Part 3: The Power of Process

Posted on May 22, 2026 by growintheword

Sermon Synopsis 5.17.26

Delivered by Bishop Joseph W. Walker III

Scripture:

The Gospel of Matthew 13:31–32 (NKJV)

31 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field,
32 which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”

Prayer:

“Father, open up our hearts as we are about to receive Your Word, and let this Word speak to us, that our faith will be strengthened and our lives will be changed forever. And we give You glory and praise that it’s already done. In Jesus’ name, amen.

I.               INTRODUCTION

  • One of the greatest frustrations in life is waiting on something that you really believe should have happened by now. Have you ever been there when you said, ‘God, hold up. It seems like by now this should have occurred in my life?’
  • That makes it interesting because we live in a culture where things happen with such speed. We order food and it’s delivered to our homes. We order groceries and they’re on our doorstep. We can send a text globally and it happens instantly. But life does not move as quickly as technology.
  • It is important to know that there are moments in our lives when we have to recognize that process is how God brings promise to pass.
  • Process is something many people struggle with because we like to go around it. We’d rather try to figure out a way to negotiate it, but process is necessary. That’s where our maturity occurs. Process is where our character is developed. Process is necessary because God will not take you somewhere your character cannot keep you.”

II.               WHERE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW IS PART OF GOD’S STRATEGY

A.    The place God planted you has purpose.

  1. “When we talk about process, I really want you to understand the necessity of this because Jesus gives an extraordinary parable. It is a parable of simplicity, but it has incredible revelation tied to it.
  2. Jesus says, ‘Check it out. There is a man who has a seed.’ And it’s not just any kind of seed — it is a mustard seed. The mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds. In the scripture, the man puts the seed in the field, and when he puts it in the field, he sows it intentionally.
  3. That mustard seed, though it is the least of all seeds, when it grows to its full potential, it is greater than all the herbs. It becomes a tree.
  4. That tree, at the beginning, is small. It is often overlooked. It is often minimized. Nobody pays attention to it, but when God gets to doing what God does with it, it grows and it cannot be denied.
  5. See yourself the same way. Like a mustard seed, God places potential in you that is yet to be realized.
  6. What you will discover is that where you are right now is a part of God’s strategy. You’re not here by accident. This is all divinely orchestrated by God.
  7. Understand something: the parable is saying that the seed is never planted accidentally. The seed is placed in the ground intentionally by someone who understands the environment necessary for that seed to grow.
  8. Jesus says the mustard seed was taken and sown in a field, which meant that someone deliberately positioned it there. And that same principle applies in your life and my life because where you are today may not look impressive, but it may be exactly where God wants you to grow.”

B.    Fighting your placement slows your growth.

  1. “Many people assume their progress only happens in places that feel good, in places that are exciting. But understand something: often God puts us in places that may be a little discomforting to us in order to develop us in environments that stretch us and challenge us.
  2. The seed in the parable begins its journey in the soil and not the spotlight.
  3. Everybody wants the spotlight. Everybody wants it to happen right now. But God says, ‘No, no, no. I need you to understand something. You’ve got to go through the soil.’
  4. Because remember this: your current position may not be about exposure right now. Your current position is about preparation.”

a.     It stretches you.

  1. “God will never put you in a place that is always convenient or always comfortable. God is in the business of stretching you to get more out of you.
  2. Please understand this: it’s about stretching your capacity. God is saying, ‘I’m not trying to destroy you. I’m trying to develop you.’”

b.    It shapes you.

  1. “But it’s also about shaping you. It’s about building something in you that otherwise would never be built. This is where character and consistency are birthed.
  2. It’s not just about where you are going. It’s about who you are becoming.”

III.               REAL GROWTH REQUIRES SUBMITTING TO GOD’S PROCESS

A.    Much of your development happens where no one can see it.

  1. “Much of your development happens when no one can see it.
  2. Before the mustard seed produces branches, before the birds can even nest in it, the roots are developed in private.
  3. Before there is public fruit, there is private formation.”
  • It produces depth.
  • “The seed, when it is sown, produces depth because what God has to do is allow the seed to produce depth before anything emerges above ground.
  • The real work happens beneath ground.
  • The root system is being developed, and it takes time because the One who sowed the seed — the Creator — knows the potential that’s in the seed.”
  • It produces discipline.
  • “Discipline is necessary for where you are going. While God is developing the seed, He is also disciplining the seed.
  • The seed has to continue to thrive even in environments that are not always conducive to growth. It must push through anyhow.”
  • It produces durability.
  • “Durability is the reason you do not break when storms come.
  • The tree can stand because the root system was developed in the seed season.
  • There are people watching me right now who can testify:
    ‘The reason I’m still standing is because my roots got deep in God.’”

