Scripture reference: John 14:1 (NLT)
Pastor John:
Hello. So, the good news is that you have me for a while and then the other good news is that Pastor Sharon, Katherine and Dennis will be here in 20 minutes, half an hour. And then we’ll just see how the Lord leads from there. Hallelujah. Amen.
What are you all up for this morning? How heavy do you want it? How deep do you want to go? Praise the Lord. Okay. Jesus, whatever Jesus says that’s the deal. Right? Anybody want to dispute that with me? Here’s the mic we can have a conversation. This one’s quite heavy actually. It can do some damage. [Pastor John is referring to the microphone]. So, whatever Jesus says, that’s the deal. Right? So, in the New Living Translation in John chapter 14 verse 1, the scripture says, 1 “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me.” (John 14:1 NLT). So, trusting in Jesus and trusting in God is the same thing. Right? Trust in God. Trust also in Me. That’s what Jesus said.
If I ask you today, what do you want out of the next five or ten years of your life? What do you want? If I ask you that question, how would you answer the question? What do you want out of the next five to ten years of your life? So, I guess it’s going to depend a little bit somewhat on how old you are. You know, if you’re 20, you’re going to have a different answer to then if you’re 70. Because if you’re 70, you might not get ten years. I mean, I trust you will, but you might not. So, it does somewhat depend on how old you are and it depends on a number of other factors in your life. Right? But there are some basics that are important to all of us and that is based on what is the underlying foundation of what you’re wanting.
So, we have a challenge, our challenge of our society is that we have a trust problem. We have a trust problem. We don’t trust government. Right? We don’t trust a lot of things that go on in our lives. Even the thing that’s getting really bad now is that even children don’t trust their parents. Because they’re being taught by TikTok and Instagram and other social media platforms that actually you can’t really trust anything other than what you feel. And, you know, what you feel is the only true measure of what you can trust is what you feel and therefore you must respond to what you feel. I would go so far as to say that that is probably the lowest thing that you could trust in. Because how quickly do your feelings change? Right? I mean, I could be angry one moment and happy the next one. Which one are you going to trust? And they would argue and say, “Well, it doesn’t matter as long as you’re true to the feeling that you feel at the time.” Sh, that’s a slippery slope.
So, we got to have something that we can trust in and Jesus says, 1 “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me.” (John 14:1 NLT). He’s making a clear statement. There are many things that you can’t trust in, but the one thing you can trust in is you can trust in God and you can trust in Jesus and He’s making a direct statement. This is where your trust must lie. Now, I think we might have a situation, the next speaker might be Katherine. If it is her, she gave me one of three subjects that she might talk about, so I don’t know exactly what she’s going to say. Dennis was giving me some things that he feels he might want to talk about, whether it’s just a short moment now and mostly tonight, we will see how it goes. But let’s see how the Holy Spirit leads what I have to say and if it makes, gives a foundation to whatever they might want to say.
I’ve said to you many times if I say anything that doesn’t, that is not backed up by the Bible, is not from the Word of God, don’t trust me. Don’t trust me, you must trust the Bible. You must trust the Word of God because I have to trust the Bible. I can’t trust me, hey, I can’t trust me, I got to trust the Bible, that’s in me. So, to the measure that I have value systems that you can trust about me, they came because I have trust in the Bible. Have trust in Jesus.
So, I don’t want to go down that rabbit hole. But I just want to say that when I met Pastor Sharon, I had some strong feelings. I thought she was beautiful. I thought she was very sexy and I thought she was all woman and as someone who thought that I was all man, that was really a strong attraction. Man meets girl, Hallelujah. So, I had some strong feelings. Those feelings were things that could change. Right? Those feelings were things that could change. Something else had to happen for me and in me to actually not just see her as a girl that’s pretty, that’s beautiful, that’s sexy, that’s all of man-girl things. Something else had to happen in me to want me to do more with her, to find out who she is, to invest in the relationship. I had to find something that was stronger in her and I needed to see in her that she had a level of trust in God. Because I understand that the level of trust that she had in God would ultimately determine how strong the foundation of our future would be.
So, bearing in mind, and I just need to put this into context of my life because I don’t want my example and my testimony to be yours. Right? I mean, this was my journey and I always knew I was called to the Ministry. I always knew that I was going to be in ministry, whether it would be part-time or full-time as I am now. I always knew that was going to be my life. So, when I say, “I was looking for a partner in life that was going to do that journey with me.” The Word of God, the love of God, those things had to be a high level of function in their lives.
When I met Pastor Sharon I found out a few things. I found out that I was much more knowledgeable in the Word than she was. I had never deviated from trusting the Word of God in my life, she did. I found out that there was a level of Word maturity in me that she didn’t have. But I did find out something about her, and what I did find out is that she was completely devoted to finding and pursuing God in her life. Completely devoted to that. So, there was a difference in maturity levels between her and me as far as the Word goes. So, she was older than me as a person, but as far as the Word goes, I had more of a foundation and I was more mature in the Word.
So, what would that tell you about me? It meant that as I had journeyed in life, I’ve made many decisions, some small decisions, some very big decisions. I have made many decisions that I was going to trust in God and I was going to trust in Jesus and trust in His Word. Because you don’t get maturity without trust. Right? You don’t get maturity without trust. You’ve got to get to trust before you can get to maturity because trust will bring the maturity. As you face circumstances in life, as you go after the circumstances in life, your trust will get you through it. You can’t depend on other situations to get you there and as you trust, your trust will bring you the understanding. It will bring the wisdom and it will bring you through it. Then maturity comes because you know what your trust in God and your ways with God can do.
So, trust will bring maturity. So, I was in a place where my trust in God had brought a level of maturity. Can I put it another way? I had growing-up experiences. Isn’t that the way it is for us? We’ve got to be growing up in the Word. So, she had had life experiences. But she didn’t have growing up in the Word experience. These are different things. So, I ask you, if you had to make a choice today, what do you want out of life? Do you want growing up in life experiences or do you want growing up in the Word experiences? See, that’s an important thing because as you grow up in the Word, you have to trust it. You have to trust it because there’s no point in saying, “I want to grow up in the Word”, but you don’t trust it. The trusting of the Word is the thing that’s going to bring the growing up maturing experiences. And as you do the growing up maturing in the Word of God, your trust will continue to grow. Trust in God, trust also in Me. How do you stop your heart from being troubled in life? How do you stop your heart from being troubled in life? Trust. Right?
So, if I had to put it another way to you. Come inside, come inside. [Guest speakers arriving in the service] Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. So, if I had to put it to you and say to you. Do you want your heart to not be troubled? Because a troubled heart is never a good heart. Yes. If you’ve got a troubled heart, you are probably in a bit of a daze, you might be in a little confusion. You might actually be making incorrect decisions because a troubled heart doesn’t do you any good. So, that scripture that I read to you, 1 “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me.” (John 14:1 NLT). I mean, most Christians, most people around the world are desperate to not have a troubled heart. I mean, they spend fortunes of money trying to just not have a troubled heart. So, for us to get to a point where we don’t have a troubled heart, we must be in a place where we trust in God and trust in Jesus. Our trust level will reveal, no trouble. It takes care of the trouble, trouble will come, but it takes care of the trouble if you trust in God it will take care of the trouble. Because as you trust in God you have a maturity. You have a growing-up experience in the Word.
