Eagle Heights Cathedral

Bishop James E. Collins: Hallelujah. Turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 4. And then after I go from there, I'm going to be going to Matthew to our key scripture.

In Psalm 4, beginning at verse one, David said, "Hear me when I call, oh God of my righteousness. Relieve me in my distress. Have mercy on me and hear my prayer. How long, you sons of men, will you turn my glory to shame? How long will you love worthlessness and seek falsehood? But know that the Lord has set apart for himself him who is godly. The Lord will hear when I call to him.

Be angry and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed and be still. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness and put your trust in the Lord. There are many who say, 'Who will show us any good?' Lord, lift up the light of your countenance upon us. You have put gladness in my heart more than in the season that their grain and wine increased. Therefore, I will both lie down in peace and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety."

Father, I thank you for the power of your word. You have promised it will not return void. It will do what you sent it to do. And so I thank you in advance that, Lord, as the word goes forth, we will be changed instantaneously and all throughout this message from moving us from glory to glory. Thank you, Lord, for we have eyes that see, ears that hear, and above all things, a desire to draw nearer my God to thee. It is done, for we pray for these things in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.

You may be seated in the presence of the Lord. I want to read the key scripture because it's going to be where we go in this new part of this series, God of My Tight Places. Matthew 17:1-9 says, "After six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John, the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There, he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as the light.

Just then, there appeared before them Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, 'Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.' While he was speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, 'This is my son whom I love. With him, I am well pleased. Listen to him.'

When the disciples heard this, they fell face-down to the ground, terrified. But Jesus came and touched them. 'Get up,' he said. 'Don't be afraid.' When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus. As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus instructed them, 'Don't tell anyone what you have seen until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.'"

Now, most of us have shopped at this man's stores on many occasions. Though many of them have closed, many of them are still around. I'm speaking of the establisher and the owner of JC Penney stores. James Cash Penney lived from 1875 to 1971. At the time of his death, he left a net worth of $35 million from a business that is now valued today at $2.5 billion.

The part of the story, though, that I want to tell you today is the part of the story that very few have heard. James Cash Penney was married three times and widowed twice. While the death of both wives were surely painful, the first one threw him deep into a valley of pain. In 1910, he was away on business when his wife Berta passed away. He said, "In that hour, my world crashed around me." He didn't know where to turn. James Cash Penney said, "I didn't pray during the shattering season for the reason I could not. The plain fact is I never learned how to pray."

Weeks later, the story goes that Penney found himself wandering the Bowery of New York City, utterly despondent. He had also made some very unwise decisions and fell into an extreme valley of depression. He became so depressed and so worried that he developed shingles. He went to see a doctor who admitted him into the hospital, but his condition worsened. And so they checked him into a sanitarium.

One night, he was prescribed a sedative that quickly wore off. He awoke believing that this night would be his last in the land of the living. So he took out a pen and a pad, and he wrote letters to his family members and he fell asleep. He awoke the next morning, amazed and surprised that he was still alive. He got out of his bed, he began to walk down the hallway, and as he walked down the hallway, he heard the people singing that old hymn, "Be Not Dismayed Whate'er Betide, God Will Take Care of You."

It was but a few people having an early morning prayer meeting, and he slipped in and he sat down in the back and someone read from the Holy Bible and led in prayer. James Cash Penney spontaneously said, "Lord, I can do nothing. Will you take care of me?" He said, "In the next few moments, something happened to me. It was a miracle." At that moment, James Cash Penney became a born-again believer.

Then he said, "From that day forward, my life was worry-free." I want to tell you today, church, that it was because all of a sudden he came to the place where he believed once and for all that God really would take care of him. He believed what I want you to believe today: that God is not just God of the mountains, he is God in the valleys.

In our key scripture, Peter, James, and John are with Jesus on that mountain. And Peter made a very important statement. He said, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." Peter is criticized because obviously he missed the purpose of that moment.

But the thing that Peter did not miss was this: he did not miss the revelation that day that the presence of God was there. He was there in a way they had never witnessed before. Peter's desire to build the three tabernacles was because he wanted to extend that mountaintop experience. He wanted to extend the reality of the presence of God on that mountain, and he was thinking, "It is so good to be up here, and if we can just stay here, then life will be good because the presence of God is here."

