Spring Broke - Week 2

And amen and amen. We're going to continue in our series today Spring Broke.

We're talking about that slow fade into brokenness and that slow climb into kingdom's

success. If you've got a Bible, go to Ephesians chapter five. We're

going to read that same key text that we read last week, Ephesians chapter

five, starting in verse fifteen. If you're there, say amen. If

you're not, O Mai, we'll put on the screen for the O mais

Ephesians chapter five, verse fifteen. See them that you walk circumspectfully, not

as fools, but as wise redeeming the time because the days are evil.

Therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord

is. If you have it, listened to last week's message, go back

and make sure you do that. It will put into context that passage of

scripture so that he can build upon it. So make sure you go back

this afternoon or tomorrow and listen to last week's messages. It's going to help

you. I think. Let's pray, Father, we thank you for your

word. It's the only change agent that we have. And I asked that

we live our lives with such anticipation, such expectation and such attention that we

maximize every moment we have with you. Lord, I ask it in your

name, the name of Jesus, the Strong Son of God. Amen,

Amen, and amen, he says, redeem the time. Make sure that

the time counts. Don't let it just pass by. I was, I

was driving the other day, and uh, you know, I take certain

routes to go certain places, and I was I was going to my dad's

and I was coming down. And every time I go to Dad's I go

by the school where Lexi goes, and just going down the road, and

I when I realized what I had done. I was sitting at the guard

shack at the school. I wasn't going to the school. I was going

to dads. Come on somebody and Mr Mark said, Hey, what are

you doing? And I said, man, I have no idea what I'm

doing. He started laughing. I said, this is not even where I

meant to come to. I meant to go to my dad's. I ended

up at the school. He said, do you feel okay? I said,

yeah, I just wasn't paying attention. You know, sometimes we just

put our lives on auto pilot, right, especially when we live in that

in those monotonous stages of life, those things where it just you know,

you get up and you do the same things every day. Come on,

somebody, and it's almost like you'll look back and you'll say, Wow,

where did that week go? Where did that month go? Where did that

Where did the more then go? Because you just kind of check off boxes

and you're not really paying attention to what's happening. And the reality is that

most of the time when we get in those I'm gonna call it a rut.

And you know what a rut is, right, A rut is a

grave with the get with the ends kicked out of it. When you're in

a rut, you're living in a dead season. And we get in those

ruts, and most of the time it's because we don't really have a plan

to advance and to go anywhere. We're not trying to accomplish anything. We're

not trying to get anywhere. We're just coasting. Come on, somebody.

But the reality is that our days on earth are limited. Okay, let

let let let let's let's let's go. Let let let's let's talk about something.

Y'all are really quiet today, that's really demotivational. To me. I

don't know if that's a word or not, but some people shaking their head.

Yeah, so you're not motivating. So everybody say, amen, all

right, that's better. We get in these places and we just go through

the motions because we're not set to accomplish anything, and our days are limited.

Even if we live to be one hundred and twenty years old, our

days are still limited to one hundred and twenty years. I have no plan

to make it to one hundred and twenty years old, so my days are

much more limited than that. Amen. I mean, I used to think,

boy, if I make it to sixty, that's gonna be great,

and now that I'm fifty, that number seems to be a little higher my

expectations. I want to make it a little longer than that. Come on,

somebody, But one hundred and twenty. I just don't want to do

that. Don't want to do it. I hope I'm done. I don't

want to. I want to go to heaven because I'm done, because I

have finished and accomplished those things that the Lord has for me, and I

try to live my life on purpose. You know, we talk a lot

about purpose around here, and purpose means that we have intentionality towards something in

the future. In a back of chapter two, starting in verse two,

one of the keys to that slow fade into kingdom success is found. As

the prophet writes this, he says, then the Lord answered me and said,

write the vision and make it plain on tablets that he may run who

reads it. Now. I want to remind you of something that I remind

you of. You know every few months. The most spiritual thing you can

do, the most spiritual thing you can do in your life, is write

it down. Write what down, Yes it everything, write everything down.

