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Hey, I love this house.

This is a special day, because this is a day where I just, I believe there's people in here that believe, like, man, like, the presence is being cut off from you, like, the blessing's being cut off.

Like, you just have, you've started to believe some lies from the devil right now.

Like, I've messed up.

I've gone down this path.

It's too dark.

I'm too far gone.

I was here, and I knew what was right, and I just, I messed up, and I slipped up, and I'm just, it's gone.

You're still here.

There's another chance.

I just want to encourage you today.

Jesus tells the parable of the ten virgins.

And five said they had a lamp with them, and the lamp was lit with oil.

And five, they just took the lamp only, and they didn't carry any extra oil with them.

They didn't know when the bridegroom was coming.

And they're like, this will be enough.

I got enough.

And then the other five, they said, I need to be ready.

I don't know when he's coming, but I know I need more oil.

I need to carry all the oil I can.

And so I think there's some of you in here today, you feel like you're the five and you weren't ready.

And you just, you ran out of oil, you ran dry.

But guess what?

He hasn't returned yet.

And so you got a second chance today to get some oil and start to carry some oil with you today.

Today is a refill day right here.

In the Old Testament, you would carry the lamp and it had oil.

And then you had a little clay jar that you would carry the extra oil in today.

And I remember this so clearly reading about this a couple years ago when I preached on it.

And I said, too many people just want to carry the lamp in one hand so they can hold on to the world with the other hand.

and you're having a hard time letting go of the world today i'm just encouraging you let go of the world die to the world die to self and pick up the oil pick up the oil today in the name of jesus there's more for you he's got a life full for you but you keep thinking that you need to hold on to the world and you need to leave this hand empty because there might be something better and you keep holding on you keep just believe his word take him at his word his word is better than the world let me tell you something let me teach you something today

Leviticus 19.

Leviticus 19 verse 23.

This was our verse for the year.

I felt the Lord give me this verse about a year ago before we came into the new year.

And he said this will be a year of honor.

Honor.

Because my people don't understand honor anymore.

We don't understand honor anymore.

It's heavy.

It's weighty.

It's valuable.

How do you treat people?

Do you treat them as heavy and weighty and valuable?

Or do you treat them lightly like they're worthless?

How do you treat God?

Really, really, today, ask yourself, how have I been treating you, Father?

Have you been treating Him heavy, valuable,

As if he has weight in your life, or have you been treating him lightly, like he's worthless, dishonorable?

How have you been treating him?

I don't know.

Who are you to say how I've been treating him?

You're right.

Who am I?

Check the word.

Have you been living your life by the word?

That's how you check.

Are you living a life of honor or dishonor?

Do you take him at his word, or do you trust the world more?

Do you trust the word of men more than the word of God?

We take the word of God seriously here.

It is heavy.

It is weighty.

That's why I tell people, get yourself a Bible, a real Bible.

And if you're reading out of your phone today, that's okay.

But your phone, it's light.

It's just a couple ounces.

Get yourself a big, thick Bible.

Carry it around with you.

Take it with you.

Take it to lunch with you at work.

Do whatever you can to carry it with you.

Because then all of a sudden you start to realize you're carrying weight.

You get so used to carrying your phone around, it becomes like nothing in your pocket.

You don't even notice it's there.

Sometimes you leave the house without it and you're like, oh, I forgot my phone.

Because it's light and it's worthless.

When you're carrying this around, I carry this into meetings with me.

Even if I don't open it, I have it there on the table.

And it reminds me that he's there.

Am I honoring him?

Honor him.

It says in the Old Testament, the way that they created words is through word pictures.

The word picture for honor was...

Opens the inside door.

Holmes at that time had an inside door that was heavy and weighty.

You needed some weight.

You needed some strength to open it.

Honor gives you the strength.

It opens doors that only God can open.

Some of you, you're frustrated, you're tired, you're worn out.

You're like, you've just been pushing against all these heavy doors in life, trying to open it on your own.

If you would just honor the Lord, guess what?

He comes in and opens those doors for you.

And He opens the right doors.

And He gives you the wisdom to see and discern the right doors from the wrong doors.

Honor will change your life.

Some of you have seen it this year.

That's what Josh was saying.

He decided to take God seriously at His word.

He and his wife

And his word says tithe.

Tithe means 10%.

Well, I'm pretty close.

I'm doing 8% or 9%.

That's not obedience.

Obedience is following God's word and doing it his way and not your way.

Not just good enough.

No, no.

You honor him because he's worthy.

And so they took a step of faith this year and they said, okay, I'm going to trust him at his word.

We're going to do 10%.

What did that do?

