God With Us Forevermore...

Speaker: 00:00:02

- Well, good morning.

Speaker: 00:00:09

Good chilly morning.

Speaker: 00:00:10

It's good to be in the house

Speaker: 00:00:13

and for joining us on live stream.

Speaker: 00:00:14

I'm so glad you're joining us today

Speaker: 00:00:16

and I'm glad that we have the means to connect

Speaker: 00:00:19

through live stream when we're out of town

Speaker: 00:00:21

and I know some people are traveling,

Speaker: 00:00:23

so we're glad for that.

Speaker: 00:00:24

As you guys come and give,

Speaker: 00:00:26

I just wanna make a couple of announcements this morning.

Speaker: 00:00:29

First of all, Wednesday is Christmas Day.

Speaker: 00:00:33

It is here, yeah.

Speaker: 00:00:35

And man, I'm so excited to celebrate the Lord

Speaker: 00:00:39

with you on Wednesday.

Speaker: 00:00:41

Would you please make a plan to come and be with us

Speaker: 00:00:44

on Wednesday at 11 a.m., 11 to 12?

Speaker: 00:00:47

I promise we will get you out of here at 12 or before

Speaker: 00:00:51

'cause I know that you have family plans,

Speaker: 00:00:53

but I'll tell you there's nothing better

Speaker: 00:00:55

than coming and worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ

Speaker: 00:00:58

on Christmas Day.

Speaker: 00:00:59

So come and be a part of that very special gathering.

Speaker: 00:01:03

We are excited.

Speaker: 00:01:04

We are excited about what the Lord is going to do.

Speaker: 00:01:08

Following Christmas Day, we've got a group

Speaker: 00:01:10

who's going to Mexico on a mission trip

Speaker: 00:01:12

and so if you're a part of that group

Speaker: 00:01:14

in any shape, form, or fashion,

Speaker: 00:01:15

would you guys come up here?

Speaker: 00:01:16

We wanna pray a blessing over you guys

Speaker: 00:01:19

as you travel and go.

Speaker: 00:01:21

If you guys just wanna come right up here.

Speaker: 00:01:26

And this is the, is this 30?

Speaker: 00:01:30

30th trip, 30th year, 30th year, multiple trips

Speaker: 00:01:35

to Brother Ray and so just so grateful for you guys

Speaker: 00:01:39

going to Mexico and putting your hands to work to help them.

Speaker: 00:01:44

Would you guys stand and stretch your hand over this group?

Speaker: 00:01:47

Father, I thank you for your goodness and mercy

Speaker: 00:01:52

in our lives and I thank you, Lord,

Speaker: 00:01:54

for the capable, enabled hands that will go into the field

Speaker: 00:01:59

this coming week, Lord, and will do your work.

Speaker: 00:02:01

I ask, Lord, that you would give

Speaker: 00:02:03

each of these traveling mercies.

Speaker: 00:02:05

I pray, Lord, that you would speak clearly

Speaker: 00:02:08

to their hearts, God, and my experience, God,

Speaker: 00:02:10

has been that when I go on a mission trip,

Speaker: 00:02:13

though my aim is to be your hands and feet,

Speaker: 00:02:16

that boy, you do a huge, you place a huge deposit in me

Speaker: 00:02:19

and so I'm asking, Lord, that you would place

Speaker: 00:02:21

a deposit in each one of these as they pour out,

Speaker: 00:02:24

that you would pour in and, Lord,

Speaker: 00:02:26

that they truly will be changed, Lord,

Speaker: 00:02:28

as they go and they come.

Speaker: 00:02:30

Father, we thank you, Lord, for what you're gonna do

Speaker: 00:02:32

in advance, may there be some eternal repercussions,

Speaker: 00:02:36

wonderful eternal repercussions by what these guys

Speaker: 00:02:40

are going to say and do in the next week.

Speaker: 00:02:42

We love you today, in Jesus' name,

Speaker: 00:02:44

and everybody said amen.

Speaker: 00:02:45

Would you guys commit to pray for them

Speaker: 00:02:47

over the next week as they go and we'll get a good report,

Speaker: 00:02:50

I believe when they come back, it will be great.

Speaker: 00:02:54

Well, we are, we're in the third week

Speaker: 00:02:58

of a three-part series entitled God with Us,

Speaker: 00:03:03

and we have spent the entire year talking

Speaker: 00:03:07

about the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit really

Speaker: 00:03:09

has been at work, He truly has been,

Speaker: 00:03:11

and you're going to get a taste of that today,

Speaker: 00:03:14

and guys, when we lean in and we tune in

Speaker: 00:03:16

and we listen to the Holy Spirit,

Speaker: 00:03:18

you just can't explain extraordinary things

Speaker: 00:03:20

in the way that they happen.

Speaker: 00:03:22

This morning, Pastor Justin is gonna close out our series.

Speaker: 00:03:25

Would you welcome Pastor Justin?

Speaker: 00:03:26

(congregation applauding)

Speaker: 00:03:30

- Morning.

Speaker: 00:03:31

You didn't know this was gonna be your Christmas gift,

Speaker: 00:03:34

was me all month, did it?

Speaker: 00:03:37

Well, Merry Christmas, here it is.

Speaker: 00:03:39

Before we get started, I got something I wanna share

Speaker: 00:03:42

with you guys.

Speaker: 00:03:43

Pastor Kevin mentioned that on January the 12th, 2025,

Speaker: 00:03:47

we're going to be having our vision casting service.

Speaker: 00:03:51

Now, I have the distinct honor and privilege

Speaker: 00:03:53

of shepherding the men's ministry here at Springhouse,

Speaker: 00:03:57

and we just closed out our Pursuit AIM meetings

Speaker: 00:04:00

with a chili cook-off and crowned a winner

Speaker: 00:04:03

of the golden spoon, and it has been brought

Speaker: 00:04:05

to my attention, there may or may not have been entries

Speaker: 00:04:08

submitted that were crafted by the wives of the men

Speaker: 00:04:12

who has submitted their offerings.

Speaker: 00:04:16

And I don't think that you should not get the credit

Speaker: 00:04:20

you deserve for bringing the chili,

Speaker: 00:04:23

and so what we've decided to do is we're going to level

Speaker: 00:04:26

the playing field and we're gonna accept all entries

Speaker: 00:04:29

and crown a new church-wide chili champ in 2025.

Speaker: 00:04:33

And so you guys can, you can battle it out in the kitchen

Speaker: 00:04:37

or you can do it however you wanna do it,

Speaker: 00:04:39

but it's a QR code and it's also up on our registrations

Speaker: 00:04:42

in the church app.

Speaker: 00:04:43

If you would like to enter your chili

Speaker: 00:04:45

into the chili cook-off, there would be a prize,

Speaker: 00:04:47

I don't know what it is yet, but, and a trophy,

Speaker: 00:04:50

and I don't even know what that looks like yet,

Speaker: 00:04:51

but I will crown a chili champ in 2025,

Speaker: 00:04:55

and it may or may not be the wife of somebody

Speaker: 00:04:57

who submitted something for our Pursuit Men's Ministry.

Speaker: 00:05:00

So if you're interested in being a part

Speaker: 00:05:02

of the chili contest, you need to register

Speaker: 00:05:04

so we know how many we're gonna have

Speaker: 00:05:06

and we can supplement and get all the other things.

Speaker: 00:05:08

But also, that's gonna be a part

Speaker: 00:05:10

of our vision casting service,

Speaker: 00:05:12

and so you're gonna wanna be here to hear

Speaker: 00:05:15

where the Holy Spirit has plans

Speaker: 00:05:16

for taking each individual ministry

Speaker: 00:05:19

as we collectively move in synergy

Speaker: 00:05:21

as part of the body of Christ, right?

Speaker: 00:05:23

Big C Church, little C Church,

Speaker: 00:05:26

we're all moving together in the kingdom, amen?

Speaker: 00:05:28

So that's before I get started.

Speaker: 00:05:30

Now, this morning's gonna be a little bit different, okay?

Speaker: 00:05:35

We have two passages that we're gonna read.

