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Speaker 5: Hi, this is Joel and Victoria. Thanks for downloading our podcast.
Speaker 5: We enjoy spending this time with you. I hope you'll
Speaker 5: leave Inspire. Make sure you subscribe to get new messages
Speaker 5: every week. We appreciate your support. It helps keep the
Speaker 5: ministry going.
Speaker 6: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 7: God bless you. It's always a joy to come into
Speaker 7: your homes.
Speaker 5: And if you're ever in our area, please stop by
Speaker 5: and be a part of one of our services. I'll
Speaker 5: promise you we'll make you feel right at home. Thanks
Speaker 5: so much, though, for tuning in, and thank you again
Speaker 5: for coming out.
Speaker 7: I like to start with something funny.
Speaker 5: And one day Jesus and Satan were having a contest
Speaker 5: to see who was better with computers.
Speaker 7: After six hours of.
Speaker 5: Making spreadsheets designing web pages, a thunderstorm knocked.
Speaker 7: The power out.
Speaker 5: When they rebooted their computers, Satan started screaming, it's all lost.
Speaker 5: All my material is gone, while Jesus quietly printed his
Speaker 5: out and turned it in.
Speaker 7: Satan complained, it's not fair. He must have cheated. How
Speaker 7: come he didn't lose his work. God smiled and said,
Speaker 7: Jesus Saves, let's say it like you mean.
Speaker 5: If this is my Bible, I am what it says
Speaker 5: I am. I have what it says I have. I
Speaker 5: can do what it says I can do. Today I
Speaker 5: will be taught the word of God. I'll boldly confess.
Speaker 5: My mind is alert, my heart is recepted. I will
Speaker 5: never be the same. In Jesus' name, God bless you.
Speaker 5: I want to talk to you today about separated for
Speaker 5: the better. In the scripture, there's a place called the
Speaker 5: threshing floor. That's where the wheat was separated from the chaff.
Speaker 5: And back in those days they didn't have machinery, so
Speaker 5: they would lay sheaves of wheat on the ground and
Speaker 5: have their oxen and cattle walk over them.
Speaker 7: Repeatedly. They would break up the husk and straw.
Speaker 5: The valuable part of the plant, the grain that was
Speaker 5: used for bread and meal, would come loose from the chaff.
Speaker 5: The farmer could have a great harvest, but if he
Speaker 5: didn't separate the dysfunctional part of the plant from the functional,
Speaker 5: he would never.
Speaker 7: Make a living.
Speaker 5: Even though he had something very valuable. Didn't go through
Speaker 5: this process, it wouldn't do him any good. In the
Speaker 5: same way, to reach our highest potential, God will take
Speaker 5: us through some threshing floors.
Speaker 7: We start off like that stalk of wheat. The potential
Speaker 7: is there. We have seeds of greatness, we're valuable.
Speaker 5: But the problem is we all have some chaff along
Speaker 5: with the valuable grain.
Speaker 7: We may have some pride or.
Speaker 5: Selfishness or insecurities, and unless God took us through the
Speaker 5: threshing floor, we've never become what he created us to be.
Speaker 5: God has to separate the dysfunctional part of us, the
Speaker 5: part that's holding us back, from the valuable part.
Speaker 7: Now. If the weak could talk, it would say, I
Speaker 7: don't want to.
Speaker 5: Go through the threshing floor. I don't want animals walking
Speaker 5: on me. That's uncomfortable, that's painful, Leave me alone. But
Speaker 5: the farmer knows without the separation, the grain would never
Speaker 5: be useful. And sometimes we think, why am I stuck
Speaker 5: in traffic again? Why won't this person give me credit?
Speaker 5: Why did this friend walk away? We don't realize we're
Speaker 5: on the threshing floor. What we think is a bad break,
Speaker 5: a disappointment. We don't like it, we're uncomfortable, but God
Speaker 5: is the one that ordained it. Instead of fighting it,
Speaker 5: if you'll stay in peace, then you're being refined. What's
Speaker 5: holding you back is coming off like that. We you're
Speaker 5: becoming more valuable. That person at work that always gets
Speaker 5: on your nerves, always tries to make you look bad.
