[SPEAKER_00]: High praise podcasts.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey everybody, this is Pastor Josh.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll leave Pastor here at High praise and I want to thank you for downloading today's podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: We know that this message is going to encourage and bless you.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I want you to open up your heart and receive with the Lord as for you today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jeremiah chapter seventeen.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to give you a word just to kind of charge you this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then also we're going to pray for all of our students at the end of this message just to bless them, annoy them even as they head into the school year.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Jeremiah chapter seventeen, we're going to start with verse five.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you all throw that on the screen from your Jeremiah seventeen?
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse five.
[SPEAKER_00]: That says, Lord, cursed is the man who trusts in man.
[SPEAKER_00]: and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord, for he shall be like a shrub in the desert, say, in the desert.
[SPEAKER_00]: He shall be like a shrub in the desert and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the harsh places in the wilderness in a salt land which is not inhabited.
[SPEAKER_00]: Doesn't sound good, does it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse seven, blessed is the man who trust in the Lord and whose hope is in the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters which spreads out
[SPEAKER_00]: It's roots by the river, go ahead, and we'll not fear when the heat comes, but it's lethal be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Father, I thank you for this word today.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thank you, Lord, that you have something good to say to each and every single one of us in this room.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thank you that you brought us here for a purpose, Lord, we thank you, Your words as a righteous men, steps or ordered of the Lord, that you've ordered our steps to be here this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thank you today, you will annoy my tongue as out of a ready and skillful rider to speak forth Your words of life, exhortation, and effication and comfort to Your people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for all of us in this room.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, our ears to hear are hard to receive and our spirits to respond to what you are saying to us and all God's people said Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Once again, it's a back to school season and back to school season means this.
[SPEAKER_00]: It means new schedules.
[SPEAKER_00]: It means new pressures.
[SPEAKER_00]: It means new challenges.
[SPEAKER_00]: It really just means a new season.
[SPEAKER_00]: And for some of you already, you've positioned yourself both parents and students.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've already positioned yourself with this mentality of my goal is just to get through the year.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anybody know what I'm talking about?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like if we can just make it through, we'll be doing all right.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we can just hold on to the end and for students, you may be bracing yourself for peer pressure, for heavy workloads, for all the things that happen in modern culture and society that you face in going back to school.
[SPEAKER_00]: It really is crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every generation that does seem to be successively
[SPEAKER_00]: More difficult just things that that people face seems to melt.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be honest with you a lot of the things that kids face today in schools is much different than whatever even I face whenever I was into school And it's not necessarily that culture is just getting the worse and more wicked on this There's just all sorts of new pressures and new things and new balances and new
[SPEAKER_00]: everything that kids have to face year after year.
[SPEAKER_00]: And parents, some of you are probably already tired thinking about thinking about balancing school runs and work and family life and dance coming up and football prads.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's my anxiety right there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Three girls praise God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: My wife is going to bathe them.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know why you're worried about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Football practice, baseball practice, music lessons, all the things that happen, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That just seemed to overwhelm us and we think if we can just make it through.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I want to encourage you that God didn't put you here just to survive and make it through.
[SPEAKER_00]: God didn't put you in his plan for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: His purpose for you is not just to make it through the year by the skin of your teeth.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's plan for you is for you to thrive this year.
[SPEAKER_00]: His plan for you is for you to succeed this year.
[SPEAKER_00]: His plan for you is for you to prosper this year at everything that you do.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just about making it and
[SPEAKER_00]: barely crawling across the finish line.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's about running through with energy despair and with vitality that is still in you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Far too many believers live their lives in spiritual survival mode.
[SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, while we're talking about this, although this is appropriate for back to school and new seasons, it's so much deeper than that, because there are so many Christians that live in survival mode.
[SPEAKER_00]: And not only do we live in survival mode, we think that's what God has for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: We think just surviving is what he intended for us if I can just hold on.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, you got to get the little, the brothel in that one hold on.
[SPEAKER_00]: To the end, the quiver, that's right.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I can just make it.
