Transcription
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Hey guys, welcome to Radiant Church YouTube. Today, we had a sermon called "Consider the Ways of the Ant." In this sermon, we learned about the ways of the ant and how we can apply that wisdom into our daily lives. Check out this message to see how it blesses your life.
If you guys are taking notes, the title of my sermon is "Consider the Ways of the Ant." "Consider the Ways of the Ant." This is my last sermon on wisdom. So, if I've been beating you up all series long, we get to go to nice, happy, friendly stuff now. So that means today, I'm like, I'm at your head in your house. I'm going to come whoop you up one last time because I've got to get you ready for the year. And I'm so excited to preach on wisdom. And sermons like this, because if you go to church, you never hear stuff like this preached. But it's all over the Bible, on it's all over the Bible. But you never hear stuff like this preached. And here's why: it's because wisdom is actually a maturing message. It's a, it's a maturing message.
See, when I first got saved, I remember I got saved. I started reading the Bible, and I was reading the, the book of Acts. And I remember, like, man, I want the power of God. Like, I want miracle-working power. I want to be able to lay hands on the sick, they recover. I want to be able to touch a casket and people pop out the grave. Like, I want the miracle-working power of God. I want if somebody pull up with demons, like, "Rebuke thee!" and demons run and flee seven different ways. Like, which way they run? It's only four directions, but they fleeing seven. Amen. Like, I wanted that. And then I found out something. I was like, "When I grow in God, I'm going to get that." And I found out that, I found out that the power of God, the deliverance power, the miracle-working power was actually for the baby in Christ. I thought you had to be mature in God to get that. And then I found out, like, soon as the disciples was following Jesus, Jesus would send them out by two. He would give them power to trample over serpents and demons and over everything, and people would immediately get saved, full of the Holy Spirit, and they would have power right away. But then when I read the Bible, it would be years down the line that they actually got wisdom. And then I realized that the power of God wasn't for the mature. The wisdom of God was, the wisdom of God was.
And the reason why we don't preach on stuff like wisdom is because the church ain't even got no power. My God, they ain't even got no power. Most people, most Christians at a church are afraid to pray for people. Most Christians don't even read their Bible. Most Christians aren't even full of the Holy Spirit. Let me, let me stop. Let me, let me, we ain't even here for all that today. So, so, so how can we talk about wisdom? So, so, so this is a maturing grace. And a lot of times, it ain't preached. I believe probably for most pastors, they probably feel like the congregation ain't there yet. But I feel like God has assigned me to teach the whole counsel of God, not just part of it. And we're not just to teach morality of God, we're to teach functionality of God as well. I'll explain what that means.
So today, we are talking about the ant. And we're going to the ant to get this concept of wisdom. Because the ants are really, really wise. Yes, today we're talking about ants, and they are wise. And why do we need wisdom, church? The reason why we need wisdom is because all problems of life can be solved and unlocked with wisdom. Everything from marriage problems to parenting problems to, to job problems. All your problems trace back to a lack of wisdom. And God says we can go to these ants and get wisdom.
Now, I feel a little convicted to go to ants and get wisdom because I spent my whole life setting ants on fire. I'm talking about, I used to go to little ant hills and little ant hills with a lighter and I used to set them on fire and watch them burn. I know that is evil, and I know that my heart should have been right. I was a bad little kid, and it was fun. And one day, I was walking, I fell in an ant hill. They started biting me up like I was a chicken nugget. And then I heard one of the ants scream out, "This for our ant sisters!" And everything you did to them, we're getting you back. So they got me back for their ancestors, you know what I'm saying? They tow me up. I still be scratching sometimes, and that was over 16 years ago.
But ants, ants are brilliant. They are wise. And the way they move, the way they function is so, so, so, so wise. Now, a couple things that you got to understand is here's one of the characteristics of the ant that makes the ant so wise and so extraordinary and so amazing. It's because they have complete self-rulership. The ant rules itself like no other thing. Like, like it has full control over itself. Most people don't rule themselves. The ant rules itself. It controls itself. It leads itself. It motivates itself. My question for you, church, is: Do you rule yourself, or do you need someone else to come rule you? Do you lead yourself, or do you need someone else to come lead you? Do you motivate yourself, or do you need someone else to come motivate you?
The ants are self-led, self-motivated, self-reliant. They lead and they move themselves. Do you know one of the most powerful traits you can have as a human is to have control over your soul? Do you control your soul, or what they said to you at work control your soul? Do you control your soul, or how you woke up feeling control your soul? Do you control your soul, or what you read on social media? Do you have control over your soul? Which means, do you get to decide what your day will be, or do you got to find out? If I ask you, "How would next Wednesday be?" Do you got to say, "Pastor K, I don't know. I got to get to next Wednesday." Or you can tell me right now because I'll tell you how next Wednesday will be. It'll be just as good as every other Wednesday. Why? Because the Lord made Wednesday, and today is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. I'm just saying, you know, I'm at your head today.
