Sermon

Why the Harvest Never Came

True Life Fellowship Church Podcast

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  1. Open your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 4 and meet me at verse 20.

    Proverbs 4 chapter mention

  2. Proverbs chapter 4 and verse 20.

    Proverbs 4 chapter mention

  3. Solomon tells us here, my child, pay attention. Listen up.

  4. Pay attention to what I say. Listen carefully to my words. Watch this.

  5. Don't lose sight of them.

  6. Let them penetrate. Somebody shout, penetrate.

  7. Deep into your heart. Why? For they bring life to those who find them and healing

  8. to their whole body. Look at the next verse.

  9. Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

  10. Over the last several weeks, we've been talking about this heart-mouth connection.

  11. We declared that this will be a summer of miracles for you and me, but in order to receive a,

  12. summer of miracles, we've got to get this word in our heart,

  13. and we must also put it in our mouth.

  14. And so the word of God is so precious. The word of God is so powerful.

  15. It's operative. It's energizing. It always works. It's incorruptible seed.

  16. The word of God is God's promises that always come to pass.

  17. In order for them to manifest in our life, we're going to have to deposit the

  18. word on the inside of our spirit, our heart, our inner man.

  19. We're going to have to plant the seed of God's word on the inside of us.

  20. This Bible is a book of seed.

  21. It's a bag of seed that you can plant on the inside of your heart in your life,

  22. and your heart will produce whatever you plant on the inside

  23. and when you're planted on the inside of you you'll begin to open up your mouth

  24. and you can declare what's on the inside of you for out of the abundance of your heart

  25. your mouth will speak you don't really get what you say listen to me now you

  26. get what you believe you say.

  27. You don't get what you say. You get what you believe you say.

  28. And so in order to believe it, you're going to have to put it in your heart.

  29. And consequently, there are some negative things through our life that's been

  30. placed on the inside of us. Some of you have heard maybe from family members

  31. that you're going to amount to nothing, that you'll be nothing,

  32. that anything you touch is going to fail.

  33. And that got in your heart. You started to believe it.

  34. Then you started to say it and you're having what you say because what was planted

  35. on the inside of you was negative and it was wrong.

  36. But God has given us a way to plant on the inside of our hearts

  37. his word so that our heart could grow

  38. and produce and yield the fruit that's necessary on the inside of us so that

  39. when we plant his word on the inside of us his word becomes images we'll begin

  40. to see things we'll begin to imagine

  41. we'll have vision we'll have dreams and then we'll speak those things and those

  42. things will produce in our life when it's inside of you and I

  43. and I want you to know this family that my desire is for you to prosper,

  44. my desire is for you to be in health my desire is for you to experience true life.

  45. You know I can get up here and preach to you now And God said,

  46. and you may not get nothing out of that, but some entertainment.

  47. My desire is for you to grow and to prosper and to increase and to thrive and

  48. to advance and to get these promises in your life.

  49. And I want to talk to you today because I want to tell you why things don't

  50. happen in your life, why the harvest did not come, why it's not working,

  51. why you can hear a sermon and,

  52. lead the exact same way you came in.

  53. You know, there are times you'll hear a sermon or a message and you'll say,

  54. I wish brother so-and-so was there, or sister so-and-so was there to hear it,

  55. but they could have been sitting there and not even receive what was being said,

  56. And there's a reason for that that I want to talk to you about today.

  57. And let's go to Mark chapter 4, and we'll look at verse 13.

    Mark 4 chapter mention

  58. Mark chapter 4 and verse 13. And if you got it, say, I believe.

    Mark 4 chapter mention

  59. Mark chapter 4, verse 13. Watch this. Jesus says here, do you not understand this parable?

    Mark 4:13

  60. How then will you understand all parables?

  61. I want to pause there for a second because Jesus is telling us if we don't comprehend

  62. and understand this particular parable that we're about to dive into,

  63. we're not going to understand any other parable that Jesus wants to minister to us.

  64. And so this parable is the granddaddy parable of them all, okay?

  65. This parable is the key to the kingdom.

  66. This parable is how we understand do people get results and the variety and

  67. the different kind of results that they receive.

  68. He says here, we have to understand this parable because this parable is how

  69. the kingdom of God works.

  70. And the next verse, he says, the sower sows the word.

  71. The sower sows the word. Today, I am a sower, and I am sowing the word into you.

  72. That word sow also means to broadcast.

  73. And if you look in any type of farming industry, to broadcast means to grab

  74. a handful of seed and throw it.

