TCC Jubilee Celebration - The Future - Barriers To Building

I'm just going to get right into a short message.

I heard you say the word short, so that's a hint.

I'm just going to share a short message.

So I just want to draft off of things that Neil and Steve said last night, so powerful, laying the foundation of the Word of God, and Steve just teed up the ball for me I could swing with my eyes closed and hit it tonight because, just to kind of quick recap, how many were not here last night?

You were not here last night.

Okay, dismissed, I'm kidding.

No, just a quick recap.

And Steve just kind of tracked kind of the history of Trinity through the generations and talked about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

And it was just powerful because this morning, you know, we shared about Joseph and I feel like now the emphasis on the next gen is the fact that you know he kind of symbolized the founding fathers as the Abrahamic kind of team, and Neil and Steve, the Isaacs, and everybody laughed because it was full of laughter.

And then comes the multiplication, jacob, and he likened this current generation to the Jacob generation where there was definitely multiplication and growth and all the things that went with it.

But then you know Jacob had 12 sons, and so we're going to kind of key in on one of those sons tonight and I want to talk about barriers to building in the last days.

I'm going to key in in just a minute on Joseph, because we talked about him today, about carrying the bones of Joseph into the future.

But I'm going to open with a New Testament verse and then we're going to go to the Old Testament.

But it's one that you all know and usually it's really great to preach this, you know, in January, first week of January.

But I want you to contextualize it into like this is where we're headed.

When Paul said in Philippians, chapter 3, verse 12, not that I've already obtained this or I'm already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own Brothers, I do not consider that I've made it my own, but one thing I do Say, one thing, one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward.

Philippians 3:12

I like that to what lies ahead.

That's a picture.

That word in the Greek is a picture of a runner running a race, coming to the tape at the very end and there's a bunch of guys coming and they just push their chest out, they strain just to kind of make it to the finish line.

That's the end time, church.

We're in a race, we're straining because all these things are coming against us.

There's competition to the left and to the right.

And Paul says this one thing I do Forgetting what's behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press like that.

Dioko in the Greek means I press, I pursue, I push and I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call.

How many of you know we're in an upward call, there's an updraft.

Okay, we're all on our way in the upward call of Christ.

And so I like I don't have it on the screen, but the next verse he goes let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, god will reveal it.

In other words, if we're not thinking correctly we talked about thinking today our mentalities, those internal shifts where God's fiddling with our internal structures, internal mentalities, if you're not thinking the right way, it says, god will reveal that to you also.

That's where the prophetic comes in.

When we're not thinking right, when we need diorthesis, when we need reformation, god comes to reform and he reforms our thinking first and he reveals it prophetically.

I was just talking to someone right before the service and he said you know, you prophesied over me a while back and when you first were sharing some things you go just to make any sense to me at all.

And I said that's the sign of a true prophecy.

It's like what?

Where God comes in and scrambles your brain, upsets everything you ever knew and totally leaves you in bewilderment with lots of questions.

That's a prophetic word.

Say what just happened.

Bewilderment with lots of questions that's a prophetic word.

Say what just happened.

God is fiddling with our mentalities and getting us ready for what's next.

So we're going to go to Genesis, chapter 49, and I want to just focus for just a minute on a prophecy.

Genesis 49 · chapter mention

It's the prophecy of Jacob.

So, as Steve teed it up last night talking about Abraham Isaac and Jacob, we're going to go now to the next gen, because if Tyler and these great elders are representing the Jacob movement and multiplication, there's something that comes out of that and we're going to see this as Jacob gathered his 12 sons and began to prophesy in Genesis, chapter 49.

Genesis 49 · chapter mention

In the first verse he says Jacob called his sons and said gather yourselves together that I may tell you what shall happen to you in the days to come.

How many get excited when you hear language like that.

Let's all get together, gather together so we can tell you what's about to happen.

Only the church can actually say that with a strain of truth.

Fortune tellers, soothsayers and all the prognosticators can't really.

They can make it up, they can fake it, but only those that have the Holy Spirit can say we know the future, the future lives in us.

Right, it's the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said he'll show you things to come.

So we're tapping this along with Jacob tonight.

He's calls the 12 together, begins to prophesy over all 12 of his sons.

But I want to focus on Joseph tonight.

I want to focus on this one that actually scripture focuses on.

Take it over into verse 22,.

And he begins to prophesy about Joseph.

He said Joseph is a fruitful bough.

A fruitful bough by a spring.

His branches run over the wall.

The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him and harassed him severely.

Yet his bow remained unmoved.

His arms were made agile by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob.

From there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel, by the God of your father, who will help you by the almighty watch, who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

The blessings of your father, jacob, are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents, isaac and Rebecca, up to the bounties of the everlasting hills.

May they be on the head of Joseph and on the brow of him, who was watch, set apart from the other eleven, set apart from his brothers.