Write it down because it frees your mind to dream, it frees your mind

to create it free listen, just write down the fact that you have a

doctor's appointment next week is Stop trying to remember it and using that mental space.

I know some of y'all's bandwidths and it's not very wide. Come on,

now, a doctor's appointment clogs that thing up and you can't get reception.

So write it down. Here's the amazing thing God has even put in

the hands of his children, an amazing device that will even alert me when

I'm supposed to do something. Imagine that that, Hey, if you're not

good at telling your wife I love you. Now some I'm gonna get I'm

gonna get over this one. Put an alert in your phone that says,

tell her you love her. You probably want to put her name in there

in case she sees the alert. Amen. Amen, but write it down.

Because the decisions we make are based on the fact that we're thinking about

the things that we need to think about when we need to think about them.

You can't have faith for something that you don't know. Somebody should tweet

that, write the vision and 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 Terry's

wait for it, because it will surely come. It will not Terry behold

the proud. His soul is not uprighting him, but the just that's you,

that's you. But the just shall live by his faith. Faith understanding

where we want to get to and attaching faith to it. And we're going

to spend some time talking about faith. But listen, if you're in a

place of brokenness right now, your entire vision for your life may be getting

to a place of health. Come on, somebody, If I'm in a

place where where depression just has gripped every part of my life, my vision

may be to no longer be depressed. And that goal may be joy,

it may be peace, it may be whatever it is. Treating the root

causes, not just treating the symptoms. Right. See, we have a

bad habit as first world people of treating the symptoms of our issues and not

treating the root cause of our issues. So you know, with depression,

we'll self medicate and we'll try to create false happiness rather than treat the core

problem, which is the depression itself. A plan to crawl out of that,

a plan to move from where I am, whatever it is, and

you write down that plan, and then you begin to strategically look at what

you just wrote down and say, how do I get from where I am

to where I want to be? How do I move from here to there?

You know, I coach, I coach softball on the side, like

well, I actually have like two full time jobs. It's like all time

consuming. But anyway, you know, and a lot of times you have

a girl standing there at the plate and it's a pointless game really, because

the whole point is to try to get back where you started. I mean,

we spend all this stress and all this anxiety to try to get a

player back to where they started. Why don't we just leave them there?

Solve everybody a lot of stress, right, just and there's a plan to

get from where they are around to the place where they started, because that

equals a run. That's the point of the game, and the point of

the game of life is to get somewhere. And we have to get there

step by step strategically from where we are to the place where we want to

be. And once we write it down, we may not have all the

steps, but we might be able to get the first step. If I

want to if I want to retire as a millionaire when I'm sixty two years

old, raise your hand if you want to retire this First of all,

I don't know if a million is enough money to get you to the end

of your life. You have to decide that you want to retire as a

millionaire. Here's here's something that I might do. I don't know. I

might get my calculator and figure out how many years it is from now until

I'm sixty two, and then I might divide a million by that number to

see how much I need to save every year. I don't know. It

might be a starting point, and then I might even divide that monthly,

and I might even you know, depending on how you live. Some of

us think month to month, some of us think week to week. Some

people think day to day. You need to change if you think day to

day, need to change that however you think, break it down into that

first manageable step. He said, write the vision and make it plain so

that he that reads it can run with it. Who is the first person

that's going to read your vision? You? Nobody is gonna run with you

until you start running yourself. I want to start my own business, but

you show up late every day to the job that you have. Now,

guess what happens when you show up late when you own your own business.

Starvation. Starvation, that's what happens. You don't like your boss, so

you don't spend any time with him. But he built the business that employs

you, and he's got some skills and an insight that you could glean,

so you might want to make him your friend. So I wake up on

Monday. Step one, stop being a jerk, to my boss. I

know this is more practical than what you may have come to church for.