  75. So if you're broadcasting seed, you're grabbing seed, you're not specifically

  76. laying it on very neatly and orderly.

  77. You're just grabbing it and you're throwing it.

  78. And so this parable is not about the sower, right?

  79. It's about the word that he is sowing and how it's received.

  80. Now watch this because many times we like to critique the preacher.

  81. Well, that's a good old preacher. And Stacey and I have an inside joke.

  82. If we hear a preacher and we don't get nothing out of it, we'll say,

  83. well, we didn't glean nothing from that.

  84. That's a nice way of saying I didn't get nothing out of that.

  85. And many times we do. We critique the preacher. We judge the preacher.

  86. We look at the preacher and we'll say hey the preacher maybe should have done

  87. this or done that but this particular parable we're about to dive into is judging

  88. of the person hearing the word.

  89. It's not the preacher's fault it's your fault.

  90. Say amen to that. Say it's my fault. So we're going to judge how we hear the

  91. word. Now I am not foolish. I understand that some people are not anointed to preach the word, okay?

  92. And they should not be preaching. And then there's others that are anointed to preach the word.

  93. I'm not foolish, but we in this parable are going to look at ourselves and not the preacher.

  94. And how did the word land on the inside of you and I?

  95. And the first thing we see here in verse 15, it says, and these are the ones

  96. by the wayside. Somebody say wayside.

  97. Where the word is sown.

  98. Watch this. They're on the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear,

  99. Satan comes immediately and takes the word that was sown in their hearts.

  100. And so this particular person has heard the word,

  101. and the word got on the inside of them now watch this how do things get on the

  102. inside of you and I through our eye gate what we see what we hear.

  103. What we listen to and what we say. These things get in on the inside of us through

  104. these three gates. What am I looking at?

  105. This is why you got to put a guard over your eyes. Because what you see will

  106. get in on the inside of you.

  107. What you listen to, cut off all that political media and stuff.

  108. It's going to get in on the inside of you and you're going to have some hatred for somebody else.

  109. You got to monitor. That's why Proverbs said, guard your heart.

  110. Monitor what comes in and what goes out.

  111. You're going to have to put a guard over your eyes, your ears,

  112. and your mouth because those are the ways that you can deposit the word on the inside of you.

  113. And this particular individual heard the word and the word got in on the inside

  114. of them, but somehow, some way, Satan stole it immediately.

  115. Now, how did Satan steal the word so quickly right out of their heart?

  116. I thought the word always works. I thought it was incorruptible seed.

  117. I thought it was operative and energizing and effectual and always producing.

  118. But we're going to see here that the word did not work in this individual's

  119. life because Satan came immediately and stole it out of your heart. How did he do that?

  120. Well, Matthew tells us one way he can do that is if you don't understand it.

  121. You don't understand what's taught.

  122. Someone declared something and you didn't get any comprehension.

  123. That's why a prophet says with all you're getting, get what?

  124. Understanding. So you don't understand it and so it was stolen.

  125. That's one way it can be stolen.

  126. But another way I've noticed here recently that the word has been stolen out

  127. of our hearts is through offense.

  128. Satan can come immediately and steal it when you get offended.

  129. Have you ever noticed those of you that are married and you ride the church

  130. together, you drive home and some silly argument just takes place?

  131. Where did that come from? Satan is coming immediately to steal the word from

  132. your heart. One of the ways, Stacey and I fix this, we take two separate cars.

  133. Somebody say amen to that.

  134. You just drive your car, I drive my car, and it's all good, all right?

  135. And so he comes immediately. Or you came to church and, well,

  136. pastor didn't speak to me.

  137. You know, he walked right by me, didn't say nothing to me. Satan's coming immediately

  138. to say, well, I can't believe that Tasha talked to me that way.

  139. You know, I can't believe that, you know, this and that and the third happened at church.

  140. And immediately the word is stolen.

  141. And you can no longer hear the word from the sower that God connected you with,

  142. because you allow Satan to come with a fence.

  143. Well, I don't like what Sierra was wearing, so I got to leave the church, you know.

  144. I just, you know, I just don't. I got a lot of opinions about what should happen. I've got to go.

  145. And you get disconnected, and the word gets stolen right from the inside of you.

  146. And you're no longer connected to the one that's supposed to sow the word into your life.

  147. Because of offense. This happened early in our ministry, and I've grown since then.

  148. But early in our ministry, this particular family, it was a,

  149. I don't know if it was a man or woman.

  150. I didn't forget. It was one of the two, man or woman, okay?

  151. And it was a family, and they reached out to me, and they said,

  152. hey, we have some good news to share with you. I said, well,

  153. listen, I'll talk to you on Sunday.