It opened heavy doors in their lives and brought provision in.

If you honor me before men, I'll honor you.

That's what his word says.

If you deny me before men, I'll deny you.

Leviticus 19, verse 23, when you come into the land and

This is before the people are entering the promised land.

God's people, they were slaves for 400 years.

All of a sudden, they're getting ready, they're getting prepared to enter the promised land.

You're in a preparation season.

You're entering in.

He's teaching you how to enter in to his promises.

Some of you are discouraged and disappointed in the Lord because you're like, I hear about all these people living in the blessing.

I hear this guy get up here and say he got a 16% raise.

That's not fair.

What about me?

God is no respecter of persons.

You think he doesn't want to bless you?

He wants to bless you.

He's waiting for you to take a step of obedience.

I got three claps because everybody else is like, I don't like obedience.

Yeah, there's an extra clap.

There you go.

Nobody likes obedience until you see the results of obedience.

Who are you to tell me what to do?

I had this problem.

Man, the devil was trying to get me on Friday night.

I went to this party.

It was for some friends.

And I walk up to the front door.

And there's a sign on the door.

And it says, take your shoes off.

I'm like, who are you to tell me to take my shoes off?

I don't want to walk around in my socks.

I like my shoes.

I got all rebellious and just like, I turned into a real, just a real rebel.

There's a word for it.

I'm not going to say it.

Actually, it's in the Bible.

It's a donkey, all right?

I turned into a real donkey in that moment.

The King James uses that word, so it's all right.

I was.

I kind of made jokes about it with my friends.

I was kind of making light of it.

But then I got woken up at 2 in the morning that night, and the Lord said, that was their home.

They can decide the rules for their home.

Honor them.

You were dishonorable.

I texted my friends that I was kind of making those jokes with.

I was like, hey, I'm sorry.

I shouldn't have been joking like that.

That was dishonorable.

We do the same thing with the word of the Lord.

He's listed off all these commandments and we're like, he doesn't really need that.

Who is he to tell me what to do?

Who is he to tell me how to live?

Who to sleep with?

Who to not sleep with?

What to drink?

What not to drink?

Who to hang out with?

Who to not hang out?

Who is he?

He's the king of the universe.

Honor him.

Repent and turn back right now.

You've been living a life of dishonor.

Repent and turn back.

That's what I did on Friday night.

I repented.

I got a lot of pride sometimes.

I had to repent of my pride.

You think I wanted to text my friends and say sorry?

Like I'm admitting like I did something wrong?

I'm admitting I sinned?

I sinned.

I needed to confess my sins.

Because when you confess your sins, he's faithful and just to forgive you your sins and to cleanse you

from all unrighteousness.

If you'll repent today and confess your sins, what's he going to do?

He's going to cleanse you.

You're going to be clean.

You're going to be white as snow.

That's better than living in the darkness, living on your own terms the way you want.

Everybody thinks, oh, I can live the way I want.

I can do whatever I want.

I can do it however I want.

I can do whatever feels right.

My friend Brennan and I, we sat down, we were in, I don't know, some kind of YouTube podcast thing, Satanists debating Christians recently.

And we sat down with these Satanists and they're talking and they're talking and it was the weirdest thing because they call themselves Satanists but none of them believe in a literal Satan or a literal God.

Really, they were just atheists claiming the name of Satan.

And they're talking and justifying where they get their morality from and their sense of right and wrong.

And they're just justifying everything.

And they're like, we don't have to live under the rules of a God.

We don't have to live under those arbitrary rules.

And, you know, we're not condemned or shamed or guilted into living by all these things.

And Brennan and I were kind of like, yeah, neither are we.

We live in obedience because we've seen the blessing that comes along with it, and we've seen the curse that comes along when you live in disobedience to the Lord.

I've lived in the curse.

I've lived in the darkness.

I've lived in my own shame, and I'm hidden.

I'm hidden in the darkness, and I found out it's better to live in the light.

It's better.

And one of the guys, as we keep going, as we keep going, one of the guys, he comes back and he had said all these things.

Oh, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free.

And then all of a sudden he's like, you know, I try every day.

This is later on after he'd been bragging about how free he was, how much more freedom he had than us.

And then he starts saying, like, I try to live by the tenets of our faith.

The Satanists have tenets.

It's just another word for commandments.

I try to live by the tenets of our faith, and some days I do good, and then some days I do bad, and I mess up, and I feel bad, and I'm just over here like, why?

You don't believe in God?

You don't believe in Satan?

Who's disappointed in you?

Who have you let down?

You're still living under religion.

He wants to set you free from religion.

We don't follow his word because we have to or because we feel bad or guilty or condemned.

