Growing in Greatness | How to Persevere | Abundant Life Church | Pastor Sean Thomas
Growing in Greatness | How to Persevere | Abundant Life Church | Pastor Sean Thomas
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Speaker 1
Hey, everyone. Pastor Sean here, and I wanna thank you for subscribing to our podcast. I'm excited to get into today's message. And remember this, God is a good God. He loves you, and he wants to bless you.
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I want you to do me a favor today. Let's jump into Mark's gospel chapter four. I wanna get into the word today.
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Mark chapter four starting in verse 26 is where we're going to find our assignment.
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For the last several weeks, we have been teaching in this series that we have titled seeds.
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Somebody say seeds.
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And when we begin to understand what a seed is, it simply defined as this, a seed is a carrier of life.
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Inside of a seed is a life form, but the life form in the seed does not allow us to experience that life where a seed must be planted into good ground, must be planted into soil, must be watered, must go through its process in order for the life that's in the seed to come on the outside of the seed. It would make no sense for you to want to have an apple tree if you did not plant an apple seed.
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That seed can have all the potential in the world in that seed, but until it is planted, nothing is coming out of it. And so when we are understanding understanding the the concept, concept, the purpose of seeds, it is that a seed is meant to be sown.
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Somebody say, sown. Sown.
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And so, if we want to see a harvest, if we want to see an outcome, if we want to see fruit in our life, it requires you to sow a seed.
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It requires you. I'll say it one more time, to sow a seed. If you want to have a successful business, it's going to require you to sow your time and your energy and your finances and and your talent and your wisdom. If you want to have a successful family, a fruitful family, it's going to require you to sow your time, and your energy, and your finances.
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My daughter's in ballet right now. If you want to be able to have a fruitful spiritual walk with the Lord, it requires you to sow your time as you're having devotion and prayer. It's going to require your energy.
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We've been talking about this the last several weeks. It's going to require you to sow the seed of your offerings and your generosity because there is a biblical principle that is rooted in every seed that you sow.
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Somebody say, seeds. Seeds. And so, the Bible tells us in Mark chapter four starting in verse 26 that the kingdom of God is as a man should scatter seed on the ground. Now emphasis is on this, is that he should scatter seed. The kingdom of God is alike. It is an alikening. It is a comparison of how God's kingdom functions and operates, and it's as if a man should scatter seed. It makes no sense if a man has a seed and does nothing with it. He should do something with it. No different than the seeds that are inside of you. They should not remain in you, but you should be sowing them. You you should do something with it. I've made this statement these last several weeks, but I believe that the wealthiest place on the earth is the graveyard.
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And it is sad because that is where potential and talent and gifting dies where people never took what was in them and they sewed it out of their life into their purpose.
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God has given you a purpose. God has given you a great calling. God has a plan for you is what Jeremiah says.
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He has got a hope and a and a future for you. He has a hope and a future for your family. He has a hope and a future for everything that He has assigned to your life. Nothing in life just happens.
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I said nothing in life just happens. You didn't just show up in the earth as a as a happening. I don't care if mom and dad came together and they weren't planning to have you, but God knew you before you were formed in your mother's womb. Nothing just happens.
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Which reminds me and tells me and encourages me with this, is that every single person in this room, if you have breath, you have a purpose.
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And so the bible says in Mark four that the kingdom is like a man that should scatter seed on the ground. Now, just hang with me for a moment as I start to build this clock for a second, and then we'll tell the time a little bit later. But, when we understand this, it is saying that the kingdom of God is like a kingdom, a kingdom, a kingdom, a kingdom is a rulership or an extension of a king.
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And so what it is saying is this, is that the king's kingdom is only as good as the word of the King.
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For the Bible tells us that the seeds that we sow first start in word before they are in deed.
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The kingdom of God is as if a mansion scattered seed, and Jesus earlier on in Mark's Gospel chapter four says this, as if the sower sows the Word, so the Word is the seed, and the seed is the Word. And so, depending on the type of Kingdom I have is gonna be reflected on the seed that I sow.
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I'm preaching way better than you're responding right now. Right? Yeah. We are here.
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Are you with me? Yep. Yes. Do you hear me? Yes. The kingdom, the reality, the culture, the fruit that you have first starts based upon the word that you speak.
