I need A Do Over Sermon 1/4/20

Posted on January 16, 2020 by growintheword

I Need A Do Over

Fresh Start

Synopsis of Sermon January 4, 2020

Delivered by 10Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III, D.Min.

 

Jeremiah 18:1-6, “1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: 2 “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.” 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the [a]wheel. 4 And the vessel that he [b]made of clay was [c]marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make. 5 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the Lord. “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!”

 

 

  • As we reflect back over our lives, we must focus on areas that was not fully functional. Some stuff wasn’t just other people’s fault, it was yours. God is pulling for you and he is working things out for your benefit.
  • No matter what has happened in your life, know that it is never too late for a do-over. God is going to do something new in your life. Deep down, you know He is, but you just don’t know how.
  • A new year means new opportunities. God saw something worth salvaging in your life. He will do whatever he needs to do to make that happen. Perhaps you experienced pain, but there is grace on your life. You are due a do-over.
  • Some people will testify that they couldn’t have done what they have, if God hadn’t given them a do- over. Sometimes you have to thank God for the Do -Over!
  • Jeremiah is summoned by God to go down to the Potter and observe his process. God will use these circumstances to give a spiritual revelation to Jeremiah as it relates to the children of Israel.
  • During the process of the clay, things happen. The Potter stops what he is making, and he makes the decision to make it all over again. This is a do-over! God does us the same way. God gives us a do-over!
  • God is sovereign and in control over everything that happens to you. When the Potter has to do a do-over, he may have to re-pound the clay, he may have to kneed it again, he may also need to re-roll it, but it will be ok, because the Potter is in control. Just like this, some things may be unnerving, but know that it is ok, if God is in control.

 

 

       I.            GOD HAS GREAT PLANS FOR YOUR LIFE

 

  • “His plan in your life means His work in your hands, and you can be sure it is work He has chosen and gifted you to do.” — Jill Briscoe, – Have Faith Enough To Finish
  • Your life is not a random act of creation. Some of the circumstances that got you here may be peculiar, but it is not a mistake!
  • Scripture Reference: Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”- God is looking for alignment and relationship with him. Even your car will not drive properly without a proper
  • Jeremiah observes that we are the clay and God is the Potter. Often, we try to make ourselves the Potter. Know that it is God that has control of our lives. It is the Potter that is in control, not the clay.
  • Realize that we are no more than glorified dirt. If it hadn’t been for the grace of God, we wouldn’t be where we are.
  • We are the clay and God is the Potter.
  • Clay is becoming. Clay is designed to make something. It is always in the state of be Clay wasn’t designed to sit.
  • When you are becoming, your purpose is in the mind of the maker.

 

A.     YOUR PURPOSE IS IN THE MIND OF THE MAKER

  1. The Potter has the purpose in mind for the clay, before he puts it on the wheel. In like manner God put the ingredients in you, before He made you for your purpose.
  2. You can’t be a cup, wishing you were a vase. God wired you the way he wired you, to fulfill the purpose He has in mind for you.
  3. God placed inside you, everything you need. The DNA, the swag, and the personality you have is all for what you are about to become.
  4. “Make your work to be in keeping with your purpose.” — Leonardo da Vinci. – In other words, my work needs to be a key for what I am supposed to do. When I realize what I am becoming, then God will complete what He started in me.

 

     II.            GOD WILL COMPLETE WHAT HE STARTED

A.     This is the Process of origination and destination.

  • You have on the Potter’s wheel, an unbothered block of clay. When God finishes it, the clay becomes a valuable vase.
  1. How did the clay go from origination and destination? It was the mess in the middle.

 

  1. If you look in the messy process, you must know that God is still working in that stuff. You might have a messy season, but God is still working on you.
  2. Scripture Reference: Philippians 1:6, “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

 

  III.            YOU CAN BE IN THE MASTER’S HANDS AND STILL BE MARRED

A.     The Potter was on the wheel working and Jeremiah realized something was wrong. Can you be in the master’s hand and yet something still be wrong with you? Just because you are in the Master’s hand, doesn’t mean nothing is wrong with you.