Speaker 7: As long as you let that frustrate you ruin your day,
Speaker 7: you're going to get stuck.
Speaker 5: But when you recognize I'm on the threshing floor, this
Speaker 5: is an opportunity to come up higher. I'm being refined,
Speaker 5: So I'm gonna stay in peace. I'm gonna let God
Speaker 5: fight my battles. When you have that approach. Even if
Speaker 5: the situation doesn't change, you will change getting better. The
Speaker 5: scripture says, our faith is tried in the fire of affliction.
Speaker 5: We can't pray away every difficulty. There will be things
Speaker 5: that happened that you don't understand. You went through a loss,
Speaker 5: a friend lets you down, you didn't get the promotion.
Speaker 5: Recognize you're on the threshing floor even though it's uncomfortable.
Speaker 5: If you'll keep the right attitude, you'll come out refined,
Speaker 5: more valuable, separated from what's holding you back. I'm a
Speaker 5: very gold oriented person, and I never liked to wait.
Speaker 5: But it seemed like the more impatient I was, the
Speaker 5: more I found myself in situations that I.
Speaker 7: Didn't have a choice. I had to wait.
Speaker 5: I never dreamed it was God putting me there. I
Speaker 5: was sure it was the enemy trying.
Speaker 7: To slow me down.
Speaker 5: I tried to pray away every traffic jam, every slow driver,
Speaker 5: every delayed I prayed that Victoria'd get dressed faster, prayed.
Speaker 7: The kids would be ready on time.
Speaker 5: No wonder, it didn't work. I was praying against what
Speaker 5: God had ordained. He loved me too much to answer
Speaker 5: my prayer. I wanted God to change the situation. God
Speaker 5: wanted the situation to change me. Maybe you're on the
Speaker 5: threshing floor today fighting something you don't like.
Speaker 7: Why don't you have a new perspective.
Speaker 5: God wouldn't have you there unless you needed it. It
Speaker 5: may not be good, but God knows how to use
Speaker 5: it for your good. Instead of living frustrated, sour, we're bitter,
Speaker 5: have the attitude.
Speaker 7: I may not like this, but I know I'm on
Speaker 7: the threshing floor.
Speaker 5: I'm being refined, I'm getting better, I'm coming up higher.
Speaker 5: One Sunday morning, when our services were still held at
Speaker 5: our northeast location, I headed out for church. I like
Speaker 5: to arrive at least thirty minutes early so I can
Speaker 5: go over my notes and get ready. But when I
Speaker 5: came to the main intersection to leave my neighborhood, it
Speaker 5: was blocked off because of the marathon that happens here
Speaker 5: every January. So I turned around to go out the
Speaker 5: backside of the neighborhood, but it was blocked off as well.
Speaker 5: I tried another place, and another and another. There was
Speaker 5: no way to get out. I was so frustrated. I
Speaker 5: went back to the main intersection. I said to the
Speaker 5: police officer standing there, I passed for a church across town.
Speaker 5: I'm trying to get on the freeway, but can't seem
Speaker 5: to get out of the neighborhood. All he had to
Speaker 5: do was move one cone and let me cross the
Speaker 5: road early Sunday morning, not another car or person in sight.
Speaker 7: He was going to help. He said, all right, let
Speaker 7: me see what I can do.
Speaker 5: Then he turned and looked at his supervisor across the intersection.
Speaker 5: Before he could say anything, his supervisor started shaking his head.
Speaker 7: No, couldn't believe. He didn't know what was gonna ask.
Speaker 5: I wanted to say, tell him I was going to
Speaker 5: buy him a new car.
Speaker 7: He just said no. I turned around so, frustrated, drove through.
Speaker 5: The neighborhood another ten fifteen minutes, finally found this small
Speaker 5: side street to get out. The funny thing is when
Speaker 5: I got to church, Victoria was already there. She left
Speaker 5: thirty minutes after me. I said, how'd you get here
Speaker 5: so fast? She said, I went the normal way. The
Speaker 5: intersection was open for me. Friends, God knows how to
Speaker 5: put you where you're supposed to be. If he has
Speaker 5: you there, don't fight it, embrace it, stay in peace.