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For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth will speak, and what you say is what you have, and what you say is what you'll possess, and what you say is where you'll go. Your words will be the direction of your life. And so, Jesus is saying in Mark four that the kingdom, the way of the kingdom starts in the word of the king.
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The kingdom is the extension of the king.
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And so, a king knows this, if he wants his kingdom to flourish, he should be scattering some seed. He should be speaking some words. But the Bible goes on and it says this is that that the the sower, he sleeps at night and he awakes during the day, and the Bible says that the seed should sprout and grow.
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It should sprout and grow, which means that the seed, it works.
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Oh, hear me when I tell you this, the seed, it works.
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Some of you are questioning, is the seed that I'm sowing working? And I wanna tell you this today, the seed does not fail, it's the soil that decides. The seeds that you sow don't fail, it's the soil that decides.
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And if the seed is not producing, maybe you need to reevaluate the soil that you're sowing into.
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The seed does not fail, the soil decides, the seed should sprout is what it says in Mark four, and grow. But I love this, because it says, but the one that sowed, he does not know how it happens.
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He does not know to himself how does this seed grow. He doesn't understand that when the seed's in the ground, what is the process in which that seed begins to take root and how it begins to move to the place where it's shooting above the ground to establish the fray. He does not know.
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And the Bible tells us that he does not know, but the earth it yields the crop.
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First, the blade, then the head, then the grain that is in the head, but when the grain ripens...
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Oh, you better tell somebody today when the grain ripens. When grain ripens. See, maybe you don't understand the concept of sowing and reaping in agriculture, but when the grain ripens means that it is a readiness. When the grain ripens, it means that everything that you've been sowing, everything that you've been doing, and everything that you've been praying, and everything that you've been believing everything that you know and you don't know, it means that there is a ready moment where that grain is ripe.
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And the Bible says that immediately they put it in the sickle for the coming harvest is now. Somebody say now. Anybody want a now harvest?
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Come on, anybody want a now harvest?
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Anybody want to see a now harvest? Anybody believing for God to move in your life in a in a very specific way? Anybody believing for a miracle from God today? Did anybody come in today saying, Lord, I've been sowing the seed of my faith, and I'm believing for a fruitful harvest.
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I'm believing for my family to be restored, my health to be restored, my finances to be restored, my life to be restored. Come on, everybody got a now faith believing for a now harvest.
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It's when the grain, hear me, when the grain ripens. The ripening is the the readiness, but everything before when the grain is ripe after the action of sowing, the sower does not know what is going on.
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And I thought in this entire series that we've been teaching on, that I would just take a moment today as we have talked about the seed, and as we've talked about the water, and as we 've talked about the soil, and as we've talked about the harvest, I just wanted for a moment to drop a pin on this one word. I wanna talk to you about time.
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Because timing is everything.
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If you're taking notes, that down. Timing is everything.
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In fact, I want you to say that out loud. Timing is everything.
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The Bible tells us in Ecclesiastes chapter three and verse one, to everything
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there is a season.
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There is a time for every purpose under heaven.
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There is a time for everything.
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And the Bible opens up in that chapter and it talks about that there is a time to be born, and there's a time to die. And the next verse in verse three says that there's a time to plant, and I love this, and there is a time to pluck up. And my question to you is, do you know the time that it is for you to pluck up?
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Because timing is everything.
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I said timing is everything.
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Because if the sequence of time is off too soon and it's not ready too late and it's already ruined, timing is everything because timing really speaks to the measure of growth, and do you know where you are in your growth process right now? Do you know where you are in your growth process right now?
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Because timing and growth means that there is a measure of patience that is required. Oh, and if there ever was something that generationally we struggle with, it is patience.
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We lack from patience, we suffer from patience, but James says when there's testing, tempting, and trying, when the trying of your faith, it is to produce a patience.
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Now, know you didn't come to church to hear about patience, but the reality is the key that's gonna get you to your harvest is not the seed that you are sowing, it is your ability to endure time under tension, which is where patience is. Time under tension is what makes you tough. Time under tension is what takes you into purpose and destiny, but if I don't understand the sequence of time, the cake is gonna come out and it's gonna be too soft or that it's gonna be too late and it's gonna be overcooked.
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Timing is everything.
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And as I've grown up over the years, I have learned and I begin to understand that there is a real art in mastering patience.
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We want as quickly as we can get it, but what I realized is that the best things in life is over the sequence of time.