But the reality is sometimes we get so spiritually minded that we become no earthly

good. There's some practical things that even believers need to do, and it

starts with writing the vision and getting a plan to take that first step towards

what I want God to do in my life. And you're like, well,

I just pray. I just pray, and I pray and I pray.

I want a husband, and I've been praying and praying and praying that

God would send me a husband. But you never leave your house. Guess

what, God probably not sending him to the door. And if he comes

to the door, you probably don't want to meet him because you're air right.

Thatt'll end it right there. So we have to leave the step one,

leave the house with my hair fixed, and we start putting these things

in place so we get movement in our lives. In Hebrews chapter eleven,

verse one, it says, now faith, remember the just lived by faith.

He said, the just live by faith, after he said to write

the vision to make it plain. Now faith is the substance of things hoped

for, evidence of things not seen, for byath, the elders obtained a

good testimony by faith. We understand that the worlds were framed by the word

of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of the

things which are visible. He said. The whole earth is framed by God's

word, his principles, his precepts. Everything works according to the way God

intended for it to work. You're like, well, what about wars and

rumors of wars? God gave us free choice. Some people choose to be

dummies. Some people choose to be greedy, some people choose to be slothful,

some people choose We know what negative choices are, right, But everything

was framed by those precepts. And if I understand those precepts and I locked

that precept in my heart, I want to I want to own my own

business. I want to become a distribution center for the wealth and the kingdom

of God. I don't want to go on the mission field, but I

want to pay for missionaries to go on the mission field. And I'm going

to do that by owning my own business. And here's where I start.

I stopped being a jerk to the boss I have. Now I want to

be his friend. And then what is the next step? Now, watch

and I take those precepts of God that says that God blesses him who diligently

seeks the Father, and I start chasing after God and his word and his

wisdom and his precepts. And I ask God, who gives to all liberally?

And then He strategically gives me the next step. Now I'm developing a

daily ha bit of chasing God because it's part of my destiny. But God

doesn't just give you. It's not like you're going to show up one day

the doors of destiny you're gonna swing open and the angels will sing, ah,

helujah, you've a rived, You've a arrive. No, as a

matter of fact, that's not even faith. We understand the precepts, and

the precepts are where our hope comes from. Our hope is founded in the

word of God. Right, we've diluted the word hope. But everybody agree

with that that we've deluded the word hope, the concept of hope. Every

time something happens, Well, I hope you get I hope you feel better.

I hope I hope you get over that. I hope they don't do

it again. I hope they do. I hope, I hope, I

hope. But listen, that's not really what hope is. Hope. We've

already been given hope in God's word. My hope is in not that I

hope you feel better. My hope is in the fact that by His stripes

you were healed. And then that becomes a blueprint for my faith. Hope

is the blue print of faith. So now I know God said it can

be. I know God said I can have it. And if God says

you can have it, you can have it. If God says you can

do it, you can do it. If it's in here, it's true

and can be accomplished. But you got to see it. It's got to

live so far deep in here that it's not words on a page, but

it's an image that you can see. Because if you can see it clearly,

you can possess it fully. If you can see God moving in word,

looking ahead of you, if you can see into the invisible. Because

you believe your faith is so founded on the precepts of God, how do

I do that? Get it in your heart? Write scripture everywhere, now,

not just any scripture. What is that next step I'm trying to accomplish.

There's some of y'all need to be writing this stuff down. This is

like doctorate level life success stuff right here. And it's actually biblical. I'm

not making it up. I'm chasing after that next thing, that next thing,

and it's founded in God's word. God says that I can have it.

And why wouldn't I want it? If God says I can have it?

