Acts 1, verse 21. My subject, for those of you who like to take notes, is unfinished business. Unfinished business. Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us, now, for context, this is Peter talking. Jesus has ascended to heaven and they are waiting for the move of the Spirit. But in the midst of waiting for the move of the Spirit, Peter gathers everyone's attention and says that there's a matter of unfinished business that we need to take care of.
I know we're waiting for the Spirit. I know we're waiting for God to move. But there's something that needs to be done.
He says, therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John. to that day when he was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection. They're trying to replace Judas as one of the disciples.
And they proposed to Joseph called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justice, and Matthias, and they prayed and said, you, O Lord, who know the hearts of all, show. Which of these two you have chosen to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell that he might go to his own place and they cast their lots and the lot fell on Matthias and he was numbered with the 11 apostles. Father God, I ask that you would continue to sit in this room. God, you know every burden, you know every issue, you know every struggle that we carried into this room.
But Lord, you also know how in your divine wisdom and strategy that you plan to make it all work together for our good. So God, we're asking that this would be a move like that move that the apostles experienced on the day of Pentecost. That you would help us recognize that it would not be by strength, oh God, nor would it be by might, but it would...
only be by your power, oh God, that we make it through this season. So Father, I am asking that your power would saturate this place. Show us your glory in every area of our life.
I turn myself over to you and I say, have your way. Let there be nothing off limits, no nerves, no fears, no barriers, just your strength, your anointing, your power standing in me in Jesus'name. Amen.
You can get seated and get comfortable. There are so many things that I pride myself for having learned from my father. I think one of the things that really sticks out in my mind is my father is really the presiding prelate of Mind Your Business Ministries. It's an... up-and-coming ministry that my father partakes in like a full-time job you have never seen someone mind their business like bishop td jakes he will mind your business better than you mind your own business if you tell him something you will never hear it again you could go on the news and talk about it and he would never say a word because he minds his business and I love that about him and it is something that I am striving to do in every area of my life because minding your business will bless you come on and I'm preaching better than you're clapping already The other thing my father has taught me is that there's no place like home.
He told us over and over again that there's literally, when you can't go anywhere else, you can always come home. I think at my wedding, he was holding up a sign to my husband that said, free shipping and returns. He said, if you don't want her no more, you can just drop her off at the gate because she can come home when she can't go anywhere else. And my... My husband and I have taken him up on that offer so many times when we become stressed and overwhelmed with life.
We come home because we know there's a safety there. And it helps that he also offers to cook when we come home. And you should see me when I'm headed home and I know my father is cooking. I pass over so many different meals in restaurants because I know...
that when I get home that I'm going to have some banana pudding. I'm going to have a five-flavored pound cake. I'm going to have some ribs waiting on me. And so no matter how many times somebody offers me food, I turn it down because I'm hungry, but I'm just hungry enough to wait.
Like I'm not hungry the kind of way that you would just eat anything because when you're hungry for a certain thing, you don't just eat anything. I'm hungry enough to wait on it. I'm not just going to pass over.
something that could just fill me up temporarily when I could have something that could change my life. I'm hungry enough to wait. I think that's another lesson that my father's taught me.
He's taught me the power in being hungry. enough to wait. He had to pass up some deals.
He had to pass up some friendships. It wasn't because he wasn't hungry. It was just he was hungry enough to wait. I wonder if that's anyone else's testimony.
testimony in this room. It's not that I didn't want a relationship. It's not that I didn't want to get married. It's not that I didn't want to start the business. I just had a certain kind of hunger.
I was hungry enough to wait on the right thing. I was hungry enough to wait on the God thing. So yes, I'm going to keep working this job until God promotes me to the next thing because I'm hungry enough to wait on the right thing. I'm hungry enough to wait on that child to get their life together.
Everyone else can give up on their child. Everyone else can pack up their toys and go home but I'm hungry enough to wait for what God promised me that's why I'm still here That's why I'm still praising. That's why I'm still worshiping.
It's not because God gave me everything I wanted. It's not because he gave me everything I asked for, but I'm hungry enough to wait for that promise to be manifested. You don't get what you pray for. You get what you wait for. Those that wait upon the Lord.