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The best pasta gravy is when it's on a slow simmer of time.
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The best steak is when it is slowly cooked evenly on each side in time. The best loaf of bread that my wife is now learning how to bake and I love it, is the execution of time.
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Timing is everything. You can be married in a half hour, but it takes a lifetime to cultivate a marriage.
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We want what we want, but are we willing to enter the time? Somebody say timing is everything.
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My wife and I, we can come together as husband and wife, and she can give birth to our child, and that can happen over a few short days in regards to the birthing process, but once that child is is born, it's lifetime of parenting.
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It takes time. My son did not just come into this world and know how to talk, it took time for him to develop. What I'm trying to tell you is that time develops you. Time is what grows you. Time is what allows every good and perfect gift that God has put in you to flourish at maximum potential.
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Timing is everything.
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We see the concept of time in our school system.
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When a high school student goes in as a freshman, he might be 15 years old, when he starts.
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But what we say is that at the end of four years of high school that they graduate and there is a graduation, but can I tell you the graduation is not just the end of a season, for every single day you are graduating?
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Graduation or to graduate means to step up, and every day we are stepping up in a school system. If that student stops going to school, he is no longer or she is no longer stepping It is a constant graduation, and what comes at the end of four years is what we would call a graduation ceremony.
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The ceremony is the distinction between the end of a season and the marking of a new beginning.
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And when Jesus says the grain is ripened and immediately is put in the sickle, the sickle is an agricultural device that moves the ready harvest from where it was to where it needs to be.
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And I want to tell you today that for some of you, you might be ripe, but you might be in the wrong position.
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You might be fresh and flourishing, but you're in the field, and God's saying your life is no longer to be in the field for you have matured fully, and now you need to be ready for function.
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Because the harvest is not good once it's ripe to remain in the field, it's got to move from the field to a place of function.
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My God, this is good preaching right now.
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If we're not careful, we will find ourselves looking fresh and flourishing, but we're still in the field.
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But the problem is, is that you weren't designed to stay in the field.
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You have a function. Ephesians chapter two verse 10 says this, that we are God's workmanship. Say workmanship. Workmanship.
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Created in Christ Jesus for good works. In other words, God has worked you out of his image and likeness for good works, to be productive.
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Productive.
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Your life is meant to be productive.
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Not just to sit around and say, well, look at where I'm at. I'm good. Things are great. I'm happy. I'm content. Don't ever find yourself in a place of contentment because that is the moment that you will find your life stand still. Amen.
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Amen.
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And we say things like, oh, I'm content, and I don't want anymore.
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And it's the moment your dream, your future, and everything that can be put on pause and you are no longer graduating.
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It's like steps up the stairs.
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Steps up the stairs, and I don't know about you, I'm stepping up. I said, I don't know about you, I'm stepping up. I don't know about you, but a month of life is stepping up. There are more people to reach with the Gospel. There are more lives to be changed.
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There are more people that need to hear the goodness of God, the love of God, the blessing of God, that God has empowered them to prosper, that God has called them to be in good health and prosper in all things.
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God wants you to step up. You better tell somebody I'm stepping up.
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And so, says in Ephesians two ten that we are His workmanship.
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He's worked it all together to work.
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You gotta go to work.
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We gotta go to work.
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We gotta go to work.
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I said, gotta go to work. The seeker just... Or the the kingdom doesn't go to the casual, it goes to the seeker.
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The kingdom's not gonna go to the people that are sitting back. God's not looking for people on the sidelines. God's looking for people to get into the game.
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God's looking to be able to send people out.
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God's looking for a Noah that is willing to build an ark. God is looking for a Moses who is willing to stand toe to toe to a king. God is looking for a Joshua that's willing to possess land. God is looking for a David that wants to slay a giant. God is looking for a people of God who will step up at such a time as this.
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Send us Lord.
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And so, the sickle at the given ready moment of the ripe harvest, the sickle separates from one season, but the sickle sends into the next season.
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Now I studied this because I know that a sickle is an agricultural device that bundles all the ready grain together.
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And I'm beginning to think about this for a second, and I thought how the sickle doesn't grab one grain.
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No different than when you graduate from high school or college, it is not just one person graduating on a platform, but it is a bundle.
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You understand that whenever you graduate from a season, it's one of the most tragic or not, excuse me, not tragic, traumatic moments of your life, because everything that you've known for four years, you're being ripped out of familiarity.
