Participants: Yvonne Lewis (Host), Wintley Phipps
Series Code: UBR
Program Code: UBR000151A
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00:01 Stay tuned to meet one of the most
00:02 acclaimed singers of our time. 00:04 My name is Yvonne Lewis 00:06 and you're watching Urban Report. 00:31 Hello and welcome to Urban Report. 00:34 My guest today is Pastor Wintley Phipps, 00:37 Singer, Speaker and Author. 00:39 I had the privilege of interviewing him 00:42 on the "Anchors of Truth" Set so let's take a look. 00:47 I have the privilege of sitting on the Set 00:51 of our Anchors of Truth Program 00:54 with our Presenter for this Series, 00:56 Pastor Wintley Phipps, 00:57 he is no stranger to you, I know, 01:00 but just in case you've not heard of him, 01:03 he is an Author, he is a Speaker, 01:07 he is a Singer, he is a Pastor, 01:11 and he is a blessing to us, 01:13 thank you so much for being with us on Urban Report. 01:16 Thank you very much, good to be with you. 01:18 Pastor Wintley, I have known you for so many years 01:22 you even were... there were two pastors 01:26 that blessed my son, Jason, and you were one of them. 01:30 So, that was like almost 30 years ago. 01:32 So, I've known you for a long time 01:35 and during that time, 01:36 I have seen so many things in your career 01:40 in your ministry, you have sung for... 01:44 how many Presidents? 01:45 Six United States' Presidents. 01:48 Six Presidents! 01:50 Yeah, which is a blessing, and very unusual blessing. 01:53 That's amazing 01:54 and you have written this upcoming book, 01:59 Yes. tell us about the book 02:02 because people know you as a Singer 02:05 but I want our Viewers and our Audience 02:08 to know the Writer, 02:10 tell us about the book, what's the title of it. 02:12 The title of the book... and there are two books actually 02:15 one is a Workbook... a Study Guide, 02:17 it's called, "Perfecting Me 02:19 Becoming the person you were created to be" 02:24 the other book is entitled, "Your best Destiny 02:28 Becoming the person you were created to be" 02:31 and I wrote the book because 02:34 like you and many others myself... 02:39 I chased what seemed to be 02:44 like the destiny God had prepared for me, 02:47 and the destiny that I was dreaming about living 02:51 all of us have dreams when we're growing up 02:55 for me, it was to sing to multitudes 02:58 and to travel the world, 03:00 and when you get to do those things, 03:04 you realize that there are blessings 03:08 but there's something more important than that 03:12 and after doing a lot of prayer and research 03:16 God revealed something 03:20 incredible to me 03:22 and what He revealed to me was that 03:24 those opportunities that I was chasing 03:29 were really "Moments of Destiny" 03:32 and there were moments of destiny 03:36 meaning... moments that I really could not orchestrate 03:40 I couldn't put together but yet how do you 03:43 end up ministering to six Presidents 03:48 of the United States or how do you travel the world 03:51 or how do you meet some of the most amazing 03:54 personalities of the 20th Century, 03:56 I was blessed to be able to do all those things, 04:00 but what God showed me was 04:01 that those were moments of destiny 04:04 for which I was created but they're not the reason 04:09 for which I was created. 04:12 Ah, now unpack that for us a bit. 04:15 In other words, it was not the purpose 04:19 for which I was created. 04:21 So singing for all these different people, 04:24 and being in Stadiums and filling Stadiums, 04:27 that's not the purpose. 04:29 That's not the reason. 04:31 What is your purpose? 04:32 And that's what God had to make very clear to me 04:35 moments of destiny 04:37 are moments for which you were created 04:38 but they're not the reason, 04:40 and then God showed me the reason for which I was created, 04:44 was to grow more every day 04:49 to resemble, reflect, and reveal the character of God. 04:56 Hmmm... now why is that important? 05:00 Well, first of all, we were created 05:04 in the image of God, which means that we were created 05:10 to reflect the character of God, 05:14 the character of God is the glory of God. 05:18 Hmmm... so when we hear something about the glory of God 05:23 it's synonymous with the character. 05:25 Absolutely. Okay. 05:27 You know, for example, when Moses cried out, 05:31 "God, show me your glory," you know, 05:34 God didn't show him fireworks and lightening in the sky 05:38 instead God said and told Moses, 05:42 about His character, 05:44 the character of God is the glory of God 05:49 so when we seek to lighten the world with the glory of God, 05:54 we are seeking to lighten the world 05:58 with the true knowledge 06:01 of the character of God. 06:03 Hmmm... and how is that connected to our destiny? 