Who in here says, who in here says, "I'm not a morning person"? Wave at me. Okay, cool. I'm coming at you. How dare you not be a morning person? Let me tell you what happened in the morning. God woke you up. How in the world are you mad when your eyes open and there's people's eyes that didn't open? What, not a morning person? Become one because the Lord woke you up in the morning. I'm telling you, I just, this is just not a good day. Try missing one. Try missing one. You got to shift your perspective. Somebody gave you permission to not be a morning person, and you need to rebuke it. Everybody lift their hand. You didn't say, "I am a morning person." I rebuke that because that's a seed that becomes a weed, and a weed becomes a doorway for Satan to come in your house and knock your day off before it even start. You're not a morning person. You got rubbed before you got out of your seeds. Wow. You are a morning person. You're an every-day kind of person. You're an every-moment kind of person. This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.
The Lord says, "Don't let the sun go down on your wrath." Which means if you're waking up the next day mad, that means the sun went down on your wrath.
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See, we got to deal with all this stuff in the church because what happens is, you think because you don't smoke, chew, and run with those that do, you're godly. And God says being godly ain't just having morality, it's having biblical functionality. Do you move like God? Do you walk like God? Do you talk like God? Do you interact like God? Do you respond like God? Or do you act like the devil with a scripture in your mouth? I'm coming at you today. Just put on your seatbelt. I love you, though. The Bible says, "Whom the Lord loves, he chastises." You're getting chastised this morning.
Now, now, now, the hardest person to lead will always be yourself. Proverbs 16:32 says this: "He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty." Which means that if you're slow to anger, you are better than mighty men of valor. Why is the Bible saying that? It's because the person that can control his anger rules his soul. If you can control your anger, you rule your soul. Let me say what, because anger is like a match. Anger is like one of them little black cats. You just light it, and it pops. If you can control that and stop that, you are mightier than the mighty. Then it says, "And he who rules his spirit is mightier than he who takes the city." In other words, the Bible says if you can rule your own spirit, you're more mightier than a governor that takes a city. In other words, God is saying you're more mightier than a general if you can just control your own soul.
Do you know most people can't lead themselves? They can't control themselves. Do you know that most people are reactive, not proactive? They're reactive, waiting on what's going to happen, waiting on how they're going to feel, waiting on what someone's going to say to them. Some of y'all waiting on the devil to see how hard he hit you. I'm not waiting on Satan to see how hard he hit me. Devil, wait on me to see how hard I hit you. Trying to avoid the devil. I'm trying to pursue the devil and kick him in his chin because he has no authority, no power, and no victory. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You have to have rulership over your soul. So God is saying this comes in wisdom.
Let me tell you how to test someone's wisdom. You can test it two ways. Wisdom is the ability to apply the Bible to life. You know when someone's wise because you have a lot of people that know the Bible and they're idiots. You can have a mouthful of scripture and be dumb. Why? Because you don't even have the scripture in context. Can you take the word of God and apply it to life? That's a basic. Do they rule their soul? Emotionally erratic, you're dealing with a fool. Can't control their anger, you're dealing with a fool. Move with the flow of the wind, you're dealing with a fool. Getting knocked off kilter, you're dealing with a fool. A wise person has control over their soul. They yield their day, they're not yielded by it. Do you yield your day, or does your day yield you? You have to have control over your life, control over your day. You cannot master this earth if you can't master your soul. The first level of mastery you should have is self-mastery. And many of you guys want to lead everybody and control everybody, and you can't lead yourself. Wow.
I remember starting off the year, the Holy Spirit drop-kicked me. Um, I was just like, I had a list of everything I needed to get everybody to do. And the Holy Spirit was like, "What do you need to do? What do you need to do? Like, what's how to order in your house? Like, have you cleaned your bathroom mirror, or is there fingerprints on it from your little daughter? Is her handprint on the mirror? Don't try to clean everyone else's mirror if your daughter's handprint is on yours." The Lord was telling me, "Clean up your own life first. Put on your own mask first. Rule yourself first before you try to help everyone else." How about we just take a moment and help self-rule, self-lead, self-control, self? Why do you want to control everyone but you don't control yourself?
So again, again, this is a part of wisdom. And God gives you wisdom for your purpose. Everyone say, "For your purpose." Purpose. What is your purpose? What is your purpose? Now, some of you guys will know the answer to this, but some of you guys won't. And I would venture to tell you that if you're not in your purpose, discovering your purpose, walking towards your purpose, then what on earth are you here for? Because if you don't have a purpose and you're living aimlessly, he that aims at nothing hits it every time. If you're living aimlessly, that means you're just here to take up oxygen, eat food, drink water, live merry, and then expire one day. And there's a date that you were born and the day that you die, and there's a hyphen in between, which is supposed to symbolize your purpose. But your hyphen is blank. It has nothing under it because you accomplished nothing because you don't know who you are. What on earth are you here for? Why did God make you? There's a void in the universe waiting on you to step into it. Why did God create you? The two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you knew why. Why are you? Why, why, why?
Well, Pastor, I don't know. How do I discover it? The first way you discover it is you cannot find what you were created for if you're not connected to who created you. In other words, the first step to self-discovery is God-discovery. The first step to figuring out who you are is knowing who God is. Because when you get revelation of His identity, He gives you revelation of your identity. You have a purpose, my friend. And you would discover that in knowing God.