No, there's no condemnation under Christ.

No.

We walk in obedience because there's a blessing.

His ways are better than ours.

Stop living in your own way.

Stop living in your own filth.

Come home, prodigal son.

Come home, prodigal daughter.

You checked out the world.

You tried it.

Now it's your time to repent and come home and say, Father, I'm sorry.

It'd be better to be a slave in your house than free in the world.

Free in the world.

Because I'm a slave to sin.

My goodness, this is just the intro.

That's a whole sermon right there.

That's a good word, Lord.

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you.

All right, worship team, you've been going hard.

I'm going to pray, and you guys go take a break, take a breather, get some water.

Get ready to come back up and lead our people at the end.

Father God, we praise you right now.

We praise you for your word.

Every time your word goes out, it's like a seed, and it never returns void.

And Lord, I just pray right now, there's some seeds that have been planted in the past, and they've been laying dormant.

And I know, I lay grass seed down in the fall, and there's times I'm like, I don't see anything yet.

And some of the seed gets in there, and it lays dormant over the winter.

And all of a sudden, I come back in the spring a few months later, and it's a new season.

And I see the seed popping up over the ground.

And you might be discouraged because the seed seems dormant right now, but there's a blessing coming.

There's new growth coming.

Jesus, we praise you for new growth.

Even though we can't see it, even though it's happening under the surface, we praise you for what you're doing under the surface of our hearts today.

Jesus, I pray for a new work to be done.

I pray for fresh oil.

I pray that your people, all of us, would walk out of here fresh and renewed and full of life today, full of your holy fire today.

In Jesus' name, all God's people came into agreement and said, amen.

Let's go, church.

Leviticus 19.

What did I read?

One verse here?

When you come into the land and have planted all kinds of trees for food...

Then you shall count their fruit as uncircumcised, unclean.

Count it as unclean.

Three years it shall be uncircumcised to you.

It shall not be eaten.

But in the fourth year, all its fruit shall be holy, set apart.

A praise to the, who?

The Lord.

He brought me to this verse because we were coming into year four of revival.

We're in year four of revival.

We've seen some fruit.

Let me tell you something.

But it wasn't even ready yet.

This is year four.

All of a sudden, it's ready.

But it shall not be eaten yet.

We're seeing produce.

We're seeing things happen.

We're seeing miracles.

We're seeing God move.

And supernatural fruit is being produced in the house.

I'll tell you, finances, money, it is the smallest thing, but it is an indicator of what is going on inside of people's hearts.

Because if you can steward money well, then he'll trust you with more.

That's what his word says.

It's the smallest thing.

If I can trust you with this, I can trust you with more.

So some of you in here, you're like, God, I'm ready for more.

I'm ready for more.

And he's like, no, no, no.

You haven't even passed the first most simple test.

You still love money more than you love my kingdom.

Everything's a test.

God is just testing and refining us all the time.

Why?

Because he doesn't want you to stay in the same place.

Some people just get saved and then they stay in the same place the rest of their life.

It's like if a baby is born and that baby is 20 years old still nursing.

That's weird, right?

You shouldn't be nursing anymore.

Paul tells us that.

Some of you are like, that's a weird image.

Yeah, I know it is.

That's why Paul uses that image.

He says, some of you are still drinking milk.

You should be eating meat.

You're still acting like children.

You're still living like children.

You're ready for meat.

Eat the meat, okay?

It's better.

You're ready for the meat of God's Word.

Stop just living on the milk.

There's too many churches just living on the milk.

And they just, it's the same thing over and over.

And it's like, oh, okay, that's fine.

That's great.

You're planting the seed.

People are getting saved, but then they're not getting sanctified.

They're not learning how to walk in the Holy Spirit.

And there's no fruit without the Holy Spirit.

Because what?

It's the fruit of the Spirit.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

There's a lot of churches that people are getting saved, but there's no fruit because they're just babies and they're not growing up.

Tell you something, like my daughter, she's so sweet.

She's just two years old.

She's so sweet.

And there's times that she's really gentle and kind.

But then there's times where she is tossing over our trash can because we threw away a piece of her candy that she wasn't supposed to have.

She's yelling and screaming no at mom and dad.

Is that behavior acceptable?

No.

We have to what?

Refine her and teach her and bring her up in the faith.

We shouldn't just be like, oh, that's cute, that's sweet.

You can live that way your whole life.

There's too many churches and Christians living that way.

And it's like, oh, that's cute and that's sweet.

That's, oh, you came in and you're like one of those, you know, drug dealing, cursing, I don't know, weird, partying Christians, whatever people, the weird labels people want to put and use on people like of their sin.