Speaker: 00:05:37

I'm not going to teach from these passages,

Speaker: 00:05:39

but these passages encompass everything

Speaker: 00:05:42

that I'm gonna share in this testimony this morning.

Speaker: 00:05:44

So if you're able, please stand with me

Speaker: 00:05:47

and we're gonna go ahead and read these two passages

Speaker: 00:05:50

of scripture and then I'm gonna share with you, okay?

Speaker: 00:05:53

Here we go, this is out of Isaiah chapter 40,

Speaker: 00:05:55

this is verses 28 through 31,

Speaker: 00:05:58

then we're gonna jump over to Revelation 21.

Speaker: 00:06:00

Here we go.

Speaker: 00:06:01

Have you not known, have you not heard,

Speaker: 00:06:05

the Lord is the everlasting God,

Speaker: 00:06:08

the creator of the ends of the earth.

Speaker: 00:06:11

He does not faint or grow weary, His understanding

Speaker: 00:06:15

is unsearchable, He gives power to the faint,

Speaker: 00:06:19

and to Him who has no might, He increases strength.

Speaker: 00:06:24

Even youth shall faint and be weary,

Speaker: 00:06:27

and the young men shall fall exhausted,

Speaker: 00:06:30

but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.

Speaker: 00:06:34

They shall mount up with wings like eagles,

Speaker: 00:06:38

they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk

Speaker: 00:06:42

and not faint, and Revelation chapter 21.

Speaker: 00:06:45

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,

Speaker: 00:06:50

for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away,

Speaker: 00:06:54

and the sea was no more, and I saw the holy city,

Speaker: 00:06:59

New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,

Speaker: 00:07:03

prepared as a bride adorned for her husband,

Speaker: 00:07:07

and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

Speaker: 00:07:10

behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.

Speaker: 00:07:15

He will dwell with them, and they will be His people,

Speaker: 00:07:19

and God Himself will be with them as their God.

Speaker: 00:07:23

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,

Speaker: 00:07:26

and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning,

Speaker: 00:07:31

nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things

Speaker: 00:07:35

have passed away, Father, I thank you for your word,

Speaker: 00:07:38

and I thank you for the life that it brings.

Speaker: 00:07:41

God, I thank you for the opportunity to share your goodness

Speaker: 00:07:45

and your glory from this platform today.

Speaker: 00:07:48

I ask that your anointing would rest on me

Speaker: 00:07:50

as I share with your people that our hearts would be open

Speaker: 00:07:55

to an encounter with you this morning,

Speaker: 00:07:57

that we would see you clearly,

Speaker: 00:07:59

that we would hear you clearly, open hearts, ears,

Speaker: 00:08:02

minds, eyes, to see you in all of your goodness

Speaker: 00:08:06

and splendor.

Speaker: 00:08:07

Father, we love you and we thank you.

Speaker: 00:08:09

It's in the powerful name of Christ, I pray, amen and amen.

Speaker: 00:08:12

You guys can be seated.

Speaker: 00:08:13

This entire series has taken shape and revolved

Speaker: 00:08:20

around this idea of waiting.

Speaker: 00:08:23

Let's see, Advent season, we're waiting the return,

Speaker: 00:08:27

the coming of our Messiah, and the first week that I shared

Speaker: 00:08:32

I explained about all of the prophecies concerning Jesus,

Speaker: 00:08:37

and the prophecies of his birth, his life, his death,

Speaker: 00:08:42

and how because Jesus fulfilled every one of those prophecies

Speaker: 00:08:47

the word can be trusted.

Speaker: 00:08:50

God can be trusted.

Speaker: 00:08:52

That has to be foundational.

Speaker: 00:08:54

That has to be at the very bottom of your theology

Speaker: 00:08:59

is that I can trust God.

Speaker: 00:09:02

Because there are going to be things in your walk

Speaker: 00:09:04

that you do not understand, or you do not want to do.

Speaker: 00:09:09

You may buck and kick and scream,

Speaker: 00:09:11

but when you can trust him,

Speaker: 00:09:13

then you will have the grace to walk through it,

Speaker: 00:09:15

even if he's pushing you through it,

Speaker: 00:09:17

or dragging you through it, or carrying you through it.

Speaker: 00:09:22

But at the very least, you have to be able to trust God.

Speaker: 00:09:25

You have to.

Speaker: 00:09:27

And the prophecies fulfilled in the birth of Christ,

Speaker: 00:09:30

his life and his death and resurrection,

Speaker: 00:09:32

ascension and his seated at the right hand of God,

Speaker: 00:09:37

ensure that we can trust him in his word.

Speaker: 00:09:40

And then last week, I shared about the difference

Speaker: 00:09:44

between waiting with our hands in our pockets,

Speaker: 00:09:47

and active waiting, hope becoming expectation.

Speaker: 00:09:51

Hope that transforms into an expectation

Speaker: 00:09:55

that God is who he says he is,

Speaker: 00:09:57

but I believe, I probably shouldn't sing that,

Speaker: 00:09:59

but I look directly at my wife and she's like, stick!

Speaker: 00:10:02

Do it.

Speaker: 00:10:03

We're just saying, I believe you are who you say you are,

Speaker: 00:10:06

y'all do what you say you do, right?

Speaker: 00:10:09

That's an expectation that's predicated on trust.

Speaker: 00:10:14

You hear me, okay?

Speaker: 00:10:15

Today is taking that, the prophecies,

Speaker: 00:10:21

the truth of who God is, in this active waiting season,

Speaker: 00:10:28

and how we fix our eyes on the prize,

Speaker: 00:10:30

just like the joy that was set before him,

Speaker: 00:10:32

and we wait on his return to take us home,

Speaker: 00:10:35

and that he will fulfill his promise, amen?

Speaker: 00:10:38

Last week, I mentioned about being in trouble,

Speaker: 00:10:45

and in need of a pardon, do you remember that?

Speaker: 00:10:49

Okay, I got up here and I mentioned that I was in trouble,

Speaker: 00:10:52

and I need a pardon, and I mentioned this being a Hail Mary,

Speaker: 00:10:55

and I didn't give you guys any context about anything.

Speaker: 00:10:58

I didn't give you any background information,

Speaker: 00:11:00

I just hoped you were currently up to date,

Speaker: 00:11:02

or you might have heard it through the grapevine,

Speaker: 00:11:04

or you might have went back and Facebook stalked me,

Speaker: 00:11:06

but what is this, and you won't find nothing but sports,

Speaker: 00:11:10

and cooking, and live videos, and woodworking,

Speaker: 00:11:14

you're not gonna find it there.

Speaker: 00:11:15

So I need to give you guys a little bit of context

Speaker: 00:11:17

so that you can understand the magnitude

Speaker: 00:11:20

of what God has done, is doing, and will do in my life,

Speaker: 00:11:23

because it impacts the kingdom, it impacts the kingdom.

Speaker: 00:11:28

So, 10 days after I turned 18,

Speaker: 00:11:33

welcome to adulthood buddy, I got in trouble.

Speaker: 00:11:39

I actually was in trouble before that,

Speaker: 00:11:41

but I got arrested 10 days after I turned 18,

Speaker: 00:11:45

and I received felony charges, and unless you're a felon,

Speaker: 00:11:50

you don't know how big of a deal that is,

Speaker: 00:11:51

especially when you're an 18 year old kid.

Speaker: 00:11:53

Now I'm not saying that I was not guilty,

Speaker: 00:11:56

that's the problem, I was guilty.

Speaker: 00:11:58

I am guilty.

Speaker: 00:12:01

I'm here to tell you today, I was not innocent,

Speaker: 00:12:03

my mom used to try to encourage me, she'd be like,

Speaker: 00:12:05

"Baby, Paul was in prison too."

Speaker: 00:12:07

I was like, "Mom, Paul wasn't selling weed."

Speaker: 00:12:09

(audience laughing)

Speaker: 00:12:12

I understand what you're trying to do mom, I get it,

Speaker: 00:12:18

but that's not the same, Paul was preaching the gospel,

Speaker: 00:12:22

and he got beat up and drug out of town, right?

Speaker: 00:12:24

I'm trying to hear the gospel, now that I'm in here,

Speaker: 00:12:26

everybody go to jail and get saved.