B.    Resisting the process only delays maturity.

  1. “When you resist the process, you delay your maturity.
  2. So many people run from where God is trying to develop them. The moment things get difficult, they leave.
  3. But what feels slow is actually strategic.
  4. God is not trying to destroy you. He is trying to develop you.”

IV.               THE PROCESS ALWAYS LEADS TO A SEASON OF IMPACT

A.    Mature growth creates space for others to thrive.

  1. “The mustard seed eventually becomes a tree large enough for the birds to nest in its branches.
  2. That means the growth of the tree benefits more than the tree itself.
  3. God develops us so that our lives can serve other people.
  4. Mature growth creates space for other people to heal, grow, learn, and breathe.”

B.    Fruit is the evidence that the process worked.

  1. “The tree stands tall. The birds gather in the branches. What started small no longer looks insignificant because the fruit speaks for itself.
  2. So don’t confuse isolation with abandonment. Don’t think because God planted you that God buried you.
  3. Don’t judge by what is visible, because just because it is not showing does not mean it is not growing.
  4. If you trust God and believe God, whatever God started in your life, He will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Part 2: Little Foxes, Big Problems

Posted on May 18, 2026 by growintheword

Delivered by Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III

Synopsis 5.10.26

Scripture: Song of Solomon 2:15 (NKJV)

15 Catch us the foxes,
The little foxes that spoil the vines,
For our vines have tender grapes.

Prayer:

Hallelujah. Father, thank You. We have so much to thank You for. And now, God, I pray that Your Word will speak to us with clarity and understanding, that we might be made better because of what we’re about to receive. Let this Word meet us right where we are. And I thank You in advance, as all day we have seen lives changed and souls saved. Let it happen now, and we give You glory and praise. In the name of Jesus the Christ, we pray. Everybody said amen.

I.               INTRODUCTION

  • Today, I want to stretch you. I want you to hear this Word today as we walk through this Word. I believe that God is going to speak very clearly to someone today, particularly in a day in which culture celebrates big moments, but ignores the small decisions that lead to them.
  • Social media shows you the highlight reel but rarely focuses on the habits behind it. We often see the success of other people, but we don’t see the discipline that produced it. And then we see public failures without realizing that most of the collapses we have seen do not happen dramatically all of a sudden, but they happen privately and quietly before they become public.
  • I want you to understand something today: life rarely happens in one traumatic moment. The things that attack your life begin very small, and they either wear away or erode your destiny.
  • So for a moment today, I want you to imagine your life as a vineyard. I want you to see your life as a powerful place of fruit, productivity, vision, the thing that you are pursuing, your career, your family, everything that you hold sacred. I want you to get it in your spirit: that’s your yard. It is full of fruit. “You shall know them by their fruit.” “Here is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit.”
  • So your vineyard is full of possibility. It’s full of fruit. It’s full of extraordinary things that you and God have already come into agreement about, things God is going to do in your life. That’s your vineyard. That’s what gets you up every day. That’s what causes you to show up like this, to pray, to push, to have the discipline you have, because it’s about your vineyard.
  • I also now want you to think about the fact that you cannot and will not have such an extraordinary vineyard without there being an attack against it. And I want you, for a moment, to think about a little fox.
  • The fox will travel miles unabated. The fox does not care how far it has to travel. It has one objective: to come at what’s in your vineyard. I want you to imagine that the fox does not hunt during the day. A fox is nocturnal. It hunts at night. It sneaks in while you are asleep. It wants what’s in your vineyard.
  • I want you to imagine that the fox is a very pretty little animal, with a little puffy tail, but the fox is not your pet. The fox is a predator. And what the fox specializes in doing is sneaking into your vineyard, not for the strong stuff. It wants the stuff that is just starting out, the tender grapes. There were things that are just beginning to happen in your life, things that are just developing, the most precious thing that is on the way. That’s what the fox wants. He wants the potential to be aborted.