Like, and you're still like doing that and you're saying, well, I got grace.

I can do whatever I want.

No, that's immaturity.

But God wants to grow you and change you.

He wants to mature you in this season so you can be fruitful.

Not so that you can be saved.

He doesn't want to guilt you into that or shame you into that.

He wants to coach you and teach you and kind of test you, refine you, so you can grow up and mature in this season.

So you're not living the same way as when you were two years old in the faith or zero in the faith or three years old in the faith.

You shouldn't be living the same way when you're 30.

He wants to transform and refine you.

Not so that you'll be saved, but because you've been saved.

He wants your life to be better.

He wants your life to be fruitful.

There's more fruit in the freedom that he offers.

But we keep trying to get people saved.

The church is good at that.

We'll get people saved.

We'll preach the gospel.

But then we don't teach people how to walk in the Spirit.

If you start to read through the New Testament, read through Galatians, read through 1 Corinthians, what is Paul teaching?

He's teaching people how to walk in the Spirit.

Not to crawl in the Spirit like a baby.

Not just like, oh, it's okay that you're still there and you're still doing that and you're still living in that.

No, he's saying, no, it's time to grow up.

Don't abuse God's grace.

God's grace empowers us to step out of the darkness and into the light.

Stop abusing his grace.

So when we talk about the fruit in year four, there's a great fruitfulness that we've seen in this past year.

The finances, the money, Josh listed off some of that.

I don't believe in coincidences.

I mean, literally.

We've been blessed in this house.

Like, our giving, it doesn't make sense for a church this size.

When you look at the national averages of churches and how churches our size give and you break that stuff down, the last time I looked at this stat, I mean, we were, I think, 50 or 60% ahead of most churches our size.

This is a generous church.

You love the Lord.

You love to honor him through his word and obedience to the tithe.

We tithe in this church.

Why?

For men?

No, for the Lord.

When we give our money, it's not for men, it's for the Lord.

We honor him in this house.

You have a different level of maturity in this house than most churches because most churches don't actually teach on the tithe.

They don't actually, in fact, a lot of them kind of shy around it or they kind of like, they don't actually talk about it because they're like, oh, people might leave.

You don't like that we talk about money here?

Fine, you can leave, but you'll miss out on the blessing.

That's why.

We don't apologize for teaching on money because Jesus teaches on money because he doesn't want it to be a lord of people's lives.

Too many people are slaves to mammon, to money.

We're a slave to the Lord.

We honor him.

He's our king.

He's our master.

That's it.

There's a different level of maturity in this house, and I'm telling you that.

You can see it in just the smallest indicator.

You can see it in the macro indicator.

You can see fruit in this house.

You can see the Holy Spirit working and moving in this house.

You can see the fruit of the Spirit in people's lives.

You can see it in so many different ways.

But in the smallest little indicator that Josh listed off today, throughout our history, every year, our finances have gone up and to the right.

Our giving has gone up and to the right.

And then in this year, year four, our highest giving month up to this point was, he didn't want to list the numbers.

I don't care.

Let's list the numbers.

I think it's fine.

Like, we got nothing to hide here.

Our highest giving month ever was $37,000 in one month.

That's amazing.

That's incredible.

This last October, in year four, in a year of honor, as we chose to honor the Lord, it was literally, I just found this out last week from Mike, it went from 37 to 74,000 in one month.

That's insane.

That is crazy.

Why does this matter?

Because honor opens the inside door.

Some of you feel stuck right now.

You feel like you're just kicking against the rocks and you're like asking God, God, why won't you do this for me?

Why won't this move?

Why is this thing in my life always going against me?

Have you honored him?

Test him and see that he is good.

Begin to honor him.

When you give, we have a giving challenge here.

Give for a month.

Give for three months.

If at the end of giving, like if you go a month or if you go three months, if you're dissatisfied, if you're like, my life is not better.

He has not blessed me.

I've not seen him show up and provide and be my Lord in this season.

If you want your money back, we'll give you your money back.

We don't care because it's not about the money.

It's about the blessing.

We want you to be blessed, and we believe he will bless you.

Honor opens the inside door.

So at the very beginning of the year, we had our pastor, my wife and I, we pastor this church.

We have pastors, Pastor Matt, Pastor Kerry.

They lead a church in Lincoln called Mercy City.

We wanted to have both of them come.

Pastor Kerry couldn't come down, but Pastor Matt came down.

We had a night of honor to start this year.

One of the things we did is as a church, we gave them a gift of $3,000.

Why?

Because that's how we show honor to those that the Lord has established as authority in our lives.

Why?

Because when you honor those who God has established as the authority in your life, you're not actually honoring men, you're honoring God.

