Keion Henderson - The Process of Elimination

I want to talk about the process of elimination. You have three people and five on your way down to say you’ve got to go through the process of elimination. I don’t need to spend any time letting you know that the process of elimination is not a static event. This suggests that if elimination is the goal, there are multifarious and multifaceted ways of arriving at the same conclusion. This implies that we can all exclude things, people, places, ideas, thoughts, and patterns in whatever way you deem necessary. Some people can deal with an evil spirit through prayer; somebody else may need counseling. You have to find the appropriate way to eliminate hindrances, ideas, logics, and habits that will prohibit you from ultimately reaching your divine destiny. I don’t care who you are; I don’t care where you’re sitting; I don’t care what your degree is; I don’t care where you graduated from. Everybody in here has something in their life that’s a weight that so easily besets you. Am I all right so far? It’s that thing; it’s that thought; it’s that habit that hinders progress. In the face of it, if you’re honest, you’re sometimes rendered useless, helpless, and powerless against overcoming this thing that somehow has gripped your mind, body, and soul. When you’re in the presence of this thing, you are under its arrest, like the man who lived in the country of the Gadarenes. At the time of the text, he is living purposefully in a cemetery; he is not there because his family owns land there, nor because he has a job there. In fact, the Bible says that he is often bound with chains, so he is there by choice. The people who don’t want to deal with him have come to that place and have somehow locked him down. Listen, he’s able to break the chains but not the cycle. The Bible says he breaks free, somehow he breaks the handcuffs but never changes locations. He’s locked in the cemetery; he has enough strength to break his chains but doesn’t have enough strength to break his cycle. Oh, I wish I could talk to you! He’s got enough strength to take the chain and ball and drag it. He has enough strength if he is bound with fetters, meaning he’s bound with ropes and chains. Even though he’s bound, somehow he finds the strength to break his hands free from behind his back, brings his legs out of the locks and the stakes, but he doesn’t have the strength to leave a place he’s accustomed to. I wish I could talk to somebody who would be honest and say, pastor, I’m just like that. I’m not here because somebody locked me here; I am here because even when I’m free, I don’t know where to go. I get the word on Sunday; it’s life-changing, and in church, I’m saying I’m going to do better, but I leave the sanctuary and go back to my cemetery. I go right back to that dead place. Do I have fifty people who can agree? I could be done in twenty minutes; holla at your boy! I leave worship and go right back to a war. I leave the sanctuary and go back to a cemetery. I leave here on a high, but I’m low by the time I get to 59. I don’t know how to stop the cycle of leaving my cemetery, breaking free in a sermon, hearing the preacher talk about a breakthrough, but I can’t break free. I’m stuck in my cycle. If I could just get someone to be honest because you may be sitting next to somebody who needs to know, touch them and say, I’m in that with you. Touch them and tell them, I’m in that with you; I’m stuck in my cycles. Jesus, Jesus, watch this: Jesus is on a boat with twelve disciples-twelve men that he has picked, twelve church people, twelve choir directors, twelve deacons, whatever you want to call them. Twelve guys that are in the church, and Jesus is on the boat with them, and on the other side of the sea, there is a man who has six thousand demons in him. Jesus opts to get off the boat with the church people and go over to the cemetery with a man who has six thousand demons inside of him, six thousand unclean spirits. He leaves Peter, James, and John, leaves twelve guys who can speak in tongues, leaves twelve tithers on the boat, leaves twelve ministry leaders on the boat, leaves twelve people who don’t wear makeup, twelve people who know all the hymns, twelve people who know Winokur-leaves all of that and goes over here and spends his time with six thousand demons. Honest, let’s talk about it, because you thought because you were holy, God wanted to hang out with you. You thought because you were tithing, that meant you were a shoe-in; you thought that because you come to Bible study every Tuesday night, God would never leave you. He left the church people to go find somebody who could get the church in them. What I’m trying to tell you is that in this next season, God says congratulations for being in the church, but your next season is asking when are you going to get the church in you?