II.               BIG FAILURES OFTEN BEGIN WITH SMALL COMPROMISES

  • And therefore, when Pharaoh sent out a decree that all male children should be killed, it was because there was a suspicion that there was a baby who would deliver God’s people from Egyptian bondage. Herod the Great sent out a decree telling the wise men, “When you find baby Jesus, tell me where He is, that I may come and worship Him.” He did not want to worship Jesus. He wanted to kill Him before He got to the cross.
  • The attacks that have happened in your life, somebody can testify, happened when you were young, when the embryo stages of your life and your vision were coming to fruition, because that’s the space where the enemy attacks.
  • So today, I want you to hear me loud and clear. I am here to preach the Word your mama wanted me to tell you: you better be careful, because with all that God is doing in your life, don’t you get too comfortable up here, because there are foxes that are trying to undermine the very blessing that God has for your life.
  • And if you don’t know by now, I ain’t talking about no real fox. I’m talking about the fox that’s in your list of contacts in your phone right now. I’m talking about the fox that’s creeping in your DM. I’m talking about the fox that’s on your job. I’m talking about the fox that’s trying to derail the purpose of God over your life. I’m talking about the little fox that’s messing with your mind, that’s messing with your destiny, that’s messing with your history, that’s messing with your future. Everybody up in here knows you’ve already labeled your little fox.
  • Today, Solomon gives us this Word, and I want to talk to you and tell you something. I want you to pay attention. Big failures often begin with small compromises. What you will learn today is that destruction rarely happens immediately. It usually starts quietly, with small compromises that seem harmless.
  • Most of the time, people don’t wake up one morning and just decide to abandon their values, walk away from their family, or walk away from their career. It doesn’t happen that way. It happens through small compromises. It happens in those moments that begin to feel convenient, and then comfortable, and then you turn them into necessary. And over time, those small compromises begin to reshape your standards.
  • The vineyard that you have is not barren. The vineyard that you have is actually fruitful. It is bearing. That means something good is happening. Yet even in seasons when something good is happening, foxes love to nip at it.
  • Many of you assume danger only exists when your life is falling apart. Let me tell you something: no. Your greatest threats come when things are beginning to flourish. The enemy understands that if he cannot destroy the vineyard in one moment, he will weaken it little by little until he finally destroys it.
  • That’s why you have to have more than vision. You must have vigilance, because God gives you a vineyard, but you have to be able to protect what is planted.

A. Small Allowances Slowly Grow Into Major Consequences

  1. Because here is the reality: small allowances slowly grow into major consequences. When I talk about allowances, I know you automatically default to the allowance your mom gave you when you did something and got something for it. Well, no. I want you to hear allowance a little differently today.
  2. Allowance suggests what you give permission to, what you keep allowing. I know it is easy to look at your cousin and call your friend and say, “I don’t understand why you keep allowing that to happen to you. Why do you keep putting up with that?” I came to talk to you and ask you: why do you keep allowing that to happen to you?
  3. It’s what you let stay. It’s what you let slide. It’s what you tell yourself is not that serious. See, the danger is not the size of it. It’s the repetition of it. The problem is the repeated allowances slowly weaken your convictions and shift your boundaries. And over time, the things that you used to resist now feel normal. You’ve normalized your dysfunction, and that fox in your vineyard is not only destroying everything, but it is also destroying your own potential. It is destroying your own willingness to even be better than what it is taking away.
  4. Please understand this: erosion happens like this. This is what happens, people of God. We see this pattern in relationships. A relationship begins to deteriorate because small offenses go unresolved. Integrity begins to erode because you keep cutting corners repeatedly. Spiritual strength begins to weaken because you stop praying, you stop doing the discipline, you stop worshiping, you stop showing up.
  • This is what happens in the text. What feels minor today can become devastating tomorrow. That’s why the instruction is not to watch the foxes but to catch them before they destroy what is forming.

B. Ignoring Problems Allows Them To Gain Strength

  1. Do you know something? Ignoring the problem allows it to gain strength. Just because you ignore it does not mean it’s going to go away. “I just don’t want to deal with it. I don’t want no smoke. I want peace.” Let me just talk to you for a second and help you understand something.
  2. In the natural, a farmer does not ignore the signs of a fox. A small opening in the gate may look like nothing, but a farmer knows this is serious business, because if I leave this unattended long enough, my situation is going to be vulnerable. One little fox can turn into several foxes, and what could have been handled earlier now becomes harder later.
  3. The same thing happens in our lives. You ignore that strange noise in your car long enough. “Ain’t that light been on?” That light has been on. That’s your problem now. What could have been a minor repair has turned into a major expense.
  4. Ignore a small leak in your house, and eventually it damages the walls, the floor, and the foundation. Ignore high blood pressure. Ignore stress and exhaustion and poor habits. Then eventually your body has to deal with what you refused to address earlier.
  5. See, life teaches us that neglected things grow. The same principle is right here spiritually. A little offense becomes deep bitterness. A little compromise becomes a lifestyle. A little distance from prayer becomes spiritual dryness. A little church hurt becomes isolation. A little unforgiveness becomes emotional bondage.
  6. And the truth is, you don’t lose your peace overnight. You don’t drift from God suddenly. You know what happens? Slowly, quietly, little by little, fox by fox.
  7. And that’s why you and I cannot normalize what God is trying to correct. Some people keep saying, “It’s not that serious,” while your yard is being destroyed right in front of you, and you tell somebody, “It’s not that serious.”
  8. Some people keep postponing conversations they know they need to have. You keep avoiding accountability, ignoring toxic behavior, refusing counseling, refusing healing, refusing repentance, all the while the fox is eating away at your fruit, because the enemy loves unmanaged areas in all of our lives.

