Well, good evening. I am Pastor Danny.
If you guys don't know me, my husband and I are associate
pastors here at Anchor Faith Church.
I have been here at Anchor Faith Church for a long time, since
the beginning in 2004. I was only a teenager then, but
that's actually what I really felt on my heart.
I wanted to share with you guys tonight is kind of my testimony.
And when you say testimony, a lot of times you think that's
got to be something that's like crazy that's happened to you and
the gods delivered you out of it.
But here's the thing, really, we all were in a crazy situation
and that was that we were separated from Him and there's
nothing that we could have done to get to him.
And he rescued it out of us all. OK, So tonight I want to talk to
you guys about being planted, not potted.
OK, Being planted, not potted, the power to stay.
So it's kind of funny that I, you know, that got this title
because I have two very blocked thumbs.
I am not by any means an arborist or a farmer or anything
of the sort. I super appreciate all of those
people. I have a lot of friends who are
great at it. I also have a grandma Jackie,
who lives with me who's really great at it.
She gets my plants looking great and alive, but I am terrible at
it. However, I do understand the
concept, right? I grew up in a really small
farming town called High Springs.
Anybody. High Springs in Florida, it's
just north of Gainesville, small farming town.
So it was all around me all the time growing up.
I just didn't actually partake in it.
But anyways, being planted and not potted when I was thinking
about this, you know, these scriptures just kept coming up.
I want us to first turn to Psalms chapter one verse one
through 3 Psalms one, one through 3.
It says blessed is the person who does not walk in the counsel
of the wicked nor stand in the path of sinners nor sit in the
seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the
Lord and on his law he meditates day and night.
He will be like a tree planted by streams of water which yield
its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither and
whatever he does, he prospers. When I saw that whenever every
time I think about that Scripture, I think about where I
grew up because I actually grew up in the Florida.
That's not the beach Florida I grew up in like the springs
Florida, the river Florida. So I think a lot of you who are
native Floridians know like there's the beach Floridians and
then there's those of us who grew up like with the springs
and the rivers. And I grew up with the springs
and the rivers. And one of the biggest things
that I remember seeing growing up was Cypress trees.
In fact, my husband and IA long time ago, we used to do young
adults many, many moons ago. And I remember taking Chelsea,
who was just leading praise and worship, who, you know, grew up
in like New York City to the springs for the first time.
And she's like, there's animals in trees.
I'm like, yes, there's animals and trees and there's alligators
and they're snakes. Yes, they that's true.
They're all here. It's I remember taking her in
anyways. I just remember that people who
had never been before remember the Cypress trees.
And Cypress trees are these huge trees that grow beautifully in
the water. In fact, their roots can spread
out up to 20 feet away from the center of the tree.
The tree in diameter can grow up to 6 feet in diameter.
These are huge, massive trees. And the crazy thing is that they
withstand all the flood water. They withstand all the hurricane
winds. Very rarely do we see the
Cypress trees fall down and they have these big knobby roots that
go out in all directions. These are strong trees planted
by the water. So every time I read the script,
Scripture, the Lord always brought that back to my
remembrance. Those Cypress trees that were
strong, that could withstand any flood water and always stayed
exactly where they were supposed to be by the rivers, by the
springs, with their their roots. Not just not just that their
roots were spread deep, but their roots were spread far and
wide. They had a strong wide
foundation and it supported them as a tree.
And I know those of you who are familiar and you go into the
rivers and you are familiar with Florida, you know about the
Cypress trees. Let's keep going in Psalms
chapter 52 verse 8, Psalms chapter 52 verse 8, it says, but
I am like a green olive tree in the House of God.
I trust in and confident rely on the loving kindness and the
mercy of God forever and ever. I was curious what it meant by a
green olive tree. I'm like, is it a like green
olives? Like the type of tree?
I don't know. I like green olives, but I also
like black olives. Is there a difference?
But really that word green meant prosperous.
Like a prosperous tree, it actually means bare or naked.
So a bare or naked, a prosperous tree that's going to be able to
continue to grow and thrive in the House of God because we're
confidently relying on His loving kindness and mercy
forever. In Psalm chapter 92, verse 12
through 14. Psalm chapter 92, verse 12
through 14, it says the righteous man will flourish like
a palm tree. He will grow like a cedar in
Lebanon, planted in the House of the Lord.
They will flourish in the courts of our God.
They will still yield fruit in old age.
They will be full of SAP and very green.
And I really wanted to look at this scripture for a minute
because it says the righteous man will flourish like the palm
tree and it says that he will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
But look at that next verse. What does it say?
It says planted in the House of the Lord, they will flourish in
the courts of our God. Not potted, but planted.
You know, when I think about a tree that's in a pot, I looked
it up. I'm like is again, you know, I
told you black thumbs. So I looked it up.
I'm like, what is the benefit of a tree that's planted in the
soil versus a tree that's planted in a pot?
You know, pots are great, especially you live in a big
city. Pots are great inside of my
house because I don't have soil inside of it.
But really a tree, the way that God designed it to be, it's
natural intent is to be planted into soil because whenever it's
in a pot, it's confined, it's limited.
It isn't going to be able to get all the nutrients it needs.
And then I was reading that whenever you put a plant or a
tree in a pot, then it's actually way more susceptible.
And it's easy for it to to, I guess, die to wither and die due
to temperature fluctuations because there's not as much soil
to be able to help absorb and help regulate the temperature of
the soil, whether it's hot or cold.
So even though a pot can be great, even though you can have
a tree in your house in a pot, it is not the same as putting it
in the actual environment that God created to be in, which is
inside of the ground. And The thing is, is that every
time that a, a, a, a plant is in a pot and it starts to get root
bound, the roots have nowhere to go.
They can't grow anymore. They're stuck.
You have to take it out of that pot and got to put it into a
bigger pot. But eventually, guess what's
going to happen? It's going to continue to have
to be moved from pot to pot to pot.
But here in this Scripture and over and over again in the word,
it says that the trees will be planted in the House of the Lord
and they will flourish in the courts of our God.
Planted, not potted. You're not moving from thing to
thing to thing and you're not going to say like, oh, well, my
roots grew here. But now I'm just like, we're
kind of done with this pot. I think I'm going to go to
another pot and I'll let my roots grow a little bit, but
it's limited. It's not going to get the same
nutrients that it needs because that soil is not absorbing
nutrients. It's in a microplastic pot.
Come on, guys. It's like we wonder why, you
know, OK, I won't get started there, but trust me, the plant
is not getting the nutrients that it needs.
It's getting plastic. It's getting maybe at the most,
you know, one of the brown once called terracotta, but still
that's not the natural environment that God created it
to be in. When it's planted into soil,
when a tree is planted into soil, then it's able to absorb
nutrients from all. In fact, the nutrients will come
to the roots because that tree is like, hey, I need some
nutrients and that soils like, yeah, let's do this.
Let's do that. That's the way God created it to
be. He's the one who created in
Genesis chapter one. Hey, we're going to make all
these trees with every fruit and seed bearing its own kind.
And they're going to go ahead and, and continue to grow.
And it's going to be this beautiful cycle over and over
again. And if we would do it the way
that God created us to and let the land rest and do all the
things that we should be doing, it's going to keep making
nutritious soil and it's going to continue to do exactly what
that tree and that plant needs. And The thing is that's amazing
about God is that those trees and plants, I talked about this
in kindergarten. If you guys don't know, my day
job is that I teach kindergarten at Washington Classical
Christian School and I love it. I've worked with children pretty
much from, you know, the beginning of like my career life
at 12 years old. But hey, babysitting jobs were
real back then. So I, you know, I worked with
children. I love them, But I, we talked
about that. I said God was so amazing that
he gave us these trees and these plants and the soil.