Some of you guys need to serve at the church, and I'm not just saying that because we want you to serve at the church, even though we do want you to serve at the church, but it's true. But I ain't just saying it because of this reason, but check this out: it's because when you lock into the church, and now you begin to worship, and now you're accountable, now somebody knows if you're at church or not. Now you're leaning into the things of God. Now you're connecting with other believers. Now people are hearing things for you, they're speaking things into you, they're encouraging you, they're motivating you. Because a lot of things happen in community. How can you want to know your destiny if you have no biblical community and you're not connected to the source of the universe? You have to be connected to God so He can reveal to you who you are.
And let me tell you the danger of not knowing your purpose. Not knowing your purpose can shorten your lifespan. There was 200 guys, they did a survey on this because there's been rumors that would go around that says that people, people that don't retire live longer. So there was 200 guys, well, 200 of them retired. 100 of them just vacate. They hunted, they fished, they lived their married life in retirement. The other hundred found new work. And after 10 years, the first 100 who didn't find new work, 80 of them was dead, and 20 of them had health problems. The second hundred that found new work, only 20 of them died, and 80 of them still lived. Why? Because when you were created, your purpose started your post. Wow. When you lose your purpose, it weakens your post. God gave you a post for purpose. And when you live aimlessly and purposefully and you don't live purposefully, you lose your post. So, so you should never retire. You wasn't, you wasn't created to retire. Maybe you retire from that job, but you got to find your work. God, what did you deploy me to? What did you call me to? I can't get tired of that. I'll never retire as long as I live. Why? Because I have a purpose, not a job. Many of you guys have a job, and it's cool. But, but your job is what you get paid to do. Your purpose is what you was made to do. What did God make you to do? What did He make you to do?
I mean, you need wisdom to discover all of this. And when God wanted you to get wisdom, He sent you to the ant. God could have sent you to the bear. He could have sent you to the lion. God could have sent you to the stars, the clouds, the Milky Ways, the seas, the Grand Canyons, the waterfalls, all the big, magnificent, marvelous things that He created. He sent you to the smallest, most insignificant thing that He created, the little bitty, teeny, eeny, bitty ant. And God sent you to him so you can unlock wisdom. And also, God put His principles and He put His ways in certain things in the earth so you can study those things and, and, and see the ways of God on display. Wow. Right? And He did that with the ant.
If you have your Bibles, go to Proverbs Chapter 6. We're going to start at verse 6. And the scripture reads: "Go to the ant, y'all." This is crazy. We're at church like, "What about? Go to the Holy Spirit. Go to the altar. Go to the pastor. Go to the elders of the church." Like, you should go to YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Reel, something. God sent you to the ant. The ant. Just imagine. Some of y'all need to leave church and be like, "Hey, baby," and you need to talk to the old child like, "Darling, can you show me where them ants at?" You was playing with. Like, God sent you to the ants when He wanted you to be educated. God said, "Go play in the sand with some ants." He sent you to the ant. This is crazy. And this is your Bible. This is in your Bible. It says, "Go to the ant." And then I love God because He always like, "Coming for you." It says, "You sluggard." You'll know what that means in a minute. Dang, he just charged you up. "Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise. Consider the ways of the ant, and you will be wise. Which, having no captain, overseer, or ruler, provides her supplies in summer and gathers her food in the harvest. How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, so shall poverty come to you like a prowler, or a robber in your need like an armed man." Wow, wow, wow, wow.
The Bible says, "Go to the ant and consider her ways." Now, I'm so glad that the Bible didn't say, "Go to the ant and consider her behaviors." Because we love studying behaviors, but we hate studying ways. See, the children of Israel, they knew the acts of God. But the Bible says Moses knew the ways of God. See, there's a difference to know His ways and His acts. His acts is His powers, His encounters, Him calling down fire from heaven, all the powers, all the acts that the people saw. His acts. But Moses knew His ways, and that's what made Moses wise. And the danger of being a junkie for the acts of God is this: the devil got acts too. False idols got acts too. So if you're just looking for something miraculous to happen, you don't just have to go to Jesus for that. Go watch a witch, they can move things too. So I'm not just looking for the acts of God, I want to know His ways. Why does He move like that? Why does He talk like that? Why does He speak like that? Why does He act like that? Why, why did He tell me to give? What is kingdom prerogative? I want to know His ways, not just His acts. In other words, I don't want to just see the power of God, I want to know the person of God. Come on. Because there's a difference between His power and His person. See, see, see, see, see, in His person, you start finding all kind of things about, like, about God. Like, in other words, God, like, I'm like the ant. Some of you guys never saw God in that way. You just saw Him religious. You saw Him with a little robe on, "Holy is Thou, holy is Thou." And it's like God said, "I'm out here hustling like an ant." God said, "I'm a hustler." You didn't even know I was a hustler. You just thought I was only holy. I hustled too, but you didn't know that I created the earth in six days and had one left over. I'm out here grinding and hustling, and you can see it because you were so religious and you didn't know my ways. You only knew my acts. You only knew my acts.