I waited for this. Did nobody hand this to me? It wasn't easy for me to become who I became. I wish I had some people in this room who had to wait to see what God was going to do in the midst of the trial. You're hating on me now.
You should have seen when I was waiting on the thing you hating on. I waited for this. I waited to see how God was going to turn this situation around. Yes, I'm loud when I worship. Yes, I lift my hands when they say lift your hands because if you had known what I had gone through when I was waiting to see how God was gonna show up.
God I didn't know that you was gonna heal my body. God I didn't know that you was gonna save my child but I waited to see what you was gonna do because you are not a man that you shall lie. I waited to get up here. I waited for this. I'ma let all my people who know what's on the other side of waiting encourage the people who are waiting in this season right now and just give God a praise if you made it on the other side of your waiting season.
That's encouragement for somebody. Somebody's waiting to see what's gonna happen to their child. Somebody's waiting to see what's gonna happen after that divorce. Somebody who is a testimony. Make some noise.
I'm a witness that if you wait on him he'll show up. I'm a witness that if you wait on him glory will fall. I'm a witness that they can take the car but God will replace it with something you never thought you could have even been driving.
I'm a witness, I'm a witness, I'm a witness that waiting pays off. My strength was renewed. I got wings when I was waiting. My friends, the disciples, they're waiting.
It's one thing to be waiting, but they're waiting for power. Because Jesus has given them a mandate to do something, but they cannot accomplish it without power. You see, Jesus has given them a vision of who they can become in the earth and how far they can go in the world. The only thing is that from point A to point B requires a bridge called power. I don't know if you've ever had God tell you something about who you can be or a generational curse that you're going to break or a shift that you're going to see in your marriage or a shift that you're going to see in your finances and you're at point A and God has told you about point B but he has not given you the power to accomplish what he told you he said you could do.
God, I want to do it, but I don't have power. I want to break this addiction, but I don't have the power to do it. I want to leave this toxic relationship, but I don't have the power.
I need to do what you told me to do. If I had the power, I would have done it by now. But I don't have the power. I need to break that generational curse.
I don't have the power. I need to get up and stand with confidence anymore. God, you called me to ministry, but I don't feel like I have any power. The disciples, they're waiting on power. God, I'm waiting on power.
And while they're waiting on power, Jesus was the only power they had access to, but he's been removed out of the equation. So I'm waiting on power, but I lost the only power that I thought I could hold on to. Power that you felt like you needed.
God, how could you, God, how could you remove that power that I needed at a time when I don't have power of my own? God, I needed my mother. God, I need it, my father.
How could you remove that power at a time when I haven't even discovered who I am yet? I haven't even walked into who you've called me to be yet. And right when I was getting ready to step into it, you removed the only thing I was counting on.
I know it wasn't much of a job, but it was all the job that I have. God, how could you remove that power from me? I'm not just waiting on power. Power's also been removed out of the equation. So when we find the disciples in this text, they're waiting for power, and power's been removed out of the equation.
But they're hungry enough to wait. Because they recognized that their last taste of power when they were walking with Jesus was so supernatural And it was so miraculous. I feel that for somebody I know you're in a waiting season and I know you got options and you can move in any other direction but you haven't found that god thing yet and you're not willing to settle because the last time i did what god told me to do he blew my mind and i know i'm still waiting for him to tell me what's next but i'm going to stay here in the position that he told me to wait in until he sends what he said was on the way. I want somebody to know that he's going to send what he said he was going to send. I told you I was going to get you out of that situation.
I told you that you were going to get your mind back. I told you that you were going to get your heart back. You stay in that waiting position. Can't get it if you don't wait for it.
Can't get it if you don't believe it's coming. So they're waiting. They're in the waiting position and all of a sudden it dawns on Peter that, um, there's something out of line here. You see, it started off there were 12 disciples, but now there are only 11 disciples. I have to tell you that I love the fact that Peter is the one who takes charge in this situation because if he had to do it in today's context, everyone would have talked about how he had no business being the one taking charge after all of the denial that he did of Jesus.
you want to start speaking on his behalf but when Jesus tells you to step into something it doesn't matter who you used to be it doesn't matter what they used to know it's time for me to step into who Jesus has called me to be yes I am the one talking yes I am the one with the testimony yes I am the one spewing wisdom because I had to step into who Jesus called me to be because if you get your facts right Before he said I would deny him, he said that he was going to build this church on me. Check your records when you start going through my files. Check your records when you start going through what I went through. Yeah, talk about the divorce.