Speaker: 00:12:28

You know you could have done that at home,

Speaker: 00:12:30

anybody that goes to jail, they're like,

Speaker: 00:12:31

"I got my GED and I'm lifting weights now."

Speaker: 00:12:33

There's a Planet Fitness 10 minutes from here, okay?

Speaker: 00:12:37

You ain't gotta go to jail to do that, I'm glad you did,

Speaker: 00:12:40

but you can do that here.

Speaker: 00:12:43

There are certain things that happen when you are a felon,

Speaker: 00:12:49

and if you've ever filled out an application

Speaker: 00:12:52

that when you get so far down on that job application

Speaker: 00:12:55

or any kind of, an application for anything,

Speaker: 00:12:59

there's always that one little box that says,

Speaker: 00:13:02

have you been convicted of a felony, right?

Speaker: 00:13:05

And most of you check, no I've not, and then you move on.

Speaker: 00:13:09

But for those of us that check yes,

Speaker: 00:13:11

they put a whole section below that and says,

Speaker: 00:13:15

well tell us all about it.

Speaker: 00:13:17

And I'm like, I don't know that Papa John's needs to know

Speaker: 00:13:21

about, you don't need to know about my,

Speaker: 00:13:24

I ain't gotta explain myself to you,

Speaker: 00:13:26

I just won't work here, right?

Speaker: 00:13:28

You have to do that, there are certain things

Speaker: 00:13:30

that they take away, they take away your right to vote.

Speaker: 00:13:34

Okay, when you're a felon, they take away your right

Speaker: 00:13:36

to vote, they take away your right to own a firearm,

Speaker: 00:13:40

they take away your right to travel, they restrict travel,

Speaker: 00:13:43

you can't get a passport, and depending on where you live,

Speaker: 00:13:46

like I live in Smyrna, there's a city ordinance that says,

Speaker: 00:13:50

you can't coach little league.

Speaker: 00:13:52

You say, oh my, I'm guilty.

Speaker: 00:13:56

And the problem is, you don't often understand

Speaker: 00:13:59

how far and how long the consequences will last.

Speaker: 00:14:04

My sin took me further than I wanted to go,

Speaker: 00:14:08

kept me longer than I wanted to stay,

Speaker: 00:14:10

and cost me more than I was willing to pay.

Speaker: 00:14:13

But that's what happens.

Speaker: 00:14:18

So the crazy thing about not being able to coach

Speaker: 00:14:22

little league in Smyrna is I'm a foster parent.

Speaker: 00:14:25

I can raise your kids, but I cannot coach them.

Speaker: 00:14:29

Do you hear what I'm saying?

Speaker: 00:14:32

Like, you could go to jail, and I can't

Speaker: 00:14:35

be singing kids to me.

Speaker: 00:14:37

I won't.

Speaker: 00:14:39

I'm full, there's no vacancy, there's no room for Jesus.

Speaker: 00:14:42

There is no room in the end, don't call my phone,

Speaker: 00:14:45

but justice and foster care, absolutely not, we're full.

Speaker: 00:14:49

[audience laughing]

Speaker: 00:14:50

Serious, we do it all the time, breaks my heart.

Speaker: 00:14:52

My wife gets texts all the time, hey, can you take

Speaker: 00:14:54

two, three, five, six, seven, eight more?

Speaker: 00:14:56

No, we're gonna put 'em.

Speaker: 00:14:58

I can't coach 'em in little league.

Speaker: 00:15:02

Sin will cost you.

Speaker: 00:15:06

And you don't know, you never know in the moment

Speaker: 00:15:12

what that cost is gonna be.

Speaker: 00:15:14

We always think, oh, it won't be that bad.

Speaker: 00:15:17

The Word says the wages of sin is death,

Speaker: 00:15:19

but because you don't physically die immediately,

Speaker: 00:15:21

you think it's not that bad.

Speaker: 00:15:23

I didn't die, did I die?

Speaker: 00:15:26

Not physically, but the Word is true.

Speaker: 00:15:31

So that was 10 days after I turned 18, so I'm 41.

Speaker: 00:15:37

My whole life, this has been my experience,

Speaker: 00:15:40

I have died a civil death.

Speaker: 00:15:42

You don't get to participate, you just get to hang out.

Speaker: 00:15:46

You don't get to participate, you don't get to make

Speaker: 00:15:47

no decisions, you don't have a say in anything, bud.

Speaker: 00:15:50

You just participate, you don't get to be involved

Speaker: 00:15:53

in the world system.

Speaker: 00:15:55

Well, that's fine, I'll just adopt the kingdom system then,

Speaker: 00:15:58

and live over here parallel with you guys.

Speaker: 00:16:02

So several years ago, about three years ago,

Speaker: 00:16:06

I think it might have been around Christmas,

Speaker: 00:16:10

it was some kind of break because April and Aubrey

Speaker: 00:16:12

don't just have days off like that to just go do something.

Speaker: 00:16:16

April and Aubrey Davis wanted to get with me and Jess,

Speaker: 00:16:21

and we were gonna go to the shooting range in Murfreesboro.

Speaker: 00:16:24

It's a great idea, right?

Speaker: 00:16:26

And we go up there, and we go in the range,

Speaker: 00:16:29

and I don't have anything, I'm just coming in with my hands

Speaker: 00:16:31

in my pocket, and we get there, and of course,

Speaker: 00:16:35

you're filling out the paperwork, and there's that box.

Speaker: 00:16:38

Have you been convicted of a felony?

Speaker: 00:16:42

And so I just clicked yes, I'm not buying a gun,

Speaker: 00:16:45

I'm not even shooting the guns, they're shooting the guns.

Speaker: 00:16:47

And the lady comes out, the sheriff was like,

Speaker: 00:16:50

"You can't even be in the building, sir."

Speaker: 00:16:53

And I'm like, "My bad, what do I, hang on, I'll leave."

Speaker: 00:16:57

She said, "You gotta go right now, get out.

Speaker: 00:17:00

"You can't even be in this building,

Speaker: 00:17:02

"you'll get us in trouble for being in here, you."

Speaker: 00:17:06

I was like, "Okay, so I'll go out in the parking lot,

Speaker: 00:17:09

"and I'll tell them y'all go ahead

Speaker: 00:17:10

"and just stay in there and do your thing."

Speaker: 00:17:12

They was like, "No, we're not gonna leave you

Speaker: 00:17:13

"out here in the parking lot."

Speaker: 00:17:15

So instead, we went and got breakfast,

Speaker: 00:17:18

and I had secretly been trying to reach out

Speaker: 00:17:22

to different attorneys about,

Speaker: 00:17:24

well, I know I can't get it expunged, you know,

Speaker: 00:17:27

not everything is able to be just expunged off your record.

Speaker: 00:17:31

People's like, "Why don't you go get expunged?"

Speaker: 00:17:32

Well, it's not that simple.

Speaker: 00:17:34

Some things you can't just go and pay $100

Speaker: 00:17:37

and it's over with.

Speaker: 00:17:38

Sometimes you can't just do something

Speaker: 00:17:40

and then just expect somebody to be okay with it.

Speaker: 00:17:44

Can't lie to someone and expect the relationship

Speaker: 00:17:47

to stay the same.

Speaker: 00:17:48

You can't explode in anger and expect the relationship

Speaker: 00:17:53

to stay the same.

Speaker: 00:17:54

You can't go steal from Kohl's and expect it

Speaker: 00:17:56

just to be like, "We'll give it back."

Speaker: 00:17:59

This ain't 1953 anymore.

Speaker: 00:18:01

The shopkeeper, go give the candy bar back, right?

Speaker: 00:18:06

At least that's what I see in movies,

Speaker: 00:18:07

I wasn't around back then, you know?

Speaker: 00:18:09

[audience laughing]

Speaker: 00:18:10

So I had been trying to see if I can call people

Speaker: 00:18:14

and maybe I can get an attorney that will help me

Speaker: 00:18:16

get my rights back.

Speaker: 00:18:18

I just need my rights, my rights.

Speaker: 00:18:21

My rights, I want them back.