  154. I'm out to dinner with my family right now.

  155. And it was a Friday night. I'll talk to you on Sunday. I can't wait to hear

  156. that good news. You know, they never came back to church.

  157. I found out later that they were offended because I didn't take their phone

  158. call and I was out to dinner with my family.

  159. Offended, cut them off, never returned.

  160. This is what offense will do. Well, and I talked to him. I said,

  161. well, what do you mean? Well, you should have took our call.

  162. Well, first of all, I'm a grown man, all right?

  163. Okay, let's get that settled. And secondly, I'm with my family.

  164. And we were out at dinner and, you know, I couldn't take the call.

  165. And if I had it overdue again, I wouldn't take it in the second time.

  166. Okay, and so you're going to have to get offended. But they never came back.

  167. Why? Offense, Satan came immediately and stole the word that had been planted

  168. in their heart. They were excited. They used to get here early.

  169. They were just thrilled. But I didn't take their phone call when I when they

  170. wanted me to take it never came back to the church offended You have to understand

  171. that Satan can't stop your growth.

  172. He can't stop true life from growing He can't stop anything that God's put in

  173. your heart to do The only way he can do it is if he can get you to be offended,

  174. If he can get you cut off and get you arguing with somebody and get you upset

  175. and frustrated and get and he'll cut you off from the word and steal it and

  176. it becomes unproductive in your life because you allow Satan to come

  177. immediately I guarantee you

  178. when you leave here today somebody may walk by you and not speak to you,

  179. don't let it offend you they should speak to you yes but don't let it offend you,

  180. say no nothing's going to steal the word out my heart,

  181. yeah say that nothing's going to steal the word out my heart.

  182. I was on a pastor call. This was several years ago, and this particular pastor

  183. I connected with really like him.

  184. He does a Zoom call with pastors all over the country.

  185. I was on the call. I know him very well. They asked me to share a little bit.

  186. I shared on the Zoom call. I was very vulnerable.

  187. I was very transparent with what I shared on this call.

  188. And as soon as I got done talking, the pastor's wife blasted me.

  189. I mean, literally blasted me. Well, that's how I felt. Maybe it wasn't true, but that's how I felt.

  190. And she said these things and these things, and I needed to do this and that.

  191. Now, she didn't say you needed to, but that's what I heard.

  192. After I got done saying, she was saying, we've got to do this,

  193. and we've got to do that, and we've got to grow up here, and we've got to.

  194. I said, wait a minute. Is she talking about me?

  195. I just shared. Is she talking about me? And guess what? The first thing I said

  196. on the inside of me, I'm never coming back on this call.

  197. Why? Because that's what we do. We're easily cut off.

  198. And the Spirit of God arrested me and said, don't let Satan steal the word that's being planted.

  199. And the whole time, I don't know what else happened in that phone call.

  200. I'm having a conversation with the Lord because I wanted to cut them off.

  201. But the Lord said, you stay connected. She may not even, I talked to my wife.

  202. You sure she was talking to you? I said, it felt like it. And she's like,

  203. I bet it wasn't. And you know, she probably wasn't.

  204. But it sure enough felt like it, but I didn't allow it to cut me off,

  205. and there are times where I'm super busy, and I don't want to get on the call.

  206. It's once a month, but I remember that like, no, no, I'm not going to let the

  207. devil, you know, that may be a root of bitterness trying to grow on the inside of me to cut me off.

  208. I'm going to try to get on that phone call because I want to make sure the devil

  209. knows he ain't stealing nothing in my life.

  210. Come on, say amen to that, And so he'll come immediately and his tactic is offense,

  211. to steal the word out your heart. Let's look at verse 16.

  212. Now, we're not talking about the preacher. We're talking about the person.

  213. These, likewise, are the ones where they heard the word sown on stony ground,

  214. who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness.

  215. Woo, they shout, hallelujah, amen.

  216. I'm so glad I heard the word. And they have no root in themselves.

  217. And so endure only for a time afterward when tribulation or persecution arises

  218. for the word's sake, immediately they stumble.