Yeah, talk about the pregnancy. But check your records because before then he said he sanctified me. He ordained me.
He anointed me. If you're going to tell my story, tell the whole story. There's some people in this room who've had some people telling half the story. I want you to play this message for them next time they start playing.
Tell the whole story. It wasn't just the cover of Time Magazine, it was painting a church down in West Virginia. Tell the whole story.
Tell the whole story. That he ordained me, that he put a hedge of protection around me, that no weapon formed against me would prosper. It didn't mean the weapon didn't scare me, it just meant the weapon didn't prosper.
Peter steps in position because he got to prove that Jesus wasn't wrong about him. And some people who go hard right now, not so that you can applaud, not so that you can like it on Instagram, not so that they can get a big check. I go hard the way I do because Jesus wasn't wrong about me.
I do that thing that I do because he saved me and he didn't have to. I step into position every time he gives me a chance because it is grace and grace alone. that I am who I am.
He wasn't wrong about me. You wasn't wrong to save me. You wasn't wrong to give me another chance.
You wasn't wrong to allow that door to open for me to walk in. You wasn't wrong. You wasn't wrong about me. And so now Peter is showing that even though I denied him, What he said about me being a rock was still true. I'm just as much the Peter who denied him as I am the one who he can build his church on.
He didn't have to slice me apart to call me. He didn't have to change who I was to call me. He said, I want you just like that.
I want the version of you who would deny me, and I want the version of you who I can build a church on, because I want to use the foolish things of the world. I know that don't make you holy rollers happy. I know that don't make those of you who've done everything right happy. But for people like me who've had a time in their life where they denied who Jesus was, to find out that he can still use me, that he can still build something on me. God, you can still build a family on me.
God, you can still build a marriage on me. Do you know that I'm the one who denied you? Yeah, I knew that about you, but I knew something else.
I wonder what he knows about you. I wonder what he knows. I know you know your brokenness, but do you know your anointing? I know you know your mistakes, but do you know your power?
Do you know that rock that's down there underneath all of that shame? Underneath all of that regret? I need you to confront all of that, because when you get finished digging up that shame, when you get finished digging up that regret, there's a rock waiting on you, baby. You a rock.
You a rock. That's why he threw all that at you. That's why you had to go through what you went through because it's a rock up underneath there. And I had to put you in a situation where you were forced to dig. While they were waiting, Peter starts digging.
Jesus. I'm digging for that version of me that you said I could be. I'm digging in the process of Peter taking his position. The text reveals to us something that Jesus said in Luke 22. To understand this.
We have to know that Jesus did not just randomly pick 12 disciples. That the reason why the number 12 is important is because it represents the 12 tribes. of Israel and part of the Messiah coming meant that he was going to restore Israel. So it seems like it's no big deal because there are 120 people in the room and they're down to 11 disciples but if they do not move someone into that position then a tribe will not be restored.
Yeah. They could have just let it go, but in Luke 22 verse 28, Jesus is speaking to the disciples at the last supper and he says to them, but you were those who have continued. with me in my trials and I bestow upon you a kingdom just as my father bestowed one upon me that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel so they're waiting on the spirit to fall but peter says there's a vacancy somewhere we don't look like what jesus promised to bless The spirit can't fall yet because there's a vacancy. I don't want the spirit to fall right now because if the spirit falls right now, it's going to miss somebody.
I got to get somebody in that position so that when the spirit falls, it can hit everything there's somebody in this room that's been waiting on this spirit to fall on their life and I hear God saying that we got a little bit of unfinished business before the spirit can fall because there's a vacancy down in your life somewhere you don't look like what I blessed Peter says while we're waiting on what Jesus is going to do Let's work what Jesus said. And if I work what Jesus said, I'll find that there's a vacancy somewhere. That I'm not in position yet.
