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00:00:00 (upbeat music)
00:00:02 - Thanks so much for joining our YouTube channel today.
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00:00:30 Our scriptural lesson today comes from Genesis 2,
00:00:34 verse four through nine,
00:00:37 reading from the New Living Translation of the Scriptures.
00:00:40 Notice there these words.
00:00:42 This is the account of the creation
00:00:44 of the heavens and the earth.
00:00:45 When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,
00:00:50 neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth,
00:00:54 for the Lord God had not yet sent rain to water the earth
00:00:57 and there were no people to cultivate the soil.
00:01:01 Instead, springs, King James Version says,
00:01:04 a mist came up from the ground and watered all the land.
00:01:08 And then the Lord God formed the man
00:01:11 from the dust of the ground
00:01:12 and he breathed the breath of life into the man's nostrils
00:01:16 and the man became a living person.
00:01:19 And then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east
00:01:23 and there he placed the man he had made.
00:01:27 The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up
00:01:29 from the ground, trees that were beautiful
00:01:31 and that produced delicious fruit.
00:01:33 In the middle of the garden, he placed the tree of life
00:01:38 and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
00:01:41 I'm speaking today simply from the subject,
00:01:42 planted for purpose, planted for purpose.
00:01:47 It is interesting to note here
00:01:50 that God planted the first garden.
00:01:55 The Bible says God planted the garden.
00:01:58 He created the earth, but he planted the garden.
00:02:01 And then he planted a man in the garden
00:02:03 because God always creates the place
00:02:07 and then he sends the person to the place.
00:02:10 The reason that we are oftentimes called the seed of Abraham
00:02:17 seed is totally insignificant
00:02:21 if it has no place to be planted.
00:02:25 So that's why God said to Abraham,
00:02:26 "Abraham, get up and go into a place,
00:02:31 a land that I will show you."
00:02:33 Because he was the carrier of the seed, but he had no land.
00:02:39 And God says, "I'm gonna take you to a place."
00:02:43 Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place for you
00:02:47 so that where I am there you may be also."
00:02:51 God always creates the place
00:02:53 and then he'll back up and create the person for the place.
00:02:56 He formed the woman's womb
00:02:58 before he put the baby in the womb.
00:03:01 He got the place,
00:03:02 the birthing transformation chamber ready first.
00:03:05 Then the seed goes there.
00:03:08 There's no reason for a seed to go to a place
00:03:11 where there's not an incubation chamber that is waiting.
00:03:15 And the earth, the soil is the incubator for seed.
00:03:20 And so seed means nothing until it gets to the place.
00:03:25 And that's why sometimes you can carry purpose,
00:03:27 you can carry destiny on the inside of you.
00:03:30 And it is not until you get in proximity of the place
00:03:35 that now what you carry begins to make sense.
00:03:39 It is amazing that when Mary and Elizabeth
00:03:42 came in proximity with each other,
00:03:45 they were both carrying something,
00:03:46 but until they got close to it,
00:03:48 it made the baby leap in her womb.
00:03:50 So something leapt in Elizabeth
00:03:56 that she had been carrying for at least six months
00:03:58 and had never felt her baby move.
00:04:00 But the moment that it came into cataclysmic encounter
00:04:04 with it's the one that it would become the forerunner of,
00:04:08 something leapt in her womb.
00:04:11 You gotta be able to get people around you
00:04:14 that make your baby leap.
00:04:18 Somebody that has something,
00:04:19 that's when you realize I'm in the right place.
00:04:22 I'm in the right place.
00:04:23 If God called you to this ministry,
00:04:25 there ought to be things that are said here
00:04:27 that causes something to leap in your spirit,
00:04:30 that makes your baby come alive and you realize,
00:04:32 hey, hey, God, I hear you talking to me.
00:04:35 This is not a coincidence.
00:04:37 I hear you, Lord God, I hear you.
00:04:40 And this is not an accident, but I hear you.
00:04:43 And so that's how you know oftentimes
00:04:45 that you are connected in kingdom purpose
00:04:48 with someone is that they will stir something in your heart.
00:04:52 They'll stir something in your heart.
00:04:56 God planted the garden and then he planted the man
00:04:59 in the garden.
00:05:00 He planted the garden and then he planted the man
00:05:03 in the garden because God has us there for purpose.
00:05:06 He planted a garden and he put Adam there on purpose
00:05:11 and then gave him a purpose.
00:05:15 Well, what purpose did he give him?
00:05:16 It's right in the same chapter, Genesis chapter two
00:05:18 in verse 15, the Lord God placed the man
00:05:21 in the garden of Eden to do what?
00:05:24 To tend and watch over it.
00:05:27 So he had to tend it.
00:05:29 God is not gonna just give you everything already done.
00:05:32 He'll give you something to cultivate.
00:05:36 Wouldn't it be wonderful if he gave you your children
00:05:38 and they were already up walking
00:05:39 and potty trained and everything?
00:05:41 God said, hey, I'm giving you a seed, tend it.
00:05:44 Tend it 'cause some wild stuff is gonna start growing up
00:05:47 around them and in them and you got to pluck it out
00:05:52 while they're young, while you can still get it out
00:05:55 with a switch.
00:05:56 (congregation laughing)
00:05:59 Where you begin to actually lay down some laws
00:06:03 and create some barriers, not here, not here, not here.
00:06:08 So God gave him a job, told him cultivate this.
00:06:13 Nothing is more important than the garden of your mind
00:06:16 or your soul where seeds called thoughts are planted.
00:06:21 And every time that a thought or an idea comes
00:06:26 into your mind, that thought will have a consequent.
00:06:29 If you allow it to begin to take root in the garden
00:06:32 of your mind, it will eventually bear fruit.
00:06:35 And this is why the scriptures has taught us
00:06:37 the principles, guard your heart with all diligence
00:06:42 for out of it come the issues of your life.
00:06:45 Somehow somebody planted something
00:06:49 and if you're not careful, something will grow
00:06:54 that does not look like the seed
00:06:56 that you put into the ground.
00:06:57 Because the Bible says when you plant the seed,
00:07:02 it comes up of its own.
00:07:03 Did you ever notice that nobody ever plants weed seeds?
00:07:11 Weeds grow up on their own.
00:07:13 The Bible says an enemy hath done this while men slept.
00:07:17 They sowed weeds, tears, weeds,
00:07:22 and the weeds began to choke out the life of it.
00:07:26 May I say this to you?
00:07:27 One of the ways to be able to control the weeds
00:07:32 is to grow thick grass.
00:07:35 If you have thick vegetation there,
00:07:39 it'll choke out the life of the weeds.
00:07:42 And so sometimes you don't need to be weed conscious,
00:07:44 you need to be thinking about growing your grass.
00:07:49 If you grow your grass strongly enough,
00:07:51 when you got grass that's like a strong carpet
00:07:54 that is out there, the weeds don't grow there
00:07:56 because the strength of the grass itself
00:07:59 chokes out the life of the weed.
00:08:01 So fortify your grass, water your grass,
00:08:08 protect your grass, fertilize your grass
00:08:11 because it is the best weed deterrent.
00:08:15 So I don't wanna walk around all the time
00:08:17 with the devil on my mind.
00:08:19 I'm not here to serve him.
00:08:21 I want God on my mind.
00:08:23 I wanna sow my mind with things of the Word of God.
00:08:26 I wanna build on things that are eternal.