So I'm chasing it. I'm writing it down. I know where I'm

going. I have a target to shoot at. Now my faith is engaged

because I have a blueprint that's God's word, that is always right, that

it never changes, that it is the foundation of every success, in every

healing. It's everything. Now go to James chapter two. If a brother

or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says

to them, depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but you do

not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it

profit? Thus? Also, faith by itself? You got a paper Bible

underline that faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Now let me tell you what we're not talking about. We're not talking

about saving faith. We're not talking about salvation. James is not writing to

the unsaved here, he's writing to believers. He said, listen, now

you're in the Kingdom. I want to teach you some fundamental principles to carry

you from where you are to the next level of glory, to be transformed

from glory to glory, to glory to glory. I'm climbing the ladder and

James says, hey, faith without works is dead. You can't do anything

to get saved. That's a free gift of God. But after then you

do have a role to play. Salvation is a free gift. Everything else

in the Kingdom past salvation will cost you so righteousness and understanding, righteousness,

holiness, pushing away sin, keeping my eyes on the price. See,

we've we've come to hear in the first world of Christianity. That's all about

fairy tales and puppy dogs. But the reality is we have to walk the

same path that the believers before us walked. We have to endure some things

and make it through some things, and continue to press because the enemy does

not want you to succeed. He wants you busted, broken and disgusted.

He wants you down and out, and then he wants to use you to

discourage somebody else so that they're down and out. Listen, parents, the

worst thing that can happen as you let the devil get on top of you

and beat the hope out of you, so that your kids see that there

is no hope in life. Thus, also, faith by itself, if

it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, you

have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without your works,

and I will show you my faith by my works. James says, Hey,

if you are really a person filled with faith, there's going to be

action behind what you believe. Let's just say you are one of okay,

let's just say you are one of those people that want to make one hundred

and twenty years and you're saying, why do you keep throwing that out?

Because it's a promise in the Word that's actually there's hope there. The Bible

says that man's days are numbered one hundred and twenty years, so that's you

can make one hundred and twenty. Bible says you can make it. Well,

watch this, if I want to make one hundred and twenty, I

can't sit in the recliner and drink a case of Mountain Dew's and only eat

twinkies. Oh but I'm believing God. No you're not. You're sitting in

a recliner drinking mountain dew and eating twinkies. If you want to make one

hundred and twenty years, the faith says that I can accomplish it because I

have a blueprint from the hope that I have because God says it, and

the action. The way that my faith is sure, the way that there's

no doubting, is that my actions now line up with my faith. So

I get up and I eat the right things, and I walk on the

treadmill, and I do all of those things that I need to do to

make sure that I'm healthy because now my works are in alignment with my faith.

And people say, oh wow, why all of a sudden is that

person looking different? Why are their habits different? You get on Instagram,

right the Bible platform Instagram, and you start taking pictures. And when you

start taking picture, I don't even know how size is worth us. Size

women is thirty of size no down down. I'm a size sixteen. I

don't know what size y'all actually are sixteen. You take those pictures and you

say, I'm on my health journey. The Bible says that I can have

one hundred and twenty. And then next month you take a picture. What

did I just say? Sixteen? You down to fifteen or a fourth?

Whatever's next, whatever's next. I should have picked something else, Okay,

I should have thought this through better. And then in two more months,

I'm down another one, few more months, i'm down another one. People

start saying, oh my gosh, what are you doing to lit? What

what are you doing? You look so good, you look so healthy.

Oh you're smiling, and all your pictures, you quit buying moo moos,

and you actually own a pair of pants. Now what are you doing?

And listen, this is what most people do at this point. Listen to

me, this is what most people do at this point. I just stopped

eating anything that tasted good and drinking water, and I'm on the treadmill every

morning and every night. Use this product. And you hope they see it

right and give you some money. How about when they start taking notice of

where you're going, you say, well, I just read in the Bible

where it said I was promised one hundred and twenty years, and I hung

my faith on that promise, and then my actions, my works had to

start lining up with my faith to get there. So I decided to start

doing the right things to position me to achieve that promise of God. Because

I believe that the intersection of my efforts and God's plan is my miracle.

If you will work like everything is up to you and pray like everything is

up to God, where those two things meet, there is a miraculous explosion

of grace and destiny and purpose and witness and all of those things that we

desire in our lives at that intersection. So now I've written the vision.

