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[music]
Take somebody's hand if you will. You deserve all
the glory, you deserve all the praise. [yes]
No matter what your circumstances are, your situation, no matter what it is,
he still deserve all the glory and the praise. [yes]
It's an interesting concept, that he can be so good to you that when you don't
feel that he is good to you, he's still good to you. [amen]
Father we honor you tonight and we thank you because you are
God all by yourself, and you decided you would not
stay aloof, but you came into our world so that
we might have a better world, and we want to thank you for it.
Thank you for the things you have done for us individually and collectively.
We pray now that you bless the hands we hold.
Touch my brother in a very special way, my sister in a marvelous way.
Open the doors that seem to have been shut,
make ways out of no way, fix things
that are broken. Recreate and rejuvenate those things
that have died. And I pray now God that you have
your way. Touch now until you get through, speak now until we know it's
you. We claim it done. Do a miracle
in my brother's life, in my sister's life. Work it out according
to your will and we give you thanks in Jesus name.
Give God another praise if you can. He's worthy
of all our praises. [applause, music] It's offering time
it's offering time and we give God
much glory and thanks to all of you for your liberality, generosity
for your kindness on all sides.
Raise your offering to heaven, Father we thank you for every gift, every giver. Bless every soul in this house.
And we claim the victory in Jesus name amen. [amen]
Well Romans of course Chapter 13 and
it was interesting because you know
you meditate on these things before you teach them
and then you meditate on them again after you teach
to see whether or not there was something
was obscure at the time.
I remember that in Russia
a gentleman had one leaf of the Bible, he had a couple of pages
of the Bible, and he preached those couple of pages for
39 years. He was not allowed to have the holy
script, and he had two pages.
Can you imagine going to church every Sunday and you know
he's coming from one of those two pages, and he did it for
39 years. Which then speaks of the inexhaustible
supply that God gives to the extent
that you cannot come to his word and close your mind.
Because he always has new and fresh revelation,
if you keep your mind open to it. That's one reason why
I don't put any notes in my bible. Because I don't want to
go and read the note, and then immediately send me
down a path that I went before. I think I need the freedom
to allow God to speak within the same context,
and within the same text. Give me a fresh
view or a fresher look. Its an interesting concept because when you
deal with others and you listen to others,
and see the way that they approach the scriptures,
and you say to yourself, "How come I didn't see that?" It was
glaring, its right in front of me as lucid as it seems, as they
present it. How in the world I didn't see that? Well because God
has his way of closing certain things
to certain people, and opening certain things to others,
and this is why he forces us to fellowship. [amen, clapping]
He forces us to fellowship because no one of us has it all,
and all of us don't see him in the same light.
Now that's forced to fellowship.
Because if all of us were cloned and saw him in the same light, why need I
talk to you? And if I had it all,
why do I need to talk to you? The whole point is, he doesn't give
any one of us it all, and he allows us to
have a distinctive view of him that can't be duplicated
or imitated by anybody else, and that forces us to fellowship.
Now those who are high-minded and are
you know, sort of intoxicated with the exuberance of their own
self-aggrandizement, they have a proclivity
and a tendency to feel like they have it all, so they don't deal with anybody else.
We are right and everybody else is wrong.
One of the most absolutely ridiculous things anybody could say,
because no one of us has absolutely everything
that we can exclude anybody else. And sometimes
the people we think the less of, have more to give us
than those we think the most of. [clapping] So its an important thing
that you approach the scriptures, and never ever believe
that you have, you know exacted the last drop
of truth out of the scriptures. I've
squeezed it dry. The Lord spoke to me,
he speaks to me all the time.
Its funny sometimes, its just funny.
So I looked it over again, and I want you to turn quickly
to Deuteronomy 17, just for a minute, Deuteronomy
17 and 15 because one of
the things I didn't do was the critical analysis
of the text, and the historical analysis
based upon the people who he is
dealing with. Now in the Roman Church
of course, it is primarily, most of it is Gentile,
but because of the religious background of the Jewish people,
I promise you that their influence was
extremely great. And one of the things
they were taught in Judism, if you go to Chapter
17 that Paul is refuting...
ah yeah.