00:08:28 I don't wanna be thinking about you, devil.
00:08:30 I'm not here for you.
00:08:31 In fact, you oughta look at the devil sometimes
00:08:35 and say, "Devil, I ain't thinking about you."
00:08:38 When God is on your mind, when God is on your mind,
00:08:40 I'm telling you, when God is on your mind
00:08:43 and the seeds of His Word are planted
00:08:45 in the garden of your mind,
00:08:47 you will reproduce a harvest of things
00:08:50 that will produce life and peace.
00:08:53 That's the fruit of how you know
00:08:54 that you've given birth to something
00:08:56 that really comes from God.
00:08:58 And I love the fact that God not only planted the garden,
00:09:01 but he planted the man in the garden
00:09:03 and gave him an assignment.
00:09:05 But notice what the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 12:18.
00:09:10 "But now God has set members, each one of them,
00:09:15 "in the body just as he pleased."
00:09:19 God planted the members in the body of Christ
00:09:23 as it has pleased Him.
00:09:25 He planted the members in our natural bodies
00:09:27 as it has pleased Him according to His purpose,
00:09:30 to suit His purpose for which He created it.
00:09:33 And God says, "I'm pleased with this."
00:09:35 The way that I have set the members.
00:09:37 Now listen, when God sets you,
00:09:39 you don't leave because you get upset.
00:09:40 Because you will always find something
00:09:44 that's gonna be upsetting.
00:09:46 Even when God has sent a person in your life,
00:09:48 you're gonna see some things that are upsetting
00:09:51 to you about that person.
00:09:52 You can't leave every time you get upset.
00:09:54 You'll be hopping from house to house
00:09:58 because of what she said or what she didn't say.
00:10:01 Or because of what he said or what he did.
00:10:03 You'll be hopping from relationship to relationship,
00:10:06 just like that.
00:10:07 You don't leave when God has set you
00:10:09 just because you get upset.
00:10:14 You have to say, "Lord, whatever it is
00:10:15 "that you need to do in me,
00:10:16 "whatever that needs to die in me
00:10:18 "so that I can live in peace here."
00:10:20 'Cause dead folks don't complain.
00:10:23 And dead folks don't stress, and dead folks don't worry.
00:10:25 Sometimes God will put you in a situation
00:10:28 and let something die in you so that you can actually live.
00:10:32 He's trying to kill the we, not you.
00:10:35 (congregation applauding)
00:10:38 But God has not only planted you,
00:10:40 but he has placed you in a way that serves him
00:10:44 and it serves the purpose for which you were born.
00:10:47 So that's why I say you were planted for purpose.
00:10:49 You were planted for purpose.
00:10:51 Your purpose was planned divinely by God.
00:10:56 The city that you grow up in,
00:10:59 where you move, where you work, where you live,
00:11:01 all of that is strategic by God.
00:11:04 And you have something for the place that he places you.
00:11:08 But you know, there's something
00:11:09 that is called companion planting,
00:11:11 and it's a great way to be able to use space efficiently
00:11:15 in a garden, particularly that brings mutual benefits to it.
00:11:20 And here's what I want you to see here.
00:11:21 That's one example is called
00:11:24 the three sisters companion planting model
00:11:27 that integrates corn and squash and beans.
00:11:31 They each provide something to the other.
00:11:34 The corn provides a stalk for the beans to be able to climb
00:11:38 and it becomes a visual deterrent for squash insects
00:11:42 like the squash vine borer.
00:11:44 And then the beans provide nitrogen,
00:11:47 which is necessary in the soil.
00:11:49 And then the squash can be a deterrent
00:11:52 to vertebrae animals like raccoons,
00:11:55 which often eat the sweet corn.
00:11:57 There are different kinds of crops
00:11:59 that God will put as companion planting
00:12:02 so he doesn't just plant you.
00:12:04 When I planted Word of Faith,
00:12:05 it wasn't just me being planted,
00:12:07 but God planted a wife in my life
00:12:09 that became my counterbalance.
00:12:11 And she had gifts that were complimentary to me
00:12:14 as a companion, so things that I lacked in,
00:12:18 she had a strength in.
00:12:19 That's companion planting.
00:12:22 Did you know that there are some natural things
00:12:23 that you can plant in your garden
00:12:25 that will serve as an herbicide,
00:12:28 that will help repel insects like mosquitoes,
00:12:31 lavender, different things, and lemongrass.
00:12:34 These are certain things that can actually repel pests
00:12:37 from your garden, keep fleas off of you
00:12:40 and irritating mosquitoes.
00:12:45 You ought to have companions that God plants in your life
00:12:48 that become your protector.
00:12:49 Hey, hey, hey.
00:12:51 Hey, hey, hey, hey.
00:12:52 They don't come over here.
00:12:54 And it's like so-and-so is scared to call you
00:12:56 'cause your husband is home.
00:12:58 And they won't come to your house
00:12:59 'cause your wife is there.
00:13:00 That's your protector.
00:13:03 They're designed to repel people
00:13:05 that don't mean you any good.
00:13:08 You better thank God for companion planting.
00:13:10 God will plant the right one
00:13:13 that will help you to be better.
00:13:15 They are a protector for you.
00:13:16 They are protector.
00:13:17 What, what, what, excuse me.
00:13:20 Is there something that I can help you with?
00:13:22 Why are you calling?
00:13:26 And I like the old kind of telephone
00:13:28 that was where you had a cord.
00:13:30 And you couldn't get around it
00:13:34 by calling somebody's line direct.
00:13:36 You had to, somebody's mom and daddy picked it up
00:13:39 and they let you know that this is my phone.
00:13:41 And you couldn't call after a certain time.
00:13:45 And if you did, there were consequences.
00:13:48 Excuse me, young man.
00:13:49 You know what time it is?
00:13:50 You didn't call anybody's house after nine o'clock.
00:13:54 You know?
00:13:56 You know what, and talking your way until they fall asleep.
00:13:59 See that's companion planting.
00:14:05 They're not there to spoil your fun.
00:14:06 They're there to protect.
00:14:08 And sometimes the devil can make you think
00:14:11 that the very person who's assigned
00:14:13 as a complimentary person to you
00:14:16 that helps to supply something that you lack.
00:14:19 They are a blessing actually that helps to protect you
00:14:23 and they supply certain parts of your life
00:14:26 that you don't necessarily have.
00:14:27 Like you can have a real quiet,
00:14:30 very reserved, laid back kind of personality.
00:14:32 You go out to eat, you order a chicken dinner
00:14:35 and the chicken comes back, you cut into it
00:14:36 and it's bleeding.
00:14:37 And they're like, "Oh no, it's okay.
00:14:41 "I mean, I'll just eat the vegetable."
00:14:43 No, no, don't bother.
00:14:45 And homeboy, excuse me, sir.
00:14:47 Can you throw this back on the grill?
00:14:52 You need them.
00:14:53 You need somebody that will speak up to say,
00:14:55 "Excuse me, hey, we're paying just like anyone else
00:14:58 "and they're gonna treat us with dignity
00:14:59 "and respect in this place."
00:15:01 You need somebody that will open their mouth.
00:15:03 That's your companion planting.
00:15:06 That God has planted somebody else in your life.
00:15:10 You're not all things to all people.
00:15:12 That's why you need somebody.