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No different than when a woman is giving birth to a baby for nine months, it's found comfort.
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But now, going into the nine month and first day when you're ready to give birth, you're being separated from that coziness of that womb, and you're entering into an environment that is different. I say that with this in mind, is that for some of us you're ready, but you're not feeling like I can do it. For some of us you're ready, but God is saying it's now in faith time for you to separate from the field and get to the place of function. Oh, I know that you've been preparing yourself, but it's time to get off the bench and into the game. It's time for you to step out of the classroom and be able to go out and work that profession. It's time for you to be who God has called you to be.
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And that grain does not get gathered by itself, but it's grain, it gets gathered in in in a bundle and and what this does is it tells me Andrew is that there's an importance of having community in your seasons of transition. Transition, that you can't do it alone because sometimes when I leave the field, it can be very scary, and I feel isolated, and I don't know what to do. But when the sickle grabs the grain, it's grabbing multiple grains, which says that we're in this thing together. Because we're iron that sharpens iron, and we build one another up so that when we step into the place of function, we know that we've got brothers and sisters that have got our back.
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I sit here and I just begin to digest what Jesus is saying, and in Mark chapter four as He's talking about this this this concept of sickle. The the the Bible says, when the grain is ripened, immediately He puts it in the sickle.
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Now understand when Jesus is teaching, Listen, church. When Jesus is teaching, everything is always in code because the kingdom goes to the seeker. He uses parables. He shrouds the truth in a mystery for us to seek it out. The language immediately puts, it comes from the word apostolai where we get the word apostle.
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Immediately puts in the Greek is which is where we get apostle.
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And the apostle's responsibility is to separate and to send. The apostle, the five fold ministry is to discern and recognize the readiness of a harvest to separate them and to send them. For when the disciples came to a place in their walk with Jesus, what did Jesus do? He sent them two by two. He gave them power and authority because they were ready to be sent. And I came to ask you this question today, church. Are you ready to be sent? I said, are you ready to be sent?
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Are you ready to be sent?
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Because in the book of Philippians, Paul says this, there's one thing I'm confident of. And Paul was pretty confident. You want to talk about an arrogant brother? That thorn in his side was humility that he needed to have.
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Some might say.
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He said, but I'm confident of one thing, that He who began a good work in you.
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Oh, come on. He who began a good work in who? In me. Come on. Make it possessive. Who you began a good work where? In me. God, I thank you that you began a good work in me, and he will complete it. Oh, there is a ripened grain. You are the ripened grain in Christ Jesus.
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He is saying, I'm gonna bring you to completion.
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I'm gonna fulfill it in Christ Jesus.
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It's in Christ. It's in the anointing. It's in the grace that God has placed upon your life. Don't let anybody tell you that you can't make it. That's right. Don't let anybody tell you that you can't do it. Don't let anybody tell you that you're a failure. You are called to win.
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I said you are called to win. You are triumphant in Christ Jesus, the one who gave it all so that you could have it all. Have what? Have the ability to prosper in all things.
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He who began a good work. Oh, I love when Paul says that I'm confident of this one thing.
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If there's anything you need to be confident of, it's that when you have got the anointing of Christ upon your life, you can do all things. Come on, I said you can do all things. You can do all things. Come hell or high water, you can do all things. No devil in hell can stop you from you advancing the kingdom of God. You can do all things. That co worker is waiting on you tomorrow to bring the gospel to them. That family member is waiting for you to pray for them. Come on now, you can do all things. God strengthens you in all things to be able to be the ready harvest for function.
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Why would there ever be a harvest left in the field?
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It's because we lost track of time.
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Why would a harvest be left in the field?
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It's because we believe that nothing's happened over time.
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Genesis chapter eight verse 22 says, as long as the earth remains there will be seed time and harvest.
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I can see the seed.
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I can have a picture of the harvest, but the one thing I cannot see is time.
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And so, time can cripple you. Time can discourage you. Time can overwhelm you because we want everything to be made beautiful in our time.
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But God's got a picture from Heaven because His point of view is not our point of view. His vantage point is different than yours, and He is saying that as long as you continue to endure, you are working your faith, you're preparing yourself so that you're not gonna be stuck in the phase of life as the shoot, but you are now in a place that you are ripe in fruit because He makes everything beautiful in its own time.
