Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: Be sure to subscribe so we can get you these.
Speaker 1: New sermons every week.
Speaker 2: I hope you're blessed today.
Speaker 1: Good morning everybody. How about that new song? Huh?
Speaker 3: Anybody believe it in your heart? Somebody say God is
Speaker 3: for me. Look at your neighbor on your left or right,
Speaker 3: whoever's better looking, tell him, God is for me.
Speaker 1: God is for me.
Speaker 3: Come on, if you're grateful that God is for you,
Speaker 3: let's give God.
Speaker 1: The best, best, best best phrase. Oh come on, I
Speaker 1: think you can do a little bit better than that.
Speaker 2: Let's look up the name.
Speaker 1: Thank you Lord.
Speaker 3: Just while you're standing on, take a moment to our
Speaker 3: pastor today. Man, what a gift that he is to
Speaker 3: all of us, and what a gift Pastor Stephen pastor
Speaker 3: Holly are to us. I was singing about just this year,
Speaker 3: it's always so hard to come up here, and I
Speaker 3: feel like I have so much I could say, But
Speaker 3: just in the last year, I was thinking about a song,
Speaker 3: a sermon, and a conversation that God used Pastor Stephen
Speaker 3: to just deeply impact my life.
Speaker 1: Number one, more than abel.
Speaker 3: Yo. I wish I'd have wrote that song. I just
Speaker 3: I think about that. Can you imagine? And it just
Speaker 3: changed my life, changed my life, just changed my life.
Speaker 3: Last month we got together and Pastor Stephen took a
Speaker 3: couple of hours to pour into preachers and I was
Speaker 3: thinking about a talk that he did changed my life.
Speaker 3: And then I'm thirty nine. I turned forty this year
Speaker 3: and I'm a little bit depressed. Let me just keep
Speaker 3: it real, psycholled Pastor and I said, I'm freaking out,
Speaker 3: and he just walked me through it. And He's not
Speaker 3: only that for me, I know he's that for all
Speaker 3: of us. And I thank God for Pastor Stephen Ferdick. Pastor,
Speaker 3: we love you, we honor you, we're praying for you.
Speaker 1: Come on, let's show our appreciation. Amen.
Speaker 3: All right, grab a seat because I'm gonna read a
Speaker 3: lot of scripture and I don't want to keep you
Speaker 3: standing all day.
Speaker 1: Such a privilege.
Speaker 3: I do bring greetings from Sin City, Las Vegas and Nevada.
Speaker 1: But God is doing the work.
Speaker 3: Anybody been, anybody been? Anybody come visit? What do y'all
Speaker 3: do there? Like street evangelism? What do you do when
Speaker 3: you come? Do you witness. Are you all the people
Speaker 3: carrying the signs around the strip? Is that you preaching? Hey,
Speaker 3: if you ever do come, please come visit us. We
Speaker 3: kind of have a commitment with all of our friends
Speaker 3: around the country. Number one, if you had a bad
Speaker 3: weekend in Vegas, come to church, come to city like church.
Speaker 3: We have a commitment. We will pray for you, we
Speaker 3: will cast the devil out of you, we will anoint
Speaker 3: you with oil, and we'll send you home like nothing happened.
Speaker 3: You'll be like, man, it was great. It was a
Speaker 3: great weekend. I ended with church. Praise God, hallelujah.
Speaker 1: If you had a good weekend, bring your boy an offering. Amen.
Speaker 3: Amen, all right, just amen, All right, We're here for you.
Speaker 3: You be there for us. We just celebrated five years
Speaker 3: as a church, and to God be the glory. We
Speaker 3: have been so deeply impacted by elevation and just literally
Speaker 3: sitting right over there at an event years ago. So
Speaker 3: you're the anointed section right over here. If the rapture happens,
Speaker 3: you go first. Okay, right over there. That really just
Speaker 3: changed my life and we really are where we are today.
Speaker 3: We're standing on the shoulders of this house and so
Speaker 3: I'm very grateful. Let's go to Matthew, chapter twenty five.
Speaker 3: I am a preacher, which means I yell it, I
Speaker 3: don't tell it. And if y'all get quiet, you're gonna
Speaker 3: make me insecure.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: I'm already wearing my mister Rogers card again. Up here,
Speaker 3: I'm already feeling a little weird. Davite has my back.
Speaker 3: He's got one on too. I love you, okay, but
Speaker 3: so if you if you know, if you say a
Speaker 3: couple of amens, you're not gonna make me uncomfortable. You're
Speaker 3: gonna make me feel right at home, okay. Matthew, Chapter
Speaker 3: twenty five, verse fourteen. I also want to just quickly
Speaker 3: honor my friend Chunks Orbit, who means the world to me.
Speaker 3: I love you, bro, Thank you for thank you for
Speaker 3: your friendship. Matthew, twenty five, verse fourteen. The verse starts
Speaker 3: with again, and the reason it says again is because
Speaker 3: Jesus is telling us kingdom stories. He's telling us parables.
Speaker 3: He's teaching us about the Kingdom of God. And so
Speaker 3: he's been sharing different pictures, different stories, different ideas, different
Speaker 3: parables about the Kingdom. And now he's going to share
Speaker 3: another one forgive me. I have a six year old daughter.