Ladies,

You're struggling right now in your relationship with your husbands.

You're like, why should I honor him?

He's not godly.

He's living like this.

He's doing this.

When you honor your husband, you're not honoring him.

You're honoring the Lord.

Go to Colossians.

Colossians 3, 22.

Bond servants...

And if you want my notes today, you can text REVNOTES to the number 94000.

Bond servants, slaves, obey in all things.

Obedience doesn't matter.

Obedience is all throughout Scripture.

Don't say obedience doesn't matter.

The Lord cares about obedience.

Obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service as men pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God.

And whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men.

This is for everyone.

It's for your marriages.

It's for your workplaces.

You know another reason?

Like Josh, he got up here and shared, like he's been blessed this past year.

He's a man of honor.

He honors those who God has established an authority over him.

I can't tell you how many people have been tested this year, and I've heard discussions.

I remember talking to another young guy in our church, and he, like, literally, this was back in the spring, and he was like, man, I just, I struggle right now because everybody, like, on my team cannot stand, like, our boss.

They can't stand him, and they just talk negatively about him.

But I know, like, I know as a believer, like, I need to honor him.

And I encouraged him.

I said, Jake, keep honoring him.

Be a light in the darkness because honor will open the inside door.

There's going to be doors that will open that won't make sense to your coworkers.

They won't make sense to people around you, but honor will open the inside door.

God will lift you up.

He'll exalt you at just the right time.

Some of you are struggling right now with your boss or somebody that's in charge over you in some type of leadership structure, and you're like, oh, if it was me, I would do that.

If it was me, I would do that.

I was struggling with that on Friday night.

If it was my home, I wouldn't put a sign on the door that says, take your shoes off.

That's what I, I was rebellious.

You know the story of David and his son Absalom?

He was rebellious.

First of all, he killed his brother.

Then he went and lived in exile.

And then David finally invited him back into the kingdom.

And then he comes back to the kingdom.

But what's he do?

He starts sowing seeds of rebellion.

What's he do?

He goes and stands by the gate of the city where everyone has to pass by.

It's the most popular.

It's like if you go to the most popular place here in Omaha where everyone passes through at some point.

I don't know what that is.

Chick-fil-A?

I don't know.

What's the gate of the city?

I'm not sure.

And you're just sitting there and you see all these people coming in and you're like, hey, you got any issues?

You got any problems you want to talk about?

And they're like, yeah, actually I do.

And you're just like, wow, that's too bad.

Man, if I was mayor, if I was governor, I would do this.

If I was mayor, if I was governor, I would do this.

That's a rebel.

If you got somebody in your life saying, like, oh, if I was your husband, like, I would treat you better.

Get away from that devil.

That person, like, they got a devil in them.

That's an unclean spirit.

That's a spirit of rebellion.

You've got people trying to sow seeds of rebellion in your marriage.

Stop listening to them.

They're idiots.

They're deceived.

Don't listen to that person.

Some of you have already listened to that person, and you've already let a seed get sown.

Repent and turn back.

Apologize to your husband.

Apologize to your wife and say, I'm sorry.

That's what the devil does.

The devil says, if I was in charge...

I would let you.

I'd give you freedom.

No, he'll give you chains.

No, I'll give you freedom.

No, he gives you chains.

You're not really free.

You ever try to get free from your sin?

You ever try to just break?

Just be like, okay, I'm done.

I'm done with that.

And you're like, oh my gosh, I can't quit.

I can't quit even if I wanted to.

Jesus will set you free.

He'll set you free.

He's released me and freed me from things I thought I could never quit, I could never walk away from.

I know he is.

I know he's the healer.

I know he sets you free.

I've lived it.

I'm still living it because there's always more freedom to experience.

There's some marriages, they're getting saved today.

At your workplace, you got that friend that's always like, if I was in charge, just be like, shut up, Ron, you're not in charge.

Quit complaining and do your job.

You might have a terrible boss.

You might have a terrible husband.

They might be the worst.

But you're not being judged on their behavior.

You're being judged and tested on how you'll respond.

David was anointed to be the next king of Israel.

The current king of Israel wasn't dead yet.

In fact, he called David to serve in his court.

And he loved him.

He appreciated him.

He was like, this kid is great.

This kid is awesome.

And then all of a sudden, this kid starts rising up and winning battles.

And he's having these great victories.

And people start singing about him more than King Saul.

And King Saul gets a little jealous.

He starts throwing spears at him, trying to kill him.

And David goes on the run.

And David has a chance while he's on the run.

And he's hiding in this cave.

