Placed, Planted & Positioned
Source URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH1Cq3KIZ2Y
Video ID: eH1Cq3KIZ2Y
YouTube upload date: 2023-12-31
Video duration: 01:18:55
Transcription: Faster-Whisper small.en (automatic; timestamped)
Note: Automatic transcription; review against the audio before quotation or publication.

[00:09:00] we praise you this morning once again, Father.
[00:09:03] And we just, I come before you one more time, Father,
[00:09:06] and I just ask that your spirit
[00:09:08] would work through your vessel, Father.
[00:09:10] I just present my body to you right now
[00:09:12] as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto you,
[00:09:16] which is my reasonable service.
[00:09:18] Father, we thank you and we bless you in Jesus' name.
[00:09:20] Amen, you may be seated.
[00:09:24] Praise the Lord for those who are watching us
[00:09:27] in television land and online.
[00:09:30] This is Pastor Troy with you this morning,
[00:09:32] not Pastor Dean.
[00:09:33] Got a call a little over two hours ago
[00:09:35] and basically he just said, tag, you're it.
[00:09:39] And so he asked me, could I bring the word today?
[00:09:44] And it's hard to tell Pastor Dean no.
[00:09:47] Y'all understand that, right?
[00:09:48] Amen.
[00:09:50] So I got off the phone with him after talking to him.
[00:09:53] He said he didn't have a voice this morning.
[00:09:55] He lost his voice overnight and faith is not doing well.
[00:09:58] They're gonna take her to the doctor this morning.
[00:10:00] So those that are out there, we've already prayed for him,
[00:10:03] but if you would be in prayer today for them as well.
[00:10:06] And pray for all of Fire and Grace Church
[00:10:09] and Next Level Ministries.
[00:10:11] This year has been extremely demonic.
[00:10:13] And I think you guys know what I'm talking about.
[00:10:15] I had a conversation with Nancy and Pastor Dee
[00:10:19] earlier this week, this past week.
[00:10:21] And we're just talking about this year
[00:10:24] was something different about the cold and flu season.
[00:10:27] It's just, they're putting more stuff in the sky.
[00:10:29] Y'all know that, right?
[00:10:31] And what they concocted this year
[00:10:33] is just really, really coming down hard on people.
[00:10:37] So we have to stay prayed up
[00:10:38] and do the things you need to do.
[00:10:40] Eat good food, eat very good meals and take supplements
[00:10:45] and make sure you're getting enough sleep.
[00:10:47] We have to do everything we can.
[00:10:48] And then of course, pray.
[00:10:49] And we do pray for each other as a ministry.
[00:10:52] So, but listen, as I got off the phone with Pastor Dean,
[00:10:55] I started scurrying and I started pulling out all old notes
[00:10:59] and I was like, okay, Lord, what am I gonna do?
[00:11:02] I'm gonna start going through old notes
[00:11:03] and nothing was, and then I was shuffling
[00:11:05] through some papers and all of a sudden,
[00:11:08] I heard the Lord speak to me.
[00:11:09] And so we're gonna do a message
[00:11:12] I just really did three weeks ago in our ministry.
[00:11:15] And the Lord just put it in my spirit again.
[00:11:17] He said, do it again.
[00:11:18] Now listen, many of you watch Next Level Ministries
[00:11:22] every week from this particular ministry,
[00:11:25] the Lord said there are hundreds, even thousands
[00:11:27] that watch Pastor Dean's ministry that don't watch ours.
[00:11:32] And he said, I wanted to get this message out to you.
[00:11:34] So the title today is Placed, Planted and Positioned.
[00:11:39] Placed, Planted and Positioned.
[00:11:41] And when the Lord gave this to me,
[00:11:43] I was writing the work one day.
[00:11:44] It's amazing how much the Lord speaks to me
[00:11:46] when you're quiet and he can speak to you.
[00:11:49] And he just, it was like a download in my spirit.
[00:11:52] It was Lord just begin to show me something.
[00:11:54] And so I've taught this at our ministry,
[00:11:57] but today we're gonna talk about
[00:12:00] placed, planted and positioned, what God does.
[00:12:02] Sometimes you are placed, sometimes you are planted.
[00:12:05] And then we'll talk about being positioned.
[00:12:08] A lot of times in our lives, we wonder,
[00:12:10] God, why am I here?
[00:12:13] Or where are we going, Lord?
[00:12:17] Or how come I'm working this job?
[00:12:19] I hate this job.
[00:12:21] And you will be wondering, God, why is this?
[00:12:24] But God began to show me something.
[00:12:26] So let me pray real quick one more time.
[00:12:29] Father, I just pray that you, Lord, let this word go out.
[00:12:33] Let your speak to your people today, Father.
[00:12:35] I pray in Jesus' name, amen.
[00:12:36] So let's start with placed.
[00:12:39] When you are placed by God,
[00:12:41] this is when God puts you in a certain situation
[00:12:45] or environment.
[00:12:47] Often these situations are very tough situations.
[00:12:52] Sometimes you will meet persecution.
[00:12:55] Sometimes the situations may even be dire,
[00:12:58] but God has placed you there.
[00:13:03] Sometimes, like I said,
[00:13:04] God will place you in a situation on a job.
[00:13:07] You may not like the job.
[00:13:09] You guys, there's always going to be devils on every job.
[00:13:13] I started working when I was 15 or 16 years old.
[00:13:16] My first job was at a Burger King.
[00:13:18] And you guys, I'll be 62 in three months.
[00:13:22] And I'll tell you, every job I've ever worked,
[00:13:24] there's been a devil or two.
[00:13:26] Can I get an amen?
[00:13:27] Can I get an amen?
[00:13:28] There's always somebody.
[00:13:30] I've never worked a job that's been perfect.
[00:13:32] I've never had a job where it's been Nirvana,
[00:13:34] where there's 14 people and everybody is Christian
[00:13:38] and wanting to get along with everybody.
[00:13:40] Never have.
[00:13:41] There's always a devil there.
[00:13:43] There's always somebody there.
[00:13:47] But God will sometimes put you in a place
[00:13:50] and He has strategically put you there for a reason.
[00:13:55] And God will put you there sometimes
[00:13:57] just to be that strong example of being a believer
[00:14:00] in that particular situations.
[00:14:03] You'll find that when you walk and you are light
[00:14:07] in the midst of all that darkness,
[00:14:09] when people's lives go awry, guess who they come to?
[00:14:12] Troy.
[00:14:13] Can I talk to you for a minute?
[00:14:15] Man, I need prayer.
[00:14:17] My marriage is going up in smokes.
[00:14:19] Can you pray for me?
[00:14:20] Or people will come to you and want wisdom.
[00:14:24] You know, when I first did this message
[00:14:25] and was writing this out,
[00:14:28] I thought about Pastor Dee.
[00:14:32] She's been working at the VA for many, many years
[00:14:35] and it's been very frustrating for her over years.
[00:14:37] You know, being her husband, I hear the things,
[00:14:40] you know, there's not the level of excellence
[00:14:42] from most of the employees there that Pastor Dee has.
[00:14:46] A lot of people are really not there for the veterans.
[00:14:48] They're just there for a paycheck.
[00:14:49] You know what I mean?
[00:14:50] And I've heard many of her frustrations
[00:14:52] and there's even somebody at her job
[00:14:54] that has been a thorn in her side for 20 something years.
[00:14:58] I mean, a really bad thorn.
[00:15:00] I'm not gonna go into any details.
[00:15:03] But I told Pastor Dee, I said, you know what?
[00:15:06] God has you placed there.
[00:15:10] God has you placed to be a godly example
[00:15:13] of what a godly woman looks like.
[00:15:15] Pastor Dee has been that example.
[00:15:18] And over the years, am I wrong?
[00:15:19] People have come to you for prayer.
[00:15:22] People have come for you to godly wisdom.
[00:15:25] There's times people come in
[00:15:26] and Dee's gonna do an ultrasound on them
[00:15:28] and by the time she finishes up,
[00:15:30] she done laid hands on them and prayed for them,
[00:15:32] gave them the word.
[00:15:33] Why?
[00:15:34] Because she was placed.
[00:15:36] She was placed there.
[00:15:38] And so sometimes we're frustrated
[00:15:40] and not understanding that God has us there for a reason.
[00:15:45] I look at Wanda here, for eight years,
[00:15:48] this woman went down to the abortion clinic
[00:15:51] in Montgomery, Alabama.
[00:15:52] The last two years, she went every single day
[00:15:55] that they were open.
[00:15:57] God placed her there.
[00:15:59] Trying to convince those women not to kill their babies.
[00:16:03] And I believe that by her going there and praying,
[00:16:06] she would also pray,
[00:16:07] be praying that God would end abortion in this state.