00:15:14 Whether it is a spouse, whether it is a friend,
00:15:16 whether it is a parent, whether it is a relative,
00:15:18 a sister, a brother, it's just somebody
00:15:20 that becomes your advocate.
00:15:22 You need somebody that God has planted in your life
00:15:26 and you realize this person is a gift of God to me
00:15:29 because God planted them in my world.
00:15:32 That's companion planting.
00:15:34 But here's what Bishop Bronner says,
00:15:37 that we as spiritual trees are planted in specific places
00:15:42 to change and impact the spiritual and social landscape
00:15:47 of the world in which we live.
00:15:49 And that's what we are supposed to do.
00:15:51 We're called to change the spiritual atmosphere
00:15:54 and the social landscape.
00:15:56 When you know God, it ought to start in your home.
00:15:58 If you know God and you're a person of prayer,
00:16:01 you ought to be able to create a prayer firewall
00:16:03 that said, "Devil, not on my watch.
00:16:05 "Don't you come in here messing with my spouse,
00:16:08 "my son, and my daughter.
00:16:09 "We are here to serve Jesus Christ."
00:16:12 And that thing ought to flow out
00:16:13 into how your life is lived socially.
00:16:16 It starts in the spirit, but it is manifested
00:16:19 in a very natural way in the social world in which we live.
00:16:22 And remember now again, that if you don't know your purpose,
00:16:28 you will distract yourself with pleasure.
00:16:30 And when you find people that stay high all the time,
00:16:36 they are just distracted from their purpose.
00:16:42 You're not trying to chill out, you're already chilled out.
00:16:48 You're distracted from your purpose,
00:16:52 from your purpose, from your purpose.
00:16:55 Anything that robs your sobriety, your clarity of thought,
00:17:00 the way I can give myself to purpose.
00:17:03 You were born for purpose.
00:17:05 You ought to get your high by doing
00:17:10 what you were put in the earth to do.
00:17:15 I'm here to tell you that when the spirit of God rides
00:17:18 upon me, I feel like I have, and I've never done any drugs.
00:17:23 I don't know what it's like.
00:17:25 I've never had any edibles.
00:17:26 I've never inhaled.
00:17:29 But I've been high in the realm of the spirit
00:17:34 where the peace of God floods over my soul.
00:17:38 I felt like I was floating.
00:17:40 I felt the glory of God rushing in.
00:17:42 I don't know about you, but I've just never felt a need
00:17:46 for any of that other stuff.
00:17:47 The Holy Ghost can take you into a realm
00:17:51 that you don't know whether you're awake or asleep.
00:17:55 It feels like a dream when the glory of God, I've all,
00:17:58 oh, I've, you're talking about companion planning
00:18:03 when he planted the Holy Ghost to live on the inside of you,
00:18:07 to think through you, to give you divine ideas,
00:18:10 to tell you back up, baby girl, back up, baby boy.
00:18:13 Hey, I meant we've got the ultimate companion with us.
00:18:17 God has planted a companion in your life
00:18:21 to be able to supply you in the areas of your deficiencies.
00:18:25 And so we have a need for that.
00:18:27 And though there is purpose for everyone who's in the earth,
00:18:31 not everybody sees their purpose
00:18:33 because looking is not the same as seeing.
00:18:40 Not every open eye sees and not every closed eye sleep.
00:18:44 We look with our eyes, but we see with our heart.
00:18:52 We look with our eyes, but we see with our compassion.
00:18:56 We see with our empathy toward other people.
00:18:59 We see with our spiritual discernments
00:19:02 because sometimes you can see a person
00:19:04 who looks like they are strong on the outside,
00:19:07 but when you look with your heart,
00:19:09 you see somebody who's afraid, somebody who's depressed,
00:19:14 somebody who's battling thoughts of suicide,
00:19:17 somebody who's dealing with abuse
00:19:20 that has happened in their life
00:19:21 and they're too afraid to open up to someone.
00:19:25 And I tell you this, whatever you've suffered with,
00:19:27 if you've ever been abused,
00:19:28 you know what that look is in their eyes
00:19:30 without their ever opening their mouth to you.
00:19:33 And you've got to be able to have eyes
00:19:34 to see because you can feel their pain.
00:19:37 You can feel it with your spirit.
00:19:39 You can feel it.
00:19:40 Anybody know what I'm talking about
00:19:41 the way you just realize?
00:19:44 I mean, sometimes when you've gotten grown,
00:19:47 you may be off of your mama's lap, off of her knees,
00:19:50 but you'll never get off of her heart.
00:19:53 And when you're connected to somebody's heart,
00:19:56 when they look at you, they see more than what meets the eye
00:20:01 'cause your lashes may be meticulously done
00:20:05 and your hair may be slayed.
00:20:08 You may have your face beat,
00:20:10 but they can look through the veneer
00:20:13 of all of that beauty and all of that glory
00:20:16 and all of your external accoutrements.
00:20:19 And they can see somebody that is hurting
00:20:21 and that needs somebody to talk to
00:20:23 and who's suffering silently with depression.
00:20:25 And they'll say, "Baby, what's wrong?
00:20:27 "You can talk to me."
00:20:29 That's what I'm talking about,
00:20:30 having eyes looking and seeing.
00:20:33 Looking and seeing.
00:20:35 You gotta be able to see some things by the Spirit.
00:20:39 You gotta be able to discern
00:20:40 when your child hasn't spoken to you
00:20:42 about what's going on in their world.
00:20:46 And you gotta be able to be sensitive enough
00:20:48 to see when they come in and they go to their room
00:20:50 and they close their door.
00:20:52 Subtle little shifts, subtle, subtle.
00:20:56 The subtle siftings of Satan.
00:20:58 We look with our eyes,
00:21:00 but we see with something totally different.
00:21:04 Amazing.
00:21:04 Take a look here at Matthew chapter 13, verse 10 through 13
00:21:09 in the New Living Translation.
00:21:11 Jesus' disciples came to Him and asked Him,
00:21:13 they said, "Why do you use parables
00:21:14 "when you talk to the people?"
00:21:16 And Jesus said to them,
00:21:18 "You're permitted to understand
00:21:19 "the secrets of the kingdom of heaven,
00:21:21 "but others are not.
00:21:22 "To those who listen to my teachings,
00:21:25 "more understanding will be given
00:21:27 "and they will have an abundance of knowledge.
00:21:29 "But for those who are not listening,
00:21:31 "even what little understanding they have
00:21:33 "will be taken away from them.
00:21:34 "This is why I use parables."
00:21:36 He says, "For they look, but they don't really see.
00:21:39 "They hear, but they don't really listen or understand."
00:21:43 You know what that means.
00:21:45 Jesus spoke in parables,
00:21:47 so it was a code language to the people
00:21:49 that had the same Holy Ghost that He had.
00:21:52 And He says, "If you are born of my spirit,
00:21:55 "you'll know what I'm talking about."
00:21:57 But the other folks will be saying,
00:21:58 "What in the world is He talking about?"
00:22:00 It's like you were talking in a secret code.
00:22:03 Because these are things that only the Holy Spirit
00:22:06 could translate to you and let you know
00:22:08 this is what that means.
00:22:11 But other folks hearing it,
00:22:12 they would hear but have lack understanding.
00:22:15 They would see it, but they just think
00:22:16 that there's something on the surface.
00:22:18 So they had those little symbols of a fish,
00:22:22 and the fish was a symbol that you were a Christian.