So, if we’re going to have a place and a walk with God that is going to determine every relationship, and so, I was just talking to you about my relationship with Pastor Sharon. And so, when I first met her I didn’t have a level of trust in her. I had a level of attraction. But I didn’t have a level of trust. What I began to see right up front with her is that there was a plumb line in her life, and the plumb line in her life was she wanted God. She wanted to pursue God and she was going to do everything to go after God. When I saw that in her, I could trust that. Because that’s not something that man creates, that’s something that’s a response to God. That is the thing that attracted me to her on the basis that she saw my pursuit of God. Besides the fact that, so they’ve come in towards the end of what I’m saying here, but so you’ll know what I’m saying. They haven’t heard it, but besides the fact that she thought I was a hunk of a man, gorgeous, absolutely handsome, very sexy, you know all of those things. You know, the thing that actually was the foundation and the plumb line was, I was after God. My heart was pursuing God. I was passionate for God, and we could build our trust on that. So, as we grew in life together our maturity levels increased because our trust levels in the Word of God increased. And as our trust levels in the Word of God increased and we saw each other living in the Word of God our trust levels increased. So, praise the Lord. Amen.
Many years ago, I mean, Dennis was at a time with us. Welcome Dennis, we are glad to have you back here. Katherine, it’s good to have you here. It’s your first time in South Africa so you’re welcome, yes. So, when Dennis was here, I mean, we were having some turmoil in the ministry at one of his earlier visits and one of the council that he gave us at that time was; you can’t build a relationship if you don’t have a bridge of trust. To the level of the bridge of trust that you have will be the level of relationship that you can develop because it carries the relationship – trust. I just, that’s what I got reading. I mean, I didn’t think of it until he walked into the auditorium. But that’s actually everything that we are building our life on is trust in God, trust also in Jesus. That’s a level, that’s a bridge that you can build. That’s a level of trust that you can walk over. You don’t even have to think about it a second time. He has built the trust. He has sent His son. He has given us everything. He has said, “You can trust it.” So, what we have to do is we have to build a level of trust in ourselves that the Word of God works. So, we’ve got to trust the Word of God that’s in us. Right.
So, as I was saying to you early on, I can’t even trust me, I’ve got to trust the Word of God that’s in me. Because to the measure that the Word of God is my foundation and my source, that is what I can build on. And everything that we do is the foundation. Trust God, trust also in Jesus. And for us to undo trust; the lack of trust in our world; the lack of trust in society; the lack of trust in relationships; the lack of trust in institutions; to undo that trust we have got to put more faith and trust in God and in Jesus. Otherwise, we’re always going to live in this world of – I’ve got to trust my feelings, I’ve got to trust other people that tell me things and then they change their mind because facts change. This changes and that changes and then we’re at sea and then we’ll never be able to build a strong foundation because it changes all the time. So, we’ve got to have something that we can build trust. Don’t you think? Hallelujah.
So, up till now, did we get to just wade out a little deep enough for you guys? Or do you want to go deeper? Always deeper, always deeper. Okay, okay. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Well, you always hear me, but you don’t always hear the guests that we have with us this morning. So, what can I say, it’s my joy that Dennis and Katherine are here. It’s our joy. And I think, Katherine, you’re going to do some sharing. Yes. Before you come, Dennis, will you just come and greet the people and just say good morning to them? Yes.
Dennis Peacocke:
Good morning. John and I, when he picked me up at the airport, we couldn’t go very far without touching each other. I’m serious. You’re here. You’re here. We, by God’s grace, have had a very special relationship and you’ve grown a lot. I feel you in a different way than I did in 2009. I guess that’s when I was here last.
We’ve almost failed totally at trying to communicate what all has happened since 2009, especially with the speed at which God is moving and the speed at which the secular world is falling apart. Which we’ll talk about that, but it’s a thrill seriously to be here with you and be here, of course, with my daughter. We have three children. Katherine being the youngest. And I think you will enjoy her. She’s very funny. She gets more laughs than I get. Anyway, I’m actually very, very glad to be here.
Pastor John:
Thank you. Thank you. Hallelujah. So, just to give you some background so that she doesn’t have to do it herself or by way of a small introduction. Katherine has served her father all of her life. That was a bit funny. Supposed to be. I mean, did she have a choice? But she has now progressed in that serving to be now the CEO of Go Strategic, which is a part of just one component of what Dennis’s ministry is. And maybe you can share a little bit about that, Katherine, the legacy and things like that. So, and she’s got a passion to minister the message that she’s been living in her life all these years, Dennis has been preaching all of these years. And so, it’s our joy to have Katherine here with us to reestablish and reconnect and to do many more things with Go Strategic. So, Katherine, come and tell us a little bit about it. Won’t you give her a hand?
Katherine Gallagher:
Good morning. He told me I could dress casual, so I hope this is okay. Normally, I don’t. Yeah. Brynn’s good. I’m good. All right. Normally I would maybe be a little more businessy, but really honoured to be here today with all of you. I don’t know if he warned you what I asked that I could talk about, because when he said it was young people, my face kind of lit up. Okay. No offence. So, I see a few folks in here that look a little bit over twenty, but we’ll let you slide to be here today. That’s okay.
But I’ll give you a little background real quick on Go Strategic, and then I’ll go into what was on my heart to share when you mentioned I could talk with some young folks. I worked for my father, as you mentioned. It’s true. I did not totally have a choice, because I technically worked for him legally, meaning above board, for about 25 years. But if – that’s because if we don’t count the under-the-table violation of child labour laws years, where I was forced to do mailings. Anyone who’s been in ministry knows from a young age, you know, all that kind of stuff is happening. So, yes, family secrets. So, I have – but officially, I’ve worked with him for twenty-plus years and worked my way up the ladder to become CEO. Clawed my way to the top. No. It was actually a long process. Believe it or not, I was not a shoo-in for this position. But we really wanted it to be because it was my calling, not just because I was his daughter, and not just because we needed someone to fill that role. So, we had a whole process as a board that actually took a couple of years before he officially passed the baton to me.
So, real quick about what Go Strategic is and what we do. Founded by my father back in 1979. Our heart is to make the kingdom of God easy, accessible, real, not relevant in the relativism kind of way, but understanding that we need to be engaged in the culture, and understanding worldview, presuppositional thinking, how all the jurisdictions work together, how there’s these axiomatic truths and principles that run underneath everything. And if we can understand those, even if we’re not an expert in every area, we can have a level of expertise because those truths run under everything. So, if you can learn to think that way, it opens up a world for you in being able to engage in relevant conversations with what the world’s talking about, to discern what’s happening on the news, all of those things.
So, for us that’s applied worldview, Christian worldview, and presuppositional thinking, all that good stuff. So, we do that with our materials and with our schools and we love to network, love to see people get empowered in their calling and all those good things. So, that’s a bit of what we do. That’s a very short answer. We are an international organisation, so we work in numerous countries. We’re based in California, but we’ve got satellite offices in conjunction with other ministries all over the world. So, if any of you speak other languages, we’ve probably got content for you. If you want it in multiple languages, you can check it out on our website.
But what I’m going to talk about today may seem totally not connected to that, but it is. I asked again when he said it was young people, I said, “Well, can I talk about sex?” And you’ll understand a little bit why I want to talk about this when I give you a little bit of my history in this area. So, again I warned the older folks that are in here. I said I was going to talk to twenty-year-olds. I’m just teasing. So, it’s relevant to all of us from every age, and actually, especially those of us in the older generation, we have a responsibility to be good examples in this area. So, it’s relevant just in different ways for all of us in every stage of life, right?
