Today we continued our new series called, “Finish Strong.” Our word as a church at the beginning of the year was, “STRONGER!” Even though this year hasn’t been what anyone expected, we still need to FINISH STRONG! Pastor Charles Metcalf taught us today that our external strength is connected to our internal source, which is Jesus! If 2020 has you discouraged, watch this message and be encouraged to Finish Strong regardless of what you are going through in this season.

welcome to church we are so glad that

you’re here

no matter where you’re watching from i’m

believing today that you are here

on purpose you’re here for a reason and

i’m believing that god wants to speak to

you

today like he never has before listen no

matter where you’re joining from

i just want to take a moment and welcome

you my name is charles i get to serve as

one of the pastors here

and on behalf of our pastors pastors

michael and natalie todd

our entire team we just want to say

welcome today we are so glad that you’re

here we don’t take it lightly

that you would take time out of your

sunday morning to spend it with

us and i’m believing that today god is

going to speak to you and

here’s what i know regardless of this

first thing i need to say

is i just i miss everybody like i really

do

like right now we are um in the arena i

can hear my voice echoing because

there’s not

you’re not here that’s why but what i

know is that

um just because the doors are closed

does not mean the church has been

stopped

come on regardless of what’s going on

regardless of of what comes our way the

church is still strong because the

church is not a building

the church is not confined to four walls

but you are the church

and so as long as there’s breath in your

lungs as long as you’re still alive

as long as we are still breathing the

church is still

alive and i just came to remind somebody

who felt like the presence of god

is confined to this room it’s in your

room right now it’s in your home with

your children

with your family in the middle of the

stuff you’re going through come on

god’s anointing and his favor is there

so i just need somebody

in the chat to type amen to type come on

i can feel it come on we are stirring up

the atmosphere

come on what the enemy meant for evil

god is turning

for good and i’m believing that today

regardless of what you’re going through

the spirit of god is coming to bring

hope

he’s coming to bring restoration and he

is right

there with you listen today is going to

be a great day

it’s a beautiful day to be in church a

part of church and here’s what i need

you to do i need you to participate

some of y’all i you act like we can see

you we got technology where we can see

you

you just be sitting there like um that’s

so good no i need all the energy you got

so i need you to stand up

i need you to yell the eight people that

are in here with me all my homies i need

y’all’s help today

um hey listen before we jump into the

word today i’m really excited because

um our pastors are rested and i’m

telling you

next week next that’s how excite like

next week we start a brand new series

and it is going to be so

so powerful pastor michael he shared

with me just the direction of how we’re

going to finish strong this year

and what god has given to him and i am

so excited and just anticipating what

god’s going to do through the rest of

this year so i need you to get ready

some of y’all been asleep during fun

month in august i see you it’s okay

we can see when you’re not here but

that’s okay god still loves you

um but listen next week we’re back with

a brand new sermon series it’s gonna be

amazing so make sure you’re getting

ready for that

and then tomorrow everybody say tomorrow

tomorrow we start seven days of prayer

and fasting now listen some of y’all are

like what are you talking about

listen we do this every single year

during this time as we’re going to

finish this year strong come on somebody

say finish strong

listen we’re going to finish this year

strong we’re not going to do it in our

own power we’re not going to do it in

our own ability we’re not going to do it

by just willing ourselves but what we’re

doing is we’re taking time

to focus in on god to silence all the

other voices

to silence the distractions and we’re

going to hear clearly from god and so

some of you maybe this is your first

time you’ve never participated

in something like this what we’re doing

is we’re pushing fasting it literally

means to cover the mouth so

fasting i got a little pet from pastor

brenda this is just me and you are

locked in on this some people be like

i’m fasting

you know from uh you know watching tv

that’s great that is great but that’s

the word fast

means to not eat food so anyways but um

listen i want to encourage you

regardless of that i just want to

encourage you to really ask god hey god

what would you ask me to give up

so i can hear from you what would you

ask me to push away what would you ask

me to cover up so i can hear

from you more than ever before we need

to hear from the voice of god we don’t

need opinion

we don’t need good ideas we don’t need

good concepts but we need wisdom

from the holy spirit and so i want to

invite you to join us we start tomorrow

if you need resources you can go to our

app our website we’ve got some things

there to help you in this journey

but listen today i need you to get ready

because i got a word it’s going to be

powerful turn in your bibles

to jeremiah 17 5. jeremiah 17