Speaker: 00:18:25

I want my rights back and I'd call and I'd say,

Speaker: 00:18:27

"We don't do that, call Knoxville."

Speaker: 00:18:30

And I'd call Knoxville.

Speaker: 00:18:31

"We don't do that, call Nashville."

Speaker: 00:18:33

"We don't do that, call Murfreesboro."

Speaker: 00:18:36

"We don't do that, call Memphis."

Speaker: 00:18:37

I'm done calling people.

Speaker: 00:18:39

And I just say, "You know what, that's fine.

Speaker: 00:18:41

It's not gonna happen.

Speaker: 00:18:42

I'm not calling people.

Speaker: 00:18:43

I'm done with this.

Speaker: 00:18:44

They're not gonna give me my rights back."

Speaker: 00:18:46

And April said, "Why don't you call Lukowitz?

Speaker: 00:18:48

He's an attorney and he does this."

Speaker: 00:18:50

I don't even know Lukowitz like that.

Speaker: 00:18:53

And you don't even know Lukowitz, it's fine.

Speaker: 00:18:55

It's not important.

Speaker: 00:18:56

But I called the guy for some advice

Speaker: 00:19:00

and he does legal stuff.

Speaker: 00:19:01

I mentioned this in the first gathering, right?

Speaker: 00:19:03

He does legal stuff, but he's not like

Speaker: 00:19:06

a criminal legal stuff, okay?

Speaker: 00:19:07

So like criminals should never call other criminals

Speaker: 00:19:10

for legal advice.

Speaker: 00:19:11

Bottom line, I understand you might've got your law degree.

Speaker: 00:19:16

You've been in prison for 20 years,

Speaker: 00:19:18

but that's a little bit different.

Speaker: 00:19:20

But the problem is we do that all the time.

Speaker: 00:19:23

In the kingdom, we only wanna go to people

Speaker: 00:19:27

who have walked through what I've walked through.

Speaker: 00:19:30

Let me tell you right, Barbie does not have to walk

Speaker: 00:19:32

through drugs and alcohol addiction

Speaker: 00:19:34

to be able to minister to me.

Speaker: 00:19:35

I've gotta stop only trying to reach out to people

Speaker: 00:19:38

who can sympathize with me instead of people

Speaker: 00:19:40

that can empathize because they hear from the Holy Spirit.

Speaker: 00:19:44

Bunch of criminals going to other criminals for advice.

Speaker: 00:19:47

It's what we do.

Speaker: 00:19:49

But this guy's not a criminal, okay?

Speaker: 00:19:52

So I go to him and he says,

Speaker: 00:19:54

I just wanna put that out there

Speaker: 00:19:57

'cause he might be listening.

Speaker: 00:19:58

He's not a criminal.

Speaker: 00:19:59

At least I don't think he is, okay?

Speaker: 00:20:01

And he says, "Look, this is ludicrous."

Speaker: 00:20:04

He said, "Why don't you just ask for a pardon?"

Speaker: 00:20:06

I'm like, is that even a thing?

Speaker: 00:20:08

He goes, "Who do you ask for a pardon?"

Speaker: 00:20:10

I don't know anybody that's got a pardon.

Speaker: 00:20:12

Do you know anybody that's been pardoned?

Speaker: 00:20:14

Do you?

Speaker: 00:20:15

Other than the one guy on Shawshank Redemption.

Speaker: 00:20:17

That's the only guy I know.

Speaker: 00:20:18

That, you know what I'm talking about.

Speaker: 00:20:21

Does anybody, do you personally know somebody?

Speaker: 00:20:23

I don't even know, is that a thing?

Speaker: 00:20:25

I don't even know like that could be done.

Speaker: 00:20:28

He said, "Yeah, just ask for a pardon."

Speaker: 00:20:31

And the more research I've done,

Speaker: 00:20:33

that's what I realized, that's the only option I have

Speaker: 00:20:36

to ever get this taken away.

Speaker: 00:20:38

That's why I said it's a Hail Mary.

Speaker: 00:20:39

I have one play.

Speaker: 00:20:40

Everybody run as far as you can.

Speaker: 00:20:42

I'm gonna throw the ball as far as I can

Speaker: 00:20:44

and I'm gonna pray somebody comes down with it

Speaker: 00:20:46

in the end zone.

Speaker: 00:20:47

I can't get it restored.

Speaker: 00:20:49

I can't get it expunged.

Speaker: 00:20:50

It only can be pardoned.

Speaker: 00:20:52

Are you hearing what I'm saying?

Speaker: 00:20:54

So that was in 2022, early 2022.

Speaker: 00:21:00

So in April, I got a application for a pardon

Speaker: 00:21:05

and it is about this thick.

Speaker: 00:21:10

I know you can't see that.

Speaker: 00:21:11

That's about five millimeters.

Speaker: 00:21:13

Okay.

Speaker: 00:21:14

And included is like things like you have to have

Speaker: 00:21:16

like five character references, right?

Speaker: 00:21:20

And these need to be people who are like business owners

Speaker: 00:21:23

or pastors or people like with influence.

Speaker: 00:21:26

You wanna have, you don't want your next door neighbor

Speaker: 00:21:28

to write a character reference for you.

Speaker: 00:21:31

He's never asked me to borrow anything

Speaker: 00:21:34

and always brought my tools back and his wife got,

Speaker: 00:21:37

you know, you don't want that.

Speaker: 00:21:38

Okay, I mean, it's not bad, but.

Speaker: 00:21:40

So you have to have five character witnesses.

Speaker: 00:21:44

You have to have copies of all your certificates

Speaker: 00:21:48

or degrees or things that you have accomplished

Speaker: 00:21:51

along the, however long it's been.

Speaker: 00:21:54

You have criteria of how long it has to be

Speaker: 00:21:56

since you've been in trouble.

Speaker: 00:21:57

You have to have dispositions of anything you've done.

Speaker: 00:21:59

Like have you, did you do your probation?

Speaker: 00:22:01

Did you pay off all your fines?

Speaker: 00:22:03

Or like, have you, do you have any traffic tickets?

Speaker: 00:22:06

Or you like driving, like it's a,

Speaker: 00:22:08

there's a lot of criteria for it.

Speaker: 00:22:11

And I submitted my application.

Speaker: 00:22:13

I brought it down to the border parole in downtown myself,

Speaker: 00:22:18

this big old packet I'd worked on for months.

Speaker: 00:22:20

And the lady that took my packet couldn't care less.

Speaker: 00:22:24

I was so excited.

Speaker: 00:22:25

I was like, here it is, my application report.

Speaker: 00:22:27

She's like, all right, good.

Speaker: 00:22:28

I'll throw it over here with the rest of them.

Speaker: 00:22:29

I was like, dang, lady.

Speaker: 00:22:31

She really wasn't like that.

Speaker: 00:22:32

But that's the feeling was like, it's insignificant.

Speaker: 00:22:35

So about nine weeks later,

Speaker: 00:22:41

I get a letter that says, hey, we received your application.

Speaker: 00:22:46

We'll look at it eventually.

Speaker: 00:22:48

Great.

Speaker: 00:22:50

Now what do you do in the process?

Speaker: 00:22:55

What do you do in the waiting?

Speaker: 00:22:58

Well, I just stood and put my hands in my pocket.

Speaker: 00:23:01

'Cause I didn't know what to do.

Speaker: 00:23:05

I don't know what to do.

Speaker: 00:23:06

I got a phone call in November of 2022.

Speaker: 00:23:12

And it was this guy who's like, hey,

Speaker: 00:23:15

they told me to call you and I'm supposed to interview you

Speaker: 00:23:18

over the phone.

Speaker: 00:23:20

And I'm going to record a statement for you

Speaker: 00:23:24

about your whole life story for the last 21 years.

Speaker: 00:23:29

Okay, great.

Speaker: 00:23:30

He said, I'll call you tomorrow.

Speaker: 00:23:31

He calls me tomorrow.

Speaker: 00:23:33

I'm in the shop.

Speaker: 00:23:34

It's November.

Speaker: 00:23:35

So all the doors are closed.

Speaker: 00:23:36

And it's a monsoon.

Speaker: 00:23:38

And if you've ever been in a monsoon in a metal building,

Speaker: 00:23:41

you can't hear anything anyways.