Speaker 3: He's dropping blues clues about the Kingdom of God. He's
Speaker 3: showing us how the kingdom operates. This is important because
Speaker 3: you are a part of the kingdom. You're a kingdom citizen.
Speaker 3: Jesus preached the kingdom, but for most of us, we
Speaker 3: kind of don't know how the kingdom operates. So we
Speaker 3: have entered into this scene called the Kingdom of His
Speaker 3: dear Son. But if you don't understand how the kingdom works,
Speaker 3: you're going to be constantly frustrated by the king and
Speaker 3: his kingdom. And so Jesus is teaching us how the
Speaker 3: kingdom operates so that we can experience the Kingdom, which
Speaker 3: is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. So again,
Speaker 3: it will be like a man going on a journey
Speaker 3: who called his servants and entrusted his well to them.
Speaker 3: Twenty he gave five bags of gold to another, two
Speaker 3: bags to another, one bag each according to his ability.
Speaker 3: Then he went on his journey. And that's where he
Speaker 3: is right now. He's on his journey. He's entrusted us
Speaker 3: with gifts, talents, and abilities, and he wants to see
Speaker 3: what we're gonna do with them. Then he went on
Speaker 3: the journey. The man who would receive five bags of
Speaker 3: gold went at once. He put his money to work
Speaker 3: gained five more. Also, the one with two bags gained
Speaker 3: two more. But the one who had received one bag
Speaker 3: went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid
Speaker 3: his master's money. After a long time, the master of
Speaker 3: those servants returned and settled accounts. The man who would
Speaker 3: receive five bags of gold brought the other five. Master,
Speaker 3: you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I
Speaker 3: have gained five more, And his master applied, well done,
Speaker 3: good and faith full servant.
Speaker 1: How many want to hear that one day? Well done?
Speaker 3: I want to hear well done. I don't want to
Speaker 3: hear well you're done.
Speaker 1: I ain't trying to hear that. I want to hear.
Speaker 3: I want to hear well done. I'm gonna put you
Speaker 3: in charge of many things. You were faithful with a
Speaker 3: few things. I'm gonna put you in charge of many things.
Speaker 3: Come and share your master's happiness. Now, now, the same
Speaker 3: exact thing would happened to the man with two bags
Speaker 3: of gold. We're gonna skip out of verse twenty four. Now,
Speaker 3: the one who had received one bag of gold. He
Speaker 3: came and said, Master, I knew you were a hard man. Now,
Speaker 3: time out, time out. You don't see that. When you
Speaker 3: read the text, you do not see Jesus as a
Speaker 3: hard man. You see him very kind, very trusting, very empowering.
Speaker 3: I mean, he's passing out bags of gold. Come on,
Speaker 3: somebody like, he's not a harsh man. He's not a
Speaker 3: hard man. I don't know anybody passing out bags.
Speaker 1: Of gold today. I mean, this is incredible.
Speaker 3: But see, his view of God was gonna limit his potential.
Speaker 3: This is why Tozer said that what you think about
Speaker 3: when you think about God, it's the most important thing
Speaker 3: about you, because your theology will dictate your purpose more
Speaker 3: than anything else. So he accuses the Lord, I knew
Speaker 3: you were a harsh man. I knew you were a
Speaker 3: harsh man, a hard man harvesting were e've not sown,
Speaker 3: gathering where you're not scattered seed. So I was afraid,
Speaker 3: and I went and hid your gold in the ground.
Speaker 3: See here's what belongs to you. And his master replied,
Speaker 3: you wicked and lady, lazy servant, you knew that a
Speaker 3: harvest where I have not sown, and gathered where I'm
Speaker 3: not scattered seed. Well, then you could have at least
Speaker 3: put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that
Speaker 3: when I returned I could have received it back with interest.
Speaker 3: So take the bag of gold from him and give
Speaker 3: it to the one who has ten bags. For whoever
Speaker 3: has will be given more. This is a mentality, It's
Speaker 3: a spirit. It's a stronghold of I have something. It's
Speaker 3: a good stronghold. I have something, and because as I have,
Speaker 3: God will give me more. But whoever does not have again,
Speaker 3: this is a stronghold. This is an idea. This is
Speaker 3: a mentality. If you don't think you have anything, even
Speaker 3: what you do have will be taken from them. I
Speaker 3: want to talk from the idea today. Multiply multiply, and
Speaker 3: I believe God wants to say a few things today.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name. Can I get an amen?
Speaker 3: High five? Two more people tell him? Multiply multiply. Thank you, guys,
Speaker 3: thank you multiply. If I was to ask most believers
Speaker 3: in the room, most believers in America, what was God's
Speaker 3: first commandment to his first man, Adam, most of us
Speaker 3: would think that God's first command to his first man
Speaker 3: was do not eat the tree, but that isn't God's
Speaker 3: first command. God's first command actually was not no.
Speaker 1: It was yes.
Speaker 3: And you gotta understand that this is important because this
Speaker 3: is how God begins his conversation and his relationship with mankind.
Speaker 3: If God would have began with a no, that would
Speaker 3: have been very harsh. But God actually begins his conversation
Speaker 3: with a yes. Now, imagine for all the parents in
Speaker 3: the house. I have a daughter, she's six years old.