III.               WHAT YOU TOLERATE WILL EVENTUALLY SHAPE YOUR LIFE

  • That’s why you’ve got to confront this thing. You’ve got to confront that attitude early. You’ve got to confront that addiction early. You’ve got to confront that bitterness early. You’ve got to confront this stuff because, let me tell you something, you can’t sit back and be silent. You’ve got to deal with this stuff.
  • You cannot sit back here with your whole family’s way of dealing with it: “We just ain’t going to deal with it. We don’t talk about Bruno.” The devil is a liar. This is a fox, and you’re sitting right here not wanting to deal with the fox, trying to pet your fox, trying to keep your fox there, trying to accommodate your fox.
  • But let me tell you what happens: whatever you end up accommodating, you will end up tolerating. Whatever you tolerate, you will end up assimilating.

A. Excuses Eventually Become Entanglements

  1. Oh, you’re preaching, Bishop, all by yourself.
  2. If I accommodate it, give it space, let it come in, and I’m cool with not closing the access point, then I am tolerating it. At the moment I tolerate it, people that love me look at me and wonder if I’ve lost my mind because they’re trying to say, “Why are you tolerating certain behaviors and certain things around you when I know the greatness of the vineyard that you have?”
  3. But what happens is, if you tolerate it long enough, it becomes grafted into your character. Now it becomes a part of who you are. You have assimilated yourself into that dysfunction, so now you have become the thing that tried to kill you.
  4. That’s why, people of God, you’ve got to understand something powerful. Can I talk to you just a second? What you tolerate will shape your life.
  5. Let me help you understand something. Have you ever woken up one day and said, “What’s wrong with me? Why am I in this place? Why am I not feeling like I used to feel? Why am I not praying? Why don’t I have the same fire? What’s going on? How did I get off?”
  6. Let me tell you what happens. You used to be discerning, but now you’re more passive. You didn’t make one big decision. This happened systematically. Let me show you how the fox works. It reminds us that without boundaries, foxes roam freely in your vineyard. You’re letting foxes just play in it.
  7. Let me be practical. I love everybody. I love everybody. Get all that straight. But I’m at a point in my life that everybody ain’t about to get in my car. Everybody ain’t about to come to my house. Everybody ain’t about to put their hands on me because I understand how foxes work.
  8. A little fox gets in, and the moment you think, “I’ll deal with that fox,” you don’t realize foxes have cousins and nephews. If you grew up like I grew up in the South, just because you kill one thing doesn’t mean it doesn’t have some cousins coming. You’ve got to go at the root of that thing. Who am I talking to in here today?
  9. And let me tell you something. This is why you have to deal with it, because excuses eventually become entanglements. You heard that word before. You keep making excuses for it. You keep justifying it. You keep saying, “This is just what it is. This is what’s going to be.” You keep postponing change. You keep delaying repentance. You keep trying to justify what you know is horrible for you.
  1. You keep walking around here with a Messiah complex, thinking you’re going to turn a fox from eating your stuff. “It’s my job to try to save this fox. I feel like nobody believes in this fox. I feel like God put me here to save this fox.” The fox is going to sit there and say, “Thank you very much,” and by night, the fox is going to be eating up your stuff. Who am I talking to in here today, people of God?
  2. And you end up with the vineyard, all the things that are forming in your life, and you don’t realize how entangled you are with what you keep making excuses for. You don’t realize you are so entangled in this that every time you turn around, you keep making justification for the dysfunction in your life, and you don’t realize the real reality of what the fox is after.
  3. The reason the fox is coming at your stuff is because it is forming. It is happening. He wants the tender grapes. He wants what he sees is about to happen. I need you to look at somebody and say, “It’s about to happen in your life.” Everything you prayed for is about to happen. What you put on your vision board is about to happen.

