It’s a New Season

Open your Bibles to James chapter 2.

James 2 · chapter mention

Meet me at verse 17. James chapter 2, verse 17.

James 2:17

And James, the writer of this epistle says, 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.

You believe that there is one God.

You do well. Even the demons believe.

Even the demons believe and tremble. But do you want to know,

oh foolish man, that faith without works is dead?

If we skip down to verse 26, same chapter, verse 26, for as the body is.

Without the spirit is dead. So faith without works is dead also.

And the title of this message today is it's a new season. It's a new season.

Faith is both spiritual and practical.

I want you to understand that faith is invisible, but it should not be untraceable.

Faith should be recognized and identified and noticed, not because you believe,

but because we can see what you believe.

So faith without works, it's simply belief without action is dead.

It's useless. It's ineffective. If you say you believe something and you have

no corresponding actions to follow through with it,

then you do not have the God kind of faith because the God kind of faith always

has action that goes along with it.

You're going to have to do something in order to identify that you have faith.

Faith without action, belief without action is useless. It's dead.

That's why James tells us the demons believe.

But they don't act on what they believe. And so they don't have faith, they believe,

but they're not acting on what they believe, and acting on what you believe

is the corresponding response to identifying that you are actually operating with faith.

Do you believe God? If you believe God, you're going to act like you believe God.

And the problem, I think, today is that there are many, many what I would call Christian atheists.

People that identify with Christianity, but they do not believe that God is

real and they don't act like he is real.

They don't have any corresponding action towards their faith in God.

And so there are Christian atheists. And I don't want you to be a Christian atheist.

I want you to believe God and I want you to have some corresponding action behind

what you believe because the proof of desire is pursuit.

The proof of desire is pursuit.

The proof of desire is pursuit.

Are you pursuing what you say you desire? Now, God's grace is always available.

God's grace is his unearned, undeserved kindness and favor towards us,

but his grace is only accessed by faith.

Faith invokes, activates, and gives us the ability to grab a hold of God's goodness

and his grace and bring it into the here and now.

God has done everything for you already.

He literally is sitting on the throne, Jesus at the right hand,

not doing much of anything because they've already done.

God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit have already done everything that the scriptures say it's already done.

But why do you not physically have it in your life? It's because you have to

grab a hold of it by faith and faith activates God's grace into your life.

Faith is like the currency in the invisible kingdom of God.

Faith grabs a hold of it like money would grab a hold of something.

Faith will grab a hold of it and put it together and make it active in your life.

This is why it's important that scripture tells us the just shall live by faith.

The just are the godly, the justified, the declared righteous ones.

We got to live like God actually exists.

We got to live like God actually told us something. And we're going to actually

do what God said he has spoken to us about.

And a lot of people are hearing from God. Don't let someone tell you,

I don't know what God is saying.

You're hearing from God. You're just not acting on what God is saying.

You're not doing what God is saying, because if you truly believe something,

it will eventually be seen in your actions.

If you truly believe something, it'll eventually be seen in your actions because

faith always produces movement.

Faith will always produce movement. When you're walking with God by faith,

you're never going to be static.

You're never going to be stuck. You're never going to be just sitting there not doing anything.

God's going to always have you doing something more than you even thought you'd do.

Always going to command you to do something that's going to stretch you.

He's going to cause you to do something that makes you think,

how in the world is this going to happen?

It's because you have faith in God and your practical side of it is the corresponding action.

Faith is the root, but actions are the fruit.

Faith is the root, but actions are the fruit.

Do you believe God? Well, show me that you believe God by your actions.

Don't just say I believe God and don't have any corresponding action to it.

Real faith is our willingness to move when God says move.

That's real faith. Our willingness to move when God says move.

That's the faith we have in God.

And without actions along with that faith, then it is dead, it's useless, and it's ineffective.

Now, I must define faith before we move on to go a little deeper.

Faith is believing that you have heard a word from God.

Faith is not just doing something.

That could be presumption or even foolishness.

I saw a quote the other day that said faith is like jumping out of an airplane

with no parachute while building a parachute on the way down.