Speaker 3: If the nurses would have handed me that baby six
Speaker 3: years ago, and I would have held little Goldie Ray
Speaker 3: Chavis in my hands, and I would have just said, no,
Speaker 3: I don't know what you got planned. I don't know
Speaker 3: what you're trying to do.
Speaker 1: Stop crying. You better get potty trained quick. No.
Speaker 3: No, know those nurses are gonna take her as quickly
Speaker 3: as they gave her.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 3: My first words to my baby were not no. They
Speaker 3: were something like, girl, whatever you want?
Speaker 1: Yes? Can. I tell you.
Speaker 3: God's first word to his first man and his words
Speaker 3: to you are the same. They are yes. And here
Speaker 3: were his first words to his first man, and God
Speaker 3: blessed them. That's how God started his conversation. God bless them,
Speaker 3: and he said, be fruitful, multiply, subdue. This is all yours, Adam,
Speaker 3: go for it. This was God's first word to his
Speaker 3: first man. And if Adam would have been obeying God's
Speaker 3: first command, he would have never been tempted with Satan's lie.
Speaker 1: If Adam would have.
Speaker 3: Been subduing and multiplying and working the garden.
Speaker 1: When Eve would have said, hey, babe, come over here,
Speaker 1: I want you.
Speaker 3: To mean my new friend. His name's Louis. God bless
Speaker 3: you if your name's Louis. But uh, he's this cute
Speaker 3: little snake. He's been talking to me. If Adam would
Speaker 3: have been walking in his purpose, if Adam would have
Speaker 3: been walking in his blessing, and if Adam would have
Speaker 3: been walking in God's yes. When Eve introduced Adam to Lucifer,
Speaker 3: Adam would have said, can't out of my garden, because see,
Speaker 3: we all have a garden. Aiden is simply a picture
Speaker 3: of our life. It's something to work, it's something to multiply,
Speaker 3: it's something to grow, it's something to trust God with.
Speaker 3: Eden is your garden of opportunity, your place of possibility,
Speaker 3: the place of multiplication.
Speaker 1: And just like Adam and Eve had Eden, you.
Speaker 3: Have a life that God is giving you opportunity because see,
Speaker 3: Eden wasn't supposed to stay in the boundaries of those
Speaker 3: four rivers. Eden was eventually supposed to cover the entire earth.
Speaker 3: It was supposed to multiply, It was supposed to grow.
Speaker 1: And your life is a garden.
Speaker 3: And in your life there is the presence of God
Speaker 3: and the presence of an enemy, the voice of God
Speaker 3: and the voice of an accuser, opportunities and temptations, possibilities
Speaker 3: and limitations. We all have a garden. Your marriage, friends,
Speaker 3: is a garden. Your singleness where my single people at
Speaker 3: can I just hear make a little bit of noise,
Speaker 3: praise the Lord? Look around, see if anybody your singleness,
Speaker 3: your purity is a garden. Your heart is a garden,
Speaker 3: Your soul is a garden. Your your business is a garden.
Speaker 3: Your future is a garden. It's something that God gives
Speaker 3: you in a raw state that you can grow, that
Speaker 3: you can multiply, that you can enlarge, that you can
Speaker 3: fight for, that you can kick devils out of, that
Speaker 3: you can invite God into.
Speaker 1: We all have a garden.
Speaker 3: It's not fully developed, but there is opportunity all around us.
Speaker 3: God provided the garden the conditions for people to grow, something,
Speaker 3: to work, something to till, something to harvest, something to multiply.
Speaker 3: So here's a few things I want you to understand
Speaker 3: about the text that we just read from Matthew twenty five,
Speaker 3: and the first is this, God is a giver.
Speaker 1: Can I get an? Okay? Amen? At the nine thirty
Speaker 1: all right, all right, God's a giver.
Speaker 3: If you want to know how God treats you and
Speaker 3: what God does in your life, we got to go
Speaker 3: back to the most famous passage of scripture in the Bible,
Speaker 3: John three point sixteen. For God so loved the world
Speaker 3: that he gave. This is how God's going to do
Speaker 3: everything in your life. He loves you and he gives you.
Speaker 3: He loves you and he gives you. He loves you
Speaker 3: and he gives you. He loves you and he gives you.
Speaker 3: He loves you and he gives to you. This is
Speaker 3: what God does. And a lot of you are going, Yeah,
Speaker 3: I think God loves me. I think I'm cool with that.
Speaker 3: I've heard that scripture my whole life. Yeah, God loves me.
Speaker 1: He has to. He is love.
Speaker 3: So, yeah, he loves me. But God's never given me nothing.
Speaker 3: God's blessed everyone around me. But God's never blessed me.
Speaker 3: God's never given me anything. And if that's what you think,
Speaker 3: that's what you'll receive. I'm just warming up. I know
Speaker 3: where I'm at.
Speaker 1: I'm not lost.
Speaker 3: Because God's a God's a giver. God he gives to us.
Speaker 3: But here's the issue. I've discovered the issue now in
Speaker 3: twenty years of preaching and walking with Jesus for twenty
Speaker 3: five years.
Speaker 1: Here's the issue.
Speaker 3: The issue is that the way that God gives anything
Speaker 3: to us is not usually in the form that we
Speaker 3: expect it. All right, we're talking about the kingdom, right,
Speaker 3: We're talking about the Kingdom. Mark chapter four, verse twenty six.