00:22:24 It was in reference to the miracle of Jesus
00:22:27 multiplying the fishes and the loaves.
00:22:28 They didn't identify themselves by a cross.
00:22:31 He hadn't been to the cross yet.
00:22:33 They identified themselves by the fish.
00:22:36 By the fish, it was a code to identify to another person,
00:22:40 hey, you're a Christian too?
00:22:42 They had the symbol of the fish,
00:22:47 and it was a secret code.
00:22:48 And the folks who had not been born,
00:22:50 who had not accepted Jesus said,
00:22:51 "What's that fish doing?
00:22:52 "They must like seafood."
00:23:00 They are lookers, but they are not seers.
00:23:02 There's a reason that the prophets were called seers.
00:23:06 'Cause not everybody whose eyes are open can see.
00:23:11 And this is my prayer.
00:23:14 I pray, oh God, Lord, may you grant my eyes
00:23:17 to be able to see beyond the obvious, God,
00:23:21 and see through the veneer and the facades
00:23:23 of other people, oh Lord,
00:23:24 so that I can see their real pain,
00:23:27 see their shame, see their issues,
00:23:30 see their insecurities, see their fears,
00:23:33 see their deficiency.
00:23:34 Open my eyes, God, that I might behold
00:23:37 and see like you see.
00:23:40 That's what discerners do.
00:23:41 They are able to see things by the Spirit
00:23:43 and speak from the Spirit to the Spirit.
00:23:46 I want you to notice how Jesus connected our fruitfulness
00:23:53 to being his true disciples.
00:23:55 Because Jesus is like, if you're connected to me,
00:23:58 if you're connected to me,
00:24:00 it is impossible for your life to be fruitless.
00:24:03 Because we don't produce the fruit
00:24:07 if you are connected to the vine.
00:24:09 The fruit goes through the branch
00:24:14 and manifests itself on the branch
00:24:17 without the branch having to do anything
00:24:20 except remain attached to the vine.
00:24:23 That's our biggest responsibility.
00:24:25 John chapter 15, notice verse five through eight.
00:24:28 Jesus said, "Yes, I am the vine, you are the branches."
00:24:31 Where does fruit grow?
00:24:33 On the branches.
00:24:35 But it grows on the branches
00:24:37 because the branch is connected to the vine.
00:24:39 So Jesus said, "Yes, I am the vine, you are the branches.
00:24:41 "Those who remain in me and I in them
00:24:44 "will produce much fruit," not just a tiny bit,
00:24:47 "much fruit."
00:24:48 If you remain connected, you'll produce much fruit.
00:24:52 "For apart from me, you can do nothing."
00:24:55 Apart from me, you can do nothing.
00:24:57 This is not by might nor by power.
00:24:59 This is not by your intellect.
00:25:00 It is not by your program that you have studied.
00:25:03 You might do something, but he's saying,
00:25:04 in other words, if I'm not in it,
00:25:06 it'd be sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.
00:25:10 If I'm not in it, you can sell all your goods
00:25:15 and feed the poor and give your body to be burned.
00:25:17 He says, "If I'm not in it, you're not doing anything
00:25:20 "but wasting your time.
00:25:22 "Apart from me, you can do nothing."
00:25:23 And he said, "Anyone who does not remain in me
00:25:25 "is thrown away like a useless branch and withers.
00:25:28 "Some branches are gathered into the pile to be burned.
00:25:31 "But if you remain in me and my words remain in you,
00:25:34 "you may ask anything that you want and it will be granted.
00:25:38 "And when you produce much fruit,
00:25:39 "you are my true disciples.
00:25:40 "When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciple
00:25:45 "and this brings great glory to my Father."
00:25:48 I want you to notice that, that he's saying here
00:25:51 that if you stay connected to me and my words in you
00:25:54 and you're in me, you can ask whatever it is that you want
00:25:58 and it shall be granted.
00:25:59 Now, this doesn't mean that if you know Jesus,
00:26:02 you can ask him for any and everything
00:26:03 because you have to interpret scripture
00:26:05 in line with other scripture.
00:26:07 In 1 John chapter five, the Bible says,
00:26:12 "And we know that he hears us
00:26:14 "if we ask anything according to his will."
00:26:17 So it's gotta be according to God's will.
00:26:19 You can't just name it and claim it
00:26:20 and blab it and grab it.
00:26:22 You gotta ask something that is in the will of God
00:26:24 'cause some of you all, your supervisor would be dead.
00:26:27 (congregation laughing)
00:26:30 Some other people, some of your relatives would be dead
00:26:36 if he gave you everything that you ask.
00:26:41 But he will grant those prayers
00:26:44 when we ask something that is according to the will of God.
00:26:47 I want you to understand this.
00:26:48 Faith is not designed to change God's will.
00:26:52 Faith is designed to facilitate God's will.
00:26:54 So you don't use faith to force God to do something
00:26:58 that he had no plan on doing.
00:27:00 Faith is the hand that we use to reach into the eternal realm
00:27:04 and bring into the natural realm.
00:27:06 And I know some people that are just waiting,
00:27:10 saying, "God, please, I'm waiting for my promotion.
00:27:15 "I'm waiting to be transplanted to a better area,
00:27:20 "to a better position."
00:27:21 But you know why you're waiting on God to transplant you
00:27:25 to a nicer, a bigger house, a nicer car,
00:27:28 better living situations?
00:27:31 God's waiting on you to grow.
00:27:32 Because one of the worst things that he could do
00:27:36 is to take you from the ghetto into the penthouse
00:27:41 without growing you to have a mindset.
00:27:46 That's what happened when they were in Egypt
00:27:48 and got into Promised Land
00:27:50 and they had the mindset of Egypt on the inside of them.
00:27:53 So he doesn't wanna move you until he has grown you.
00:27:57 So if you really want God to move you, grow.
00:28:03 Just one word, grow.
00:28:05 If you want better for your life, grow.
00:28:08 Grow, just grow, just grow.
00:28:11 Because like a houseplant,
00:28:14 you do not transplant a houseplant
00:28:18 into a bigger environment until it outgrows
00:28:22 the environment that it currently is in.
00:28:25 So when you begin to discover
00:28:26 that this thing is now pot bound
00:28:29 because the root systems are now all jumbled,
00:28:32 mangled together here in the bottom of this thing,
00:28:35 it's not growing anymore.
00:28:37 Here it's going as far as it can go
00:28:39 in this little environment.
00:28:40 So I've got to transplant, I can put it outside now,
00:28:43 or at least I've got to put it in a bigger pot inside.
00:28:46 But it's growth demands a bigger environment.
00:28:51 As a baby who is assigned to the womb begins there,
00:28:56 and after it outgrows the mother's womb,
00:29:00 by the time that that baby reaches about six
00:29:02 or seven pounds, eight, nine, by the time it's 10,
00:29:06 I mean, you get some of the whoppers
00:29:08 that will come out at 11 or 12,
00:29:11 but growth demands a new environment.
00:29:15 Growth demands a new environment.
00:29:18 Growth demands a new environment.
00:29:23 I don't care whether you get big and grow
00:29:26 through eating too much,
00:29:28 or big and buff through working out too much,
00:29:32 and eat a little, you know, slim fit stuff now.
00:29:36 You can't get your thighs in it,
00:29:37 and your biceps, and your triceps in these things
00:29:41 because you have grown.
00:29:42 Growth demands a bigger environment.
00:29:47 Growth demands a bigger environment.