And I think that sounds good. I think that's great. But if God didn't tell you

to jump out the airplane...

Then that's not faith. You did something foolish, and then you're going to try

to make something happen.

Now, if God said jump, then man, you jump, and you trust that he's going to

take care of you, but if he didn't say it, then don't do it.

Every action, and I'm going to show this in this message, every action the Lord

has ever led me on came from a word from God.

God said it, and I had to put corresponding action to it in order to move forward

because as we said before, faith always produces movement.

The year was 2003.

I was living in Fort Worth, Texas. I just got let go from a ministry job.

I was fired from a ministry job.

It's kind of funny now, but they let me go. They didn't have a reason.

I'm telling you there was really no reason to let me go, but they did and I

was really trusting the Lord What do I do next?

And I ended up spending a lot of time in prayer.

One particular time, I drove into what I felt like was an empty lot.

I parked my car and I sat there and prayed for like four hours,

like just sitting there parked in this part in my car.

Lord, what do I do next? What do I do next? And I felt like I had an open vision.

Like I saw I was still open vision, meaning I was still alert.

I didn't go into some deep sleep or anything like that.

I was alert, but I saw a vision and there were, I saw if I stayed in Fort Worth,

I felt like I saw the woman I was going to marry who wasn't Stacey because she wasn't in Fort Worth.

It was a whole nother woman. I was going to marry this woman.

We were going to live on this side of town.

We were going to go to this church and it was going to be okay. It was an okay life.

But then Charlotte kept coming up on the inside of me and I knew a man here

in Charlotte that started a church.

And he and I were friends. And I know he had just got his church going and he needed a little help.

Charlotte kept coming up on me. And every time I thought about Charlotte, I saw a bright light.

Bright light. It's like Gremlins when he's like, bright light,

bright light. Okay, no, sorry.

We're going to watch Gremlins this Christmas season. But it takes me back to my childhood.

And so I saw a bright light, A bright light and I thought man go towards the light,

So here I am. I pack up. I move to Charlotte, North Carolina.

I jump in my 2002 Honda Accord.

No, no, no, no. Forgive me. That was it was a 1996 Honda Accord.

1996, which I think is one of the best Accords, by the way.

But I jumped in my 1996, 1997 Honda Accord.

A friend of mine came with me and I drove to Charlotte. I had no promise of a job.

I didn't know where I would live.

I just knew I was going to help my pastor friend with his church.

And he was so gracious, accepted me. I believe I arrived here in Charlotte on

a Tuesday and the goal was to stay with him until I got a job and and,

you know, could support myself.

But somehow by Friday, they had already helped me move out in 72 hours.

They were like, hey, we're going to get you a place, you know,

and how are you going to help me? I don't I don't have a job.

How am I get a place? I'm still trying to figure out what to do.

Some way somehow by a miraculous move

of God the apartment complex let

me get an apartment with no job

I still don't know how they did that because I

unemployment unemployed and they they approved me to get this apartment without

a job eventually I did get a job at Panera Bread working 5 a.m to 2 p.m eight

dollars an hour living in an apartment don't know how the bills are going to

get paid, but I kept trusting God.

I kept tithing, giving him a 10th of all my income and God began to take care of that.

I moved out here because I had faith in God. I saw a light.

Charlotte had a bright light and I said, I'm coming to Charlotte.

Didn't know what would take place. I get out here. Now you know my story.

I work at Panera for like three months. I get hired at Wycovia Bank Starting

out making $28,000 In an entry level job In three years I make over $120,000 Glory be to God,

You can give the Lord some praise for that.

What what was God doing? If you trust me, if you step out and you do what I

tell you to do, I'm going to make the crooked places straight.

I'm going to take you from a place that you have no idea about to a place that you do.

Now, this just popped up in my in my heart. But before I moved to Charlotte,

a friend of mine gave me a candy bar.

And now this candy bar was 100 grand.

And he said, don't eat this 100. grand. How many of you have heard of the 100

grand candy bar? He said, don't eat this 100 grand candy bar until you make 100 grand.

And I thought, well, I was nowhere near, okay, at the time he gave it to me

because I'm moving to Charlotte. I have no promise for a job, nothing at all.