B. Waiting Too Long To Correct Something Makes The Damage Worse

  1. And that’s why you’ve got to be careful, because the moment it’s about to happen, the moment the contract is about to happen, the moment the business is about to blow up, the moment you’re about to get into school, the moment this thing is about to happen, that’s what the devil wants. He wants it right at the moment it’s about to happen.
  2. Waiting too long to correct something makes the damage worse. You keep making excuses for the delay. You know how we do. You go to the doctor, and the doctor says you have high blood pressure. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m sorry. I ate a pork chop last night.” No, that’s all cholesterol and all that from years of this.
  3. Stop blaming yesterday for this. Bitterness toward somebody did not start with your last relationship. It started with the abandonment that you felt when your dad left your mama. That did not start yesterday. That started many, many years ago.
  4. That’s why I’m talking to the people now who know you aren’t even fighting your own demons. You’re fighting the demons of your mama and your daddy. You’re fighting generational stuff, and you wake up and say, “What’s wrong with me?” Because this is how entangled it is.
  5. This is why, listen, when you keep avoiding it and you wait on the correction, you make the damage worse. There’s urgency in the text. The vineyard is producing fruit, and the fruit has to be protected.

IV.               DEALING WITH PROBLEMS EARLY PROTECTS WHAT GOD IS GROWING

  • And what God will do, that’s why I love God, you mess around and don’t deal with it, and God shows up and blows up your spot. God will bring divine disruption, and God will come in and disrupt everything around you and every plan you had. And then you think it’s punishment, but it ain’t punishment. It’s protection.
  • Some of you are still mad at God because God removed some people and some things out of your life. But God was trying to blow up your spot and tell you, “You’ve got too much in your destiny.”

A. Confronting Issues Early Keeps The Harvest Safe

  1. Here’s what I know. Here’s the thing I loved about my mother, because my mother got it from her mother, my grandmother. And when I think about their legacy, I can’t help but think about this. My mother operated with a strong sense of discernment, and she knew a fox when she saw one. And my mother would not delay, nor would she be concerned about being polite.
  2. I would have friends come by the house, and she would grab me by the ear and say, “Don’t you bring that boy back over here no more.” “You trying to choose my friends?” “You heard what I said.” And then I looked back over my life and realized Mama saw what I didn’t see. Who am I talking to?
  3. “Mama, I thought this was the one. Mama, I’m going to date her.” “Baby, that’s not the one. That’s a little fox.” “Look how cute it is.” “Don’t you be fooled by how cute it looks, baby, because that thing is going to try to destroy everything you worked for.”
  4. You’ve got to thank God for the Holy Spirit. That’s why when the Holy Spirit speaks to you, you’ve got to trust what He’s telling you.
  5. This is why I want you to understand. You’ve got to protect the atmosphere of flourishing. The text is not just about removing the foxes. This text is about preserving the environment so growth can continue, because the vineyard in the text is blooming and full of potential, but the foxes are threatening the atmosphere necessary for healthy development.
  6. Fruit needs the right environment. You cannot grow peace in drama. You cannot grow purpose in constant negativity. You cannot grow spiritually while you’re feeding carnality every day.
  7. And in this season, God loves you so much that your environment matters. God prompted you to this location on Mother’s Day and got you tuned in right now to send you a word through this man of God to tell you that it’s time for you to do a crowd audit.
  • It’s time for you to be honest about some of the people in your life who are negative, who drain you, who pull from you, or who are transactional people, people who are latching on to you for what they can get.
  • This is the time you say, “Lord, deliver me from every fox in my life that’s trying to undermine the destiny that’s on my life.”