5 is where we’re going to be if you’ve

got a real bible at home and you open it

up you

automatically get more points in heaven

god told me that this morning while i

was in prayer so just want to let you

know that

i’m joking it’s okay um jeremiah 17 5

this is what the amazing word of god

says it says

this is what the lord says

now this scripture right here is strong

be ready cursed are those

who put their trust in mere humans

who rely on human strength and turn

their hearts away from the lord

they are like stunted shrubs in the

desert now god he’d be kind of

disrespectful with the word of god

sometimes

not only you’re a shrub so you’re a

shrub you’re a small plant but you a

stunted small plant

and you’re in the desert so god bless

you with no hope for the future

they live in barren wilderness in

uninhabited

salty land but blessed

but blessed are those who trust in the

lord and have made

the hope the lord their hope and

confidence they are like trees

planted along a riverbank with roots

that reach deep into the water

such trees i thought about calling this

sermon such trees i almost did it i

didn’t do

such trees are not

bothered that was my second sermon title

i’m not bothered by it come on anything

can happen but i’m not bothered by it

the government can go down but i’m not

bothered by it you can talk about me

but i’m not bothered by it that’s not

the title though

such trees are not bothered by the heap

by the i can’t even say what i’m saying

by the heat or

worried by long months of drought such

trees they’re not bothered

they’re not bothered by the heat they’re

not bothered by a pandemic they’re not

bothered by who’s in office they’re not

bothered by

come on they’re not they’re worried

they’re not worried about long months of

drought

their leaves stay green come on their

spirits

stay joyful their attitude stays good

come on their hope

stays alive their leaves stay green and

they

never stop producing

fruit that is some good bible we can

shut the show down right now if we

wanted to

but i believe that god wants to speak to

us i’m going to ask you to join us in

prayer wherever you are right now

lord god we come to you and we thank you

that your presence is here

lord and wherever here is for every

person under the sound of my voice lord

in their homes lord god

in the middle of a tough situation lord

jesus in the middle of things that we

may not have seen coming lord god i

thank you that

your presence your anointing your glory

is

resting here lord i thank you that today

lord jesus we would hear directly from

you

we don’t need just another talk we don’t

need just um

good points lord god but we need a

revelation from the holy spirit

holy spirit i thank you that you would

speak through me to your people i thank

you god that you are in control have

your way it’s in the beautiful name of

jesus we pray and everybody said

amen amen amen amen hey um so

i always start my sermons off with a

story it’s just how i roll i stole it

from a pastor when i was 19 and learned

how to write sermons and he started

sermon off with the story so now i start

my sermon off of the story so

um it’s really not that uh complicated

but in high school

um i ran track my junior year of high

school i

uh i did triple jump long jump and then

i ran the four by one

i want to talk to you about this triflin

race called the four by one

um the four by one what it is there’s

four people and this is where you see

them passing the baton like they they

they’re four by one means four people

running a hundred meters each

so the track is 400 meters if you don’t

know that so the straightaway is a

hundred the turn’s a hundred you get it

so i would normally run the four by one

and i was decent they put me on the

third leg i don’t know where you put the

bad people

like that may be where you put the bad

people because they’re like surely too

good they i definitely wasn’t the anchor

that’s for sure cause i

i just didn’t have it in me but i was

the 4×1 so i ran the 4×1 at our track

meet and i did decent i honestly don’t

think we won but i felt great about my

part

which shows you how immature i was

because i was just worried about how i

did

i won my part that’s all that mattered

anyways but the coach he said hey

charles the guy who normally runs the

4×2

is out so we need you to jump in and i

thought of course you need me to jump in

i’m about to kill this thing

so i get in the 4×2 is four people

running running 200 meters each so

there’s the first

100 and then either a turn or a

straightaway

of the second hundred so here’s what

happened we start off strong

and i i knew how to run a four by one i

could run a hundred meters and i was

pretty cold with it too so i took

off and i’m just dusting i’m the third

leg i’m dusting my dude

i’m on the turn and boy i’m telling you

i’m like at a 45 degree angle like i’m

so into that turn i’m just like pow pow

pow

i got my arms locked in i’m swinging the

baton and in my head i’m like y’all are

trash

i’m dusting every one of y’all i don’t

even run this race like that like y’all

must be scrubs

or i’m that good it was a combination of

both but i’m in the turn

and then i start kind of leveling out

for the last hundred meters and guys

when i tell you

that last straightaway it was like

a bear came and grabbed both of my legs

and was just whole like literally my

feet started getting all heavy

and i’m like slowly and then it looks

like that my i think i was on a

treadmill on my lane