So people of God, you have to know the ways of God. And when we talk about His ways, we're talking about David said, "Oh Lord, teach me Your ways." Why? Because we want the functionality of God, not just His morality. Some of you guys walk around, you're like, "I don't cuss, I don't do this, I'm absent, I got all this." But you got a nasty attitude. You got a bad mood. You walk around mistreating everybody. Nobody likes to be around you because you don't have the ways of God. You should have a gentle spirit, a soft spirit. People should flock around you because you're like God. If God was here, He would be like honey, and we would all be drawn to stick to Him. If you're not like that, you're not like God. These are the ways of God.
And here's the problem: what happens is when we try to make people do the acts of God without the ways of God, what we're doing is behavior modification. The Bible never asked for us to do behavior modification. God wants soul transformation. He wants your heart changed, your mind changed, your life changed. He wants your soul modified. He wants your soul to be evolved. He wants you to have the heart of God. Because if we try to modify your behavior, we're forcing you to do something. And now we're like, "Hey, we need you guys to greet." And you have the door like, "Welcome to Radiant. Welcome to Radiant." Sounding like Darth Vader. "Welcome to Radiant." If we got your heart right, we wouldn't have to tell you to greet because greet would just flow out of you. Love would just flow out of you. Joy would just flow out of you. Parents, quit spending so much time on the behavior of your kids. Deal with their heart. Because if your child has a bad heart, it's going to be a bad child with bad behaviors, no manners, because their heart's not right. "Little Johnny, say thank you." No, you need to allow Lil' Jitty to have a heart of gratitude. Come on. Because if he was grateful, he'll say thank you.
Well, God said it this way. God said, "If you love me, you'll obey me." See, He wasn't saying it like in a forceful way. He was like, "Hey, hey, hey, I know you guys are struggling with obedience. Love me properly, and obedience will be the offspring of your love." You don't want to obey because you don't love me. You don't love me. Your heart's not right. I'm not in the right position in your heart. Because if I was, you would obey. So you can't have behavior modification. No, you got to go to the root. You have to go to soul transformation. So God is saying, "Learn the way." So He's saying, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, I don't want you to just do what the ant does. No, no, no. I want you to know why does it. What is his ways? What are the ways of an ant? What is his spirit like? What is an ant like? What is his ways?" And if you don't learn from the ant by osmosis and by default, you learn from the sluggard. You represented in here by one or two things. You are represented by the ant or the sluggard. Which one represents you?
Because God, God says, "A little sleep." Some of you guys just want to sleep all day. You're tired all the time. "Lord, mercy, I'm tired. I'm tired. These kids, this job." "A little folding of the hands." "I don't, I'm just too, I just got too much going on right now. It's just, it's just too much. It's just, just too much." "A little folding of the hands." And it said, "Poverty will come upon you like a robber." Jesus, I thought that was aggressive. But that's subtle. A robber comes when you're out of town or when you sleep, and when you least suspect it. The Bible says poverty will come upon you when you least suspect it. All of a sudden, you was working, you looked up, there's nothing. There's no money, there's no increase, there is nothing. Because poverty has snuck up upon you and jumped on you. And the problem with poverty is it is not just a bank account, it's a mindset. Poverty is a spirit. That's why some of you guys get a change of address, and God takes you out of the hood, and He puts you in a suburb. But even though your address changed, your mindset didn't change. Now the Porsche is dirty in the suburb. Now you got dirty cars in the suburb, not a house dirty in there, and you got all kind of bad company. Because we changed your location, but we didn't change your heart. Oh God. The hood is not just an address, the hood is a mindset. And we can move you out of the address, but if we take you somewhere else with that stinking mindset, you're going to turn your new locality into your old locality because you didn't renew your mentality.
This is why when God was destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, and He moved Abraham and He moved Lot out, God spoke something so powerful. He said, "I'm moving you guys out of Sodom and Gomorrah. I'm destroying it. I don't want this place to exist no more." He says, "I have one request of you all." Okay, God, what is it? He said, "Don't look back." So they left, and Lot's wife looked back, and God turned her into a pillar of salt. She froze her right there, turned into a statue, a pillar of salt. Now you will look and say, "God, that is mean. Why would you turn her into a pillar of salt for looking back?" And God says, "See, you don't understand. See, her looking back is a sign that she was still tied to Sodom and Gomorrah mentally." Yeah, she's tied spiritually. She has a soul tied to that place. That's why she looked back. No one else did. She looked back because she had a soul tied to that place. She loved that place. She had a soul tied to that place. Which means that the next place she was going to duplicate into the previous place. "I just need to move to Dallas. It's going to be just like Texas. Canada." Because you're moving there without a renewed mindset.
So what happened is, God says, "I have to, I had to turn her into a pillar of salt because though she's not in Sodom physically, she's still tied to them mentally and spiritually." So the same judgment that hit Sodom hit her a long way from Sodom because she was still tied to it. And God says, "There are some things you got to break. Some ties. Break some soul ties. Break loose from some things." Because even when I hit judgment on that, that judgment's going to fall on you because you're still tied to it. You got to untie and unyoke from some things. Break some bondage off of some things so you don't experience the same judgment. Some of you guys have been through things when you were young, and God says, "That's the past. You got to cut ties with that so you don't keep having perpetual judgment of a place you're not at no more." "My mama didn't love me." Your mama don't live with you no more. God loves you. Build a bridge and move on. "My dad wasn't there for you." Me, you are father now. Be there for your king. K. Move on.