Speaker 5: See Victoria is very relaxed, easy going. She doesn't struggle
Speaker 5: with being impatient. She has a whole bunch of other
Speaker 5: things she deals with.
Speaker 7: But I'm not the only sinner in the family. Now
Speaker 7: what am I saying?
Speaker 5: If we would work with God and let the situation
Speaker 5: change us instead of trying to change everything we don't like,
Speaker 5: we wouldn't have to keep taking the same test to
Speaker 5: go back to that threshing floor again and again, stuck
Speaker 5: in traffic. Some things don't come off easily. God will
Speaker 5: deliberately put us in situations so we can come up higher.
Speaker 5: The right approach is, if God has me here, I
Speaker 5: must need it. I'm going to keep a good attitude
Speaker 5: knowing that I'm coming out refined, I'm coming out more valuable.
Speaker 5: In the scripture, when the three Hebrew teenagers wouldn't bow
Speaker 5: down to the king's golden idol, he was very upset.
Speaker 5: He was going to have them thrown into a fiery furnace.
Speaker 5: He had their hands and feet bound with cords, and
Speaker 5: he threw them into the furnace. But the only thing
Speaker 5: that was burned in the fire were the cords that
Speaker 5: were holding them back. The fire didn't stop them. The
Speaker 5: fire separated them from their limitations. It was meant to
Speaker 5: destroy them, but in fact.
Speaker 7: It made them better.
Speaker 5: They came out with a new confidence, with a greater
Speaker 5: trust in God.
Speaker 7: Not in the fire, but on fire.
Speaker 5: Just like with them, When you find yourself in the fire,
Speaker 5: you can stay in peace knowing that God is not
Speaker 5: going to harm anything that you need. That difficulty is
Speaker 5: not going to leave you broken, scarred, defeated. All it's
Speaker 5: going to do is burn off any limitations that are
Speaker 5: holding you back. It's going to separate anything that's not
Speaker 5: God's best. You're going to come out prepared, ready for
Speaker 5: the next level. In the scripture we see this principle.
Speaker 5: All the great heroes of faith went through their threshing
Speaker 5: floor experiences. Remember Peter, he was hot tempered, he used
Speaker 5: bad language.
Speaker 7: He told Jesus, I'll never deny you. I'm your main disciple.
Speaker 7: I'll be with you through thick and thin.
Speaker 5: But when he was put on the threshing floor in
Speaker 5: the heat of the moment, he denied that he knew Christ.
Speaker 5: When you're under pressure, you find out what's really on
Speaker 5: the inside. That's when impurities in our character come to light.
Speaker 5: If you'll work with God and let him refine you,
Speaker 5: you'll come out better.
Speaker 7: This is what happened with Peter. He didn't stay there.
Speaker 5: One day, he ministered, and three thousand people came to.
Speaker 7: Know the Lord.
Speaker 5: The most in the scripture, he was so powerful that
Speaker 5: his shadow caused people to get healed. Moses, as a
Speaker 5: young man, knew he was supposed to deliver God's people.
Speaker 5: The dream was in his heart, but he got out
Speaker 5: of God's timing and tried to do it in his
Speaker 5: own strength. He ended up killing a man and had
Speaker 5: to flee for his life. He spent forty years on
Speaker 5: the back side of the desert. Looked like that one
Speaker 5: mistake ruined his destiny. God never writes us off. He
Speaker 5: was on the threshing floor being refined when he was
Speaker 5: eighty years old. The scripture says Moses was the most
Speaker 5: humble gentle man alive. God was saying, Moses, I haven't
Speaker 5: forgotten about you. That threshing floor experience. You may not
Speaker 5: have liked, it may have been uncomfortable, but the good
Speaker 5: news it's prepared you.
Speaker 7: For the fullness of your destiny.