[SPEAKER_00]: to the trumpet sounds, brother.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just trying to hold on in this world.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not what God intended for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just to hold on and consistently, feel like you are under attack and like you are pressed on all sides.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's goal is not for you to hold on.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's goal is for you to thrive and to succeed and that everything that you put your hands to will succeed and will prosper and you're not just gonna crawl through the finish line.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're gonna run through with strength in Jesus' name.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not the goal of your kids to be the kids.
[SPEAKER_00]: It just sit in the corner, trying to just hold on and make it till the end, and somehow they survive, and somehow they make it through the year.
[SPEAKER_00]: No God's plan for your kids to dad pray to this morning is that they would be the head and not the tail.
[SPEAKER_00]: That they would be above and not beneath.
[SPEAKER_00]: That they will be the brains and not the butt.
[SPEAKER_00]: That everything that they do, they will prosper.
[SPEAKER_00]: If your kids have the mind of Christ, which they do,
[SPEAKER_00]: Come on somebody.
[SPEAKER_00]: I said, if your kids have the mind of Christ, which they do.
[SPEAKER_00]: My parents told me that over the time growing up, there were certain things we just weren't allowed to say in our house.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't let my kids say the same things.
[SPEAKER_00]: And one day I believe they won't let their kids say the same things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Things like I can't just weren't allowed to be in our vocabulary.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not able to, was not in our vocabulary.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not smart enough, was not in our vocabulary.
[SPEAKER_00]: Come on, you know why?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because if we ever said that, we got scripture quoted back at us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And nothing worse when you're a kid than getting a scripture quoted back at you about something you say.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the best thing you can do when you're a kid like great.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't even argue with this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, you can.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can do all things to Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: You strengthens you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have the mind of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are made to sell.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are made to prosper.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we got to a point that we actually believed.
[SPEAKER_00]: God didn't design you to survive.
[SPEAKER_00]: He designed you to thrive.
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't just make you to thrive.
[SPEAKER_00]: He planted you to thrive.
[SPEAKER_00]: In good seasons and in bad, in drought and in harvest, you were intended to thrive.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jeremiah here, he contrasts two realities.
[SPEAKER_00]: One is the shrub in the desert, bear in.
[SPEAKER_00]: rootless, exposed to the elements, dependent upon what is unpredictable, but in the tree that is by the river rooted, nourished, fruitful in every season.
[SPEAKER_00]: unafraid of what is going on in the outside.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thrive mode means this that you aren't the shrub in the desert, but you are the tree that is planted by the river.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thrive mode means this as you are so rooted in God that external pressure becomes an opportunity for internal growth.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to understand Jeremiah is prophesying the Judah here, the nation of Judah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in Jeremiah's time, Judah faced pressure from Babylon.
[SPEAKER_00]: They faced political instability.
[SPEAKER_00]: They faced spiritual compromise.
[SPEAKER_00]: And their survival depended entirely upon where they placed their trust.
[SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, not much has changed.
[SPEAKER_00]: We still faced pressure from the world's systems.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't care if your guy won or lost is in power, isn't in power, whatever it is, we still face political instability.
[SPEAKER_00]: We still face economic uncertainty.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't care how good your job is.
[SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, like I believe this God wants to bless you and give you a good one.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he wants you to succeed in prospering the church says amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was shouting with Larry this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm shouting with everybody.
[SPEAKER_00]: Praise God.
[SPEAKER_00]: But at the end of the day, my our hope cannot be in our employer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our hope is in Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: My trust is in my paycheck.
[SPEAKER_00]: My trust is in Jehovah Jaira.
[SPEAKER_00]: My hope is not in the White House.
[SPEAKER_00]: My hope is in a kingdom that doesn't end.
[SPEAKER_00]: My trust is not in Congress or a governor.
[SPEAKER_00]: My trust is in the spirit of God that reigns forever and ever.
[SPEAKER_00]: Term limits are a real thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, how much you might like or dislike or whatever it is, whoever's in power right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Guess what?
[SPEAKER_00]: Their time will eventually end, but God's time is an ending at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: And at the end of the day, my hope in my trust is not in an elected official.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is in a king who is king over a kingdom and his reign lasts forever and ever and ever.
[SPEAKER_00]: Kingdom's rise, kingdom's fall.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Jesus remains.