I believe this character, joseph, prophetically is a type and a shadow of the end time church.

I believe he was set apart.

I believe the end time church is a little different.

Like I said, weirdness will be comfortable for us.

There's characteristics of blessing but also characteristics of withholding, if you look at the prophecies over the 12, jacob's prophecy.

But the Joseph tribe, I believe, is a prototype of the end-time church.

I believe it's a prototype of Trinity.

I want you to see yourself as a prototype end-time church that God is shaping and forming.

We carry the bones of the past that got us here, but now we're ready to launch into the future with the word of the Lord.

And I want you to look through these characteristics verse by verse, for just a minute, back in verse 22, of what a Joseph tribe looks like.

The Joseph generation is here and they're standing on our shoulders, as we learned this morning.

Verse 22, joseph, first of all, is a fruitful bough, one of the signs of the end time church, one of the signs, I think, of Trinity.

You're going to be fruitful and missional.

Fruitful and missional, it's a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring.

Watch his branches run over the wall.

We got to keep sending out missionaries.

I was stunned to look at the trivia the other night, mark, when you shared that it's like wow, 70 plus missionaries sent out.

That's fantastic.

There's some mega churches that never even come close to that.

You know, that's fantastic.

But we got to keep going because the nations are hungry.

The nations need the gospel.

So here we find this Joseph tribe fruitful why?

Because they're found by a spring.

They're found by the well, the well of the water, of the word, as Neil brought out so well last night.

We've got to stay close to the water to get nourished and to grow and be fat and sassy, the things of fruitfulness that God wants.

You'll never be fruitful unless you're by a well Right.

We're called, then, to be fruitful and go over the wall.

Let's go.

Verse 23.

Now, when that happens, the devil gets mad.

Verse 23,.

The archers bitterly attacked him.

The Joseph end time church, get used to it.

You're going to get attacked.

We're getting attacked everywhere.

And buckle up, baby.

There's an election coming and then the backlash from whatever happens in November, and then we get into.

You know, the next six months are going to be crazy and the archers are ready.

They want to shoot at anything that goes against.

You know the flow of the Antichrist.

So here we are.

The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, harassed him.

Christians are being harassed all over the world.

Watch, yet his bow remained unmoved.

How many of you know?

We have a weapon too.

There's archers out there ready to shoot at us.

But guess what?

We got some weapons too.

And the weapons of our warfare come on somebody.

They're not carnal, but they are mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds.

So his bow remained unmoved.

Watch, his arms were made agile by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob, the mighty one of Jacob.

So it's the Jacob generation that must get the weaponry and the arms strengthened for war in the next gen.

We've got to teach them about spiritual warfare.

I think what Brooke was picking up in the worship is like there's a powerful need of intercession over the next generation.

Like never before.

We say like never before.

Probably every generation says well, like never before.

Probably in the 30s and the 40s they're going like never before.

I don't know, but yeah, like never before.

This is our generation.

So we've got to prepare them for war because they're going to get attacked, and they're getting attacked in ways we never even saw possible with the internet and social media and all the bullying and all the stuff that they have to put up with.

But the hands and the arms are made strong and agile by the mighty one of Jacob.

From there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel.

That's powerful.

A Joseph church will be a target.

Get shot at.

The word is be prepared.

So when they go to camp not just we're going to go to camp and play games and have all this fun you know what Somewhere in the camp I just loved.

A couple years in a row I came to your camp.

I loved it, man.

I was renewed like the eagle.

My youth was renewed.

Two years ago, 22, I came here.

Then I went to a camp out in Montana with like three or four churches and then I did our youth camp with like five, six hundred and, oh my gosh, that was the best summer of my life.

We've got to prepare the next gen, prepare them for war.

And then here's the thing, the next gen church.

I think this end time church we're going to see blessings like we've never seen.

God's going to pour out, blessings that are going to blow our mind, and I could give you stories.

But there's things happening in the world of generosity.

You know, there's a lot of money out there.

He said money Boy, what a flop.

We've had a great weekend until now and now he's talking money.

Well, you know what?

God is not poor.

There's a lot of money out there and there's a gift that we don't cultivate very well in the body of Christ, out of Romans 12.

We say, oh wait, prophecy, let's cultivate, prophecy, let's cultivate your singing and worship gift.

Let's cultivate.

Your preaching, let's cultivate.

What about your giving gift?

There's the gift of giving in Romans 12.

There's people that God has called to be givers and we've got to create opportunities to train them and create opportunities for them to exercise their gift, because it's there, they're going to have it.

I'm just saying that that's what's going to happen.

Why?

Because part of the Joseph end time tribe is going to walk in an unbelievable blessing, because God said so.

Watch this, the Almighty who will bless you verse 25, with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouch beneath, that's earthly blessings.