So, quick reason why I want to talk about this. Let me give you a little history of my sexual history. Don’t get scared. Don’t get scared. I actually – this reminds me of, you know, the story it makes me want to tell right now. My father and I were ministering together in the UK, in England. I was maybe 17, I think. And I was speaking at a youth conference. I think it was a YWAM conference or something. I was speaking about sexuality and abstinence and all those things. And in the course of sharing on it, you know, I was like trying to say, “Hey, you know, how important it is to wait but, you know, the reality is I do want to have sex.” Sorry, Dad. That’s what I said in front of everybody because he was sitting there. And when I made that statement, everyone just started laughing really, really hard because it’s a little uncomfortable to talk about sex in front of your father, especially when you’re 17. So, we’ve had a history of that. Kind of funny that way.
But when I was 15, in our local town, there was a wonderful Catholic girl who had a heart for the purity message. And at this time, this is in the early 90s, some of you can start doing maths now to figure out how old I am. In the early 90s, at least in America, I’m not sure what it was like here in South Africa, but the safe sex message was being pushed really, really hard in all the public schools. It was like, “Just give them a condom and they’ll be fine.” That was the message that was being told.
And this woman was like, you know, that is so not right and not healthy and how can we combat this message? So, she had an idea to create a peer-based sex education group that would go into high schools and talk about why we would wait to save sex for marriage. Now, of course, we’re going into public schools, which means we cannot talk about God, which means I cannot say the Bible says wait. I have to go, “Okay, why does the Bible say wait and what are the benefits of it and why does it matter?” And so, I became a part of that group to go in and share in the public schools about saving sex for marriage. And not just in the sense of, “Hey, you don’t want to get pregnant, you don’t want to get AIDS.” You know, all the bad things, but what are the good reasons? Why did God design it that way in the first place?
Lead with the positive versus, you know, the negative and worrisome, which there’s a whole sermon in that people, as you know, with every issue we face today in the culture. Right? I mean, I wish we did that with so many other things. And leading with God’s heart for us is health and that the boundaries and limits are for our health and betterment and protection, not to restrict. So, that was the heart of what we were trying to do going into the schools. Because of that, I developed a reputation, you know, the opposite reputation, right, than what you think would go along with talking about sex. I became known as Miss No Sex and a bunch of different nicknames all around town because I was their most active speaker. I spoke all the time, all over my county. And because of that, I also ended up… at the time a gal was mentoring me. She was one of the most well-known absent speakers in America. So, if she was asked to do a talk show and couldn’t do it, then she had them call me and refer them to me. So, I ended up doing a bunch of talk shows and, you know, speaking on American television about it.
So, it became a big passion of mine. And so, that’s why especially now with what’s going on in the culture, you know. There’s so many issues around sexuality that are running the world right now, that I’m even more passionate about it because it’s so relevant and it’s so needed. And us as a church, it baffles me that we’re, and I’m sure this is probably not happening in this church, I’m talking about the big church, the global church, okay? In the global church, we still are so uptight, if I can’t think of another term, about talking about sex. And I’m not talking about being, you know, crass or anything like that. I’m talking about just being realistic. Who was the author of sex? God. It wasn’t… somehow the world has hijacked it like it was their idea. No, the Lord, God, you know, the world has made sex a god. Yet, we serve the God who made sex. So, why are we not talking about it more? Why are we not giving positive examples of why He made it like He did in the first place? There’s a purpose for it.
You know, He could have, again, I’m not getting crass, but look, He could have made sex purely something that was just a need, like going to the restroom. You know, it’s just something you got to do. It’s not pleasurable. But that’s not what He did. Just like eating, right? He gave us taste buds so we could enjoy food, right? He could have made that purely functional and just be, you need to eat and you need to…you know, but He gave us that for pleasure. He gave us food for pleasure. He gave us sex for pleasure. It did not have to be pleasurable and He made it that way.
So, why are we so uncomfortable with that? It was His idea. Are we holier than God? There’s a great quote by C.S. Lewis on that. C.S. Lewis has that. Oh, I wish I had it memorised. I didn’t bring my notes with me that I normally do on this. But there’s a quote by C.S. Lewis that goes around this. Like, hey, if God made it and it’s natural and made matter, are we somehow think we’re better than Him? Look it up. You can find it. It’s much better than what I just said. But that’s the idea. Like, do we think we’re holier than God that we can’t touch this subject? Okay? So, it’s so important, especially too, because as you know, it is all that the world talks about. Let’s be honest. I mean, that runs the world right now. So, how are we not a part of that conversation? We’ve got to be a part of that conversation.
So, what does that look like? It looks like, okay, again, I go back to my roots and when I was sharing in the schools. Why? Why did He say just with one man and one woman? Let me make a little side turn here real quick. And maybe you guys have heard this already. But when I first understood this, it blew my mind that in the Ten Commandments, when it says, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” When you look at the etymology of the word, the root of that word, most of us read that as saying, “Hey, you shouldn’t cheat on your spouse.” But that’s actually not what it says. What it says is, “You should not have sex with someone who is not your spouse.” You can look this up. This root of this…. by the way, goes back to R. J. Rushdoony in the Institutes of Biblical Law. I don’t know if anyone’s heard of those books. They are hardcore. It’s a whole exegesis of the Ten Commandments.
But even though it has that term adultery, when you look at it again, the root word of what that word means, it means sex with someone who is not your spouse. So, what does that mean? That doesn’t mean not just don’t cheat on your spouse. That means don’t sleep with anyone who is not your spouse, which means that covers fornication. And that also means that covers homosexual and gay relationships because the spouse, according to the Bible, is only a man and a woman. So, you have all three of those big sexual issues in one spot in the top ten. Isn’t that interesting? So, that’s a little side note for you. That’s just a little extra. You can look it up. A couple more extras, yeah. That one, if you want to dive into it more, it’s in Institutes of Biblical Law by R.J. Rushdoony.
But I find that very interesting because that’s how the Lord works, right? Because it’s a principle, right? We kind of want to go after, “Okay, well, what can I get away with and what’s this and what’s that?” But the principle there is all that around how God designed the sexual relationship – and it hits all three in one commandment. Love that. And He does that all the time, doesn’t He? If we can learn to look at that, and see that in the Word, right? So, where was I going with that? I got distracted with R.J. Rushdoony.
Oh, going back to why this is what happens people when I don’t have my notes. I just start talking. It’s all right. I’m just going to trust the Holy Spirit. Yeah. Here’s the deal, guys. Pastor John and Sharon are like family, have gotten very relaxed. And they just said, “Just come share.” So, I’m just sharing. [Laughter.] I swear I can be more routine, but just not this morning. All right.
So, we are looking at why did God design it that way. Understanding from the principle-base of it. Right? Because that’s the principle that we see in that top 10 of why He made those commands. So, there’s numerous reasons for this, right? Let’s start just in our biology and our makeup, okay? Now, again, you will hear people in the world all the time argue, “You know, you’re not designed to be monogamous. It’s not natural.” Well, that’s actually not really true. And again, you know, if you want to find a statistic or a fact to back up something, you can. I guarantee you there will be some study that you can find that will back up what your agenda is, right? That’s always the case. There’s that quote, I think it’s Mark Twain -There’s lies, damned lies, and statistics. Because it can be twisted.
So, but if you look at it anthropologically, no we are literally anthropologically and biologically, we are designed to be monogamous and the cultures that are monogamous far and above outshine all the polygamous cultures. They do so much better. Look at it historically. I mean, there’s a huge, just clear line that that is what produces the healthiest society. Why? Because a healthy marriage produces healthy children and a healthy family raises healthy children, and healthy children create a healthy society, and it just goes from there, right? If we don’t have healthy marriages, we don’t have healthy children, we don’t have healthy families, and we don’t have a healthy society. And case in point, look at our world right now. Because we’ve gone that way, right?