[SPEAKER_00]: The church remains.
[SPEAKER_00]: Come on somebody.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what my hope is in.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what my trust is in.
[SPEAKER_00]: We live in a world with all of these things that due to face, but your ability to thrive is at based on those factors.
[SPEAKER_00]: whether you're planted and whether you grow and you thrive is still based upon you making a choice and a decision that you will be rooted in the presence of God, that you will be grounded in the local church, that you will be planted in his spirit and in his way.
[SPEAKER_00]: And whenever you do that, you're gonna stop drowning in everything the world wants to throw at you and you are gonna start growing and thriving in what God has for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I want you to shout this, shout, stop drowning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Start growing.
[SPEAKER_00]: One more time, stop drowning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Start growing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Too many believers are drowning in everything else going on in the world and we're not growing in what God has for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what is our problem?
[SPEAKER_00]: It is where we have allowed the seed of our lives to be planted.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can plant in the desert or you can plant by the stream.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can plant by the river.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jeremiah, seventeen, five.
[SPEAKER_00]: We read it earlier, but Jeremiah makes this exact statement.
[SPEAKER_00]: Curst is the man.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who's trust is in man?
[SPEAKER_00]: If there is nothing else, the church needs to get right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: We need to get this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Curst is the man.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who's trust is in man?
[SPEAKER_00]: Curst is the man.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who's trust is in man?
[SPEAKER_00]: If your trust is in any man,
[SPEAKER_00]: What scripture says is that is opening up the door for the curse to come into your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your trust does not need to be in a president, a governor, a congressman.
[SPEAKER_00]: Regardless of who it is, your trust doesn't need to be in me.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't need to be in that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Does it mean Pastor Casey or Pastor Garrett?
[SPEAKER_00]: We certainly would never intentionally lead you astray, but you can't put your trust in me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your trust has to be in the Lord, not in me, not in a political figure, not in your boss, not in a CEO, not in anybody else.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cursed is the man whose trust is in man and makes flesh his strength, not only that, if your trust is in your own hand.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what you can do, and how able you are, then it says your heart has departed from the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh boy, I know this is a strong.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't write this.
[SPEAKER_00]: If it's hitting somewhere right now, I didn't write it.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is in your Bible.
[SPEAKER_00]: If your hope is in man or it's in you, it will cause your heart to depart from the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our trust has to be in him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hear me, kids, if your trust is in your own popularity.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your heart will depart from the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: If your trust is in your own Instagram following, first of all, what are ridiculous things to have trust in?
[SPEAKER_00]: If your trust is in how many people follow you on TikTok, if your trust is in your friends, your heart will depart from God.
[SPEAKER_00]: It may not be immediate, but there will be a slow fade where you will slowly, where you may have had trust in Him over time.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you start trusting in yourself,
[SPEAKER_00]: He will stray from him.
[SPEAKER_00]: At the end of the day, we are who we are because God has blessed us in grace.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are able to accomplish what we can accomplish because God has blessed us in grace.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not because of me.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's because of him and who he is.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think about Larry testimony this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Larry said, I don't know how I can go any higher.
[SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, Larry, and our interns, he spoke to our interns this week, or she met this internship.
[SPEAKER_00]: All the interns could tell you, whenever Larry was giving his testimony, everything God's done for him in his life.
[SPEAKER_00]: At whole time, he's always pointing back to the Lord and what he's done, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen, praise God.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, thank you for that overwhelming response for all four of you who are like, bam, glad he's thankful for God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: At the end of the day, he points by the Lord, and he gave the testimony this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how much higher I can go, but whenever God shows up, he makes a way where there seems to be no way.
[SPEAKER_00]: When your trust isn't in your work ethic, and your trust isn't your skill, and your trust isn't your ability, but your trust is in the Lord, he makes a way where there seems to be no way.
[SPEAKER_00]: You with me this morning?
[SPEAKER_00]: At the end of the day, we have to understand this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whenever Jeremiah is prophesying this word, he's really warning Judah, because Judah has sought safety in alliances with Egypt.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, boy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whenever we think we can align ourselves with the culture and the world to provide ourselves safety.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're on the wrong path.