And he said, don't eat it until you make 100 grand. Now, this friend of mine

is a prophetic friend of mine, and I took that as a word from God, Rose.

I said, this is God saying. I kept that candy bar. I met Stacey. Stacy and I got married.

She was like, what is up with this candy bar? Because it would sit on my desk.

I said, I'm going to eat this candy bar when I make $100,000.

I was nowhere near making $100,000.

But I kept it there. I kept it there. And then in a short time later,

right, I moved out here in 2004.

And by 2007, I was making $100,000 a year. You know what I did with that candy bar?

I ate that candy bar.

Stacey's like, are you sure you're going to eat it? It's old.

I put it in my mouth and I chewed it up, praise God.

And I ate that candy bar. What am I saying?

When you put action to your faith.

You step out and you put action to your faith. God will always meet you right where you are.

When I'm working at Wycovia Bank, and this time I'm the number one sales rep

at Wycovia Bank, the Lord says, I want you to step away and I want you to start a ministry.

Well, what are you talking about? I'm doing well financially.

At the time, it's just me, Stacey, and Zai. And Zai is actually,

I'm not Zai, I'm sorry, Stacey has a job.

I'm making great money. We're doing well financially Okay, really well The Lord

says I want you to step away from all this And start a church What?

Yeah, step away, it's time for you to step away And it's time for you to start

a church What do you mean step away? You mean do both?

No No, I want you to step away Because I'll do both You know,

he said no I want you to step away And I want you to start a start a church.

I like what Steve Steve's been with me a long time I like I like what he said to me many years ago.

He said if anybody ever says that you're only about money I'll punch them in

the face I said Steve why he said you're a guy that stepped away and.

From all of this to start a ministry. Can't nobody tell me that all you want is somebody's money.

That ain't why we're doing what we're doing. I made a lot of money.

It ain't about that. God has taken great care of me. Still is today.

Taking great care of me. It ain't about that. What it's about is obeying God.

So I told God, I said, Lord, I said, if Stacey is not in agreement, do we still do this?

And she said, talk to him. He said, talk to Stacey.

So I said, Stacey, the Lord's saying, you know, I need to step away from a job.

And, you know, we had had some conversations about it and do this full time, start a ministry.

And she said, yeah, that sounds like the Lord. That's a good wife.

I was like, I was hoping she would say, yeah, that don't sound like the Lord, right?

She's like, that actually sounds like the Lord. She said, the only thing I asked

is, can I still get my hair done?

And so I said, yes, we'll find a way for you to still get your hair done.

So I stepped away. I put my notice in.

Here I am leaving a six-figure paying job, the number one sales rep at the time in that organization.

Footnote, can I share a footnote with you? The year before, so you remember

these years going on, this is when the economy was tanking and the CEOs were

getting in trouble for the golden parachutes. You remember that?

They would get fired, but get multiple millions of dollars to get fired.

This was during that time. The year before, the number one rep got sent to an

all-expense-paid resort.

And you and your wife could go, and they took care of you for a week.

And I was like, my goodness, next year, I want to be the number one rep.

I want to go to an all-expense-paid resort.

Well, the next year was when the economy just fell out.

And I was the number one rep that year. And guess where they took me to? Olive Garden.

And I couldn't even bring Stacey with me.

Olive Garden. And so I, you know what?

My COVID is no longer in business, but you still owe me an all expense paid trip to a resort.

And so you step out. We stepped out. We started.

At the time, there was a little season there that I was on staff at the church

and that church ended up folding.

And so we stepped out and started this place, True Life Fellowship Church.

I had No salary,

No salary I'm not asking you to do this by the way I'm telling you my story

that when the Lord speaks to you,

You have to have action That accompanies what you say you believe No salary,

we get started We get started at Community House Middle School in Ballantyne

We have nothing There's a,

we had, I mean when I say nothing We literally had nothing.

There was a guy up there singing acapella.

I mean, nothing. We had nothing.

Just a handful of people that said, I believe God and I believe God's called

you to do this. And we got started.