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I can't see time.
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And thank God that faith is not what I see in the natural.
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Or else Caleb and Joshua would have been like the rest of the other spies when they saw that the giants of the promised land were much bigger than they were. They would have too made the statement that we are but grasshoppers in their eyes.
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But they didn't see with the eyes of the natural, they saw with the eyes of the spirit.
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The eyes of the Spirit is when the Word of God gets so rooted in you. The fact might be, I'm not qualified for that job, but the truth is, God, You have given me all wisdom and grace to be a success in that position that you've spoken to my heart. The fact might be, you came in this morning not feeling a 100%. The truth is, you are the healed of the Lord. The fact is that maybe you have gone through a hardship in your life and your family seems to be going through division. The truth is God has called family to come together and to be restored.
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Don't let the facts facts sway your eyes, but see in faith and declare the truth.
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There is something about when the grain ripens, and that sickle gathers it up and sends it out.
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Gathers it up, sends it out.
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We cannot allow time to discourage us. We gotta let God continue to grow His good work in us.
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Galatians talks about the fruit of the spirit.
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One fruit, many characteristics.
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One fruit, didn't say the fruits, it's not plural.
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It's the fruit of the spirit in Galatians five.
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And he says this, he says the fruit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Again, such things there is no law. It's the fruit of the spirit. How many know that fruit, it's not given to you, it's grown in you? Yes. Which means if I'm going to have the fruit of the spirit, it's got to be grown which requires time. And the fruit of the spirit is a progression or a graduation.
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Remember, to graduate is to step up because it starts with love.
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You will never know what it is to experience peace and joy if you first do not have love. You will never know what it is to be kind when you don't have peace and joy for yourself. You'll never know what it is to be able to have self control if you're not walking in the previous fruit characteristics characteristics that are listed. It is a progression, and it takes time.
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Well, brother, right now I'm just trying to work on dealing with this kindness.
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No. What you need is get back to step one, and you need to start having a love for God. That's where it starts. You want to be kind? Start recognizing the love of God.
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Check this out. What does Jesus say? He says the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart. But then He follows it up and He says, and love your neighbor as your self. Often times when this is preached, we talk about loving God and loving others, but you can't love others till you love yourself.
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And so, you're going to talk about growing fruit, you've got to have a love for God, and you've to learn to love yourself.
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And I believe that that is a big struggle because often times, we look at the measure of our growth compared to somebody else's growth, and when we see their progress, we think that we're not good enough so we don't love ourselves.
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It is a progression that God wants to grow something in you, so that something great can come out of you. Because you are born for greatness.
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God wants you to grow in greatness.
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Write that down. I'm growing in greatness.
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I'm gonna grow in greatness.
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I'm gonna grow into everything that God says is great for my life.
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And it starts in the heart, and it extends from your hand. I'm growing in greatness, church. But to do that, it requires time.
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Timing.
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It's everything.
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The timing of when my business is now just getting to a place where it's actually flourishing.
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I don't care how successful the year was.
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The question is after all the bills are paid, all the employees are paid, after everything that I've recouped, am I ahead from where I was last year?
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Listen, success, my goodness, true success is not what you can get because anybody in today's day and age can figure out how to get something. Anybody can figure out how to get a new home or a new car or if you work hard enough, a new job. That doesn't speak to anything.
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What speaks to it is not what you can get but it's on the other side what can you give Because the readied ripened harvest, I don't care how ripe you are, you might be sitting in here like a fat fruit today.
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I don't care how good looking you are in the spirit or in the natural.
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The reality is this, what makes the harvest great is who it feeds. And until I'm in a place that I'm complete, entire, lacking nothing and able to feed and reach my world with life, I have not actually stepped into the fullness of success. I'm still a work in progress, and time still needs to work some things out because it's not about the blessing that God gets to you, but it's the blessing that begins to flow out of you. And so I want to be a ready harvest, not in the field, but who I can feed.
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Disciples, it's not what you get to eat, it's who you can feed. Church, it's not what God gets into your stomach, it's what flows out of your life and who you can feed. And are we feeding Margate with the goodness of God? Are we feeding Coral Springs with the love of God? Are we feeding our communities with a message and a hope that God is a good God and He loves us and He wants to bless us? It's time for you to step up, step out and know that God has called you to feed somebody. Send
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us, Lord.