because i started slowing down and

literally all other six people

started coming up closer to me and i was

like what is happening like

and as i kept going literally by the end

of it i started off at first

i was in sixth place when i handed my

baton to the person

and i just felt so ashamed i felt

embarrassed i felt like what in the

world happened

but what i realized is my legs could

only take me

as far as my heart could carry me

that’s got a transition if you never see

what what what

what i realized is that the external

strength that i had the strength of my

legs was

actually connected to the internal

source

that that had been conditioned that had

been that had been training

and the issue was i was running a race

that i hadn’t conditioned for

i was doing something that i wasn’t

prepared for

and i realized and today i came to

encourage somebody and really to help

you

um with a story that applies to running

races but it really applies to your life

that your external strength is always

connected to your internal source

always and many times what happens you

know when this when pastor michael first

said stronger i was like

bet come on we’re all getting ripped

this year like we’re all gonna look like

i don’t know what like i was just

excited about it and what i realized is

2020

is not as much about your outternal or

your external strength

as it is about testing your internal

source

2020 didn’t come to test your strength

it came to check your source

it did not come to test how strong you

were on the outside it came to check

what are you connected to

and this year has came to honestly

expose a lot of our sources

this year has come to test a lot of what

we really put our hope in who we really

trust who we really decide that is going

to be the end-all be-all in our life

and what happens is at the beginning of

the year we were all chilling it was

good and then stuff started going wrong

and what we realized is maybe we don’t

have the source that we thought we had

maybe our roots aren’t as deep as we

thought they were

maybe everything isn’t as perfect in our

marriage as we thought it was

maybe we don’t have the strength that we

thought we did and what i realized

is for us we have to understand that

this year did not come to challenge your

strength but it’s really challenging

your source

and if you don’t realize that you’ll

make corrections on the outside that

don’t change anything on the inside

you’ll start doing things on the outside

to try to make up for something that

really the issue is deep down

and until you as long as you keep

covering it up as long as you keep

acting like everything’s okay

what god is doing as he came this year

said i want to do something on the

inside

because what’s inside will always affect

what’s on the outside

and god this year he wants to do

something deep in your life that we’re

going to finish strong this year because

god’s gonna do a work on the inside

that not everybody can see you can’t

post your character on instagram

come on you can’t post that you got

delivered from anxiety on instagram

but what god’s gonna do this year is

he’s gonna heal you on the inside

and what happens on the outside it’s

going to be totally different what if

god is using this year

just to condition you what if god loves

you so much

that he says you know what there’s a

race that i have for you to run in 2021

but before i put you in it i’m going to

prepare you for it

see many times we want god to put us in

something that we’ve never been prepared

for

but what if this year god is using it to

prepare you for what he’s got in front

of you

you see what i realized is that your

season always exposes your source

your season always exposes your source

let’s talk about a maple tree in a pine

tree

these two trees are built different one

when the winter comes

the season exposes its source so what ha

what does it do it starts losing it

leaves it starts having bringing all its

energy to the center because

there’s not enough source to go around

for everybody there’s not enough there’s

not enough to go out to the end of

everything that it touches

or it’s fruit or it’s leaves but there’s

a different kind of tree a pine tree

regardless of what season comes

its source is always the same regardless

if winter comes it’s green

if summer comes the trees green if fall

comes it’s green if spring comes it’s

green

what i’m telling you is god wants to be

your source so that in every season you

can be green come on when the economy’s

good you’re green when the economy is

bad you’re green

come on whoever’s in office you’re still

green and you’re good because you have

a different source

i think this year has really challenged

what our source is

and what you need to understand is some

of you you have forgotten and there have

been times in my own life where i’ve

forgotten

the difference between these true trees

or what exposes their source is one is

just built different

like what they’re the same they can go

through the exact same thing

they can be in the exact same situation

they can be in the exact same cold

weather they can be in the exact same

season but one responds differently

because it’s been built different

i came to remind somebody you’re built

different you’re not built like

everybody else come on there’s something

different on the inside of you and even

though the enemy has challenged you even

though he’s came against your thoughts

and your mind you need to remind