Speaker 5: Moses went on to bring the Israelites out of slavery,
Speaker 5: lead them toward the promised land. What had never happened
Speaker 5: without the threshing floor. Judges chapter six tells about a
Speaker 5: time when the Israelites would go out and plant their crops,
Speaker 5: water them, cultivate them. But when it came time to reap,
Speaker 5: an enemy would come and take their harvest. God raised
Speaker 5: up a man by the name of Gideon to do
Speaker 5: something about it. The problem Gideon was insecure. He didn't
Speaker 5: think he could do anything great. As long as he
Speaker 5: felt inferior, he would never.
Speaker 7: Reach his destiny.
Speaker 5: God didn't say, Gideon, too bad, I had something amazing
Speaker 5: in your future. You have all these things hold you back.
Speaker 5: I can't use you. No. God never leaves us where
Speaker 5: we are. This is what the threshing floor is all about.
Speaker 5: God puts us in situations to separate what's limiting us.
Speaker 5: God told Gideon, I want you to lead the people
Speaker 5: and defeat this army. Gideon said, God, how can I
Speaker 5: do that. I'm the least one in my father's house.
Speaker 5: It's significant where Gideon was when he said this.
Speaker 7: He was hiding in a threshing floor. He felt weak, inferior.
Speaker 5: Less than God answered him back and said, Gideon, you
Speaker 5: are a mighty man of valor. You are well able
Speaker 5: to accomplish this assignment. I can imagine hiding there. Something
Speaker 5: came all over him. He thought to himself, you know what,
Speaker 5: I'm not weak, I'm not defeated. I'm a child of
Speaker 5: the most High God. Suddenly fear left him, Intimidation was gone.
Speaker 5: The threshing floor will separate what's limiting you.
Speaker 7: On the threshing floor. God will stir your gifts.
Speaker 5: You'll hear him speaking faith and victory over your life.
Speaker 5: Gideon would have been satisfied to stay there hiding. Just
Speaker 5: have enough to survive. God said Gideon, this is not
Speaker 5: your destiny. You are not going to let the enemy
Speaker 5: steal your harvest the rest of your life. Rise up
Speaker 5: and go do something about it. See, the threshing floor
Speaker 5: was never meant to be permanent. God is saying to
Speaker 5: us what he said to Gideon. You've been on that
Speaker 5: threshing floor long enough. It's time to go get what
Speaker 5: belongs to you. That means shake off the disappointments, shake
Speaker 5: off low expectations, shake off what people told you you
Speaker 5: can't do. People don't determine your destiny.
Speaker 7: God does.
Speaker 5: There is a great horror in front of you. It
Speaker 5: has your name, on it. Don't let the enemy keep taking.
Speaker 7: What belongs to you.
Speaker 5: You are a mighty man of valor. You are a
Speaker 5: mighty woman of valor.
Speaker 7: Like Gideon.
Speaker 5: You've been equipped, empowered, anointed. You are well able to
Speaker 5: accomplish your assignment. But all of us will go through
Speaker 5: these threshing floor experiences. It's not because God has forgotten
Speaker 5: about you. He's punishing you, he's done with you.
Speaker 7: It's just the opposite.
Speaker 5: The reason you're facing the difficulty is because God is
Speaker 5: getting you prepared. He knows what you're capable of, so
Speaker 5: he's separating what's holding you back. You're about to see
Speaker 5: new growth, new opportunities, new friendships.
Speaker 7: You're going to come.
Speaker 5: Out refined, polished, stronger, matured. You're going to have a
Speaker 5: greater trust, a greater confidence in God.
Speaker 7: Now, don't complain.
Speaker 5: About how big the obstacles are, about what somebody did
Speaker 5: to you.
Speaker 7: That threshing floor is not defeating you. It's promoting you.
Speaker 5: First Chronicles thirteen, The Ark of the Covenant. This was
Speaker 5: a large box where God's presence was back in those days,
Speaker 5: had been gone for a long time. David had a
Speaker 5: desire to bring it back to Jerusalem. He had his
Speaker 5: men build a special cart. Very carefully, they placed the
Speaker 5: Ark of the Covenant on this cart. They headed toward
Speaker 5: their destiny very excited. The Ark was finally coming back home.