[00:16:12] And I believe that her prayers is one of the reasons
[00:16:16] why the Supreme Court ruled the way that it ruled.
[00:16:21] Amen?
[00:16:23] And why we don't have abortions going on
[00:16:26] in this state right now.
[00:16:27] Why?
[00:16:29] Because God took her from California.
[00:16:31] He said, guess what?
[00:16:32] I'm gonna place you in Montgomery, Alabama
[00:16:35] and I want you to pray and look at the result.
[00:16:39] She was placed.
[00:16:41] Do you understand that?
[00:16:42] So a lot of you may be wondering,
[00:16:44] God, why am I here?
[00:16:46] Why am I living in this little town?
[00:16:48] Why am I working this job?
[00:16:51] God has placed you there, right?
[00:16:54] That's your husband right there.
[00:16:56] You know you've been placed, right?
[00:16:58] All right, now I just want you to understand that.
[00:16:59] There's a reason why God brought you here, amen?
[00:17:03] So I want you guys to get that.
[00:17:06] Romans 8 and 28, I don't think I put that scripture down
[00:17:09] for you guys, but if you'll put up Romans 8 and 28,
[00:17:12] it's a very common scripture.
[00:17:15] It says, and we know that all things work together for good
[00:17:19] to them that love God and to them who are the called
[00:17:24] according to his purpose.
[00:17:26] You know, that's a scripture that we like to quote a lot,
[00:17:30] right, we like to claim that scriptures,
[00:17:32] but there's some qualifiers in that scripture.
[00:17:34] It says, all things work to the good of those
[00:17:37] who love the Lord.
[00:17:41] How do you know if you love the Lord?
[00:17:43] Jesus said it very plainly.
[00:17:45] He said, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments.
[00:17:48] If you want things to work to your good,
[00:17:52] he said to those that love the Lord.
[00:17:56] See, that's the first qualifier.
[00:17:57] Then he said, those that are called
[00:17:59] according to his purpose.
[00:18:01] See, the Bible says we are called out of darkness
[00:18:04] and into his marvelous light.
[00:18:05] You have to be a believer,
[00:18:07] because I don't believe anybody that's out there
[00:18:08] that's unsaved, they've not given their life to the Lord,
[00:18:11] things are not working to your good.
[00:18:13] Y'all, for those 22 years I was out there
[00:18:14] doing my own thing, trust me,
[00:18:17] things were not working to my good, amen?
[00:18:21] The Bible says the way of the transgressor is hard.
[00:18:24] That's what the word of God says.
[00:18:26] So that's the qualifier.
[00:18:28] Do you love the Lord?
[00:18:29] Are you a believer?
[00:18:31] Then all things will work together for your good,
[00:18:33] but I want you to understand
[00:18:34] that God is the master chess player.
[00:18:37] He knows the beginning from the end,
[00:18:40] and we're his pieces, we're on his end time chess board,
[00:18:44] and he's moving us and placing us
[00:18:47] where he wants us to be, amen?
[00:18:51] So let's talk a little bit,
[00:18:53] we talked about being placed,
[00:18:54] but what about being planted?
[00:18:57] Now, when you talk about being planted,
[00:19:01] planted is a little bit different.
[00:19:03] No, before we go into that,
[00:19:04] I want to talk about people in the word of God
[00:19:08] who God placed, let's do that first,
[00:19:10] and then we'll get into being planted.
[00:19:12] So let's look in the scriptures
[00:19:13] at some of the people that God, he placed.
[00:19:17] Let's look first at Esther, amen?
[00:19:21] So Esther was placed as the queen of Persia.
[00:19:27] She had a gift, you know what her gift was?
[00:19:29] Beauty.
[00:19:31] This woman won a beauty contest.
[00:19:33] She had outward beauty, she had inward beauty,
[00:19:37] which was godly virtue.
[00:19:40] So let's put up Esther four,
[00:19:44] we're gonna look at verses,
[00:19:49] let's put up verses 13 through 15,
[00:19:52] and I'll read this right off the board.
[00:19:53] It said, then Mordecai, this was her uncle,
[00:19:55] commanded to answer Esther,
[00:19:57] think not with thyself that thou shall escape
[00:20:00] in the king's house more than all the Jews.
[00:20:05] For thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time.
[00:20:09] Then their enlargement and deliverance
[00:20:13] arise to the Jews from another place.
[00:20:17] But thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed,
[00:20:20] and who knows whether thou art come to the kingdom
[00:20:23] for such a time as this.
[00:20:27] Then Esther bathed them, return Mordecai this answer.
[00:20:32] And then verse 16, it talks about them fasting
[00:20:37] for three days and three nights,
[00:20:40] and then she goes on to say, if I perish, let me perish.
[00:20:44] So God had placed her there for such a time as this.
[00:20:49] That's the same thing with us.
[00:20:50] God has placed us in certain places
[00:20:53] for such a time as this.
[00:20:56] He's just moving pieces.
[00:20:58] He's moving us where he wants us to be.
[00:21:01] Yesterday I did a message on the wheat and the tares.
[00:21:05] I don't know if any of you guys got a chance to see that,
[00:21:07] but when you read there in Matthew 13
[00:21:10] about the wheat and the tares,
[00:21:11] there's a place where it says,
[00:21:14] his angels asked God, basically,
[00:21:16] his servant said, hey, didn't you plant
[00:21:19] good seed in your field?
[00:21:21] He said, they said, do you want us
[00:21:22] to go and uproot all the tares?
[00:21:25] Now the tares are the evil ones.
[00:21:26] These are the ones that work for Satan.
[00:21:28] And God said, nay, no, not at all.
[00:21:31] He said, because if you uproot the tares,
[00:21:34] the evil ones, he said, you'll also uproot the wheat.
[00:21:38] See, God has us planted.
[00:21:39] He said, just let them grow together.
[00:21:41] There's gonna be a day when judgment's gonna come.
[00:21:43] I'll deal with that later on,
[00:21:45] but right now I have them placed and I have them planted.
[00:21:48] Do y'all get that, amen?
[00:21:51] So let's look at somebody else.
[00:21:53] Let's look at Joseph.
[00:21:56] Joseph was placed second in command of all Egypt
[00:22:01] to save Israel and Egypt from a great famine.
[00:22:05] Now Joseph went through some things, y'all.
[00:22:08] Joseph really went through some things.
[00:22:10] So I wanna tell y'all just a quick synopsis of Joseph.
[00:22:14] Joseph, the first thing he had was the preview.
[00:22:19] That was the prophetic dream.
[00:22:21] He had the prophetic dream and God gave him this dream
[00:22:25] and showed him what he was going to be.
[00:22:28] You know, God does that in our lives.
[00:22:30] Sometimes God will drop a vision in our spirit
[00:22:33] of something that we are to do or where we're going.
[00:22:36] You're gonna be a pastor one day.
[00:22:37] You're gonna do this.
[00:22:38] You're gonna have the, your business is gonna be awesome.
[00:22:41] What God does not show you is the whole movie.
[00:22:44] He just gives you a sneak preview.
[00:22:50] Becoming to tell you why,
[00:22:51] if God showed you the whole movie,
[00:22:53] you would say, uh-uh, I ain't, I'm not starting,
[00:22:57] I ain't starting that journey.
[00:22:59] No, no, no, no, no.
[00:23:00] So he gives you a preview
[00:23:02] because when you know what the preview does,
[00:23:03] the same thing it does in the natural, right?
[00:23:06] I'm going to see Aquaman 2 here within the next week
[00:23:10] because I saw the preview.
[00:23:12] I said, oh, that looks like it's gonna be good.
[00:23:14] The preview gets you started on your way.
[00:23:17] Am I, am I all right?
[00:23:18] I'm not moving too much for you guys back then.
[00:23:20] I'm good, okay.
[00:23:21] The preview gets you started on your journey.
[00:23:26] So he'll drop something in your spirit
[00:23:28] to get you moving, to get you going.
[00:23:32] But God doesn't tell you the whole story.
[00:23:34] So let me tell you a little bit about Joseph.
[00:23:36] Joseph had the prophetic dream, which was the preview.
[00:23:41] From the preview, he went to the pit.
[00:23:44] Then he was sold to the Ishmaelites,
[00:23:46] which were like enemies of his people, right?
[00:23:52] Then from the pit, he went to Potiphar's house as a slave.
[00:23:56] But hold on, Lord, didn't you say that I was gonna be,
[00:23:59] my brothers were gonna bow down,
[00:24:00] I would be over my brothers?
[00:24:02] Makes no sense.
[00:24:03] I went from the pit to Potiphar's house.
[00:24:05] I'm a slave now.
[00:24:06] From Potiphar's house while he was there,
[00:24:08] he had a phony accusation come against him
[00:24:11] that he raped somebody.