B. Discipline Today Prevents Devastation Tomorrow

  1. And I just encourage you to tell you something. This is for you. Just me and you. You’re letting small things steal big things. You’ve got to walk away from all this stuff.
  2. God is doing too much in your life, too much potential, too much vision, too much greatness. You’re about to walk away from it because you let some little person with a little mindset and a little vocabulary speak a little word in your life, and now you’re having an existential crisis.
  3. Because you look at all that God is doing in your life. Baby, I’m not going to let some little thing cause me to walk away from the big thing God has for my life.
  4. The enemy understands that if he cannot destroy you quickly, he will distract you gradually. Samson ignored the little compromise until he ended up losing his strength, lying in the lap of Delilah. Esau sold his whole future over a bowl of soup. Judas allowed a small seed of greed to cause him to betray the Son of the living God.
  5. And many people I’m talking to now, you think about your own life, and you go back over your life and ask, “What did the little foxes cost me? How much money? How much peace of mind? How many times was your heart broken all because you let a little fox in?”
  6. But can I tell you something? God sent me to bless you. This is what your mama wanted me to tell you: discipline today prevents devastation tomorrow. Get it right now and save yourself years of drama.
  7. Vineyards do not stay healthy accidentally. Vineyards require watchfulness, discernment, and authority. The vineyard is fruitful. The vines are growing. The grapes are tender. Potential is everywhere. But growth without protection is vulnerability.
  8. And in this season, God is calling you to stop playing around. This ain’t no pet. This is a predator. You don’t domesticate what you need to eliminate. You cannot eliminate what you continue to tolerate.
  9. The Bible doesn’t say observe the little foxes. It says catch them. Apprehend them. Bring into captivity the thing that comes at your destiny.
  10. God has given you authority. You have power. You don’t need somebody else to come deal with the foxes in your life. You’ve got enough authority to walk around your own house and deal with the foxes in your own house.
  11. You’ve got to stop walking around letting foxes come and go through your situation. Today I’m taking authority. No more tolerating dysfunctional cycles. No more entertaining constant confusion. No more giving access to things that have wounded my spirit. Today it stops.
  1. Fox, you will not have my house. You will not have my family. You will not have my marriage. You will not have my money. You will not have my ministry. You will not have my children. You will not have my career. You will not have my destiny.
  2. I’m drawing a line in the sand. I’m closing every portal. I’m fixing every fence. I’m making sure there are no access points. I’m deleting certain people. I’ve got to block certain things because I look at what God is getting ready to do in my life, and I can’t afford to blow it right now.
  3. You are too close to blow this.
  4. When I see you, I see destiny all around you. I see greatness all around you. I see big things happening in your life, so I’m not going to let a fox come in and take God’s future for your life.
  5. No weapon formed against you shall prosper. All of your enemies will stumble, and they will fall.
  6. This is my harvest season. Guard my mind. Guard my peace. Guard my atmosphere. Guard my purpose. Guard my anointing.
  7. God gave me this Word because God is not going to let you self-destruct on our watch. We’re not about to read about you. You’re not about to be a hashtag. You have too much greatness and too much destiny on your life.
  8. No matter how beautiful the house, no matter how expensive the property, termites can destroy it. And a house can collapse because of termites. And when the inspector comes, the inspector says, “This house did not fall because of one dramatic event. This house fell because of years of undealt-with issues.”
  9. I come to tell you that I’ve had my share of little foxes. I’ve made little foxes pets too. I know what that feels like.
  10. But you’ve got to make up your mind whether you’re going to entertain the fox or entertain your harvest.
  11. I declare and decree that this is your harvest season, and I come against every addiction. I come against every cycle of dysfunction. I declare this is how you fight your battles. You fight with the weapons of your warfare.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

It Didn’t Happen Overnight – Lessons in Little

Posted on May 8, 2026 by growintheword


Delivered by Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III
Sermon Synopsis 5.3.26

Scripture: Zechariah 4:10 (NKJV)
“For who has despised the day of small things? For these seven rejoice to see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. They are the eyes of the Lord, which scan to and fro throughout the whole earth.”

Prayer:

Thank You. You are worthy, and God, we thank You for being who You are. God, we come into this place, and we have tuned in, because we need to hear a word from You. God, we thank You for how we got here, but we thank You even more for how we are going to leave here.

We give You glory now. Open up our hearts that we might receive what You have for our lives. Let Your anointing flow. Let yokes be destroyed. We thank You that somebody’s life will be changed forever. Give us our marching orders now. We are ready to hear from You. In the name above every name, the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Let every heart say amen.

I.               INTRODUCTION

  • Let’s be honest. Most of the things that truly matter did not happen overnight. We understand that, but we don’t always embrace it.
  • The marriage we admire did not happen overnight. The business we respect was not built overnight. The leader we look up to did not arrive overnight. We live in a culture that celebrates outcomes but ignores process. We see highlights without history, success without struggle, and results without reality.
  • Because of that, many people become frustrated when life does not move at the pace they expect. You start questioning whether what you are working on is even worth it.
  • But God is not just interested in producing results in your life. He is interested in developing you.

II.               GOD OFTEN STARTS SMALL SO WE WILL LEARN TO TRUST HIM

  • God has a pattern. He often starts small, but He never ends small.
  • David did not go straight to the palace—he went back to the field.
    Joseph did not go straight to the palace—he went through the pit and the prison.
    Jesus Christ spent 30 years preparing for 3 years of ministry.
  • God is teaching you how to trust Him when things are small. When it’s small, you cannot depend on your name, your network, or your resources. You have to depend on God.