Speaker 3: God's Kingdom, Jesus said, God's Kingdom is like, oh, it's
Speaker 3: like seed, Look how small that little thing is.
Speaker 1: It's so unimpressive. That's the Kingdom. See. We think of
Speaker 1: the Kingdom as huge, huge.
Speaker 3: Massive, amazing, Oh my gosh. We think of the Kingdom
Speaker 3: as Air Force one flying into town with black SUVs
Speaker 3: and red carpets and dignitaries. And we think of the
Speaker 3: Kingdom as Buckingham Palace. We think of the kingdom as big.
Speaker 3: But the Kingdom never starts big. The Kingdom starts like seed.
Speaker 3: We were in the back. I have my musical director
Speaker 3: with me, l Eel. We were in the back and
Speaker 3: there's a picture of Day one elevation and pastors on
Speaker 3: the guitar leading worship with a shaved head, and I
Speaker 3: looked at him. I said, that's how it started anyway.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, because we see this and we
Speaker 3: call this the kingdom. But Day one was just as
Speaker 3: much of a manifestation of the Kingdom as Day sixteen,
Speaker 3: Year sixteen. But this looks a lot better. Church planters
Speaker 3: like becoming and we're.
Speaker 1: Like, well, what the these? But it don't start like
Speaker 1: it starts like that.
Speaker 3: So when we pray, we pray for this, but when
Speaker 3: God answers, he answers with this. Sorry, and most of
Speaker 3: us miss.
Speaker 1: Out on what God is doing in.
Speaker 3: Our life because He is answering in a form we
Speaker 3: do not recognize. To stretch our faith, because if God
Speaker 3: answered every prayer the way you prayed it, there would
Speaker 3: be no faith required to receive it. Can I preach
Speaker 3: a little bit right now and a lot of you
Speaker 3: do you already have the ideal manifestation of the answer
Speaker 3: to your prayer. And I'm just saying it's actually not
Speaker 3: gonna start.
Speaker 1: Like this, go start like this. Let me prove it
Speaker 1: to you.
Speaker 3: The children of Israel, they're out in the wilderness and
Speaker 3: they're getting frustrated, and they come to Moses and they go, Moses,
Speaker 3: we are sick and tired of this desert diet, this
Speaker 3: stephen verdict keto, low carb, high protein.
Speaker 1: We're sick of it. We want bread, and we want it.
Speaker 3: No. Can I get an amen for bread in the
Speaker 3: House of the Lord today?
Speaker 1: Can I just get an amen? Thank you Jesus for bread. Amen.
Speaker 1: This is body by bread. Amen.
Speaker 3: It's a new workout routine, Body by bread.
Speaker 1: Amen. This is why I'm good for your past or.
Speaker 3: He eats the carbs, I mean, he eats the protein,
Speaker 3: and I eat the carbs off of his plate.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 3: And we're just a good team like that. And so
Speaker 3: so they're sicking. They're sick and tired of the they're
Speaker 3: sick and tired of the of the protein. And they say,
Speaker 3: we want bread, we want bread now. And Moses said,
Speaker 3: y'all don't want bread. Breast bad for you. It's gonna
Speaker 3: give you a wheat belly. You don't want bread. You
Speaker 3: don't want all that gluten. The we want bread now.
Speaker 3: So Moses says, I'm gonna go talk to God. So
Speaker 3: he goes up to God. He says, hey, God, they
Speaker 3: want bread. I know, I know it's not good for him,
Speaker 3: but they want bread. God said, man, it's really not
Speaker 3: good for him, but all right, you tell them bread
Speaker 3: in the morning. And the people rejoice just like we do. Right,
Speaker 3: go to cheesecake factory. We're sitting there angry. We waited
Speaker 3: two hours for a table, and we finally get that.
Speaker 3: We finally get to that table, and sweet Sally brings
Speaker 3: that brown bread and that white bread to the table
Speaker 3: and we all go, Praise God forgive me for everything
Speaker 3: I said before I got my bread. Now I'm a
Speaker 3: Christian again. Praise God. It's come to elevation, Sally. And
Speaker 3: so they rejoice. They're like, we're getting bread in the morning.
Speaker 1: Turn up. Well the next morning they wake up.
Speaker 3: Huh they they wake up and and and here's what
Speaker 3: the scripture said. And the Israelites called the food. See,
Speaker 3: I ain't call it bread. They went mana because it
Speaker 3: because it was white, like y'all see that, because because
Speaker 3: we pray for bread, Moses and and God gave us seat.
Speaker 1: Well, say what mana?
Speaker 3: Yep, Moses, we pray for bread, right, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: you pray for bread, mana, Moses, we were clear, right,
Speaker 3: warm fresh bread? Yeah yeah yeah mana. Mana is not
Speaker 3: an English word. Manna is a Hebrew phrase. And it's
Speaker 3: a question. Manna means what is it? I don't know
Speaker 3: if you're laughing because you think I'm kidding, but I
Speaker 3: ain't kidding. What is we pray for bread? What is it?
Speaker 1: We've been believing God? What is it? Lord? Didn't I
Speaker 1: make my prayers clear? Mana?
Speaker 3: Lord didn't I tell you what I was believing God
Speaker 3: for in twenty twenty three?
Speaker 1: What is it? It's seed?