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Send us, God.
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The harvest is ready, the labors are few, timing is everything, and I'm here to tell you abundant life church, the time is now.
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Send us, Lord.
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Let me graduate into the greatness that you have spoken over my life. You know, we were in this conference this past week, and Friday night, my my father, he was speaking and he was ministering along with my family, my mother on on the purpose of of dreams, and that God's got a dream for each and every single one of us. And when when I when I understand the word of the Lord for my life, it allows my my my dream to be illuminated.
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For some of you, it's not that the dream's not there, it's just you haven't turned the light on to see what's in the room.
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It's good. It is amazing if you actually get into the word of God, how you begin to see the pictures that He has painted for you.
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There's a dream that God has for each and every single one of you, but what He was talking about and and this is what blew up in my spirit and just sent me on a on a wild dog hunt this this this last two days. He started talking about Joseph.
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You start talking about how in the Bible we understand that there is a mighty man who starts off as a young teenager by the name of Joseph, and you know the story, Joseph is a dreamer.
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And my dad expanded on the other night that it wasn't that he was just a dreamer, he was master of dreams.
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And what a master of dreams means is he didn't just see something, he had understanding of what he saw.
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And this is why he was able to be a mighty instrument throughout his life, bringing knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, not just to his dreams, but anybody that came to him with dreams.
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But it's interesting because when my dad was talking about this, he was giving a timeline of Joseph's life, and he was talking about how when Joseph started, he didn't start at the place that he was ready to arrive.
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He actually started at the age of 17, and by the time we get to the end of his story, he's in his thirties.
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Somebody understand something that that Joseph's timeline was not overnight.
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Joseph's rise to power, number two, over the kingdom of Egypt was not overnight.
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I want to tell you that and encourage you is that where you're at right now, God is moving you forward as long as you're willing to take steps in time.
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Time is what strengthens you.
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Too early and I can't steward it. If I've never lifted a 175 pounds on the barbell to bench press, why would I go in trying to do it on day one? It will crush me and God will never bless you with a blessing that you cannot contain, unless it's not a blessing, but it crushes you and it's a burden.
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And some of us want blessings right now because we live in a now generation, and when I say a now harvest, what I'm simply saying is this, is that now Lord, begin to strengthen me to contain what you have for me.
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Some of us we want a new home, but we're up to our eyeballs in debt. Get out of debt and let God bring you the new home.
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Be a good steward of time, and we're not good stewards of time because we want what we want, how we want it, when we want it right now.
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And I want to tell this generation the best things in life come in time. The worst mistakes I've ever made in my life was because I tried to rush the time. I want to get to the end without learning how to appreciate the process.
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Patience teaches you how to appreciate the process.
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Because if we just got to the end, we would not have understanding or a wealth of wisdom that came through the things that we've learned. My dad often says this, I can't always tell you what to do, but I can tell you what not to do. Why can you tell me what not to do, dad? It's because you went through some hardships and you learned over time how to do things certain way. And God is a line upon line God.
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God is a line upon line God. God is a step after step God.
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God's not saying take quantum leaps when you don't know how to put two feet in front of your face. We wanna jump to the top of the mountain, but you haven't even learned how to just, you know, jog 25 yards.
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I like a good jog.
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A nice little yog.
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Jog with a soft j, a yog.
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Build up that stamina.
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So, you gotta build up that stamina.
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You're moving in the right direction.
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The outcome is there.
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It's just a matter of you stepping into greatness every day, one step at a time, one step at a time. Don't get discouraged in your process. Don't get discouraged in your time. It's one step at a time.
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Patience, listen, is not the enemy of time.
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Patience is the fruit of time.
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It's what builds you and molds you and shapes you and develops you. The greatest things that are developed are always in the dark where no one sees it. A photo is developed in a dark room, but in its process, it doesn't make any sense.
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But in its time, it comes out as a beautiful photograph.
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David was in the Cave Of Adullam going through his process.
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It didn't make any sense, but when he came out, he didn't come back out as a shepherd, he came out as a king.
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Time and patience has its purpose and its process in your life.
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And so Joseph was going through a a journey, a process of of of time.
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But check this out. This is the thing that... This lit my fire.