So, the sexual relationship is vital and key to what is actually happening in our culture right now. It’s not just a side note of, you know, “Oh yeah, there’s that thing.” That’s, you know, so, but that is how God designed it. We are designed to bond with our partners. So, this was an example I would give when I was sharing in the schools, right? When you are physical with someone, you literally release the bonding hormones. Dopamine and ox, not ox, Oxycontin, no, wrong drug. Oxytocin. We have a bunch of people going all over the show, “Wait, it releases Oxycontin in you. What? I can do it, yeah.” Okay, no. It releases the bonding hormones. By the way, that happens even if you’re not full-on consummating, having a full on sexual relationship. That is why it is so unhealthy to just be hooking up with a bunch of people. Because you’re still hooking up, do you guys use that term? Making out, I don’t know what they call it now. These kids nowadays, what do you call it?
But that is why, you know, just, “Oh kissing’s not a big deal.” Actually, it kind of is. Because it is, that’s what’s happening. There’s one of the reasons it feels so good is because it’s releasing those hormones in you. And it’s literally bonding you to that person, right now. So, it actually is kind of important. So, it is how we are designed, because the idea is then you bond with that person and then you want to continue to be with them and foster that bond. And that’s one of the healthy glues that God naturally designed to be with us in our marriage relationship. So, that happens to us. And then of course, if you break that off, one of the analogies we would give the kids was, you know. You’re a piece of paper, they’re a piece of paper and when you come together it’s like a little bit of glue. Well, what happens when you try to pull those two papers apart? You’re going to rip a little bit, right? It’s going to take a piece of you because you bonded with that person. So, it matters because you’re connecting with that person. And then you’re setting yourself up for a cycle of connect and break, connect and break, connect and break, which is in the long term we know, not healthy.
By the way, I think we know that also that same pattern we can see happen just in relationships, friendships. Where, “Well this isn’t working for me, I’m just going to leave.” And we start getting this short-term gratification thing, we’re not willing to do the work to be in a healthy relationship, romantic or not. So, that bleeds I would say even those issues with romantic relationships would bleed over in just friendships that we’re meant to actually work for. But we’ve got that mentality of like, “Yeah, it’s not working for me, so I’m just going to go.” And it calluses us, right? It calluses us. And so, you see that a lot in the romantic relationships but also in the friend relationships.
The other thing I love to share with people, and hear me, I know some of this is preaching to the choir, but I’m also trying to share this with you in terms that you can share with others. Because you may believe this, but sometimes it’s hard to articulate it to, you know, to other people and especially people who don’t know the Lord when you can give them some of the reasons why, “Hey, maybe you should look at it this way because it might not be the healthiest for you.” Which I love to use that term, by the way, is health. We were talking about this yesterday a little bit. You know, the world wants to push us into right and wrong, but the Bible talks about life and death. Choosing life. You know, the end of this is death versus choosing life. And I would say with the idea of life, well, what is ultimate life? It’s health, right? So, it’s the same kind of word just flipped. When I use the term health, people are so much more receptive versus me being like, well, that’s wrong. I say, “You know what, I actually don’t think that’s as healthy. I think there’s something more healthy for you and here’s why.” You know, that’s language strategy of like, how can I explain this in a way that they can hear and not have their defences up right away and feel judged and feel shamed but instead go and they can hear your heart.
Because who doesn’t want health? You know, even if they don’t agree with you that that’s healthy, if someone starts with, I believe this is healthier, you’re going to be way more open to what they’re saying, right? So, I love to use those terms when I’m sharing with people. But with, the other thing is, and I would share this again, is you are being abstinent and saving yourself once you’re married and approaching relationships in this way produces a healthy habit pattern for you. Right? Because when you get married, there are going to be seasons of abstinence. I think people sometimes think, maybe not for certain people who had really, really long honeymoons, I’m not going to name names, but there’s, it’s an inside joke. But that generally when you get married, there are going to be seasons of abstinence. And we somehow get this idea, like once you get married, it’s a complete free-for-all all and it’ll always be, you know, it’s just going to be all the time, every day, all the time. I know it’s at least what a lot of the guys are thinking, but I digress. But I’ll be here all week, folks. When you get married, there are seasons of abstinence that are still going to happen. So, it is a very healthy habit to establish the self-discipline before you get married for seasons of abstinence. Okay? Because you’re developing self-control, you’re developing a discipline that will stick with you for the rest of your life.
When you get married, you do not magically quit being attracted to other people. I know it gets real quiet and a little uncomfortable. I’m going to be totally vulnerable here. I was shocked the first time I saw a guy and thought he was cute when I was married because I thought that shouldn’t be happening anymore. I love my husband he’s hot, he’s super cute, I’m very attracted to him. And then why did I still notice this other guy? Because it’s not bad to notice and you may still notice. The problem, as you know, is that second look, that lust in the heart, that, oh look, going there. But there is a reality that you can still notice attractive people that doesn’t quit when you get married. Sorry, guys. And it doesn’t make you unholy to notice someone. I notice attractive girls too and I’m not a lesbian. I mean, there’s just, you notice people. Okay? And it happens. And, but the world would tell you, oh, you notice them. Well, what does that mean? Maybe there’s something there. You know, are you really happy? All that little stuff that the world is going to tell you.
No, you can notice someone and that’s normal and that’s okay. You just don’t let it land. It’s just like those thoughts, right? Again, oh, so much freedom in this. I remember the first time I understood this and this is something I love to share when we’re talking about mental health. But this connects with lust as well. You are not in control. There are birds that are going to, I use the analogy of a bird, birds that are going to fly through your head, thoughts. They will fly into your head they are not all from you. The world will tell you, oh, you thought that maybe you are this or that. No. The enemy, the world, this stuff will fly in, your responsibility is to not to let that bird land. It’s okay that the bird came through. You can bless it or reject it and send it on its way. Right? But it’s not your fault that that went there and don’t let the world tell you that that means something because the enemy will do that to pull us towards things. Right? So again, but that same responsibility. You notice someone who’s attractive. You’re responsible to go, they’re cute God bless them, out. Right? You’re not going to sit there, that’s all it takes.
But again, the way the world says it, that would be like an issue. Right? But if I’m practising discipline before to control my mind that way, not go that next step that I should not be going and I’m training that for years, so it will carry with me through my marriage. There’s periods of time where you may have extended travel. My poor abstinent husband is at home. Do you get it? He’s abstinent because I’m not there. Okay? He’s had to be abstinent for the last two and a half weeks while I was away. And I will tell you, I don’t think he would mind me telling you that it’s been hard on him. He hasn’t liked it. Okay? He’s very excited to see me this weekend. He’s flying in. Okay?
So, but you have to have that, look, there’s periods of time where you’re not going to have ready access all the time. So, let’s get disciplined so that doesn’t, you know, become an issue for us or have us have other issues. You know, let’s talk about uses of the phones for other activities that are a huge problem right now with pornography. So, that’s why we got to have that discipline built in because even when you’re married, you know, you get a, I know me, I had horrific pregnancies. I love my children, I love being pregnant but I was deathly ill, literally deathly ill. They wanted me on bed rest. I had to go to the hospital numerous times. They gave me cancer drugs because I was so nauseous. They gave me the a when you have chemo. I mean, it was horrible. You know, I was obviously not the most sexual spouse at that point. Right?
So, there’s periods of time things are going to happen where you’re going to have to abstain even when you’re married. So, let’s get that healthy discipline that can go with us the whole way and give us grace for those times when we are married. So, again and that’s something that I would share again. We’re just looking at what are the principles here, right? What are the different pieces there that are going to help us for understanding this? And then of course, just looking at as we’re with that discipline, you know, is setting boundaries. And again, because we are naturally sexual beings, it is something that is a huge gift for us to learn how to manage well. It is a natural part of who we are. Again, God created it. It’s not a bad thing. It’s not dirty. It’s not shameful. It just needs to be in the right context.