Speaker 3: Because God don't make bread. God gives seed. And then
Speaker 3: they were to take that seed, bring it into their home,
Speaker 3: meal it, work it, turn it into a flower, bake it,
Speaker 3: and then eat it. Because God says I don't give
Speaker 3: fully formed answers.
Speaker 1: I answer in seed form to activate your faith to
Speaker 1: do something with it. And a lot of y'all right.
Speaker 3: Now are staring at the answer to your prayer, going manna.
Speaker 1: And some of y'all married the man of your dreams and.
Speaker 3: Ladies, some of y'all looked at him last night while
Speaker 3: he a snore at three am.
Speaker 1: And you win DA and some of you got your
Speaker 1: dream job in Charlotte, and you're going, what is it?
Speaker 1: Some of you thought you had life. I'll figure it out.
Speaker 3: Now you're going, mana, Can I just tell you you're
Speaker 3: in a man of moment. You're actually right in the
Speaker 3: perfect will of God. You're actually right where you're supposed
Speaker 3: to be. It's just not fully formed yet because God
Speaker 3: has given it to you in seed form. But now
Speaker 3: you're gonna have to work that seed. You're don't have
Speaker 3: to do something with that seed because Jesus said I
Speaker 3: don't make bread, I give seed.
Speaker 1: And now Jesus would come out in John.
Speaker 3: Chapter six and say, I am the Mana that came
Speaker 3: down from heaven.
Speaker 1: And in the same way that Israel.
Speaker 3: Did not recognize the bread and Israel did not recognize Jesus,
Speaker 3: most believers in twenty twenty twenty three do not recognize
Speaker 3: their own answer to their own prayer because God is
Speaker 3: actually trying to stir up your faith. He's trying to
Speaker 3: build your faith. He's trying to stretch your faith. And
Speaker 3: I know you don't like this. But this is how
Speaker 3: the Kingdom operates, and if you're not careful, you will
Speaker 3: miss out on answers because you're looking for fully formed
Speaker 3: manifestation and God's going I'm a I'm a seed giver.
Speaker 3: I planted a church five years ago in a junior
Speaker 3: high school cafeteria that smelled like fried chicken from nineteen
Speaker 3: seventy two, which isn't good. And we didn't realize that
Speaker 3: when we were doing all the set up in tear down,
Speaker 3: we're doing pipe and drape and metal folding chair, all
Speaker 3: this crazy that we're set up stages, all this, and
Speaker 3: we were just so excited that we found a little
Speaker 3: cafeteria that we didn't really realize that they had these
Speaker 3: these big generator frigerators that were like industrials, super loud.
Speaker 3: So we didn't hear it until I got up to
Speaker 3: preach for the first time. And on the very first
Speaker 3: time that I preach, I.
Speaker 1: Got up and I go, hey, my name is Javon,
Speaker 1: welcome to City Light Church.
Speaker 3: Reach is a new church plant. And behind me, I
Speaker 3: just hear this chorus of demons, and I look at
Speaker 3: the front row and the whole front rows in panic.
Speaker 3: Everyone's texting you you just see the sound guy muting
Speaker 3: every ah, just freaking out. Everyone's tripping, and I'm going,
Speaker 3: what is it? And I'm going God loves you and
Speaker 3: has a wonderful plan for your life. Let's just close
Speaker 3: our eyes and be still before the Lord. God doesn't shout,
Speaker 3: God whispers. And I stood up on day one, February
Speaker 3: twenty eighteen, and I went, what is it? Five years later,
Speaker 3: we've now seen over eleven thousand people come to Christ,
Speaker 3: and we're ministering the thousands of people every week. And
Speaker 3: now I look back and I go, thank you God
Speaker 3: for letting me start small so that I could appreciate
Speaker 3: any fruit.
Speaker 1: You decide to give me.
Speaker 3: Can we give God some praise in the House of
Speaker 3: the Lord.
Speaker 1: I've learned that God.
Speaker 3: Usually answers my prayers with ideas, instructions, and commands, not
Speaker 3: one amen, just a couple of uncomfortable groans. O.
Speaker 1: This to what I've learned.
Speaker 3: I'm not an expert, but I've been preaching for twenty
Speaker 3: years and now here's what I've learned. I've learned that
Speaker 3: God usually answers my prayers with ideas, instructions, and command
Speaker 3: not fully for miracles. I've had a couple. I love
Speaker 3: when they happen. But here's what I've learned. Even when
Speaker 3: God's given me a miracle, it's been connected to an idea,
Speaker 3: an instruction, and a command. Now I'm not anti miracles.
Speaker 3: I love me miracles. I believe God for miracles. I
Speaker 3: need a couple right now, amen, But I need to
Speaker 3: be open for the idea, the instruction, and the command.
Speaker 3: The Bible's full of if you will, I will, If
Speaker 3: you will I will, If you will I will, If
Speaker 3: you will I will, if you will, I will, And
Speaker 3: a lot of us are asking God to do something,
Speaker 3: and God's going, all right, I'm gonna give you a seed.
Speaker 1: Let's see what you do with it.
Speaker 3: So now that we've established that, secondly, we must steward
Speaker 3: whatever he trusts us with. I got a now steward
Speaker 3: what he's entrusted me with. The man who would received
Speaker 3: five bags of gold, he went out at once and
Speaker 3: put his money to work. So I have to now
Speaker 3: choose to do something with the seed God has given me.