And yes, God said they're food for you.
You need them for food, but it's not just that they're food.
The plants need us to breathe out the carbon dioxide and then
the the tree takes that carbon dioxide and they give us oxygen.
It's just this beautiful cycle that God himself was like, I'm
going to make sure that these trees are helping these humans
on my Kingdom earth because we're supposed to come over and
have dominion. Amen.
But the thing about these trees is that they should be planted,
not going from pot to pot to pot.
Because here's the thing, it's easy in our culture to say I'm
done with that. I'm over that.
I'm gonna move from this thing to the other.
I was looking it up because I thought, you know, I, I love
history. Not like my husband where he,
like, knows all the facts. I like to like, read historical
fiction. So tell me a story about the
history and then I'll get it to stick, right?
So I love history. And I was just thinking about
how much our nation has changed. I was born in the 1900s, which I
know because you guys are in here.
So a lot of you were too. But then, you know, I just think
about, I think 1950s, fifty years ago, it's not, which is
crazy. But back in the 50s, you know
that you, you got a job and you stayed at that job and you
finished at that job or that career for the rest of your
life. You bought a house, you stayed
in that house, you paid off that house and you wanted to give
that house to your children, whether they wanted it or not,
you had it. You know, when my husband and I
first got married, my in laws who are the amazing, I have
amazing in laws. They're such a blessing to us.
They had this beautiful bedroom furniture and it is like big
wood, heavy bedroom furniture. And you know, we're millennials.
We were like IKEA, you know, like cheap put it together
ourselves. But guess what?
It's real thin stays in place. They're like when you guys, you
know, one day you want to put it in your wheel.
Do you want our bedroom furniture?
And my husband's like, absolutely not.
We don't want your bedroom furniture.
But that 50 years ago, that's what you did.
You bought a house, you paid it off.
You gave it to your kids. You bought the bedroom
furniture, you paid it off. You gave it to your kids.
You stayed. Unfortunately, in the United
States of America, our culture has shifted.
It shifted from the family and the community aspect to, well,
what about me? What about I'm an individual, I
have preferences. I don't like your big furniture.
I want IKEA furniture. So we've changed me and my
individuality and what I want. And because of that, I was
looking it up. In the United States, it's
average and common for you to change your career 12 * 12
times. That's a lot of career changes.
It's average for you to not buy a house and if you do, to sell
it a few years later, to move often to never really allow
roots to be put down in any place.
And I'm not saying God has not called people to go do that.
But the problem is, is that we're so used to that in United
States of America that we take that culture and that mindset
sometimes and we shift it over into the body of Christ.
Whenever God never intended that, he said I've empowered you
to stay. And if anything, you know, I, I
always thank God when I look back on my life is that he's
kept me. I've always said that God,
you've kept me. And when I say he's kept me,
he's kept me in one spot. I didn't if I was moved, it was
because I did it, not because he did it.
I stayed and you know, I'm so thankful that He kept me and
that I was able to stay because we need to understand that
sometimes there is power, growth, and maturity in the
staying process. Let's keep going.
In Jeremiah chapter 17, verse 5 through 8, it says, Thus saith
the Lord, curses the man who trusts in man and makes flesh
his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord.
For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see
when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in
the wilderness, and a salt land which is not inhabited.
But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose
hope is in the Lord. For he shall be like a tree
planted by the waters, which spread out its roots by the
river. And she will not fear when he
comes, but it's leaf will be green and will not be anxious in
the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruits, but
we'll continue to be yielding fruit.
I want to really quick. We're going to talk about that
yielding fruit. But back in Psalm 92, whenever
we were at Psalm 92, verses 12 to 14, I want to go back to
being planted in the House of the Lord, Not planted wherever
you wanted, but planted in the House of the Lord.
As for me, in my house, we're going to serve the Lord and
we're going to be in the House of the Lord.
You know, my husband and I, when we talked about raising our
children and whenever we started having kids, it was literally an
answer to prayer. You know, we weren't able to
have children for about 2 1/2 years.
And the Lord supernaturally stepped in and miraculously gave
us Charlie. And I was like, well, I know
that Pastor Angie had given a testimony where she'd had some
struggles as well. And God told her, well, if he
did it once because she had Abby, then he'll do it again.
And then like, not even a year later, she had Coco.
So I was like, Lord, I'm going to take that.
If you did it for her, you'll do it for me.
You're no respectable persons. And I have four children.
So, you know, God did it. He, he worked it and he made a
miracle and health and healing happened and we're so thankful.
But when we were talking about having children, you know, we
went back to what did God tell the children of Israel?
How did he tell them to raise them?
When you wake up in the morning, talk about me.
When you, when you're in the kitchen washing dishes, talk
about me. Whenever you're taking your kids
to school, talk about me. Whenever you're vacuuming the
floors, talk about me. Whenever you're cooking dinner
at night, hey, remind them of what I said.
Hey, whenever you're put going to bed at night and you're
reading them stories, hey, tell them who I am.
It was think about his laws and his precepts in the morning, in
the afternoon and in the evening.
Not because we're weirdos and we're constantly going around
just quoting scriptures, but because we're able to say, hey,
you know why that happened and we bring it back to the word.
Yeah, you know why this happened, we bring back to the
word. And you know what?
We knew that for us and our household, we were going to stay
planted in the House of the Lord.
And you know, this is the Old Testament.
And I was just thinking about how the gentiles didn't have a
right to be in that house. They were not of the Jewish,
they were not of the Jewish nation.
They were not a part of Israel. They, they had some laws and
rules like, oh, if a foreigner comes and lives among you, then
make sure that they're following our customs and our laws.
But they couldn't go into the House of the Lord.
In fact, if you weren't part of the Levitical priesthood, in
fact, if you weren't the high priest, but yet the House of
Lord has become so common to us in the United States of America
that we're like, I don't need to be planted anywhere.
I can go to that church, but that church is not really
serving me anymore. So I'm going to go to that
church instead. And we're just potting ourselves
from pot to pot to pot. And our roots are getting bound
up and we're not getting the proper nutrients that we need.
And we're never, ever going to go back to our Scripture here
and Jeremiah never ceasing to yield fruit.
And people wonder sometimes like, well, why isn't this
happening in my life? Well, God told me I was going to
do this. Or they're making it happen for
themselves. And they're wondering, why isn't
the fruit coming like I think it should?
Well, did you plant yourself in the House of the Lord?
And did you stay? Because God has empowered us to
stay so we don't have to be wishy washy and go from pot to
pot to pot, but we can be planted and stay.
Some of the Cypress trees are like 500 years old.
They're like really old trees, OK, Older than any of us in this
room. And some of us all put together.
These trees have history. And why are they still standing
there? Why are they still able to be
strong Cypress trees? When they started colonizing
Florida and everyone started coming here, they were like, oh,
that's really good wood. And they started chopping down
all the Cypress trees, destroyed the ecosystem, caused a lot of
problems because they didn't think things through.
We don't always still think through those things through, do
we? But they started causing a lot
of problems. But they're like, this wood is
so good. It's old, but yet it's so Hardy.
We need to build our houses with it.
We need to do all these things. And they're like, oh, we should
probably stop cutting down all the Cypress trees because now
we're destroying, you know, the rivers and the springs and all
these things because these trees were so rooted for years, for
centuries, because they weren't being stuck in a pot.
They're being planted into good soil.
Now In Colossians chapter 2, verse 7, Colossians chapter 2,
verse 7, it says now having been firmly rooted and now being
built up in him and established in your faith just as you were
instructed and overflowing with gratitude.
Again, there's a firm root and when you're firmly rooted
somewhere, you're not going constantly and digging up your
seed. I don't remember who it was.