He's totally attacking it, and
at 17:15 he says, Deuteronomy 17:15 "Thou shalt in
any wise set him king over thee, Well when thou
art come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee,"
this is 14, "and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell there in,
and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like
as all the nations that are about me;
Thou shalt in any wise
set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall
choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou
set king over thee: thou mayest not set a
stranger over
thee, which is not thy brother."
Do you see, do you see what's happening here?
If you are teaching or preaching to a
Jewish contingent within the parameters of the Roman
Church, they're coming into
Christianity
with a toxic of what they were taught
previously. Because notice now,
they're in a Christian environment, they're in the Roman Empire,
and they have already been taught that you set nobody over you
who is not one of your brethren.
So immediately when Paul begins to teach now
that the powers that be are
ordained of God. And these powers are outside
of the Judeo tradition.
Imagine immediately how that is going to sit
with those who have been previously taught in their own religious background,
that you set no authority over you,
except it be one of your brethren. Now as you
meditate on that, and you get that, now you can understand why the
question is asked Jesus, "Should you
pay tribute to Ceasar?"
Because now they're asking him the trick question, knowing the
background. Now the question is,
should we pay taxes?
Its getting increasingly more significant for the study when he goes on
further and he says, pay tribute to whom tribute. Because
the tendency now is to feel that Christianity moves
you out of in the same way that the
Judeo tradition moves you out of having
anybody over you
who is not your brethren, and to find yourself
in the Roman Empire. So it just goes to show,
(without a shadow of doubt in history we're moving) that the worst
citizens in the Roman Empire were the Jews.
Not just Jewish Christians mind you, but the Jews
period. Because the Jewish people were not
going to allow themselves to be
ruled by anybody, and they've come into a Christian
matrix where Paul now has to convince Jews,
in a Gentile environment, that the
rulers that are ruling over you are ordained
of God. [clapping] I want you to understand
now how difficult this becomes when you are
dealing with a group of people, and they have
already been acclimated by their teaching not to
be subjected to anybody, and
human nature is of such that it doesn't want to do what
anybody else says anyway. Now if you can get
a religious position that allows you
not to listen to anybody, when
naturally you don't want to listen to anybody anyway.
You know you argued that many times when you were married
to a Christian man who immediately uses the
bible to put you under subjection. There's been
many a warfare in the house
because God said, "I'm the head."
Oh Lord, thank you Jesus. [laughter]
And many times the bible is used as its always
used by the dominant culture to subject
people to whatever they choose,
and its always strengthened in the name of
religion. [amen] You just let a religious fanatic
get ahold to a couple of pieces of scripture, and
take it out of context, and see how miserable they'll make your life. [clapping]
Amen. Because a whole lot of people want the respectability of being the head,
but not the responsibility. [alright Bishop]
And so now it begs the question, how do I operate
in a subordinate situation, when the person
above me is not operating properly?
How do you operate as a child with parents,
who aren't operating properly?
How do you operate, I mean the whole thing, when I thought
about it a little bit, it just,
it was too many variance. There was no
absolute answer to the circumstance. I'll tell you why.
He says that,
the human authority does not carry that sword
in vain. Oh we can't run away from it. I think
the point has been made
that we had some religious tradition to which
Paul had to address when he made this statement. 'Cause I wondered why is he talking
like this? I understand now that of course, when you're doing a critical
analysis, and you're dealing with people who he is talking to directly,
you will find that he had some among them
who already had been previously taught that
nobody gets above you, who is not one of your brethren.
And now I understand why church people
in the Pentecostal movement, the Holiness movement that I was a part of
was so adamant about people having the Holy Ghost in order to talk to you.
The religious people, you know.