[00:24:12] He forced himself on somebody.
[00:24:14] Do you imagine what he was going through?
[00:24:16] If God had showed him all of that,
[00:24:20] instead of just giving them the preview.
[00:24:23] But now he's the phony accusation.
[00:24:25] Then from the phony accusation, he goes to prison.
[00:24:28] He's in prison now, right?
[00:24:31] And then while he's in prison, things begin to change
[00:24:35] because now he begins to flow in the prophetic
[00:24:38] and he begins to interpret other people's dreams.
[00:24:41] And then flowing through in the prophetic,
[00:24:44] he ends up in the palace.
[00:24:46] Exactly where God told him from the beginning.
[00:24:51] And he was placed there.
[00:24:53] He was placed in the palace
[00:24:55] because there was a great famine coming
[00:24:56] and he preserved them from starvation
[00:24:59] because he was placed in the right place.
[00:25:01] But I want you to understand,
[00:25:02] you might have to go through some things
[00:25:05] to get where God is taking you.
[00:25:07] But he was placed.
[00:25:09] What about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?
[00:25:15] What about them?
[00:25:18] They were placed in the fiery furnace.
[00:25:22] Why?
[00:25:23] To show us that when we are going
[00:25:25] through our worst trials in life,
[00:25:28] there's a fourth man also in the fire with this.
[00:25:31] Y'all put up Daniel 3 and 25.
[00:25:36] Says he, meaning Nebuchadnezzar, answered and said,
[00:25:39] lo, I see four men loose,
[00:25:42] walking in the midst of the fire and they have no hurt.
[00:25:46] And the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.
[00:25:51] See, sometimes you'll be placed right in the fire.
[00:25:54] You won't understand why am I going through this?
[00:25:56] Why is this attack on my body?
[00:26:01] You won't know.
[00:26:03] Why are they persecuting me?
[00:26:05] But God will have you placed there
[00:26:07] because he's gonna show himself strong through you.
[00:26:10] Let's look at one more.
[00:26:12] Why was Daniel placed in the lion's den?
[00:26:16] To show the power and the protection of almighty God.
[00:26:21] So let's read in Daniel 6 here.
[00:26:23] We're gonna read Daniel 6, 19 through 22.
[00:26:30] This is after Daniel had been thrown into the lion's den
[00:26:34] and the king came to find out what happened to him.
[00:26:37] Then the king arose very early in the morning
[00:26:40] and went in haste unto the den of lions.
[00:26:43] And when he came to the den,
[00:26:45] he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel
[00:26:48] and the king spake and said unto Daniel,
[00:26:50] oh Daniel, servant of the living God,
[00:26:54] is thy God whom thou service continually
[00:26:57] able to deliver thee from the lions.
[00:27:00] And then said Daniel unto the king,
[00:27:02] oh king, live forever.
[00:27:05] My God has sent his angel and has shut up the mouth
[00:27:10] the lion's mouth that they have not hurt me
[00:27:13] for as much as before him innocency was found in me
[00:27:18] and also before thee, oh king, I have done no hurt.
[00:27:24] Wow, now let's go down to verse 25.
[00:27:26] Let's read a little bit here.
[00:27:28] Look at the end of this.
[00:27:30] Then King Darius wrote unto all people,
[00:27:33] nations, languages that dwell in all the earth,
[00:27:38] peace be multiplied unto you.
[00:27:40] I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom,
[00:27:44] men tremble in fear before the God of Daniel.
[00:27:48] For he is the living God and steadfast forever
[00:27:52] and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed
[00:27:56] and his dominion shall be even until the end.
[00:28:00] Did the king get a revelation?
[00:28:03] Did he not get a revelation?
[00:28:05] But it was all because God placed Daniel
[00:28:08] in the lion's den.
[00:28:10] It makes no sense to the natural mind, does it?
[00:28:13] But sometimes we are placed.
[00:28:16] Now let's go on to being planted.
[00:28:22] Being planted is a little different than being placed.
[00:28:29] When you are planted, it is all about ministry.
[00:28:35] This is ministry now.
[00:28:37] When you're planted, you're supposed to produce fruit
[00:28:41] or a harvest for the husband, the vine dress,
[00:28:44] or you could say the father.
[00:28:49] When you're planted, like I said,
[00:28:50] you are planted for the purpose of ministry.
[00:28:54] The apostle Paul was planted in the soil
[00:28:58] of the Gentiles, you guys.
[00:29:02] He was planted, then the planted became a planter.
[00:29:08] All those books y'all see in the Bible,
[00:29:10] Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, Rome, Romans,
[00:29:16] Colossians, guess who planted all those churches?
[00:29:20] Paul planted all those churches, amen?
[00:29:23] So next level ministries is planted in Montgomery, Alabama.
[00:29:29] Sometimes you guys, I don't even know why
[00:29:32] we are planted there.
[00:29:34] But God is using our ministry.
[00:29:39] We moved, what, a little over a year ago.
[00:29:42] We moved from one house to another.
[00:29:44] We were living in Montgomery and God had told us
[00:29:47] when we moved in that house many years ago,
[00:29:49] we were gonna have another move.
[00:29:50] So we knew eventually God was gonna say
[00:29:52] it's time to move.
[00:29:53] Well, I wanted to get out of Montgomery, Alabama.
[00:29:58] I wanted to get to Pike Road or Prattville.
[00:30:02] That's where we wanted to go.
[00:30:03] And for two and a half months, you guys,
[00:30:08] we looked at houses.
[00:30:10] We looked at house after house after house.
[00:30:14] We got so, I got so frustrated with looking at houses.
[00:30:17] Me and Dee were getting on each other's nerves.
[00:30:19] What I liked, she didn't like.
[00:30:20] What she liked, I didn't like.
[00:30:22] We could not come to an agreement.
[00:30:25] But we were looking.
[00:30:26] And I'm gonna tell you something.
[00:30:28] When you try to move,
[00:30:32] when you try to replant yourself,
[00:30:36] the Holy Spirit will try to frustrate you.
[00:30:39] And so after two and a half months of looking,
[00:30:42] trying to get out of Montgomery
[00:30:44] because we didn't like the mayor,
[00:30:45] he was too liberal for us.
[00:30:47] We didn't like the things, the street racing
[00:30:49] and all that stuff that's going on,
[00:30:51] uncontrollable in Montgomery.
[00:30:54] We go to this last house that I didn't even wanna go see.
[00:30:58] I said, I don't wanna live off Atlanta Highway.
[00:31:00] Dee had been trying to get me to go to this neighborhood
[00:31:02] for the longest time.
[00:31:03] I don't wanna live off Atlanta Highway.
[00:31:04] Sometimes men can be stubborn, y'all.
[00:31:06] Y'all know that, right?
[00:31:08] Sometimes we should listen and we don't listen.
[00:31:11] And I said, okay.
[00:31:13] Our realtor said, there's two more houses
[00:31:15] in County Downs to look at.
[00:31:17] And we were about to put a bid on another house
[00:31:18] that was just like so-so,
[00:31:20] but we had just got tired of looking.
[00:31:22] And so I said, okay, let's go.
[00:31:24] I said, unless I'm blown away,
[00:31:26] we're gonna put a bid in on this house.
[00:31:28] I'm tired of looking.
[00:31:30] And we went to County Downs.
[00:31:33] We went to the first house,
[00:31:34] which was in what we call old County Downs,
[00:31:36] the older part of the subdivision.
[00:31:40] And we walked in.
[00:31:41] I walked around two minutes.
[00:31:42] I said, nah, this ain't it.
[00:31:43] Let's go.
[00:31:44] So we get in the car.
[00:31:45] And I'm just doing this as a courtesy to our realtor
[00:31:48] just to look at these last two houses.
[00:31:50] So we go to the next house and we go to new County Downs.
[00:31:54] We started riding back.
[00:31:55] Oh, these are nice houses back here.
[00:31:59] And we go in, we walk into the house, you guys,
[00:32:03] and it's just everything we wanted.
[00:32:07] And Dee and our realtor, Brittany,
[00:32:10] they just walk around.
[00:32:11] And I said, mm-hmm, y'all can do all the him and her.
[00:32:13] You want to, we can't afford this house.
[00:32:16] But anyway, when we walked into
[00:32:18] what's called the Florida Room,
[00:32:19] and for those that have been at our ministry,
[00:32:20] that is our sanctuary now.
[00:32:23] I knew, I said, God, this is our sanctuary.
[00:32:26] So I'm not gonna give you the whole story,
[00:32:30] but God worked it out.
[00:32:31] They had to drop the price on the house, the whole thing.
[00:32:34] And we end up getting the house.
[00:32:36] And I remember asking the Lord,
[00:32:38] he said, why Lord?