I want to say maybe it was Rick Runner, but I heard in a
ministry one time tell a story about how they planted a seed.
They're really excited to see it grow.
And so they're like, woo, I'm going to see it grow.
And they kept checking every day because they were a kid, you
know, they kept checking every day, checking every day,
checking every day. And finally they're like, it's
not working. I'm just going to go dig it up.
Whenever they dug it up, the seed had started to sprout, but
they didn't allow it enough time to come to the surface.
And that's because it's a process.
It isn't like you just immediately start bearing fruit.
My husband and I, again, black thumbs.
OK, so we bought a couple fruit trees because, you know, we live
in Florida, so citrus trees and I'm always like, you know, we
should really get the trees that are already producing fruit.
I know they're more expensive, but again, I'm not sure that
I'll ever get it to the point that producing fruit if we
don't. And so these these trees look
great. But then, you know, I was
thinking about like pineapples takes like 2 years for a
pineapple one to grow pineapple two years.
And then the avocado tree, it's like way longer.
I'm like, I don't have time for this.
I like I said, I really appreciate everybody else who
grows the avocados and the pineapples, but I'm like, I
don't know if that's going to be me.
I really need to buy the tree with the fruit already on it so
that it's actually doing something.
But the problem is, is that we're not seeing the fruit with
our eyes, which that sounds like the opposite of faith.
And so we are are wanting to uproot ourselves and put
ourselves somewhere else. Whenever God over and over in
his word you said, ye be planted, but be planted in the
House of the Lord. In Psalm chapter 27 verse 4
through 5, Psalm chapter 27 verse 4 through 5, it says one
thing I have asked from the Lord that I shall seek, that I may
dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life, to
behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in his temple.
For in the day of trouble he will conceal me in his
Tabernacle and the secret place of his tent He will hide me.
And again, guys, this is talking about, you know, where God dwell
and what his house was. And here's the thing, again,
back then, there was no right for them to be able to go in.
It was holy. Now, are we the temple of the
Holy Ghost? Absolutely we are.
God's presence dwells in us. But we became so individualized
about that. We became so mean when we
shifted, when the church allowed itself to shift and follow the
American culture. Then we no longer said, I want
to be in the house with you, Lord, and with everybody else
who has your presence in with you too too.
It's OK. I got the presence in me.
I can go it by myself. Here's the thing about a lot of
fruit trees though. You can't just plant 1.
You can't just plant one fruit tree.
They have to have cross pollination or they're never
going to bear fruit. They have to have other trees
around it or they're never going to bear fruit.
One tree isn't good enough. You need to be around other
trees. And whenever you look out at
those Cypress trees, it's never just one random Cypress tree.
It's Cypress trees all over the river and there's their, their
roots all intertwine. I personally, because I'm, you
know, non arborist cannot tell which roots belong to which
Cypress tree. That's because they're all
growing strong and keeping each other stable.
OK, so you can't just have one fruit tree.
You have to have other trees around it to help pollinate, to
produce the fruit. And here's the thing, we have
the ability so freely, we are so freely able to go to the House
of the Lord. But yet for some reason it's
become optional. And I think about these
psalmist, I think about David and the other people who wrote
these psalms and these proverbs, and they just so badly wanted to
be with the Lord, these other people from other nations when
they saw the goodness of God. I mean, I think about the kings,
you know, that started with Daniel whenever God proved
himself over and over again, they're like, wow, your God's
real. But they had no right to go into
the House of the Lord. Yet God said, I'm making it to
where I'm putting my presence in you.
And then I want you to gather together.
I want you to root yourself together so that your trees
stand strong, so you guys can pollinate each other, so that
you guys can continue to have fruit growing.
But we've made it optional and for some reason we don't stay.
We want to go, go, go, go and not put down the roots that God
has caught us to put down. In Psalm 23, six, it says you
prepare a table before me and the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over surely goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will
dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
I want to dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
And guys, I used to think as a kid because I just didn't know
that means I was like, do I have to go around the throne with
everybody else just singing holy, holy, holy, holy.
And then I didn't realize, oh, that was like 1 specific created
beings Job that God had a whole lot more planned for us and I
was like, oh, you know, that makes a lot more sense, but I'm
still going to be in his household forever.
I want to dwell with him forever.
But when I thought, what about Psalm 23, you know, I pulled up
that Scripture because it said I will do on the House of Lord
forever. But I thought about the table.
He prepares a table before me and the presence of our enemy,
and we sing that song, right? You prepare a table before me,
I'm not going to sing because that's not my gifting.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemy.
But so many people get up from the table.
They didn't get excused. God did not excuse them, but
they got up from the table anyways.
I'm full, I'm done. I don't like this food.
You don't have any ketchup. I'm getting up out of this table
thinking about my 4 year old. But here's the problem, stay
sitting at the table. Don't eat one small course and
be like, I'm good, I'm out of here.
Stay sitting at the table. God cannot prepare a table for
you if you don't sit down and stay seated.
We have to sit down and stay seated.
We have to be able to say I'm not getting up from this table.
I know my enemies are around me, but I'm staying right where I'm
at. I'm going to eat every course
the Lord puts before me and I'm not going to get up and say I
don't like the tooth full. I don't eat gluten.
OK, listen, God is preparing a table for you.
Stay seated. Stop getting up from the table.
He did not excuse you again, again, we've shifted culturally
where I get that some families don't even sit down at a table
anymore. They literally do not eat
together at a table. That's something that you need
to do. You got to talk to your kids and
and get together as a family, but they don't even stay seated
at a table. And then kids just like get up
whenever they want to. I'm like, what, what are you
doing? Oh, I'm done.
I'm like, you know, you got to be excused, but God's not
excusing you. He wants you to sit right where
you're at. He doesn't need you to get up
and move. He needs you to stay right where
you're at because you're going to miss something that he's
prepared for you if you don't, If you get up from the table.
And here's the thing, if you get up from the table, then all of a
sudden those enemies that he was keeping at Bay because you were
eating exactly what he told you to eat.
You were doing exactly what he told you to do.
No longer can he continue to do that.
You're putting yourself in a position away from the table.
Stay rooted, stay seated. We have the power to stay.
And again, in today's culture, we just don't.
We just make a lot of excuses of why we don't need to.
Contracts don't matter. Commitments don't matter.
What I once thought was the best thing ever doesn't matter
anymore because I'm done and I'm ready to go.
Don't get up from the table. I think that a lot of times we
honestly just take the presence of God for granted.
Again, we think that we can just get it ourselves.
I can get it by myself, it's no big deal, but God never called
you just to get it by yourself. I want you to know that the
table is not a one seater. It's a real long banquet table,
and it has people next to you and beside you and sitting
across from you who are there to help you at the table.
Like, I know you don't like grits, but you can eat another
bite. Come on.
You got this grits. I don't know.
I pulled that out from my southern roots, I guess.
But, you know, I know you don't like tomatoes, but these
tomatoes are good for you. Take another bite.
It's OK. They're here rooting for you
because sometimes it just don't taste good.
But it's really good for you and you need to eat it anyways.
And you know what I tell my children that I do not make any
poisonous food. 0 food do I poison.
You can try a bite. My oldest daughter, as a texture
thing, she does not like textures and she has a great
ally in this. So squishy meat, basically all
meat that's not like cooked to death or shredded is a no for
her. She doesn't really like chicken
because like squishy parts. She doesn't really like steak
because squishy parts. OK, so I'm always like, I know
you don't like it, but you got to get some sort of protein in
and plants are great. You got to get some more protein
in. You need to have a balanced
diet. OK, so I'm like, can we, she's
like, can we just cook the chicken a little longer?
So I cook the chicken a little longer.
Then my husband's like, good, this is really dry.
I'm like, one child wants it really dry.