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Joseph,
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when you examine his life, next to Mark's Gospel, Mark chapter four, not in the passage that I read about verse 26 to 29, but in the opening statements when Jesus talks about the parable of the seed in the four types of soil. Joseph went through four types of soil, and the four types of soil is what allowed him over time to actually become to the person in the position where he was not just some 30 or 60, but he was hundredfold. Let me expand on this thing.
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The Bible says that in Genesis, it wasn't that his brothers just hated him for his dreams. Go back and read what the word says.
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The Bible says they hated him for his dreams and for his word, for what He said, what He spoke, and their hearts were hard so they could not receive the Word no different than the seed that went on the hardened path, and the birds came and they snatched it up. What I'm trying to tell you is this, is that the seed, it does not fail.
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It's the soil that decides.
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But regardless of the soil, don't let that determine the way that you're going to sow the seed. I'm going to sow, and if you reject it, that's on you. That is not on me. Continue sowing your seed.
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Continue sowing your word. Jesus was not rejected because He had a concept of kingdom that that He was beginning to to to minister, it was what He said in regards to the kingdom that they rejected. Yeah. That's good. They didn't hate Joseph because of his dreams alone. They hated him because of his word. And I'm gonna tell you this, there's gonna be people, there's gonna be haters, there's gonna be individuals, there's gonna be even thoughts of your own mind that's gonna come against you and tell you what you're saying is foolish, and what you're doing makes no sense. Why would you dare to believe for a bigger property or to have greater influence in Colombia? Why would you dare to... That makes no sense. People are gonna tell you shut your mouth.
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And I'm gonna tell them, you shut your mouth when you're talking to me.
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Why have we become a church who is remaining silent?
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We cannot afford to be a church where our mouths are shut up. You cannot afford to walk into an environment and be worried about someone's mindset or ideology or or what they believe. It's the word of the Lord that saves, that heals, that delivers.
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The seed is no good in your heart if it's not coming out of your mouth. And
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Joseph is sowing and his brothers are hardened hearts, they reject that representing the first soil of Mark's gospel.
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And then we know that he gets thrown into a pit, but can can I rephrase it? Because we like to preach from the pit to the palace. Woo hoo. I'm not gonna say he was just thrown into a pit as much as I would like to say maybe he was planted in a in a pit.
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Because if he hadn't have been planted in that pit, he actually wouldn't have found himself in Potiphar's house.
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It's really all about where you're getting... Where are you gonna get planted?
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And sometimes we think that the soil that God's wanting us to plant into is bad soil, and it's not that it's bad, it's just not preferred.
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Oh my gosh.
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For some of you, it's not that it's bad soil, it's just not preferred because I'm worried about what they think. I'm worried about how it's gonna happen. I don't I don't know and so what I do is I get afraid and it's not that it's bad soil that I'm rejecting, it's that God's saying, that's actually your assignment.
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Come on. That's right.
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Who do you need to sow into?
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And so for Joseph, he now finds himself in Potiphar's house and the Bible says that Joseph begins to prosper.
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He begins to get a little momentum.
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He gets a little growth.
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He's getting a little muscle out his back right now. He's, you know, things are... It's not so bad anymore that that that my... I'm not in the place where my brothers are hating me. I'm not, you know, there. I I... At least what I'm doing, you know, someone's recognizing it. And so now where he's planted in Potiphar's house, he's seeing some growth, but the problem is is that Potiphar's wife, man, she's got a nice little wandering eye towards Joseph because he's doing a good thing.
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And so trouble comes his way.
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And when trouble comes his way and Potiphar finds about it, Potiphar uproots him no different than when the seed goes into the soil. When it takes no root, it might have a little bit of growth, but it's gonna get scorched and pulled out.
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And then Joseph finds himself now in a jail in which he's prospering again.
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And then, Pharaoh gets upset and angry one day and throws really like the two best people in your house in jail. You've got a butler and a baker. The one who is gonna make the food and the one who's gonna serve the food.
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And these brothers are in the jail and they each have dreams and they don't know how to make sense of it. And so they go to Joseph and the Bible says that. Joseph basically says this, he says listen, baker you're gonna die, butler you're gonna live. Or you can read the story for yourself. But he tells the butler when you when when you get when you get back to Pharaoh, make sure that you speak well of me. Be kind to me. Speak well of me. Let Pharaoh know what I did and get me out of this house is what the Bible says. I read that with that same amount of intensity.