Another analogy I love to give with that is the idea of fire, right? Fire is awesome. You can cook food. You can camp around it. It’ll make you warm, right? Fire in the right context is awesome. Fire on the side of your house that breaks out and is going to burn your house, not so good. So, it’s context, right? Fire is not bad, but where’s the context of where it’s contained, where it’s going to produce life and not death? So, that is another, again, just of how we approach these things in our mind of, you know, how we approach with sexuality. So, we’ve got to have the right attitude towards it. We should be vocal about it. It’s healthy. It’s a good thing. God designed it. It’s good. It’s beautiful.
We want to understand the long-term benefits of having it in that proper context. And then, of course, you know, we have the whole emotional side that so many people seem to forget sometimes to talk about, right? I actually, this comes off kind of funny, but it actually came out really powerful at the time. I swear it was good at the time. One of the times when I was on one of the talk shows, they’d flown me out to New York to be on this show and there was this guy, you know, bragging about all the girls he’d gotten with. And, you know, “I used a condom and it was fine.” And I said, “There’s no condom that can protect your heart.” You know, all the just preventing the physical negative side, it’s an emotional act and your emotions matter and soul ties matter. And we have a generation of people that have so dulled themselves because they’ve approached a spiritual, emotional and physical act as a purely physical act.
They’ve missed those other two parts and they wonder why they’re so damaged, why they can’t have a healthy relationship, even outside of, like I said, even outside of a romantic sexual relationship, because it is so intimate, it affects friendships and how we function in other areas of life. You know, it breaks down trust, all the different things. So, then you’ve got these really broken people that don’t actually realise they’re doing it to themselves. Thinking they’re doing the right thing because that’s what the culture says you should do, right? It’s natural and it’s great and, oh, one of the lies too that we would always get all the time was, well, you know, you may not be ready, but whenever you feel ready, then that’s the right time to have sex.
I don’t know if you guys have heard that lie. Well, let’s, okay, let’s analyse that for a minute. So, if I’m saying I’m not ready, well, what does that imply? What does me not being ready imply? When you think someone’s not ready for something, what is the underlying idea there? Does that sound like a mature person? No, the kind of thought is, well, they’re immature, right? So, you’re immature, oh, you’re not ready, oh, I’m sorry, well, you’ll get there. Yeah, when you’re mature and you really get it, then you’ll get there. And I mean, what a lie. And I was like, and so, I would, that’s what I talk about, I’m like, I’m not saving, waiting to have sex because I’m not ready. No, I’m actually pretty mature at this point. The reason I’m doing this actually because I understand that it’s not what’s best for me and I’m actually approaching it from a mature point of view, you know, but it’s that whole flip.
There’s so many of those lies that I encourage you to look at and analyse. Well, what’s the idea behind that? Because it’s implying stuff that’s just not accurate, you know? And there’s so many of those and we don’t have time for it because I know I’m running into my time here. But I encourage you to look at that as you engage in these conversations with people around relationships, around some of the myths, around, you know, sex and sexuality and all that. Because it’s so important and again, if we can speak people’s language and go after the myths and the lies that they’re running on to make these decisions, you know, you’re able to have these incredible conversations with people. And, again, for us, it just encourages us, right? Every time we engage in these things, it reinforces our decision that you know, we’ve hopefully made with the Lord in these areas that for why we’re doing these things.
I do want to say and I hope, can I just quickly say something about the pornography thing? Can I? Is it okay? Okay. So, I know people get nervous when we talk about some of these things and if there’s anybody, hopefully that’s okay for all those that are here. I just want to mention with pornography because it is a huge issue globally, okay? I can give you some stats for the U.S. I don’t know what they are here in South Africa but they’re horrific, okay? Pornography is a major, major issue now because everybody’s got easy access now with their phone. And, of course, it was an issue a bit before when we had just computers because you could stumble upon it not even trying to. I mean, I can tell you my first exposure to it was literally like Googling, I mean, something not even remotely sexual and I’m like, “How the heck did I get to this landing page?” You know, I wasn’t looking for it.
So, you can imagine someone who is looking for it, it’s, you know, and it’s so readily accessible. Let me just say please talk about it, ask. There is so much shame associated with it that a lot of people will not admit that they have an issue. There is an incredibly high, high chance that within this room there are numerous people who are struggling with that. And I say that not to shame you. I say that to say, not you’re in good company in a sense, but there’s a lot of people struggling with it, okay? And please, please, please get help. And if you know someone who’s struggling with it, please encourage them to come into the light. You know, nothing does well in the dark and you’ve got to bring it to the light. There’s only freedom in the light.
We have seen this huge in the American church because people aren’t talking about it and there’s so much shame with it that they won’t admit that they have a problem. There are awesome, and I’ll give you an organisation right now because they’re one that we partner with called Pure Desire. Puredesires.org, I believe it is. But Pure Desire Ministries, they’re based in the US. They have an incredible curriculum and support groups that deal with sex addiction and pornography addiction. And again, it’s just, it is rampant. It is rampant in the culture and it’s one of the harder addictions to stop because of what happens. And it’s kind of like a self-fulfilling prophecy. The way that it works, it’s different than drugs or alcohol because it requires an external substance to help you. Whereas within pornography, you can create it within yourself, so to speak.
So, because of that, what it does to people biologically, physiologically, it’s a much harder thing to get free of. And I know a lot of Christians who thought, well, you know, they’d struggle with it and then they do good for a little while. And then they go back to it and like, oh, I’m sorry, I don’t want to do it and they stop and then they go back. And it’s just back and forth, back and forth, back and forth because they never really get free. So, especially with that type of addiction, it’s, there is no shame in asking for help. We have to ask for help for these things. And again, it is, and again, if you know someone, chances are especially, I mean, it’s in the church, it is in the church. But it also is rampant even more outside of the church. So, let’s be encouraging.
By the way, it’s not just with men, it’s with women too. A high amount, especially because of abuse. You have a higher risk for that because if you were abused from a young age, you get very confused often in your sexuality and what you think works and is right and you don’t need to get into all that. But that also means, chances are, if you know someone who’s struggling a bit, there could be a past there as well. Please have compassion and encourage people to look for help for those things because it’s such a trap. And you know, the enemy wants to keep us trapped and enslaved, right? And he uses shame often to keep us in that thing so that we can never get free. And those little side sins, those little sins that I only do it once, twice a month, you know? The enemy just uses that. That’s a crack in the dam. And we think it’s not a big deal because it’s just this little thing. I don’t do it very often. But it grows, it will grow, guaranteed it will grow and the enemy uses it, the enemy uses it, the enemy uses it.
So, it is so important for us to be looking and aware of those things. And again, and I’m not saying this to shame anybody, I’m saying this of like, hey, this is where another level God wants us to get free. And another level that it’s so rampant in the culture. Please have compassion for your friends. When I’ve talked with people even just, you know, in the world, let alone in the church about these kind of things, I see like a wave of relief come over their face if someone’s willing to talk about this. Because there’s so much shame and half of it is just, again, bringing it to the light. Hey, you know what? If you struggle with that, “Hey, I get it. Lots of people do.” It’s totally common. You know, I’m not saying it’s common in a good way, like not a big deal, but in the way of going, “Hey, your struggle is a lot of other people’s struggle.” So, take some of the weight off of them with that and say, “Hey, yeah, oh gosh, I am so sorry. That’s totally actually pretty common. Let’s, here’s some tools. Let’s pray. Let’s get you, let’s get you into this group.” Let’s, you know, help free people.