[00:32:39] He said, because I got you planted in Montgomery.
[00:32:44] Why are you kicking against the Gulf?
[00:32:48] I got you planted right here.
[00:32:49] And I had to resign in my mind and in my spirit,
[00:32:53] God, this is where you have us.
[00:32:55] And you guys, we are reaching that city.
[00:32:58] We are reaching people all over the United States.
[00:33:01] We're reaching people,
[00:33:02] we have people that watch us from overseas
[00:33:04] every single Saturday.
[00:33:07] And so it's been a blessing.
[00:33:10] And we're having impact,
[00:33:12] and that's what we are supposed to do.
[00:33:15] I look at fire and grace ministry,
[00:33:19] this little church planted in Opelika, Alabama.
[00:33:25] Just small ain't much to it,
[00:33:28] but y'all, it is having so much impact
[00:33:32] for the kingdom of God, amen?
[00:33:36] Look at the growth and understanding.
[00:33:38] See, you gotta understand that when you are planted,
[00:33:41] there's certain things that God is looking for.
[00:33:45] And one of them is,
[00:33:46] you're supposed to produce fruit in the lives of believers.
[00:33:49] Believers should be growing spiritually,
[00:33:52] and this should be clearly evident
[00:33:54] from the fruit in their lives.
[00:33:55] You should be maturing, amen?
[00:33:58] You should be maturing.
[00:33:59] I think of fire and grace,
[00:34:01] how much, you guys, I'm still learning.
[00:34:03] I come every Sunday, we come almost every Sunday.
[00:34:06] You wanna know why?
[00:34:07] Because I'm still learning.
[00:34:09] And Pastor Dean, Pastor Nancy,
[00:34:12] they are our heads, they are our overseers.
[00:34:14] We place ourselves under them,
[00:34:17] because I'm still learning,
[00:34:18] I'm still growing about things
[00:34:19] and understanding of things in the kingdom.
[00:34:23] But look how much power, the truth about flat earth,
[00:34:27] look how God just blew that thing up.
[00:34:30] I mean, in the natural,
[00:34:32] it looked like there was some negative aspects to it,
[00:34:35] but this thing just went around the world, you guys,
[00:34:39] from this small little ministry,
[00:34:41] from this vessel across the world.
[00:34:43] Thank you, across the world.
[00:34:45] Thank you for the correction, brother.
[00:34:48] But this message, this truth of God's word just blew up.
[00:34:54] And it's from this ministry,
[00:34:58] God using this man, this vessel in Opelika, Alabama.
[00:35:02] He was planted to be right here.
[00:35:05] And see, if you look at it in the natural,
[00:35:08] it makes no sense.
[00:35:10] But I've learned that everything in the kingdom
[00:35:13] and everything in the world is completely opposite.
[00:35:16] They're completely opposite.
[00:35:19] The word is all about the truth,
[00:35:21] the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
[00:35:23] Jesus said, I am the truth.
[00:35:25] The Bible said, God is not a man that he can lie.
[00:35:28] He is all about truth.
[00:35:29] You know, the world is all about lies.
[00:35:32] Y'all, after this last election,
[00:35:33] I have not watched the news one time.
[00:35:36] I used to watch Fox
[00:35:38] until I found out that they were in on the coup as well.
[00:35:44] I mean, it's nothing but lies, it's propaganda.
[00:35:47] The school systems, you think they're getting truth.
[00:35:50] It is all indoctrination, mostly all indoctrination.
[00:35:56] And so they're two different worlds.
[00:35:58] I mean, God says, turn the other cheek.
[00:36:05] Somebody ask you to walk with them,
[00:36:06] walk with them an extra mile,
[00:36:08] give them your coat if they ask for it.
[00:36:10] In the world, you don't turn the other cheek.
[00:36:14] Other words, somebody go bad,
[00:36:16] but you just get a little better, right?
[00:36:20] It's so different.
[00:36:22] You have to so transform your mind
[00:36:25] because it's so different, the kingdom of God, amen?
[00:36:29] But this has been such a great ministry.
[00:36:32] I think about prophecy quake.
[00:36:34] I know Pastor Dean used to have a ministry
[00:36:37] called Prophecy Quake, a show,
[00:36:38] and he would deal with end time events
[00:36:40] and how they lined up with scripture
[00:36:42] and prophecy and all that.
[00:36:44] I know he hadn't done that as much recently,
[00:36:46] but I'm just thinking about how much
[00:36:49] this little ministry planted in Opelika, Alabama
[00:36:54] is having impact all over the earth.
[00:36:57] That better, a little better?
[00:36:58] Okay, I had to make that little correction.
[00:37:01] You had to make that little correction right there.
[00:37:04] So I said this, but I wanna put some emphasis on it.
[00:37:12] When God plants you,
[00:37:14] you must resist trying to replant yourself, right?
[00:37:20] There's only two ways that you can be replanted
[00:37:25] in both ways God has to do it.
[00:37:28] Now you can do it yourself.
[00:37:30] It ain't gonna work to your good.
[00:37:32] You either have to outgrow what you're in, okay?
[00:37:42] So I don't have a green thumb, my thumb is black.
[00:37:45] I can't grow anything, okay?
[00:37:47] But I know many people here have gardens.
[00:37:50] I know Wanda has gardens.
[00:37:51] We get a lot of stuff from her garden.
[00:37:53] She goes to our ministry.
[00:37:55] And if you have something in a plant, right?
[00:37:57] If you have something in a container, you have a plant.
[00:38:00] Eventually, when the roots grow out and sprout,
[00:38:03] those roots have to keep growing.
[00:38:06] Otherwise, it will thwart the plant or it can even die.
[00:38:10] So that'll happen sometimes.
[00:38:12] Sometimes your church will,
[00:38:13] God will just enlarge your tent and enlarge your territory.
[00:38:17] And then he'll have to move you.
[00:38:19] Right now, we have a home church,
[00:38:21] a house church, right, out of our house.
[00:38:24] We figure we could do 40 to 50 people at that house.
[00:38:26] If it ever got any bigger than that, guess what?
[00:38:30] God would have to replant us.
[00:38:32] Then we'd have to start looking for a building.
[00:38:36] So that's one way that you can be replanted.
[00:38:40] Here's another way.
[00:38:44] God just, you end one assignment,
[00:38:47] what I call kingdom assignment.
[00:38:48] While we're here on the earth,
[00:38:50] once you meet a certain level of maturity
[00:38:52] and growth in the Lord,
[00:38:54] God's gonna give you something to do.
[00:38:55] You're gonna get a ministry.
[00:38:58] And sometimes you have an assignment.
[00:39:00] That assignment may come to an end
[00:39:01] and God says, I'm gonna put you on another assignment.
[00:39:03] And sometimes that may mean you have to move
[00:39:06] from one part of the country
[00:39:07] to another part of the country.
[00:39:08] You might have to do something different,
[00:39:09] switch jobs, whatever.
[00:39:11] But that's another way that God can replant you.
[00:39:14] But let me tell you what happened a lot
[00:39:16] in late 90s through 2000s,
[00:39:23] you saw pastors that were replanting themselves.
[00:39:27] I wanna tell you guys, and I seen it happen.
[00:39:29] It was before I was a pastor, but I saw it happen
[00:39:32] and I knew it was out of order.
[00:39:34] Let me tell you what they would do.
[00:39:36] They would want to become a big ministry.
[00:39:41] They would want to become a mega church.
[00:39:44] God didn't tell them, but they would want to become one.
[00:39:48] What they had, the 50 to 100 people they had wasn't enough.
[00:39:53] And so the whole focus and the mindset change
[00:39:56] from somebody who just, Lord, I'm gonna be faithful
[00:39:59] to what you gave me, to how do I become big?
[00:40:02] How do I become mega?
[00:40:05] And so now they begin to do things to draw more people,
[00:40:11] right, light shows and make sure you got a coffee
[00:40:13] and donut when you come in
[00:40:15] and all this kind of stuff, right?
[00:40:18] Guess what happens though when that happens?
[00:40:21] You water down the word.
[00:40:24] Because see, once you go get that huge building
[00:40:26] and you got that big note
[00:40:29] and you got that big loan to get it, guess what?
[00:40:33] You gotta start preaching not to offend.
[00:40:36] Because at that point,
[00:40:37] it becomes all about nickels and noses.
[00:40:40] How many people can we get in
[00:40:42] and how big can the offering be?
[00:40:45] And so what it hurts is your flock
[00:40:49] because now you start just giving them Kool-Aid messages.
[00:40:53] Not the kind of messages you're getting
[00:40:55] from fire and grace and next level ministries.
[00:40:58] You just get Kool-Aid.
[00:41:00] And so really, you're big, but you have no power, right?