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I saw an exclamation point. He said, get me out of this place. Get me out of this soil. This is not the good ground. Get me out of this soil.
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Get me out of this place. And so, the Bible says that when the butler is restored back to his position to where Pharaoh was at, that it had been two whole years.
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Now here's what hit me. This is what blew me up.
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All this.
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This just got me so excited.
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It's because the butler got restored back into position next to Pharaoh.
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And when the butler was restored back in position next to Pharaoh, the butler was not thinking about Joseph who was in the prison, he was thinking about, look at me back arrayed in royal apparel.
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Look at me back being able to do the things that make me look good in front of the people, and so the cares of the world choked out the word that Joseph sowed.
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But then the Bible tells us if we thumb into the Psalms that in Psalm one zero five verses nineteen and twenty, that the word of the Lord tested tested Joseph. Joseph.
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The The word word of of the the Lord, it tested Joseph.
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And when the word tested Joseph, and Joseph Joseph prevailed in the word that the king sent for him, good ground was crying out for good seed.
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Good ground... Listen, good ground is crying out for good seed. I said, good ground is crying out for good seed. And Pharaoh, in that moment, was good ground because it needed the seed of Joseph's word in order for the word of the Lord that was first given to Abraham, then to Isaac, then to Jacob, broken down to the 12 sons. Through Joseph, that word would now be fulfilled, creating the legacy, creating the generational currents that would flow. In the good ground, cried out for good. See, do you know the good ground that God's calling you to sow into?
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But the Bible said the word of the Lord, it tested Joseph.
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I firmly believe this.
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While we don't like the concept of having to be patient, even though the best things in life comes out of being patient in time, because timing is everything.
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I don't necessarily just believe it's because we wanna get to the end.
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Okay?
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Time under tension is what makes you tough. Time under tension is what takes you into purpose in destiny.
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Time under testing is what allows you to become fruitful.
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Do you know what the purpose of a test is for?
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Tests are to monitor the progress of growth.
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Why as a student do we hate to take tests?
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I'll tell you who doesn't mind taking tests are the students who have been sowing and learning and growing because it reveals their greatness. But if I haven't been sowing and if I haven't been growing, the purpose of a test, if it's measuring the progress of growth, means it's going to expose weakness.
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And we live in a day that we don't want anyone to see our weakness.
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So the quicker I can get to the end, I can show off what I have letting people know that I'm something big. But you're not big if you hadn't gone through the process to contain that thing that's big. I don't care if you've got a blessing, if you can't hold it, it's gonna crumble you. If you can't hold it, it's gonna burden you. But time is the test that will reveal where you're at in your growth process.
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But weakness does not mean you're a failure.
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We've allowed the concept of weakness to say that I am a failure.
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I'm sorry that maybe you lost your marriage in an ugly divorce, but it does not mean you're a failure. Failure. You
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lost your job of ten, fifteen years, it does not mean that you're a failure.
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The Bible doesn't say let the strong say I'm strong. The Bible says let the weak say that I'm strong, and the poor say that I'm rich. And maybe you're in a growth part of your life right now where it doesn't make sense.
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But when I in faith, begin to declare the word of the Lord, and I know that He makes everything beautiful in its own time. It's just a matter of time until I can stand out and say, look at what my God has done. And when Joseph was brought into position and power, he was able to say, look at what my God has done. To the point where he named his son Ephraim, Ephraim.
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Ephraim means fruitfulness.
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He's able to say, after everything that I've endured, every... Everything I've gone through, you're not a failure, you might just be going through a season that you're feeling weak and that's okay. Let's expose the weakness. Let's deal with it. Let's muscle you up in the spirit so that you can contain the blessing that God has for your life.
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Timing is everything, and God wants you to grow in greatness. Father, I thank you for your word today.
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Spirit of the living God, wake within our hearts.
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Strengthen our minds.
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God, today, I declare those that might be weak, that they will declare that they are strong.
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Father, those that might be going through a hardship, that they understand that it is not the end. But Lord, it's that you're working all things together for your good that would give you glory. Father, you've established a hope and a future in the people of God for such a time as this, that we would step up, that we would step out, that we would come out of the field into the place of function and be who you've called us to be. Today, father, I thank you for moving upon every heart and every life that's gathered here today. Thanks again for listening to today's podcast. We trust that it has touched your heart and blessed your life.
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And remember, we are better together.