 

IV.            YOU CAN’T BE THAT CLOSE TO HIM AND NOT OWN WHAT’S WRONG

A.     You are one decision away from another walk of life.

B.      We want to spend eternity with God, but we don’t want to spend time with Him. We want to be all the way in, without being all the way out there.

1.      You can’t be close to God and be a liar. The closer you get to God, the less judgmental you become. You ought to become better, because you are in his presence.

2.      The grace extended to you ought to be extended to other people.

a.            Whether you smoke crack or weed, it’s all the same with God. You ought to just give God glory that he looked beyond your faults.

3.      Know that something is wrong with you. We are in the hospital waiting on the physician to come fix what is wrong with us.

 

    V.            WHATEVER IT IS, STAY IN HIS HANDS

A.     God didn’t throw you down, because something was wrong with you. He kept you in his hands. God loved David, because he said David was one after His own heart. He honored that David was willing to repent after doing wrong.

B.      There is nothing more powerful than something in the hands of God. Put something in my hands, you might come up short. Put a ball in our hands and you may get a few baskets. Put the ball in the hands of a Michael Jordan and you get championships. We have to put ourselves in the hands of God.

 

 

VI.            GOD SEES YOUR POTENTIALITY WHEN OTHER’S SEE YOUR ACTUALITY

A.     People look at your actual life now. The Potter never sees what everyone else sees. Some people see one big clump of clay when they look at you. The Potter sees what that clump of clay will become.

 

VII.            YOUR VALUE IS NOT ALWAYS IN WHAT IS VISIBLE

A.     Just because the clay was marred, doesn’t mean it doesn’t have value.

B.      Some people compare their lives to others on Instagram and as a result, they suffer depression. 1 Samuel 16:7  (NKJV) 7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have [a]refused him. For[b] the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”– God told Samuel not to look at their appearance. God looks at the heart, not the outside appearance. The stuff that makes you who you are is the stuff people can’t see.

 

VIII.            WHEN THE WORLD CONDEMNED ME, HIS MERCY COVERED ME

A.     Mercy will cover you, despite your flaws. God covers you like they do when they prepare you for surgery. Aren’t you glad God covered you before he worked on you?

B.      God worked on me, until I got it right. There are things that the Potter has to do, before his will comes to pass in your life.

 

  IX.            HE HAD TO BREAK ME TO BLESS ME

A.     If he hadn’t broken me, I wouldn’t be who I am today.

 

    X.            YOU MAY NOT SEE A SCRATCH BUT THERE IS A STORY

A.     The same marred vessel, the clay, didn’t look like what the Potter had in mind. As a result, the Potter took the same vessel and made it another way. In other words, I am the same, but I’m not the same. I give God the praise for another chance. God made me another way.

1.      I look the same maybe, but I’m not the same.

B.      I thank God for saving me. When they try to handle you the way they used to, tell them you have been made over again. You have been made another way! You had a do-over!

 

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Head Swimming Blessings

Posted on January 2, 2020 by growintheword

Part II: Unexpected Blessings series

“Head Swimming Blessings”

Sermon Synopsis December 8, 2019

Delivered by Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III, D.Min.

 

Amos 9:13-15, “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “When the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows seed; The mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will bring back the captives of My people Israel; they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them; they shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them. I will plant them in their land, and no longer shall they be pulled up from the land I have given them,” Says the Lord your God.”

 

I.          Introduction

  • Blessings are something that many of us take for granted. The idea of being blessed or at least the word “blessed” is often thrown around without regard for what it really means. For example, when someone sneezes, we say “Bless-you”
  • The truth is God intends blessings with intentionality. God puts something on your life that transcends your zip code and exceeds your financial abilities. It is not dependent upon anything, but God’s sovereign will. God places it on a person even though it is something they do not deserve.