00:29:51 I mean, my wife and I, we started off
00:29:54 in a little three-bedroom condo,
00:29:55 and I didn't move until my family grew.
00:29:59 My family grew.
00:30:02 I'm like, we all on top of each other.
00:30:04 Growth demands a new environment.
00:30:10 You want a new environment?
00:30:12 Don't ask God for it, grow!
00:30:14 If you grow, you can go.
00:30:18 If you grow, you can go.
00:30:21 If you grow, you can go.
00:30:24 Growth demands a new environment.
00:30:27 Tell somebody, tell them, I'm growing, I'm growing,
00:30:30 I'm growing, I'm growing.
00:30:31 I'm growing.
00:30:35 It's amazing.
00:30:38 If you want to move to better, grow.
00:30:42 If you want to grow, you must be pruned.
00:30:47 Because it is pruning, it is cutting off
00:30:53 that actually causes you to produce more.
00:30:56 So if I need to become more productive in my studies
00:31:00 or in my career, I need to prune some of my social media.
00:31:05 I need to prune hanging out with folks
00:31:09 that's not about anything, that's not challenging me.
00:31:12 I have to prune, and it doesn't mean that
00:31:15 I have to just cut you out of my life,
00:31:18 it means I need to limit my time.
00:31:21 I need to give a certain amount of time,
00:31:23 I need to prune, it's a cutting back.
00:31:26 When you prune something,
00:31:27 you're not cutting it all the way off,
00:31:29 you're cutting it back so that more growth can come.
00:31:33 If I want to move, I need to grow.
00:31:35 But if I want to grow, I must be pruned.
00:31:37 That means there's something that I have to be willing
00:31:40 to lose because you must give up in order to go up.
00:31:45 And if you can't give up liking things down on this level,
00:31:49 I mean, being able to go home and do whatever you want,
00:31:52 but when you want to be your own boss,
00:31:55 you're going to have to give up some of your free time.
00:31:57 'Cause you're going to have to think about things
00:31:59 that if you were just working for somebody else,
00:32:02 you wouldn't be thinking about this while you're at home.
00:32:04 But when you're the person who's the decision maker,
00:32:07 while you're at home, you'll be like,
00:32:09 well, I wonder what can I do with such and such
00:32:11 and I'm going to see if I can.
00:32:13 And every time you go somewhere,
00:32:14 you're looking and getting ideas about things.
00:32:18 You can't really turn it off.
00:32:19 And when you are that person,
00:32:21 something will wake you up at 1.38 in the morning.
00:32:24 It'll be 2.45 and it's not time for you to get up.
00:32:29 But I'm telling you,
00:32:31 you don't really understand when you have a dream.
00:32:33 A dream is not what you see in your sleep.
00:32:36 A dream is what keeps sleep from you.
00:32:38 It's when I'm having a hard time sleeping
00:32:42 because what's on the inside of me is kicking,
00:32:45 it is growing, it's demanding a new environment.
00:32:49 And when that baby gets to a certain level,
00:32:51 it begins to put you in birthing pains.
00:32:55 You go into full-blown labor.
00:32:57 It is the way of this baby said,
00:32:59 I will tear this house down.
00:33:01 Let me out, ready or not, here I come.
00:33:06 It's growth demands a new environment.
00:33:11 Growth demands a new environment.
00:33:13 Growth demands a new environment.
00:33:16 When you grow, you can't go back
00:33:18 into an abusive relationship.
00:33:20 T. Harv Eker said that it's simple arithmetic.
00:33:28 He says, you can grow your income only to the degree
00:33:32 or to the extent that you do.
00:33:35 You can grow your income only to the extent that you do.
00:33:38 You can grow your income only to the extent that you do.
00:33:44 You have to be committed to growth.
00:33:48 Here's the way that Bishop Bronner says it.
00:33:51 You can only grow or become
00:33:54 what you're willing to do consistently.
00:33:56 You can only become what you are willing
00:34:02 to do consistently.
00:34:05 It's not what you do sporadically that helps you to grow.
00:34:09 It's what you do consistently that helps you to grow.
00:34:13 Whether it's in your prayer life,
00:34:14 whether it's in witnessing, whether it is in working out.
00:34:17 You wonder why some people don't grow spiritually?
00:34:20 'Cause they only eat spiritually on Sunday.
00:34:22 Ooh, oh Jesus.
00:34:25 And then you're emaciating all during the week.
00:34:34 It's what you do consistently.
00:34:36 It's tomorrow when you wake up and say,
00:34:39 I will bless the Lord at all times
00:34:41 and His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
00:34:44 It's not when the worship team gets here and invites you in.
00:34:48 It's what you do consistently.
00:34:50 What you do consistently.
00:34:53 And I'm just here to remind you
00:34:55 that God will always make a way for His people.
00:34:59 Look at Isaiah chapter 41, verse 17 through 20.
00:35:01 Notice, he says, "When the poor and needy search for water
00:35:05 "and there is none and their tongues are parched from thirst
00:35:09 "then I, the Lord, will answer them."
00:35:11 God says, "I will answer thirsty people."
00:35:13 Anybody who's thirsty for me, He said, "I will answer them.
00:35:16 "I, the God of Israel, will never abandon them."
00:35:20 Notice what the extent that God said
00:35:21 that He'll go to, verse 18.
00:35:23 "I will open up rivers for them on the high plateaus
00:35:26 "and I will give them fountains of water in the valley
00:35:28 "and I will fill the deserts with pools of water."
00:35:31 God says, "I will make some things happen in an environment
00:35:33 "that it wouldn't normally happen in."
00:35:36 And He says, "Rivers fed by springs
00:35:38 "will flow across the parched ground
00:35:40 "and I will plant trees in the barren desert."
00:35:43 God says, "I'll plant you in a place
00:35:45 "where there are barely any people here
00:35:46 "and you'll wonder, 'Lord, why in the world
00:35:48 "'did you bring me out into this deserted place?
00:35:50 "'Why did you put me out in the boondocks?
00:35:52 "'Why did you put me out in the country?'"
00:35:53 Maybe He put you out there
00:35:55 because the dirt was cheap out there
00:35:58 and He was gonna develop something
00:35:59 that would cause people to be the path to your door.
00:36:02 Maybe, if you can trust Him.
00:36:04 And He says, "I am doing this.
00:36:06 "I'm doing this so that all who see this miracle
00:36:09 "will understand what it means,
00:36:11 "that it is the Lord who has done this,
00:36:12 "the Holy One of Israel who created it."
00:36:14 That's why God says, "I'm doing it."
00:36:17 And notice, Jesus said it this way,
00:36:19 "Blessed are those who do hunger and thirst
00:36:22 "after righteousness, for they shall be filled."
00:36:25 That's a promise.
00:36:28 It's the Old Testament and the New Testament.
00:36:30 The Old Testament, it was concealed,
00:36:31 and the New Testament, it is revealed.
00:36:33 God says, "Anybody who has a thirst for me,
00:36:36 "if you're thirsty for me,
00:36:37 "like the deer pants for the water after the water broke,
00:36:40 "so my soul."
00:36:42 If you have a thirst for God, God says,
00:36:44 "I will come into your driest place.
00:36:46 "I will break into your depression.
00:36:48 "I will come into your tribulation.
00:36:50 "I will come in and invade your lonely spells.
00:36:55 "I'll come there where you got negative thoughts,
00:36:57 "having anxiety attacks."