And the blessings of the breast and of the womb, that's the family.

All these blessings, heavenly blessings, earthly blessings, family blessings.

The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents.

Those boys were rich, abraham had some chips, abraham had a lot of animals and stuff, and Isaac did all right too.

And these guys were tithers.

You know, as we're tithing, all started.

They understood this and this has to trickle down into the next generation.

It's going to happen.

He said up to the bounties of the everlasting hills, watch, may they be on the head of Joseph and on the brow of him.

Watch, who was set apart from his brothers.

Blessings, that's the pattern.

The pattern of Jacob was to instill blessings on the head of Joseph.

The end time church, that's you, trinity.

I thought I'd get one amen.

Come on, one, sandy, help me out.

One amen, please.

Are you that tired?

All right, we're going to ramp it up.

Three points and I'm done.

Three points and a poem, all right.

Three barriers, though, to building what God wants to build in the last days.

If some of this is really what God wants, and there's going to be archers and there's going to be warfare and we need to see the blessings of God come there's barriers to all this that Joseph had to overcome himself, and we need to overcome them too, and number one is this the first barrier is letting hurts and offenses become a barrier to what God wants to do in the future.

That is one of the biggest hindrances in the human sector and all of humanity.

Hurts and offenses, and that's the devil's arrows.

You know it says the archers want to shoot.

You know what he shoots Fiery darts, the fiery darts of the wicked one.

His number one arsenal is to fire accusation he's the accuser of the brethren and to fire darts of accusation and cause there to be hurt and, ultimately, unforgiveness in the body of Christ, because he says that's going to cripple that army.

I can knock them down Now.

Joseph went through this, and the commentary comes out of Psalm 105.

In Psalm 105, we see that the psalmist gives a really keen commentary on what Joseph had to go through in his own life, and he says in Psalm 105, verse 17,.

Psalms 105:17

He sent a man ahead of them, joseph, who was sold as a slave.

His feet were hurt with fetters, his neck or literally his soul in the Hebrew.

His soul was put into a collar of iron until what he had said came to pass.

He got that great prophetic word right, but until, say, until some of you are living in, until the land of, until, until it came to pass.

The word of the Lord tested him.

The testing was can he forgive his brothers?

That was the ultimate test and that's the one he passed at the very end of the story.

You know the story.

But this whole idea of his soul came into iron, restriction.

His soul, his mind, his will, his emotions came into iron.

That was the test.

That was the troubling, that was the fiery darts that the enemy was wanting Joseph to turn his heart into bitterness and unforgiveness and so to overcome that, he and his wife have children and the firstborn of Joseph.

Now we're going another generation.

Can we go deeper?

Come on.

Now we're talking children's church, all right, we're talking nursery, but his firstborn son he named Manasseh.

Why?

Because it meant forgetfulness.

He said I'm going to have a living reminder.

I'm going to name the next generation.

On behalf of what I had to go through to make sure it doesn't get into the next generation, I named my firstborn son Forgetfulness I'm going to forget what is behind.

That's what Paul said right Forgetting that which is behind.

That means forget the past and the hurts, and he had to forget what his brothers did to him and he had to forget all the things that attacked him.

He wanted a reminder.

I'm going to forget the hurts in the past.

I choose that.

So they named their firstborn Manasseh.

Can't let the hurts and the offenses we all have them why?

We talked about flesh?

Remember we talked about the bones.

Bones is what you get when all the flesh rots away.

And so when all the flesh is rotted away, the bones we carry the bones, but some of that flesh has to do with our own agonizing over hurts, offenses and dealing with unforgiveness.

That's flesh.

Secondly, another thing that's a barrier to building is not stretching our faith out for fresh vision.

This is what's exciting about a 50th anniversary or any kind of anniversary.

There's more to come.

We had a great time rehearsing history.

We had a great time today talking about how we're going to proceed from the present by carrying the bones of structure and all the good stuff that's in Trinity.

But now it's like what's next?

Well, we got to stretch our faith out.

You can't rest on past faith.

You've got to stretch your faith out for new vision, fresh vision.

We're going away with the staff this week and we're going to be talking about some things and, who knows, god might drop some fresh vision into your staff this week.

So pray for them, pray for your staff, pray for Pastor Tyler, pray that God just drops some fresh vision and we need faith to fulfill that Again.

Philippians 3, reaching forth, paul says straining forward for the mark of the prize, of the high calling.

That mark is skopos.

In the Greek it means the target.

What's our target?

Trinity, what's our target?

We got a good 50 years behind us.

What's our target for the next few years?

Coming up, and not only just for you to contend, you and say, you know, we're going to give to this, we're going to give that, and y'all are kind of the cream of the crop here.

But like, what about the next gen?

What are they looking for?

How are they going to invite their friends?

Do they have enough vision to say, hey, our church is going to be doing this?