Church, we really are no different. We do the same things. Don't we love the mountaintops? Don't we love the times when life is wonderful? We're living the God-kind of life, and we're singing "We're blessed in the city, we're blessed in the field, we're blessed when we come and when we go." What we want is to live on the mountaintops in life where the presence of God is so real and so powerful and it is always a joy-filled experience.

But I want to tell you something about life: most of life is not lived on the mountaintops. Most of life is lived in the valleys. For the next few weeks, I want to look at several valleys that every child of God will go through. In fact, the valleys we're going to look at, everybody who lives on earth actually walks through them. But what God wants to settle in our spirits today is this truth: God wants us to be settled with the reality that he is the same God in the valley that he is on the mountaintop.

He is able, he is willing, and he wants to take you through the valley and to bring you out. When he brings you out of the valley, he wants you to be better coming out than you were coming in. Church, look at me. There are some things you will never get from God if you don't go through the valleys. Today, I want to begin to talk to you about the most important thing that you and I must embrace when we are going through the valleys of life. I want to use for a subtitle today as we begin, Cultivating an Attitude of Gratitude.

When God took the children of Israel out of Egypt, he stood them up in front of the Red Sea and he parted the waters. And then before they began to move, he said, "Here's what I want you to do. I want you to begin to march and I want you to make an Exodus." This Exodus that you're going to go through requires that you go through a valley, but when you go through the valley, it is only a means of getting to the place that I have promised.

God said, "I have promised to bring you to a promised land. I have promised to bring you to a place that flows with milk and honey." Listen now, but most of them never made it to that place. They never made it through the Valley of Arabah, and the reason that they missed it, we're going to learn today. We're going to learn from the children of Israel why most of them died before they got out of the valley.

And I want you to pay attention because what I'm going to begin to give you today will assure you that it is the quickest way out of the valley if you don't miss this. Now, this outline that I'm teaching today is a combination of a teaching from Dr. John Maxwell and myself. The first thing I want to say very quickly is I want to give you some scriptures that talk about the value of valleys.

Valleys are not all bad things. Number one, valleys strengthen our resolve. Judges 5:15: "The officials of Issachar were with Deborah, and was the tribe of Issachar and Barak. They rushed out into the valleys at the hills with the visions. Reuben's army, great was their resolve in their heart." The word "resolve" literally means that you are determined that no matter what the challenge is, you are determined that with the Lord's help you are going to win the battle.

We're talking about a bulldog faith where you bite down on that thing. You are so tenacious, you are committed, you are unrelenting. You know what God said you can have, and you will not let go of it until you receive it. Number two, valleys forge our trust in God. Psalm 84:5-6: "Blessed are those who dwell in your house. They are ever praising you. Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on the pilgrimage as they pass through the Valley of Baca."

Number three, valleys keep us in remembrance of the faithfulness of God. Psalm 36:5: "Thy mercy, oh Lord, is in the heavens, and thy faithfulness reacheth the clouds." Number four, valleys are God's tool to cause us to let go of the old and pursue the new things. Isaiah 43:18-19: "Forget the former things. Do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up. Do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland."

Number five, valleys remind us of our limitations. Psalm 103:13-14: "As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him, for he knows how we are formed. He remembers that we are dust." Number six, valleys - now this is important because in the next few weeks we're going to really learn this - valleys are where God confronts idolatry in our lives. Exodus 20:3: "You shall have no other gods before me."

But Bishop, that's the Old Testament. Well, let me throw you into the New Testament. First John 5:21: "Dear children, keep yourself from idols." Number seven, valleys are where we experience God's divine presence. Isaiah 40:4: "Every valley will be raised up, every mountain and hill made low. The rough ground shall become level and the rugged places a plain, and the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all people will see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken."

Now church, listen. We have learned that valleys are where we grow and come to truly know the grace of God. Remember what we've learned: mountaintops of joy do not expose the great grace of God. It is possessing joy in the valley. When we're going through the valley, that is the reality of where God's grace is exposed.

And again, we understand today that grace is the power of God working in us, through us, and for us what we cannot do for ourselves. So here is what I want us to take away from this part of the series: the children of Israel never truly experienced the great grace of God because they never possessed joy while going through the Valley of Arabah. They never possessed joy because they failed to cultivate an attitude of gratitude.