  219. So let's break this down. You heard the word. You got excited.

  220. Woo, pastor, preach that thing.

  221. I'll tell you what, I'm excited about this word. God's doing some things in

  222. my life, and I'm thrilled.

  223. It's wonderful. I'm excited. and you said, man, whoo, man, I feel like a new

  224. man, and then Monday comes.

  225. And then Tuesday comes, and then Wednesday comes, and then all of a sudden,

  226. you know, I don't even know what pastor talked about on Sunday,

  227. and then, and life then slapped you across the face, and you don't have a clue

  228. what the word is saying, and then now you just quit, and you give up because

  229. you didn't allow the word to take root in your heart.

  230. We said last week, how does the word take root in our hearts? we have to meditate it.

  231. We have to ponder it, consider it, think about it, chew on it,

  232. focus on it. It'll take root in our heart.

  233. But because tribulation came and persecution came and life slapped you across

  234. the face, it stole the word right out of you.

  235. And notice why did the persecution and tribulation come?

  236. Did it come because you're black? Did it come because you're Why did it come

  237. because you were male or female?

  238. It came for the word.

  239. You're not so special, but the word is. And the enemy's trying to snatch the

  240. word right out your heart, get you offended, and persecution,

  241. tribulation, and you go ahead and you quit.

  242. The second person that doesn't get results, I'm telling you why people don't

  243. get results. First one is they get offended. Second, they quit.

  244. They quit. They quit coming to church. They quit reading their Bible.

  245. Life slaps them across the face.

  246. And they'll turn to drinking. They're turning to something else,

  247. smoking, pornography, or something crazy, and they quit the word entirely because

  248. maybe they haven't seen the results they wanted fast enough,

  249. or maybe because life is hard on the heart.

  250. Life is hard, but you got to stick with the word and understand that the enemy

  251. is trying to separate you from God's word.

  252. He's trying to separate you from who and where God has placed you And you're

  253. going to have to continue Say I'll continue Even when it's hard,

  254. I'll continue Say it, even when it's hard,

  255. I'll continue,

  256. Even when it's tough, I'll continue I like when I'll go to a workout class sometimes,

  257. You notice I said sometimes And.

  258. They'll be like, come on, give me eight more. I'm like, I can't give you eight more.

  259. Come on, give me eight more. And next thing you know, you're giving them eight

  260. more. You're stronger than you think you are.

  261. You can do more than you think you can do. You can withstand more and resist

  262. more than you think you can.

  263. And so we're just going to have to not be quitters. Say, I'm not a quitter.

  264. Yeah, we're going to have to give up quitting. We're going to have to continue and go forward.

  265. Doesn't matter how long it lasts, because if you're willing to stand forever,

  266. you won't be standing long.

  267. Woo, that was good. I thought you'd say amen to that. If you're willing to stand

  268. forever, you won't be standing long.

  269. This was 2013 or so. I had gotten really sick in my body.

  270. Don't know why. Still to this day, don't really know why. I was losing a pound a day.

  271. I was getting on the scale and I had dropped down to like my freshman in high

  272. school weight. I mean, I was dropping weight like crazy.

  273. I felt like I had arthritis. I couldn't pick my children up,

  274. couldn't really play with them.

  275. I couldn't really open stuff. Stacy was really treating me very well,

  276. but I mean, I couldn't really do much of anything.

  277. I was losing muscle and strength And this lasted for 21 days, and it was tough.

  278. It was tough, and I was laying in the bed crying. Can I be transparent with you?

  279. Crying. Oh, Lord, what's going on? Ain't nothing wrong with crying.

  280. Ain't nothing wrong with it, but notice the tears ain't what's going to fix it.

  281. So I was laying in bed crying, Lord, what's going on? Why am I in this condition? What's happening?

  282. And I heard the Lord say this, my people, what did he say? My people don't fight long.

  283. No, my people don't prepare for long battles.

  284. That's what he said. My people don't prepare for long battles.

  285. Teach my people to prepare for long battles.

  286. That's what I heard. I thought, I'm trying to get well.

  287. And he's talking about teach my people to prepare for long battles.

  288. What happens is we prepare for short things.

  289. You know, I prepared for, I thought that was like a 24-hour flu bug or something,

  290. you know, stomach virus or whatever.

  291. It turned into full-blown, we don't know what's going on. 104 fever every single

  292. day. We don't know what was happening to me.