[00:41:05] You end up having a form of godliness,
[00:41:08] but deny the power thereof, the power of the word,
[00:41:11] the power of the Holy Spirit, amen?
[00:41:14] So, and then here's another way I saw pastors
[00:41:19] begin to replant themselves.
[00:41:20] This was real popular like, especially in the 90s.
[00:41:25] Every pastor would have his own side ministry,
[00:41:31] Joel Jackson Ministries, and they begin to write books.
[00:41:36] And then they would want to go nationwide or worldwide.
[00:41:43] What they would be trying to do is to blow up.
[00:41:47] And many did it and became rich.
[00:41:50] And so others began to do it.
[00:41:51] There was a church in Montgomery, it was a dynamic church,
[00:41:55] went there for a couple years.
[00:41:57] It was a mixed congregation church full of the Holy Ghost.
[00:42:01] The pastor was planted in Montgomery.
[00:42:03] And then the enemy turned him
[00:42:05] because he decided, I want to be big.
[00:42:08] I want to do what these other guys are doing.
[00:42:10] I want to get rich.
[00:42:12] And so he literally left his church
[00:42:14] to a guy that was not ready to be pastor.
[00:42:18] So he could write his books.
[00:42:19] He moved to California because he wanted to get a big name.
[00:42:23] That church plummeted.
[00:42:26] The guy was not ready.
[00:42:29] The church went down, people start coming.
[00:42:31] He had no anointing.
[00:42:33] Think he ended up getting a divorce from his wife.
[00:42:35] It just totally imploded.
[00:42:38] And it's because this man left his assignment
[00:42:42] because he wanted to blood.
[00:42:43] He was trying to replant himself.
[00:42:45] Do y'all get that?
[00:42:46] So we have to resist that.
[00:42:47] We don't replant ourselves.
[00:42:49] God has to plant us.
[00:42:51] Now next level ministries,
[00:42:52] I will tell you in the natural,
[00:42:56] we have about five to 10 people there on a Saturday.
[00:43:01] And here's the thing about Pastor D and I,
[00:43:04] we're faithful to that.
[00:43:06] If y'all saw what we did every Saturday morning,
[00:43:09] we get up early.
[00:43:10] I'm usually writing my final outline
[00:43:13] because I work a full-time job as well.
[00:43:15] And my job is very strenuous
[00:43:17] and I'm moving and grooving all day long.
[00:43:20] And it's hard to find time to pray
[00:43:22] to get in the word sometimes.
[00:43:23] So I usually, my messages are I work on it
[00:43:26] hour and a half to two hours this day, hour and a half.
[00:43:29] And then finally, Saturday mornings,
[00:43:30] I usually get up about three or four in the morning
[00:43:33] to finish writing out the final outline.
[00:43:35] But then I have to get up and clean the bathrooms.
[00:43:37] I sweep and mop all the floors.
[00:43:39] Pastor D is doing the things.
[00:43:40] We have a little thing.
[00:43:41] She's doing her thing.
[00:43:42] I'm doing her, my thing.
[00:43:43] I am faithful to this little where I'm planted
[00:43:48] because I understand I've been planted.
[00:43:51] That's what God gave me.
[00:43:53] Amen.
[00:43:54] So, as I said, three, when you are planted,
[00:44:00] there's three, it's all ministry related.
[00:44:03] And you are planted, there's a threefold purpose God does.
[00:44:05] As I said, one, to produce fruit in the believer's life.
[00:44:09] Like I say, you should be spiritually growing
[00:44:12] with clearly evident fruit.
[00:44:14] Y'all, there is something wrong.
[00:44:17] If you've been going to a church for 10 years
[00:44:20] and you're still out there fornicating all the time.
[00:44:23] There's something wrong.
[00:44:25] Because either there ain't no powerful word
[00:44:28] coming from that ministry.
[00:44:31] Or the pastors have no discernment.
[00:44:34] Because I just discerned, you know,
[00:44:36] when you're walking with the Lord close,
[00:44:37] you just discern things on people.
[00:44:40] You know that?
[00:44:41] You can just look at a person sometimes and say,
[00:44:44] they dealing with this.
[00:44:46] Now you don't always say something.
[00:44:47] Sometimes the Holy Spirit don't say nothing.
[00:44:48] Sometimes the Holy Spirit just says pray.
[00:44:50] But if you've been going to the same church
[00:44:52] for 10 years and you're still fornicating,
[00:44:55] you're still smoking doobies.
[00:44:58] Either that's the weakest word coming from that ministry
[00:45:02] or nobody is discerning anything in the spirit.
[00:45:05] Either way, that's not good.
[00:45:08] Because you should always be growing
[00:45:09] and producing more fruit, right?
[00:45:13] Matter of fact, in that one parable that Jesus gave,
[00:45:16] I'm the vine.
[00:45:18] My father is the vine dresser.
[00:45:20] He said, those that produce fruit in me,
[00:45:23] if you stay in me, he said,
[00:45:25] but if you don't produce fruit,
[00:45:27] you're gonna be cut off from the vine.
[00:45:29] We're not gonna get into that.
[00:45:31] But you should always be producing fruit.
[00:45:34] You should be growing in the Lord.
[00:45:36] If you ever get stagnant, something ain't right.
[00:45:40] We need to do a self check at that time, right?
[00:45:43] Amen.
[00:45:44] Here's number two, harvest.
[00:45:47] We should always be bringing people
[00:45:48] into the kingdom of God.
[00:45:50] That means converting the lost.
[00:45:53] We should always have that heart
[00:45:55] to bring people into the kingdom.
[00:45:58] And harvest also means sometimes God will bring
[00:46:02] people together or ministries together
[00:46:03] to do a kingdom work, amen?
[00:46:07] And then here's the final thing,
[00:46:08] and I talked about this a little bit, but impact.
[00:46:10] Your ministry should have impact.
[00:46:13] And what I have found, you guys,
[00:46:16] and this is not always the case,
[00:46:18] but most big ministries have very little impact.
[00:46:23] God is working through remnants.
[00:46:30] He's working through remnants.
[00:46:32] This little church, as I said,
[00:46:33] all the things that are coming out of this little church,
[00:46:36] about 50 people, 60 people on a given Sunday.
[00:46:40] Most pastors that I meet over the years,
[00:46:44] I've been saved since I was 22 years old, all right?
[00:46:49] Most pastors that I meet,
[00:46:51] so about 40 years in the kingdom,
[00:46:53] you wanna know what their biggest pride
[00:46:56] and accomplishment is.
[00:46:58] Well, I have 500 members.
[00:47:00] I have 2,000 members.
[00:47:02] We have 10,000 members and three services on Sunday.
[00:47:08] It is all about numbers, quantity.
[00:47:13] That's not how God does things.
[00:47:16] What God is power in unity, right?
[00:47:22] As I said, y'all know, one of the messages that I do
[00:47:27] is what Gideon started off 32,000 men
[00:47:31] when God got through, he had 300 guys
[00:47:34] and just did a great miracle.
[00:47:36] Defeated three kings that had armies were so big,
[00:47:40] the Bible says that the horses and chariots
[00:47:42] could not be numbered.
[00:47:44] They didn't lose a man with 300.
[00:47:48] God does addition by subtraction
[00:47:51] because God can do more with a few that are on fire
[00:47:54] that are in unity than thousands that are lukewarm.
[00:47:59] So that's why I say in most big churches,
[00:48:01] because you gotta preach not to offend.
[00:48:04] There's no power, amen?
[00:48:08] So we should be having impact
[00:48:10] that's personal and collective, right?
[00:48:15] So we are God's ecclesia.
[00:48:17] That word literally, it's a governmental term.
[00:48:19] It means God's governing body on the earth.
[00:48:22] Everything should come through the body of Christ.
[00:48:25] We should be impacting everything
[00:48:28] with fervent prayer ourselves, amen?
[00:48:31] So we should be having impact.
[00:48:35] When plants are rooted in soil,
[00:48:38] they are not easily swayed, shaken, or moved.
[00:48:42] When you are placed by God,
[00:48:45] often the situations and environments are not optimal.
[00:48:49] There may be persecution attacks from the enemy,
[00:48:52] possibly even life-threatening.
[00:48:55] But God will use you as a light
[00:48:56] in the midst of dark places.
[00:48:59] People will gravitate to your light,
[00:49:01] or you could say the light that is within you.
[00:49:03] People will ask you for spiritual advice,
[00:49:06] want you to pray for them.
[00:49:07] You will leave them with deposits of heavenly wisdom,
[00:49:11] all because you have been carefully and strategically
[00:49:15] placed and or planted by the master, amen?
[00:49:21] Do y'all get that so far?
[00:49:22] Y'all with me?
[00:49:24] Y'all with pastor?
[00:49:25] Okay, all right.