Oh God. God says you have to have His ways, not just in morality, but in functionality. Are you like God? Because God don't procrastinate. God is always standing on business. God is always getting things done. God is always executing. He's preparing for the future. Are you like God? And God said, "Go to this little ant and study it." Because if you ever get a revelation of that ant, you will see the nature of God in it. And God said, "You went to church, so you learned about the religious version of me. But you don't know how I operate in business. You don't know how I run family. You don't know how I handle organization." And the world is this, despising the church not because of your praise, not because of your worship, it's because in functionality, you look nothing like God. If you did, they would love you. They just hate me because the spirit of God is upon me. No, they hate you because the spirit of the sluggard is upon you, and you ain't executing that. Oh God.
Um, so the scripture said, the scripture said it said, "Consider the ways of the ant." And it said, "Having no captain." It says, "The ant don't have a..." What is it talking about? It said it don't have like a captain. It don't have a general. When you go to war, you need a captain. You need a captain soldier that motivates all the other soldiers. Why? They're scared, they're afraid, they're lethargic, they're they're discombobulated. And the captain comes and he's like, "Hey, it's war time. We're fighting for our country. We got to defend our homes. We got to protect our families." And he motivates them, and they go from wanting to go home to, "Give me my sword!" If you remove that captain, there would have been no war's fault. Wow. Because everyone would have cowed out because they needed a captain. And the Bible said, "Look at that ant. It don't need no captain." Some of y'all need to come to church, and I got to preach until I'm sweating just to motivate you to read your Bible. And God says, "If you would consider the ways of the ant, you wouldn't need a captain. You would be reading your Bible. You would be fasting, praying, running in the things of God. You don't need a captain. You're the captain of your own soul. You serve the King of Kings. He's giving you a word. Why do you need the captain?"
Why many of you guys got to be primed into your purpose? Why does somebody got to prime you into what Jesus died for you to have? You shouldn't need no captain. Then it says, "An overseer." An overseer is someone that comes and they oversee. It's like in your house, your house needs an overseer because your kids will light that thing up. They'll eat nothing but cereal, chips, juice. They'll tear that house down. The room won't be clean. The toilet won't be flushed. Ah, they need an overseer. Without you in your house, that thing will be a tornado. Why? They need an overseer. Many of you guys need overseers in your life. "Hey, you need to pray. Hey, quit talking to yourself like that. Quit, quit treating yourself like that. You need to trust God. You need to obey." You need an overseer. And Jesus is saying, "Hey, hey, hey, look at that ant. It needs no overseer. Nobody has to wake it up in the morning. It don't have an alarm clock, but it's up for work every morning." You got 10 alarms, you keep snoozing because you're a sluggard. That's your case. It's intense today. I sure am. This is my last message. I'm letting it out.
And then it said, "Having no ruler." And that's the person that holds accountable. I remember when we would be at school, y'all, and tell me why the teacher would call off and send in a substitute teacher. She must be thinking we crazy, girl. Don't you ever send a substitute teacher in our classroom. We was set it off on that teacher. We'd be being so bad. We'd be talking. She's like, "Sit down." We'd be like, "Nope." I mean, everything. I remember I was in a class, kid you not, we pulled her wig off, and we was throwing it around the classroom while she was holding her hair. Teacher, high. Okay, we're not going to put our kids in Texas. We're not going to that. We're going to put them in PG, not that district. For real, though. Why? There was no ruler. And we went crazy. And many of you guys need accountability in a ruler to get you to do the things you're supposed to do, to get you to live the life you're supposed to live, to get you to go to the places you're supposed to go, to get you to serve God and follow God and be disciplined. You need a ruler to be diligent. And you shouldn't need a ruler, but the reason why you need a ruler is because you are a sluggard. You're a sluggard.
Let me tell you about this sluggard. This sluggard will sit in a tree for 20 hours a day. And then finally, when that sorry joker get hungry, he'll slide over three spaces to get some leaves and go back to sleep. He just slide, slide, slide, slide, slide, eat his little leaves, sloth, and then he just slide on back, slide back, slide back, and he go back to sleep for 20 hours. And some of you are just like him. Just waking up in the morning, just sliding to the bathroom, sliding to the car, sliding to pick up the kids, sliding to church. And God said, "You need to quit sliding and start thriving." This is the day that the Lord has made. This is the season that God has anointed you. I'm not going to be sliding. I'm going to be thriving, building, executing, running after the things of God. I'm not sliding.