That I haven't gone back to what I needed to be in order to manifest what God was going to do next. God help me. I know in a culture where we often talk about just pressing forward and moving forward that it sounds almost counterintuitive what I'm about to say but what if the most powerful thing you can do is not go forward but go back to who you used to be not talking about the version of you that God saved.
I'm talking about who you were after you got saved. I'm talking about who you were when he first bestowed that promise. I'm talking about getting back in position where he can look at you and say, I want to give you a throne to sit on.
Sometimes the only thing that's waiting for you in your marriage is for you to go back to the person who was excited to see your husband when he got home. Sometimes the only thing that's going to help you deal with that job is to go back to the person who was excited to just have somewhere to get up. and go in the morning. I know that it's counterintuitive because you're ready to move on to your next, but next has not arrived now. So if next has not arrived now, I got to work what I'm working with right now.
And I got to go back to looking like the person that God. God bless. I got to start lifting my hands in worship, not asking God, when is the next time you're going to give me another deal?
I got to start acting like the person who said, God, if you don't do anything else, I'll be satisfied. I know I need another car. I know I need another house.
I know I need some help with this child. But God, if you don't do anything else, thank you, God, for not taking me back to who I used to be. I was glad when they said unto me, I could come into the house.
of the Lord. The spirit can't fall until we're totally in formation. The spirit can't fall until I go back to looking like who he said he could bless. I got to go back to being that person who just wanted to be in your presence.
I didn't need to ask you any questions. I didn't need to understand what was going to happen tomorrow. I just wanted to lay down at your feet and say, God, fill me up.
God, speak a word over my life. God, just allow me one minute to dwell in your house. Gotta go back to my core.
Some unfinished business. that I gotta take care of because if the spirit ball falls on this version of who I am I can't be totally restored oh Jesus if the spirit falls On this version of me, I might use the Spirit of God to help me manipulate people. If the Spirit falls on this version of who I am, I may use it to make my name great. If the Spirit falls on this version of who I am, I may make it about them when it's really about you. God, restore me to the person who didn't need any validation.
God, restore me to the person who had confidence in you and not in what I had in the bank account. who just wanted to be in the will of God. God, restore me the way the disciples had to be restored, where I didn't get bored when I was praying, when I didn't wonder who was preaching, when I didn't wonder whether or not I could or could not get up and go to church because I was just so glad to be in your presence, God. God, I want to go back to being that wife.
God, I want to go back to being that mother. I want to go back to being that husband, that one that could really forgive, that one that really had joy. I let too much bitterness get down on the inside of me. I don't know who you are.
I'm ready to move on to my next point. But God wants you to know that he is talking to you and that I am calling you back to the position where you had all of yourself together, where you knew who I was, where I could bestow a kingdom upon you. So Peter says in the middle of this waiting season that we got to get back to looking like what Jesus had in mind. He's the only one sensitive enough to understand that they don't look like what Jesus blessed.
And I love this because it stands to reason that if they do not get that one vacancy field, that there would be a tribe that would not be judged properly. And I felt like God was saying as I was studying that if one of us, I don't know who you are, maybe it's all of us, don't get in position that there is a tribe of people who cannot be judged properly because you didn't get in your position. If you didn't shake off the feelings of unworthiness, if you didn't shake off the feelings of inadequacy, if you didn't shake off those notions of I'm not qualified to be who God has called me to be, then there is a tribe that will not be judged properly and therefore cannot be restored. This is bigger.
Then, what you did, or who you were, this is about creating an environment for everything that Jesus set out to do to be fully manifested. You see, Jesus started it, but he left it to the disciples to finish it. And then the disciples left it to the apostles, and the apostles left it to us to finish. I wonder if you all realize that this is not just about us living our own lives.
own individual lives and us trying to figure out what we can do to make sure that we pass something down to our family, that the heart of why we are here is because I'm here to finish what Jesus started. I'm here to finish what he started on the cross. I'm here to make sure that every ear has heard and every eye has seen the power of God working through the earth.