Church, let me tell you something I have relearned over the last several weeks. I have relearned this: that nothing moves the heart of God more than when we have an attitude of gratitude. Now I want you to follow me for a moment. John 10:10 is often taken too lightly and it is not taken in correct context. Jesus said of our enemy, the evil one, "The thief comes to steal."

Stop right there. That is the first thing out of the mouth of Jesus. He said your enemy, the devil, is the original kleptomaniac. He is very strategic in his thievery. Anything that has been removed from your life, anything that has been taken from you, you must know that Satan is the architect. He is the prognosticator of it.

He is the one who carries out every theft of anything that has been stolen from your life. If you have lost your peace, your health, your wealth, he is behind it. I understand that we live in a sinful world and so stuff happens, but anywhere your life takes a downward spiral, you need to know that he has been behind it, even if you opened the door. At the root of it, it is the evil one.

He was a thief from the beginning, and the leopard does not change its spots. He remains as such, and you need to understand that never before in his evil existence there is one thing he desires to steal from you more than anything else. Everybody say, "Joy." Listen now, because if you don't lose your joy, there is strength that will be there that will make your way through every valley.

That's why Nehemiah declares this day is holy to your God. Now look at me for a moment. I want you to repeat after me: "This day is holy." This day is holy. But not just this day. Every day is holy unto the Lord. Now why am I saying that? Because he says if you understand that every day is holy unto the Lord, then it says neither be ye sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Neither be ye sorry, that phrase is the Hebrew word 'atsab'. It means to worry, to grieve, to be sorrowful, to be angry, to feel outrage, mental anguish, and physical discomfort.

And church, hear me now. Nowhere else does the devil work overtime than when he comes to steal your joy through sorrow, anger, and feelings of outrage in order to bring about mental and physical discomfort. He works real hard to steal your joy, for if he can carry out his plan to steal your joy, he can carry out the second part of his dastardly plan: to kill and destroy.

And now look at me because it seems to me like the devil believes God's word more than God's people because the devil knows if he can kill your joy, you will lose your strength. The devil knows that the joy of the Lord really is your strength. Listen to me, church: strength of the joy of the Lord is purpose for the valleys of life. Because it's easy to live on the top of the mountains, and the devil wants to steal your joy and he can do it faster than you can say joy, just keep on whining and complaining and being ungrateful.

We're going to look at several verses in the book of Numbers. In the book of Numbers, we see the most important thing the children of Israel had to learn when they were going through the valley. The sad truth is that they never learned that lesson. Church, listen to me. The greatest lesson of the valleys of life is to learn to cultivate a heart of thanksgiving.

Please understand, you have to cultivate a heart of thanksgiving. And what do we say at Eagle Heights? Practice makes what? Perfect. And if you learn to cultivate a heart of thanksgiving, no matter how life turns, it will become a perfect thing in your life. You see, to cultivate a heart of gratitude no matter the challenges that are before you. Please listen to me, saints, because the children of Israel did not get a right attitude. It cost them everything.

You really need to hear this as we prepare to dig into this lesson. There is no amount of prayer that can help you if you don't fix your attitude. Are you hearing me? So don't come up here and say, "Bishop, will you lay hands on me so I get my attitude right?" No, I ain't wasting my anointing massaging your thick skull.

Stay with me now. We are in 40 days of prayer and fasting, and I am telling you that there is not a fast that can fix a wrong attitude. It doesn't matter if you amen every sermon and memorize every name of God. If you refuse to fix your attitude, this series will not help you because life never will be and never has been without challenges. Please understand that.

There will always be valleys to go through. And with every valley we incur in life is the opportunity to learn this lesson: God is greater than your circumstance. God is bigger than your problem. And I am telling you as an experience of a life of serving the Lord, when we're going through the valley, there is this proclivity in all of us to allow the evil one to steal our joy by slipping into a spirit of complaint and pity.

Let's take part of this series and learn what we must learn sooner than later to get out of the valley. Now let me say something before I jump into the outline. For some of you, this lesson is a repeat that I've expanded. For others of you, it doesn't matter because I'm going to tell you this about all of us: this is a lesson that we need to have repeated from time to time because every last one of us, this preacher included, sometimes we forget how truly blessed we really are.