06:07 Well because that's the ultimate destiny 06:12 for which we were created, Ahh... 06:14 it is the supreme destiny, it is the highest destiny, 06:20 and that's why I said, and I titled the book, 06:22 "It is your best destiny" in other words 06:25 if you achieve all these other wonderful accolades 06:32 and achievements and awards 06:35 and "Firsts" and you know, 06:38 you achieve all those things... those are wonderful things 06:41 but if, in your character, 06:44 you do not resemble Christ, and resemble God, 06:50 you have missed your best destiny. 06:54 Ah, come on now, I see, I see, 06:58 so, there are moments of destiny 07:02 and then there's your "best," come on... 07:05 You got it. 07:07 Pastor, I got you now, I got you now, 07:10 so, one of the things that I see in our young people, 07:15 is this... a lack of really knowing 07:20 their purpose, Yes. 07:22 Why am I here, 07:23 what has God put me on the planet to do? 07:26 Right, and in many ways, very few people are teaching 07:32 what I've just shared with you, 07:35 it's a light bulb that's going on in your heart, 07:38 Yeah, yeah. and it went on in mine, 07:40 and for a long time, 07:43 I taught the same message to young people, 07:47 you got to find your purpose and when we said that, 07:50 often we were talking about finding your career, 07:53 finding where you're going to spend your life on a job, 07:58 or finding... we used to say, 08:01 and I would teach, 08:03 "Find something that if you never got paid for doing it, 08:08 you still love doing it," Right, right, right. 08:12 because trying to help young people focus in 08:16 on what their purpose was, and there is a place for that 08:21 but even when they achieve, 08:26 like I have been blessed to achieve, 08:28 like you and others have been blessed to achieve, 08:32 and be around some of the most amazing personalities, 08:36 of our time, who themselves have achieved, 08:41 even many of them, realize... "Is that all there is?" 08:47 Yes. For example, you know, 08:49 I've been on some television shows 08:54 like Saturday Night Live, so you put it on your resume, 08:59 that's a big thing, you're on Saturday Night Live, 09:01 what if you do it again, 09:03 you put it on your resume again, 09:05 what's that? 09:06 Right, right, yes. What are you chasing? 09:10 More moments to write on a resume, 09:13 is that what your destiny really is? 09:16 You know Pastor, that is such a good point 09:18 because, so many people are chasing the moment, 09:24 Exactly. the moment... 09:26 and once you get there, you say... 09:30 like, I used to really be into the accumulation of things, 09:36 buying the best things and all that, 09:38 but once you get it, you say to yourself, 09:42 "Is this it?" That's right. 09:44 So, your point is so well taken 09:48 because those little... those major things, 09:51 being on Saturday Night Live, okay, that's great, 09:54 but there's got to be more, Oh, absolutely. 09:58 there's got to be more. 09:59 Absolutely, and that's what happened to me. 10:01 I've always admired people 10:06 who seem to have arrived on the stage of history 10:10 just at the right moment and accomplished incredible things, 10:15 and I've lived many of those moments myself, 10:18 I remember singing, "Amazing Grace" 10:20 and Mother Theresa, beckoning 10:23 to get up out of her wheelchair, so she can hug me and thank me 10:27 that's a moment of destiny. Yes, yes. 10:30 You know, I remember, singing "Amazing Grace" 10:33 and to my left is Mrs. Rabin, 10:37 and to my right is, her nemesis, Yasser Arafat, 10:41 and I'm in the middle singing, "Amazing Grace" 10:45 That's appropriate. 10:48 That's a moment, that is a moment, 10:51 and I've lived so many of those moments, 10:53 but then I had to understand, 10:56 and God had to help me understand, 10:58 that there is a bigger destiny than those moments, 11:03 and that bigger destiny is that one day 11:08 I will be able to hear the voice of God 11:13 looking at me and saying, 11:17 "Wow! you look so much like my Son. " 11:22 Oh, yes. "You look so much like my Son" 11:26 Yes, yes, yes. "in your character 11:29 in your temperament, in your attitude, 11:33 in how you treat people, in how you love, 11:37 you look so much like my Son. " 11:40 I will tell you this, 11:41 I often wondered why the most fiery, 11:48 red-hot blistering sermon Jesus ever preached, 11:54 was not to confirm sinners but to the most devout, 12:00 religious people of