Because a lot of people don’t want to talk about it and it matters. Married or single, again, it’s a problem in a lot of marriages as well. So, this is not just for young single people trying to abstain and turn into something else. This is an issue in marriages as well. So, let’s support one another. Be open about it. And again, recognise this with any of the other friendly sins that we may have. You know, friendly sins, again, not that big of a deal, we think. We don’t have room for it, guys. Because the enemy will take any in that he has. Because it will destroy you, it’ll destroy your relationships eventually, all those things. And then we’re back to the beginning of our conversation, right? We’ve got to have those healthy families and healthy individuals for a healthy society. And we look at the results now with the massive divorce rates and the huge, I’m sure it’s probably happening here. I know in the States, we have a huge decline in marriage rates. People don’t want to get married anymore. Well, why bother, right? It’s the ball and chain. I can have sex anyways, you know, with the whole world’s approach, not understanding the value of a healthy family. So, it all connects, right? It all connects. One other little side note of how it all connects to.
Last thing I’ll say. Why I wanted to talk about this today too. Again, sexuality, sex, and relationships are the undergirding of society because it connects to propagation of humanity. And it affects every area of life. It’s not just two consenting adults. Why does it matter what I do behind closed doors? Don’t tell me what to do. Well, you can look at it economically. Look at the strain on the local economy and the government for having to support all the, you know, single mothers, latchkey kids, all the issues that come from children that are not in healthy two-parent households. Just economically, okay? And then you have the whole social attribute of what it does for the social fabric, right? The breakdown of healthy relationships. And you can go on and on and on. It all matters on even a macroeconomic level. And then we want to say, “Oh, it’s just two consenting adults.” No, it’s two people who are contributing to the very fabric of society. So, it matters. It matters.
So, with that, I think I’m going to close. I saw enough nodding heads. I think this was helpful. I hope it was encouraging and you know, take glean whatever the Holy Spirit has highlighted for you during this time, please. Ruminate on it, chew on it, pray on it, share it with others and thank you so much for having me.
Pastor John: Well, praise the Lord. Just so we’re clear, “Did I ask you to preach on this today?” I did not. No. I mean, praise the Lord. I mean, you know what we stand for in the church? If it’s God-ordained, then it’s good. And we certainly want all of the people that are married and the young people that are going to be married to enjoy sex and to enjoy sex relationships. There shouldn’t be a reason why we don’t. The Bible has allowed for us to do that, in the context of the marriage bed, that the Bible says is undefiled. Amen. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. So, well I’m glad we heard that today. I’m glad we heard that today. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah.
How are you, sir? [Pastor John asks Dennis Peacocke]. Are you good? Are you ready to do some talking? Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Why don’t you just stand for a minute and just tell everybody. I’m glad I heard that message this morning and I’m ready for more [Congregation stand and stretch legs]. Yes. All right. You all stretched your legs a little bit? You ready for a good session? Hallelujah. Yeah. Won’t you welcome Brother Dennis Peacock to the platform?
Dennis Peacocke:
Well, as a dad [Dennis Peacocke laughts], I’m sitting here thinking, that’ll be a tough act for me to follow. Well, we’ll go in a different direction, but the biggest idea there is the world is in a conversation that we’re not in. And wherever there is a conversation affecting people socially, if the church is not in that conversation, we’re allowing evil to spread rapidly and deeply. And we’re making ourselves appear and in fact be to some degree irrelevant. Irrelevant. How many of you know God wants the most relevant organisation on the planet to be the church? So, I hope if it was a stretch for you, that you’ll see that what she chose to speak about is exhibit A of a conversation we need to be in and we need to be masterfully in. So, that the level of our conversation is instructing them, not them instructing us.
So, all of us go through different periods of development and age and we’re different in our twenties than we were in our teens. In our thirties, we’re into the marriage reality, beginning to have children. Forties, if you’re, whatever kind of physical work you do, whatever your job is, your course of activity in the market world. In your forties, you’re going to be pushing hard to go as far as you can go. You get into your fifties and then you get into your sixties. Personally, because I am athletic I maintained the physical side of it and I blew through fifty. I mostly blew through sixty but seventy made me blink. You know what I mean when I say blink? By seventy I was realising not just that I was closer to the end than the beginning but that time was being compressed as to achieving the things that I really wanted to achieve. Which is more of a be thing than a do thing.
I recently, not that far back, just blew into my eighties, which can’t be real. I’m struggling with; How can this possibly be real? Because I’ve still got some stuff [Dennis Peacocke hopping up and down showing that he is still fit and strong]. How does that happen? And you begin looking back when you were talking about sexual stuff. I gave up half my sex life for Jesus on the road. Remember me Lord. [Brother Dennis and the congregation laugh]. That was expensive. But I’m very aware I’m getting nearer to how much of what I wanted to be when I started out in January 1969 to full speed. How much have I achieved in terms of who I wanted to be? Not do, but be.
I knew I had an encounter with Jesus as a young boy and had a yo-yo walk. I was an athlete and famous and just dealing with that was tough. But especially by the time I got to the university level and I was intellectually awakening. I’d lived a pretty straight life, but I came to the point where I wanted to be in the world and see what was in the world. I actually said to the Lord, “I can’t follow You until I know what’s in the world.” That tells you something about me, about the fact that I would say that. Now, I’m quite sure Jesus was neither surprised nor did He faint. Because knowing the end from the beginning and having made me, He made me the kind of a guy that would say that to Him. And now we get into, “I wish you were hot or cold, but since you’re neither, I’m going to spit you out My mouth.” God is looking for those who are willing to put the pedal to the metal and that, by God’s grace, has certainly been my life.
I was very involved in the civil rights movement. I was a sprinter. I did the Decathlon right after the Olympics on my way to being a professional football player. I got injured, went into an identity crisis because everything that I was, was all in that realm, and when that came to an end, “Who am I?” And I say, “I was a white guy that could run with the brothers.” People in the U.S. know what that means. And so, a lot of my closest friends were black. So, when the civil rights movement came around and I lived in Seattle, which was a long way from the South. It wouldn’t be that there wasn’t racism in Seattle, but it wouldn’t be overt like it was in the South in the United States. So, when I got around other players, black players that came from the South, and they began to give the reality to me that they lived in, I got really uptight.
God made me a warrior. It took me 30 years to understand that I am a warrior. He’s the One that made me that way. I got very uptight and dove into Marxism, dove into the formation of the New Left, and was in and around the New Left as we were scheduling what we were going to do to take control and remove the Judeo-Christian base of Western culture. I’ve had an interesting life in the sense that I’ve been in both tents. I’ve been in the general’s tent on the left and I’ve been in the general’s tent on the right. I burned out on Marxism after about two years and went into the Eastern world of religion, couldn’t find answers in the right. The fusion of Existentialism and Marxism never took place and Western philosophy actually died in the 1960s.
The decade 1960s has had more influence on the world than we have any idea. And the left has actually done the playbook that I’ve had the experience of 50 years watching the left doing exactly what we said we would do in the 60s. I was there, heard it all, saw it all and then watched that thing play out to where we are now. So, at 80, and I’m speaking foolishly with this drive, I’ve got a lot of influence globally now. My background academically and intellectually was macroeconomics and economics and social transformation. And I travel around the world right now meeting with Christian leaders at the highest level all the way up to the top in multiple nations. As we’re working on a lot of challenges, not the least of which is the coming economic crisis where we just can’t service the debt and maintain the other services we have socially, we’re broke.