  293. But I was prepared for a 24-hour bug. It lasted 21 days.

  294. Do you think I was ready to continue? No. But if you're prepared to fight long

  295. battles, come on, say amen to that.

  296. You will last.

  297. You will continue. You will endure. Just make up your mind.

  298. I will fight forever if I have to. I'm not a quitter.

  299. The word has been deposited on the inside of me, and nothing's going to stop

  300. it from coming to pass in my life.

  301. When we were looking for a new church building, I didn't know where we were

  302. going to end up, but I never quit on this.

  303. I said, we're going to find it. It's going to find me. It's going to open up.

  304. They're going to come down to our price. It's going to happen. It's going to work.

  305. And guess what? It happened. Say amen to that.

  306. Now, what if I just quit and say, guys, you know what? We're just going to dissolve.

  307. You know, it just don't look like things are happening. That's what happened to this person here.

  308. They got excited, but then they quit.

  309. Why? Because it took too long.

  310. Why? Because of persecution. Why? Because of tribulation. Why?

  311. Because they didn't endure.

  312. And because these things arose, for the word's sake, they immediately quit and they stumbled.

  313. And then the third person, we're talking about why things don't happen.

  314. The third person, watch this, verse 18. Now these are the ones sown among thorns.

  315. They are the ones who hear the word, praise God, they hear the word,

  316. and the cares of this world,

  317. the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in,

  318. choke the word, and it becomes,

  319. unfruitful.

  320. Notice the greatest pressure is the pressure to quit.

  321. That's the greatest pressure, the pressure to quit. And this particular person

  322. heard the word and the cares of this world came in. Well, what's going to happen to our country?

  323. What's going to happen politically? What's going to happen with these prices?

  324. What's going to happen with my job? What's going to happen with all of the cares

  325. of the world started to enter in?

  326. All of the worries and concerns and doubts and frets and fears and anxieties begin to enter in.

  327. And then the scriptures here says, and the deceitfulness of riches. What does that mean?

  328. I've got to work. I've got to work and I've just got to go to work.

  329. I've just got to work. I got to work. I got to work and work takes over.

  330. Work. I got to work. I got, I just, I just got to go to work.

  331. I got to go to work. I don't have time for the word.

  332. I got to get a second job. I got to get a second job. I got to get a third job.

  333. I just got to work, got to work, got to work.

  334. And some of us are really, really busy, but the deceitfulness of riches will

  335. come in, and Scripture says, and the desires for other things.

  336. I love how Jesus said that, Rose.

  337. Desires for other things. So you just name it. What are some other desires that you have?

  338. They come in, they enter on the inside of you and it chokes the word.

  339. The seed was choked by the thorns.

  340. I've got to work. You know, I can't go to church. I've got to work.

  341. You know, I can't listen to this word. I've got to work.

  342. You know, the cares of this world, I don't have time. I've got to listen to

  343. this secular podcast instead of pastor Devon's sermon because the cares of the world.

  344. Have engulfed you and it's not that the word can't produce the word is powerful

  345. enough to produce on its own these other things entered in I'm preaching better

  346. than you saying amen and choke the word.

  347. And the word became unfruitful. Why is it not working?

  348. Why didn't I get my harvest? Because you're thinking about other things.

  349. You're concerned about other things. How are we going to get these bills paid?

  350. When I'm going to meet my spouse? How am I going to get these children acting right?

  351. And all these things are things we should consider but not be worried about.

  352. These things that we need to seek the Lord on but not let it become a care full

  353. of anxiety full of worry,

  354. full of concern that it gets on the inside of us and it chokes the word.

  355. The word is trying to grow and produce in your life but these things are choking it.

  356. Literally taking the life out of the word and it cannot produce in your life. I wrote this down.

  357. The stress strangles the word.

  358. The stress strangles the word and renders it inoperative in your life.

  359. The things of this world take your time and attention away from the word and

  360. you end up having no time for the word.

  361. I think we are busier now than we have ever been.

  362. I was thinking about, Stacy and I were talking about this when we were kids

  363. and how, man, I mean, there was nothing happened on Wednesday nights because

  364. Wednesday night was church night, and nothing was happening Wednesday nights,

  365. and Sunday mornings nothing was happening because of church morning.

  366. Now, I mean, Lowe's is open, Home Depot's open, the baseball game is everything open.

  367. When they don't care, it's all available, just go to it, you know?

  368. And it's all a distraction to keep you away from hearing the preached word.

  369. And I want to say this to you, the preached word, if you're sitting on an anointed

  370. preacher, the preached word is the rhema word of God to you.