His day, the Pharisees, 12:03 and they were the preachers of their day, 12:06 they were the evangelists of their day, 12:08 they were well respected in their day, 12:11 they actually would study the Scriptures with people, 12:17 like our evangelists do, 12:19 then they would baptize them by immersion, 12:23 like our evangelists do, 12:24 when you came up out of the water, 12:26 you were a new Jew, you were a new member 12:28 but Jesus said of them, "You go to the ends of the earth 12:33 to make these new members, to make these new disciples, 12:37 but when you're through with them, 12:40 they're twice the child of hell that you are. " 12:43 That you are. That you are... 12:45 that's what Jesus said to them. 12:47 Whew! that's scathing. 12:48 Yeah, He said, "You are graves full of dead men's bones, 12:53 you are vipers, you are snakes, 12:55 you are... Empty sepulchers. 12:57 That's right and I would say, 12:59 "Why was Jesus so hard on these people 13:02 who seem like they were doing good stuff, 13:05 studying the Scriptures, baptizing, 13:08 bringing in new members, why was Jesus so hard on them?" 13:12 And then the Lord showed me, 13:14 what Jesus was really saying to them was, 13:16 "You go to the ends of the earth 13:19 to make these new proselytes, these new members, 13:21 but when you're through with them, 13:24 they look more like you than they look like me. " 13:29 Oh, wow! "They look more like you, 13:33 than they look like me, 13:35 they are cultural clones 13:38 of who you are, 13:40 you teach them to like what you like, 13:43 to act the way you act, 13:44 but when I look at them, I don't see 'me. ' " 13:49 Yes, oh yes, see, the important thing of... 13:53 the whole idea of being like Christ, 13:56 is so critical, 13:58 nothing else really satisfies the soul 14:01 until we're like him. That's right. 14:04 So conforming to His image, that's why we're here, 14:08 to conform to His image. 14:10 That's our purpose, that's our best destiny 14:15 and if you're not chasing that destiny, 14:19 you're missing out on the most glorious, 14:23 wonderful adventure of your life. 14:26 Becoming more like Christ every day 14:30 is the greatest adventure of life" 14:33 most people teach it and people come away scared 14:38 because... "I got to be like Christ 14:40 or I'm going to be lost, or I'm going to be damned," 14:45 you know, Hmmm... hmmm... 14:47 but I strive now... every day, to more resemble, 14:52 reflect and reveal the character of Christ, 14:54 and I don't do it out of fear, 14:57 I do it out of great joy, 15:01 why? because I know, 15:04 I am making my Lord very happy, 15:08 I do it because it's a source of happiness for me 15:13 and I know that it is a source of happiness 15:17 for my Savior, 15:18 watching me striving to be more like Him. 15:22 And isn't it a cooperative effort 15:25 because the power comes from the Holy Spirit, 15:29 the choice is yours. 15:33 Yes. Let's talk a bit about choices 15:35 Okay. and the importance 15:37 in terms of your destiny of the choices that you make. 15:41 Well, again, we know that in terms of your physical destiny, 15:48 if I can call it that, and those moments of destiny 15:52 choices are very important, and the choices come 15:56 because you got to learn to listen 15:58 to the Spirit of God speaking to you, 16:00 and He will tell you what to do and what not to do 16:03 and you make a choice, Hmmm... hmmm... 16:05 and He'll tell, "you turn left," and oooh! 16:07 you run into somebody you hadn't expected 16:10 you know, a blessing you hadn't imagined 16:12 and all of a sudden, wow! 16:14 "if I had gone that way... I would have missed that" 16:17 so you have that kind of blessing, right? 16:21 but then, you have a situation 16:24 where, when it comes to your best destiny 16:29 you have moral choices to make 16:33 Wow! hmmm... hmmm... 16:35 to keep moving in the direction of a destiny 16:38 to become more like the character of Christ, 16:41 it's not... "do I go ten minutes early 16:46 or do I go ten minutes later," 16:47 it's not that kind of "moments of destiny" 16:50 it's another kind of choice you make 16:52 and the choice is, 16:53 "to be obedient to the impressions 16:59 of the Spirit of God," choices to be obedient 17:03 to what you know and understand 17:05 to be the will of God and as you do that, 17:11 you grow to become more like the character of God 17:15 and as you study the character of God, 17:18 I must tell you, one of the things 17:20 that I was amazed about is that we don't study 17:24 the character of God. 17:26 Yeah, let's talk a bit about the character of God, 17:30 we know about