 

  • Proverbs 10:22 (NKJV) 22 The blessing of the Lord makes onerich, And He adds no sorrow with it.– When the blessing of the Lord is upon our life, we are whole, not fractured. There is

 

  • In the story today, God brought His people from ruin to a place of being run over with blessings. God is about to allow blessings to take over your life.
  • This is a restoration oracle written by Amos the prophet. In it, God is about to bring judgement on the Israelite people. Although some people will be destroyed, there is a remnant of people at that same time that God will save. These are those that will be saved and restored. They will see blessings like they’ve never seen before.
  • God is about to do in your life as he did the people of God. He is going to bring an overwhelming blessing into your life.

 

II.          The Time of Reaping

A.    Get ready for what’s about to come

  1. Amos was not a fluff prophet. He was different. What made him different is he spoke to power. He was always about justice. He was always speaking out against those who rendered injustice to people.
  2. Amos cared for the disadvantaged. In fact, his words were so encouraging, many Civil Rights Leaders quoted him.
    1. Amos 5:24 (NKJV) 24 But let justice run down like water, And righteousness like a mighty stream.
  3. God chose to use Amos to tell the people what was coming forth and just like the people in the story today, Get ready for your increase!

 

B.     What you went through prepared you for the increase

  1. Scripture Reference: Psalm 126:5-6, “Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”- You can’t live the rest of your life living in what you’ve gone through. Know that God must be preparing something in you.
  2. Genesis 50:20 (NKJV) 20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; butGod meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.  – Some of you will be thanking God for what you were crying over initially.
  3. Story – There was a Dr that was doing a study. He showed all the participants a picture of a big black dot on a piece of paper. He asked each person what they saw in the picture. He received many different responses, but he never got what he was looking for out of the responses. What the Dr noticed was that everyone had a comment for the dot, but no one noticed the empty white space on the page. The white space was equally as important as the dot, because the white space represented potential, because it was area that had not been used for anything.  It was undeveloped potential.

 

III.          The Time of Restoration

A.    What was lost will be replaced

  1. God is about to replace what you lost.
  2. Scripture Reference: Deuteronomy 30:3 (The Message), “God, your God, will restore everything you lost; He’ll have compassion on you; He’ll come back and pick up the pieces from all the places where you were scattered.”- God is about to restore what the locust have eaten.
  3. God is waiting to put you back in this place. We must refuse to let haters cause us not to enjoy it.
  4. The season between seed and harvest is about to be over!

 

  1. In this season, what you worked for will be enjoyed
  2. The days of laboring and not reaping from it is over. You’re about to reap off your labor!
    1. Amos 9:13-15  (NKJV) 13 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “When the plowman shall overtake the reaper, And the treader of grapes him who sows seed; The mountains shall drip with sweet wine, And all the hills shall flow with it. 14 I will bring back the captives of My people Israel; They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them; They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them. 15 I will plant them in their land, And no longer shall they be pulled up From the land I have given them,” Says the Lord your God.

 

 

IV.          The Time of Replanting

A.    God is preparing the ground to give you a strong foundation

  1. There is a difference between enjoying what you planted and God planting you. When God plants you, everything around you gets blessed.
  2. What you plant is governed by seasons. God plants without seasonal restrictions.

 

B.     This time, I’m here to stay

  1. We are speaking consistent wins.
  2. When you have a covering and you remain where God tells you, know that the devil is aware of what God promised you. This will cause him to try to attack you.

 

C.     Closing Story:

  1. Bishop shares that after he had been studying for his sermons, he left singing the song, “There is no failure in God”. When he got to the truck, it wouldn’t start. Bishop was concerned, because he was on his way to do Bible Study. God said to him, “Now you know what this is don’t you?”

 

Satan was trying to destroy Bishop’s faith as soon as he had finished studying God’s word.

  1. Scripture References:

Psalm 1: 1-3, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.”-

 

  1. Remain planted. If you trust God, you will recover from your pain. Everything the enemy stole. God is about to give back to you.
  2. Rejoice on his promise. God is going to bring ruins to the wicked, but he is going to restore the remnant.

 

  1. Amos 9:13 (NKJV) 13 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “When the plowman shall overtake the reaper, And the treader of grapes him who sows seed; The mountains shall drip with sweet wine,
    And all the hills shall flow with it.
  2. Jeremiah 17:7-8, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.”