Some of you guys are slothful. You're like a sloth. You're lazy. And if you're lazy, you're in danger. You're in danger. You're in massive danger. The Bible says that the glory of the old man is his gray hair, and the glory of the young man is his strength. Which means God says, when He's saying is, He's saying the advantage of the old is their gray hair. The advantage of the young is their strength. Yeah. Come on. Can I talk to the young people in the room? And anything under 50 is young. And I would say anything under 60 is really young. But we'll say 50. At 60, you hurt a little bit. You know what I'm saying? Hurt a little bit. You still get around. Hurt a little bit. If you're under 50, it shouldn't hurt at all. On, on, it shouldn't hurt at all. And let me talk to you young people for a second. The Bible says your glory is your strength. It's your strength. You're in deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep trouble if you don't have strength and you're young. Because the Bible is saying what you lack in wisdom, you're supposed to make up for in strength. Yeah. Come on. See, I might not be as wise as the older guy, but I got all, hey, he, he wise. He's going to get it done in four hours. It's going to take me 12. But praise God, I got the strength to put in 12 hours because I'm young. He had the wisdom to get it done for. Praise God, I'll get it done in 12 because my strength is my glory. On. And if you are young and tired, you are in trouble. You got people 20 and 30 and 40 talking about some, "I'm tired." What do you mean you're tired? You're too young to be tired. Just didn't get enough sleep last night. Who cares? You can skip a night. You'll be fine. You're only 22. Golly, talking about sleep. You are 22 years old. You don't need no sleep. When I was young, we didn't sleep. We went to bed at 4:00. Mama woke you up at 6:00 to cut the grass, and you enjoyed your day. Just need more rest. It's just a lot. It's just, just a lot. A lot of what? Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime? No, this is your season. You need strength. And if you're young without strength, you're toast. You are toast.
The Bible said in Genesis, it said, "You devour in the morning so you can divide in the evening." You devour in the morning so you can divide in the evening. In other words, if you don't devour in the morning, you'll have nothing to divide in the evening. And many of you guys, young people, you are in the morning season of your life. And what you devour while you're 20, 30, 40 is what you're going to divide while you're 50, 60, 70, 80. You devour now so you can divide later. And the ant knows. The ant knows that he's on borrowed time. He's on borrowed time. So he's executing, executing, executing, devouring, devouring, devouring. Power in because he knows he's on borrowed time. The ant knows the secret. The secret that the ant knows is that he knows that nobody's coming. Nobody's coming to get him to prepare food. No one's coming to get him to save food. No one's coming to make sure he has provision in winter. Because the ant is a cold-blooded animal, and he can't get food in winter. He has to stay underground and stay warm so he don't die. So he knows nobody's coming to alarm him that winter's coming. So if he don't store away in summer, he's going to starve in winter. You want to know the people that's happy in the winter season? The people that plowed and sowed in their summer season. The people that's frustrating in winter are the people who squander summer. What are you doing for your summer seasons?
And let me tell you something about summer and winter. Is the ant thinks winter all summer. He walks through the summer, "Winter, winter, winter, winter, winter, winter, winter." He's gathering food. "Winter." He's getting bread. "Winter." He's digging holes. "Winter." He's creating provision. "Winter." He's making sure everybody. "Winter, winter, winter." All summer on winter, winter, winter. He has a pepper step. Come on, get it, get it, get it. Go, go, go, go, go. He has a pepper step. Why? Because he's thinking winter all summer. And then let me tell you about the ant. Let me tell you about the. He's negative during summer, but when he's under that ground in winter, he can be positive now because he got food. He has provision. He has choice food. And when he's in winter, he's thinking summer. All winter, he's positive. This is the day that the Lord has made. It's just a season. The Lord's going to deliver you. The salvation of the Lord is coming. If the enemy comes in like a flood, God will raise up a standard. He can quote scripture. All winter, he can think about summer all winter because he's prepared. The people that's negative in winter are those that squander summer. But if you are negative in summer, you can be positive in winter. In other words, Joseph. Joseph was positive in famine because he was negative in abundance. Joseph, all prosperity, loan. He stored up one-fifth of the grain. So when the famine came on the land, he could be positive. Why? Because he had stored choice food. What do you have in winter? What do you have in famine? Some of you guys didn't pray to God. You didn't intercede. And now the day of trouble is coming, and you don't have no intercessory prayer to stand on because you didn't pray in summer. And now when the night hour hits, you have nothing to stand on. The ant thinks winter all summer long. And now God is saying, "Hey, you have to live your life in seasons. This is how you got to think. This is how you got to operate. These are my ways. These are the ways that God told us to consider."
I got a couple more things and I'll get ready to close. You guys enjoying this? Okay. So I want to teach you some, some analogy. Can I teach you some analogy? Yes, sir. I'm going to give you some facts about an ant. Do you know what separates the ant from different mammals, different insects, different creatures? When they studied the ants based on the way they move, they're one of the few creatures on land that doesn't have jealousy. One of the few creatures that the ants don't operate with jealousy. They don't get jealous. Let me tell you how an ant is so not like people. The ant can go and find a big old chicken strip. He immediately goes and says, "Everybody, chicken over here!" Oh, let you find the deal, girl. Don't tell nobody about this deal. Now we got to rack up. Don't, girl, don't tell them about this deal. Now this is just for me and you to know. Don't post about it. Don't tell nobody. It's for us. You selfish person. Just, just a sluggard. Just a sluggard. Sound like a sluggard. Look at them leaves over there. Don't tell nobody about them leaves. Sluggard. That's funny. They don't deal with jealousy. So when they come to the colony, they don't care what role they're in, what position they're in, what they have to do. They don't mind if they're setting up. They don't mind if they're the one bringing in food. They don't mind if they're cleaning up. They don't care about their role. They don't have to be in a prestigious role. They don't have to be near other queens. Why? Because they're here to serve. They're here to contribute. If humans was like that, we can build massive things for the kingdom. Ants can build little ant colonies 20,000 times their size because they don't deal with jealousy. Wish we could learn something from them and be more like this. They know it takes a whole village. You know, an ant, an ant can run six times as fast as they should be able to with the size of their body. It'll be like us running as fast as a racehorse. That's how fast an ant can run.