And all of a sudden, of all the caves in all the world, King Saul comes in to...

relieve himself to go to the bathroom and he's there and david and all of his men are in the back of the cave and they're like this is your chance take the kingdom and david just cuts a corner off of his robe he doesn't kill him he doesn't take him down right there because he says who am i to lift my hand against the lord's anointed david knew this was a test this is a test

I guarantee you, I don't think anybody in here is serving under a boss or a husband that is trying to kill them.

David was serving under a king that wanted him dead, that literally threw a spear at him.

And you're complaining because your boss only gives you 15 minutes for lunch.

Shut up, right?

You're not honoring man, you're honoring the Lord.

Honor will change your life.

Honor set David apart.

And at the right time, God exalted him to be king.

And he was a better king because he passed the test in the wilderness in the cave season.

He was equipped.

He was prepared.

Some of you don't like what you're seeing right now.

In fact, some of you, you're seeing injustice.

You're seeing injustice in the government.

Maybe you serve in the government and you're like, if I was ruling, if I was leading, if I was doing this, I would do it differently.

Maybe God is teaching you and preparing you so that when you step into that next season, when you step into that promotion, you'll be ready and you'll handle it better than the one that you're serving under now.

David handled it better than the one he was serving under then.

Will you pass the test?

Yes.

Every man, every woman in here, I declare it in the name of Jesus, you're going to pass the test in this season.

I believe that for you.

It starts with your attitude.

Change your attitude in this season.

Humble yourself before the Lord, and he will exalt you at just the right time.

He wants to promote you.

He wants to raise you up.

He wants godly people leading in positions of government, leading in positions of business, leading in positions in the church.

There's a lot of ungodly people that are leading in the church in our world today.

Guess what?

At the right time, God, who is in charge of all authority, who gives all authority, he'll make the changes.

He'll make the shifts.

Some of you are a little frustrated.

You're like, I need to go do something about this.

I need to take this guy out.

This guy is the worst.

He's corrupt.

Did the Lord tell you to do that?

If the Lord didn't tell you to do that, you better sit down.

and trust him, and wait for the Lord to take that person down and to lift you up so that you can be ready to handle it in that season when it's time.

He's promoting some people in this season.

He's lifting people up from old seasons into new seasons.

He's lifting you up.

Will you pass the test?

I believe you're going to pass the test.

I know you will.

This is a church.

I've seen it.

From year one to year two to year three to year four, I've seen so many of you.

You pass the test.

Every test he gives you, you pass it.

And he says, well done.

Well done.

I just believe he's looking at you and he's saying, well done.

Good and faithful servant.

Keep following him.

Keep serving him.

Keep loving him.

Keep listening to his word and walking in obedience, even when it doesn't make sense.

Even when the devil is trying to tempt you to start rebellion.

saying you could do it better.

You know more.

You're more equipped.

You got a better education.

You dress better.

You look nicer.

Whatever, you fill in the blank.

Whatever it is the devil's been whispering to you, tell the devil no thanks.

I'm waiting for the Lord to lift me up for the next season.

I'm waiting for the Lord to raise me up.

I don't need a shortcut through you.

Too many people are looking for a shortcut around the Lord's way.

Because what?

The Lord's way is seed time and harvest.

Seed time and harvest.

All throughout Scripture, we see seed time and harvest.

What's that mean?

You got to sow a seed.

And then what?

You got to wait.

I don't want to wait.

I want it now.

Yeah, everybody wants it now.

How do you get it now?

Well, they got a harvest over there.

I could go take some of theirs.

You're stealing somebody else's harvest.

That's not your harvest.

You don't know when they sowed their seed.

You don't know how long they've been working the ground.

Some of you, you got some hard soil you gotta break up.

You gotta work the ground.

You're mad because you're like, oh, it looks like they got better ground over there.

No, they worked the ground.

They worked it.

They prayed.

They sat with the Lord.

You don't know how long they've been waiting for that blessing.

You don't know how long they've been waiting for that promotion.

Some of you are like, oh, it must be nice to get a 16% raise, Josh.

You didn't see the last 10 years.

You didn't see what he and his wife went through, what they worked for, how they worked the ground.

Praise the Lord.

You sowed seed and you waited.

Praise the Lord.

Some of you, you're in here and you just want the shortcut.

You want it now.

The shortcut's the devil's way.

Say no to the devil today.

You tell him, hell no, Satan.

I'm sowing seed and I'm waiting on the Lord.

Be still and wait on the Lord.

Somebody got free right there.

You're so discouraged and you're so down because it hasn't happened yet.

Sow seed and wait on the Lord.

He's going to show up.

Some of you are like, I want a baby.

I want it now.