yourself type it in the chat

write it on a sticky note i’m built

different come on the same spirit

that raised christ from the dead lives

on the inside of me come on he has plans

for me

he has a hope and a future not to harm

me but but to prosper me you are

built different and in this season i

believe that that what’s happening is

the seasons it is exposing

who our source is is exposing what we

put our trust in

that scripture is so powerful it says

and i want to help you with the

scripture because

um sometimes in church we we hear the

bible and because we don’t have full

understanding

we just try to edit out parts of it that

don’t make sense to us instead of asking

the god who wrote it to reveal it to us

so i’m gonna i’m this is when you read

your bible if you don’t understand it

don’t skip over it

that’s like when you get an instruction

from a friend or from a teacher

we i would do that in school maybe

that’s why we deal with the bible i

would do that at school if i didn’t

under understand instruction i was too

prideful to act like i knew didn’t know

what she was talking about so she was

like if you turn your pages we’re going

to study if she say some word i had no

idea and i’d be like oh great we’re

going to be studying that today i’d love

to yeah we’re just going to do that

and what happens is is what you don’t

realize is the knowledge of school every

year it builds upon the knowledge that

you were supposed to learn the year

before

so what happens is when you don’t ask

for understanding in 6th grade you’ll

end up in 12th grade confused hello

somebody that was me

and in the same way when you don’t ask

understanding of god’s word

in 2020 you’ll end up in 2025 confused

because god i don’t know where that is

from some of you you need to start

getting your roots in the word of god

and stop just thinking well i’ll just

read the scriptures that i understand

or that make me feel good but maybe god

wants to give you a deeper revelation

maybe there’s some roots that he wants

to grow down in his word to where

anything can happen

the wind can come come on the wind can

blow but you are rooted in

god the scripture says this is what the

lord says cursed are those who put their

trust in mere

humans i want to help you with the

scripture because sometimes we see

anywhere where the bible says cursed we

think of like snow white and seven

dwarves or like ah

like what a curse why would god here’s

the thing the natural state

of our world is fallen so because

in the garden of eden when adam and eve

sinned

sin entered the world hurt entered the

world pain entered the world

so that means the world as our natural

state is in a bad bend it has a bend

towards doing evil it hasn’t been

towards

bad things but what happens is is when

you surrender to god

what a curse is is saying god’s saying

hey if you can’t do it my way

if you won’t acknowledge me i can’t step

in and change how this world would

naturally be set up

so what happens is when the scripture

says curse what it really is

is you’re just left to your own devices

you’re in the state that you were born

into

you’re in the natural pain that you

experience in this earth the natural

loss and the scripture goes on to say

you have no hope for the future that’s

what happens when you don’t let god in

when you don’t acknowledge him it says

cursed

if you’re simply trusting mere humans

what it’s saying is is hey it’s going to

be a bad deal if you’re looking to other

people

to fulfill something that god can only

fix it’s going to be a bad deal if

you’re looking to the government

to give you peace or not it’s going to

be a bad deal if you’re waiting on a

pandemic to end to decide if you’re

really going to give yourself fully

to the plan of god come on it’s going to

be a bad deal if you’re putting your

trust

in humans but it says you’re blessed

when you this is what got me it says

blessed are those who trust in the lord

and have made the lord

their hope and confidence so many times

we downplay the part that we have to

play

and what we’ve decided is our hope and

confidence it says who have made the

lord that means you have to make a

decision

you have to make a decision that

regardless of what happens i’m making

the lord

my hope and my confidence you know i

want to keep moving on

in this you know as we think about the

source and really what god does

here’s what’s happened to me so many

different times there have been moments

even throughout this year

where i’ve been praying to god or

talking to god and i thought god you

really are my source you know like

you know you just i grew up in church

and so i know all the like prayers that

get you like the bonus points you know

what i’m saying like

the brother’s like god just i surrender

to you i trust you

have your way i’m putting my life in

your hands like all the

sunday school prayers that i know i just

start throwing them out they just come

up and

but literally i i had this thought where

god i was saying god you’re my source

and i felt like god said

you’re saying i’m your source but i can

see your fruit

like in many of us we say god you’re my

source

but we see the fruit and many times it’s

so

funny that we’ll stand up and say god is

my source but our fruit looks nothing

like what the source should say

many times we’ll say god is my source

but we’re angry and we’re worried and

we’re confused come on some of you if

you got up

if you walked up to a a uh if you walked

up to a tree and