Speaker: 00:23:43

And so I'm trying to tell this guy my story.

Speaker: 00:23:45

And this is what we did for 45 minutes.

Speaker: 00:23:48

So I started going to church.

Speaker: 00:23:49

Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Speaker: 00:23:50

So I started going to church.

Speaker: 00:23:54

Okay, next.

Speaker: 00:23:55

And then God made me, and then God made me.

Speaker: 00:24:00

I finally got so fed up.

Speaker: 00:24:02

I was like, and then I changed my life

Speaker: 00:24:03

and I never looked back, right?

Speaker: 00:24:05

I was done with it.

Speaker: 00:24:06

45 minutes of this.

Speaker: 00:24:08

And then God, I said, okay.

Speaker: 00:24:11

So I said, what now?

Speaker: 00:24:12

He said, well, it's not up to me.

Speaker: 00:24:14

I just am typing this up so that I can send this

Speaker: 00:24:17

to the higher ups and they will read it

Speaker: 00:24:20

and determine if they even want you to come in

Speaker: 00:24:23

to be interviewed.

Speaker: 00:24:25

It felt like American Idol.

Speaker: 00:24:26

Like you're just, like you show up, you dance,

Speaker: 00:24:29

and they're like, I'd like to see you come back.

Speaker: 00:24:31

You come back.

Speaker: 00:24:32

And then I go and I do the interview and they're like,

Speaker: 00:24:35

we'll let you know if we want you to come in

Speaker: 00:24:38

for an interview.

Speaker: 00:24:38

That is November of 2022.

Speaker: 00:24:42

In June of 2023, are you tracking the months?

Speaker: 00:24:46

In June of 2023, I get a letter certified male.

Speaker: 00:24:50

It says, hey buddy, you have an in-person interview

Speaker: 00:24:53

with the entire board of parole next month in July.

Speaker: 00:24:57

This is it.

Speaker: 00:25:00

This is the time.

Speaker: 00:25:02

They said you can bring as many people as you wanna bring.

Speaker: 00:25:04

You can bring whatever witnesses you wanna bring.

Speaker: 00:25:07

So we went in July to the board of parole

Speaker: 00:25:11

and I brought 37 people with me.

Speaker: 00:25:13

You know how I know?

Speaker: 00:25:16

'Cause they all wrote their names down on the fan.

Speaker: 00:25:18

I was signed in.

Speaker: 00:25:19

37 people showed up on my behalf.

Speaker: 00:25:23

And what's crazy is we're all waiting in this room

Speaker: 00:25:26

for this hearing and they had a paper and they was like,

Speaker: 00:25:28

hey, sign this side if you think that Justin Beshears

Speaker: 00:25:32

would need to get a pardon.

Speaker: 00:25:34

And so everybody's writing their name down,

Speaker: 00:25:36

signing their name, and then Johnny G, Pastor Jonathan,

Speaker: 00:25:39

as you called him, I call him Johnny G,

Speaker: 00:25:40

been friends longer than we've been pastors.

Speaker: 00:25:42

Johnny G notices, he says, oh no, we signed the side

Speaker: 00:25:46

that says we don't want him to get a pardon.

Speaker: 00:25:49

(laughing)

Speaker: 00:25:50

And I was like, sir, no, sir, no, no.

Speaker: 00:25:53

And he was like, look, he was like, it's fine.

Speaker: 00:25:55

I was like, it's not fine.

Speaker: 00:25:57

No, we did not come this far to have it ruined

Speaker: 00:26:02

on a technicality.

Speaker: 00:26:03

You got 37 people showed up as non-witnesses for you.

Speaker: 00:26:06

(laughing)

Speaker: 00:26:08

No, absolutely not, we're not giving you a pardon.

Speaker: 00:26:11

You had almost 40 people show up.

Speaker: 00:26:12

You said, no, this guy's nuts.

Speaker: 00:26:14

You know what I'm saying?

Speaker: 00:26:17

So, at the hearing, there is seven seats.

Speaker: 00:26:22

There's seven board members.

Speaker: 00:26:29

And the chair, the chairman is sitting in the middle,

Speaker: 00:26:32

and there's all this board of parole,

Speaker: 00:26:34

and then there's two court reporters,

Speaker: 00:26:36

and then a stenographer, and there's this little bitty

Speaker: 00:26:38

rickety table in the front of them.

Speaker: 00:26:41

And then there's the audience where you guys are at.

Speaker: 00:26:44

And it's at my wife and me and Pastor Kevin,

Speaker: 00:26:48

and for over two hours, they asked me about the last

Speaker: 00:26:52

20 years of my life in 17 different ways.

Speaker: 00:26:56

The same question four different ways.

Speaker: 00:26:59

And they're asking me stuff like, well, tell us about

Speaker: 00:27:02

this traffic stop in 2005.

Speaker: 00:27:04

And I'm like, I don't know.

Speaker: 00:27:07

What does the report say I did?

Speaker: 00:27:09

Then I probably did that.

Speaker: 00:27:11

I don't remember, it's 2005.

Speaker: 00:27:14

You know how I slept?

Speaker: 00:27:15

I got kids now.

Speaker: 00:27:16

You know?

Speaker: 00:27:19

I don't know what day it is now.

Speaker: 00:27:21

I just know I'm here.

Speaker: 00:27:22

And so, we go through the whole hearing,

Speaker: 00:27:29

and I had just asked Pastor Kevin to testify.

Speaker: 00:27:32

I said, I just want you to share.

Speaker: 00:27:34

I don't want people to come up like a school board.

Speaker: 00:27:38

I don't want everybody to come up and do that.

Speaker: 00:27:40

I just, Kevin, would you share?

Speaker: 00:27:43

And Kevin shared at the end, and he was nervous,

Speaker: 00:27:46

'cause he didn't want to ruin it for me.

Speaker: 00:27:47

You know what I mean?

Speaker: 00:27:48

He's like, we've got to the live shows.

Speaker: 00:27:49

We don't want to get him booted off now.

Speaker: 00:27:51

It's a big deal.

Speaker: 00:27:54

I've been grilled.

Speaker: 00:27:55

I mean, I'm having to testify, and I'm having to tell you,

Speaker: 00:27:57

you guys, you know what?

Speaker: 00:27:58

Yes, I did that.

Speaker: 00:27:59

I mean, they're reading my mail in front of this room

Speaker: 00:28:04

of people that only know me from church, are you hearing me?

Speaker: 00:28:06

And now my life is exposed in front of them.

Speaker: 00:28:10

They're saying, well, he did this, and he did that,

Speaker: 00:28:12

and he's guilty, and you know what it sounds like?

Speaker: 00:28:14

There's a scene that I've read in the Bible

Speaker: 00:28:16

where you appear before the throne,

Speaker: 00:28:17

and there's an accuser that says,

Speaker: 00:28:19

and he did this, and he did that,

Speaker: 00:28:20

and he did this, and he did that.

Speaker: 00:28:22

And they're just listening to it, of all the stuff.

Speaker: 00:28:27

And Pastor Kevin gets up there, and he says,

Speaker: 00:28:30

look, guys, here's something you need to know.

Speaker: 00:28:34

Justin didn't just go start fostering kids,

Speaker: 00:28:38

or become a small business owner,

Speaker: 00:28:40

or I didn't ask him to be on staff

Speaker: 00:28:43

so that we could pad his resume,

Speaker: 00:28:45

so that we could come in here and look good

Speaker: 00:28:47

in front of you and ask for a pardon.

Speaker: 00:28:50

He's doing these things because God

Speaker: 00:28:52

has radically changed his life.

Speaker: 00:28:55

So whether you give him a pardon or not,

Speaker: 00:28:57

he's not gonna stop doing it,

Speaker: 00:28:59

because he never started doing it for that.

Speaker: 00:29:02

Are you living your life to prove something to someone,

Speaker: 00:29:07

or are you working from the cross?

Speaker: 00:29:10

And he said, guys, I'm asking you to give him a pardon,

Speaker: 00:29:14

but if you don't, he's not gonna stop,

Speaker: 00:29:16

he'll go back to work, he'll dry his eyes,

Speaker: 00:29:19

and he'll go back to work, and he'll keep doing it,

Speaker: 00:29:22

'cause that's not why he's doing it.