It hasn't happened yet.

You know how old Abraham and Sarah were?

Somebody tell me, how old?

90?

100?

29, when's it going to happen for me?

If it can happen for them, it can happen for you.

I don't want to be 90.

Take whatever He gives you, all right?

Don't complain about what the blessing looks like when it comes.

Some of you grandmas in here are like, I hope not.

I saw you.

I saw you shaking your head over there.

You've had your blessing.

You've been blessed.

But in the fourth year, all its fruit shall be wholly appraised to the Lord.

So still in this fourth year, he doesn't say to eat from what is coming forth from the land.

So what we did all the way back in January, we gave this gift to Pastor Matt and Pastor Carrie.

Some of you are like, oh, he's getting back to that story now?

This is just how I preach.

If you're new to the house...

Like the Lord just takes me and I just, I'm like, all right, Lord, you want to go back there?

Let's go back there.

I just try to listen to him and be sensitive to what he's doing and how he's moving in people's hearts.

That's all I'm trying to do.

I used to come in and I had this whole plan and I'm like, I'm going to preach this and it's going to be good because I wrote it.

And a lot of times it wasn't very good because I wrote it.

So I've just tried to learn to listen and sit in his presence and then preach what he wants me to preach.

And if he tells me not to go back somewhere, if he tells me not to say something, all right, fine.

It's your word.

I just want to honor him.

I want to obey him.

So we gave this gift of $3,000.

What's happened?

Our giving has gone up exponentially.

Every month we've seen an increase in our giving in this house.

But then all of a sudden in the month of harvest in October, we saw what come in?

Double.

I texted our kingdom builder team.

That's what we call it.

They work with all the finances.

They help prepare budgets and things like that.

They're advisors.

And I texted them on Friday and I said, he's not a God of coincidences.

Like he's showing us, look, you obeyed my word and you've honored me.

Here's the blessing.

Here's the harvest.

But don't eat of it yet.

And so I said, I don't believe we're supposed to eat of this.

You know, sometimes people are like, why don't you have your own building yet?

You're still renting and you're doing all this.

Like, we have the money.

We have the finances.

We could go out and buy our own building.

But I'm still standing on a word, on a promise from the Lord that he said our very first building he would give to us.

That there's a gift coming.

So I'm still standing on that promise.

And some people are like, what?

You could do it now.

I don't want the devil's shortcut.

I'm going to wait on the Lord.

If he said it, I believe it.

He's taking what belongs to the world and giving it back to the kingdom.

And so there's buildings and land and provision that the devil is losing in this season because the Lord has taken it and given it to those who are stewards of his kingdom.

And so I believe it's coming.

And so I believe we could take a shortcut.

We could go buy a nice building and we could do all these things and we could build, we could get land.

We could do all that on our own out of our own power.

But he didn't say or release me yet in year four to eat of the produce of

What is it?

It's a praise to the Lord.

So the very first thing I texted them on Friday, I said, he's blessed us doubly.

I believe we should honor those who are over us, our pastors, double.

So we're going to give them another gift of $3,000.

Did they ask for it?

No.

Did they demand it?

Did they expect it?

No.

They've never demanded or expected a thing.

But my goodness, I want to honor those who God has established over us because clearly it is opening supernatural doors in this house.

There's provision.

There's protection.

There's power.

God is doing something supernatural.

Don't you want to get in the flow of that?

Don't you want to be a part of that?

Or do you want to keep living life out of your own power, your own strength, doing your own thing?

Stop.

Stop striving and get in the flow of his presence.

It starts with obedience.

But in the fourth year, all its fruit shall be holy, a praise to the Lord.

And in the fifth year, you may eat its fruit, that it may yield to you its increase.

I am the Lord your God.

We're coming up on a year five.

He's already done it in year four.

Don't you want to be a part of year five?

Some of you are like, this sounds kind of good.

I want that.

Don't miss this.

He blesses his people.

But don't focus more on the blessing than the blesser.

Don't focus more on the provision than the provider.

Don't get caught up thinking, oh, it's all about what he's going to give me.

No, no, no, it's all about him.

When you put him first, everything else falls in line.

When you honor him, when you honor his word, everything else just begins to make sense and work properly.

Relationships begin to function properly.

Your finances begin to function properly.

Why?

Because you're doing the finances his way and not your way.

You're doing relationships his way and not your way.

Some of you have been doing relationships wrong.

You've been doing it backwards.

You've been doing it the devil's way, the world's way.

You're taking shortcuts to intimacy.

You feel alone, so you go and have sex.

Well, sex is for marriage between one husband and one wife.

You're taking a shortcut right now.