 

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Just a thought for today

Posted on December 17, 2019 by growintheword
Genesis 50:20 New King James Version (NKJV)
20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.
 
Simply put; God not only protected you from the evil that was intended, He also turned it around for our good and for the good of those around us.
 
Then God used it to be a blessing to others so that it might be used as a tool to save lost souls as we proceed down the path that He intended for us to travel.
 
In other words: The lightning bolt that you threw, knocked the tree down and it missed us, then it fell across the river that was blocking us from getting to where God wanted us to go. Then we used that same tree to get to the other side and along the way, we were able to pull those people up that was drowning in the currents of the river. Then we all moved over to the other side and got to our destination using what was a direct result of that which came to harm us.
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Overcoming Discouragement – Bible Study 12.04.19

Posted on December 11, 2019 by growintheword

Overcoming Discouragement

Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III, DMin.

Bible Study Synopsis 12/04/19

Psalm 42:11, “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.”

I.          Introduction

  • All of us know that life is filled with ups and downs. As a result, there are things that come against us that lead to discouragement. Things like heart- break, death, being let down people, and etc … lead to
  • Even though we may experience discouragement, we have to learn how to defeat it and not let it overcome us.

II.          How to Identify Discouragement

Discouragement is a lack of confidence and enthusiasm; dispiritedness. When you experience discouragement, you wake up in a funk and you really don’t on why.

A.    The signs of discouragement

  1. Lack of Sleep – You have to discern if this is from discouragement or from simply not going to bed when you are supposed.
  2. Overly Critical of Self – You are constantly attacking yourself.
  3. Becoming Isolated – The enemy keeps you away from other people so that he can interrogate you. When you notice that you like to isolate yourself, you have to ask yourself, why do you always want to retreat and get by yourself.
  4. Lack of Fruitfulness – You have trouble producing good work.
  5. Loss – This can be loss of loved ones for example. This has to be dealt with! When Moses died, it took a toll on Joshua. When you find yourself still talking about the loss of someone, know that this is sparked from your discouragement over it.

Scripture Reference: Joshua 1:9, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” – God had to literally bring Joshua out of his state of discouragement, because if He hadn’t, Joshua would lose hope and miss out on the next assignment God had planned for his life.

B.     The manifestation of discouragement

Scripture Reference: Nehemiah 2:1-5, “And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, that I took the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never been sad in his presence before. 2 Therefore the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing but sorrow of heart.” So I became dreadfully afraid, 3 and said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire?” 4 Then the king said to me, “What do you request?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it.” – This scripture is a great example of how to deal with people who are dealing with discouragement.

  1. The way to weigh authentic relationships is this; know that Spiritual Relationships always pick up pain on your radar. They can always tell if you are hurting. If people hang out with you and don’t notice when something wrong with you, this is a problem.
  2. In this scripture, the supervisor or the King in this case, looked at Nehemiah and knew something was wrong with him. This might also be worthy to note for ourselves that it is not only important to have friends that can tell when something is wrong with you, but also important to work for people who can tell when something is wrong with you. It is important to pick employers that care about the people that work for them.
  3. Nehemiah had a King what was concerned when he realized that something had to be wrong with him.
  4. God gives us time to unload what is bothering us, but often we say “nothing is wrong” when we are asked.

 

III.          Understanding Factors that Create the Spirit of Discouragement

A.    Unresolved pain can place you in the pit of despair

1 Kings 19:9-10 (NASB) 9 Then he came there to a cave and lodged there; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10 He said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.” – Elijah tried to run and escape it all. As a result, he went and hid in a cave.

  1. The trauma of the past can end up being the drama of your present.
  2. Discouragement will follow you wherever you go, if you don’t deal with it.
  3. Scripture Reference: Jeremiah 20:9, “Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him, nor speak anymore in His name. But His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not.” – Jeremiah was about to quit, but he got a word from God.
  4. You have to come to a place where you won’t let what didn’t happen, defeat you.

