AUDIENCE: (APPLAUSE)
CHRIS: Yay! I hope you’re well. Hope you’ve had a good day and I hope now it gets better. Cause I want to talk about you being fully free. Fully free. Wouldn’t that be nice?
AUDIENCE: Yes.
CHRIS: Huh! Wouldn’t it be nice if physical things you didn’t have to deal with anymore? Or fears you didn’t have to deal with? And there’s, there’s a couple of books in the Bible with a guy named Timothy. And Timothy didn’t write them. It was Paul writing to Timothy. Timothy was a son in the Lord. And in 1st Timothy 4, he says, cause I remember I got saved at 19 and there weren’t very many fathers around. This is back in the Jesus Movement back in the early seventies. So to a 19 year old a father was a 22 year old. You know they had finished college, that was like, wow, you’re old. There weren’t many fathers around. And so there’s Timothy and I think he was probably kind of finding himself in the same kind situation and Paul says to him in the 4th chapter of 1st Timothy he says “don’t let anyone despise your youth.” By the way that works both age. Both sides of the age screen. Don’t let anyone despise you because now you’ve got some gray hair. Okay? I started… I got my first one at 15 and now that I’m 27…
AUDIENCE: (LAUGHTER)
CHRIS: …you know, my hair has fully gone gray. But don’t, don’t… whether you’re young or old he says it’s an invitation to not be held back. That’s what he’s trying to say to Timothy is don’t neglect the gift that’s in you then he says that was put in you and prayed over you, he uses the term by the eldership or by the presbytery and I love that. Paul is very, very humble at that moment in 1st Timothy, he’s very humble. I think Paul saw something in Timothy. That he saw a young man who had incredible gifts but for one reason or another needed some prodding. So it’s like hey, have you been through, have you seen Timothy? Oh yeah? How’s he doing? Well, he’s okay. Although we were with each other together. And we, yeah, he’s kind of quiet. Oh Timothy, c’mon boy. So he writes 1st Timothy and then he says don’t neglect that gift that’s in you. You’ve got something unique. You have something special. And the presbytery, the elders laid hands on you. And I don’t know about you but the one thing that the enemy does if he can’t get you to not say yes to Jesus then he wants to shut down the Jesus in you. That’s his goal. That’s his desire. If he can shut you up someone else, someone’s voice through not just what you speak but how you live, someone else, another voice and another face is silenced and pulled away. And I’ve now been… I’ve been saved so many… I mean 41 years and I’ve seen so many people over that time who because of, and I’m just going to say it, because of what I think is one of the enemy’s greatest tools to keep us is the spirit of fear. Now I’m seeing a lot of heads shaking up and down. You know why? Because we all deal with them. We all deal with ‘em. And I remember some years ago I was working with a ministry in Kansas City and during a prayer time, during a ministry time at the end the gentleman in charge, he and I were doing a ministry time and he walked over to me and I thought he was going to say do this song or what do you think we should do and he leans over to me he goes the Lord told me you’re supposed to write a book. I didn’t do books. I was the kid that wrote the book report in homeroom. Anybody else ever do that?
AUDIENCE: (AGREEING IN LAUGHTER)
CHRIS: You wrote a book report in homeroom? You got ten minutes. And you’re going to give… you know the one that always gets the A’s in class and I’m writing there she goes what are you doing? Says writing my book report. She said you just picked up my book. I know, I know, don’t worry about it. And so I’d look at the back of the book I’d figure out and then I’d write a story, put in names, I’d throw a few names, and put it and I always got A’s and B’s and it used to just frustrate her so much cause she spent hours and took two weeks to read the book which I should have done. I’m not proud of that. I’m just saying. And so for me for him to suddenly say you’re supposed to write a book. I said I don’t think so. It took me a long time even to read a book. And so then he comes over in the next conference he comes over and he leans over and he goes hey, the Lord told me you’re going to write 3 or more. That actually there’s a lot of books coming out of you. I just looked at him and said no, no. Well the reason why I didn’t…part of me…. here’s the thing. Is sometimes the thing that we pull back is the thing we want most. Okay? I got out of every oral report. Never did an oral report in class. I didn’t read aloud in class and I’m the only one in the history of my school that went through the entire speech course and never gave their speech to the class.
AUDIENCE: (LAUGHTER)
CHRIS: Can I tell you why? Spirit of fear. You’re going well, I don’t know. Look at you now. You’re up there doing this and that. I know. Why? It was in my heart to do. It’s always been in my heart to do. But if the enemy couldn’t say and stop me from saying yes to Jesus what he could do was so attack me with a spirit of fear that the Jesus in me I held hostage because of a spirit of fear. Let me tell you something. It’s not too late. You have gifts and callings from God. It’s not too late. And if you’re young you’re not too young. Don’t despise your youth and don’t despise your gray hair. My grandmother got saved at 82 years old. Lived the next 17 years of her life on fire for Jesus seeing visions of Jesus on a regular basis. Telling everybody about what He looked like and how He loved her. I was talking to her one day and she’s looking over my shoulder and I kept talking she just looked at me and went “Shush!” Said why? I called her Monno. That was her name we called her. Why Monno? She goes cause He’s looking at me and I turned around and there was nothing, no one there. And I just said who’s looking at you? She goes Jesus. We look at each other all the time. He’s smiling. And I’m going then forget about me, grandma. Just, just look at His face. It’s not too late. I don’t know what things burn in your heart but you all have something. Some of you are out there and the Lord’s telling you write a book. Well your reaction is I don’t write books. Let me tell you something. I don’t write books. Guess what? I now write books. And at that time one of the things that hindered me, and I’ll just, I’ll just, I was… fear of failure is huge. Why begin a project and spend months and months, even a year, why begin the project if in the end it’s going to fail? Why expend, why give out all of that energy? The fact of the matter is we’re usually not thinking that. We’re usually thinking something else connected. And here’s what is was for me. A lot of my friends were authors. A lot of my friends, especially at that time when I was in Kansas City a lot of them had books that were on best sellers lists and this and that. And I’m going to write a book? Chris DuPre from Marion New York? My town. I remember when I was a kid when my town got a light. It was the big thing. Everybody went into the middle of town to look at the light being put in.
AUDIENCE: (LAUGHTER)
Tags: It's Supernatural, Sid Roth