So what should you do?

Just say, Lord, I'm sorry.

I repent.

And I want to do things your way.

And in this next season, guess what?

He's going to heal you, that lonely place within you that you've been filling with that coping mechanism of sexual relationship.

And he's going to fill you with intimacy with him.

And then all of a sudden, you're going to get healthy.

And he's going to bring the right person at the right time who is also following the Lord.

And he's walking in freedom and healing.

And you guys are going to make a commitment together to say, let's not take any shortcuts.

Let's do our relationship God's way and not the world's way.

The world keeps providing shortcuts to intimacy, but it leaves people feeling alone and broken and hurt and in shame.

He's setting people free from shame.

And if you've already done it that way and you've lived that way, this is just a moment today in worship, as our worship team comes up as we get ready to close here.

It's a moment to just confess and repent and just say, Lord, I'm sorry for doing things out of order, for doing things my way, the world's way, instead of your way.

I want to repent today and say, Lord, I want to do it your way and not mine anymore.

There's so many things.

What's the shortcut you've been taking?

What's the shortcut?

Some of you, you want authority.

You want to be in the lead.

You want this lead position, and you're taking shortcuts.

You're backstabbing people at work, or you're trying to cut people down to make yourself look better.

You're like, oh, Becky didn't get that project done.

You throw Becky under the bus to make yourself what?

Look better, to raise yourself up.

Stop taking shortcuts and live in integrity.

And trust that he'll raise you up.

He'll exalt you at the right time.

No more shortcuts.

Daniel 2, verse 20.

Daniel said this.

Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are his.

He didn't say wisdom and might are yours.

It's his.

Get wisdom today.

Get into the Word.

This week, get into the Word.

Get a journal, get a Bible.

Begin to read His Word and just begin to journal.

We call it SOAP.

Start with Scripture, that's the S. The O is observations.

Just begin to write down your observations as you're reading.

Write down questions you have.

I don't know what this means.

I don't get this.

Ask the Holy Spirit.

Ask a pastor.

Ask a friend.

Ask somebody at the church.

Ask somebody, like, what do you think this means?

What do you think God is saying?

The A is application.

How do you apply this to your life right now?

If you're looking for wisdom in this season, start reading through Proverbs.

There's wisdom there that will change your life.

And then P is just prayer.

Just begin to pray it.

And then declare it over your life.

Just begin to declare the promises of God's word over your life.

He's for me, not against me.

Get that one in you in this season.

You've been down and out.

You're like, oh, God's always against me.

You've been going against him.

Repent today and come back.

Guess what?

He's for you, not against you.

He's working all things together for the good of those who love him.

Some of you have been living that wrong your whole life.

You've been thinking, oh, I know I heard this one time in church.

He works all things together for good for those who love him.

I love God.

I said yes to him one time in church, and

You know what Jesus said?

If you love me, obey my commandments.

You've been living in disobedience ever since you heard that in church one time.

And you've been living on a lie from the devil.

You've been believing God's going to work all things together for your good.

and you can just keep living however you want.

No, there's a blessing in obedience.

You've been missing out on the blessing, and you've become bitter because nobody ever told you that obedience matters.

Jesus said it.

If you love me, obey my commandments.

Where have you been disobedient?

Repent and confess today.

Our ministry team is going to be up here.

Today's a day of repentance and confession.

There's no shame at the altars.

We celebrate the altar.

We celebrate when somebody comes forward and they have a moment at the altar.

You can have it with somebody.

You can pray with somebody.

Or you can just come down here by yourself, you and the Lord, and just say, Lord, I'm sorry.

It's a physical step of obedience.

If the Lord is calling you forward to the altar today, don't miss this place.

It's a special place where he wants to meet you today and say, son, daughter, I forgive you.

Come home.

I wasn't trying to restrain you or restrict you.

I was trying to protect you and bless you.

That's what his word does.

The devil says he restrains you and restricts you from the life of fun, from the life of freedom.

No, no, no, no.

He protects you and blesses you when you walk in obedience to his word.

He changes the times and seasons.

He removes kings and raises up kings.

He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.

He reveals deep and secret things.

He knows what is in the darkness and light dwells with him.

Light dwells with him.

Step out of the dark and into the light today.

Let's stand up, church.

Ministry team, would you come forward?

Would you just be ready to receive and pray?

For anyone coming forward today, anyone stepping out of darkness and into light.

In Ephesians, Paul said, awake, O sleeper.

You've been asleep.

You've been living in denial of what his word says.

Awake, O sleeper, and step into the light today.

In the name of Jesus Christ, let's celebrate him.

Let's praise him.

Step out of the darkness and into the light today.