One person wants it really moist.
You know, we got to meet in the middle here somewhere.
She has a texture thing, right? But I always tell her, I'm like,
I'm not poisoning you and I'm not going to make you eat a
whole plate of squishy chicken. I'm not going to do it.
I'm not going to make you eat the fat.
I know it literally makes you gag, but you're going to eat a
couple bites of chicken. It's going to be OK because I'm
not here poisoning you. I know what's good for you.
I know what needs to help you. I'm here to make you grow
strong. You know, she's in a lot of
sports now. I say a lot of sports,
basketball, but it's like a lot of work every single day.
And she's like running. And she's like, Mama hurts so
bad. I'm like, well, you need to make
sure you're eating a good, healthy, balanced diet, getting
what you need to get in because it's going to help you grow.
It's going to help your muscles. It's going to help you not feel
quite so sore. You're going to feel you're
going to be sore. That's a good thing.
It's OK, you're going to be sore, but it's going to help you
not feel quite so sore if you continue to eat what I put
before you at the table and don't get up before you finish
eating what I put before you at the table.
So we have to remember that God isn't poisoning us.
He's not giving you anything that is bad for you.
Even if somebody says something you don't like, even if there's
correction and you don't like it, even if someone's like,
well, you really need to adjust that.
And you're like, I don't really want to adjust that.
I think I'm going to do exactly what I'm doing.
Well, you really can't keep doing what you're doing.
If you want to keep growing, if you really want those roots to
keep going, you're going to have to adjust.
No, I don't like that. Well, no one's poisoning you.
God is not poisoning you. He's not making bad food for
you. Do you trust your Father?
Gosh guys, he literally gave us life.
He literally plucked us out of the dominion of darkness and put
us in to his Kingdom. He is a good, good father.
He is a good, good king. And he doesn't burn his food.
He seasons it really well. But sometimes you got to swallow
something you just isn't your favorite.
And you know what? It's good for you.
So don't get up from the table. We have to stay seated at the
table. I really wanted to look at some
people in the word of God who stayed.
We're going to first look at Samuel.
We're 1st going to look at Samuel.
Now, most of you guys know the story of Samuel, but I'm going
to tell you anyways. Just real quick.
Obviously, Samuel was born to Hannah and she was super sad,
crying. Remember, the priest is like,
are you drunk, woman? Get out of the temple.
You cannot pray here if you're drunk.
And she's like, no, no, no. I'm heartbroken.
I really want babies. I can't have them.
My husband has another wife. She's like bullying me every day
because I don't have kids and she has kids.
I'm distraught. And so the Lord hears her
prayer. The priest is like, oh, then he
prays for her, hears her prayer, gives her Samuel.
And so whenever the son, the baby's born, her husband's like,
hey, she said, oh, I'm going to take him to the House of the
Lord. Once he's weaned, he's like, I
mean, that's what you really want to do.
Now God blesses her and gives her many more children besides
Samuel. But The thing is, Samuel, even
as a boy got brought to the House of the Lord.
So in first Samuel chapter 2 verses 18, it says now Samuel
was ministering before the Lord as a boy, wearing a linen ephod.
And then in verse 26 it says now the boy Samuel was growing in
stature and in favor with the Lord and with men.
And here's the thing about Samuel, it's not like it came
from a super, you know, functional household.
And the fact like, obviously there was like a big rift and
conflict in the household between the two wives because
she constantly felt super bullied.
Her husband liked her better, but she didn't have kids.
And obviously in that culture back then, in that day and age,
your children were your status as a woman.
Like if you couldn't have children and now we still should
desire that. God gave us as women a desire to
want to, you know, invest in the children.
It's a great and wonderful thing.
But she was distraught because she felt like she had nothing
whenever the other wife did so, there was dysfunction in the
household. And then Samuel gets brought to
the House of the Lord to Eli, the priest, who we know did not
parent his children. And we're doing terrible things.
And the word says did not correct them.
And then he heard what they were doing.
And it was like, well, you're doing what?
Yeah, you guys can't do that. They're like, whatever and do
whatever we want. And they all died.
And so here is Samuel. He is serving God, you know,
away from his family. But he got brought into the
House of the Lord from a young age.
He stayed in the House of the Lord.
He didn't say, well, should I go back home or is a little
dysfunctional? Should I stay here with Eli the
priest, who he is not really doing what he's supposed to be
doing either. Definitely not correcting,
definitely not disciplining his sons who should be taking over
the priesthood, but they're not. Or, you know, but he stayed.
Samuel stayed. And it says that as he stayed,
he found favor with both God and man.
And we know the story. What happens later.
Samuel's asleep. And they said there was no
common revelation in that day. That means that the Lord wasn't
really speaking because he wasn't going to continue to
speak to a tainted vessel. He couldn't continue to speak to
the people who were constantly in rebellion against him and
against his law. So he, you know, started
speaking to Samuel. And, you know, he went up to
Eli. Yes, no, I didn't call you.
Go back. And finally, Eli's like, oh, Oh
yeah, God, that's God speaking to you.
Next time he calls, say, yes, Lord, your servant's listening.
And so Samuel was able to hear the word of the Lord, which was
literally against Eli. But yet Samuel stayed.
He served underneath Eli, who as a leader, not the best, but he
stayed in the House of the Lord and with the Lord he found favor
with the man. He found favor because he stayed
in the House of the Lord. He stayed and he served and did
what he was supposed to do. Even though there was grief,
there was conflict. A man who failed, you know,
underneath a man who failed to discipline his kids, he still
stayed. He did not waver and leave the
House of the Lord because he saw people around him who weren't
doing right. He stayed in the House of the
Lord because he knew the Lord is good, He is righteous.
And I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying exactly where he
planted me to be and was used mightily by God in his life.
Now, the next person I want to look at is King David.
OK, this story is, you know, a favorite of my sons.
If you know my son Titus, he loves King David.
He has like a picture of David on his wall, Goliath's head like
this, so he can tell you a lot about the story.
First Samuel 16, we see where David's first anointed Saul
disobeyed. He disobeyed and he rebelled and
he lied to Samuel the prophet and lied to God and was like,
oh, I'm good. Gaslighting God is never a good
idea. You won't win.
Just tell the truth. And so God's like, that's it.
Your heart is literally far from me.
And here's the interesting thing.
To me, it seems like what Saul did wasn't that bad, but he
disobeyed God. He was in rebellion.
God knew his heart. And so the anointing was
stripped from him. And now Samuel, you know, is
crying and like upset. He's like, wow, I already told
them don't get a king. They got a king.
What happened? What I said was going to happen
did happen. And now this King's terrible
Lord, this is a terrible situation I'm in right now.
And guess what? Everybody doesn't want to kill
me whenever I say, hey, you can't be king anymore.
And I'm about to go find a new king.
God's like do it anyways. So he gets up, he goes, he goes
to the town, like, do you come in peace or are you about to
like curse us? He's like, I come in peace.
OK. So he goes to the House of Jesse
and he says, you know, go through the sons.
God reprimands them. Look, you're looking at the
outside of the person. I'm looking at their heart.
So, and any person, that's why it's so important that we walk
by faith and not by sight. Guys.
Sometimes we just are too more sight LED than we think.
Because even Samuel, after all the things that he'd been, after
all of the staying in the House of Lord and he did, he goes,
surely it's this one. No, oh surely it's this one.
And finally, God's like, stop, I'm looking at the person's
heart. I need a man who's actually
going to want to be with me. And so he finds David, and it
says that David was between 12 to 15 years old at that time.
Some, I've read some accounts, you know, 10 years old.
I've read some up to 17 years old.
But he was probably about 12 years old keeping his father's
sheep. My son Titus just turned 11 on
Monday. Have you guys met my son Titus?