the aspects, Omnipotent, Omniscient, 17:34 Omnipresent, right? but the character of God, 17:38 what are the attributes of the character of God? 17:41 First of all, you are an awesome interviewer, 17:44 you're asking just the right questions, 17:46 That's why we pray first, 17:48 we ask the Lord, "Please give me the questions" the Lord is good. 17:51 So, in answer to that question, 17:52 that's one of the first things I said, "God... " 17:55 like Moses said, "Show me your glory" 17:57 I said, "God, show me your character" 17:59 God said, "Study the Word," get this, and He handed me a key 18:05 God handed me a key, and this was the key, 18:07 He said, "Study the Word 18:08 and whatever God asks you to be, He already is 18:15 and He is so in perfection. " Whoa! 18:19 "Whatever He asks you to be, 18:24 that's His character, 18:27 He would never ask you to be, what He's not. " 18:32 I love it. 18:34 So now, as I go through the Word of God, 18:37 as I went through the Word of God, 18:38 and I studied the Word, 18:40 I was coming up with all these enlightened dimensions 18:43 of the character of God, I'd never seen before 18:46 because there's no Scripture that says, "God is happy" 18:50 it says... well, the Scripture says, 18:52 "He rejoices" but the Scriptures just say, 18:54 "He wants you to be happy" 18:56 He would never ask you to be 18:57 what He's not, 18:59 so, you can conclude, "God is happy" 19:01 there's no Scripture that says, "God is cheerful" 19:06 and that's probably why a lot of Christians 19:10 can't even conceive 19:11 a God who is laughing or smiling or cheerful, 19:14 but He says, "I want you to be cheerful," 19:17 And He wants us to have fullness of joy. 19:20 Right! He says, "I love it when you're cheerful, 19:23 I love a cheerful giver," 19:24 I said, "Oh! so God is cheerful" Hmmm... hmmm... 19:28 so, understanding now, 19:30 I was able to see all these amazing dimensions 19:34 of the character of God that I had never seen before, 19:36 but then I came across eight specific dimensions 19:42 of God's character 19:43 that He says, "I want you to have these eight" 19:47 and I found in 2nd Peter where He says, 19:50 "I want you to have faith, I want you to have virtue, 19:55 I want you to have wisdom and knowledge, 19:58 I want you to have patience, 20:00 I want you to have temperance 20:04 or self-control, 20:06 I want you to have a respect for what is sacred, 20:09 I want you to have love, I want you to have kindness" 20:15 and those eight dimensions are... again... 20:19 He would never ask you to have what He's not. 20:24 In perfection... He has perfected, 20:27 He is perfect. 20:28 He is perfection of all those things, 20:30 so He is faith... in perfection. 20:32 Yes. You know, 20:34 and our belief in perfection, 20:36 I mean, just think about when God believes 20:40 or when God dreams... planets are born. 20:44 You know, He has the power, this is just so incredible 20:48 but He has the power, whatever He has faith in 20:53 or believes in, 20:54 He has the power to see it come into being, 20:58 so He's got faith in perfection, we, in a little way, 21:00 and this is amazing but we, in some way, 21:04 have that same powers but not to that end, 21:07 not to that degree, 21:09 in other words, what we believe in, 21:10 Hmmm... what we have faith in, 21:13 comes into being, Hmmm... 21:15 "faith is the substance of things hoped for, 21:17 the evidence of things not seen," 21:18 so God is trying to get us to be like Him, 21:22 in that quality of faith, He wants us to be virtuous, 21:27 He wants us to be pure, He wants us to be morally pure, 21:31 He is a person of purity, 21:33 He is a person of righteousness and integrity, 21:36 He wants us to be a person of self-control, 21:40 because when you don't have self-control, 21:43 I tell people all the time, 21:45 when you can't walk away from something, 21:48 you don't own it, it owns you. 21:52 That's right. If you don't have self-control 21:55 enough to be able to walk away from anything, 21:58 you don't own it, it owns you. 22:00 That's very true. 22:02 And God does not want anything to own you 22:05 you can't develop your character, 22:09 as a slave to sin, Hmmm... 22:13 you see, and so, and you can go through all those 22:16 so those eight dimensions, and of course, kindness and love 22:20 are the two highest expressions of the character of God. 22:24 Kindness and love are the two 22:27 highest expressions of the character of God. 22:30 That is so beautiful, we often don't take the time 22:36 to consider the character of God, 22:40 and He showed you 22:43 and I'm thankful that you have written these books 22:46 to share with us, 22:47 so that we can go through each thing 22:49 and work out our salvation with fear and trembling. 