[SPEAKER_00]: They trusted their armies and they bow to their idols for insurance against defeat.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we can just be like them enough to where they'll be on our side enough that we're not overtaking, we'll be okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what?
[SPEAKER_00]: The problem is what they called wisdom and what they called insurance.
[SPEAKER_00]: God called it rebellion.
[SPEAKER_00]: There were trusts there, so he wore a baton.
[SPEAKER_00]: It literally means to throw your full white onto something.
[SPEAKER_00]: Throw your full white onto something.
[SPEAKER_00]: To put yourself entirely in his hands.
[SPEAKER_00]: What Jeremiah is saying is that whenever you trust in God, it means you throw your full white on him.
[SPEAKER_00]: It means you put your full assurance in him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, you can't go fifty-fifty.
[SPEAKER_00]: and have half your weight on the systems of the world, and half your weight on trusting God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so many people in the church think we can do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, we do this with kids all the time adults.
[SPEAKER_00]: We go, yeah, those young people these days, trust in this, that and the other.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we are just as guilty.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we've got real quiet in this Presbyterian church this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wouldn't even argue that we might be more guilty.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because we think for the church to thrive, we have to have the backing of a political system.
[SPEAKER_00]: We think for the church to thrive, we have to have all of these external factors.
[SPEAKER_00]: And at the end of the day, his reign will last forever, not because of all of that, but because of who he is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you all with me this morning?
[SPEAKER_00]: God, like you supposed to preach like Jeremiah, twenty nine eleven today.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's back to school season.
[SPEAKER_00]: Tell us how great we are and how God has a plan for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: He does.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it is hindered upon you fully trusting in him.
[SPEAKER_00]: When your trust is in people, systems are self, you're hard and never will be the person God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because hear me, divided trust is no trust at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: divided trust is no trust at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: God paints this life as a shrub in the desert, living on scraps, surviving on temporary relief, and never really flourishing.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord says, if you lean on human strength, your heart will turn away from me.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like this.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like trying to stand on a rotten floorboard.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you look at it, it might look okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the moment some pressure is put on it.
[SPEAKER_00]: is gonna collapse.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we look at putting our trust in everything else, it's like putting your trust in that rotten floorboard.
[SPEAKER_00]: It might look good, it might look stable, it might look like it's okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the moment there's some weight and some pressure on it, it collapses.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is why we put our hope in everything else.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we wonder why we collapse whenever we stand on it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't stand on the systems of this world.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to stand on the rock.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to stand on Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're here me soon as if you're confident this year is on fitting in, you'll compromise your calling.
[SPEAKER_00]: Parents, if you're trust is in your own hustle, you'll burn out before Christmas breaks here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I know some of you going, what does that look like?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'm not bowing down and worshiping an idol.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have a golden statue in my home.
[SPEAKER_00]: I worship God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me tell you what it looks like.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you trust your bank account more than Jehovah Jyra.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're not really trusting in him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And all of that, you've made an idol of your own bank account.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you lean on human approval more than divine assignment, you've made an idol.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you with me?
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're depending on governmental stability instead of God's authority, you've made an idol.
[SPEAKER_00]: At the end of the day, it's Jesus plus nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not Jesus plus economic stability equals blessing.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not Jesus plus my hustle equals me succeeding in prospering.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's Jesus plus nothing equals flourishing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I want you to get it confused.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want you to get it confused.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let me give you some qualification here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Students, you can't go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I trust on Jesus while I study and I'm going to have a four point note.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Parents, you can't go.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm depending on Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna quit my job and just expect supernatural money to show up on my bank account.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not talking about not doing those things.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm talking about putting your trust in those things.
[SPEAKER_00]: If your hope is in those things, your hope can be in nothing other than Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hear me, the enemy doesn't need to make you worship a golden statue.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you can get you to subtly lean to the arm of the flesh, you'll dry up on your own.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to get to a place where you just, you renounce all misplaced trust.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you get to a point where your confidence isn't in man.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not in the system.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just not in your self.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's in the Lord alone.
[SPEAKER_00]: Psalm one talks about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: You thought up there?
[SPEAKER_00]: You all thought we are away from the Psalms.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here we are.