Probably most of you, right. You know, about yay big.
And he sure loves a slingshot. Sure does.
But, you know, imagining him fighting a lion or a bear, Wow,
you know, that's crazy. But here's the thing about David
is that he stayed with his father's sheep.
Watching the sheep wasn't the most glamorous job.
You know, it's like, hey, go pick up all the poop in the
yard. It's like that kind of chore,
you know, hey, go clean up after the dog they just threw up.
It's that kind of chore. Hey, go take care of the sheep.
Stay over there in that field. Don't move, don't leave.
Because, you know, sheep are a little bit like Bah, Bah, Bah.
And they'll go over by themselves.
You got to make sure they come back to the flock.
You got to make sure they stay together.
They'll keep doing it. You got to keep keeping them
together. You got to make sure they know
your voice. You got to make sure you protect
them from the lions and the bears and you know, the coyotes
and all the things. So watching the sheep was like
the youngest kids Job, like you can go watch the sheep.
But David did it faithfully. In fact, there were some of the
Psalms and songs that he wrote while he was taking the sheep
because he had a heart after God.
He was praising him and worshipping him and he stayed
faithful to his father. He said, sure, I'll watch the
sheep so much, in fact, that they're like, surely it's not
David. They were like, finally Samuel's
like, do you have any more kids? Because you got to have at least
one more. And he's like, oh, oh, yeah.
I mean, like, you know, you mean David, the one that's watching
the sheep. Oh, well, yeah, He's like the
youngest. OK, fine.
Bring him. And then Sam's like, no, no, no,
don't even sit down. We're standing here to honour
him. He's the king.
I know it. So they bring him in and they
anoint him as king. He's 12 to 15 years old.
And here's the thing. He finds his purpose at a young
age. Wow.
I'm destined to be king. And then immediately goes back
and watch the sheep. He immediately goes back, picks
up the poop. He immediately goes back and
does the lowest chore. He stays.
He doesn't go. Wait a second, guys, I'm king.
I don't know if you know, but Samuel came and anointed me and
thank you, but here's my rod. I'm done.
Peace, deuces. No, he said.
I'm staying. I'm staying and I'm watching the
sheep because my father told me to keep the sheep, so I'm going
to stay. Now.
Did he get called by Saul? Yes.
To be his armor bearer, to play the heart, because then Saul
started going crazy. Yes, he did.
But he stayed with his father. He didn't immediately be like,
all right, I know my purpose, I'm going to do it.
He went back to the field and he allowed the Lord to work on him.
He allowed the word Lord to prepare him for his purpose.
He didn't try to rush and jump into it.
He stayed right where he was supposed to be, which is
watching the sheep. And in that process of watching
the sheep, he was praising the Lord, singing about how good he
is. The Lord was helping him,
helping his character. He was growing into the mighty
man of valor that God destined him to be.
And then one day his dad's like, hey, come here, I know you're
watching the sheep, but I got another tour for you.
I need you to be my errand boy. I need you to run and bring some
groceries to your brothers. They're hungry.
Bring him some lunch. They're out on the field now.
Obviously they're at battle and again, back then they didn't
have Mr. ES, you had to go bring them some food, make sure they
were eating. And so he's like, I need you to
bring your brother some lunch. They've been, you know, fighting
the Philistines. It's like 30 day battle going
on, nothing's really happening. But they're terrified.
So go bring him some lunch. You know, maybe he went back and
forth multiple times, I don't know.
But he did go and bring them some food.
And when he got there, he's like, wait a second, what's
happening? Somebody tell me what's going
on? Is this, wait, you guys are
scared of this uncircumcised Philistine who would dare defy
the armies of God? 17 years old.
Now we know some 17 year olds in here and they might have grown
to be like men, but that doesn't always mean the brains fully
developed to be like a man yet. You know what I'm saying?
I'd say 25 makes it a little better.
That's science. But here's David saying no, no,
no. I've stayed watching my father's
sheep. I've defeated the lion and the
bear because who dares come and gets my father's sheep?
Not when I'm here. And so he says, you know who
dares, comes and defies the armies of God?
Not while I'm here. I know who my God is and I'm
going to stay. I'm not running and hiding
behind the rock. I'm staying.
And so he defeats Goliath. And then Saul's like, realizes,
right? Starts getting jealous.
But here's the thing about David, he stayed.
He stayed again 21 * 21 times. So I'll try to kill him 21
times. Most of us in here have not had
one of our bosses try to kill us ever.
Surely not 21 times. Probably not with a spear saying
I'm going to throw the spirit you so I can pin your body to
that wall. Most of you have never
experienced that. I'm not saying no one in here,
but most of us have never experienced someone literally
assassinating us, having a plot out to kill us, especially
somebody who's, like, has all the power in your country.
OK, I know we got a lot of conspiracy theories about the
government, but they have not come against you.
Stop it. Not 21 times.
But yet David stayed. Yeah, but he ended up running
and, you know, going over to this land for two years and
having to hide in caves. How do I know that David stayed
even though in order to save his life, finally Jonathan and God
are like, go, gotta go. Yeah, he's really he's really
going to kill you if he sees you got to go.
How do we know that he stayed? We know because if we turn over
to second Samuel, chapter 1, one through 16, Second Samuel
chapter one, verse one through 16.
And I just want you to know this is right after Saul.
Instead of going to fight at the battle where he should have been
because he was the king and supposed to be, like, leading
the army, he went and chased David down to a mountain and
literally had him cornered and was like, this close to killing
him. And then they're like Saul.
No, literally like, we're about to, like, get overturned.
Like they're gonna come and we're gonna, they're about to
take over our whole country. You got to go.
And he's like, so he left. OK.
So David was like, you know, this close to getting killed
again. This is right after that in
Second Samuel chapter one verse one through 16, it says, and now
it came about after the death of Saul, when David had returned
from the slaughter of the Amalekites, that David remained
2 two days in Ziklag. On the third day, yeah, on the
third day, behold, a man came out from Saul with his clothes
torn and dust on his head. And it came about when he said
to David, he came to him and fell to the ground and
prostrated himself. Then David said to him, from
where do you come? And he said to him, I've escaped
from the camp of Israel. David said to him, how did
things go? Please tell me.
And he said the people have fled from the battle.
And also so many of the people have fallen and are dead.
And Saul and Jonathan his son are dead also.
So David said to the young man who told him, how do you know
that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?
The young man who told him said, By the chance I happened to be
on the mount, that mount. And behold, Saul was leaning on
his spear, and behold, the Chariots and the horsemen
pursued him closely. When he looked behind him, he
saw me and called to me. And I said, Here I am.
He said to me, Who are you? And I answered him, I am an
Amalekite. Then he said to me, please stand
beside me and kill me, for agony has seized me because my life
still lingers in me. So I stood beside him and killed
him because I knew that he could not live after he had fallen.
And I took the crown which was on his head and the bracelet
which was on his arm. And I brought them here to the
Lord. Now the kid was lying, like, you
know that, right? Because really Saul ended up
killing himself. The guy was like, I don't want
to kill you. Like I know you're the king, I
don't want to kill you. But then he's like, oh, wait,
wait, this is the guy. Oh, this is the guy that's
actually king. And Saul hated him.
So maybe if I tell him I killed him, like I'll get some honor or
something. So I better just like, save
face, right? So then it says, then David took
hold of his clothes and he tore them.
And so also did all the men who were with him.
They mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and his
son Jonathan, and were the people of the Lord and the House
of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.
David said to the young man who told him, Where are you from?
And he answered, I am the son of an alien, an Amalekite.
Then David said to him, How was it that you were not afraid to
stretch you out your hand to destroy the Lord's anointed?
And David called one of the young men and said, Go, cut him
down. So he struck him, and he died.