So here we go. Roman two: the children of Israel failed to learn two lessons in the Valley of Arabah. Number one, in the Valley of Arabah, they failed to learn to trust God rather than man. Numbers 14:6-10a: Moses had sent Joshua and Caleb to spy out the land, the promised land. They come back with a good report, but now the people while they have been gone, they want Moses and Aaron's heads on a platter.

Joshua and Caleb said in verse 8, "It is a land that God will lead us to. It flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord and do not be afraid of the people in the land because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid." Hear what they are saying. They are saying please don't love Moses, love Aaron, but don't trust Moses and Aaron. Don't trust a man. Trust in the Lord. But listen to what they did in verse 10a: "But the whole assembly talked about stoning them, Moses and Aaron."

It is because they trusted and they chose to put their faith and their trust in men and not in God. And because they did, number two, they failed to learn that God would truly supply every need. Numbers 14:10b-11: watch now. I just told you it got so bad they wanted to kill their leaders. They wanted to stone them, and why did it happen? Because their attitudes did something that they did not desire.

Watch this, church: their attitude brought the presence of God. Please understand this. Their attitude brought the presence of God but not in the way they desired it. Our attitude will always invoke the presence of God. The question is, when we invoke him, how will he come? Will he come with his presence to deliver us or to rebuke us?

Verse 11, the Lord said to Moses, "How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me in spite of all the signs I have performed among them?" They were constantly crying and begging for stuff, crying about the tough times, when what they really needed to do was to trust and rest in the Lord.

And if they did that, the Bible says every need that they had in the wilderness would be supplied by God. In the book of Numbers 11, God gave them manna, God gave them meat, God gave them water, and God gave them a promised land. I am telling you today, you need to grab this. I'm talking about everything they needed, God wanted to supply.

Where were they when God made that promise to them? They were in the valley, in the wilderness. I want to tell you today that in your wilderness, in your valley, God wants to supply your every need. We, like the children of Israel, what he was trying to teach them in the book of Numbers is that if he is going to supply your every need, you must have a high level of trust in him above all things.

They had to rise to the place where they put their trust in no one but God. Everybody say, "No one but God." Say it again, "No one but God." Man is God's resource, God is the source. Let me sidestep for a moment. If we are ever to get everything that we need that God desires to give us, we have got to stop playing with the word of God and really begin to stand up on the word of God where we truly believe that God is the source and men are the resource.

Let me help us today. If there is sickness in your body, the doctor is the resource, but God is the source. If there's a financial need in your life, man may be the resource, but God is still the source. If your soul has been wounded, the therapist is the resource, but God is the source. The reason many of us don't get healed when we go for therapy is because you take everything the therapist says over what God says.

If your therapist is not agreeing with God, then go find yourself another therapist because if you got the wrong therapist, all you're dealing with is a physical terrorist. Come on somebody, getting real quiet in here. Let me help you understand this is important because when you begin to understand and believe that God is the source, God will lead you by his spirit to the resource or he will lead the resource by his spirit to you.

When God does that, he keeps you from getting connected to the wrong resource. How many of you got a resource and you wish you hadn't gotten it? Follow me now. What was true for the children of Israel is true for you and me this day. Potentially, Israel had everything they needed to fulfill God's destiny for their life at that moment. Don't miss this.

There are two important things here. Number one, potentially they had everything. That word potentially is important. Realistically, they didn't receive everything they needed. Potentially they had it, realistically they never got it. The question that stands before us is why? The answer is simple. In the book of Numbers, you find recorded on several occasions very clearly.

The reason why they never receive all that God had for them is the same thing that will keep you and I from all that God has for us: they possessed an improper attitude or an attitude of ingratitude. Numbers 11:1-3: when the people complain, the Bible says it displeased the Lord, for the Lord heard it. Stop right there.

When you and I consistently whine and complain, we forget a very important issue: God hears it. Anytime that we constantly whine and complain, it displeases the Lord. Whining and complaining tells God something. What does whining and complaining tell God? It tells God, "I don't trust you." Stay with me now and watch. He goes on to say, "For the Lord heard it and his anger was aroused, so the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp."