Speaker 3: And this can be challenging because what I want now
Speaker 3: and what I want most are usually on the other
Speaker 3: side of the universe, especially when you're younger. Let me.
Speaker 1: See, can I see thirty and younger? Thirty and younger?
Speaker 3: All right, all y'all want now, But you got to
Speaker 3: start making decisions off of what you want most, because
Speaker 3: what you want now and what you want most, especially
Speaker 3: when you're younger, are so far apart. As you get older,
Speaker 3: they start getting a little closer together. But I got
Speaker 3: a steward what God's given me. Thank you for trying.
Speaker 3: That was a great clap. You don't have to tie today,
Speaker 3: You're done. If you tie, will reimburse you. Because what
Speaker 3: I want now is junk, but what I want most,
Speaker 3: and I got to start making decisions off of what
Speaker 3: I want most, off what I want now. And this
Speaker 3: is good news for you because see, as believers in
Speaker 3: the Lord Jesus, we get to make decisions based off
Speaker 3: of hope and dreams and vision, not just off of desire.
Speaker 1: See this, this is good.
Speaker 3: You're not powerless to your desires because you get to
Speaker 3: enter into a next level realm called vision, called faith,
Speaker 3: called hope.
Speaker 1: See. I got this little dog.
Speaker 3: Named Bentley, and uh, if you put any kind of
Speaker 3: food in front Bentley, he's gonna eat it because he's
Speaker 3: a dog. That's what dogs do. Dogs are animals. Dogs
Speaker 3: have no taste. You can put carrot in front of him,
Speaker 3: he'll eat it. He put filet in front of him,
Speaker 3: he'll eat it. You can put chocolate in front of you.
Speaker 3: Got keeps chocolate away. Gotta teach our daughter. You can't
Speaker 3: give him chocolate because he'll eat the chocolate. Whatever you
Speaker 3: put in front of him, good or bad, he will
Speaker 3: eat it because he's an animal. And before we fixed Bentley,
Speaker 3: hope your kids are in kids shirts.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 3: Before we before we fixed him, he.
Speaker 1: He iss saw at our entire home. I don't know
Speaker 1: holse to say it.
Speaker 3: He It could be a knee, it could be a pillow,
Speaker 3: it could be a couch, it could be a barbed
Speaker 3: wire fence. It didn't matter. Homie was gonna get his
Speaker 3: because he's a dog. But can I remind us believers
Speaker 3: in Jesus, you're not an animal. You're made in the
Speaker 3: image of God. You're made after the likeness of God.
Speaker 3: You've been filled with the spirit of God. That means
Speaker 3: you don't have to act out on instinct and desire
Speaker 3: and lust alone, but you get to make decisions based
Speaker 3: off of vision, based off of dreams, based off of
Speaker 3: what you want most not off of what you want now.
Speaker 3: But God gives us seed, and we've got a steward
Speaker 3: that seed. So God and trusts us with a seed.
Speaker 3: And here's what I've learned about seed that I if
Speaker 3: I eat this seed, it dies, it's over, it's done,
Speaker 3: no more potential gone. If I store this seed, it's dormant.
Speaker 3: Now I can take this seed and I can put
Speaker 3: it in my closet. I can put it in my pantry.
Speaker 3: I can play Tiffany's new single twenty four hours a day.
Speaker 3: I can plead the blood, annoint with oil, rebuke the
Speaker 3: principalities and powers, put a prayer cloth over it, put
Speaker 3: a prayer shawl over it. Amen, and I can command
Speaker 3: this thing to bear fruit. But as long as I'm
Speaker 3: storing it, it's dormant. But if I'll sew it, don't
Speaker 3: get uncomfortable. I'm just talking about your money. I'm talking
Speaker 3: about your life. Because most people are eating their seed
Speaker 3: and storing their seed. But if you could ever learn
Speaker 3: to sow your seed, now it becomes dynamic.
Speaker 1: Now it becomes a line.
Speaker 3: Now God can do something with your potential, do something
Speaker 3: with your gifts, do something with your time, do something
Speaker 3: with your talent, do something with your treasure. But most
Speaker 3: of us are holding on to our potential. We are
Speaker 3: hiding it, we are not using it. But God is saying,
Speaker 3: if you could ever learn to sow your life, if
Speaker 3: you could ever learn to believe me, if you could
Speaker 3: ever learn to take a step of.
Speaker 1: Faith, and if you could ever sew that seed, it
Speaker 1: becomes dynamic. And I'm not up here.
Speaker 3: Today because I'm the most talented or the most gifted,
Speaker 3: or because I come from the right family or the
Speaker 3: right pedigree. But I can tell you this, I am
Speaker 3: a sewer and I have chosen over the last two
Speaker 3: decades of my life to give it away, give it
Speaker 3: to the Kingdom, give it to the world, give it
Speaker 3: away to God, give it away to whatever God calls
Speaker 3: me to do. And I can tell you I'm not
Speaker 3: the most gifted person.
Speaker 1: To be up here.
Speaker 3: I've sowed my way here. Any sowers in the house
Speaker 3: believing for harvest, Come on, somebody, Oh, I wish you
Speaker 3: would have some faith right now that everything you've done,
Speaker 3: every prayer you've prayed, every seed you've sown, every tithe
Speaker 3: you've given, every time you've served the House of God,
Speaker 3: every love week, everything you've ever done for the next generation.