22:53 Go through it and get to know God better. 22:56 You know, I'm sitting here in church a little bit 23:00 because, you're preaching my sermon for tonight 23:04 Oh, really? You are! 23:05 when you sit and hear the message 23:08 you're going to say, 23:09 Wow! that's just what we were talking about, 23:13 Praise God. because that's the next step. 23:16 Yes, I'll give you a little peek of it, for example. 23:19 Okay, good, good, we're getting the sneak peek! 23:22 Yeah, you're getting a sneak peek, the Lord says, 23:24 "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling" 23:26 well, salvation... has a purpose 23:31 the purpose is, 23:33 the transformation of our character 23:36 to resemble and reflect and reveal His character. 23:39 Hmmm... hmmm... That is the purpose of salvation 23:42 to restore us into His image. 23:46 So restoration into the image of Christ 23:51 is the purpose of salvation. 23:52 Absolutely. Wow! 23:54 It is the purpose of the Plan of Salvation, 23:58 is to restore us into the very image of God 24:02 and when we were talking about "giving a little snippet," 24:08 you mentioned something also, 24:12 and it just slipped my heart here but 24:14 do you remember what you were talking about? 24:17 About... I don't know... 24:19 well, we were talking about essentially, 24:22 the character of God, 24:25 And it was: 24:28 "working out our salvation with fear and trembling" 24:31 That's it, so, salvation with fear and trembling, 24:34 get this, this is just incredible. 24:37 "Jesus paid it all, 24:41 but Jesus is not going to do it all. " 24:47 Whoa! now you've got to... 24:51 we have like two minutes, you have to unpack that for us. 24:54 In other words, there are some things that you must do 24:59 to work out your own salvation 25:01 that not even God can do for you. 25:03 Hmmm... such as? 25:05 Such as, He says, 25:07 "I want you to submit 25:11 to His will" 25:13 He can't do that for you. 25:15 That's true. 25:16 He can kind of lead you into situations 25:18 and make you want to submit, right? 25:21 but He won't make the ultimate choice for you. 25:24 You have to submit, He says, "Resist the devil" 25:27 that's not something 25:30 God can do, 25:32 you can do it through His power 25:33 Hmmm... hmmm... but ultimately, 25:36 you have to decide that I'm going to resist the devil. 25:40 Right. I'm going to flee 25:42 Right, right. He's not going to run for you, 25:45 you have to run... does that make any sense? 25:48 Because He doesn't need to run, we're the ones that need to run. 25:51 That's right, so, yes, "Jesus paid it all," 25:54 praise the Lord, but that doesn't mean 25:58 that you can just... not submit and not resist... 26:02 and you have a... it's a cooperative effort. 26:06 And that's the whole idea of spiritual growth, is it not? 26:10 Yes, yes. Every choice that we make 26:14 helps to move us 26:16 into that best destiny. 26:18 Come on now pastor... You got it, you got it. 26:20 Oh, we're getting ready to have church in here, 26:22 we're getting to sign off, I can't believe, 26:25 our time is going so fast, it's wrapping... 26:28 what do you... give us like a 30-second thought 26:31 of what you want our audience to know 26:34 about their best destiny. 26:35 Well, if you strive for this best destiny, 26:42 meaning, to resemble, reflect and reveal the character of God, 26:48 everyday, more and more, it will result... 26:52 because of Christ, 26:54 in you achieving your eternal destiny, 27:02 and that is that you will live with God 27:06 throughout eternity you will... 27:08 face-to-face commune with Him forever. 27:11 Thank you so much, 27:12 I cannot thank you enough for being with us. 27:15 Oh, you're very welcome. 27:16 May God continue to bless you. 27:18 God bless you too. Thank you. 27:20 Pastor Phipps gave us a lot of information, 27:25 a lot of really valuable information 27:29 that we can use in our own lives 27:32 and if you'd like to know more about these books 27:35 or would like to purchase these books or his music, 27:37 go to: goodsamaritanmall. com 27:41 and you'll be able to get these books 27:44 and really study them 27:46 and make the information your own. 27:48 God has a plan for you 27:50 and God wants you to reflect His character, 27:53 we can do that by His grace if we get in that Word. 27:57 Well, we've reached the end of another Program, 28:00 join us next time, because you know what? 28:02 It just wouldn't be the same without you. |
Revised 2015-12-22