And David said to him, Your blood is on your head, for your
mouth has testified against you, saying, I have killed the Lord's
anointed. OK, so how do we know that David
stayed? Even when he had to run and save
his life, he stayed faithful. He stayed loyal to Saul, who
hated him, who literally wanted him dead, to the one who had his
job, the job that God gave him. But David stayed.
It didn't matter that his boss was trying to kill him 21 times.
It didn't matter that he kind of was like destroying the nation,
the nation that he was going to have to go, like, fix and like,
OK, now I'm taking over this nation that's like in shambles
and like, everything's kind of destroyed and you've been in war
and you've not been doing your job.
David stayed. He didn't even allow the fact
that the man was trying to kill him to say, yeah, I think I'm
done. God, if you really want me,
King, you're going to do that. But I got to go because, you
know, I don't want to die. He stayed faithful.
That's how I know David stayed. It doesn't matter that, yes, he
had to go to The Cave and he had to go live somewhere else.
He stayed faithful and he stayed loyal to a man who wanted to
kill him. And in the United States of
America, people won't stay faithful or loyal to a boss who
asked him to work overtime or to stay late or to cover a shift.
They won't stay faithful or loyal to someone who asked him
to do anything other than what my job description, like right
here, it's not in my job description.
So I'm actually not going to do that.
They won't stay faithful and loyal to someone because they
get offered something better and looks better and and seems
better and pays better and has better notoriety over here.
Because we are no longer in a culture that chooses to stay.
Instead, we're in a culture that just goes from pot to pot to pot
and we're really limiting ourselves.
Our roots are being bound up. We're not nutrition.
We're not as as strong and healthy as we should think that
we are because we're not getting the nutrients that we really
should get because we don't choose to stay.
The next person I wanted to look at that chose to stay was
Elijah. Now Elijah did not serve us all.
Elijah served Elijah and he was a good master to him.
We know this story pretty familiar, but if we turn over to
2nd Kings chapter 2 verse one through 14, Second Kings chapter
2 verse one through 14, it says, and now it came about when the
Lord was about to bring Elijah up by a whirlwind to heaven that
Elijah left Gilgal with Elijah and Elijah said to Elijah stay
here please, for the Lord has sent me out as far as Bethel.
But Elijah said as surely as the Lord lives and as the and as you
yourself live, I will not leave you.
So he went to Bethel. Then the sons of the prophets
who were at Bethel went out to Elijah and said to him, are you
aware that the Lord will take away your master from you today?
And he said, yes, I'm aware. Say nothing about it.
And Elijah said to him, Elijah, just stay here, but the Lord has
sent me to Jericho. But he said, as surely as the
Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.
So they came to Jericho. Then the sons of the prophets
who were at Jericho approached Elijah and said to him, Do you
know that the Lord will take you away from your master today?
And he answered, Yes, I know, say nothing about it.
And Elijah said to him, Please stay here, for the Lord has sent
me to the Jordan. But he said, As surely as the
Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.
So the two of them went on. Now 50 men of the sons of the
prophets went and stood opposite them at a distance, while the
two of them stood by the Jordan. And Elijah took his coat, folded
it, and struck the waters. And they were divided here and
there, so that the two of them crossed over on dry ground.
When they crossed over, Elijah said to Elijah, Ask me what I
should do for you before I'm taken from you.
And Elijah said, Please let a double portion of your spirit be
upon me. He said, You've asked a hard
thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when
I'm taken from you, it shall be so for you, but if not, it shall
not be so. And as they were walking along
and talking, behold, a chariot of fire appeared with horses of
fire, and they separated the two of them.
Then Elijah went up by a whirlwind to heaven, and Elijah
was watching it, and he was crying out, my father and my
father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen.
And he did not see Elijah again. Then he took hold of to his own
clothes and tore them into two pieces.
He also took up the coat of Elijah that had fallen from him
and went back and stood by the Bank of the Jordan.
Then he took the coat of Elijah that had fallen from him and
struck the waters and said, where is the Lord the God of
Elijah? And when he had struck the
waters, they were divided here and there and Elijah crossed
over. And if we look at the miracles
that happened in Elijah's ministry versus the miracles
that happened in Elijah's ministry, they were literally
double. I believe Elijah had like 16 and
Elijah had 32 and they literally were double the amount of
miracles. But here's the thing.
If Elijah chose not to stay, if he said no, you're right.
You know what? I'm I'm not going to go with
you. I'll, I'll stay over here, but
I'm not going to stay with you. If he chose not to stay to the
person he was assigned to, Elijah was literally assigned to
Elijah. Elijah came, Remember the story
of how he called him? Hey, he was out there just
working for his family and doing his job, doing his thing.
And he's like, hey, drop it. Come follow me.
Come on. God's got something for you to
do. And he went and he did it.
God literally assigned Elijah to Elijah.
And if he had chosen not to stay, then he wouldn't have had
a double anointing. And then Elijah said, hey, this
is a hard thing you've asked for.
Now, I did not look up what that meant that word hard meant, but
it wasn't necessarily easy. Think about what Elijah did.
Remember that time he sat underneath the tree and was like
crying, like, I'm the only one, Just kill me now.
And God's like, Oh my gosh, like you're being a little dramatic.
I've actually hit in people away in caves that you don't know
about. Then he like sent birds and, you
know, with food and had to send them the water and all the
things, right, because Elijah. But it was hard, you know, like
that's the one who had to call the fire down.
It wasn't easy what he asked them to do, but he said, but if
you'll stay with me, then the Lord's going to grant that to
you and your ministry will be double because you chose to stay
and not do the easy thing. But you chose to stay and do the
hard thing with the person I've assigned you to.
Gosh, that is something that I think a lot of believers miss.
God, yes, assigned you to a vision.
He assigned you and places you in the body that we're going to
read here in a minute where it pleases Him.
And he assigned you with people. Now, Pastor Earl, Apostle Earl
said it multiple times, if you're not assigned here, don't
stay here because you're never going to be fruitful and
prosperous like you should be. But if you are assigned here,
stay here because you're not just assigned to these walls,
you're not just assigned to this carpet, you're assigned to these
people. You're assigned to this five
fold ministry. We're assigned to each other.
And if you'll stay, then your ministry and your purpose will
double what it was going to be. But if you choose to go from pot
to pot, you're limiting yourself.
You're going to end up getting yourself root bound and you're
never going to accomplish all the things that God has for you
to do. There's a fourth person I want
to look at who stayed and that's Timothy.
Timothy was faithful. Timothy was faithful in service
in Philippians chapter 2 verse 19 through 22, it says Paul here
talking, but I hoped in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you
shortly. For I have no one else of
kindred spirit who would genuinely be concerned for your
welfare. For they all seek after their
own interests, not those of Christ Jesus.
But you know of his proven worth that he served with me in the
furtherance of the gospel, like a child serving his father.
And then in First Corinthians chapter 4 verse 17, it says for
this reason I sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and
faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways
which are in Christ. Timothy spoke like his father in
Christ, Paul. He said, I'm going to remind you
of what Paul taught us because Paul is speaking only straight
from the Lord. So here Timothy was faithful.
And then it says in Second Timothy chapter 3, verse 10
through 15, and Paul is literally talking to Timothy.
He says, now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose,
faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions and
sufferings that the Lord rescued me from all, indeed all who
desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
It's going to happen. But you, however, continue in
the things you have learned, knowing from whom you have
learned them from, and that from childhood you have known the
sacred writings, but you're able to give you wisdom that leads to
salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
So here we see that even Timothy, from the time that he
was a child, desire to serve the Lord and wanted to serve the
Lord. And then the Lord's like, hey,
you're going to go be with Paul. And Paul says, hey, he's the
only one who hasn't forsaken me. I can only send you Timothy
because all the rest seek their own interests.