A. What Feels Small To People Is Still Significant To God

  1. People celebrate what they can see, but God values what they cannot see.
  2. God sees:
  3. Every prayer you prayed
  4. Every tear you cried
  5. Every seed you sowed
  6. Every time you stayed faithful when nobody was watching
  7. What feels small to people is always significant to God.

B. Small Assignments Are The Training Ground For Greater Responsibility

  1. Before David faced Goliath, he faced lions and bears. That was preparation, not punishment.
  2. You may be in a “lion and bear” season right now. God is teaching you how to handle pressure, make decisions, and remain faithful.
  3. If you are not faithful with little, you will not be trusted with much.
  4. When you build out of alignment, consequences follow:
  5. Code Violation – You are building outside the standard
  6. Failed Inspection – What looks good publicly fails privately
  7. Stop-Work Order – God pauses what you’re building
  8. Condemned – The structure cannot stand
  9. Liability – You don’t just hurt yourself; you impact others
  10. God is checking alignment before He releases elevation.

III.               GOD USES THE PROCESS TO PREPARE US FOR WHAT HE PROMISED

  • We resist process, but process is necessary.
  • God is not focused on speed. He is focused on alignment.

A. When God Slows You Down, He May Be Strengthening Your Foundation

  1. Slowing down is not failure—it is strategy.
  2. A tree that grows slowly develops deep roots. A diamond forms under pressure. Strong foundations take time.
  3. Some delays are not designed to discourage you. They are designed to develop you.

B. Skipping The Process Creates Success That Cannot Survive Pressure

  1. Shortcuts produce results that cannot sustain pressure.
  2. Samson had strength but lacked discipline.
    Saul had position but lacked obedience.
  3. Opportunity without preparation is dangerous.
  4. If you rush it, you can ruin it.

IV.               HOW YOU SEE YOUR CURRENT SEASON WILL DETERMINE WHETHER YOU QUIT OR CONTINUE

  • The people in the text looked at what they were building and saw something small. God saw something significant.
  • Perspective determines outcome.

A. When You Value Small Progress, Endurance Becomes Possible

  1. Progress is not always dramatic, but it is still progress.
  2. Showing up is progress
  3. Praying is progress
  4. Choosing peace over pettiness is progress
  5. Paying bills when it’s tight is progress
  6. Walking away from conflict is progress
  7. Stop minimizing what God is doing in your life.
  8. Epistle to the Philippians 1:6 – God will complete what He started.
    Epistle to the Galatians 6:9 – You will reap if you don’t quit.
    Book of Isaiah 40:31 – Waiting on the Lord renews your strength.
    Book of Zechariah 4:6 – Not by might, but by His Spirit.

B. Honoring The Process Protects The Promise God Has Given You

  1. There is a promise, but it only comes through process.
  2. “Lord, I will not rush what You are refining.
    I will not fight what You are forming.
    I will not complain about what You are cultivating.
    Because if I honor the process, I will be ready for the promise.”
  3. What God is preparing in you is just as important as what He is preparing for you.
  4. You may feel like you are laying one stone at a time, but every stone matters.
    1. Keep building.
      Keep trusting.
      Keep showing up.
      Stay consistent.
  5. It may not be fast, but it is faithful.
    It may not be loud, but it will last.
  6.              Greater is coming.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Part 2: Determined To Show Up

Posted on April 17, 2026 by growintheword

Sermon Synopsis 4.12.26

Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III

Scripture: John 5:1-9 (NKJV) 

1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches.

3 In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.

4 For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.

5 Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years.

6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”

7 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”

8 Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.”

9 And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath.

I.               Introduction

  • In chapter 5, now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”
  • I want to talk about “Determined to Show Up.” You may be seated in the presence of the Lord today.
  • Determination is something that marks a person who is full of faith and full of resilience. Determination is not something that comes by habit—it is something rooted in revelation. When life begins to press toward you and everything begins to say stop, it is determination that pushes you past your pain and pushes you toward the promise of God.
  • Today, I believe, as I introduce you to someone in this text who has persevered—who has been determined to show up for thirty-eight years—it is going to change your life. Because it shows you what it looks like when somebody refuses to quit.
  • Thirty-eight years. Let that sit for a minute.
  • Some of us could not wait thirty-eight weeks. Some of us could not wait thirty-eight days. But we are about to encounter a man who showed up for thirty-eight years… waiting… believing… hoping… expecting… even when nothing changed.
  • And that is going to stretch you, because that is counterintuitive to how we think faith works.
  • We think if it doesn’t happen fast, something must be wrong, but this man teaches us something different.
  • He teaches us that sometimes faith doesn’t look like movement… it looks like endurance.
  • Tony Robbins once said it is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped—but let me upgrade that—because showing up repeatedly is not just a habit… it is a declaration.
  • It is a declaration that says: “I trust God’s timing over my timeline.”
  • And every single day—even when nothing seems to change—faith is positioning me for what God is going to do.
  • And I believe with everything in me, there is a divine encounter that happens for people who keep showing up.
  • Not the ones who show up once. Not the ones who show up when it’s convenient, but the ones who show up when it’s hard.