I remember one time, I never forget, I saw these three ants. It could have been more. I saw three ants, and they had a whole piece of bread. Three little. I thought the bread was, I was like, "This bread is walking." But what kind of bread is this? I lifted it up, and some little ants pinned on to it. And I never forget, I saw these ants, and they had this piece of bread. They'll walk that thing forward, then they'll bag that thing up. They'll walk it forward, they'll bag that thing up. They'll turn it to the side, walking forward, bag that thing up. And I was like, "Wow, they're carrying provision, and they have a vision that's 100 times their size." And I believe the Lord spoke to me. He was like, "If you guys can work together and collab, I will send down bread and vision that's 100 times your size. It'll be so big, you'll walk forward and have to back that thing up. Walk forward and have to back that thing up." Because I will send such big provision. But I can't send that kind of provision because you don't have unity. Wow. And you can't unify because you are selfish. You're a sluggard, and you're a jealous-hearted person. So I can't even use you for collaborative building. I can't even use you because it has to be about you. Woo. I know I'm at your head today. I promise. Give me five minutes, and then you will be done.
So, so, so God wants you to get rid of this spirit of poverty, this spirit of being a sluggard. And there's five things that ant does that I believe we can learn from to help us do it. The first one is, everyone say, "Number one." One. The ant never procrastinates. He never procrastinates. Do you know the ant never procrastinates? He always makes a way. The ant always makes a way. You can go try something. Next time you see an ant when he's walking somewhere, put your hand out in front of him. Let me tell you what the ant's going to do. He's going to try to walk around it. If you, if you keep sliding your hand down, he'll try to walk under it. If you keep your hand there, he will walk on top of your hand and he will crawl right on top of your hand and he will slide down your hand till he get to the other side. If you put your body in front of that hand, keep cutting them off, he will walk up your legs, walk up your stomach, walk up your face, walk up to the top of your head, all the way down your neck, all the way down the back of your legs to get to the other side. Why? Because he's going somewhere and he don't quit. He don't procrastinate. He don't quit. Tried to read my Bible. I
Got tired, so I just gave up. What I tried to build a business, no one called me back, so I just quit. Ants don't quit. God said, "If I gave you a plan and a vision, you don't quit until you make it to the other side. You don't quit until you see the salvation of the Lord." Ants don't procrastinate, and they don't quit.
Number two, ants need no reward or incentive to build. Here's the biggest problem with people. People need reward and incentive to build. They need someone to say, "I see you just doing so much, and you're just so lovely. We're just so grateful for you. Praise God. Here, there you go. Look at little cheeks. There you go, little cheeks. What in the world you want me to tell you?"
What an ant don't need no reward and no incentive to build. His reward is food and winter. That's his reward. His reward is provision and winter. And God is saying, "You, you don't need nobody to reward you because I, the Lord, reward you. You don't need nobody to celebrate you because I, the Lord, celebrate you. And you would have provision and winter. You don't need no reward."
Let me tell you something about this life. Everything in life is bonus. Jesus is the bread. Everything in life is bonus. Your compliment, that's bonus. Your reward, that's bonus. Bonus, my pay raise, all that's bonus. Jesus is my bread. And if Jesus is my bread, I do what I do as unto Jesus, not unto man. He's my bread. Everyone else is just bonus. They're bonus, but Jesus is the bread.
Let me tell you, no one will ever be enough. Only God is enough. Your husband could be a great husband, but he'll be a terrible God. Only God is a great God. You can be great at everything, but you can't be great at being God because only God can be great at being God. Can we give him a shout of praise?
And the ant thinks winter all summer. He thinks winter all summer. And and we see this in the Bible that that God gives people a vision, and they look stupid, and they look crazy. Do you know that Noah had to build that ark for a hundred years before rain that ever came? It had never rained on Earth because there would be mist and dew from the ground that would water the plants. We had never seen rain on the earth. So when Moses was building the ark, the Earth had never seen rain, and Moses looked crazy until it started raining. Until it started raining. And those ants are out running and working all summer long. They look crazy. They're busy. They're in a hay. They look crazy until winter time comes. Until winter time comes. You will look crazy while you're building, but they won't think you're crazy when it starts raining. Trust God all summer and watch them bless you in the winter.