Speaker 5: Everything was going great until the Oxen hit a bump
Speaker 5: in the road and stumbled. The arc started to fall.
Speaker 5: A man reached out to steady it. When he touched it,
Speaker 5: he was instantly killed. David was so upset, so distraught,
Speaker 5: he wouldn't go any further. He couldn't understand how he
Speaker 5: could be doing the right thing. Yet God took the
Speaker 5: life of one of his friends. He gave up on
Speaker 5: his mission let the Ark of the Covenant go to
Speaker 5: a house close by. What David didn't realize is that
Speaker 5: setback was divinely orchestrated. The scripture says the bumping the
Speaker 5: road occurred at a threshing floor. David just saw it
Speaker 5: as a bad break, But God was directing his steps
Speaker 5: at the threshing floor, just as wheat is separated from chaff.
Speaker 5: God was going to use that situation to refine David.
Speaker 5: And sometimes we're going along and everything's great, life is.
Speaker 7: Good, but we hit a bump in the road.
Speaker 5: Low's a loved one relationship doesn't work out, the business
Speaker 5: goes down.
Speaker 7: We don't understand what happened.
Speaker 5: But just like with David, those bumps in the road
Speaker 5: are not random. They happen at a threshing floor. When
Speaker 5: you come out, you're not going to be the same.
Speaker 5: You're going to be refined with less chaff.
Speaker 7: With more wheat.
Speaker 5: If you look back over your life, the times you
Speaker 5: really grew, you came up higher, you developed more confidence.
Speaker 5: Weren't the good times when everything was going your way.
Speaker 5: It was the times you hit a bumping the road.
Speaker 5: You couldn't see it at the time, but you were
Speaker 5: at a threshing floor.
Speaker 7: God used that to refine you. You came out better.
Speaker 7: For three months, David was depressed.
Speaker 5: Sitting by the side of the road. God, it didn't
Speaker 5: work out. God, I never dreamed I'd lose somebody along
Speaker 5: the way. But the threshing floor is a place where
Speaker 5: things die so something new can be born.
Speaker 7: That difficulty is not the end.
Speaker 5: The divorce, the loss, the child that broke your heart
Speaker 5: is not how your story concludes. Something may have died
Speaker 5: in your life, a friendship, a goal, a dream. The
Speaker 5: only reason it died to give birth to the new
Speaker 5: things God wants to do. Sometimes you have to lose
Speaker 5: something to gain something better.
Speaker 7: God has to close a door before he'll open a
Speaker 7: bigger door.
Speaker 5: The threshing floor is not only a place of separation,
Speaker 5: it's a place of preparation.
Speaker 7: If David would have taken the.
Speaker 5: Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem the first time before
Speaker 5: the bumping the road, he had no place to put it,
Speaker 5: a lot of people could have been hurt. Chapter fifteen
Speaker 5: says he went and prepared a place for the Ark.
Speaker 5: When you hit a bump in the road, God is
Speaker 5: not only separating what's holding you back, but he's preparing
Speaker 5: you for what's in your future. Some of the things
Speaker 5: God has in store. If he took you right now,
Speaker 5: you couldn't handle it. He's growing you up, he's maturing you.
Speaker 5: He's teaching you to trust, so when it's your time
Speaker 5: to step up, you'll be ready to go.
Speaker 7: David thought it was over. For three months.
Speaker 5: He had been weeping upset, never thought he could accomplish
Speaker 5: his assignment. One day he looked out and saw the
Speaker 5: house where the Ark of the Covenant had been staying.
Speaker 5: Those people were so blessed, so prosperous, so full of
Speaker 5: God's favor. Something rose up in him, a new fire,
Speaker 5: a new passion. He said, God, I've changed my mind.
Speaker 5: I'm going to get back in the game and do
Speaker 5: what you've called.
Speaker 7: Me to do.
Speaker 5: Maybe you've hit a bump in the road and it's
Speaker 5: knocked the wind out of you. You don't think like
Speaker 5: David that you could accomplish your dreams, accomplish your assignment.
Speaker 7: That threshing floor is not defeating you. It's preparing you.
Speaker 5: You may have lost something, but you need to get ready.