00:36:59 God says, "I will come in the midst of your dry place,
00:37:02 "and I will plant you like a cedar of Lebanon.
00:37:05 "I will cause you as a mighty oak
00:37:08 "to be able to prosper in an environment
00:37:11 "that is harsh and hostile to you."
00:37:14 But God says, "I will do this so that you will know
00:37:17 "that surely the Lord has done this thing."
00:37:21 It's amazing what God can and will do when you trust Him,
00:37:25 and He'll do it in an environment
00:37:27 that didn't appear to be conducive to it,
00:37:29 but God will make it happen, 'cause you wonder,
00:37:31 "God, why did you send me to this little place?
00:37:34 "Why did you send me to this side of town?"
00:37:36 Lord, there's nothing over here.
00:37:39 There's nothing over here yet.
00:37:40 If you obey Him and grow, if you obey Him and grow,
00:37:45 if you obey Him and grow, if you obey Him and grow,
00:37:49 God can cause you to blossom
00:37:53 in even the most harsh environments,
00:37:56 but you'll plant it for purpose.
00:37:58 A tree is not just there just for aesthetic beauty.
00:38:02 It serves so many other purposes.
00:38:04 It's there for air quality.
00:38:06 The air is different when you're in a place
00:38:08 that's flooded with trees.
00:38:09 Trees, as you know, we breathe in oxygen,
00:38:13 and we breathe out carbon dioxide.
00:38:17 The trees breathe in carbon dioxide,
00:38:21 and they release for us oxygen.
00:38:24 It's a divine exchange.
00:38:27 And so we give them what they need,
00:38:29 they give us what we need, but they help our air quality.
00:38:33 And the trees, they create a habitat, shelter for animals.
00:38:38 They create shelter for birds.
00:38:42 They create shelter for insects
00:38:44 and a place for them to procreate in the trees.
00:38:49 That's where the birds build their nests.
00:38:51 That's where the foxes go.
00:38:53 They would go to the trees.
00:38:56 That's where the monkeys are.
00:38:57 They go to the trees.
00:39:01 It is a haven for animals, birds, and insects
00:39:05 to feed them, to give a place for their procreation.
00:39:09 The trees provide shade for us, their canopy.
00:39:13 They provide shade, they provide shelter.
00:39:15 Most of our homes are made from trees.
00:39:18 Shelter.
00:39:20 They prevent soil erosion.
00:39:22 You have trees, they help the soil from eroding away.
00:39:25 And this is one that I really love.
00:39:28 'Cause my dad was one who went in the backyard every day
00:39:31 and took a nude sunbath, but it's because we had trees.
00:39:35 They give you privacy and they hide what you do
00:39:40 in your backyard from your nosy neighbors.
00:39:42 So that Karen can't see what's going on in the backyard.
00:39:46 Trees give us privacy.
00:39:53 And they create barriers of delineation
00:39:57 that mark territory.
00:39:59 Because on the other side of these trees is your property,
00:40:02 but on this side is my property.
00:40:05 And sometimes just the borders of trees, just a tree.
00:40:11 It's there for purpose.
00:40:13 It's a multifarious purpose.
00:40:15 And don't let anybody ever reduce you down
00:40:17 to just one thing.
00:40:19 In the same way that the tree has many purposes, so do you.
00:40:24 So do you.
00:40:26 And the beautiful thing is that when you are planted
00:40:27 in the right place, I love this,
00:40:30 you can still produce fruit even when you're old.
00:40:35 Psalm 92, notice this, verse 12 through 15.
00:40:41 The righteous will flourish like a palm tree
00:40:44 and they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon,
00:40:48 planted in the house of the Lord.
00:40:50 Planted in the house of the Lord.
00:40:53 Planted in the house of the Lord.
00:40:55 They will flourish in the courts of our God.
00:40:58 And they will still bear fruit in old age.
00:41:02 They will still bear fruit in old age.
00:41:04 If you're in your fourth quarter,
00:41:06 they will still bear fruit in their old age
00:41:08 and they will stay fresh and green.
00:41:11 They'll still come up with new ideas.
00:41:13 They'll still be writing.
00:41:14 They'll still be dreaming.
00:41:16 They'll still be thinking about things.
00:41:17 They'll still be doing, look at Mother Dylan over here,
00:41:19 almost 90 years old, still planted in the house of the Lord.
00:41:24 Still fresh, still green.
00:41:28 Look at the green, look at the green.
00:41:31 (laughing)
00:41:37 I love it.
00:41:38 Fresh and green, still dreaming, still believing,
00:41:45 still has ideas.
00:41:47 Still producing fruit.
00:41:49 Glory.
00:41:51 Hallelujah.
00:41:55 Glory, glory, glory.
00:41:59 (laughing)
00:42:05 Don't tell me that God is not real.
00:42:12 He's still moving and He,
00:42:15 whatever you didn't finish in your young days,
00:42:17 I'm telling you, God will extend
00:42:19 and give you length of days and long life.
00:42:22 Not while you're just drooling
00:42:24 and don't even know who you are,
00:42:26 but you'll be fresh and green,
00:42:28 still traveling, still ideating, still believing,
00:42:32 still coming up with new things,
00:42:34 still praying, still praying, still praying,
00:42:39 still trusting God, still praying deliverance,
00:42:42 still laying on hands for healing,
00:42:44 still, still teaching.
00:42:48 Hallelujah to Jesus.
00:42:51 And may I remind you of this,
00:42:59 that trees, trees grow both downward
00:43:02 and upward at the same time
00:43:04 because a tree is both gravitropic and phototropic.
00:43:11 And gravitropic, it means that it grows away from light
00:43:16 and towards gravity, that means it goes down.
00:43:19 Trees, before they do anything else,
00:43:21 they begin to take root, they are gravitropic,
00:43:24 they grow away from the light and towards gravity.
00:43:29 Phototropic is just the opposite.
00:43:31 Phototropic means that it grows away from gravity
00:43:35 and towards the light.
00:43:37 So it's not one or the other, it's both and,
00:43:40 at the same time, when you are a tree,
00:43:44 you will begin to be gravitropic first
00:43:46 and then you will be phototropic at the same time,
00:43:50 growing up toward the light and away from gravity,
00:43:53 but going towards gravity and away from the light.
00:43:57 It's important to go towards gravity first
00:44:00 so that you'll be grounded,
00:44:02 so that you're not high-minded,
00:44:04 so that you're not arrogant and pompous and supercilious,
00:44:07 so that you are grounded,
00:44:09 so that when God blesses you, you keep your feet
00:44:11 on the ground, your roots go down first.
00:44:16 That I am gravitropic, it is gravitropic
00:44:19 that before I build something, I'm gravitropic
00:44:23 to the degree that I have to work in the dark,
00:44:26 in the wee hours of the night,
00:44:28 gravitropic before I am phototropic,
00:44:31 before you can even see what I've been working on,
00:44:34 that I've been praying before you realized
00:44:36 that I was praying, that I was working
00:44:39 when nobody knew my name and I was studying
00:44:42 before anybody ever sent me an invitation to go anywhere,
00:44:46 that I was gravitropic and then eventually
00:44:49 became phototropic, but at the same time,
00:44:52 I was still, as I'm growing up, I still stay connected,
00:44:55 stay connected so that I keep my feet on the ground,
00:44:59 growing down and up, down and up, down and up
00:45:02 at the same time.
