Keion Henderson - Speech Therapy

I want to talk about speech therapy. I want to discuss how God is going to change the way you speak. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh upon us. Eternal Spirit, it is once again that I come asking for your permission to preach-not to entertain, but to proclaim that you are the Christ. Use me and guide me; order my steps in your word. Hide me behind your cross. Cover me in your blood, that they may see none of me, but, O Lord, all of you. I’m yours; you’re mine. Use me as your instrument and help me play the tune of your choice. In Jesus' name, we pray, Amen. Just tell everybody in your house: speech therapy-just speech therapy! I’m probably going to lose a few of you sanctified Christians early because of the reference I intend to make, but it is one that I necessarily need to make to get to a point of understanding. As it relates to music, I’m pretty much old school. Pierre, I like young singers, Destiny, I do, but there 's nothing like some good old Al Green, nothing like Luther Vandross, and Bobby Womack. Some of y’all probably don’t even know what I’m talking about already, but there was a guy who came up through the ranks during that season of singers. His name is Theodore Pendergrass, better known as Teddy P. It’s important that you know that Theodore Darryl Pendergrass had five consecutive platinum albums-that’s hard to do! He had five consecutive platinum albums. He was, in his time, what young folks would call the GOAT. He was the greatest of his time, but everybody goes through a moment where they 're up and down, riding the cloud of packed stadiums, fanfare, fame, notoriety, and riches. In March 1982, that same guy who had danced and paraded across stages all around the world was subject to a car accident, and the crash left him paralyzed from his shoulders down to his feet. Now don’t forget that I said he had released five consecutive platinum albums, one after another. That means he sold at least one million copies of five albums consecutively. He sang those songs, and many of you probably know some of those songs: «Turn Off the Light, » «Close the Door.» It seemed like everything had to do with a room. But in March 1982, he got in a car accident, and thank God he survived. Would you know that this man, who had five platinum albums chart consecutively, after recovering from his accident, went for about eight years without getting a song in the top 50? How does a man go from having five consecutive platinum albums to not even being able to chart? He’s the same man; he’s got the same abilities, and he’s got the same voice. It wasn’t until almost a decade later that he released another song called «Joy, » and then suddenly this man, who had gone all those years without charting, released a song called «Joy» and charted again. You have to ask yourself: what was the recipe for success, what was the reason for failure, and how did he get back to the same place he was before? You 're going to have to follow me on this. Because before the crash, it was «Turn Off the Lights, Close the Door, » but after the crash, it was «Joy.» It seems to me that each one of us in our lives has something that we will run into that is designed to change what comes out of our mouths. The reason why he could not chart in those eight, seven, eight, nine, ten years is because here was a man who used to be able-bodied and was now sitting in a wheelchair, still trying to sing the same type of song. But it’s very difficult to sing about what you will do to a person when your body doesn’t have movement. It’s very difficult to talk about what takes place in a bedroom. It’s very difficult to keep the same speech when something happens in your life that takes your abilities away. I’m gonna get there. Isn 't it amazing? I think I should say it this way: how running into a tree-how getting into an accident-changed his voice. And isn’t it amazing, if you’re watching me today, that if you have lived long enough, you have run into something that has changed your tone as well? You 've run into something that changed whom you spoke to; you’ve run into something that changed how you said things. You have encountered something that has made you rethink your vocabulary. When you go through things, it is designed to change the way you speak. The Bible is full of evidence! If you don’t believe me, the Bible is full of evidence of how situations and seasons have changed the trajectory of its most famous characters. Now, it’s amazing because in the court system, when you give a testimony and you change it, it is punishable by law under the definition of perjury. That whenever you say one thing and you stick with that thing, and then all of a sudden you change your story, you have committed perjury, which is punishable. But here’s the difference between the court of law and the kingdom of heaven: God is actually looking for contradictions. God is looking for contradictions; He is trying to create circumstances where contradiction is possible.