let’s just say this is a random i’m just

making this up as i go you go up to this

street

and it says it’s supposed to be an apple

tree but there’s oranges on the end of

the tree

you would walk up to it and be like this

is this is an apple tree i swear

somebody’s telling you this is apple

tree i swear it’s apple tree that’s

apple tree it’s i swear that is an

apple tree but you’re like i can’t

separate

what i see from what you’re saying and

many times what god does he says i hear

what you’re saying

but i also see what you’re doing i hear

when you pray that you say i’m your

source and you’re trusting me

and you all your hope is in me but i

also see that really

when it gets down to it your peace does

not come from me

your peace comes from circumstances that

you create up

create and that you control and that you

let me let me tell you about something

god

gave me this idea of pieced together

peace

let me help you pieced together peace

p i

i got really insecure as i went to the

end of that word

piece together peace many of us the

scripture talks about that god will give

us a peace that surpasses all

understanding

many times instead of going to god who

is our source to get this peace

we piece together our own peace

so what happens is is when we say man

i’m in a really tough situation

or this bad thing has happened or or

maybe let’s find this many of us maybe

we’re tr

we’re in a season where it’s tough or or

maybe the the government is doing things

that we don’t agree with or whatever is

happening instead of going to god for

peace

we start creating scenarios well i read

my bible and i did this and i tithe

and i’ve been a good person and i said i

prayed the right prayer

so now and then also i’ve been doing

those things right and i’ve said and we

start piecing together these stories

that make us feel good that make us feel

like okay now i have peace

do you have peace or did you just piece

together a story that made you feel

better about your situation

god is saying i want to give you the

true

real and living peace that you desire

i want to be your source i want to be

the one that you can have something it

says a peace that surpasses

your ability to understand that means

you can have a peace that doesn’t need

to understand

that means that you can have a peace

that doesn’t need to know the outcome

that doesn’t need to know what’s going

to happen or

when are we going to be back in church

or when is this going to stop or when is

the you know when is my finances going

to get to the right spot you can have a

peace that surpasses your ability

to understand and what i’ve realized is

many of us when it comes to our source

many of our source is either on the

surface or it’s situational

our source of peace our source of joy

our source of hope

it’s really not god it’s a situation

it’s as long

as this thing is going good as long as

my business is going good

then i have peace from god do you have

peace from god though

because it’s dependent on a situation

and that situation changes

where is your peace if your joy comes

from how people think about you and how

much they love you and how they care

about you and what they say about you

and how many likes you get on instagram

that’s not the piece that surpasses all

understanding that’s a piece that is put

in mere humans

that’s a piece that can be controlled by

outward sources but what’s happening

is god is saying what if i brought this

year to bring you a peace

that’s on the inside what if i brought

you this year to bring you something

that was beyond an outward circumstance

but with something

on the inside of your life

your fruit always exposes

your roots you can’t

you can’t say man i i’m rooted in god

and my life is in him

but what happens is when we look at the

fruit of our lives we have to say god

this is showing a different story like

this is

this is not the same thing now some of

you are saying charles what what are you

talking about what do you mean by that

well in galatians 5 22 it says this

but the holy spirit produces this kind

of fruit

in our lives love joy peace

patience kindness goodness faithfulness

gentleness and self-control there is no

law

against these things

i was thinking about this year and uh

and really just how this year has gone

you know this this series where we’ve

titled it finish strong

and in this i’ve realized you know when

i think about this year and even

different things that i’ve experienced

in my life um

that desire to finish strong was almost

um similar to or or

at the same rate there was a desire for

me to finish first

like let’s talk about this even in that

race that i ran in high school

i wasn’t worried about finishing strong

i really wanted to finish first

i and many times the desire to finish

first inhibits our ability to finish

strong

when i started off that race i wasn’t

thinking about how i was gonna finish

strong

i was thinking about how i was gonna

finish first so all my energy

all my effort all the everything that i

had i put it into that first hundred

meters

because i wasn’t thinking about how i

was gonna finish strong and what i

realized is the temptation

to finish first will inhibit your

ability to finish strong

the ability that you have to finish

strong to finish well because many times

this is how it starts we started off the

year with all our new year’s resolutions

we started

off the relationship with with being

intentional all these different things

but again