Speaker 3: God sees it, he said, I see every tear, and
Speaker 3: I put it in a bottle, and I will make
Speaker 3: sure to pay you back good measure, Press down, shaken a.
Speaker 1: Death, her and running all over. Come on.
Speaker 3: If you're believing for some harvest makes some noise. Lastly,
Speaker 3: sit down, you're scaring all the new people. Sit down,
Speaker 3: Sit down. Lastly, Lastly, little becomes much. You've been faithful
Speaker 3: in the little.
Speaker 1: Now I'm gonna make you ruler over much.
Speaker 3: And we don't like the But you got to learn
Speaker 3: to be faithful in the little. Because if you never
Speaker 3: learn to be faithful in the little, if God gave
Speaker 3: you the much, the much would crush you because you
Speaker 3: wouldn't have the capacity to sustain it. Some of y'all
Speaker 3: praying to become a millionaire, but you still aren't on
Speaker 3: time to work.
Speaker 1: You gonna do with.
Speaker 3: Millions, You're gonna hurt somebody with millions a dollar, you know,
Speaker 3: hurt somebody.
Speaker 1: You got to learn how to be faithful in the little.
Speaker 1: You gotta learn to love the little.
Speaker 3: Let me prove it to your Zacharichter four, verse ten,
Speaker 3: Do not despise these small beginnings. Don't be ashamed of
Speaker 3: your small beginnings. Don't despise it, don't roll your eyes
Speaker 3: at it, don't curse it, don't talk down to it,
Speaker 3: don't shrug your shoulders at it, don't belittle it. Because
Speaker 3: the Lord rejoices. And if God's rejoicing over the little,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna rejoice over the little to see that the
Speaker 3: work has begun. Don't make light of the little. Learn
Speaker 3: to rejoice over the little seed. That was the man's problem.
Speaker 3: He had one bag of gold, and he was comparing
Speaker 3: his life to the man who had five bags. And
Speaker 3: he could not see the opportunity that was in front
Speaker 3: of him because the seed looked small to him. The
Speaker 3: bag of gold looks small to him. This looks really
Speaker 3: small to me. But there is so much potential in
Speaker 3: this seed. So I can't see it like I see it.
Speaker 3: I gotta see it like God sees it. I can't
Speaker 3: judge my small place the way that I judge it,
Speaker 3: or by the way culture judges it. But I got
Speaker 3: to see it ow God sees it. Because you don't
Speaker 3: need much with God to do something amazing. All you
Speaker 3: need is a seed. All you oh, come on, so
Speaker 3: all you need is a seed. You don't need a lot,
Speaker 3: you don't need five bags of gold. You just need
Speaker 3: a feed, and you will see what God can do.
Speaker 3: See because none of these men decided where.
Speaker 1: They started, and neither do we.
Speaker 3: You didn't choose your family, You didn't choose your background,
Speaker 3: You didn't choose your family tree. You didn't choose your curses,
Speaker 3: you didn't choose your struggles.
Speaker 1: You didn't choose your last name.
Speaker 3: None of us choose where we start, and he didn't
Speaker 3: choose where he started.
Speaker 1: But we do have a say in our future because
Speaker 1: we have a seed. And all you need is a seed.
Speaker 3: Because we see this little seed, but Jesus sees the
Speaker 3: potential in.
Speaker 1: The seed.
Speaker 3: Got a beautiful apple here. If we cut this open,
Speaker 3: we're gonna find seeds in the apple. And here's the reality.
Speaker 3: You can count the seeds an apple, but you cannot
Speaker 3: count the apples in the seed, because in this one
Speaker 3: seed is an orchard, a garden and eden that can
Speaker 3: grow and that can multiply.
Speaker 1: Don't you dare give up now? Don't you dare give up?
Speaker 1: In the small Don't you dare get.
Speaker 3: Discouraged trying to start that business, trying to rekindle the
Speaker 3: love in your marriage, trying to get your family back,
Speaker 3: serving and loving the house of God. Listen, don't you
Speaker 3: dare quit in the small because there is an orchard
Speaker 3: on the inside of you. If you will not quit,
Speaker 3: if you will not hide it, if you will do
Speaker 3: something with it. Do you remember there's a woman in
Speaker 3: Second King's chapter four. She needs a miracle. Her husband's
Speaker 3: died and left her with great debt, and so now
Speaker 3: the debtors have come and they're gonna collect not only
Speaker 3: all of her possessions, but they're gonna collect her and
Speaker 3: her sons and take them away, sell them into slavery.
Speaker 3: She needs a miracle. Anybody agree like? She needs a miracle,
Speaker 3: like a real one. And she finds Elisha, her deceased
Speaker 3: husband's former boss, and she goes, you know he loved God,
Speaker 3: and you know he served you. Hook it up. I
Speaker 3: don't know exactly. I think that's in the Hebrew Amen,
Speaker 3: I don't know. I think hook it ups in the
Speaker 3: Hebrew language. She needed a miracle, and she asks for
Speaker 3: a miracle. But look what Elisha says, kill me.
Speaker 1: Tell me what do you have in your house? It
Speaker 1: don't matter. I need a miracle. No, what do you have?
Speaker 1: Who cares? I got to pay off my dinner?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: But like, what do you got in the house, Elisha?