When the people cried out to Moses and when Moses prayed to the Lord, the fire was quenched. So he called the name of the place Taberah because the fire of the Lord had burned among them. When you open up chapter 11 of the book of Numbers, you will find this same thing is that the people began to complain, and you will find that as they began to complain, God began to deal very angrily toward them.

But Moses the leader prayed and God stilled his hand. I thank God for mercy and for grace, but please understand that even in God's mercy and grace, it grieves his heart when we stay in a mode of whining and complaining. Watch what he said to Moses in Numbers 14:11: "How long will these people treat me with contempt?"

The word 'contempt' means the feeling or the attitude of regarding someone as inferior. So God says when you and I whine and complain constantly, when we are going through a valley, we disrespect God and we treat him as inferior because ultimately our whining and complaining says, "God, I don't trust you."

So now, three lessons we must learn from observing the children of Israel in the Valley of Arabah. Number one, our tendency to commit the sin of complaining spirit is greatest when in a valley of life. That's when it's the greatest. And when we get in and stay in a whining, complaining mode, please understand this, please write this down: it's sin.

Philippians 2:14-16: "Do everything without grumbling and complaining so that you may be blameless and pure children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life." Listen to me very closely: whining and complaining is a sin. It is just like stealing and cheating and lying. And we really need to believe this, church. God is so invested and so believes in us and so desires to bless us that he will deal with us and he will come and he will discipline us if we stay too negative.

Look at me now. You got a whining and complaining friend? I want to help you help them. The next time they go into negative mode, turn to them and say, "Stop sinning." Come on somebody. Let me help you understand this is important because when you begin to understand - watch this - the valley, they were below Mount Sinai.

Mount Sinai represented two things. Number one, the presence of God. Number two, the direction of God. Do you understand that even in the valley, it gives us a picture and a reality that they were in the presence of God, which means that by being in the presence of God, they had access to the continual direction of God? So don't miss this.

Number two, God will discipline us even in the valley in order to enhance our spiritual development. Say that again: God will discipline us even in the valley in order to enhance our spiritual development. Now look at me. One of the sorriest sayings in the kingdom of God is "God loves you just the way you are." Well, let me talk to you. He may love you the way you are, but he loves you too much to let you stay the way you are.

Come on now. Let me prove it to you. Hebrews 12:6: "For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. For if we are without chastisement, then ye are bastards that as fatherless children and not sons." We hear it, but we don't often connect it to what we're going through.

This Bible says if you or I are a son or a daughter of God, if he sees something in us that he does not like, something that will hinder your spiritual growth, he will turn your spiritual self over and he will spank your spiritual fanny. Come on now, stay with me. If he doesn't, you are like a child who has no father, a negligent father.

Church, please hear me: we have seen the lack of true fathers, the havoc it has wreaked on this generation today, especially young men. Young men who don't know how to treat a woman today. Young men who will walk through a door and let it slam in the face of a woman. Why do we have young men who don't know how to handle themselves like men with respect and dignity? Because they have had negligent fathers.

Listen now, because some of you always think God's always only picking on you. Wrong. Verse 8 says that he spanks all his children at some time or another. Brother Bishop, Lady Brenda, we have all been partakers in the disciplinary actions of God. Let me put it this way: I got three brothers and two sisters. To this day, they think I was Daddy's favorite little boy. They think that Daddy never punished me.

In a little while, I'm going to tell you why they're wrong, but here's what I'm going to tell you: what they missed was that as all of his children, my father disciplined every last one of us as we needed to be disciplined. Number three, God uses spiritual leaders to seek to correct our attitude. Now here we go.

Look at me now. I am God's spiritual paddle sometimes. My job, by God, is to correct us. Now let me help you so you don't think I got an ego. Sometimes when I'm preaching, God's correcting me too. No preacher is worth his salt if he does not first take the message to his heart and then deliver it.

Watch this. In Numbers 11:2, it says that Moses prayed and the fire died down. If chapter 11 in the book of Numbers is anything, let me tell you what it is: it's the chapter that deals with our attitude and I want you to understand this. In fact, say this with me: "Our attitude is a spiritual matter."