Timothy is the only one I got who is not being selfish, who is
not saying what's in it for me, who's not like this is an
individual thing. What about me?
What about my preferences? I really don't like that church.
I really don't like that steak. I really don't like eating that,
he said. No, it's not about me.
It's about furthering the gospel.
And it's funny because like I told you guys, I'm a class, I
teach at Washington Classical Christian School, and we learned
something called the timeline song.
If you have a child in Washington Classical Christian
School, I know you've heard the timeline song and you haven't
even heard all yet. Brian, it's 13 minutes song.
We've only 4 1/2 minutes in. OK.
But one of the things we learned this week was persecution spread
the gospel. And you know, in the United
States of America, we don't really like that word because
like, you know, we have freedom here.
And so we don't really like the word persecution.
But yet persecution furthered the gospel in that whole time.
And here Paul's talking to Timothy and like you've stayed
with me even through all the persecution because persecution
is going to happen. Jesus said, Hey Lord, I know
that persecution is going to happen.
I know things are going to happen, but I don't actually
take them out of the world, just protect them from the evil. 1
And when we choose to stay, we're protected.
But whenever we choose to uproot ourselves, we're causing
ourselves to just be like that tree, like that foundation
that's just wobbling in the wind, that when the storm comes,
it's not going to stand because the roots aren't deep.
They're not interconnected with other trees.
They're not interconnected with other roots.
They're just over here by themselves.
Even if they're planted in some soil, they're not planted with
other trees. They're not continuing to allow
themselves to strengthen each other.
So God in First Corinthians chapter 12 verse 18 through 25,
First Corinthians chapter 12 verse 18 through 25, it says now
God has arranged the parts, each one of them in the body just as
He desired. If they were all one part, where
would the body be? But now there are many parts,
but one body. And the I cannot say to the
hand, I have no need of you, or again, the head to the feet, I
have no need of you. On the contrary, it is much
truer that the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are
necessary, and those parts of the body which we consider less
honorable. On these we bestow greater
honor, and our less presentable parts become much more
presentable, whereas our more presentable parts have no need
of it. But God has so composed the
body, giving more abundant honor to that part which lacked.
So there may be no division in the body, and that the parts may
have the same care for one another.
It's funny because when we read the scripture, we kind of just
think about the parts that we see, but there's a whole lot
that happens in the whole body that we don't see.
When I was in high school, I took biology twice.
I don't know why I did that, but I did.
I took it twice. I took biology honors and I took
AP Bio. And so I learned a lot about
biology that, you know, I don't know how it's going to go for my
purpose, but I learned about it. And so in biology, you know, we
started learning about the parts of a cell.
You know, there's the mitochondria, it's the
powerhouse of the cell. You guys remember this, right?
You know, we learned about all these different parts of the
cell, the gold glide, something Golgi bodies.
See. Where's our doctors in the
house? Golgi bodies.
OK, those are parts of the. We don't really talk about them.
I'll be like, I hope my Golgi bodies are doing what they're
supposed to do today. I really hope so.
You don't wake up in the morning saying that.
You just know you got some stuffy nose.
Also, we think mucus is gross, but it's needed for a whole
bunch of reasons in our body. You know, ear wax, we need it.
We don't talk about it. You know, the little hairs that
are inside of our ears and the tiniest bones that we have,
which are inside of our ears need them or you'd fall on the
ground and not be able to walk. Best tubular system.
I know that one helps you stay balanced, right?
Nobody's talking about those parts of the body.
We don't think about our little tiny bone inside of our ear.
We don't think about little hairs, but helping us stay
balanced. They just seem like honorable
parts, but they're keeping the whole body exactly where it
needs to be. And here's the thing, God's
like, you know what? Tiny bone, tiny bone in the ear
right here, hairs right there. Why?
That way they can walk straight and not look like they're, you
know, literally falling on the ground.
When I was looking this up, what's interesting, I even found
about the hyoid bone. Hyoid bone, only freestanding
bone in your throat lets you swallow things and not choke.
OK, so we need these bones, right?
We need these bones. We need these parts.
But these aren't honorable. These aren't glamorous.
I'm not talking about my ear wax and my mucus because that's
gross. But yet they're needed parts of
the body that we need. And God's planted us here.
God says, you know, I put that bone there.
I put those hairs there. I put that mucus there.
You need that ear wax. Why are you trying to get rid of
it? Why are you trying to move it
around? Why aren't you allowing me to
place you in the body where it pleases me?
And, and I start thinking about biology and I remember learning
about translocation, right? Translocation of genes and if
they're not exactly where God designed them to be on your DNA
in the genome and it causes major problems.
There's balance, translocation. I learned how to look this up or
imbalanced. OK, I'm sure I learned it a long
time ago, but balance is where everything seems like it's right
on the outside. You can't look at person and
tell that they have something going on, but yet whenever they
try to have children one day, then those same things will be
passed on to their children. It causes fertility issues.
It causes generational things to start happening.
Now, unbalanced translocation is like very obvious, OK, there's
duplications, there's things that were moved in the wrong
spots and you can tell. But balance makes like, you can
look like you're right on the outside, but on the inside you
really allowed yourself to shift and you're not in the location
that God put you in. And so it seems like you're OK
because on the outside you seem OK, but then you start trying to
reproduce because that's what God created us to do, produce
ourselves into others. And something's just not right.
It's because you moved out of the location he put you in.
You didn't stay planted. And God never designed that.
Anytime we try to tweak and mess with what God's designed, we've
seen this in science, it never ends up good for us as humans.
It always causes problems because God planted us exactly
where he wants us to be. We should not be moving
locations. We should not be saying, oh, I
really don't like that spot. I'm just going to just get over
just a little bit. Scooting over a little bit is
causing disruption in the entire body.
So God determines our placement. God created us for
interdependence on each other. Not codependence, but
interdependence. Which means I need you and you
need me. I know you know the song My,
what's this head? What is it?
My, my funny, my bones connected to my head.
What is that song? You guys know what I'm talking
about, right? When we sang as kids, the knee
bones connected to the, I don't know, thigh bone.
You guys remember it? They're all connected to each
other. And then there's this stuff
called fascia. Fascia.
I listen to my chiropractors. There's this thing called fascia
that connects us together, that holds all of that stuff
together. So it's not just like wobbling
around inside of our bodies. And we need it.
We need each other. We need the fascia, we need the
bones, we need all of it. And if we try to get out of
alignment. Then something isn't going to
work right, and it doesn't matter how much you look like
you can do it right on the inside.
When you start reproducing, something's going to be off and
wrong and you're not going to be able to reproduce the way that
you're supposed to. OK, so this vision keeps us
planted. In Proverbs chapter 29, verse
18, it says where there's no vision that people perish.
But he that keepeth the law happy Is he joyful is he that
keepeth the law? Where there's no vision, that
people perish? When we decide to stay connected
to the vision and stay planted where we're supposed to be, then
we won't perish. In Habakkuk 2 chapter 2,
Habakkuk chapter 2 verses 2 through 3, it says, then the
Lord answered me and said, write the vision, make it plain on
tablets that he may run who reads it.
For the vision is yet for an appointed time.
But at the end it will speak and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it because it will surely come.
It will not tarry. The vision protects and directs
the believer, and it keeps you anchored.
When the season's delayed. When I say the season's delayed,
let me explain that when you plant a fruit tree, it isn't
immediately going to grow fruit the next day.
It might take years. It even will look like sometimes
it looks like it should definitely start having fruit,
but it's going to take a while. Are you going to stay through
the process? Are you going to allow the full
vision of that tree to come to life?