And Stacy and I were trying to figure out, are people going to come back next week?

Is it going to be another opportunity to meet next week?

And people kept coming and people kept coming. And for four months, I didn't take a salary.

I didn't I didn't take anything. I just was trusting the Lord to provide and

that he would take care of us.

And God was bringing it in. There was a man that called me from another state.

He said, the Lord told me to help you.

I said, how so? He said, the Lord told me to pay your house payment until he

says, until he says, stop.

Now, this is only happened when you have action behind your faith.

If I'm sitting around talking about I believe, I believe, I believe,

ain't nobody going to do nothing.

Right. God's not going to move on anybody. It's hard to do anything.

If I'm just saying, I believe, I believe, I believe until you start walking it out.

Then God starts laying it on people's heart to do something.

And this particular man said, I want to make your house payment until,

and the Lord said, make his house payment until I tell you to stop.

Glory to God. That's my biggest expense. Amen.

The man did it for about five months. I mean, he did. That was great.

So I wasn't getting paid those first few months.

Eventually, we started to withdraw a very small salary from the bank.

Our one of our board members at the time said there's no reason

for money to be in the bank and you not receive a salary

You got to get something from it There's a blessing on the pastor receiving

funds from the ministry the people will be blessed and I said you're right So

we begin to receive a very small salary as soon as he received that salary this

man stopped he didn't even know.

He didn't know. He didn't know the time. He just said, the Lord told me to no

longer do it. And I said, well, that's interesting because I'm just now receiving

the salary. Praise God. Thank you.

Glory to God. And it was wonderful. But we continued on.

No promise of anything except we're just walking by faith. And we moved to Butler High School.

We go to Butler High School. At this point, we had speakers and we had some

instruments at this point.

And we had, at that time We had musicians but no singers.

And I thought it was cool because a lot of churches Usually have singers with

no musicians But we had the opposite, we had musicians and no singers So shoot,

I was up there singing sometime, praise the Lord It wasn't good,

but it was annoying at them, hallelujah And we had different people that stepped

out and just began to sing,

They passed, I had never sung before But since you asked me to sing,

I'm going to get up there and sing and started just singing unto the Lord with

the musicians that we were at Butler High School.

And the Lord spoke to us and said, you know, it's time that you believe me to have a facility.

Well, we were only like one year old at the time.

And I'm like, a facility? You know, I've been told that you're supposed to stay,

you know, in the high school, you know, forever, right?

Or until you get X amount of dollars And then you can take care of yourself

the lord said I want you to skip all that I want you to believe me for a facility

Well, i'm like man the high school rent payment was really cheap.

And he said, believe me for a facility. Well, we started looking for a facility.

Couldn't find anything. Had a realtor.

That realtor never found anything except one day, Stacey and I were driving down 74 right here.

Stacey was driving. I was in the passenger seat.

That never happens, by the way. Stacey never drives me, right?

So that day, I looked to the right. I saw the building that we're in now,

and it's had a big for lease sign. I said, Stacey, turn around.

Let's go check out this building. And so she makes a U-turn in a row,

comes back, checks out the building.

And I thought, man, let's figure it out. We come in here.

There was half the building, one side of the building and another side.

This was two different units.

We were only going to look at one side of the building because that's what we

could afford was one side.

I mean, we had to stretch a little bit to get it, but that's what we can afford.

But how many of you know God is not interested in what you can afford?

Let me say it again. God's not interested in what you can afford. I

don't think you heard me God's not interested in what

You can afford He's always going

to challenge you To go deeper further In

him so that you Will begin to lean Only on him And not yourself see we like

To do what we can afford To do but God's saying I Want to get you outside of

what you can Afford to do if you just obey me I want to show you Great and mighty things that you.

And so when we were looking at this, just one side, the side where Wayne is

on was the side we were going to get.

And Stacey had a dream that if we only got that side, we would shrivel up and

die like a goldfish. We would shrivel up and die.

And I said, OK, she said, we got to get both sides. I said, well,

that means double. That's doubling the rent.

We could barely get this one side. Now we're going to double.

And the Lord said to me, August 12th at 245 in the morning.