II.               Keep showing up repeatedly, even when nothing seems to change.

  1. Because that’s the tension. It’s easy to believe God on Sunday, but can you still believe God on Wednesday… when what you heard on Sunday hasn’t shown up yet?
  2. Can you still trust Him when your reality doesn’t match your revelation?
  3. Faith allows you to see life through the invisible realm… and refuses to be distracted by disappointment or delay.
  4. And some of you know exactly what that feels like.
  5. You’ve been praying.
  6. You’ve been trusting.
  7. You’ve been doing the right things.
  8. And nothing is shifting.
  9. Nothing is moving.
  10. Nothing is changing.
  11. But I came to tell you—you still have to show up.

III.               Years of setbacks cannot stop those who refuse to give up.

  1. Because setbacks don’t stop people who are built different.
  2. And I know I’m talking to somebody in here—you’ve had one setback after another.
  3. Every time you try to move forward—you get pushed back.
  4. Every time you think it’s your time—something happens.
  5. And the question is—what do you do when life keeps hitting you?
  6. You keep showing up, because something in you refuses to quit.
  7. People are watching you… waiting on you to give up.
  8. They don’t understand what’s holding you together.
  9. They don’t understand the faith that is sustaining you.
  10. But they’re about to find out.

IV.               Keep your hope fixed on what God has promised.

  1. You cannot get distracted by what you see.
  2. You have to stay anchored in what God said.
  3. What did God promise you? It not what it looks like. Not what people said.
  4. What did God promise you? Because if God said it—it will come to pass.
  5. And I’m going to keep showing up until I see it.

V.               Consistent effort prepares you for opportunity.

  1. Let me talk to you about consistency. This is where most people lose.
  2. You’re good at starting, but you’re not good at staying.
  3. Consistency is what prepares you for what you’ve been praying for.
  4. A farmer plants a seed and does not dig it up the next day.
  5. He understands the process. You don’t go to the gym one day and expect transformation the next.
  6. There is a process. Shout PROCESS!

VI.               Daily discipline matters.

  1. We shout about miracles, but we struggle with maintenance.
  2. Prayer, Obedience, Study, Faithfulness. That’s the real work.
  3. That’s what positions you for the breakthrough. “My Father is still working, and I am working” (John 5:17), Which means while you are working—He is working.
  4. While you are moving—He is moving.
  5. While you are showing up—Heaven is responding.
  6. Exodus 16:4… daily provision.
  7. Joshua 6… daily obedience.
  8. Daniel 6… daily prayer.
  9. Luke 9:23… daily surrender.
  10. This is not occasional faith. This is daily discipline.

• Patience produces provision.

• God honors those who refuse to quit.

• Show up, even when it’s inconvenient.

  1. Your consistency contributes to the change in your circumstances.
  2. And now here comes the shift. Because after thirty-eight years…
  3. Jesus shows up and when Jesus shows up, He does not ask about the system.
  4. He asks the man: “Do you want to be made well?”
  5. Because after thirty-eight years, this is no longer just physical.
  6. This is emotional.
  7. This is mental.
  8. This is spiritual.
  9. Do you want to be whole… or just healed? And the man starts talking about people. “I have no one…” While the miracle is standing in front of him.
  10. And some of you are missing your moment because you’re still rehearsing your pain.
  11. But Jesus is saying: “I’m right here.”
  12. And then one instruction changes everything: “Get up. Take your bed. Walk.”
  13. No countdown, No delay, No process. Just Immediately. Thirty-eight years… Reversed in a moment.
  14. Immediately! And I came to tell somebody—your suddenly is about to collide with your consistency.
  15. What took years…God can shift in a moment. And when He does it—it won’t even look like how you thought it would happen.
  16. Because God does not need the system. He will bypass the system… and bless you anyway.
  • There is somebody in this room today… You’re saying it hasn’t been thirty-eight years—but it feels like it.
  • God says, “I see you.” God says, “I know.” God says, “I’m about to move.”
  • And if you’re ready…This is your moment to respond.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment