Keion Henderson - From Gloom to Glory

This God says, «I am going to turn your gloom into glory.» If you believe it, make the devil mad and give God glory in the gloom. Fist bump somebody before you sit down and say, «He’s going to turn gloom into glory. Gloom into glory. Gloom into glory.» So, we live in some crazy times; despair often feels a lot closer in these days than it actually is. Have you been hearing people say things like, «It’s worse now than it’s ever been before „? There 's a war on almost every continent — just wars. And if it’s not a war, it’s a rumor of war. That 's what John told us in Revelation-that in the last days, there will be wars and rumors of wars. Sometimes it feels like we wake up in this Matrix, where you don’t know what’s real and what’s fake, or who’s real and who’s fake. The other day, my wife and I were leaving my sister’s house-God just blessed her and her husband with a new house-and I’m amazed that my mother has four children: three biological and one adopted. All four of her children are homeowners. All of us went to college, and we finished. When we finished, we were just done quicker than they said we needed to be done. I was at my sister’s house, and I was driving. I’ve been there before, but the last time I went, I came from church, so I had it memorized. This time, I came from home, and it was just further. That 's why I had to put the address in the navigation system. No lie, the voice was telling me to do something different than the directions. The directions said to turn left, but the GPS was saying to go straight. Now I’m caught between two opinions-I don’t know whether to trust the screen or the voice. When you’re between two opinions, you often make the wrong decision. I didn’t trust the voice nor the screen; I trusted myself. „Lean not on your own understanding.“ We finally arrived because I told my sister I’d be there in 10 minutes, but 30 minutes had passed. She was standing outside waiting for me, and she was just about to call me because I’m a punctual person. Let me tell you something: if I say I’m going to be there at 10:00, I’m coming at 9:45 because I believe that being on time means being 15 minutes early. So, I’m late, and she’s waiting for me. I walk into the house, and I already know everybody’s going to laugh at me and tease me, so I got my story together. It was the GPS; it wasn’t my fault. It wasn’t that thing where the wife says go left, and the man thinks he knows where he 's going. We were so lost that I had her put the address in her phone, and her phone told us to go somewhere my phone told us not to. Come to find out, as we were driving, I ended up at my other sister’s house because the same address in my sister’s neighborhood is in my other sister’s neighborhood. I was almost at her front door while looking for the other front door. We finally got there, and we were the only ones there. I wondered where everyone else was. You know where they were? Lost, just like we were. Everybody started showing up 30 minutes to 10 minutes later because we were all lost. We had a good time; Thanksgiving was amazing. We played Spades, and I took an L. Y’all, I took an L. I have to admit it — I’m not proud of it, but today we are good. All right, I took an L-I’m not proud of it. We had a good time. The sun went down, and I had anxiety because now I had to go back down the same streets I had no idea about. Coming in with light was one thing; this time, I had to traverse the same terrain in the dark. I got back out on the same streets, and I was lost. We got out there, and there were no streetlights. The moon didn 't even know where this house was! There was no light, and I was at 10 and 2 on the steering wheel, having no idea where I was going. I was nervous inside, but eventually, I saw a streetlight and some headlights. All of a sudden, even though I didn’t know where I was going, I felt calm in my spirit because there is something about light. Light gives you hope. There is something about light that makes everything okay. There is something about light that lets you know that things are going to turn around, and that is exactly what Isaiah chapter 9 conveys. Parenthetically, if you go back and read Isaiah chapter 8, you will see it was one of the darkest times in the history of Israel. Assyria had just descended upon the children of Israel, taking their names and their economy, putting them under bondage. That is why what Bishop was saying was amazing because they were slaves at that time. Then Jesus says, „I’m going to free the slaves.“ And what am I going to do about the darkness? The first thing I’m going to do is declare myself as the light of the world. I don’t know who I’m talking to in this room today, but get ready for just a glimmer of light to start to show up in your dark situations. Weeping may endure for a night.