  371. I've got more direction from the preached word of God than I have just reading the word of God.

  372. Sitting under the preached word, the Lord has spoken some things to me more

  373. clearly than just simply reading it. Why?

  374. Because there's an anointing on the preached word of God.

  375. Jesus went about preaching, teaching, and healing.

  376. There's an anointing on the preached word of God but all these other things

  377. want to separate us from the preached word of God it will enter into your heart

  378. and takes the life out of the word,

  379. that's been placed on the inside

  380. of you things such as extracurricular activities, children's schedules,

  381. don't throw rocks at me but them kids got some crazy schedules we just tell

  382. our kids we're not doing that, well this is what happened on that day well that's the day you can't do it.

  383. Amen. My kids don't run me and they shouldn't run you.

  384. Somebody, oh, shoot, yeah. My kid telling me, no, your kids should not be telling

  385. you what to do. You should be telling them what to do.

  386. I'm going to have to stay on this a little bit.

  387. Well, my kid said no. What you mean you said no? I said do it.

  388. Now, if you move out, you do what you want to do. But if you're in my house,

  389. you do what I want you to do.

  390. Thank you for that hearty hand clap back there This don't get taught much anymore Well, you know,

  391. my kid You got this busy schedule and I got to do this And that and this and

  392. that No, that schedule is going to have to slow down Amen,

  393. Because They need to learn that the word is a priority In their life too If

  394. they miss in church every Sunday Because of baseball or basketball And that

  395. teaches them That that's more important,

  396. And you grow up, you're trying to wonder, well, my kids don't go to church.

  397. I wish they'd go to church.

  398. Because you taught them that something else was more important than sitting

  399. under the preached word of God. I'm preaching better than you saying amen. I ain't scared of y'all.

  400. All these extracurricular activities, children's schedules, hobbies.

  401. I was talking to a friend of mine and, hey, brother, when's the last time you've

  402. been to church? Oh, I golf on Sunday morning. The hobby just then took over.

  403. It then took over. He can't make church because it's just a hobby,

  404. just running things. And then, Pastor Devon, can you pray for me? No!

  405. It was in that preached word that you missed.

  406. Let me get off this, praise God.

  407. Distraction. It ain't working for me, Pastor, because you're distracted.

  408. I don't see the results that I should be seeing because you're distracted.

  409. You're quitting. You're offended. You're distracted, and you're not going to see the results.

  410. The word is powerful enough to produce it every single time.

  411. Every single time but these things will hinder it,

  412. it's not that it's more important or even more powerful it just strangles it,

  413. it chokes it right from its life source and that seed can never take root and

  414. produce manifestation in your life but i want you to be like the guy in verse

  415. 20 somebody said this is me,

  416. before you even read it just say this is me in,

  417. verse 20 it says here but these are the ones talking to me, sown on good ground.

  418. Those who hear the word, accept it, bear fruit, some 30, some 60,

  419. and some 100. Watch this.

  420. You hear the word, you receive it, and it produces. What happens?

  421. You avoided the offense.

  422. You avoided quitting. You avoided the distraction.

  423. You stayed focused and your heart became good ground.

  424. And that good ground means it will produce in your life.

  425. You wanted to get the result so you cut off any and everything else that would hinder it.

  426. If it's healing in your body, you've got to have healing. You don't need to

  427. talk to Sister Shanene and then she, you know, she's going to tell you how sick

  428. she is and how dare you believe God for healing.

  429. Because, you know, this runs in our family. Sister Shanene going to get you killed.

  430. Y'all heard the story I told y'all a few weeks ago. We're believing for this building.

  431. I'm talking to a man on the phone, black man. And he says to me,

  432. you know, black people can't buy buildings. I said, what?

  433. And guess what I did? I got off the phone.

  434. I don't need to talk to him. I'm trying to get some good word on the inside of me.

  435. He's trying to sow thorns and thistles and weeds on the inside of me.

  436. And while he's still written for the 30th year, we own our own building. Amen.

  437. Say amen to that.

  438. Because I'm trying to get the word in me that's going to produce.

  439. And I've got to make sure that the seed sown remains active.

  440. So I can't be easily offended I can't get into strife I don't want to be easily

  441. distracted and I'm not trying to quit because these things will strangle the

  442. word that's been sown in your heart so my question for you

  443. this morning is has the word taken root in your heart?