Are you going to be like, you know what, it's been a couple
years. I think I'm going to go because
there's no fruit yet on this tree, but you've not allowed the
fruit to mature. I remember Apostle Earl told us
that story one time. He had a banana tree, I think in
his yard and he was like, oh, I'm just going to eat one.
And he's like, my mouth literally turned inside out.
Nastiest thing I've ever had in my entire life because the
banana wasn't ready. And if you just say like, I'm
not going to go through this process, I'm not going to stay
with the vision of the tree. I'm not going to let it continue
to grow fruit and produce in my life, then the vision isn't
going to come to pass. But the vision needs you.
The orchard needs your fruit from your tree.
Don't uproot yourself and allow that fruit to not ever produce
or mature. I've had some really gross fruit
that was not ready and was not mature and it's because we
didn't let it go through the process.
But if you allow yourself to go through the process and produce
mature fruit, we just read earlier that you'll never cease
to continue yielding that fruit. But you have to choose to stay.
You have to choose to allow those roots to come and, and
state and stick together, You know, really quickly.
I know we'll be wrapping up here soon, but really quickly.
You know, I, I've talked about my testimony and guys, I've been
in two churches my whole life. When I was 2 years old, my
parents decided to get into church.
They had me very young and you know, they were like, we need to
do something. We're going to get to church.
I got into a Rhema church. My pastors were Rhema pastors.
And I'm so thankful. I grew up in that church until I
was 17 and God sent us to Anchor Faith Church.
It was my senior year of high school.
I was super involved in the town I grew up in.
You know, we had like maybe 5000 people in the town, 3
stoplights. They took one away, so we had
two. Small, tiny town.
We didn't even have a high school.
We had to go next door because it was too small of a town.
Hastings vibes. OK, small town, tiny town.
And you know, I was very involved in high school.
I was the manager of the basketball team.
I was going to be the editor of the yearbook.
I always invited my friends to church.
I followed the Lord. I wanted to follow the Lord.
I had a heart for the Lord and I wanted to serve him the best way
that I knew how. And then, you know, God called
us, Thank your faith church. And my parents said, well, you
choose. You can hear from the Holy
Spirit. I was like, the easy thing was
to not go where God was calling me to go.
So I was like, Lord, what do I do?
And I knew that he was calling me to Saint Augustine.
I knew he was calling me to this vision.
And so I came my 10 year of high school and God was just able to
really work. I prayed, I said, Lord, I just
need a friend. I need one friend because I'm
like I'm almost 18. It's kind of awkward for me to
be making like new friends now. So just one friend and he got
sent me a friend, a spirit filled girl who you know, had
grown up in the town and she befriended me on the 1st day.
She thought I was a freshman because I'm short.
I just never grew past 11 years old.
This is this is as tall as I got.
So you know, she's like you a freshman.
I'm like, no, I'm a senior. She's like, oh, you're new.
I said, yes, I am. And so she became my friend and
I was so thankful for that, that God took me and planted me here.
You know, I look back at the church I grew up in and all I
can say is I'm so thankful. I'm thankful for those pastors.
I'm thankful for the vision. I'm thankful for the word that
they put in me because they taught me who I was in Christ.
They taught me the authority of the believer.
They taught me that I should read my Bible.
They taught me that, you know, that I should go to church and
not miss. And so I'm so thankful for my
pastors there. But I knew God called me here
and wanted me to stay. And my husband said something
one time. He said, you know, the hardest
thing that I've ever done is also the easiest thing I've ever
done. And that's stay because it's not
that there's not been marvelous opportunities in the last 20
something years to leave. You know, when I was three, I
used to go around telling kids in the children's church and I
had a little bit of a lisp. Like when I grow up, I want to
be a preacher and a teacher and an author.
And I knew from a young age, you know, God had to continue to
confirm that to me and, and reveal that to me that I truly
felt called to the ministry. But I did feel that at a young
age. That doesn't mean that in my
brain I was like, well, Lord, I've served you, I've loved you.
I've I've kept your word, I've never gone out and done any of
these sins. I know you've saved me and I'm
so grateful, but surely I'm just going to like step right into
it, right? And he's like, no, no, you're
not. You got to get your character
developed. I'm like, oh, OK.
So I'm so thankful though, that I stayed because there were so
many opportunities to not stay. Plenty of opportunities to not
stay. Plenty of what I felt like was
valid reasons not to stay. But Lord, you know, I mean, do
you know what happened? But God said stay and I'm so
thankful that I can look back and say I stayed.
I did not allow myself to get uprooted and that I allowed
myself to go through the process to start bearing fruit because I
want to be a Cypress tree. I want to be strong.
I want to stay for centuries. I want my children to say we
stayed with the Lord and those children say we stayed with the
Lord. My testimony of staying in the
Lord keeping me is not better or worse than any of your
testimonies. Here's the thing, the world
likes to bond over trauma. They call it trauma bonding, but
God never called us to bond over trauma.
In fact, in Colossians, no, we're gonna Yeah.
In Colossians chapter 3, verse 14, it says beyond all these
things, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
He told us to bond over love and unity.
And then in Ephesians chapter 4, verse one through 3, it says,
therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in
a manner worthy of the calling, which I've called you with all
humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for
another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the
Spirit and the bond of peace. So we cannot continue with this
mindset of, oh, the world's like, oh, you, you've been
through that. Yeah, I've been through that
too. And now we have the shared
experience and we can bond over that.
We're not bonding over our trauma guys.
We're bonding over the love and peace that God's put us in.
We're bonding over the vision that he's placed us in.
We're bonding over the people and community that he's put us
in. And if we'll stay and allow our
roots to grow, that's the bond that is unbreakable.
That's the bond that God says, I'm coming back for church.
That's what about spot or wrinkle?
That's the bond that's going to produce fruit that the world's
like. Wait a second.
What? So it's not that my testimony is
like some oh, well, you've never experienced any of these things.
No, I experienced separation from God, and then I experienced
me realizing I need Him and nothing else is better than Him.
And you experienced that too. So we can't bond over the trauma
that we've been to. We got to bond over the Kingdom
that we've been placed in. We're going to bond over the
vision that we've been placed in because God's put us in a
vision. He's placed us in a body where
it pleases Him. He is the true vine, and our
Father is the vine dresser, and He's pruning us so that we can
bear more fruit. But you got to stay on the vine.
You can't hop off of it and be like, Nah, this hurts.
That oof. I don't like being pruned like
that. That hurts.
We have to continue to stay. And whenever we continue to
stay, whenever we continue to say I am not going anywhere, I
am going to continue to allow God to produce fruit in me
because I'm going to continue to stay faithful.
And I'm going to continue to allow him to go through the
process of me, mature me, prune me.
And it's not just for me, it's for this whole community around
me. And it's not just about us as a
church. It's about us reaching out to
those who are hurt and who are lost.
Yes, because the Bible ministry is equipping the Saint to go do
the work. It's about you going to do the
work. It's about he's returning really
soon. And are we going to be bonded
together over the vision? Are we going to stay planted?
Are we going to choose not to waver?
Are we going to choose to allow ourselves to be in real soil,
not in a microplastic pot? Are we going to allow ourselves
to not get root bound? But I'll allow our roots to grow
so that we can be strong. I believe that we are, and I
hope this encouraged you tonight that we're going to stay.
Nothing's going to make me move. Not being killed almost 21
times, though again, I don't think you guys are experiencing
that. Not, not things not going the
way that I think it should go. Not my feelings being hurt.
Not someone saying something to me that I didn't like.
Not them doing that. The way that I'm like, Is that
the best way to do it? That's not going to move me.
I'm staying. I'm staying planted in soil.
I'm going to stand with all the rest of the trees around me so
that we can continue to allow our roots to grow out strong
with a strong foundation. Amen.