I’ve personally heard with my ears and been in meetings, one of which was in Federal Reserve Board, and here one of the board members got up and tell the 150 of us that were from all over the world in that meeting, “It’s broken and we don’t know how to fix it.” Now when you hear that from the top, I mean the top, and they’re not playing games, and when I was here last time I think I talked about what level do you want to play, and that’s the way I’ve lived. I’ve wanted to play at the level that I’m now at, and I don’t have much time, or I don’t have as much time as I had getting here. And it’s all accelerating. How many of you are aware the fragmentation is now accelerating?
In February 2020, the demonic princes from Ephesians 6:12, some of you know those verses, those forces were released and so much so that what they’re doing, especially at the university level, we all knew we needed to take over the universities of the world and we didn’t. They’re now basically in the control of the hard left, which has got one supreme commitment, and that is to remove Judeo-Christian values from civilisation. That’s the whole game and they’re very good and the guys are tough. And certainly, the demonic princes are very tough. And when, some of you know my background, I’m a martial artist, studied, taught and had my own dojo for 25 years. And in fighting combat, by the way, why would God permit me to do that? Because, being a warrior, I need to learn the ways of the warrior because we are in a war. How many of you know we’re in a war? And when your opponent doesn’t try and hide what they’re doing, you’ve got a problem. Because what they’re communicating with you is, “I got you, and I don’t even need to play games because I’m coming right at you and you can’t stop me.”
What I was perceiving in February, because the blow on COVID came the next month, and I actually had a point, my heart went out of rhythm, and I was on heart medicine, which slows you down in both intellectually and physically, which was added warfare for me. And I was sitting in my window looking out and perceiving the speed at which the princes, who are the ones that are really managing the game. Can I say that twice? The princes are the ones that are really managing the game. And the human beings that are engaging with them don’t believe in the princes. So, they think all that stuff they’re thinking and strategy is them. It ain’t them. It is in another level than the one KJ was talking about. They’re whispering in the ears of the presidents and the leaders, the prime ministers, giving them the wisdom that is from the enemy.
I’m watching all this go by, 50-plus years into the game, realising that I have a relatively shorter amount of time and that’s made me very serious. I already was serious. I didn’t need any help on getting more serious and so, that’s where I’m at right now. One of the main things, I took 40 years philosophically to develop what I call 12 master principles of socialisation and community and government of managing society because that was the call that was on me, was managing civilisation cultures. More than 50 years ago, when I became a Christian, I had a one-on-one with Jesus, which was an amazing experience. It became immediately clear what my part of this was, was the management of culture. That was what I cared about. How is this thing managed? And what does God want to do with it? Because God’s got to be a little more depth than sending us to heaven where we will never work again. Which gives you a pretty sad picture of Christianity believing that work is a curse instead of a gift of God.
How many of you know that the Hebrew word for worship and work is the same word? If you’re doing what you were called to do, that is worshipping God. Smite me with the work of my calling. Do you have an ear to hear? When I’m doing what I was made to do and being what I was made to be, I am in the space that God wants me to be in. So, much of what the church had done historically and the stupid stuff we’ve done and the stuff we believe that wasn’t even close to biblical, wasn’t even close. When I got to the scripture and I was hungry because I’d been through the world’s trip. And I was saying, “Is that all there is?” So, when I got to the Bible, I read it as a political economist, which is a stretch maybe for you to hear. How do you read the Bible as a political economist?
Well, I was reading it in the question of how is God taking this massive billions of people. What does he really want to do with us? It can’t be wearing white sheets in eternity and boring each other forever with your testimony. Hello. I think God is a little more sophisticated. And I not only got baptised in the Holy Spirit, I speak in tongues all the time watching the news. I speak in tongues watching the news, not in church, because the action is on TV. It’s the story of how it’s falling apart now. And here’s the question. What does that mean to you? See, we got huge problems that we’re trying to break our way out of right now because the level of opposition against us is playing at a very mature level. And it means that the Church, the Body of Christ, Christians are going to have to grow up really fast. Really fast.
We got to understand that the greatest commandment, love God with all you got and love your neighbor as yourself. If my neighbour is enslaved, I can’t be free myself. Ketanji was skipping over the bondage of perversity in a world which can’t even identify what is a woman. Give me a break. Supreme Court candidate can’t describe what a woman is. And the culture by the millions actually takes that seriously as a real response that’s valid. We’re all the way down from my point of view to the very beginning, and the quicker we get back to the foundation of the thing. What does it mean to be saved? What does it really mean to be saved on the level that this thing is being fought? And that became, in the last ten years, an issue about; we’re Christian but we’re not Christian enough to engage in this battle for where it’s going. And I’m just, because of speed here, I want to hit a couple of big points.
Second Peter Chapter 1, in that verse when Peter is enumerating what salvation is, he hits it right dead centre. We through Christ’s life have the privilege of being grafted into God and His community. Being saved is becoming a participant of Christ’s nature. It’s not about going to heaven. We’ll go to heaven because heaven is what’s called where the family is aggregating for eternity. But at this point, you, by the way, I see you well enough to see this is a group that’s serious. What does it mean to become a partner in God’s ministry for Himself? As I work with leaders, I for fun say, “There’s only one thing worse than God not showing up, it’s God showing up.” Because when He shows up, it’s shoes off and slap my mouth and call me Sally. We’re talking about something about as serious as it gets. Now we’ve got a human frailty problem because that level of reality is so heavy. We’re afraid to go that deep into this thing because we’re afraid we will lose what we call me. Holding on to your me is so heavy when it’s being threatened. We’re afraid to give ourself to the Spirit of God in that moment because it’s almost like committing suicide.
I’m saying right now, the Holy Spirit is in here right now, heavy. God, give me more courage. I’m a tough guy. Give me more courage to be able and willing to get rid of me so that I’m out of me and in You, and as I’m in You, You’re in me. And we are fusing together. Except a man or a woman be born again, that is taking a new identity that is beyond normal identity which is where we have to go to be in this thing. Who wants to go there? The ones of you that can raise your hand, you do so in fear and trembling, and you should do it with fear and trembling. I have noticed that when the angels show up, everybody hit the deck. I wonder how many of you, my brothers and my sisters, haven’t yet had those experiences where it’s thick enough and heavy enough when you’re really beginning to feel what this game is about. And the responsibility that God has put on you to trust you, to carry His Name and do His work. Not just that you’ll be opposed, but that you’re dangling with who is the meanest, who is the ‘I’ that is giving myself to this other Being named Jesus. How much of that can I take? And how many churches are there that you can even talk like this? Even talk like this? Because we’re afraid we’ll scare the people.
In American football we have a thing called a ‘hurry-up offence.’ You get to the last quarter, the last part of the game, and you go into an offence or defence that you’ve trained on for a long time. I’m going to turn to training here in a minute and try and give you some breathing space because a little bit of me goes a long way. I’ve come to the conclusion. What do I do about this guy? Oh, Jesus, help us.
I have the opportunity, as you do, but for me just speaking, I have the opportunity now to begin to assess on another level where have I gone in 52 years of what I said I wanted to be in the beginning. How close am I? Point being, my dear brother, point being, we can only go to what we’ve seen and want to go to. There was enough, by the grace of God, enough of this level of reality, and a lot of that was being in Berkeley in the 60s where my friends committed suicide as the final frontier. I was in the epicentre of something that was going on, the vortex in the spiritual realm that was in that place of Berkeley that was changing the whole world, and we knew it was.