Speaker: 00:29:25

And for that reason, I think you should give him a pardon.

Speaker: 00:29:28

Then all seven board members, this was the hard part,

Speaker: 00:29:31

all seven of them, every one of them

Speaker: 00:29:33

had something they wanted to say.

Speaker: 00:29:35

And it was like, every judge was like,

Speaker: 00:29:37

well, man, I don't know, man, I'm looking at you,

Speaker: 00:29:41

you're fine, but you're doing a lot of, you know,

Speaker: 00:29:43

but I vote yes.

Speaker: 00:29:45

And you're just like, oh, okay,

Speaker: 00:29:47

and then you'd get to the next one,

Speaker: 00:29:48

and they go, man, I don't know, I did, man, yes!

Speaker: 00:29:52

And you're like, oh my God, so then you go to the third,

Speaker: 00:29:54

and then just up and down, up and down,

Speaker: 00:29:56

every one of them, unanimous across the board,

Speaker: 00:30:00

all seven said unanimous yes.

Speaker: 00:30:02

And five of the seven said, hey,

Speaker: 00:30:04

there's something you didn't even ask us for,

Speaker: 00:30:06

we wanna get that pardon too,

Speaker: 00:30:07

that way it don't come down the line.

Speaker: 00:30:09

And so it was a unanimous yes,

Speaker: 00:30:11

and we're all high-fiving and cheering,

Speaker: 00:30:13

we're like, what does this mean?

Speaker: 00:30:14

They was like, nothing, it means nothing.

Speaker: 00:30:17

Absolutely nothing, it's not up to us, okay?

Speaker: 00:30:20

We just think you should be pardoned, right?

Speaker: 00:30:24

And so they said, we're gonna send our non-binding,

Speaker: 00:30:29

they made sure to say that word, non-binding,

Speaker: 00:30:31

recommendation to the governor, okay?

Speaker: 00:30:34

And it's up to him ultimately.

Speaker: 00:30:36

That's in July, in December of 2023.

Speaker: 00:30:43

I'm out here, I'm holding the doors,

Speaker: 00:30:45

and Mary Sue Bennett walks in and says,

Speaker: 00:30:47

did you get your pardon?

Speaker: 00:30:48

I said, I don't know, I don't know,

Speaker: 00:30:50

do you know something I don't know?

Speaker: 00:30:52

And she said, oh, I saw that they had a ceremony downtown,

Speaker: 00:30:57

and they had a big old dinner,

Speaker: 00:30:59

and they had all these people that the governor pardoned,

Speaker: 00:31:01

and I was like, really?

Speaker: 00:31:03

She said, yeah, I would have thought

Speaker: 00:31:05

she would have been there, I'm like, me too.

Speaker: 00:31:07

(congregation laughing)

Speaker: 00:31:10

And I was friendly with her, but I went,

Speaker: 00:31:12

and I came in here and I looked online,

Speaker: 00:31:15

and sure enough, they had a ceremony,

Speaker: 00:31:16

and I went invited.

Speaker: 00:31:17

And I sat in the back corner of this room over here,

Speaker: 00:31:21

by those doors, and I just cried my eyes out.

Speaker: 00:31:23

I felt left out, I was like,

Speaker: 00:31:30

God, I did everything I coulda do.

Speaker: 00:31:32

I did everything I was supposed to have done.

Speaker: 00:31:33

I did everything, you said yes!

Speaker: 00:31:36

They said yes, how did I not get it?

Speaker: 00:31:38

You know what I heard?

Speaker: 00:31:41

Nothing.

Speaker: 00:31:42

Can you keep waiting and hoping

Speaker: 00:31:47

when you don't hear anything?

Speaker: 00:31:49

For 400 years, it was silent!

Speaker: 00:31:53

They waited for the Messiah,

Speaker: 00:31:57

and then when he showed up, they recognized him, why?

Speaker: 00:31:59

'Cause they weren't waiting with their hands in their pockets.

Speaker: 00:32:03

They had an expectation and a hope

Speaker: 00:32:05

that I don't know when it's gonna happen,

Speaker: 00:32:06

but I'm gonna tell my kids about it,

Speaker: 00:32:08

and maybe they'll see it.

Speaker: 00:32:09

And then they told their kids about it,

Speaker: 00:32:11

and said, I didn't see it, but maybe they'll see it.

Speaker: 00:32:14

So I just kept waiting.

Speaker: 00:32:15

That's in December of last year.

Speaker: 00:32:19

Then in October, by chance, my buddy Troy Ross,

Speaker: 00:32:24

who connected me with Representative Mike Sparks,

Speaker: 00:32:28

contacted us and said, hey, I've got a meeting

Speaker: 00:32:30

with the governor, do you wanna go?

Speaker: 00:32:33

I'm like, absolutely I wanna go.

Speaker: 00:32:35

This is my chance.

Speaker: 00:32:37

Maybe he doesn't have a pen,

Speaker: 00:32:39

and that's why he's not signed this.

Speaker: 00:32:41

So I put a pen in my jacket pocket, right?

Speaker: 00:32:44

Troy will tell you, I had a nice pen.

Speaker: 00:32:46

It was a pen Derek gave me.

Speaker: 00:32:48

And Troy brought him across,

Speaker: 00:32:52

and we went down to the Capitol,

Speaker: 00:32:54

and every door that we tried to go in was locked,

Speaker: 00:32:56

so we walked all the way around the whole Capitol

Speaker: 00:32:59

to get in the front door,

Speaker: 00:33:00

and we met with the governor in his office

Speaker: 00:33:03

at the same table that generations of governors

Speaker: 00:33:07

have sat at, and we just had a little back door,

Speaker: 00:33:09

closed door meeting, and he shared some things with us.

Speaker: 00:33:13

And at the end of it, we got to pray over the governor.

Speaker: 00:33:18

And so we laid hands on the governor of Tennessee

Speaker: 00:33:21

and prayed over him, that God would give him wisdom

Speaker: 00:33:23

that he would strengthen his marriage,

Speaker: 00:33:25

that communication and intimacy would be opened up,

Speaker: 00:33:28

that he would shore him up,

Speaker: 00:33:30

as he's got hard decisions to make as he's leading,

Speaker: 00:33:32

as people are coming left, right,

Speaker: 00:33:34

that God would strengthen him

Speaker: 00:33:36

in his role and responsibility.

Speaker: 00:33:38

And then we walked out, kept waiting.

Speaker: 00:33:42

My eyes fixed on him.

Speaker: 00:33:46

And then last Sunday, I get up here

Speaker: 00:33:48

and I share with you guys that I have had to come

Speaker: 00:33:52

to the point where I release it,

Speaker: 00:33:54

that if it does not ever happen,

Speaker: 00:33:56

I've got to be okay with it.

Speaker: 00:33:58

But I can't just be like, oh, well,

Speaker: 00:34:01

I have to be expected and okay if it doesn't.

Speaker: 00:34:05

And that's the interesting dichotomy of the Christian walk

Speaker: 00:34:09

is that you have to be, God,

Speaker: 00:34:10

if you don't get in the fire with us,

Speaker: 00:34:13

then you're still good.

Speaker: 00:34:17

But I believe that you will get in the fire with us.

Speaker: 00:34:23

(soft music)

Speaker: 00:34:25

I don't know if you guys know this,

Speaker: 00:34:28

but I was not scheduled to speak last Sunday.

Speaker: 00:34:32

I wasn't supposed to be up here

Speaker: 00:34:33

doing the whole Advent series.

Speaker: 00:34:34

Let me rephrase.

Speaker: 00:34:37

I was not scheduled to do it,

Speaker: 00:34:39

but I'm supposed to be doing it.

Speaker: 00:34:41

The clip that was on Facebook,

Speaker: 00:34:44

you might've seen a clip on social media.

Speaker: 00:34:46

There's a clip of me sharing that moment

Speaker: 00:34:49

where I released it to God.

Speaker: 00:34:51

That clip was not even the clip that was supposed

Speaker: 00:34:53

to be played.