Speaker 1: Nothing at all?
Speaker 3: And I think at this moment, in my sanctified imagination,
Speaker 3: I see a holy ghost stare down begin to happen
Speaker 3: between Elisha and this woman. And I think he went
Speaker 3: nothing nothing, oh, nothing, nothing nothing? Are you sure you
Speaker 3: don't have anything?
Speaker 4: Nothing?
Speaker 1: And I think the longer it went, I think.
Speaker 3: She went, you know what, this joker came like, call
Speaker 3: down fire, he can call bears out of nowhere to
Speaker 3: eat me.
Speaker 1: I better give him a better answer.
Speaker 3: Well, except I got this little flask of olive oil.
Speaker 1: You got something.
Speaker 3: Because Elisha knew that what she lost was painful, but
Speaker 3: what she had left was powerful. And what she lost
Speaker 3: was painful, but what she had left was prophetic, and
Speaker 3: that God didn't need a lot to take care of
Speaker 3: her need. And God didn't need a lot to do
Speaker 3: the miracle. So he says, what do you got? She goes,
Speaker 3: I got this little that got st jar evolva, And
Speaker 3: Alessia said, that's all you need because you don't need enough.
Speaker 3: Listen to me, saints, you don't need enough. You don't
Speaker 3: need to be talented enough, skilled enough. You don't need
Speaker 3: to come from the right family, you don't need to
Speaker 3: have the right education, you don't need to pray enough.
Speaker 3: You're always gonna feel like you're not enough. And that's
Speaker 3: awesome because God doesn't want your enough. He wants your
Speaker 3: little jar of oil. He wants your c Can I
Speaker 3: can we have a little bit of church real quick?
Speaker 1: He does? And then need a lot to do a lot.
Speaker 1: And he said, go.
Speaker 4: Together vessels and start to pulling your oil and it
Speaker 4: you'll start to pour and it still start to sell. God,
Speaker 4: will we will apply. You don't need a lot forgot
Speaker 4: to do a lot?
Speaker 1: Oh you need it's a seed.
Speaker 3: Oh I'm reminded of the little boy with a couple
Speaker 3: of pieces of fish and a couple of pieces of bread.
Speaker 3: Stay standing and make me feel comfortable now like this
Speaker 3: just a couple of pieces of bread, couple of pieces
Speaker 3: of fish, and and she says.
Speaker 4: Hey, we got twenty thousand people to feed.
Speaker 1: And they did not have enough.
Speaker 3: But the silk boy goes, I got a little fish,
Speaker 3: little fish meal from Long John Silver.
Speaker 1: Shout out to.
Speaker 3: Long John Silver's like, how are they open? There's never
Speaker 3: anyone in there is that not such a breaking bad
Speaker 3: kind of like. But y'all really sell them back there.
Speaker 3: But anyway, anyway, I digress, I digress. I don't watch
Speaker 3: breaking bad, Amen, I only watch the bashion of the
Speaker 3: Christ every morning.
Speaker 1: Amen. Praise the Lord, Hello, Lujah, Glory to God. What's
Speaker 1: breaking bad?
Speaker 3: Listen? It's not enough, but it's all I got. You guys,
Speaker 3: sing this song at your church. You y'all wrote this song.
Speaker 3: This says I'm not enough unless you come. Will you
Speaker 3: meet me?
Speaker 1: God? Will you meet me in my not enough? Will
Speaker 1: you meet me in my insife? And see? Will you?
Speaker 1: Because because I don't have enough to do this, and
Speaker 1: some of your parents.
Speaker 3: Are going, I don't know how to raise my teenagers
Speaker 3: in this generation, and I don't know how to run
Speaker 3: my business in this economy, and I don't know how
Speaker 3: to serve God in these times that we're in. And
Speaker 3: God is not asking for your enough because His strength
Speaker 3: is not made perfect in your strength. His strength is
Speaker 3: made perfect in your weakness. And God don't want your
Speaker 3: strength because your strength is weakness to God.
Speaker 1: All God wants is for you to say, God, I
Speaker 1: know this ain't enough, But here's what I've got.
Speaker 3: And when the boy gave Jesus the lunch, that lunch
Speaker 3: turned into a legacy, that meal turned into a miracle,
Speaker 3: that limitation turned into possibility.
Speaker 1: It's not enough, but it's all I God.
Speaker 3: And Jesus took it, and he blessed it, and he
Speaker 3: broke it.
Speaker 1: And then he didn't keep it.
Speaker 3: He gave it back to him JJ and said multiply.
Speaker 3: The multiplication didn't happen in Jesus' hands. The multiplication happens
Speaker 3: in our hands when we take what God has given
Speaker 3: us and we do something with it. Come on, use
Speaker 3: that gift, use that talent, use that ability, use that
Speaker 3: call that's on your life, use your destiny.
Speaker 1: Do something with it.
Speaker 3: And when you take it and you give it to God,
Speaker 3: God gives it back to you.
Speaker 1: Multiply. God gives it back to you.
Speaker 3: Bless.
Speaker 1: God gives it back to you. Broken. God gives it
Speaker 1: back to you. He doesn't need your enough.
Speaker 2: Hey, I hope you enjoyed the podcast, and if you did,
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Speaker 2: they're available. I also want to take a moment and
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