Tear down the wall. There was a wall in this building. Tear down the wall.

I heard it August 12th, 2.45 in the morning praying.

Tear down the wall. I said, Lord, that's double rent. He didn't say nothing

about double rent. He said, tear down the wall.

I said, how are we going to pay more if we tear down the wall?

He didn't say, he didn't answer that question.

He said, tear down the wall. I woke up. I said, oh my goodness, Stacy.

Well, I woke up. I was already up. I went to bed and woke up and talked to her

and I said Stacy the Lord said turn around so I told you a long time ago.

I was like well you're not the Holy Spirit and so we tore tore down the wall

we tore it down we came in had some guys tore down we got got both sides it

doubled the rent and we we started renovating and we we didn't have we didn't

have any money in the bank but we came the building don't look like it looked,

It looked different then than it did now. And we begin to just renovate and

believe and trust God that the provision would come as we renovated it and getting

it looking good and getting it looking nice.

And God has provided to the point that before the landlord sold this facility,

he never wanted us to leave. What can I do to get you to stay?

What can I do to get you? All right. I need one month free. Every December be a free. Okay.

Sounds good. One month free. Man, we negotiated stuff like that. Amen.

To where we could stay. We begin to stay and begin to live here and begin to

have a lot of ministry happening here and life change and baptisms and outreach and you're here.

And what you don't know, the Lord's been talking to me about you,

is you are the Joshua generation.

See, before the people that were here when we first got in was the Moses generation.

They came in to help get us out of the school to get us here,

but you're the Joshua generation you're the ones that's going to get us out

of this building into our permanent home. Amen. I said amen.

You're the Joshua generation. You're going out to the conquest and the conquer

and take the land and the territory.

You don't have any emotional connection to this brick and mortar. Thank you there.

You don't have any connection to this brick and mortar.

Right? Because you're the Joshua generation. Somebody say, I'm Joshua.

And I'm part of the generation.

And so we begin to say, Lord, whatever you have me do. And in 2022,

the Lord said, the landlord's going to sell this building.

Prepare to exit this building. And so, hey, we got to get out of here,

guys. It's time to go. And here we are. We're leaving.

Well, then the Lord began to talk to me and say some different things to me

about going forward and looking and researching and identifying.

And what do you want and going after it and it's bigger than we can do in and of ourselves. Amen.

You're going to always, when you're walking by faith and having action,

you're going to have to dream big.

You're going to have to think big.

You're going to have to go after big things because if you shoot for the moon,

you'll land for the stars at the very least. You got to go after big things.

I haven't talked to Josh and Jeannie, but I hope they don't mind me telling their story.

Jeannie started a business. Business started growing a little bit.

Josh was working an overnight job, missing church, hated the job.

He wanted to be at church. Jeannie was coming to church with Rachel and Desmond by herself.

Josh working overnight, can't be here. Jeannie's business, which started from

scratch, got going, got the moving. She needed to hire somebody.

They came to our house. Hey, we need some advice. Yeah, come on.

Let's talk. What's going on? I need to hire somebody. I need to hire my husband, Josh.

Well, that's the best person to hire, but I'm nervous about it.

I'm nervous about it. I mean, Josh's income is helping. Amen, right?

It's helping. I'm nervous. We bring them on here, and if this thing falls, what are we going to do?

Huh? What are we going to do? That's what the devil says. If it fails,

if it falls, what are you going to do? God ain't never said that.

God said, trust me. I said, what do you hear in prayer, Jenny?

Well, I hear the Lord say, I'm supposed to do this. I said, well, what are we waiting on?

Well, we're waiting on because Josh has a good job. And if it fails, what happens? I get it.

Real conversations that we're having. Well, she ends up hiring Josh.

And you see he's on the front row here now and the and the business has quadrupled

since then hallelujah glory to God what if she said I'm just scared to.

I don't know what to do. I just, you know, I'm not going to have put any action behind.

I believe I believe God. I believe God. And OK, hire your husband.

Oh, Lord, I don't believe I don't believe God.

I don't believe God anymore. You've got to put some action behind what you believe.

Faith without works is what? Dead.