our ability to to say i want to finish

first that i want to do this well in the

in the beginning

we’re not thinking about the end and

that’s why in this

series we’re saying hey we made a

decision that we’re going to finish

strong

and i’ve realized that really for me it

goes beyond

finishing strong and i felt like i was

talking to guys like okay

the sermon we’re going to finish strong

we’re going to finish strong we’re going

to finish wrong

strong and as i went through it i was

like okay then there’s this temptation

to finish first

and then i realized god said i want you

to finish strong

but also there’s something deeper the

temptation is i want you want to finish

first

but i found that many times god’s desire

is that we would finish

with fruit that’s the title of my sermon

today

finish with fruit

what if this year was not so you could

finish

first like every other year the reason

it feels good

is probably because there’s areas of

your life that you felt like

you finished first in i finished first

in my business

my business was successful it was better

than all businesses it was better than

than what we even planned for on the on

the fiscal calendar it was just it went

beyond everything

in in school i finished first i

graduated this way i went this way

in relationships i finished first but

what if god said hey this year you may

not finish first

but you might finish with fruit what if

this year what if we could shift

our perspective that god you know what

i’m not worried about finishing first

i’m not worried about it looking good

but god would you produce a fruit

in my life god i want to finish with

more love in my life i want to finish

with more joy

with more peace with more patience what

if this year came so that you could

finish

with fruit i just made a decision this

year that you know what if i’m going to

finish strong

i want to finish with the fruit of god

in my life

i want to finish loving my wife will i

want to finish serving people more i

want to finish with more joy

with more grace in my life and what i’ve

realized is

when it comes to fruit fruit is a focus

not a feeling fruit is a focus

not a feeling what i’ve realized is

these things that scripture talks about

love joy peace patience kindness

goodness gentleness self-control and

faithfulness

these aren’t feelings and i’ve realized

that this year

god used the the

the the toughness of the year the

changing of the year

all of these different things and i

realized what if god is using this year

to push past what we feel and ask what

are you focusing on

what if he’s pushing past the the

emotional

surface level sources that we have what

if he’s pushing past your

ability to just push past hard things

and feel excited or feel happy

what if he’s saying hey i want to push

past something and i want to ask what

are you focusing on

i realize that the fruit that is in our

life truly comes from what we’re

focusing on

it comes from who our source is and

today really

the the goal of this sermon today

is to ask you who is your source

what is your source where have you

placed your hope

where do you get your piece from

what is your life rooted in

because this year has really been

something that has it’s gone different

than how any of us planned it’s gone

different than

how we thought it’s gone different than

than maybe how we desired

but what i’m realizing is in the middle

of all of this frustration

in the middle of plans changing in the

middle of disappointment

god is producing fruit

and i just want to ask today what if

what would it look like if we made a

decision

what would it look like we said god you

know what i’m gonna submit

to this process because i know that

you’re building fruit in my life

i know that you’re building something

that’s deeper that’s that’s that’s

stronger that that’s more than than a

surface level thing

you know uh we had some time off um

uh in august because of our new baby

girl got here luna rose

she’s the bomb shout out to my shoddy

this is the first sermon i think she’s

heard me preach

wow that’s amazing is that true i don’t

know is that true babe

oh first sermon to my daughter she says

it’s good forget what y’all say

um but we had some time off in in august

and during that time

i was like all right god i’m re like

during this time i’m gonna spend time

with the family

and i’m just gonna you know i’m gonna

seek you and i was just i had this sense

that like

man i know god wants to do something in

my heart and in my life and there’s

it was almost like i had this sense of

like there’s gonna be this new level

like when i come back to work

i’m gonna be so anointed when i walk in

the offices people just gonna fall out

like i’m gonna

look this is so this is what i felt and

like part of it was like me trying to

discern what god was actually saying

but i had this sense of like god you

want to do something new like there’s

there’s something new that you want to

do in my heart there’s a new level of

focus there’s a new level

of discernment all these different

things and so i was journaling and i was

thinking about it

and no lie i get back to the office

after being gone for four weeks

with the baby and at home and i come

back in the first meeting i go to lee i

literally i could not talk i was like

tripping over my words

i was i got home from work i told abby i

was like i’m i’m god has lifted his hand

off my life like i don’t

i don’t have it anymore i can’t preach i

can’t she was like stop