Speaker 5: You're about to gain something a whole lot better. God
Speaker 5: is getting you prepared for something amazing.
Speaker 7: Get your fire back, get your passion back. A good
Speaker 7: man falls well seven times and the Lord raises him up.
Speaker 5: You may have fallen, but it's time to get back up.
Speaker 5: You're prepared, you're qualified. You'll refine what God started in
Speaker 5: your life.
Speaker 7: He's going to finish. This is what David did. Scripture
Speaker 7: talks about.
Speaker 5: He got the ark of the Covenant headed toward Jerusalem
Speaker 5: with great gladness. A few weeks earlier, he didn't think
Speaker 5: he'd ever smile again. Now he's full of joy, singing, dancing,
Speaker 5: seeing a dream come to pass.
Speaker 7: When we hit bumps in the road.
Speaker 5: The enemy always whispers you've seen your best days. It's
Speaker 5: all downhill from here. You've just been through too much.
Speaker 7: Don't believe those lies. What you lost was to give
Speaker 7: birth to the new thing God wants to do.
Speaker 5: Even when you lose a loved one, don't sit around
Speaker 5: discourage the rest of your life. That loss is not
Speaker 5: a surprise to God. The way you honor their memory
Speaker 5: is to go out and do something right. If your
Speaker 5: loved one was here, they would tell you get back
Speaker 5: in the game, dream a new dream, move forward with
Speaker 5: your life. When my father went to be with the Lord,
Speaker 5: I didn't see how anything good could come of that.
Speaker 5: I lost something valuable, my father, whom I love and miss.
Speaker 5: But in that process I gained something valuable. I discovered
Speaker 5: gifts and talents that I.
Speaker 7: Didn't know I had. I didn't know I could get
Speaker 7: up here administer.
Speaker 5: There are times that you have to lose something so
Speaker 5: you can gain something to go to the next level.
Speaker 7: Of course, i'd say, you.
Speaker 5: Know, I don't want to lose my dad, or we
Speaker 5: don't want to go through that disappointment, that set back.
Speaker 7: But you have to trust that God knows what he's doing.
Speaker 5: I knew my father fulfilled his purpose, he finished his course.
Speaker 5: And God will never take something away without giving you
Speaker 5: something better back in return.
Speaker 7: And at the time you may not be able to
Speaker 7: see it. But if you'll stay in faith.
Speaker 5: And not let the disappointment the law sour your life,
Speaker 5: then like David, like me, you'll come out prepared, qualified,
Speaker 5: ready for the next level. When I was on that
Speaker 5: threshing floor during the loss of my father, God separated
Speaker 5: things from me that were holding me back. Intimidation, insecurity, fear.
Speaker 5: I was afraid to get up in front of people.
Speaker 5: But in that fire, those limitations were burned off. It
Speaker 5: didn't happen in the good times, it happened during the
Speaker 5: bumps in the road. My father and I were best
Speaker 5: friends for seventeen years. I'd worked with and behind the
Speaker 5: scenes at the ministry. We'd traveled the world together. All
Speaker 5: of a sudden he was gone. I found sometimes God
Speaker 5: will take you.
Speaker 7: Through a season of being alone.
Speaker 5: That's a time you can draw closer to God. When
Speaker 5: you'd normally give energy and affection to another person, you
Speaker 5: turn it toward God.
Speaker 7: Out that aloneness.
Speaker 5: You would never have the depth, the contracration, the character.
Speaker 7: Don't fight a season of isolation. If you'll embrace.
Speaker 5: It, you'll discover something otherwise you could never have. Jesus
Speaker 5: put it this way, My father is the gardener. Every
Speaker 5: branch that doesn't bear fruit, he will cut away. God
Speaker 5: will take things out of our lives that are not
Speaker 5: good for us.
Speaker 7: We're not moving forward. We understand this.
Speaker 5: He'll take away a branch of impatience, a branch of insecurity.
Speaker 5: He'll move a person that's holding us back. That makes sense.
Speaker 5: But then he said, every branch that does bear fruit,
Speaker 5: he will cut it back so that it can bear
Speaker 5: much fruit. This is saying at times, we're all going
Speaker 5: to experience being cut back.