And faith is always spiritual and practical. In Hebrews chapter 11,

Hebrews 11:6

verse 6, it says, but without faith, it is impossible to please God.

So I want to please God, but you can't do it without faith along with action, right?

For he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of

those who diligently seek him.

And so without faith, without belief, with corresponding action behind that

belief, you cannot please God.

It is impossible. It didn't say it's unlikely.

It didn't say that, you know, maybe you can, maybe you can't.

It said without action, along with your faith in God, he is not pleased.

So that tells me, everybody look at me. I want you to hear this.

That tells me that God is pleased when you're believing him for something that hasn't manifested yet.

That's when he's pleased. You think he's pleased when you get it.

That's not when he's pleased. He already know you got it. It's just a matter

of what are you going to learn through the process of getting what he said.

You need to grow in your faith and your patience and and grow some stamina and

some endurance and so on and so forth. But he's actually pleased when you are

believing him for something that hasn't manifested yet. That's when he's pleased.

That's what he's pleased. We are believing God for our new future permanent home at True Life.

We've done the practical things, put some money aside, and still we're putting

money aside for the future home of True Life.

We're acting on what we believe.

We could have bought this building that we're in, but God didn't say buy the

building. He said, prepare to exit.

So we're going to a new season.

And did I know six months ago that this building would sell and then we would

have to go to a temporary home. I didn't know that.

I didn't know it, but I know it now and we're still acting on what we believe from God.

God said it and it's so it's going to happen.

And can I say something to you? I'm not trying to brag. I'm not trying to be braggadocious.

I'm not trying to impress you, but God has always blessed me when I put my hand

to what he's told me to do.

Every single time. Every single time there's fruit that has always abounded

to when God has told me to do something and I acted on what he told me to do.

Every single time fruit has manifested and abounded because God is faithful.

He's faithful. He is full of faith and he is faithful. Let's not celebrate Devon.

This is about the faithfulness of God.

He is faithful when you do what he tells you to do. And there are two things

in this verse I want you to consider.

One, you must have believed that he exists in Hebrews 11 6. You got to believe

he exists. Do you believe that God exists?

Then you got to act like it. You got to act like it.

We saw it. I'm going to say it. I don't care what y'all think about me during COVID.

We really saw did people believe God or not?

I remember there were people doing, I believe God, I believe God.

Pastor, I can't come to church, though. Well, why can't you come to church?

Because there's people at church.

But I believe God. What are you believing?

What are you believing? Now, I'm not saying be foolish.

I'm not saying be presumptuous. If God told you to stay home,

stay your butt home. I mean, your tail home. Excuse me.

If he told you to stay home, stay home.

But God didn't tell a lot of these folks to stay home.

Fear told them to stay home I know it got quiet in here Fear said don't be a

part We had one guy that I'll play the drums And I don't want to ever want to

lead the drums Just keep me behind the drum He won't talk to nobody,

Just keep me behind the drums I said brother just stay home I believe God though pastor,

Okay And then you're going to jump in your car And drive home Do you know it's more dangerous?

To drive home,

Then it was to die of COVID.

Are you listening to me today? But he jumped in the car and drove home.

But I can't, I can't, I can't, I got to stay behind the drum set here because

I can't, I can't come out.

No, no, no, no. What you're telling

me that there is no action that's corresponding with what God has said.

Now, I need to bring this into its totality.

I was supposed to go in 2021.

COVID was still running rampant I was supposed to go to Texas for a meeting,

The Lord told me not to go He said don't go,

I was like well I'm not afraid you know or anything If this was and the Lord

said don't go You're not supposed to go to that So I told Stacey the Lord I

can't get a green Light on the inside to go I'm not going Somebody said are you,

Scared because of COVID,

I said no the Lord told me not to go,

And I didn't go and everybody at that meeting got COVID.

They all did. The Lord told me not to go. So what is the Lord saying to you?

Then you have to put corresponding action.

But you have to find out, is it the Lord saying that or is fear saying that?

Because fear has a voice as well.

And fear's voice normally is no.