Um, number four, the ant is persistent and relentless. He's persistent and relentless. As my keyboard player gets ready to come up, he's persistent and relentless. I'll never forget when I was a kid. We grabbed the ant, and when we grabbed this ant, we took him from his colony. We put him in the car. He was on my finger. We went to the next location. We set him in the dirt. As soon as his feet hit the dirt, he started digging holes, grabbing food, and recruiting other ants. And I'm like, "Dude, we just took you from your family. We took you from your friends. You got stripped out of your territory. Now you're an ant down like, like you should be hurt, trying to figure out, like, he said, 'At least be like, where are we? What city is this? Am I on Arkansas side?'" Or he did none of that. He went straight to work. Why? Because he was persistent and relentless. Why aren't you? Why aren't you? You're so busy complaining about what happened to you when you was four that you can't even see what the Lord's trying to do to you, do through you now. He's relentless and persistent. Let me ask you a question. How relentless are you? How relentless are you? Because I want you to know something. If you're ever going to build anything of value or accomplish the vision that God has for you, church, you're going to have to be relentless. We're building this church. I had no idea how relentless I would have to be. I would have to overcome attacks and lies and people and betrayal and pain and fatigue. I would have to be relentless and persistent, and I would have to have short memory, and I would have to plant my feet quickly. Because when you're building something from God, it is impossible. It is hard. You need supernatural power and miracles every couple of seconds if you're going to do anything that's substantial. You have to be relentless and persistent. And that's how Jesus says, "Look at the zeal of your Father. Look how he uttered not a word as they was taking him down Calvary's Road. Look how he got on the cross and he never asked to get off. Look how he never complained. He was relentless. He was persistent all the way to death. All the way from hell to resurrection, he was relentless. And his love for you is relentless." Why aren't you relentless? See, you're not like God. God is relentless. Do you know The Passion of the Christ? He would do nothing. He would stop at nothing until he redeemed you. Why would you stop at every stop to not redeem the purpose he's given you? Wow. Are you relentless and persistent?
And then the last one, the last one is the ants are great stewards. Ants are great stewards. They're great, great stewards. They are stewarding everything. They are saving. They're stewarding. They're managing everything. Are you a great steward? Do you know when God created you, there was three things you were supposed to steward on this earth? The first thing you were supposed to steward is your time. How do you use your time? How do you steward it? Do you use your time for purpose or do you use your time for leisure? How do you use your time? Something that I learned not this year, but the year before, you got to take the clock back. If you're going to do something great for God, you got to get that clock back, church. And why, why am I preaching this? Here's why I'm preaching it. I'm preaching it because this is a sight of God that's never talked about. And what we do is we get religious. We dance, we shout, we sing, and then we go home. We waste our time. We get devoured by the enemy. We make no impact for the kingdom. And then we Hallelujah the whole time. Wow. No, we're going to use our time and be effective. Do you know that Satan wants your time? The Bible says that God will redeem the time that the locust stole, that the cankerworm stole. The enemy wants to steal your time because there's no better way to steal your assignment and your destiny than to steal your time. Because the vision is for an appointed time. If I could take the time, I could stop appointing. Satan steals the time. You have no appointment. An appointment requires a location, and it requires a day, and it requires time. If one of those are missing, there's no appointment anymore. If I set an appointment with you, I got to tell you what day we're at and what time. We're removed time. We don't have an appointment, friend. Satan keeps stealing your time so you don't have an appointed purpose by God.
Next, we go to talent. How is your talent being used? Some of you guys got musical gifts, worship gifts. You have all this talent, and I'm just going to call it like it is. Many people want to take their talent to the world. Your talent is for the kingdom. How can you use your talent for the kingdom of God? How can you use your talent to build God's house?
And then treasure, treasure, treasure. That's your finance. How do you use your money? How do you use your money? Uh, I want to show you a couple financial principles that you're that you're to do with your resources. If you use them properly. The first thing you're to do with your money is give to God. And here's what Jesus said in Matthew 6. He said, "Don't lay your treasure where rust and moth and and all kind of things can steal your treasure." He's saying, "Hey, I'm all for rough investments, 401ks, and you saving money." He was like, "But you can't just put your money in in the physical realm. You have to put your finances in the spiritual realm." Jesus was saying, "Don't lay up your treasure where where where thieves can break in and steal your 401k can be stolen. That business can have fraudulent activity, and your 401k can shoot down $440,000 in 10 minutes. Not a safe place to put all your resources." In the Bible saying, "Put your resources in the Kingdom of Heaven where there is no thieves that can break in and steal." When you give to God, nobody can take that.
Then secondly, then you begin to save. You save your money. So you give first, then you begin to save. You save. You decide a number. You save your money. Now, why do we got to save? Because God complimented it when he was talking about the ant. He talked about how he was gathering in summer for winter. He was saving. Joseph saved one-fifth of all the grain in Egypt. You have to save. It's a wise principle. It's not about how much you save. I don't care if you make a hundred dollars, save five. Yeah, save it. It's a principle of wisdom.
And then lastly, you can live on the rest. This is the wise. These are the ways of the wise. This is how God asks you to live. And if you don't do this, that means you are living in slothfulness. And slothfulness means you lack energy, you lack ambition, you're lethargic, and you're not like God. Wow. That was such a powerful word. I hope you learned a lot from this message and how it applied to you. If you would like to partner with us, we have a giving link in the bio. Make sure to share this with your friends, your family, and even your co-workers.