The teacher, is she filled with the Spirit? [laughter]
And I'm telling you I was influenced by the big bite. I remember
they preached against going to the movies when
I was growing up. And here I am in all the naivete of
a Leprechaun on St. Patrick's Day, green as I don't know
what. And I decided that it was
a sin then for them to go to the movies. So I went around
the movie theatre, and started throwing stones. I was about 8, 9 or
10. Start throwing stones at the people going to the movies. Well one of them
went over to the church, which was right around the corner from the movies,
and told them I was throwing stones at people,
and they took me and whopped me. The church,
my relatives, you know my guardians took
me and whopped me. Now I'm real confused.
'Cuz I'm standing up for the blood-stained banner [laughter]
I'm fighting the good fight of faith. [applause]
And now I get whopped by it by the same one's who taught me. [right]
Now that was my child like interpretation,
but it seems to me that many people who aren't children,
have childish interpretations of scriptures. [yes]
To the point where he is literally taking us from
verse, Chapter 12 to Chapter 13 to say I don't care how
spiritual you are within the confines
of Chapter 12, there are certain ways you have to behave
when you are a part of the social parameters that exist
in the world. I don't care how saved you are in your little commune.
What this does is it takes us away from anything
that is sectarian to the point where it can be cultish. [clapping]
Because it says you don't only have an obligation to those who are
within the parameters of your synod, but you also have
an obligation to those who are outside. You are
not only run by the spirituality that comes
with knowing God inside the house, but you're also run
by the God given authority, the people outside the house.
They might not share in your religious beliefs, but your religious
beliefs should not get in the way of you operating socially
with some sense, and some dignity, and some
decency. In other words God said, I didn't save you to be an idiot. [that's right, amen, applause]
You gotta have social skills. [amen] Amen.
You're not that sanctified until, you know you're so heavenly bound
you're no earthly good. [that's right]
You see, now he's got to counter
the teachings of the Jewish tradition. And it becomes,
so Jesus is asked the question,
is it lawful to give tribute to Ceasar?
And Jesus in his wisdom of course, takes the coin "
and he says, "Whose image is on this coin?
Yeah, he says Ceasar. He says, Alright,
give unto Ceasar the things that are Ceasar's,
and unto God the things that are God's. So for those of you who are
so spiritual, you have the more social interaction
or social connection. What he says is you have
to distinguish between what you do on a social, political basis,
and what you do on a spiritual basis. So don't get
confused, when the politicians come in here, "Well that ain't spiritual."
Well when you leave here and have to deal with what goes on outside,
you had better vote the right person in or you're going to have
some difficulties dealing with your every day life, when you're
outside the church. [applause] This is why he says, don't only pray for your
children, and pray for one another, but pray for your government
also. [say it Bishop] And the wonderful thing is you pray for your government, then you go out
there and vote for who it is you think is the best candidate
to fulfill what it is you need for your every day
life. [that's right, amen]
Its an interesting thing, and one thing I want to do with these politicians on
this run, and they're coming. Is when I know they're coming,
I'm going to ask you to write some questions.
I'm going to take three or five of the best questions, and after they make
their presentation, I'm going to ask them some
questions. The questions that are born
out of what it is you want, so that they will not just
tell me what they know, but they'll answer which way
they'll go. [alright, applause, amen] See and then we turn
around, and have our political minister,
Joe Paul, and have him follow them up.
Then we'll insist that they don't just do a drive by
when they want to get voted in, but they'll come by and stop.
Amen, not drive by, stop by, [amen, applause]
and get a little bit of influence to the spiritual side.
Since you're so immersed in the political and social side.
See we have a social and political obligation. I want to take it further,
because the question has to be asked, "What happens when we don't
have the right kind of government? And what happens
when the laws are antithetical to our Christian standard?
Amen. At the end of the day,
the ultimate place of
obedience is to God. [amen]
And somebody somewhere in the scripture said, its better
or I'd rather obey God than man.
So if its an issue that deals with your spirituality,
and you're ready to risk your life for it [alright now]
or your financial position. [amen]
Because its coming. [coming]
Its here. [yes]
Because there are many issues that you're going to have to answer to,
that's going to prove where you stand in
terms of scripture verses law. [amen]
See everything that's legal isn't necessarily moral. [thank you, clapping]
Oh yeah, its legal for you to treat me this way,
but it ain't right. [thank you]
Follow me on that. And so when the question
comes as to my position with God,
and my position with the law,
and if one is antithetical to the other, where do I stand?