Fear rarely says yes So identify that If it's always no, you always keep hearing

no, no, no, no, no Wait a minute, is this fear?

Or is this faith in God?

Wisdom disguises itself No, no, let me say it this way, excuse me,

scratch that, let me say it this way,

Fear disguises itself as wisdom sometimes,

Oh, it's just wisdom No, it's fear And you haven't stepped out to trust God

You don't believe that he exists And number two, you have to believe that he is a rewarder,

Of them that diligently seek him You

got to believe that God rewards those that

seek him If you're doing what

he's telling you to do He will reward you

Don't be afraid of the reward Expect

the reward For God to reward you For diligently seeking him Now here's something

that I learned in this process Of looking for a new location Along with our

realtors and our team For us is I had to be careful,

Can I be transparent with you today?

I had to be careful because I had gotten over Into seeking a building in and not seeking the Lord.

So he didn't say in this verse, he's a diligently, he'll reward you diligently for seeking a building.

That's not what he said. He'll reward you diligently for seeking healing.

That's not what he said. He'll reward you diligently for seeking additional income.

That's not what he said. He said, he'll reward those that diligently seek him.

And if you diligently seek him, then he'll do everything else that he promised

he would do, but you got to diligently seek him.

So I got it over to building, building, building, building, building.

And the Lord said, you ain't even seeking me no more.

You're over in the building, building, building. So I had to say,

okay, you know what? I got to be both spiritual and practical.

Yes, we're still looking at building, but I'm seeking the Lord.

Are you getting something out of this today?

Who am I talking to today? I'm seeking the Lord and the Lord will reward With

the facility But I got to seek him first I was waking up Checking my email to

make To see if I got any realtor reports Before cracking my Bible Open.

I'm looking at buildings and websites of buildings before I'm reading my Bible.

What am I seeking first then? The building.

Not him. When you change your mindset and you begin to seek him,

he is going to reward you.

Ecclesiastes 3.1 says it this way. to everything, there is a season,

a time for every purpose under heaven.

There's a season for everything.

When you are endeavoring to seek the Lord, and he is leading and guiding you,

and things aren't happening as fast as you would like, and how many know things

don't happen as fast as we like?

I have a huge problem with standing in line and waiting. Please forgive me.

I went to the post office the other day, and the line was so long,

I just turned around and went home.

And Stacy said, why did you not stay in the line?

I said, it was too long. And she was like, but then you have to go back.

And I said, I would rather go back than stand in that line.

Well, you know, it took more time for me to go home.

And then two days later I went back and there was another line that I ended

up standing, now it was a little shorter than that one though, a little shorter,

but I ended up standing there and she said this took way more time than you

stood there the first time I said, babe, I wouldn't be home yet.

I stayed in that line. This is what God's trying to drive out of us. This impatience.

This inability to just wait.

They that wait on the Lord shall what? Renew their strength.

They shall mount up like wings of an eagle. They shall run and what?

Not get weary. They shall walk and do what? Nothing.

He's trying to teach us how to wait.

He's trying to teach us how to wait and so there's Ecclesiastes 3.1 once again

to everything there is a season,

there is a time to go after it and there's a time to wait and I encourage you

to read just read Ecclesiastes 3 the whole thing he said there's a time to love

and then there's a time to fight amen,

there's a season for everything a time for every purpose under heaven And this

question was, I heard this question either in my heart or someone said it,

but it resonated on the inside of me.

Here's the question. Do you accept what God is doing in this season of your life?

Think about that. Do you accept what God is doing in this season of your life?

Or are you holding on to old expectations?

Man That question resonated Am I going to accept What God is doing in this season Of my life.

I would love for us to be in our brand new, you know, brand new to us facility

or whatever the Lord wants to do. And guys, we're moving.

We just left here and went straight there. I would have loved to announce it.

We would have ran around, jumped, shot it and threw chairs around and high fived

and cried and done everything.

But am I going to accept what God is doing in this season of our church and in my life?

That's the question many of us and I'll talk about this later on many of us

are not happy because we refuse to accept Let me ask you this question. Are you happy?