[SPEAKER_00]: Psalm chapter one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly.
[SPEAKER_00]: We could just stop right there and preach for an hour.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the other problems too many of you have is you listen to too many ungodly people.
[SPEAKER_00]: You listen to counsel from your friend.
[SPEAKER_00]: I need to get some marital by your friends, been divorced five times.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've had seven affairs.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why in God's name would you ever get godly counsel from people who don't have any fruit working in their lives?
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'm going to go talk to my friend.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know Pastor Garrett said this to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Students?
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm gonna go talk to my sixteen-year-old friend.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I think Pastor Garrett's counsel is just two.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just not, not doable.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like thirty-two years old now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thirty-one years old, excuse me, for a few more days.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's out thirty-one.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's thirty-one years old.
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't know what his light being sixteen today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why in the world are you getting counsel from people who don't have fruit in their life and then expect to be blessed?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why in the world do you think you can go gossip?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not counsel.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's gossip.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why do you think you can go gossip and hear things from people and expect it to be anything other than work exactly what they have?
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you not want any part of?
[SPEAKER_00]: nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.
[SPEAKER_00]: But his what?
[SPEAKER_00]: His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night.
[SPEAKER_00]: He shall be like a what?
[SPEAKER_00]: Tree planted by the rivers of water that brace forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't need your situation to change.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need to be planted in the right place.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't need all the external factors to shift.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, if God would just give me a new boss, no, if you would just get planted properly and in the right place, the boss wouldn't affect your flourishing season.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, if God would just give me a new teacher, because this teacher has it out for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, you need to be planted properly, and God will cause you to prosper wherever you are, and to succeed in every situation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hear this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to hear me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Blessing isn't luck.
[SPEAKER_00]: We do this in the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: We look at people who are busking, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're just lucky.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're not lucky.
[SPEAKER_00]: Man, they just got the right breaks.
[SPEAKER_00]: Man, they just come from the right stock.
[SPEAKER_00]: Blessing isn't luck.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's location.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where you plant determines where you flourish.
[SPEAKER_00]: The tree didn't just happen to grow by the stream.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was placed there on purpose by the gardener.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the interesting thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've dad started about this before.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got to hurry.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dad started about this before.
[SPEAKER_00]: The great thing is if I go out in my front yard and I plant something, it can't move.
[SPEAKER_00]: People can.
[SPEAKER_00]: And God will always try to plant people in the right place by the right stream in the right community with the right people, but people uproot themselves and move themselves out of position all the time they go, I don't know why I'm not being blessed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just not lucky enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: has nothing to do with luck.
[SPEAKER_00]: It has to do with location.
[SPEAKER_00]: God has intentionally positioned you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hear me, student, parent, teacher, whoever you are, grandparents, he has intentionally positioned you right where you are for kingdom impact this year.
[SPEAKER_00]: A tree that is planted properly doesn't fear the heat because its source is underground.
[SPEAKER_00]: When it's planted, this is why it talks about being planted by the river, because it is close enough to a source of life, that even if there's a drought, there's still water underground, that it is closely enough to where it needs to be, for it to have everything that it needs to succeed and prosper.
[SPEAKER_00]: But too many people remove themselves away from what they need.
[SPEAKER_00]: How do you hear me students?
[SPEAKER_00]: When you're rooted in God's Word, when you're rooted in His presence, you can walk in the any classroom and in the any situation and no.
[SPEAKER_00]: My source is not in the school's approval.
[SPEAKER_00]: My source is not in my friends' approval.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's in the spirit of God within me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you with me?
[SPEAKER_00]: Jeremiah, let's go fast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jeremiah doesn't say that you might bear fruit.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says you will not cease to bear fruit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Psalm one, thought back up there at the very end, says this, whose leaf shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is not talking about situational production of fruit and prosperity.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is saying whatever is going on, you're okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Drought doesn't stop destiny when you're properly rooted.
[SPEAKER_00]: The economy may shake, culture may decay, but the river of God never runs dry.
[SPEAKER_00]: When the land around you looks bearing the spirit in you is still producing love, joy, peace, patience, influence, kingdom advancement.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here this, what you'd hear me, we see this throughout Scripture, Joseph didn't wait for promotion to produce.