B.     Don’t let what didn’t happen defeat you

“Discouragement is not the absence of adequacy but the absence of courage.” –Neal Maxwell – An example of this would be, “ They didn’t choose me… “ or “I didn’t get the job… “

 

  1. Scripture Reference: 1 Samuel 30:6 (KJV), “And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.” – People are your friends until they are not. People will flip on you in a minute.
  2. There is a moment when you experience discouragement that you have to encourage yourself. Sometimes you have to learn to have church all by yourself.

IV.          How to Live Free of Discouragement

A.    Learn to let go and live

  1. God never intended on you living a life of discouragement. How many of you have a big heart or is always the giver or waiting for others to catch up with their commitment? This makes you a perfect candidate for
  2. When you pour out and nothing comes back, it is hurtful. Most people that are shady don’t care if it comes back to them or not. They don’t have any expectations, so they never get discouraged.
  3. Scripture References:
  4. Romans 8:37, “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”
  5. Isaiah 61:3 (NIV), “… provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.” – Down in Louisiana, they have a lot of Oak trees and if the Oak Tree could talk, he would say, “The Oak Tree will say I know that preachers have preached about the Palm Tree and how the palm tree can withstand storms and yet pop right back up after its over.”
  6. The Oak Tree would continue to say, “The only thing is, the Palm Tree can only survive certain environments”.
  7. See the Oak Tree has durability and sustainability. The Oak Tree is always there, year after year. There are Oak Trees there are several hundred years old. We can’t say the same about Palm Trees.

B.     Let God restore your joy

  1. Bishop Walker shares that he has awaken sad and not even know why before.
  2. Scripture Reference: Psalm 51:12, “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit.” – This is an indication that there is a season where I am in a sad place. How do I get my joy back?
  3. You can’t depend on the Praise Team or the church to do it for you. When you do that, you have turned them into a narcotic. In other words, you are coming to Church to get a high.
  4. The problem with getting high is, you will eventually come down.

C.     Steps to help you conquer discouragement:

  1. Establish Boundaries – Stop letting people sow seeds of discouragement into your life. Stop having people call you all the time. Learn that it is ok not to answer the phone. You have to decide what you will let into your day.
  2. Change the way you talk – Start speaking positivity over your life. Watch how you ask questions? For example, don’t say things like, “Ya’ll not hiring are you?”
  3. Ask for prayer support (Reference: Deuteronomy 32:30) – Learn to ask the right people to join you in prayer. Misery is contagious. We all need to learn to get us a misery blocker.
  4. Learn to celebrate the small victories – Some people lament even when things are going right.
  5. Put your faith in God– David is in discouragement. It is a spiritual space. Psalm 40:1-2 (NKJV) 40 I waited patiently for the Lord; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry. 2 He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps.
  6. David waited patiently. He wasn’t anxious. Maybe the word waited in this scripture means servant like a waiter or server in the restaurant.
  7. The scripture says that David served patiently for the Lord. This means he wasn’t doing it for people, he was doing it for the Lord.
  8. The scripture says that while David was serving, he was hurt. What got God’s attention is that he saw us serving while we were hurt. God sees our sacrifice.
  9. The scripture says He heard David’s cry. Cry is a word that has implications of It is like all the child knows to do is cry over the situation, God heard him. Any parent will tell you that they know their child’s cry over anyone else’s child. David says he was in such a place, while he was crying, but God heard him.
    1. No matter how many people are in your church, God heard your cry. That time you left church and cried all the way home, God heard you.
  10. We’ve said before, the way to check an authentic relationship is to see if they pick up on your hurt. Well know that God always hears your cries.
  11. The scripture says that David served patiently while he was discouraged. God noticed it and heard our cry. He brought us up and then he brought us out. The suggests that we were so discouraged that we were laying down on the ground. God had to lift us up out of the pit and the clay that had us bound, but then he set us upon a rock.
  12. This rock suggests that God took us out of something that was slippery and uncertain and placed us onto a place that was solid and dependable.
  13. Finally, God established our steps. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. If we go where God wants us to go, we will be where God wants us to be at the appointed time. This way we won’t miss the blessing or the covering.
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