Please hear my heart. We don't like to admit it, but it's true: none of us has the right attitude at all times on every issue we deal with in life. One lady wrote in her assignment, "I don't have any weaknesses. I'm always in tune with God." Now that right there told me she was out of tune with God because she had the nerve to write that.

None of us hear the voice of God and have the right attitude all the time. I don't care what position you hold, I don't care how much you love God, I don't care if you are a Bishop or a pastor like myself. There are times that you do not have the right attitude, I do not have the right attitude.

I've learned early on in ministry the higher your level of ministry, the more you have to guard your negativity because the higher you go, the more you affect or infect those who follow you. So let me just start on this as we prepare to close today. Four things to learn concerning an attitude of ingratitude.

Let's talk about two. The children of Israel possessed an attitude that was unchanged by God's discipline. You and I would think that once you or I or the children of Israel were disciplined for a complaining spirit, you would think that they would never complain again. You would think that one spanking from the hand of the Lord would be enough, one discipline from the strong arm of God would be enough. It would sink into our thick skulls.

Turn to your neighbor who's looking sleepy and say, "I hope you don't have a thick skull." I'm not accusing you of having a thick skull, I'm just trying to make sure you stay awake. You would think God's discipline would have been enough for them to get the message. They would stop gossiping, stop complaining, they would quit backbiting.

You would think that God's discipline would stop the whole process, but it didn't. Verse 3 says, "So the name of the place was called Taberah, for the fire of the Lord burned among them." And why? Because they complained, they kept whining. In verse 34 of the same chapter, we see there are two stories, two different incidents of God's people complaining.

Verse 34 says, "So the name of that place was called Kibroth Hattaavah because they buried the people who had been greedy." See it? Two different stories, two different places, and the same people complaining, two different disciplines, two different punishments. What am I trying to convey to us today is the reality that when we have a spirit of ingratitude or when we have a complaining spirit within us, many times a direct hand of discipline from God will not help us keep that lion called a tongue locked up behind our pearly whites.

I'm thankful for the grace of God. I have been a recipient of the mercy and the grace of God more than once, but I've also been a recipient of this truth that still remains true in the 21st century: God still disciplines his children. We read it earlier, listen to it again. Hebrews 12:5-6: those the Lord loveth, he scourgeth. He rebuketh. For whom the Lord loves, he chastens and every son and daughter whom he receives.

Verse 8: "But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, every Christian, every son, every daughter gets a spanking once in a while." Now why have I repeated that? Because we need to understand that some of that stuff - if you don't think any of this applied to you thus far, this applies to all of us. At some time or another, some of that stuff that we go through, some of those valleys we find ourselves in that we're blaming on the devil, hear this now: it is actually the hand of God trying to discipline our hard heads.

It's God trying to let us know there are no self-made men in this kingdom. As I was working on this part of the message, God said something to me, so let me talk to us today, church. Some of the stuff some of you are trying to run from, people you're trying to run from, the church you're trying to run from, some of you the job you're trying to run from - no, stop it.

That marriage you're trying to run from. You need to understand that valley that you're in, it's God trying to fix your attitude because some of you have character issues, you've got an attitude problem, you've got a destructive behavior that is not only detrimental to the welfare of your future, but to those connected to you. This is the Holy Ghost talking, not Brother Bishop.

Some of you got some thoughts that God is trying to fix, and every time he tries to fix you by disciplining you, you run off to the next job, off to the next church, off to the next state, hear the Holy Spirit, the next relationship, when the issue is not someone else, the issue is not where you are. It is not the church that you're in or the state that you're in, but it's the state of mind that you are in. So stop it, or you're going to continually have groundhog's day in your life.

Because when you're the issue, wherever you go, so goes the issue. Which means the same lessons of your today are in your tomorrow. If you don't learn to submit to the disciplining hand of God, listen now. For if you be without chastisement, then you are bastards and not sons, a fatherless child. Look at me just for a moment.

When I was growing up, to have somebody call you a bastard, it was an insult. Today we just use it like the f-bomb and everything else. "Oh, that's cool, man." There ain't nothing cool about that. My 94-year-old father was not a perfect man and he was a hard disciplinarian. Most of the children that were born to the parents of the Great Depression were strong disciplinarians.