Give us this boldness. That's what the disciples prayed, didn't they.
They prayed for boldness.
They had to face the Sanhedrin Council,
the religious group that was anti Jesus. [thank you]
Jesus let them know they had to suffer for his name
sake. [clapping] John the Baptist got beheaded [right, yes]
'cause he spoke to the powers that be. [right, yes]
I don't know what kind of dancing she did to get John's head off. [laughter]
Lord have mercy, I don't even want to meditate on that thing. [laughter]
Oh God.
[clearing throat] Speak 21st
century, Let there be no such dance. [laughter]
[clearing throat, laughter]
So now he has to tell them that they have
to release the spirit of anarchy,
which the Jewish Christians had that spirit.
Because, and
its funny how
their disposition changed to the point, where they succumbed
to Hitler to the point of six million of them
being killed. Its really an
interesting concept when the
powers that be can so
radically eliminate your psychological
ability to fight back.
When three million people can
control 14 million in South Africa
in a thing called apartheid. [right]
Its almost indescribable how
you can succumb so
completely, and acquiese so totally
to the point where you're
debilitated psychologically,
where you won't fight back.
And the powers that be because its human, and
as I was meditating here, its like God
is insisting on human beings
taking authority in the
structure that he set when he set Adam and Eve
in the garden. And when he reiterated
the same covenant with Noah,
he has to have a Judgment A
for everybody who he has put in power,
who has misused and mistreated people
under their rule. [applause] Because
[clapping] I said to
the gentleman who did,
I can't remember his name now, you know I'm getting old.
The Armorbearer, who wrote
the Armorbearer? Yeah, and I was with him
once and I said to him, do you ever have any sorrows
about this book? Do you ever feel
some sorrow about having written this book so explicitly
and so inspirationally to armorbearers?
You've made armorbearers acaquiese
so completely to the point of being minions
to the leader that they are bearing arms for.
And you have made them feel as if the leader they're bearing arms for is
so significant to their well-being and the well- being of the
congregation that they have stripped themselves of themselves
in order to bear arms for the leader.
I said have you ever felt any compunction of
pain because you have convinced some young men,
and some young women to be so self-sacrificing
as it relates to the leader.
And he said, "What are you talking about Noel?"
I said. "Well what if you make, where somebody
is so inspired by your work that they give themselves completely,
give themselves totally and fully to a leader who
is tyrannical. Who has no
sensitivity for anybody. Who does not care for
people, and you have just given him an armorbearer,
who is totally and completely loyal, and totally and completely given
to the man, who is a Jim Jones. [that's right]
Of course now he's forced, I've put him in a place,
where he's forced to think about releasing
a man to an environment that is really toxic
thinking that its wonderful and marvelous.
Only to find out later that I gave 20 years of my life to somebody
who didn't care about anybody anyway, and I
augmented and supplemented his ability to be
the awful ogre that he was. [right]
Isn't there some pain?
That you have so totally convinced me to tak on this task.
The leader that I took the task on with
is Genghis Khan.
And yet still on the other hand, the Lord
says, "Touch not my anointed,
and do my prophet no harm." [clapping] So even though
I'm being led by somebody who is not following
the Lord like he should, and has lost his place in God
like Saul did with David. Still
the edict is as a follower,
I must do him no harm. [well, clapping]
And if that is so and God is saying, you follow
him as he follows Christ. Paul made a distinction. [thank you]
Ah, follow me as I follow Christ,
which suggests that you have to be wise enough to know
where Christ is. [say it Bishop, yes, applause]
So which tells me that even though you're coming with humility, you're not
coming with ignorance. [right, applause] Oh, am not ignorant
humble here, I'm wisely humble. Because there
is a limit to my humility, there's a limit to how much
I will allow you to do with me. There is a limit to how far you will
lead me into the darkness of degradation.