Are you happy a lot of people? Why are you not happy because I'm not I'm not accepting,

What God is doing in this season of my life I'm holding on to old Expectations,

I met with a pastor this week, and we were sitting down having breakfast,

and I told him when I was in Bible school, they asked us to write a vision of

what we thought our church would be.

And everybody in the class wrote a vision of their ministry.

A lot of them were pastors, but there were other ministry gifts in the community

there. And every last one of us, Sierra, wrote, our church would have 20,000 people in it.

Everybody had that. 10,000, 20, 30, you know, 40,000.

And I was telling this pastor this.

Do you know that 0.03% of churches have over 5,000 people? 0.03.

All right. There's only like 1% of churches that have over a thousand people.

Most churches have 100 or less, like 97 percent or something of churches are like 100 or less.

Is that a punishment from God or is that the way God wants to do things?

So hold another story. But think about this for a second.

So here we are, all of us saying 10, 5, 10, 15, 20,000, all of these expectations.

Our instructor should have said, rip all that up.

He should have That is false Let's take a look At what's really going to probably

happen And so there are people now I know people right now,

Who are sad Pastoring churches of less than 100 people Depressed Sad because

they thought I was going to have 5,000,

I'm preaching like crazy And then you get suicidal Depressed Then you get people

starting to Cheat on their spouse Why?

Because they're discouraged And disappointed At an expectation that God Never gave them,

God never told them that Ego said write 10,000 I wrote 10,000 because of ego,

I did God never said you're going to have 10,000 I just felt good about myself 10,000.

Now can God do it if that's what he wants he could,

But my expectation is I'm going to accept what he's doing right now in this

season of my life. Are you with me today?

Are you going to accept what God's doing?

Release old expectations. Just let him go and accept right now what God is doing

in this season of your life.

I guarantee you, you'll be happier.

You'll be more joyful and at peace If you just accept what God is doing,

In this season of my life This is

where I am You might be single I'm going to accept being single You might be

in a marriage situation That should be better Right now I'm going to accept

where we are Because I know it's going to get better I have faith in God and

it's going to get better You might be tight financially right now Accept it, admit it, we are tight,

Admit it but you know what God's going to bring us through,

God's going to take care Of us amen Zage wanted something for Christmas Here recently and she,

Stacey told me the story And Zage was like I want this And Stacey said something

like Zage Because we have a Christmas budget.

And she said, Zage, that's outside of our Christmas budget.

And Zage said, God can get anything to you from anyone, anywhere, at any time.

I said, she did. She said, Mom, you have more than enough to do whatever God wants you to do for me.

And I said, Zage said, she's listening. She's listening. Amen.

Will you accept what God is doing

in this season of your life instead of holding on to old expectations?

Last verse, Isaiah 43, 18 and 19.

Isaiah tells us, it says, do not remember the former things nor consider the things of old.

Watch this. I will do a new thing. Somebody say new thing.

I'm gonna do a new thing. Don't remember the former things or things of old,

except where you are in this season because I'm about to do a new thing.

It shall spring forth. shall you not know it.

I like this. I will even make a road in the wilderness. That's a new thing right there.

And rivers in the desert. That's a new thing right there. God's going to do

a new thing. Say this after me.

My God is going to do a new thing in this season of my life.

He's going to do a new thing. He is going to do a new thing.

So today, a couple of things I want you to do. release old expectations.

Just let it go. Release it. Old expectations, just release it.

It's a former thing. It's an old thing. Release it.

Number two, accept what God is doing in this season of your life. You are where you are.

In a sports terminal terminal.

There you go. I'm preaching. Steve's helping me over there.

Say it one more time. There you go in a sports terminology and.

Hey, I need help. I never said I'd do this all by myself.

This is supposed to be a two-way street, too. In a sports terminology,

they'll say, you know, your record is what it is. You have a team,

and they're, you know, 500.

They're 8-8 or something, and they think they should be better.

But at the end of the day, your record is what it is.

You are where you are. It is what it is right now.

Just accept where you are. God's doing something in me right now,

and I'm going to move forward.

Number three, and take a step that proves your faith is alive.

Take a step that proves that faith is alive.

This is how you experience true life.