Speaker: 00:34:55

And yet the media team said,

Speaker: 00:34:56

I feel like we're supposed to play this clip.

Speaker: 00:34:59

And it got 5,000 views and 31 shares

Speaker: 00:35:04

and 10 people sent it to governor.

Speaker: 00:35:05

I'm like, whoa, easy, no, don't, do not,

Speaker: 00:35:09

do not make waves.

Speaker: 00:35:11

It's still December, do not do that, right?

Speaker: 00:35:14

And they're like, absolutely not.

Speaker: 00:35:16

We're knocking on the door.

Speaker: 00:35:18

And then Thursday night, Mario Galleone's at a banquet

Speaker: 00:35:21

and sees the governor from across the room like this.

Speaker: 00:35:24

Swear, real sore, ask him.

Speaker: 00:35:26

Walk straight up to the governor and says,

Speaker: 00:35:28

hey, pleasure to meet you.

Speaker: 00:35:30

I know you don't know me.

Speaker: 00:35:31

You can ask them people about me that you're with.

Speaker: 00:35:33

They know me.

Speaker: 00:35:34

You need to pardon Justin Beshears.

Speaker: 00:35:35

And then walks off.

Speaker: 00:35:37

What you don't realize is the whole time I've been waiting,

Speaker: 00:35:44

there's been Mary Sue Bennett writing letters

Speaker: 00:35:46

to the governor on my behalf, right?

Speaker: 00:35:51

That you got Mario's going up and saying,

Speaker: 00:35:57

will you forgive the man?

Speaker: 00:35:58

There are people that are writing the king on your behalf.

Speaker: 00:36:04

There are people that are knocking on heaven's door for you

Speaker: 00:36:09

and you don't even know it.

Speaker: 00:36:10

And you don't even know it.

Speaker: 00:36:15

I'm not in this alone.

Speaker: 00:36:17

There are people going to the king on behalf of you.

Speaker: 00:36:21

Mary Sue and Mario.

Speaker: 00:36:25

If Troy didn't have a radical transformation in my shop,

Speaker: 00:36:28

I might not have never met Mike Sparks

Speaker: 00:36:31

who set up all these meetings

Speaker: 00:36:32

and has been championing and campaigning for me.

Speaker: 00:36:36

Like you don't know the things

Speaker: 00:36:38

that are happening in the process.

Speaker: 00:36:45

It's Sunday.

Speaker: 00:36:46

Today's Sunday.

Speaker: 00:36:48

Okay, I want you to understand this.

Speaker: 00:36:51

Thursday night, Pastor Kevin texted me and says,

Speaker: 00:36:56

"Hey bud, I feel strongly in my spirit."

Speaker: 00:37:01

And I'm like, stop there.

Speaker: 00:37:03

Don't not, do not start a text

Speaker: 00:37:07

with I feel strong in my spirit.

Speaker: 00:37:09

I don't have much room to dodge whatever comes next.

Speaker: 00:37:12

Like when you start out with,

Speaker: 00:37:14

I feel like the Lord told Jack, no he did not.

Speaker: 00:37:18

And I cannot, when I argue,

Speaker: 00:37:20

where's the room to get out of this?

Speaker: 00:37:22

He said, "I feel strongly in my spirit for some reason

Speaker: 00:37:27

you're supposed to share on Sunday

Speaker: 00:37:28

and close out this series."

Speaker: 00:37:31

Absolutely not.

Speaker: 00:37:35

I decline and reject that offer, young sir.

Speaker: 00:37:40

It's Thursday night.

Speaker: 00:37:42

We're rehearsing for Carol's by Candlelight.

Speaker: 00:37:45

And then Friday, I've got to go to work.

Speaker: 00:37:47

And then Friday night is Carol's by Candlelight.

Speaker: 00:37:50

And Saturday is playoff football.

Speaker: 00:37:52

The Vols play Saturday night.

Speaker: 00:37:54

They didn't even show up by the way.

Speaker: 00:37:56

That's real life.

Speaker: 00:37:59

I'm looking at my watch going,

Speaker: 00:38:00

man, I know you want me to prepare a teaching

Speaker: 00:38:04

and do all the PowerPoint and do all this, right?

Speaker: 00:38:07

I don't know if I have enough time to lean in.

Speaker: 00:38:10

It's not that I don't have the time to get the nuts and bolts

Speaker: 00:38:13

they can do the nuts and bolts.

Speaker: 00:38:14

Do I have enough time to lean in

Speaker: 00:38:16

and hear what God wants his people to hear?

Speaker: 00:38:19

'Cause this ain't just Justin get up here

Speaker: 00:38:21

and tell stories and make people laugh.

Speaker: 00:38:23

It's what is God trying to say to you

Speaker: 00:38:24

and he's trying to speak to your heart this morning.

Speaker: 00:38:27

And I'm responsible for that.

Speaker: 00:38:28

I ain't got time.

Speaker: 00:38:29

Absolutely not Pastor Kevin.

Speaker: 00:38:31

I told him, I said, I will if you want me to.

Speaker: 00:38:36

He said, it ain't about if I want you to,

Speaker: 00:38:37

I want you to hear from the Lord.

Speaker: 00:38:39

I said, well, then the answer is no.

Speaker: 00:38:41

I did.

Speaker: 00:38:44

I did.

Speaker: 00:38:45

You can look at our text thread.

Speaker: 00:38:46

Don't look at our text thread though.

Speaker: 00:38:47

You have to subpoena that, right?

Speaker: 00:38:50

Be like me and Doug, I ain't gonna tell on ourselves, man.

Speaker: 00:38:54

But.

Speaker: 00:38:55

Said I reject that offer.

Speaker: 00:38:59

Friday, I'm at work.

Speaker: 00:39:03

I build a cabinet tree.

Speaker: 00:39:05

I'm in Mount Juliet working.

Speaker: 00:39:08

I gotta get a job done before Christmas.

Speaker: 00:39:10

I'm working in these people's house and I get a phone call.

Speaker: 00:39:16

And I say, hello, this is Justin.

Speaker: 00:39:20

He said, hey Justin, this is Governor Bill Lee.

Speaker: 00:39:22

Hey, hey, hey.

Speaker: 00:39:27

(audience laughing)

Speaker: 00:39:30

Hey, hey, hey, how you doing?

Speaker: 00:39:31

Hey, hey, hey, how you doing Governor Lee?

Speaker: 00:39:34

Right?

Speaker: 00:39:35

Oh, you gotta hold on to something, hang on.

Speaker: 00:39:37

And I immediately go outside.

Speaker: 00:39:39

I just, and it's cold.

Speaker: 00:39:41

It felt like it was 20 degrees outside.

Speaker: 00:39:44

He said, hey man, how you doing today?

Speaker: 00:39:45

I said, I'm doing great.

Speaker: 00:39:46

He said, well, I hope I make your day a little bit better.

Speaker: 00:39:49

He said, I have reviewed your file.

Speaker: 00:39:52

And I have decided to grant you a full foreign.

Speaker: 00:39:56

(audience cheering)

Speaker: 00:39:59

Now come on!

Speaker: 00:40:02

Come on!

Speaker: 00:40:04

Come on!

Speaker: 00:40:08

(audience cheering)

Speaker: 00:40:10

Won't he do it?

Speaker: 00:40:11

Won't he do it?

Speaker: 00:40:12

Come on!

Speaker: 00:40:16

And I just started crying.

Speaker: 00:40:30

I just cried.

Speaker: 00:40:32

And in his grace, he just listened to me cry.

Speaker: 00:40:37

He just listened to me cry on the other end of the phone.

Speaker: 00:40:39

I said, I don't even know what to say.

Speaker: 00:40:40

He said, you don't have to say anything.

Speaker: 00:40:42

You don't have to say anything.

Speaker: 00:40:44

And I said, to what now?

Speaker: 00:40:45

He said, well, there's some things we're gonna post it

Speaker: 00:40:48

on the Secretary of State's website

Speaker: 00:40:50

and then you'll receive a letter from the Board of Parole,

Speaker: 00:40:52

but none of that matters

Speaker: 00:40:54

'cause as of right now, you're a free man.