I will follow you as you follow Christ because I
have some idea of where Christ is. There is a point where
I have to opt out for God. [applause, yes, say it]
I love you and I respect your leadership, but there is a point. [applause]
See what he says here,
they are ordained of God. [amen]
So the authority is of God. [yes] Which now
puts them outside of Deuteronomy. Because
now he's saying whatever you heard before, in
the Christian matrix this is how it goes. Because
understanding Christianity you don't have to argue about your brother being
over you or your family or somebody who is one of your brothers.
Because in Christ Jesus there is neither
male nor female, bond or free, Jew [clapping]
so that alone has eliminated the nepotism that comes [amen]
in a Judaistic environment. Because now
Jesus Christ has made his body open to the whole world.
So you have no distinctions here. So you don't have to
come in here and say, well I've been in church 20 years, and you've been here
20 minutes, so I can't follow you. [clapping]
Jesus Christ, I will add to that, there is no seniority. [thank you, well, applause]
Amen, you might have seniority over at the City of Refuge, but that don't
give you seniority in the body of Christ. [applause]
Seniority in the visible church, but that don't give you seniority
in the body that makes up the real ecclesiastical
Church of Jesus Christ. So don't come over here with how long
you've been in the way. [right, hallelujah applause] Get out of the way. [yes, applause]
Sometimes God want to put you to a higher position, but you're holding on
to the one you have so hard that you can't go higher. [well, hallelujah, applause]
It's an interesting kind of concept here, because
now you're asking me to be obedient to the powers that be, [amen]
and then you tell me they are of God,
but just maybe they have an unjust
and unreasonable law. So now
here's another part of the duty. For all powers among men must
be in accord with the highest power, the moral sense. [amen]
So if your rule as the head of your house is
sticking beer in the baby's mouth at seven years
old, then we got to call you on that.
Amen, we might have to take the children and leave.
If you decide you like to see 'em swallowing a hit of ***
so they can fall out, and you laughing.
You look at me like Alice in Wonderland, worst things
happen in homes. [amen, that's true]
One of the most devastating things in the world
is to have to follow leadership,
when you're not strong enough to be on your own. [amen]
And the amount of debilitating things that happen to kids
in houses [amen] with parents who
are beyond
crazy. [thank you]
And much of our kids are going to prison today, going into jail, and going into
the system is not because they are criminals, its because they are mental.
A lot of our kids going to jail are mental illness
because of how they were handled. [clapping] Amen.
Sometimes you run into people, and you need to run a background on them,
before you fall in love, [amen, applause] Amen,
unless maybe the Lord called you into their life
to restore them, to rejuvenate them,
to bring them back. But I guarantee you while
you're trying to get the hell out of them, they'll be getting the hell out of you. [laughing, clapping] I
guarantee you, they'll be pulling every devil out of you [applause]
while you're trying to get the devils out of them. [applause] You will discover
you had some devils. [laughter] When you try to fix one of them devils.
[go 'head Bishop, laughter, well]
Amen [amen] When I met you, your devils were awake, [laughter]
and mine were sleeping, [well] but you sho' woke these devils
up. [alright now] Oh Jesus, Lord help us, ooo...
See he's not to be dreaded
because he's only an object of dread
to those who are evil. [right] Understand him
now he's making his point, and I'm going through
just to reiterate, and just to add a couple of little things. When you look
at the word minister here, the first word for minister
diakonos, is a servant, and this is a
servant as seen in his activity.
So the civil magistrate whether he is saved or unsaved
is a diakonos or a servant of God in the sense
that since God instituted human government,
as a means of regulating the affairs of human race or the
human race the magistrates who carries out the law
acts as a diakonos or a deacon
of God. And so what he's saying now is
the power that he has to punish
to inflict whether capital punishment or any kind of punishment
is given to him by the authority
that God has placed. [amen]
So even if he is
not righteous in his behavior,
every power has to answer
to whoever ordained it. [thank you]
And all God is saying to you is you stay alive. [yes]
You survive the evil of evil people, [yes, clapping]
and vengeance is always mine and I will
repay. [yes, clapping] And to the saint that understands that,
and understands how
wrathful, the righteous indignation or the orge
of God. And I found out something about the orge of God, even in my own
personal life. Is that he does not epithumia, he does not
come after you, and just bam. [thank you] I'm glad
he is long-suffering. [amen, applause] Because
I don't know what kind of shape I would be in, if God had
lost his temper with me. [amen, applause]
He suffers long, [long, amen]
and in his suffering long is the opportunity
to repent. [right, amen, yes]
Because as he is suffering long,
and he's patient. [yes]
And the time between the infraction,
and the time of the judgment, is sometimes
so long, you think you got away with it.