Speaker 7: Sometimes it doesn't make sense. God, I was doing so good.
Speaker 7: Why did I lose that main client friend walk away?
Speaker 7: Why did my child break my heart? We're doing the
Speaker 7: right thing, the wrong thing happens.
Speaker 5: We tend to focus on the cutback, the loss, the disappointment.
Speaker 5: But the only reason God cuts us back is so
Speaker 5: we can bear much fruit, so we can rise higher.
Speaker 7: At home.
Speaker 5: Next to our sidewalk, we have these green plants. They're
Speaker 5: about two feet tall, looked like real high grass that
Speaker 5: line our sidewalk. A couple of months ago, I walked
Speaker 5: out and those plants had been cut back to about
Speaker 5: three inches tall. They looked terrible, looked like my gardener
Speaker 5: was having a bad day. He had scalped my plants.
Speaker 5: A few days ago, Victoria and I were outside.
Speaker 7: Those plants were.
Speaker 5: Taller, fuller, bigger, healthier than I've ever seen.
Speaker 7: I was so amazed.
Speaker 5: In just a few weeks they had sprouted to new heights.
Speaker 5: Here's the key Man was an experienced gardener. He knows
Speaker 5: when each plant needs to be pruned. He knows how
Speaker 5: much they need to be cut back. It's not one
Speaker 5: size fits all. He carefully studies each plant. I have
Speaker 5: some crape myrtles other plants that he prunes at different
Speaker 5: times in the same way. God is the master gardener.
Speaker 5: He will never cut something back, remove it, take it
Speaker 5: away unless it's the perfect time.
Speaker 7: Sometimes we think, God, you scalp me, You mess me up.
Speaker 5: God, why'd you take away my dad? Why'd you cut
Speaker 5: back my business?
Speaker 7: God knows what he's doing.
Speaker 5: The only reason he cuts you back is so you
Speaker 5: can bear much fruit. If he had not cut you back,
Speaker 5: you would have been satisfied to stay where you were.
Speaker 5: God doesn't want you to get stuck. He has new
Speaker 5: levels and on a regular base. He says, we're gonna
Speaker 5: see this pruning in the uncomfortable times. In those tough times,
Speaker 5: you have to remind yourself you're being pruned so you
Speaker 5: can bloom, so you can blossom, so you can see
Speaker 5: new growth. Friends, We're all gonna have these bumps in
Speaker 5: the road, these threshing floor experiences. The separation may be uncomfortable,
Speaker 5: but it's making you better.
Speaker 7: It's getting you prepared.
Speaker 5: You may have lost something you need to get ready,
Speaker 5: You're about to gain something a whole lot better.
Speaker 7: I believe and declare you're gonna come.
Speaker 5: Through every adversity less chaff, more wheat, refined, purified, stronger,
Speaker 5: ready for the fullness of your destiny.
Speaker 7: In Jesus' name. If you receive it today, can just
Speaker 7: say amen.
Speaker 5: We never like to close our broadcast without giving you
Speaker 5: an opportunity to make Jesus the lord of your life.
Speaker 7: Would you pray with me?
Speaker 5: Just say nor Jesus, repent of my sins, come into
Speaker 5: my heart.
Speaker 7: I make you my lord and savior.
Speaker 5: Friends, if you've prayed that simple prayer, we believe you
Speaker 5: got born again, get in a good Bible based church.
Speaker 7: Keep God first place.
Speaker 5: He's gonna take your places that you've never dreamed.
Speaker 8: Thank you for listening to the Joelus Deine podcast. Help
Speaker 8: us continue to share the message of hope with those
Speaker 8: all over the world. Visit jolostin dot com slash give
Speaker 8: Hope to give a gift today.
Speaker 4: Thanks so much for listening to today's message.
Speaker 5: I hope you'll subscribe so you can receive the latest
Speaker 5: podcast to keep you.
Speaker 4: Inspired all through the week. We're praying for you. I
Speaker 4: know God's best is still ahead.
Speaker 7: We'll see you next time.
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