That was a trip to know that what we were doing would show up decades later, and it did. So, the question was, okay, at what level do I want to play? I know I’m a player in the sense that I was made to want to be on the field and on the game. I was not made to sit in the stands. I hope I’m with a bunch of people that were not made to sit in the stands. Come on baby, let’s get it on. What do I have to do to get on the field? Because the field is where the game is being played and the opposition, we would say, put it in the physical realm like American football or rugby or a military sergeant. Everybody’s big, everybody’s fast, everybody’s tough and nobody cares about how your mother feels about you.
Am I setting a picture here? Everybody that’s on the field is like that to a greater or lesser degree, which means I’m in. Hey, girl, just saw you. That means that everybody out here is for real and I cannot allow certain thoughts or activities to get near me because they will take me out. I must not be taken out. In a street fight, in a fight, just as an analogy, I can’t let you get to my eyes, my throat, my spleen, my genitals because if you get to any of those things, it’s game over. I began to assess what’s ‘game over’ 50 years ago. What will take me out of the game? What must not happen? What must not happen because it disqualifies me from being in the game.
I really hope that many of you are living in the reality of what must not happen or what has happened that you can fix that will allow you to get back on the field. The Lord said to me in the beginning, He said, “Dennis, I want you to live like you’re the only Christian. You’re not, but I want you to live as if you are because if you go any other way, you’ll find reasons over your life where somebody else sinned and they got repaired and got back on.” You can’t allow any of those things, no super fox that just, I think about some ladies that went after me. I can think about where ministry money was a problem. I can think about stuff, stuff, stuff, stuff. You think about all the stuff and when you’re handling something that the choice that you make and the decision you make in handling it has got to be made against the possibility of, “If I miss, am I off the field?” Am I off the field?
So, it’s accelerating now. You are not, I’m telling you, John, this is not the people I saw in 2009. I was not given a release to do this when I was, I know this is because the Holy Spirit says, “There’s enough in here that can handle this level of reality.” Let’s get real. So, narrowing now. I love people. Has anybody besides me ever played on a real team? Playing on a team is as good as it gets. Our marriages, my wife, who I wish was here with me, she wanted to come. We’re a team. We can run plays together. Coming to the church was a trip for me because it was the only team I’d ever played on where they rooted for the devil to win so we could get off the planet – called the rapture. What? How do I play on a team that wants to get off the field in the time when in history we are more needed right now? We have no idea how much we’re needed right now. And the millions and not billions of people that are little children, they have no clue how to live. They can’t defend themselves. I’m a protector. It’s part of who God made me. KJ will tell you about that. You don’t want to touch the people I belong to. It wouldn’t be good.
The crisis we’re in is, how do we love our neighbours? Christianity as a group, is now up with, “Show me what love looks like through you Christians into us.” How do we touch them in a way that they’ll trust us and not blow us off when they find out we’re believers? The stuff we’re doing, we’re pulling on leaders all over the world, more than 50 nations were into the high rooms. How many of you know it took a lot of training for the Holy Spirit to allow us to get to that level? That was the workouts. That was the workouts. I said, “Lord, I want to be involved where the decisions are made that really matter.” What’s the workout routine? What am I doing to get ready to be in the place that makes a difference and makes decisions?
That’s something that you hear because what happens here in South Africa matters geopolitically. It matters big time. We could get into the machinations of the ANC. South Africa is a target for the princes. If they can blow through you, what kind of a chance do the rest of the nations in Africa have? Not much. That ain’t about race. That’s about skill sets and opportunities and capital. How is your prayer life? Is your prayer life yet engaged in this situation? The Lord said to me many times on this trip, “Your level of prayer is not strong enough to go where you’re wanting to go.” Anybody else think maybe that our prayer life needs to go to another place? And because we can talk like this is proof that God wants to take this to another level. Or I would not be able to do what I’m doing right now. I could give you a straight six-point teaching and let it go.
Jesus. I cry a lot now. I cried for the people who can’t protect themselves. I cry for the family that globally is under attack. All the leaders that we’re working with, the senior ones. We all know that the biggest battle is the family unit and marriage. There’s a book that shut me up for three weeks called The Revolt of the Public. It’s the best analysis. You can get past the first couple of chapters. But it’s the best analysis of how the massive amount of information that we have has numbness to the point where organisations and nations all over the planet no longer trust their social institutions. The United States, because we were naive and arrogant, we could be anything, do anything. America is no longer that. You come back in the U.S. now, you’re going to see a bunch of scared people. Because we know we can’t control what’s going on. We don’t know the answers. And you’ve got the battle between Joe and Trump. No matter who wins the coming election, the other side is going to believe it was rigged. We have lost faith in the vote. That’s about as serious as it gets. There’s a lot of people storing up guns right now. And none of us know how far that’s going to go. But the fact that we’ve lost that much faith in the Supreme Court justices, which is the ultimate core of what’s permissible in the U.S. We don’t trust our own Supreme Court anymore.
So, I’m just saying, the National Football League is where these giants come together and try to kill each other on the field. Where everybody’s all-American, all this, all that. Everybody’s as good as it gets. How are we going to play with them? Where are the Christians who have said to themselves, because that’s the way God made you. You need to be in this game. And will you let Me train you? Will you let Me train you? Are you willing to go through the exercise level of whatever it is? Pain, loss, challenge, whatever. How many of you know Jesus really knows how to get to you when He wants to? I love that about Him. On that one level, He really doesn’t care that your mother loves you either. He’s willing to take you through what will get you on the field and stay on the field and make a difference to a lot of people’s lives.
He’s willing to do that. He was willing to crucify His son, which is His statement of trust. God is ballsy. I don’t have the balls to crucify somebody and believe that something good will come out of it. He put Christ on the line and if you’re saved, there’s nothing that’s more valuable than putting Christ on the line, because God believes. And by the way, Satan says, “You will not be able to produce what putting Him on the cross.” I mean, Christians are funky. They’re selfish. They’re this. They’re that. They’re stupid. They’re blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And God put Christ on the line, believing that out of that, He was going to be able to pull a people, an Ecclesia, that would not be destroyed. Whoa. I wish I had some faith like that. God has got more faith than anybody I know. In us. In us.
So, am I back here tonight? I guess that’ll be phase two of our little Bible-touching. Our little Bible thing that we did here. Thank you, thank you, thank you for allowing me to be vulnerable on this level. That’s a high comment on who you are. God bless you.
Pastor John: Thank you. Well, I guess God’s been busy with us. I mean, doesn’t it sound like Dennis has been here in our church for the last how many years? I mean, this is all orchestrated by the Holy Spirit. And what a joy. Thank you for being vulnerable, Dennis, for allowing the Holy Spirit to work through you today. Thank you for being here. So, wow. Tonight, six o’clock, we go again. Are you ready again? Yeah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
So, for those people that are looking for food from Mrs. Woolworths, you better go quick. Otherwise, you’re going to get stuck in the traffic with everybody else that’s going to Mrs. Woolworths. Thank you guys. We’ll see you later. Quinton won’t you just make sure that Brother Dennis and Jan get to the back room so that, ag, Katherine, just so that they get a chance to, tonight, they can greet the people, but they need a rest this afternoon. Would you go with them, please, Sharon? Hallelujah.
Can I just see a show of hands? How many of you were in any of Dennis’ meetings when he was here in 2006 and 2009? He’s changed, but he’s also grown a lot more sensitive here, hasn’t he? Yeah. Praise the Lord. If you don’t understand some of the words that he uses, make a note of it. Go find it. It will teach you. And I turned to him when I was here, and I said, “Katherine, sounds like you,” because she started off with the whole sentence of words, presuppositions, and this and that. I thought, oh, my word. Did you get something out of this today? Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Thank you, guys. We’ll see you later.
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