[thank you] Oh Lord.
You see when I was growing up, and they tell me
that God is going to get to you,
but they never said when.
So when I do something,
and nothing happen, [laughter]
I did it again, [laughter]
nothing happened. [happened] But in the
same way in the contradistinctive,
I always thought that immediately after you do good
the reward would come. [right]
But again they didn't say when. [alright Bishop]
It's really interesting you get frustrated
doing good, [well] when you don't receive the reward. [thank you]
And God has to speak to you, and say you have need of patience
that after you have done the right thing [applause]
the blessings and the reward will follow. [applause] You get
frustrated when you do the right thing, and you don't get the results.
You get loose when you do the wrong thing, and you don't get the judgment. [clapping, hallelujah]
Somehow human beings don't understand where to place
patience, and where to place caution. [well] See
the silence of God ought to frighten you into getting right. [clapping, alright]
Because he's not saying anything. [clapping]
See let me give you an example, you going to the club, you used to,
you don't do it as much as you used to, [laughter, clearing throat]
and there's a fellow in there running his mouth,
and there's another fellow not saying anything.
Now if I were to choose the two
to worry about,
I would choose the one who isn't saying anything.
I was watching a ball game years ago before many of you
were... [laughter]
I was watching Earl "The Pearl" Monroe and
Clyde Frazier, New York Knicks.
First of all Earl would come down, the commentator would say, "Man
how do you get around them like that, you move them?" You know he'd
come down and spin, spin two or three times.
Man can't nobody check you, how so? He said, well if I
don't know what I'm doing with the ball, how they
gone know? When I come down, I don't know what I'm going to do with the ball.
They had a fight broke out one night, I think they
were playing Philly, somebody, and a fight broke out one night,
and Clyde, the man hit Clyde,
and Clyde went back and sat at half court.
Everybody fighting, Clyde
didn't say a word, he just went and sat at half court. Didn't
get back in anybody's face. Julius Erving would do the same thing. They'd fight,
slap him, he'd just go sit at half court. He scored
two points the first half, fight broke
out towards the end of the first half. He scored
42 the second
half. That's the one I'm nervous about.
I ain't nervous about the one running his mouth.
See when God is quiet, [yes, ooo, Jesus, clapping]
and you know what you
have done.
And in his solitude,
you think you got away. [amen]
And the saint who understands that he
reserves a day of reckoning, [yes]
begins to pray quickly even for
their enemies. [yes]
And I'm praying on the premise that I
have done somebody wrong myself. [yes, amen]
And I need to pray for everybody who is doing me wrong, [yes, amen]
so maybe God will hear my prayer for them,
and exonerate me from some of my actions, [yes] and my behavior towards
others. When you pray for somebody else who is doing you wrong,
you're actively praying for yourself. Because God
will get whoever he puts in
position for doing his people wrong. [yes, applause]
Oh hear me when I tell you. They might look like they're getting away,
might look like they're insulted you, and hurt their feelings. And you sit around wondering when God
is going to get them. God says vengeance is mine, I will
repay. Don't get in my space, don't try to take
my place. You just stay where you are, remain under, [applause]
give me praise, lift me up, and I will fight
your battle. [applause, glory]
You don't have to fight your battle administratively. [amen]
Now it's in verse
five through seven, what I notice there's a
two-fold necessity for submission.
The first one is an external one,
and that of course is the wrath of God.
The second one is an internal
one because he brings in conscience. [amen] "Ye
must needs be subject not only for wrath
but for conscience." [amen, right]
Restraint, constraint [yes]
We restrain prisoners,
we put them behind bars.