  444. Are you protecting it from Satan's attacks? are you allowing pressure or offense to uproot it?

  445. Are worries, money, and other pursuits choking it?

  446. Are you determined and focused to get results?

  447. And if you are, this word will always produce when it's in your heart and you put it in your mouth.

  448. It'll work every single time. When it's in your heart, why is it not working?

  449. Because maybe at one point it was in your heart and it got strangled.

  450. You need to plant some new seed in there and then protect that seed.

  451. Protect that garden. I'm not a farmer. I don't plant. But I know if I planted

  452. some tomatoes, and I like tomatoes, by the way.

  453. If I planted some tomatoes and some insects tried to get in,

  454. I'm going to try to protect those tomatoes. Amen? I'm going to try to get rid.

  455. Why? Because I want something to grow.

  456. You got to see your life, your heart, your inner man the same way.

  457. I want something in me to grow. I want to change. I want to be different.

  458. Then you got to allow it to grow. No, you don't live from the outside in,

  459. you live from the inside out.

  460. Let me say that again. You don't live from the outside in, you live from the inside out.

  461. And so you got to get it to grow on the inside and become so big to you on the

  462. inside that it must produce on the outside. How did you give your life to Jesus?

  463. You confessed with your mouth and believed in your heart.

  464. What if you just confessed without believing?

  465. You wouldn't be saved. So I've got to believe it in my heart.

  466. It's got to be so big in my heart that when I say it out of my mouth,

  467. it'll come to pass. God is our example.

  468. He believed everything he said. Scripture says that God is not a man, that he should lie.

  469. Every time he said something, he believed it. And guess what? It came to pass.

  470. If you ever said, let there be a three-headed dog. Guess what we'll see running

  471. down the road, a three-headed dog. But he don't believe it, so he don't say it.

  472. So we should only be saying what we believe.

  473. Well, you know, it looks like you're not going to be able to make the payments

  474. this month. I believe that money coming to me now.

  475. I believe God's going to bring it from the north, south, east,

  476. and the west. I believe somebody is thinking about me right now.

  477. I believe all my needs are going to get met in Jesus' name.

  478. If you've got pain in your body, don't talk about I'm so much in pain,

  479. I'm so hurt. No, you say I am the healed.

  480. By his stripes, I am healed.

  481. I am strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.

  482. I believe I will get that done today in Jesus' name.

  483. You got to talk this talk. You got to say what you believe. And in order to

  484. believe it, you got to say it.

  485. So sometimes you say it and you don't believe it. But you got to keep saying

  486. it so that you'll believe it.

  487. And then one day you'll say what you believe and it'll happen in your life.

  488. I don't know how long that's going to take, but it will happen in your life

  489. because one day you're going to really believe it and you're going to say it

  490. and it's going to happen in your life. Come on, somebody say amen.

  491. When we got this building, and I'll end on this. We got this building. This was in my heart.

  492. This building was under contract. And I'll share this story.

  493. I'll probably share these stories for the rest of my life, okay?

  494. So get used to hearing these stories.

  495. This building was under contract with some other buyer.

  496. And I parked over there. I came in the parking lot and I parked over there and

  497. I just sat and stared at the building because I believe this was our building.

  498. It was in my heart. It was definitely in my wife's heart and I believe this

  499. was our building and I pointed at the building. I said, building,

  500. you come into the ministry of True Life Fellowship Church and I got back in the car and sat down.

  501. I don't know, in my head I thought that was some of the most ridiculous things I've ever said.

  502. It's under contract to somebody else and I'm telling it commanding it to come

  503. in the ministry of True Love Fellowship Church I must have believed it.

  504. Because look where you're sitting today. It came into the ministry of True Life

  505. Fellowship Church. Say amen to that.

  506. And so, listen, I don't know if I believe or not. Just get it in your heart.

  507. You get it in your heart, so big in your heart, you'll start thinking, I can't do without it.

  508. I can't do without it. That's how you know you really believe it. I can't do without it.

  509. That healing, I can't do without it. I believe it. That increase,

  510. I can't do without it. I believe it. That spouse that you believe in God for, I can't do without him.

  511. So I believe it in Jesus' name. Say amen. And then you begin to say it,

  512. and you'll get results in your life because of the fact that God has put this in motion.

  513. If you can get it in your heart and believe in your heart and speak it out of

  514. your mouth, Jesus said you can have what you say.

  515. This is how you experience true life.