[00:49:26] So one more thing we gotta talk about
[00:49:28] and we're gonna close today.
[00:49:30] And that's being positioned.
[00:49:34] Now, God places us and God plants us,
[00:49:40] but you position yourself.
[00:49:43] This is all about you.
[00:49:45] Being positioned is all about you.
[00:49:49] You put yourself in position
[00:49:52] for blessing and promotion in the kingdom of God.
[00:49:57] Put up Luke 6 and 38.
[00:50:02] Popular scripture, we like this one, right?
[00:50:04] Give and it shall be given unto you,
[00:50:07] good measure, press down, shaking together,
[00:50:09] and running over shall men give unto your bosom.
[00:50:12] For with the same measure you meet with all,
[00:50:14] it shall be measured back to you again.
[00:50:17] In the kingdom of God,
[00:50:20] giving is just like a cycle, it's like a circle.
[00:50:24] If you ain't giving to kingdom work,
[00:50:27] you're doing yourself a disservice.
[00:50:29] Now, I do some, I believe some really good
[00:50:32] and powerful teaching on giving.
[00:50:35] Pastor D and I, we believe in tithing, we tithe.
[00:50:38] I know not everybody does, that's fine.
[00:50:41] But tithing and giving into good soil for kingdom work,
[00:50:46] you guys are putting you in position for blessing.
[00:50:49] Look at that scripture.
[00:50:50] It says, shall men give unto your bosom.
[00:50:57] Y'all, Pastor D and I have done it both ways.
[00:51:00] We've done it where we didn't give.
[00:51:03] And I promise you,
[00:51:04] it was like living with holes in your pocket.
[00:51:07] Just walking around, just falling out as you walk in.
[00:51:09] Never had enough money, always in lack, always arguing.
[00:51:16] Because that's gonna come.
[00:51:19] And then I'll never forget it,
[00:51:22] around the same time the Holy Spirit dealt with her,
[00:51:25] that he dealt with me.
[00:51:25] And like I said, I don't remember who came to who.
[00:51:29] I can't remember, D came to me, I came to her.
[00:51:32] But one of us said, we just gotta be,
[00:51:34] we gotta get faithful in our giving.
[00:51:36] We gotta start tithing.
[00:51:38] And I'm just gonna say, D came to me, I can't remember.
[00:51:41] And I said, yeah, the Lord been saying the same thing to me.
[00:51:43] We gotta start doing it.
[00:51:44] And we just made up our minds right then.
[00:51:46] And listen, our kids were still young.
[00:51:48] We had, at one point, all four of our kids
[00:51:51] in private school.
[00:51:52] And we've talked about it now.
[00:51:53] We don't even know how we did it.
[00:51:56] Because we were making a lot less money
[00:51:57] than we were making now.
[00:51:58] But we started just being faithful in our giving.
[00:52:02] And I believe that when you begin to give
[00:52:05] until the kingdom work,
[00:52:08] that it supercharges what you got left.
[00:52:11] I think it makes it supernatural what you have left.
[00:52:14] God'll start doing things.
[00:52:15] You start getting blessed.
[00:52:16] Shall men give unto you, bosom?
[00:52:18] People start blessing you.
[00:52:21] It won't make any sense.
[00:52:23] I'm telling you, you're doing things,
[00:52:27] you're positioning yourself for God to do things for you.
[00:52:33] Amen?
[00:52:34] I still believe in Malachi three.
[00:52:37] You're bringing the tithes and the offering
[00:52:39] into the storehouse that there will be meat in my house.
[00:52:42] What's that mean?
[00:52:43] There'll be resources in the house of God.
[00:52:44] You guys, I remember growing up,
[00:52:48] going to churches where they had to beg for money.
[00:52:54] They would take three offerings.
[00:52:58] And so, you know what I watched the people do?
[00:53:00] They would come in with five dollars,
[00:53:02] five one dollar bills.
[00:53:03] And the first offering, they put two dollars.
[00:53:05] The second offering, they put two dollars.
[00:53:07] The third offering, they put a dollar.
[00:53:08] They were just splitting up.
[00:53:11] Right.
[00:53:13] Now, Pastor Dean doesn't take offerings.
[00:53:16] Guess what, we don't at next level ministry either.
[00:53:18] Can I tell you something?
[00:53:19] Our ministry is blessed.
[00:53:21] I mean, financially, we're blessed.
[00:53:23] That small little church up there.
[00:53:24] Y'all, we're doing things, we're giving unto,
[00:53:27] we just gave money to four inmates
[00:53:29] that are in love with God in Ohio
[00:53:32] that I found out through a ministry friend of mine.
[00:53:34] We just sent them a thousand dollars.
[00:53:36] I talked to them on the phone the other day
[00:53:38] and they're just like,
[00:53:39] Pastor Troy, you don't even know us.
[00:53:41] You just gave unto us like that.
[00:53:43] I said, Pastor Doug told me what you guys are doing
[00:53:46] in that prison.
[00:53:49] We don't even take offerings.
[00:53:51] God told me, teach on giving twice a year.
[00:53:54] The Bible says faith cometh by hearing
[00:53:56] and hearing by the word of God.
[00:53:59] But when you give unto kingdom work,
[00:54:00] now here's the key.
[00:54:02] You gotta give unto good soil.
[00:54:05] See, there's some people that give,
[00:54:08] but if you go, you're at a church
[00:54:09] and the pastor's sleeping around with the women,
[00:54:11] yeah, you're still giving to the kingdom,
[00:54:13] but it's not good soil.
[00:54:14] And just like in the natural,
[00:54:16] if you don't have good nutrient rich soil
[00:54:19] and you put, you'll get a little harvest,
[00:54:21] but you ain't gonna get a big harvest.
[00:54:24] If you're going to a church
[00:54:25] where they're messing over the money,
[00:54:29] you'll get a little harvest.
[00:54:31] You gotta give it and put it into good soil.
[00:54:33] Do you know Pastor D and I tied into this ministry?
[00:54:36] We tied into our own
[00:54:37] and then we tied into this one too.
[00:54:41] Y'all, we are blessed beyond measure.
[00:54:44] They're doing all kinds of things
[00:54:45] to ruin this economy and to bring this nation down.
[00:54:49] But I believe that when you give unto good soil,
[00:54:55] God's gonna take care of you.
[00:54:57] And what you have left is supercharged
[00:55:00] in the kingdom of God.
[00:55:02] Do y'all get that?
[00:55:03] So you are positioning yourself, amen?
[00:55:07] Put up another scripture here, Matthew 6 and 33.
[00:55:12] Says, but seek ye first the kingdom of God
[00:55:15] and his righteousness and all things
[00:55:18] shall be added unto you.
[00:55:19] Here's one of those.
[00:55:22] Your positioning, if you're seeking God first,
[00:55:25] you're putting him before everything else.
[00:55:28] He said, if you seek me first in my kingdom,
[00:55:30] he said everything else, I'm just gonna add it unto you.
[00:55:34] You need a second car, I'll add it.
[00:55:36] You need a bigger house, I'll add it.
[00:55:39] You need a better job, I'll add it.
[00:55:41] Just seek me first.
[00:55:42] God said, if you put me first, I promise you,
[00:55:45] I'm gonna take care of you.
[00:55:47] But you're positioning yourself for this.
[00:55:51] Let's look at another one.
[00:55:53] Zechariah 4 and 10.
[00:56:01] For who have despised the day of small things,
[00:56:05] for they shall rejoice and shall see the plummet
[00:56:08] in the hand of Zerubbabel?
[00:56:10] I'm gonna stop right there.
[00:56:12] So I'm gonna concentrate on that very first part.
[00:56:15] God says, don't despise humble or small things
[00:56:20] or small beginnings.
[00:56:22] Do you guys know how God promotes
[00:56:27] is being faithful over a small thing?
[00:56:30] When I got an understanding of this
[00:56:32] when I was a younger Christian,
[00:56:34] when I was parking lot attendant,
[00:56:35] I was the best doggone parking lot attendant there could be.
[00:56:39] I was early, I was out there directing traffic,
[00:56:43] I made sure we brought umbrellas,
[00:56:44] so if it was raining with the ladies getting out the car,
[00:56:47] we'd go put the,
[00:56:48] God, you gave me a small thing, I'm gonna be faithful.
[00:56:52] He said, if you're faithful over the little thing,
[00:56:54] he said, I'll make you ruler over much.
[00:56:56] You are positioning yourself for promotion and blessing.
[00:57:01] When I was over the ushers,
[00:57:02] I was over the ushers for a couple years.
[00:57:04] You guys, when I, they used to,
[00:57:07] the matter of fact,
[00:57:09] when I was over the ushers at this church,
[00:57:11] I was not an ordained minister or anything at the time
[00:57:13] and people start calling me Pastor Troy.