I know where I want to be. I've gotten an honest inventory of where

I am. Now I'm headed in that direction. Let me let I want

to let y'all in on something. I've lost some weight. I've lost twenty

something pounds. I'm not trying to let no, no, no, no,

no, no no, no, no, no no no. I

don't need that encouragement because here's why. Because I'm gonna go back and listen

to this message, and I can already tell a difference. And the only

reason I decided to lose some weight is because normally when I preach, this

is what I hear. When I go back and listen, it's like,

oh my God, he's gonna die on the stage before he gets to the

end of the message. Man can't even breathe. You know what, I

believe that God is so blessing Cornerstone, that God is doing something so profound

in your lives. And you guys are getting so excited about what God is

doing in your life that by next year, we're gonna have to add a

second service. And listen, I can't at nine and then at eleven.

So I gotta lose weight. I gotta get I gotta get a little shape

about me so that I can manage, so that I can endure, so

that I can do those things. Because that's God's promise. Now, my

actions, my words trying to line up with God's promise. That's what we're

talking about. So listen, I'm taking every opportunity I can. Let's go

back to start my own business. I'm taking every opportunity I can to get

around somebody that owns her own business. Business owners, raise your hands,

business owners, rais your hands. So listen, I'm calling Jeremy and I'll

saying, hey, man, can we have lunch. Jeremy's like, I

don't know, I'm real busy. I'm buying. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

we do lunch. Where you want to eat? I don't know where

you want to eat longhorn? And you don't flinch. You say okay,

because you're making a faith investment in your destiny and your future. And then

you come to that and you've already prepared and you say, hey, can

we talk about Can we talk about business? And Jeremy's like, yeah,

So what's the hardest part of business? Bam, bam bam. He's gonna

tell you, and you're gonna write it down, and then you're gonna ask

for a to go box because you're writing instead of eating. Because that is

the work that gets in alignment with our faith, the sacrifice that compounds the

action of faith. And we set our faith towards our purpose and our destiny

and we run after it because it is the greatest thing we can do to

build a testimony of I once was there, but God brought me to hear

And you're thinking, well, no, I did it because it was my

work. No, God collapsed time frames. God puts you in front of

people that you couldn't get in front of. God gave you wisdom. He

lets you skip some steps because you were chasing after him. But you now

have a target. You're now making motion, and motion will get you somewhere,

rather than just setting where you've always been, hoping that things are different.

Clay, you guys can come and get ready. Let's let's talk real.

Let let's get let's get let's get fundamental for just a second. My

kids I got terrible kids. Listen, y'all. Last some of y'all would

say, yeah, some of y'all. You might not say it out loud,

but you're thinking it. My kids have lost their mind. I don't

know what to do, not what you're doing right now. I'm just being

honest. Try something else. Oh well, we read a book and we

are diametrically opposed to spanking. Give it a go. I me, time

out ain't working for that one. It may work for that one, but

it's not working for that one because while that one's in time out, that

one runs up and slams their head in the corner. Spare the rod,

spoil the child. I'm just saying. Emails about child discipline. Go to

Clay, at seastone dot TV. If you disagree with that, Clay at

seastone dot TV. He needs to be immersed in that as a matter of

fact, because you know, in just a few weeks Clay and Amber getting

married, and uh, let me just let me just take this opportunity here

for just a moment. Then I'm gonna get back on track. But listen,

you know when somebody gets married, they they kind of craft that experience

to exactly what they want. And h and Clay and Amber have decided to

do a very small private ceremony, so you know, not everybody in the

church is invited. As a matter of fact, I don't think any of

y'all are except me. And the only reason I'm going is because he's paying

me to do the sermon. But no, but listen, I do know

y'all want to participate in their journey. So I'm starting the beginning of May.