and i was just i was so confused because

i had this expectation

that god you were going to do this thing

and it was going to feel like this it

was going to be like this

and i was going to be able to speak

easier and i was going to have more

wisdom and all these different things

and i was literally driving in my car

like frustrated with god

like god you said that there was going

to be a new level and i was going to be

able to do all this stuff and i realized

and god said something

it was literally in the still small

voice that scripture talks about he said

i did it

but you’re looking in the wrong place

he said charles i did it but it’s not a

new level

it’s deeper he said i did it but it’s

deeper and many times

when we look for the fruit

of god’s anointing on our life we look

for the higher thing

we look for the the new thing we look

for the thing that feels

above that that is this other thing but

i realize the power of god

is not only in the things that are

higher but it’s also in the things that

are deeper

it’s when god gives you something that

is so secure that is so rooted in him

that no matter what comes on the outside

no matter what comes

that you are rooted in christ

and i realized that the guy was saying

hey like when you’re looking

for that thing that i really did say

that was going to happen it’s

it’s something deeper and what happens

is what i realized is god

what he does i realized if he put

something let’s think about it

um as like a shelf or or um

i literally am thinking through through

but literally i realized in my spirit

that god was saying hey

when i do something deeper that means

there’s things that you’re going to have

to work through

and get past and go around and that

you’re going to be forced to deal with

to get to what i’ve done

so what he was saying was is when i put

this thing deeper in your life and in

who you are

if i just put it on the outside you

don’t have to deal with all the internal

issues

you don’t have to deal with the things

that are there that are keeping you but

i did that because i would force you to

have to deal

with the things that weren’t like me so

you could find the thing that is truly

rooted in who i am

today i want to i want to kind of close

out with this thought

that um i really believe that god wants

to do something deeper in your life

i really believe that this year was not

random it was not an accident

it wasn’t something that just happened

but it was something that god has done

deeper

for a reason and i want to close out

with this

with this scripture it’s in hebrews 12

and production if you’re looking for the

scripture you don’t have it because i

didn’t give it to you

this is what it says it says as you

endure this divine discipline

remember that god is treating you

as his own children

who ever heard of a child who is never

disciplined by his father

if god doesn’t discipline you as he does

all his children

it means that you’re illegitimate and

not his children since we respect our

earthly fathers

who disciplined us shouldn’t we submit

even more to the discipline

now let’s get down to verse 11. no

discipline

is enjoyable while it’s happening

2020 may not be enjoyable

while it’s happening the the tension

in the relationship may not be enjoyable

while it’s happening the pressure may

not be enjoyable

while it’s happening in fact the

scripture says let me just tell you

it’s painful god’s scripture is so good

because he says hey

there’s a discipline and i’m not going

to chalk it up that it’s going to be

easy

says no discipline and enjoyable while

it’s happening

but afterward there will be a peaceful

harvest of right living for those who

are trained

in this way

so take a new grip with your tired hands

and strengthen your weakness

mark out a straight path for your feet

so that those who are weak and lame will

not fall

but become strong

i came to remind you today that what

you’re going through

right now the pressure

thank you holy spirit some of you right

now you are

you’re looking at the current state of

your life

and then you’re also looking at the

picture of where you thought you would

be right now

and as you’re looking at this it’s

creating this frustration towards god

it’s creating all these things but

really what god is saying hey

i what i’m doing right now you may not

have the perspective to see it

you may not have the perspective to

understand why it’s happening

but what happens is is if you would

allow me to give you a new perspective

if you would allow me to show you that

hey this is something i’m doing

in you and i’m developing in you and it

may not be enjoyable right now but what

i’m doing is i’m producing a peaceful

harvest i’m producing a peaceful

harvest in your life today i want to

take a moment

and uh i just want to take a moment to

pray over you i want to take a moment

that

god would truly show us who our source

is where we get our peace

where we get our joy where we get our

hope and i’m believing that today

that we’re going to realize that what

god is doing it’s not just something on

the surface

our source will no longer be in mere

humans our peace will not no longer be

from outward sources but god is going to

develop a fruit in us

he’s going to develop something so deep

in our hearts that we will be able to go

through every season and that is my

prayer that

as we go to the end of this year that as

we finish strong in this year that we

would realize

that the fruit of our life is because