[00:57:16] I had them men, we had three shifts,
[00:57:18] three different teams, so every three guys wouldn't burn out.
[00:57:24] So you only had to do it every day.
[00:57:26] When we did communion,
[00:57:31] you guys, I had them like military.
[00:57:33] We walked down there, steps, look at each other,
[00:57:35] I mean, with boom, boom, people would come and say,
[00:57:37] oh my God, I've never seen anything like that
[00:57:39] because I understood I was trying to go somewhere in God.
[00:57:43] See, in being over the ushers,
[00:57:45] it might've been a small thing.
[00:57:46] You know what a lot of people do?
[00:57:47] Well, you know what, I can preach, oh, I'm anointing.
[00:57:50] Just give me a, that's not how God promotes.
[00:57:52] Just give me the mic, no?
[00:57:54] I can sing, no?
[00:57:57] God says, I'm gonna give you a little thing.
[00:58:00] He said, will you be faithful over that?
[00:58:03] He says, if you'll be faithful over that,
[00:58:05] that's how he promotes.
[00:58:07] He wants to know, do you love me enough
[00:58:11] that you'll be parking lot attending?
[00:58:12] When it's hot, when it's cold,
[00:58:13] you'll still be out there helping those people.
[00:58:16] You're positioning yourself for promotion.
[00:58:20] Oh, I hope y'all are getting this today.
[00:58:24] Listen, if you're a man,
[00:58:26] let's talk about waiting on a mate, okay?
[00:58:30] Waiting on a wife, or waiting on a husband.
[00:58:34] If you're a man, I'm about to give you the blueprint.
[00:58:37] You ready?
[00:58:39] You go after God, you begin to pray for her.
[00:58:45] Pray that God will send her,
[00:58:47] and you get yourself financially prepared for her.
[00:58:52] You know, in the church world, there's been a saying,
[00:58:55] girl, I'm just waiting on my boa ass.
[00:58:58] Everybody wants a boa ass.
[00:59:03] Can I tell y'all something about boa ass
[00:59:05] when you read that story on Ruth?
[00:59:06] There were two qualifications to be a boa ass.
[00:59:09] He loved God.
[00:59:10] When you listen to the words he spoke,
[00:59:12] he was a man that was going after God.
[00:59:15] Here's the other thing.
[00:59:17] Boa ass was good with finances, he had some money.
[00:59:21] So if you really wanting a boa ass,
[00:59:25] you know, he can be saved,
[00:59:27] but if he broke, he ain't a boa ass.
[00:59:30] Or he can have money and not be saved, he ain't a boa ass.
[00:59:33] Now I have a joke with Dee, when we first met,
[00:59:36] I was saved, loved the Lord, I didn't have no money.
[00:59:38] I told her I wasn't a boa ass, I was just a boa.
[00:59:40] At that time, that was all I was then.
[00:59:45] God didn't change some things for us.
[00:59:48] But men, listen, you should be preparing yourself
[00:59:50] for your wife.
[00:59:51] I told my own son this, just pray for her.
[00:59:55] You go after God with your whole heart.
[00:59:58] Just pray for her.
[01:00:00] And God, listen, I know this doesn't,
[01:00:02] once again, in the kingdom, it makes no,
[01:00:05] it's completely opposite from the world's thinking.
[01:00:09] Your wife will come quicker if you don't look for her.
[01:00:15] Because when you get in that mindset
[01:00:17] that I got to find, I gotta look, I gotta date,
[01:00:20] I gotta go, let me tell you what's gonna happen.
[01:00:23] The enemy's gonna set you up,
[01:00:24] he gonna say counterfeit after counterfeit.
[01:00:27] She gonna be the way you like,
[01:00:28] you like brunettes, he'll send you,
[01:00:30] you like blondes, he'll send you blondes.
[01:00:33] She might even be able to talk a little word.
[01:00:37] It'll be a counterfeit.
[01:00:38] Because you're going after, out of the flesh.
[01:00:42] But if you just go, he said, seek ye first the kingdom,
[01:00:45] and all these things will be add unto you.
[01:00:47] And you just pray for her, and then be thinking about her,
[01:00:50] and say, I need to put some money away.
[01:00:52] See, I just believe, when I look in the Old Testament,
[01:00:54] when they would go ask for a woman's hand in marriage,
[01:00:57] they said he, and he left her with 100 goats and 50,
[01:01:01] I mean, back in those days, you know,
[01:01:03] that was a Cadillac.
[01:01:07] And so many of this and so many of that,
[01:01:09] he was letting that father know,
[01:01:11] I can take care of your baby.
[01:01:12] I got her.
[01:01:16] So while you're waiting on her, be praying to God,
[01:01:22] send her to me, but start putting money away.
[01:01:25] I think it'll be nice by the time God sends your wife to you,
[01:01:28] you already got a house waiting for her to decorate.
[01:01:32] Do y'all get this?
[01:01:34] You're putting yourself in position.
[01:01:36] See, once you get in your flesh,
[01:01:37] and you start going after it yourself,
[01:01:40] God said, oh, you got it, and he backs off.
[01:01:44] Y'all, so many things happen.
[01:01:46] That's why Pastor Troy does not believe in dating
[01:01:49] from the sense of how the world dates.
[01:01:54] It's trial and error.
[01:01:57] God never meant for that to be,
[01:01:59] because most of us, you know,
[01:02:02] Michelle, you date a guy, two or three guys,
[01:02:04] by the end of it, your heart's so scarred and messed up,
[01:02:07] and you got problems,
[01:02:08] and when God finally do send you somebody,
[01:02:11] he'd be like, what's wrong?
[01:02:12] I'm just trying to touch you,
[01:02:13] and you're jumping all over.
[01:02:14] Well, you know, Jeremy used to beat me.
[01:02:19] You know, things that you go through,
[01:02:21] or you were in love with somebody,
[01:02:23] and you were just totally in love,
[01:02:24] and then they just drop you.
[01:02:25] Do you think God wanted y'all to go through that?
[01:02:29] No, it comes faster.
[01:02:32] You can be out there four or five years dating,
[01:02:34] never find the right person,
[01:02:35] and if you had just went after God with your whole heart
[01:02:38] while you were walking it out,
[01:02:40] God had a Kairos moment.
[01:02:42] That's a marked moment in time.
[01:02:44] You were in the grocery store,
[01:02:45] and y'all both going for the same grapefruit.
[01:02:48] What?
[01:02:54] I promise you, though, God gonna pull it together.
[01:02:57] You ain't gotta use dating sites.
[01:02:59] There's Christian dating sites.
[01:03:01] All this, y'all, that's flesh.
[01:03:04] That is all flesh.
[01:03:06] Just trust God, and when you see her,
[01:03:10] when you finally meet,
[01:03:12] you'll know that you know,
[01:03:13] that you know in your spirit.
[01:03:17] That good stuff?
[01:03:18] Now, let's talk about the woman.
[01:03:19] I ain't forgot about y'all.
[01:03:22] What do you do when you're waiting on a maid?
[01:03:23] Same thing.
[01:03:25] Go after God with all your heart.
[01:03:27] Seek godly virtue.
[01:03:29] Pray for him.
[01:03:31] Prepare yourself to be a godly woman.
[01:03:34] Listen, I know we're in a time,
[01:03:36] women work, and all that good stuff,
[01:03:38] but listen, y'all may not believe this.
[01:03:42] Men still like a clean house.
[01:03:45] Y'all may not believe this.
[01:03:47] Men still like a woman that can
[01:03:49] whip up a magnificent meal.
[01:03:53] Do you follow me?
[01:03:55] Prepare yourself to be a wife.
[01:04:01] I do a message, it's like a dual message,
[01:04:04] called, are you man enough?
[01:04:07] And then D follows it up,
[01:04:08] where one says, but are you worth finding?
[01:04:11] Because the Bible says,
[01:04:11] when a man finds a wife, he finds a good.
[01:04:14] I have not found a scripture yet
[01:04:16] that says, when a woman seeks after a man,
[01:04:19] or when a woman wears scantily closed
[01:04:22] to attract men, she finds a good,
[01:04:25] no, I ain't never found that scripture.
[01:04:28] You're found.
[01:04:31] Do you understand what I'm saying?
[01:04:33] You are found.
[01:04:34] He finds you.
[01:04:36] He discovers you.
[01:04:40] Same thing.
[01:04:42] You ain't got a date.
[01:04:43] If you have godly virtue,
[01:04:47] let me say this,
[01:04:47] when I first got down here from New York,
[01:04:51] I moved to Alabama, New York never did any fishing, okay?
[01:04:55] All I did was play basketball in the hard court, okay?
[01:04:59] Got down here and met a couple country boys.