Today they would get special bracelets and get hauled off to jail for child abuse accusations. Let me tell you something today that I want to thank God for. I thank God not only for his hand of discipline, but for the grace of God that enabled me to submit to his hand of discipline. But for the grace of God on my life that enabled me to submit to his discipline even when I didn't agree with it, even when I did not like it.

But I'm going to tell you something: in that submission, it kept me and my imperfect self out of prison. It kept drugs and alcohol, things that invaded my sisters' and brothers' lives, it kept me from doing those things. Not because I was perfect, but because somehow in my pea-sized 12-year-old brain, I understood the disciplining hand of my father was the guide in my life.

I grew up in a home same as my sisters and brothers. Yet many of those things entered their lives and it did not enter mine. I'm going to say it again because I was not perfect, but I had a mindset that said I'm going to submit my will to the discipline of my father. Please listen to me. You may be here today and your earthly father was like my father's father.

He may have left you fatherless. He may not have owned up to his responsibilities and duties as a father. And some of you had a father, but they didn't love you enough to discipline you. Every father listen to me and please look at me: if you don't discipline your children, you really don't love them. Come on. Let me tell you something: an undisciplined child will grow up to be disciplined by the world.

It's a lot of 'selah' in this room today. I want you to know I'm so glad that I know that I serve a father who loves me enough that when I'm harboring a wrong attitude or attitude of ingratitude or whatever the case may be, he loves me enough to discipline me. Why does God discipline me? Because he has a destiny for your life, and if he doesn't discipline you, you're going to mess up your destiny.

You are, I am, we are, though we are all God's children, we are people of a complaining nature. The spirit of complaint is in our spiritual DNA. That's why James 3:7-8 says we can tame every beast and every bird. You go to SeaWorld and they'll make a whale do whatever they want it to do. Zoo keepers, they can tether a one-ton elephant to a stick in the ground and so train them that that elephant does not realize that all he's got to do is jerk a little bit and he could be free.

But no man without the help of the Holy Spirit can harness his tongue. Nowhere is it more difficult to have the tongue under control than in the valleys. Or here's number two and it's my final statement today: the children of Israel possessed an attitude that was unappreciative of God's benefits. See, this is why our attitude gets bad because we are not appreciative of the things God's already given us.

When somebody has a bad attitude or we see somebody with a complaining spirit or we see somebody with a gossiping tongue, we are prone to make all kinds of excuses for them. We say silly stuff like, "Well, they probably haven't had a lot of breaks in life." Or probably haven't seen the best that God has to offer.

They probably got off on the wrong side of the tracks to speak so spiritually, or they're going through a terrible time in life. And please understand, I am not trying to minimize what people are going through. But listen, your pain may be real, it may be legitimate, but please don't miss this: the children of Israel are like some of us children of God.

They complained while God's blessings were all around them. Whining and complaining has the power to make us dismiss what we're blessed with. And in spite of God's blessings, they had the spirit of complaint. When you got a spirit of complaint and whining, there is not a car on the people planet that will keep you happy. Let me talk to you. If you can't be content in a Honda, you won't be content in a Rolls Royce. If you can't be content in an apartment, 4,000 square feet won't do you any good.

Listen now. When you have a spirit of complaint, you miss all the blessings that are around you. How could they forget the Passover? The blessing where God sent the tenth plague of the killing the firstborn of the Egyptians, and the angel of death sees the blood on their doors and he passes by and their children live? How could they forget the parting of the Red Sea? How could they forget the manna bread that fell out of heaven?

How could they forget how God caused their shoes and their clothing to never wear out? That's the blessing I want, God. I want some clothes, Lord, that don't wear out anymore. My father-in-law, God bless his soul, he had one suit. And whenever he took off the jacket, you'd pray that he stay facing you because when he turned around, the sun would shine - his pants were so worn out in the back you could see his underwear.

Go, God. I'm asking the question: how could they forget all the blessings? Here's my point: I don't know how they forgot all these things, but this I do know about a whining and complaining spirit and I know it about the children of Israel and I know it about us. The truth was that Israel had never truly been delivered.

Watch this now: they had been delivered physically from Egypt, but they had not been delivered spiritually. They were not the children of God. And we do the same. I ask myself sometimes - sometimes I say, "Preacher, what's wrong with you? How can you not trust God in this moment right now when you've trusted him all those other times in your life?"