00:45:05 Gravitropic and phototropic, that's who we are.
00:45:10 It is the way of the cross, we are called
00:45:12 to go vertically up to God and then horizontally
00:45:15 out to people, we go up to God,
00:45:17 then we get something from God
00:45:19 and then we deliver it out to people.
00:45:21 I don't have the authority to speak for God
00:45:24 until I have spoken to God and God has spoken to me.
00:45:28 If he doesn't speak to me, I don't have anything to say.
00:45:32 If he doesn't give me divine revelation,
00:45:34 I'm a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.
00:45:37 We got to go up before we go out,
00:45:41 but you go down before you come up.
00:45:46 God's kingdom is an opposite kingdom.
00:45:48 The way up is down first.
00:45:51 It's gravitropic, God wants to get you ground at first.
00:45:56 God wants to get you ground at first
00:45:58 before he takes you up and puts you
00:46:01 into a heavenly experience.
00:46:03 It's amazing, but until you establish your root system,
00:46:08 it is your root system that makes your fruit system possible.
00:46:15 I want you to take a look at the shard
00:46:21 over in London, England.
00:46:22 We got a few folks here from London, where are you?
00:46:25 London, England, we got London up here in the choir.
00:46:28 You see this place there that's called the shard,
00:46:33 it's an iconic location in London.
00:46:37 It has 11,000 glass panels, 120 drilled piles
00:46:42 going down 174 feet into the ground.
00:46:48 It was secured, as you see it towering over London there,
00:46:53 it was secured by 700 truckloads of concrete.
00:46:58 And you don't see the concrete,
00:47:00 the stuff that grounds the facility.
00:47:03 Before the shards could be built up,
00:47:05 it first had to be built down.
00:47:07 Before the shard could be built up,
00:47:09 it first had to be built down.
00:47:11 The building's hidden roots hold the secret to its stability.
00:47:16 It's called the shard.
00:47:19 The next time you're in London, check it out.
00:47:22 But it's not that that's above the ground
00:47:24 that enables it to stand.
00:47:26 It is a gravitropic work that has been done
00:47:30 under the ground that nobody could see.
00:47:33 It's amazing what God will do.
00:47:36 And I want to say to you that we have mastered surviving,
00:47:40 but now it's time to thrive and time to live.
00:47:43 We're living in some prophetic times now.
00:47:49 And I'm telling you, the hand of God
00:47:51 is about to be revealed in the earth in ways.
00:47:53 I've seen some things coming on the earth prophetically.
00:47:56 You get ready to see that God's gonna,
00:47:58 he's gonna show you some stuff
00:47:59 that you've not seen in your lifetime.
00:48:01 You watch the hand of God,
00:48:03 that's the things that will happen in the earth
00:48:05 that science cannot explain.
00:48:06 You watch what God will do.
00:48:10 You watch, keep your eyes open.
00:48:12 I want you to not just be lookers,
00:48:13 but I want you to be seers.
00:48:16 I want you to understand prophetically
00:48:18 that God's about to turn some things
00:48:19 because he sits on the circle of the earth.
00:48:21 And there's a hand of God that is about to be moving
00:48:25 in various places.
00:48:26 You just watch the hand of God,
00:48:28 it's not gonna be long from now.
00:48:30 I'm not talking about something theoretically
00:48:33 that you may think there's gonna be many years off.
00:48:37 This thing is nigh upon us.
00:48:39 As a spiritual person,
00:48:40 I know the urgency of the spirit when God is moving.
00:48:43 I've seen the angels at the four corners of the earth.
00:48:47 They've got something that they're about to unleash.
00:48:52 I'm telling you, they were holding the reins
00:48:56 and they're just wording on a word from God.
00:48:59 And I'm just here to declare to you
00:49:00 that there are some things that we have got to get right.
00:49:02 'Cause the earth, we've lost our minds.
00:49:06 And God's about to slap us back.
00:49:09 (speaking in foreign language)
00:49:11 I'm telling you divinely by the Holy Ghost,
00:49:13 God is not unaware.
00:49:17 You better know that there's one who sits there
00:49:20 and he knows and God will do nothing in the earth
00:49:22 except he revealed his secrets to his servants, the prophets.
00:49:26 You better get ready.
00:49:28 You better set your house in order.
00:49:30 You better set your house in order.
00:49:32 You better set your house in order
00:49:34 'cause God's up to something.
00:49:36 God's up to something.
00:49:38 I wanna say this to you.
00:49:40 You don't necessarily have to focus right now
00:49:46 on even breaking generational curses.
00:49:50 You have to start focusing on generational blessings.
00:49:55 To say, "Lord, I want you to bless what's coming after me
00:50:00 "despite what has happened before me."
00:50:02 If you focus on the generational blessings,
00:50:07 it was Abraham that came out of paganism
00:50:09 that never wasted his time in breaking a generational curse
00:50:12 but he received the blessing of God
00:50:13 that is greater than the curse.
00:50:15 It is the blessing that undoes the curse.
00:50:18 You focus on generational blessings.
00:50:20 Nito Cobain said this,
00:50:23 that your present circumstances
00:50:26 don't determine where you can go.
00:50:28 They merely determine where you start.
00:50:30 Your current circumstances,
00:50:33 they don't determine where you can go.
00:50:35 They merely determine where you start.
00:50:38 Here's what I say.
00:50:39 Start where you are.
00:50:43 But start, start something.
00:50:46 Build something.
00:50:47 Grow, start something.
00:50:49 Start where you are.
00:50:52 Start with God.
00:50:54 Start where you are.
00:50:56 Use what you have and who you have
00:51:00 and then do all that you can do
00:51:01 and trust the Holy Ghost to help you.
00:51:04 Start, go, grow.
00:51:08 You wanna be transplanted, grow.
00:51:12 You wanna grow, be pruned.
00:51:13 God will bring you to some places.
00:51:17 Here in Genesis chapter two,
00:51:18 when he was talking about these things in creation,
00:51:20 God gave Adam a job, told him what to do.
00:51:26 Tend the earth, till the soil.
00:51:28 I'm giving you stewardship here.
00:51:30 He told him what to do.
00:51:33 But in Genesis 12,
00:51:35 he spoke to Abraham about who he would become.
00:51:39 What you do and what you become are two different things.
00:51:46 This was not based.
00:51:47 Your current circumstances don't tell you
00:51:50 what you have the power to become.
00:51:51 'Cause you can see people that have come
00:51:54 from brokenness and poverty.
00:51:57 God says that when you become gravotrophic
00:52:00 and trust in me,
00:52:02 and if you will bow in humility,
00:52:05 God exalts the humble.
00:52:07 He says, if you'll just go down,
00:52:11 if you'll just bow down your will
00:52:12 and do it my way this time.
00:52:15 I'll raise it up and I'll undo,
00:52:18 overdo and outdo everything the devil has tried to do
00:52:21 in your life, in your family,
00:52:23 that he's trying to work in your mind, in your body.
00:52:25 He'll outdo it.
00:52:28 He'll outdo it.
00:52:30 And he's trying to bring us into a place
00:52:33 now where we can have the spirit of God
00:52:36 to empower us, to be able to build something
00:52:39 that is a planting of the Lord
00:52:43 and it produces fruit for his glory.
00:52:45 And he's just looking for people that will say,
00:52:48 Lord, use me.