We're gonna set up a basket out in the front and if you guys

want to bring them a card and tell them what they've meant to you,

the impact that they've made in their lives, and maybe tuck in a twenty

or one hundred or a check that would be fantastic and you can help them

out on their journey. And listen, I don't think there is like a

place where they can go and buy gifts. There is a I thought we

talked about you didn't want to do that. I'm just kidding. I don't

care what they do. But just ask Gamber and she'll tell you where if

you want to buy an actual gift but money works to or just a card.

Listen. One of my favorite things that we do as a family is

when you send us those cards around Christmas or my Birthday or whenever it is.

We get together as a family and we open those cards and we read

those cards. We divide them up, and then we put them in our

living room floor and we all lay down and put our hand in the middle

and we pray for you. It's one of the greatest things we can do,

not Candice, one of the great things we get to do over the

course of the year, just to hear your encouragement because it means so much

and it is such a privilege to be here. So that's how you can

participate in their wedding. And I know that they would greatly appreciate that.

But I want to close today. In Matthew chapter seven, verse eleven,

If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to

your children, how much more will your father, who is in heaven give

good things to those who ask him. Therefore, whatever you want men to

do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and

the province. He says. Listen, God wants to God wants to pour

himself out. He wants to bless you. He wants to consume your enemies.

He wants to make the crooked way straight. He wants He wants to

do those things for you because He is a good, good father. And

the only thing we need to do to position ourselves for those things is to

make our actions reciprocal to His character and his nature that we want to benefit

from our faith. Get in alignment with your faith, let your actions match

your beliefs, and God will show up and do things that will absolutely blow

your mind. Blow your mind, everybody staying with me. When I started

this journey of ministry, I preached my very first message about right here,

and I preached everything I knew twice. It took twelve minutes and it was

bad. I got through, and I know how to make an altar call.

I didn't know anything. Pastor Gary was pastoring. I try to look

at him and I said, I guess I'm done. And he said thank

God, thank God. He didn't mean thank God that I was done,

but and you know, I heard him get up behind me, because it

was twelve minutes. People hadn't got their money's worth yet, right, and

just off the top of his head expound on what I've preached. And I

sat there in that moment and I thought to myself, you know what,

I've got to get better. I've got to work on this craft. And

I divied every sermon, every public speaking book, everything that I could find

on how to preach and listen. I hadn't gotten a whole lot better,

but I've gotten some better. And one day I'm going to be where I

want to be because I continue to work at it. You don't just show

up and it happens. But you're here today, and you desire a miracle

from God. Make the determination today that you're going to line your actions up

with your faith, and we're gonna do things a little different today, my

alter team, you don't have to come, okay because I want to.

I just wanna I just want to quickly if you come to the altar and

you say, listen, I believe there's a purpose. I believe there's a

purpose beyond where I am right now. I believe God has got something big

for me, and I want to get an alignment and I want to accomplish

those great things so that it's a testimony for God. Mm hmm. If

that's you, I'm gonna count to three in just a minute, and I

want you to step out and come and Jeremy, if you'll just help me,

if you'll just stay with me, I just want to quickly just lay

hands on everybody that responds to the altar call today. I woke up this

morning and I just really felt like that that I should pray for everybody that

comes to the altar at the end right here. It's not gonna hurt my

feelings if you don't come. I have no the board doesn't pay me more

if you come to the author. But I but, but I just want

to quickly lay hands on you. I'm not gonna stay. We're not gonna

I'm not I'm not going to abide. I'm not gonna I'm just gonna come

by. I'm just gonna lay my hands on you and pray for you,

because I believe that the decision you make today to will align your actions with

your faith is more important than anything that I can say to you, because

a lot of you have already been believing for this for a long time.

You've just never done anything. So let these first few steps you take climbing

out of something, want to climb into something, it doesn't matter which still

forward progress. Let these first few steps you take from your seat to the

front be the first of many steps you take to accomplish what God has called

you to to achieve that purpose and destiny in your life. On the count

of three, one, two, three, step out, move right now,

come on,