I call him Jesus. I don't know what you call him, but I call him Savior, and I call him Healer. And if the Spirit is going to fall on this earth every time I see a news headline, I recognize that there is still more work for the Spirit to do, and I'm not praying for anybody else to do it. I wake up every morning, and I make hell nervous because I'm going to finish what Jesus said.
started. I'm gonna finish what he started in my family. I'm gonna finish what he started in the criminal justice system.
I'm here to finish what he started. I gotta finish it. And if one can chase 1,000 and two can chase 10,000, I wonder what a few thousand of us in the Potter's House of Dallas could do to finish what Jesus started.
I'm not praying for a politician to do it. I'm not praying for somebody else to get in position. I wake up every morning saying, Jesus, just let me do my part to finish what you started. So that when the spirit falls, my tribe will be represented.
That's why I got in position. That's why I got my mind together. That's why I stopped drinking.
That's why I stopped smoking. Because when the spirit falls, I want my tribe to be represented. I messed around and heard that God was still in the miracle working business. And I looked back over my life and all of the generational curses.
And I said, God, if you're still in the miracle working business, I want you to count my family as a part of what you're doing in this earth. I want my tribe to be represented. I wish I had some peace.
people in this room who had a tribe that you demand be represented when the spirit falls. I dare you to start lifting up that tribe right now in the name of Jesus, because it's Pentecost Sunday. And I came here to tell you that there's going to be a sound like a mighty Russian wind, and you better make sure your tribe is covered in that sound.
Every teen mother, every divorcee, every child, every business, that's my tribe. I don't know who your tribe is, but you better make sure your tribe is represented. Because when the spirit falls, I want to be in that number.
If I'm honest, I wanted to make Matthias'promotion as a disciple this big preaching point about how he waited in silence and followed Jesus through everything with no title and now he's going to get his promotion. It got good to me when I was studying. I said, this is it. This is a word for somebody who has been waiting in the background.
God is going to pull you to the forefront. I wanted to preach that word for you so good, and maybe if they let me come back, I'm going to preach it again somewhere else. But in order for me to say that, I would have to lift this moment out of the context of the times.
Because the truth is that for Matthias to be promoted to disciple meant that God was putting him in a position of persecution. Because Matthias, to be a disciple in that time, meant that you could be killed. You see, they killed Jesus for talking about that Messiah foolishness. But he had to choose someone who could handle the persecution connected to the promotion.
There are some promotions we don't throw parties for and some promotions we get on our knees for because we recognize if you've allowed me to do this there's gonna be some hell coming my way if you allow me to get promoted to this level i'm gonna need some power that i don't have right now there are some promotions that we don't need no cake for we don't need no ice cream for. The only thing I need right now is the power of the Holy Ghost to make it through this next season of my life. Lord, my friends are walking away from me.
God, my child is losing their mind. On one hand, I'm promoted. On the other hand, I'm persecuted. God, why would you why would you promote me to persecution?
God, I wanted to be promoted to something cute. I wanted to be promoted to something that would make my bank account fat. You mean to tell me I got promoted to persecution?
Who am I gonna become as a result of this promotion? Who am I gonna become as a result of who you've called me to be? God, I got promoted. And now it's like there's a target on my back.
I said I wanted to finish your business, but I didn't know that that meant that I... It's almost better that I wasn't known as a person in position, because I could have faded in the background. But now that everybody knows that I'm the seat filler...
Persecution is coming from everywhere. If it's not one thing, it's another. Congratulations, you got promoted. God, I feel like I'm losing my mind. Congratulations.
You got promoted. You want to finish my business? Congratulations.
Can you imagine how much more hungry Matthias was for the Holy Spirit to fall? After his promotion, I thought I needed your spirit before, but now that I've been promoted, I need it more than anybody in the room. I had a cute little praise before, but now that you've put me into this position, now that I've been placed on this job, now that I've been placed in this marriage, now that I'm raising this child on my own, I thought I needed you to save my marriage, but now I need you to show me who I am on the other side of this divorce. God, I thought I needed you then, but what I really know is that I really need you now.
But before the persecution can come for Matthias, the day of Pentecost comes. Because God will never call you to persecution that he's not giving you the power to face and overcome. But you have to stop hustling long enough and moving in order to create a space where you're hungry enough to wait on the power.