I want to talk about the bunny rabbit Christians, but I don't have time to talk about them in this service. I'm talking about those people that bounce from church to church like Little Bunny Foo Foo hopping through the forest. When a Sunday school teacher asked the little girl, "Who made you?" she replied, "God made part of me."

The teacher asked, "What do you mean?" The little girl replied, "God made me little, and I growed the rest myself." You know what she was saying? She is saying what God says to all of us: there's no preacher responsible for you to grow up. You're responsible for your own growing up. You're responsible for your own maturity.

Let me close with this: in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. That was 163 years ago. It was signed so that slaves could go free, and I know we've got some work to do in this country when it comes to racism. But let me say something: I still see within the ranks of whether we're red, yellow, black, black, whether we're green, whatever color we are, I see a problem, and it is this: in spite of the freedom that we have been given, I see 163 years later people who are still enslaved to wrong attitudes, bitterness of spirit and complaining.

Let me talk to us Christians, we that are saved. So many times people who don't know God have better attitudes than we have. Let me show you what it's like when we got a right attitude. Pastor Jose was with us, we were at a conference in Chicago. We met one of our credential holders. One of our credential holders lives in Miami, they have a daughter who, like our oldest daughter, has lupus.

While we were there, they informed us that she also - they found a tumor on her brain. A few days ago, Pastor Jose, I called him and I asked him how his daughter was doing. Here's how we're supposed to look when we're children of the most high God. We're supposed to be those people - you know what he said to us?

He said, "Bishop Collins, thank you for calling me. We want you to know we appreciate your prayers. We want you to know that our daughter had that tumor, but will we believe that the God who started a good work, he's going to finish what he started?" That is what we're supposed to look like as the children of God.

They're in the Valley of Baca, they are in the Valley of Arabah, they are stuck in that valley. But here is what they're doing. The children of Israel should have been out of there in like 10 days. It took them 40 years. And most of them walked right up to the edge of the promised land and died.

Why? Because they did not understand the race is not given to the swift, but to him who endures till the end. And when it says endure, it doesn't mean that you grumble all the way to the end. It means I know that he who has begun a good work is faithful to finish what he started. God is not a false starter. God is a God who said, "If I'm going to do it, and I said I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it." Everybody that believes he's going to do it, open up your mouth and says, "He's going to do it." Hallelujah.

I want to thank you for joining us today and for watching this message on our stream. We are flowing now from the worship of hearing and receiving God's word into the worship aspect of giving into the kingdom of God. And as God has spoken to your heart, I pray that you're able to join us in giving and bringing him his tithe and our offering.

I want to share a little piece that's very interesting. People were asked how much money would it take for us to have enough money. Remarkably, every person said, "If I could have a 10% increase, it would be enough for me to live and have a comfortable lifestyle." I share that with you because it's interesting that God says, "But if you will give me 10%," in Malachi 3 and in verse 8 and in verses all the way to verse 11, he talks about if you give me that 10%, you will have more than enough, there will be an overflow.

So why is that number significant in your giving today? The number is significant in that in your desire to live and have a healthy life, you want 10%. God says, "If you give me 10%, I'll make your 10% multiply in your life." And so as God leads your heart today, I ask you to first be obedient to the Lord and bring that 10%, that tithe.

Then let the Holy Spirit speak to your heart as you give an offering above that. That will open the windows of heaven. I thank you in advance for your faithfulness in giving to the work of the kingdom so that we might expand God's kingdom. Let me pray for you now. Father, I thank you for these that have committed this day to be obedient to your word because, Lord, they understand that sometimes thanksgiving is merely an act of obedience.

Since we are thankful people, we obey you this day to bring you your tithe and to give our offering. We thank you in advance that you will open the windows of heaven, pour out blessing we will not have room to receive. We will be blessed spirit, soul, and body. And this we pray and believe for in Jesus' name. Amen.

Just lift your hands where you are. Though you may not be in this sanctuary, you become aware that we have words on this wall that are not just words, they are the biblical words from the very throne room of heaven. Let me speak them over your life. May the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace. God bless you as you receive it.