SID: Hello, Sid Roth your investigative reporter here with Tommy Tenney and I have to tell you last week something happened to me in a very supernatural fashion. You see, God began to tell me there were people that were watching that had separation between him and them. And that God wanted in the worst way to have intimacy with them. He wants you to know him. He wants you to experience his love, and I believe those same people are watching right now and I have a guest, Tommy Tenney, who was my guest last week and I said to Tommy, I have to have you this week because there was a special presence of God for certain people. This is an inter-active show, what I mean by inter-active is that you are not just going to sit back and be entertained, you are going to experience the supernatural hand of God. Tommy, we were talking last week about the book of Esther and, you know, when you say this it inspires me so much. When you talk about the title of your motion picture, One Night with the King, tell us what one night with the king could do for an individual watching us right now.
TOMMY: Like we were talking last week, favor is the key word in the book of Esther. It is virtually in every chapter that Esther found favor. And its about finding favor, not with just anybody, you don’t need everybody to like you, just the right one. But how do you, how do you get God to like you? Some people feel like that’s impossible, it’s really not. And Esther learned the secrets, and we’ve been talking about what we called the protocols of the palace. Picture this young Jewish peasant girl, picked up, deposited in the palace. She has to learn where to walk, where not to walk, what to say. She learns the protocol. And in terms of our heavenly king worship is the protocol; it’s how you act in God’s presence. What made the king notice Esther? And I’m going to make what could be a humorous comment but, Sid, I don’t really think that Esther walked into the King’s presence with an old dirty tee-shirt on, white fluffy bunny slippers with the back mashed out, and said, Hey, big boy, we’ve got to talk. I don’t think it happened that way. I think that…
SID: How many women were going after this position, would you say?
TOMMY: Well, somewhere between 400 and 1400. Some of them volunteered, some of them their parents sent them there to try to gain political positions. Some were just carried captive there.
SID: And many of them had pedigrees, not like Esther.
TOMMY: That’s right. It was unprecedented for a Persian king to not marry somebody from their lineage. And it’s an incredible story that God picked Esther, but Esther submitted herself to that protocol. She said, okay, to one of the king’s chamberlain, we know his name in the Bible, Haggai, she said, you tell me how to act, you tell me what to do, tell me what to wear, and she did that. And there are people who dishonor the king by refusing to learn how to act in his presence. My mission in life, I’m not the king, I’m a chamberlain, I’m a guy that’s been in the presence of the king and my goal is to tell people how to act in his presence. I talk to people about worship; I can tell you what the king’s favorite dress is. He said, put on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Praise is God’s favorite dress. And some people say, well, you know, that’s just not my personality. Yet they want favor. But they say, it’s not my personality to do that. Then don’t blame me if God doesn’t nod as we talked about…
SID: Are you trying to tell me, Tommy, it’s not my kingdom, but His kingdom, it’s not my will, but His will, but would you…
TOMMY: God has this incredible idea, Sid. He thinks church and the world is all about Him.
SID: It’s not about the pastor who has to give his message, or he’ll bust? I don’t believe I said that.
TOMMY: And neither is it about the banker that has to pursue his career or he’ll bust. It’s all about god. It’s about, we were created for a purpose, and you will all be frustrated, we will all be frustrated, if we don’t fulfill our ultimate purpose. And the ultimate purpose of man is to worship God.
SID: So many people go to church and they think the worship is the preliminary.
TOMMY: Worship is the only part of our services that God gets any thing out of.
SID: I would like you to say that again.
TOMMY: Worship, I didn’t say worship was the only good part.
SID: Right
TOMMY: I said worship is the only part of our services that God gets anything out of. God doesn’t get anything out of my preaching, your teaching. Can you see God sitting on the throne of Heaven listening to what we have to say and nudging Michael or Gabriel and saying, “Here, hand me a pen, I want to write that down, I didn’t know that.” No.
My preaching, my teaching doesn’t teach God anything. The purpose of preaching and teaching is to raise up worshippers. So, there’s an attitude that comes with the denigrating of worship. People say, you know, I’ll be late for church and I’ll miss the wo4rship but I’ll get there for the word. And they are proud of that fact. What they are saying is, saying to God, I’m going to miss your part. I want to get there for my part. And it doesn’t work.
SID: You know, in your book you talk about Esther’s preparation; especially soaking for a year. We’re going to take a break and when we come back we’re going to learn…
TOMMY: Can you imagine what she smelled like?
SID: I’m going to tell you something I think she smelled more like that perfume than she smelled like a human. We’ll be back in just a moment. Don’t go away. Someone’s neck has just been healed, someone’s back is just straightening out, and your hip the pain is gone, in Jesus name. This is interactive, two-way television, and some of you are about ready to have that encounter that your heart has wanted. Your mind just hasn’t quite figured it out yet, but it will. Don’t go away, we’ll be right back. Singer: “One night with the king, changes everything…”