our roots are in christ

that the fruit of being able to finish

strong the fruits of not only being able

to finish strong but to finish with

fruit

are because we have decided that god is

our

source i want to take a moment right now

and just pray over you

to pray that we would have the

perspective to understand that god you

know what i

i may not understand why you’re doing it

this way or or why plans have changed

but god i trust

that you’re developing a fruit in me i

trust lord god that you’re

that you are developing something in me

that that the wind and the waves can’t

change

you’re developing something in me that

the government can’t change

that that that education can’t change

you’re developing something in me so

strong

you’re developing something in me lord

that is beyond my circumstance

and it’s deep in my life right now holy

spirit

we invite you in holy spirit we

ask right now that you would expose to

us the places

where our lives have not been rooted in

you

the places where our source has really

not been

god our source hasn’t been

really in you lord god our source has

been other people

our source has been ourselves our source

has been

other things and lord god i just thank

you right now that you are showing us

lord jesus you are exposing

the things that are not like you are

exposing where our roots lord god have

not been

in god lord jesus but i thank you right

now we are making a decision

to put our trust in you

we’re making a decision lord god to put

our hope in you lord god we’re making a

decision lord god to put everything lord

god

we’re putting our hope and our lives in

you lord jesus

right now lord jesus i thank you for

perspective lord i thank you that you

are allowing us to see lord jesus that

even though

it may not be enjoyable for this time

lord god but you are developing

something in us that is so much deeper

holy spirit i thank you right now for

every person who’s listening

that you would give them perspective on

what they’re going through lord god you

would give them perspective

for the pain or god perspective for the

frustration and they will be able to see

your grace your anointing your peace in

their lives as we continue to pray

i want to ask you just to focus in for a

moment and see where you are in your

relationship with god

maybe some of you right now if you’re

honest with yourselves the reason that

you’re not able to have peace the reason

that you’re you’re so shaken by this

year is because you’ve realized that

your source it hasn’t been god

your source has been something else your

source has been your job your source has

been your spouse your source has been

other people’s perspective of you your

source has been what other people think

about you but today you can make a

decision

to say you know what i’m putting my life

in christ i’m making him

my hope and confidence and there are

some of you right now that the reason

you’re watching today

the reason that you’re here is not just

to hear a sermon or a message or to hear

some worship but it’s surrendering

your life to jesus i’m believing today

that some of you you’ve ran out of all

other options you’ve tried everything

else

you’ve tried putting your hope in

everything else you’ve put your hope in

humans you’ve put your hope

in so many different things but today

you can put your hope in jesus and it’ll

change your life

forever if you’re listening right now

and you say you know what i want to make

that decision i want to give my life to

christ i want to surrender to him what

i’m going to do is i’m going to pray a

prayer

as i pray this prayer i’m believing that

something miraculous is going to happen

in your life the bible says if you

believe in your heart and confess with

your mouth that jesus is lord

you shall be saved i’m believing today

that if you would surrender your life to

him

everything you’ve been looking for the

things that you’ve been trying to to go

to other things

to find god can give it to you in this

moment

right where you are if you want to

accept jesus into your life i’m going to

ask you to repeat this prayer

after me say dear heavenly father thank

you for loving me

dear jesus i admit

i’ve made mistakes i pray that you would

save me

that you would change me that you would

make me new

in the name of jesus i pray

amen hey listen if you just made that

decision that is the best decision that

you could ever

make in your life the bible says when

one person comes to christ

that all of heaven stops and they start

celebrating and we are celebrating

with you hey listen we want to send you

some resources if you’ll text the word

saved

to the number that is on the screen we

want to send you some things just to

help you

in your journey of following jesus as we

give our lives to him that truly he’s

going to speak things into your life

he’s going to give you the wisdom that

you need the discernment that you need

everything that you need is found in

making him your

source lord god we thank you for your

presence we thank you for your grace for

your love for your anointing

lord we thank you lord jesus that today

we are making a decision that you

are our source lord god that you are

everything that we need lord we thank

you for who you are it’s in the

beautiful name of jesus we pray

amen thank you so much for watching this

message

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this week we want you to go out and live

a transformed life see you next week