I can imagine being Matthias in that room with this new responsibility on his shoulders. Now I've got to be a witness. Now I've got to walk the right way.
Now I've got to talk the right way. Somebody's been handed some new responsibilities on their shoulders in this room, and it's calling them to a version of themselves that they only witnessed happen in other people. I hear God saying, I will allow Matthias to witness it in Jesus so that he could have a marker for who he was to become. I hear God saying that I set you in certain rooms where you could witness what I was calling you to so that you could have a marker on how you needed to move and navigate in this season. And Matthias knew.
What I am learning and continuing to grow and evolve in is that I'm going to need the power in a way that I didn't even know I was going to need it. Can I tell you that I feel like God gave me a responsibility on this Sunday to make you hungry again. To make you stop worrying about the persecution. Just for a minute and start asking God for his power, to start asking God for his spirit. Right now when the persecution is on the throne, the persecution is what you worship.
But if you would dethrone the persecution, if you would dethrone the worry, if you would dethrone the depression, if you would dethrone the suicidal thought, and say, I got to put the power of God back on the throne of my life. I got to put the power of the, I got to get hungry again for this thing. I'm not hungry for the things that move this world. I'm not hungry for the things that make you like me. I'm hungry for the spirit of God.
I'm too broken. I'm too weak. I'm too insecure to be in this position, but God put me in this position anyway. I need the Holy Ghost like never before. I need the Holy Ghost to cure my body.
I need the Holy Ghost to cure my mind. And I have to tell you that I hear God saying that's the only piece of unfinished business that is going to make that equation make sense is when you return to your hunger, when you get your heart back in the right position. I know they disappointed you.
I know they broke you, but you got to get your heart back. You got to get your heart back in the right position because me and you, we have some unfinished business. I need you to get hungry for me again. You're so hungry for them that you can't be hungry.
for me. You're so hungry for the next that you can't be hungry for what I can do right now in this moment. I can send a sound right now like a mighty rushing wind that would bring clarity to everything you've been fighting. I can send a sound right now that can break depression off of your mind.
I can send a sound right now. I can do it right now. I remember sitting over in that section and I was hungry. I was hungry for the Holy Ghost but not because I really wanted it.
I just wanted it because everyone else had it. Then life got finished with me and I got hungry for real. I got the kind of hungry you get when you realize that this blessing, this need that I have, man can't fix this thing. Man can't fill me up the way I need to be filled up. I tried all of these different paths and all of these different avenues, never knowing that all I needed to do was hit the ground.
And so when God said that I was going to be preaching on this Sunday, Pentecost Sunday, he told me, Sarah, I'm sending you back to Dallas. on Pentecost Sunday because we got some unfinished business because I want to show the spirit of that little girl who used to be hungry for all of the wrong things that you finally met me for real and that you got hungry for the Holy Ghost and that I radically changed your life. That while you were sitting over there playing Holy Ghost, that I had a plan that 20 years down the road, you would be leading people into the presence of the Holy Ghost. And God told me if you would ever get hungry for my power now, the way you did back then, that miracles would break out. and that diseases would go running out of the door, that hell would get nervous.
And so as much as this is about celebrating my father, I want you to know that the real reason I'm here, I have to be honest, is because me and the enemy had some unfinished business to take care of. Because it was in this church where he thought he would have my mind. And it was in this church where he thought that he would have my life.
And it was in this church that he told me suicide was the only way out. And I came back to let hell know that you didn't have the last say. And I wish I had about ten people who have some unfinished business with the enemy.
I'm not gonna fight you with words. I'm not gonna fight you with experience. I'm gonna fight you with the Holy Ghost. I'm gonna fight you with what God has done for me.
I'm gonna fight you with the power. The only difference... Between the girl who sat there and the woman who stands here is I got hungry and the only difference between the woman I am now and the woman I am called to become is my hunger. Your hunger is going to make the difference every single time.
Go to school, study the books. Take the classes. Do all of those things.
Those are man things. But the difference between you and someone else who studied is how hungry you were for the Holy Ghost. The difference between you and someone else who had it all together is how hungry you were to hear from God.