Speaker: 00:40:56

(audience cheering)

Speaker: 00:40:59

I said, thank you.

Speaker: 00:41:06

He said, Merry Christmas.

Speaker: 00:41:06

And in the ultimate mic drop, he hung up the phone.

Speaker: 00:41:09

(audience laughing)

Speaker: 00:41:12

I shared last week that hope deferred makes the heart sick,

Speaker: 00:41:19

but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

Speaker: 00:41:22

All of the things that has happened along the way, guys,

Speaker: 00:41:26

you gotta see, man, I sat up here on the last Sunday

Speaker: 00:41:30

and was like, God, I wanna give up, but I can't.

Speaker: 00:41:34

And you know the thing that God doesn't know?

Speaker: 00:41:36

He's like, son, you're so close.

Speaker: 00:41:38

If you only knew how close you were,

Speaker: 00:41:41

some of you are ready to give up on people

Speaker: 00:41:44

and God's like, man, they're so close.

Speaker: 00:41:47

Keep writing letters.

Speaker: 00:41:49

Keep going in front of them.

Speaker: 00:41:51

They are so close.

Speaker: 00:41:52

You cannot give up now.

Speaker: 00:41:54

Some of you are right there on the edge

Speaker: 00:41:56

of giving your life to God.

Speaker: 00:41:58

And he's like, you are so close.

Speaker: 00:42:00

You are right there.

Speaker: 00:42:02

You imagine the anguish of Jesus in the garden

Speaker: 00:42:04

when he was like, God, I don't wanna do this.

Speaker: 00:42:07

God said, you're so close, son.

Speaker: 00:42:09

You are so close, son.

Speaker: 00:42:10

Endure, you're almost there.

Speaker: 00:42:14

There will be a day that he comes for us

Speaker: 00:42:17

and he wipes every tear, but even now our tears matter

Speaker: 00:42:21

'cause he says, you're right there.

Speaker: 00:42:23

You're so close.

Speaker: 00:42:25

The process, the waiting, the hope, the expectation,

Speaker: 00:42:29

the doubt that came in.

Speaker: 00:42:33

I mentioned that me and Troy got to meet the governor

Speaker: 00:42:35

in October.

Speaker: 00:42:36

I didn't tell you this.

Speaker: 00:42:38

When we sat there, he said, you wanna know

Speaker: 00:42:42

what the best part of my job is?

Speaker: 00:42:43

When I get to pardon people.

Speaker: 00:42:46

He said, this is the absolute best part of my job.

Speaker: 00:42:50

He said, I call these men and I listen to them cry

Speaker: 00:42:53

on the other line.

Speaker: 00:42:54

Hello.

Speaker: 00:42:56

Talk about some foreshadowing.

Speaker: 00:43:01

He said, and then it hit me.

Speaker: 00:43:03

Every one of these men are guilty.

Speaker: 00:43:05

Every one of them are guilty.

Speaker: 00:43:08

And there's nothing they can ever do

Speaker: 00:43:12

to get it off their record.

Speaker: 00:43:14

They can't work themselves out of it.

Speaker: 00:43:18

It never goes away.

Speaker: 00:43:19

They can't beg their way out of it.

Speaker: 00:43:21

They can't give their way out of it.

Speaker: 00:43:23

You can't live a good life and be good enough

Speaker: 00:43:27

to get out of it.

Speaker: 00:43:28

It's always there.

Speaker: 00:43:30

And there's only one man that can do anything about it.

Speaker: 00:43:33

And all you have to do is ask.

Speaker: 00:43:38

And then he said, and I realize in that moment,

Speaker: 00:43:43

that's what Jesus does for us.

Speaker: 00:43:45

Every one of you are guilty.

Speaker: 00:43:48

Every one of us are guilty.

Speaker: 00:43:51

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Speaker: 00:43:57

But the gift of God, the gift, the gift

Speaker: 00:44:00

that we're talking about this season,

Speaker: 00:44:02

the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Speaker: 00:44:07

We're all guilty and you can't be good enough.

Speaker: 00:44:11

You can't give your way out of this.

Speaker: 00:44:14

You can't think you're okay enough

Speaker: 00:44:17

to get it off your record.

Speaker: 00:44:18

That sin blemish will follow you your whole life.

Speaker: 00:44:22

And there's only one man that can do anything about it.

Speaker: 00:44:26

And that's Jesus.

Speaker: 00:44:29

And all you have to do is ask.

Speaker: 00:44:34

The word says that if you believe in your heart

Speaker: 00:44:38

and confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord,

Speaker: 00:44:42

you shall be saved.

Speaker: 00:44:44

The last few days it felt like this for me.

Speaker: 00:44:50

I'm serious, man.

Speaker: 00:44:57

You can't see it, or maybe you can,

Speaker: 00:45:00

but you see the guy rounding third?

Speaker: 00:45:01

That's what I feel like.

Speaker: 00:45:03

And everybody is so happy for that guy.

Speaker: 00:45:07

The whole team.

Speaker: 00:45:09

There's a guy that's already collecting

Speaker: 00:45:12

these walk-off home run photos

Speaker: 00:45:14

because he said this is what it feels like

Speaker: 00:45:16

when you enter into the kingdom.

Speaker: 00:45:18

When you give your life to Christ,

Speaker: 00:45:20

we're all celebrating with you.

Speaker: 00:45:24

When we enter into heaven, this is the celebration.

Speaker: 00:45:28

Everybody, the fans, the team, even the umpires,

Speaker: 00:45:32

like man, I can't even believe it.

Speaker: 00:45:34

It happened.

Speaker: 00:45:35

Do you need to be pardoned today?

Speaker: 00:45:42

I have the rare opportunity to be one of the few individuals

Speaker: 00:45:47

that has been pardoned on the earth side and the cosmic side.

Speaker: 00:45:53

(congregation applauding)

Speaker: 00:45:56

I don't even know how to process that

Speaker: 00:46:03

because I have a real example of what it looks like.

Speaker: 00:46:06

I know what it feels like.

Speaker: 00:46:08

And I want you to know what it feels like to be pardoned,

Speaker: 00:46:13

to be set free.

Speaker: 00:46:14

You gotta know what it feels like to be set free.

Speaker: 00:46:21

If you need to be pardoned today, today's the day

Speaker: 00:46:24

to be set free.

Speaker: 00:46:25

And there are some of you that are writing letters

Speaker: 00:46:28

for people and you're ready to give up on 'em.

Speaker: 00:46:31

You're going to the governor, you're going to the king,

Speaker: 00:46:34

and you're ready to give up on some people.

Speaker: 00:46:36

You're right there, they're right there.

Speaker: 00:46:39

You don't know how close they are.

Speaker: 00:46:41

You cannot give up.

Speaker: 00:46:43

So if I could get some brothers and sisters

Speaker: 00:46:46

to come down here to pray this morning,

Speaker: 00:46:47

I need the elders and pastors and teachers and leaders,

Speaker: 00:46:50

and none of us are exempt from this.

Speaker: 00:46:52

You either need to be pardoned

Speaker: 00:46:54

or you know somebody that needs to be pardoned.

Speaker: 00:46:57

We're all active participants this morning.

Speaker: 00:47:00

So as we worship, two things.

Speaker: 00:47:05

If you need to be set free, today is the day to be set free.

Speaker: 00:47:09

If you need a cosmic level of forgiveness,

Speaker: 00:47:13

there's only one that can do it and that is the king.

Speaker: 00:47:16

And he is ready to meet you here in this altar space.

Speaker: 00:47:19

So if you need to be set free, today's the day.

Speaker: 00:47:22

And if you know somebody that needs to be set free,

Speaker: 00:47:26

and you ain't been writing letters,

Speaker: 00:47:29

then today's the day to come down here and pray

Speaker: 00:47:32

and commit to write them letters for those people.

Speaker: 00:47:35

To go and petition the king on behalf of these people.

Speaker: 00:47:40

Today is the day to be set free and celebrate liberty.

Speaker: 00:47:47

I was a captive and now I'm running free.

Speaker: 00:47:50

Let's be set free today.

Speaker: 00:47:53

Amen.