Hey, our church does this.

You need to come on Friday night or whatever night youth meets.

The most powerful way that we reach people is personal invitation.

That will never get old.

Can't be replaced by the internet Now.

The internet is number two, just so y'all know.

And so you got to reform your thinking right away.

I can't use the internet, that's all.

That's the worldly stuff.

They say that about TV, right?

So yeah, that's where they live, that next gen.

They live on screens.

They're screen-agers, not teenagers.

They live.

The game is played online.

So we got to reach them.

And we got to come up with ideas and fresh vision to reach the next generation.

So we need input from the next generation Reaching forth, contending for it.

Blessings, the blessings God said you can have.

You're not going to get them if you don't have fresh vision for what's next.

And the third one is not guarding against apathy, and I think we talked about Tyler was just talking about that.

We can't be apathetic.

You can't rest on the laurels of 50 years.

Well done.

We say well done.

But now what?

Don't get apathetic, don't say we've arrived, don't be spiritually apathetic.

So to do that, joseph and his wife had another baby.

They're second born.

Ephraim comes along and they named him out of the root word was fruitfulness, but his name literally means double fruitfulness.

Double fruitfulness, I think I believe, with the blessings from heaven above and the blessings of the deep and the blessings of family, the breast and the womb, I believe we can contend for a double blessing, double fruitfulness the next 50 years.

I don't know, I don't want to be here in 50 years, but anyway, let's believe that the next season for Trinity Church will have double fruitfulness.

Wouldn't you want that?

We don't want to say well, we just want to grow a little.

You want to go to the average 5% to 10%.

That's a good growth rate.

Let's double, why not?

Amen, let's double.

I got three people that want to.

You could do it, just call in more workers.

You got to believe more workers, invite more people.

You can't do it all.

There's so many people out into the kingdom.

Number two want to find their destiny and they actually want to do something for God.

Here we are, best opportunity.

So one more little trick.

The trickster Jacob had up his sleeve, and you all know this We'll go back to chapter 48, actually, because Joseph brought then his two sons, manasseh forgetfulness and Ephraim fruitfulness.

He brought them for the blessing, the blessing of Jacob.

And so tonight we're going to bring the young people up here and we're going to bless them.

We're going to bring them to old grandpa.

Grandpa Jacob gets ready to bless them.

But Jacob was a conniver, he was a trickster, that was in his nature.

And though he was half blind and couldn't see, and, getting old, he said I got one more trick up my sleeve.

And sure enough, when Joseph brought his two sons up there, you know, the blessing of the right hand was the double portion the firstborn gets the blessing of the right hand and the secondborn gets the left hand.

But you know, when they put the boys in front of him, he switched hands, didn't he?

And he put his right hand on the head of Ephraim, the blessing of the first wife.

Well, he'd been through that before.

He said I got away with it once, I'm going to try it one more time.

He stole the birthright from his brother.

And so, in the sovereignty of God and for destiny of all times, jacob switched hands.

He crossed over and put his right hand of blessing upon the head of the fruitful one, the fruitful generation, and said you're going to get a double portion of fruitfulness.

And I believe in this hour.

I really believe we can do that.

I believe we can stretch forth our faith.

I believe we can cross over now from 50 years of well done to the next 50.

And we can just cross our hands over, we can press toward the mark and we can put our hands on the next generation for a double portion.

Would you like that?

When Elisha was getting ready to watch Elijah be taken up from him, he called out and he said I want one thing, I want one thing.

He goes.

What is the one thing he goes I want a double portion of your anointing, I want a double portion.

It's like how do you get that?

Basically, he's saying I want the portion of the firstborn, I want that portion, I want that.

I want to do that.

And you know he did.

But here was the catch.

He said if you see me, if you see me as I'm being taken up from you, you can have it.

What does that mean?

He said I'm going to baffle mortality in a few minutes.

I'm going to do something no other human is going to do, but there's going to be one other human that's going to do it.

He's going to break out of mortality and be taken up from you.

He said if you can see that value, not just see me.

If you see me and all the values of the coming resurrection of the human race, that will totally break the illusion of mortality.

How many know mortality is just an illusion.

It's not real.

Are you with me?

Are you breathing?

I stole that from Neil.

Are you breathing?

I stole that from Neil.

Are you breathing?

This mortal life is a temporary illusion to eternity, which is reality.

Ultimate reality is eternity.

And so Elijah said if you can see me as I'm being taken up from you, you can have a double portion, because that's what it's going to take an ability to see the risen Christ who has broken mortality, broken sin.

He's broken through that for us.

If we can see that for the next generation, they can have a double portion, they can walk with that.

How many want to give it to them tonight, don't you just want to give it to them?

All right, let's stand up, let's bring.

I don't know how you want to orchestrate this, tyler, but let's get some younger people up here.