00:52:50 Use my family for your glory,
00:52:55 for your glory, for your glory, God,
00:52:57 to be able to build something that matters,
00:52:59 that makes a difference, that I plant it on purpose.
00:53:02 That's a reason that you'll plant it
00:53:04 in the place where you are with the problems.
00:53:07 A problem is an opportunity for growth.
00:53:11 When you need to grow,
00:53:12 God will introduce problems into your world.
00:53:15 Nothing will grow you like a problem.
00:53:17 Sometimes you wonder,
00:53:21 why in the world am I having so many problems?
00:53:24 It's the university of adversity.
00:53:26 God is growing you.
00:53:31 He's growing you.
00:53:32 He is enlarging you.
00:53:34 And one thing, when God begins to grow you,
00:53:36 whatever hat you bound,
00:53:39 the Bible says, and the yoke shall be destroyed
00:53:43 because of the fatness, the anointing.
00:53:46 It's because you grow bigger and power
00:53:50 because what was holding you has no power to grow,
00:53:54 but you can.
00:53:55 He's waiting on us to grow your planet.
00:53:59 And everything that is planted is designed to grow.
00:54:04 Everything that is planted is designed to grow.
00:54:09 And if you stop growing,
00:54:11 it is only because you have become disconnected
00:54:15 from the vine.
00:54:16 Disconnected, and you will be beautiful for a season.
00:54:23 And people cannot even tell that you've been disconnected
00:54:26 and that you haven't been praying and reading your Bible
00:54:28 because you still look like you're flourishing for a season,
00:54:32 for a season.
00:54:34 And afterwards, if you stay disconnected too long,
00:54:41 your leaves begin to wither.
00:54:43 Your fruit falls to the ground
00:54:46 because of your disconnectedness.
00:54:51 But God will transform what was a graveyard into a garden.
00:54:56 (congregation applauding)
00:55:00 A graveyard is where things are buried.
00:55:02 What's buried stays there,
00:55:04 but what is planted comes back up.
00:55:07 Jesus was planted.
00:55:08 No wonder he spent the night in the garden of Gethsemane
00:55:14 because he was a seed who fell to the ground to die
00:55:19 so that many sons and daughters could be born.
00:55:22 (congregation applauding)
00:55:26 You are planted for purpose.
00:55:30 Bow your heads.
00:55:32 There are those of you who are here today,
00:55:39 you look better than you are.
00:55:45 Your leaves are glossy.
00:55:49 Your fruit is shiny.
00:55:55 But you're dying on the inside
00:55:56 because you're not attached to the life giver, to the vine.
00:56:04 You have to abide in the vine,
00:56:09 remain attached to the vine, Jesus the Christ.
00:56:15 Some of you started off there.
00:56:17 You're on fire at one time,
00:56:18 but you know that you're not where you need to be
00:56:21 and where you used to be.
00:56:23 And Jesus is saying, this is now a time
00:56:26 for you to be grafted in and reattached
00:56:30 so that that life can flow back to you.
00:56:33 We had a man in one of our facilities
00:56:38 operating a circular saw
00:56:41 and cut off several of his fingers by accident
00:56:44 that had to be dug out of the saw.
00:56:46 We immediately put those detached phalanges on ice
00:56:54 and sent them to the hospital with the man
00:56:56 so that they could be reattached.
00:56:59 The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ
00:57:01 is that if you've had a detachment from the vine,
00:57:06 he's a neurosurgeon, ha, sheekah babaradosh.
00:57:12 And he knows how to reattach every nerve ending,
00:57:15 every capillary, every vessel,
00:57:19 back to where it can move once again.
00:57:23 While heads are bowed and eyes are closed,
00:57:28 if you know that you've been cut off,
00:57:30 you're not where you need to be with Jesus,
00:57:31 but you want to change that today,
00:57:32 I want you to just meet me here at the altar.
00:57:34 Just meet me, just meet me.
00:57:36 Just get up out of your seat and come on down.
00:57:37 While heads are bowed, but if you realize,
00:57:40 Lord, I can't keep on going this way.
00:57:41 I know better.
00:57:42 I wasn't raised this way.
00:57:43 I know I've gotten off track.
00:57:45 I'm missing something, God,
00:57:46 of a place that I used to be with you.
00:57:48 This is not who I am.
00:57:50 And my condition right now does not prophesize
00:57:52 where I'm able to go.
00:57:53 It only prophesies where I start.
00:57:55 And today, Lord Jesus, I determine
00:57:57 that I will start with you.
00:57:59 I will start with you.
00:58:01 I will start with you.
00:58:01 Come on, come on back home.
00:58:03 Come on and get yourself rooted and grounded.
00:58:05 Come on, come on, so that life begin
00:58:07 to flow back through you.
00:58:09 You are creative.
00:58:10 You are gifted.
00:58:11 You are blessed.
00:58:12 Your mind is intelligent.
00:58:14 You got more ideas than what you know what to do with.
00:58:16 Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on.
00:58:19 Come on, let him get plugged back in.
00:58:20 Come on, get reattached to the vine.
00:58:24 Reattached to the vine, reattached to the vine.
00:58:27 Come, come, come ye to the waters
00:58:29 without money and without price.
00:58:31 Jesus loves you.
00:58:33 He loves you.
00:58:34 You belong to him.
00:58:35 You were planted on purpose, with purpose, and for purpose.
00:58:39 There's a reason that you're here today
00:58:41 and that you heard what you heard today.
00:58:43 It's your day.
00:58:44 He's drawing you by his own spirit right now,
00:58:48 even now, even now, even now he's drawing.
00:58:51 Saying, "Come unto me all of you that labor
00:58:53 "and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
00:58:56 You're worn out.
00:58:57 This thing has sucked the life out of you.
00:58:59 You get up some mornings
00:59:00 and you don't even wanna get out of the bed.
00:59:03 You got a darkness and a heaviness on you.
00:59:05 You don't even understand how to explain.
00:59:07 Sometimes you just break out crying
00:59:09 and you don't even understand what's wrong with you.
00:59:11 You feel this darkness, you feel this heaviness.
00:59:13 Come on and get it out
00:59:14 because you can, so you can be reattached to the vine.
00:59:17 Today is your day.
00:59:18 Today is your day.
00:59:19 He's calling you.
00:59:20 He's calling you, he's calling you.
00:59:22 He's calling you.
00:59:23 Come, come, come, come.
00:59:26 Come, come.
00:59:30 Intercessors ought to be interceding right now.
00:59:34 Somebody's having the battle of their life
00:59:36 where they're saying, "Get up out of your seat
00:59:38 "and go and step out and bust a move, get uncomfortable,
00:59:41 "grow."
00:59:42 All growth happens outside of the comfort zone.
00:59:44 All growth happens outside of the comfort zone.
00:59:48 Come, come, come, bust a move.
00:59:51 Thank you, Jesus.
00:59:55 Thank you, Jesus.
00:59:57 Thank you, Jesus.
00:59:58 Thank you, Jesus.
01:00:00 Thank you, Jesus.
01:00:02 Thank you, Jesus.
01:00:04 God is good, he's patient.
01:00:06 He's waited for you.
01:00:08 He's waited for you.
01:00:09 He's waited for you.
01:00:13 He's waited for you.
01:00:14 (congregation applauding)
01:00:18 We hope that you enjoyed that message.
01:00:21 Don't forget to like and subscribe
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01:00:32 Thank you for what you do.