[SPEAKER_00]: He interpreted dreams and prison.
[SPEAKER_00]: Daniel didn't wait for freedom be faithful.
[SPEAKER_00]: He prayed and Babylon.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul didn't wait for change to fall.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wrote a pistol that changed the world from a cell.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are always saying, God, if you'll change everything, then I'll produce.
[SPEAKER_00]: And God says, I don't care what's going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're still called to produce.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't care what happens.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are still called to be faithful.
[SPEAKER_00]: Faithful is not dictated by everything else.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to reach a place where you sound not gonna dry up.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not gonna shrink back.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna be hungry where I'm at.
[SPEAKER_00]: And God's gonna produce fruit that I will prosper even while under pressure.
[SPEAKER_00]: At the end of the day, I'm wrapping up the end of the day.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is what it comes down to.
[SPEAKER_00]: It comes down to your heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can't be divided.
[SPEAKER_00]: Battles are lost and one in the heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: A divided heart is a distracted life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And a distracted life will never thrive.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are too many young people and adults.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because let's just be honest, we tend to get, as you get older, like, yeah, those young people these days.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, adults do the same thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are too many of us that live this double trust life.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are too many of us that live one way on Sunday and Wednesday night, but you were acting a completely different way, Wednesday at one PM in the afternoon.
[SPEAKER_00]: And some of y'all write them real different on Friday night at eleven PM.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you expect that what's gonna happen is God's gonna bless you because you knew how to play the game on Sunday.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just because you know how to play the game doesn't mean your life and your heart is not divided and distracted.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't care if you know when to shout, when to jump, when to cry, when to lift your hands, when to amen, when to do this, and when to do that, if that doesn't carry through to Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, your life is divided and distracted, and that's why you're not seeing success.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not because you didn't shout loud enough during worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's because your heart is divided.
[SPEAKER_00]: God isn't looking for partial trust.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's looking for people to say, I'm all in.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have any at my trust.
[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, God, it's all in you and if you don't come through, I'm sunk.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I know you're going to.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm all in in a culture that's telling us constantly, the follow our feelings and the follow your truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: The spirit is calling you to follow the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't care what you feel, just because you feel it doesn't make it true.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was a clip several years back now.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's been almost a decade ago, if somebody on TV and they said, well, you know, these stats like this is violent crime is climbing and you know, hunger is climbing and dead or dead are done.
[SPEAKER_00]: And somebody said, hold on a second, all the reports and stats actually say the exact opposite, all those things are on the decline.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they said, well, that doesn't matter.
[SPEAKER_00]: People feel like they're climbing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that means it's true.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is not the way the world works.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't get to determine your own truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: What determines the truth is what the word says.
[SPEAKER_00]: What God says, what His Spirit is said, what Jesus said, that's the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you have to conform everything else to His truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't run after the river of God while sipping from the systems of the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you try to live in two soils, you won't bear any fruit and either.
[SPEAKER_00]: Today hear me as we close as about tearing down every idol, every competing loyalty, every hidden place where we've trusted something else more than we've trusted him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And today, as we get ready to go into schools, we get ready to kind of begin a new season for parents for all of us.
[SPEAKER_00]: What we're saying is, I'm not going to survive.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to thrive.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to drown.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to grow.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whenever things get crazy, it's not going to overwhelm me because I implanted by the river of life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when everybody else feels like they are overwhelmed, I'm just cool as could be.
[SPEAKER_00]: When everybody else feels like things are shrinking and declining and under attack, I'm just gonna keep on going because I'm planted by the river of life and those things aren't gonna move me and they aren't gonna shake me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe today, come on, team, I believe this today, this isn't just a sermon, it's a commissioning.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's more than just an inspirational message is a prophetic reset for the year that we're not going to live in survival mode.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we're going to step out and we're going to say, plant me by the river Lord, plant me by the river Lord, and I'm not going to move from it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And because of that, I'm going to thrive.
[SPEAKER_00]: Will you stand up to your feet this way?
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks again for downloading this podcast.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We'll be back soon with another incredible message.
[SPEAKER_00]: God bless you and have a great week.