going
to intentionally slow down for God
so that I can be hearing Your voice.
And I'll say this to you,
even though I'm wired a certain way
and you're wired a certain way,
I have made peace with the fact
I cannot follow Jesus with a
hurried spirit. I'm going to tell
you why. Because the word follow
means I do not lead. In other words,
it's the pace of the one that I
follow that will determine my speed.
And if you follow Jesus, go read
His speed in the New Testament.
You ain't gonna like it.
Because Jesus was one that rested.
He was the one that called his
disciples out of the speed injected
by crazy society. And I go like,
how busy was Bethlehem really?!
Like, what kind of crazy went on in
Jerusalem? I wonder what Jesus would
do with our culture? I'll tell you
what he would do. He would do what
He did with His disciples. And I'm
going to close with this beautiful
scripture in Matthew 11:28-30.
So let me encourage you right now
to just close your eyes but stay present
in this room. You guys joining us
online, where you're sitting in
your hotel room, close your eyes.
In the coffee shop, close your eyes.
Our TBN family, in your house,
just close your eyes right now.
Keep your mind present and focused
on Jesus.
I want you to listen to the second verse.
Let me hear you sing, come on.
Father God, may you draw us this week
away from the hurry, the busyness,
the noise, the dizzy bat lifestyle
of running in circles. Oh God,
may the agitated sediment of our lives
find a resting place as we spend
time with You in quiet this week.
I pray, Father, that those who have
not moved yet towards You will feel
a nudging in their heart to move.
That truly we will capitalize,
seize the next 14 days, to be
deeply impacted by Your grace,
Your mercy and love, oh God.
We bless You.
We honor You, Father.
In Jesus' name, Amen!