[01:05:03] Man, you ain't never been fishing.
[01:05:04] No, come on, we're gonna take you fishing.
[01:05:07] We'll get all my equipment.
[01:05:08] I fell in love with it, you guys.
[01:05:10] For three years, I would fish every time.
[01:05:12] If I had two hours, I wouldn't do it,
[01:05:14] and I'd find a pond.
[01:05:16] I just loved it, but this is what I found out.
[01:05:20] When you're fishing for catfish,
[01:05:21] you use different bait
[01:05:23] than when you're fishing for bass.
[01:05:26] Because catfish feed off the bottom.
[01:05:30] So you use worms and stank bait
[01:05:32] and liver and all that kind of stuff.
[01:05:36] But a bass, he feeds off the top
[01:05:40] and he's looking for something shiny and colorful.
[01:05:45] It's different.
[01:05:47] And you guys, when you're talking about a woman
[01:05:52] and you want to be found,
[01:05:55] that godly man, that Boaz,
[01:05:57] he ain't looking for that woman
[01:05:58] that's showing all her breasts, scantily clad,
[01:06:04] cursing, going to the clubs.
[01:06:08] He'll look right past you.
[01:06:12] But if you got that godly virtue
[01:06:13] and you're going after God,
[01:06:16] I remember Dr. Mull,
[01:06:19] he's our head doctor where I work.
[01:06:21] He's a believer.
[01:06:23] And he was in his early 20s
[01:06:25] and he was at church one Sunday.
[01:06:27] And the lady that he's been married to
[01:06:29] for 30 years now or so,
[01:06:33] he said he, in service,
[01:06:35] it was doing praise and worship.
[01:06:36] He looked over and he said she had,
[01:06:38] Melissa had her hands raised up
[01:06:40] and she was,
[01:06:41] he said she was not only singing,
[01:06:43] she was literally worshiping God
[01:06:46] and he couldn't take his eyes off of her.
[01:06:50] And then he started talking to her
[01:06:52] and she was still a virgin.
[01:06:54] And he said,
[01:06:57] and he courted her, not dated.
[01:06:59] Courtship is completely different.
[01:07:02] Courtship, the ultimate aim of courtship is matrimony.
[01:07:09] Not trial and error.
[01:07:12] They've been married all these years,
[01:07:14] have a child.
[01:07:15] But I remember him telling me
[01:07:17] it was her virtue,
[01:07:18] it was the way she worshiped God.
[01:07:20] Boaz will find you.
[01:07:23] You can position yourself for a blessing.
[01:07:27] Oh, I hope y'all are getting this today.
[01:07:32] One more thing I wanna talk about.
[01:07:34] For two more things, let's say that.
[01:07:38] The wealth of the wicked is laid up for the just.
[01:07:40] We all know that scripture.
[01:07:43] But I don't believe every single person,
[01:07:45] if there is going to be an end time wealth transfer,
[01:07:48] I don't believe it's going to be,
[01:07:50] everybody is going to get it.
[01:07:52] I think it is people that are out there
[01:07:53] doing their kingdom assignment,
[01:07:56] working for God,
[01:07:57] given into kingdom work,
[01:07:58] into good ground.
[01:08:00] If there's, I believe it's gonna be people
[01:08:02] that have positioned themselves for it.
[01:08:04] Not everybody, not everybody.
[01:08:09] And so place planted position.
[01:08:18] Some of you out there today are listening to me.
[01:08:21] And there's been something stirring in your spirit
[01:08:27] because you feel like God is saying,
[01:08:30] I gotta leave here and I gotta go there.
[01:08:34] I sense I need to move there.
[01:08:38] I think it's very, very possible.
[01:08:41] It'd be in prayer about it because God may be re,
[01:08:45] maybe he wants to place you somewhere else.
[01:08:51] Maybe he's beginning to move you
[01:08:52] on his end time chess board.
[01:08:56] Because I believe God is pulling remnants together
[01:08:58] in this hour and this season.
[01:08:59] I've been believing this for about 10 years.
[01:09:02] Many of you are here today
[01:09:03] because God, you felt that compelling
[01:09:05] that I gotta get down here where my people,
[01:09:09] these are my people.
[01:09:10] What do you call them?
[01:09:11] Tribe.
[01:09:12] Wanda said when she got around us,
[01:09:14] she said, finally, I'm with my tribe.
[01:09:17] She used to say that when she first started
[01:09:18] coming to the next level ministries in here,
[01:09:20] she said over and over, I'm with my tribe.
[01:09:22] She knew this was the remnant
[01:09:25] that I was supposed to be around.
[01:09:27] And I believe there may be many of you out there.
[01:09:29] God may be speaking to you.
[01:09:31] He might be ready to shift you and move you.
[01:09:34] Because I'm telling you guys in the next couple years,
[01:09:36] there's gonna be some things that's gonna go down
[01:09:38] in this country and in the world.
[01:09:41] And you're gonna need to be with your tribe.
[01:09:46] You're gonna need to be with like mind, like people
[01:09:49] because God's gonna do miracles.
[01:09:53] Can I tell y'all something?
[01:09:55] When Moses went to get the children of Israel out of Egypt,
[01:10:00] when those plagues came,
[01:10:02] when you go back and read that,
[01:10:03] you'll see something.
[01:10:04] It came to Egypt, but it didn't come to Goshen.
[01:10:10] Y'all, we're gonna have to be living in our Goshen.
[01:10:14] I do a message called sacrificial giving
[01:10:16] for supernatural living.
[01:10:17] Listen, your giving gonna have to be right.
[01:10:20] You're going after God's gonna have to be right.
[01:10:22] You're gonna have to be around the right people
[01:10:23] and it's probably not gonna be a mega church.
[01:10:28] And God's gonna, the plagues that are gonna come around
[01:10:31] everybody else.
[01:10:32] The sickness is gonna come around everybody else.
[01:10:35] The poverty is gonna come around everybody else.
[01:10:38] Greg, you might have to cut my hair during that time.
[01:10:41] We would do what we have to do.
[01:10:43] I'll get my eggs from mama.
[01:10:47] Y'all hear me.
[01:10:48] Y'all hear what the Lord is saying.
[01:10:50] Place, planning and position.
[01:10:56] Let's pray and then get ready to keep us on.
[01:10:58] Father, we thank you for the word of God today.
[01:11:02] And Lord, I pray that the Holy Spirit
[01:11:05] has spoke to each and every heart today.
[01:11:08] Every person that has heard the sound of my voice,
[01:11:11] that they, maybe they understand a little better now,
[01:11:13] Lord, Lord, now I understand why you have me at that job.
[01:11:17] Father, now I understand why my church is in this little town
[01:11:22] or in this place, Lord, and I really don't wanna be here,
[01:11:24] but you got me planted.
[01:11:26] And Lord, I can't uproot myself.
[01:11:28] I gotta wait for you to move me.
[01:11:30] Lord, maybe there's that person out there
[01:11:31] that's been debating, is it time for me to leave this state
[01:11:35] and move somewhere else and shift over here
[01:11:37] because it's you, Lord, that's speaking to them.
[01:11:41] You've stirred this in their heart.
[01:11:44] Father, I pray now that more people have a revelation
[01:11:47] and an understanding of how you do things.
[01:11:52] Lord, we are placed, we are planted,
[01:11:56] and Father, we decide how much we are positioned
[01:12:00] to get blessing and promotion for you.
[01:12:02] So Father, we thank you for the word once again.
[01:12:06] Father, we give you all the honor, all the glory,
[01:12:11] and all the praise in Jesus' mighty name.
[01:12:15] Amen.
[01:17:49] I got caught up into the worship.
[01:17:51] He said, you gotta go back up there
[01:17:52] and say goodbye to everybody.
[01:17:54] I said, oh, yeah, that's right.
[01:17:55] So look, thank you guys today.
[01:17:58] I hope you were blessed by the message.
[01:18:00] I thank all you guys for being here today.
[01:18:02] Pastor Dean, we hope you and your family
[01:18:06] are feeling much better.
[01:18:08] Do you want me to go ahead and do this announcement?
[01:18:13] Okay, so we're still having our service tonight, okay?
[01:18:20] And it starts at seven.
[01:18:21] We go from seven to 10.
[01:18:24] So for those that wanna come back
[01:18:25] for what we used to call watch night service
[01:18:28] at church I used to go to,
[01:18:29] but it's really just praying in
[01:18:32] and worshiping in the new year, amen?
[01:18:34] Because it is a blessing to go
[01:18:35] from one year to the other, amen?
[01:18:38] All right, so I would be remiss if I did not tell you guys
[01:18:40] you've got to hug some necks before you leave, okay?
[01:18:45] Gotta hug some necks.
[01:18:46] All right, y'all be blessed.