Provoked To Purpose

Your days of complacency are over. Just when you thought you could settle for where you’re at, God will send a “Peninnah” to shake things up. Who’s Peninnah, you ask? She’s the person who irritates you, calls you out, exposes your stagnancy, and it’s not to tear you down; it’s to save you from mediocrity. According to 1 Samuel 1:4-15, that’s what she did for Hannah! Peninnah teased Hannah for her barrenness and, at the same time, stirred up her purpose to give birth. Are you provoked to purpose? Now, it’s your moment to PUSH!

1st Samuel chapter 1 verse 4th 15.
And if you’re able to stand, please do so. As we go into the word of god.
I know it’s been a while now, but I’m still just so glad to have real people to preach too.
After preaching to chairs and empty seats for 2 years, glory to god, I don’t care to put mannequins in.
I’m just happy to see you. Amen.
When we go into the word today, on this special day, a commemorative holiday that that is a natural holiday.
It’s not a biblical a day, but it’s an important day where we appreciate mothers and recognize that they are in part the source from which we come that god has invited them into the creative process with him.
That he incubates his destiny in the wounds of women for the tremendous responsibility that god would trust you with what’s next.
That he would set it off with you, and you will never see the completion.
So don’t be frustrated if it doesn’t look like what you want it to look like right now because you will not see the completion of all that god is going to do through your offspring.
Come on, say, man, somebody.
We come into a situation where god is about to turn things around.
And he’s going to turn them around in a mining way.
But the people through whom he’s going to turn it around are oblivious to the fact that the change is going to come through them.
Because often gut groom’s greatness in obscurity, And you don’t even know that you’re chosen.
In fact, they think they are ordinary, but god is about to do something extraordinary in their lives.
A a gentle, um, uh, and I’m preaching already.
It’s not like you come born into the world with a stamp on your head that says I’m getting ready to do something amazing in your life.
In fact, you can live half of your life or even most of your life and not know that the next turn is going to revolutionize your entire life.
And because you don’t know it, sometimes you can be complacent, and I’m gonna spend a lot of time dealing with complacency because we don’t recognize that god is going to do something extraordinary in our lives.
Because this family is an ordinary family according to the times that they lived in, and they’re fairly affluent.
I don’t know. I wanna be presumptuous and say rich, but they were well enough off to be able to travel and to go and to worship god and to travel a distance and that the very fact that Elcona has 2 wives is a sign of being prosperous.
1 will make you broke.
I have not gotten to the point that I can afford to have too.
So I’m still working on El Canada.
I have not gotten there yet, but he has 2 wives, Hannah Panena.
He is not otherwise mentioned in the scriptures. It’s being particularly significant.
And Hannah often gets all of the spotlight because Hannah doesn’t know who she is yet.
She’s a grown woman who doesn’t know who she is yet.
She does not recognize who she is.
But god uses the other wife as a catalyst of conversion.
So when we read it let’s read it carefully because there’s couple of things I wanna note.
Whenever the day came for L.
Cana to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife, Penina, and to all her sons and daughters.
But but but to Hannah, He gave a double portion because he loved her, and the lord had closed her womb.
I had never considered the fact that if had he not given her a double portion since she had no children the portions were given out according to the children that you had that you could sacrifice for your entire family.
He does not want her to appear before the lord empty handed.
Think about that for a minute.
So he gives her a double portion because he loves her to make as if she has what she does not.
Because the lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her, pay close attention to that word provoke She kept provoking her in order to irritate her.
Um, this went on year after year whenever Hannah went up to the house of the lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not she was fine.
Till Penina provoked her. Her husband, Alcono, would say to her, Hannah, why are you weeping?
Why don’t you eat what Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than 10 sons?
Once when they had finished eating once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh Hannah stood up.
Somebody say Hannah stood up. Oh, now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the door post of the lord’s house.
In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the lord weeping bitterly.
And she made a vow saying, lord, almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me and not forget your servant, but give her a son then I will give him to the lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.
And she kept on praying to the lord Eli observed her mouth. Thought she was crazy.
Hannah was praying in her heart and her lips were moving, but her voice was not her.
He, like, thought she was drunk. And, Senator, how long are you going to stay drunk?
Put away your wine. Isn’t it funny how people will be presumptuous?
You see it all the time on Facebook and Instagram, and people will just make presumptions about you as if they actually knew what they were talking about.
She said, not so, my lord, Hannah replied, I am a woman who is deeply troubled.
I have not been drinking wine or beer. I was pouring out my soul.
I was pouring out my soul to the lord, leaving alone. Leave me long.
Get out of my face. What I want you to see I’m gonna summarize in my title, provoked to purpose.
Provotes to purpose.
You would think that purpose just happen, but purpose doesn’t just happen.
They went years just going through routine until she was provoked to per she was irritated, but then she got provoked to per when she got provoked that was the turning of the tide provoked is not a good feeling.
It is an uncomfortable irritating feeling. It is a scary, annoying feeling.
Her husband tries to comfort her He is unable to comfort her.
He is unable to resolve the issue. There are some irritants that should not be fixed.
There are some irritants that are not satanic.
Spirit of the living god as I speak today, I pray that the word would be made flesh in the lives of the people who hear it.
That transformation would occur in such a supernatural way, then an illumination would occur in such a way that somebody doesn’t even realize They think that whatever they’re going through is what they’re going through, but they don’t understand that what they’re going through is is right in online and in level with what you’re about to do next in their lives.
They don’t even know they’re extraordinary. They think they’re ordinary.
They think their situation is just something that they have to deal with, and they don’t know that in order to change the situation they have to be provoked.
Not provoke to impress other people, not provoke to prove something to other people, but provoked to to break away from complacent see because it is not good for us to be too complacent.
Prepare our hearts to receive your worry. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
You may be seated in the presence of god. Yeah. Get ready. Get ready. Get ready.
Get ready. You can be complacent and not know it.
You don’t always have the benefit of having someone in your ear raising you developing you coming from a culture and environment, a family culture or environment that lends itself to causing you to believe that there is something exceptional that god has planned for your life.
And if you’re not careful, most of us settle It is easy to settle.
If I take a this glass and I pour sand in it and put a spoon in it and stir it up, I have to work to settle it to to stir it up, but I have to do nothing for it to settle.
When I when I take the spoon out left to its own devices, it settles.
And when we settle, we often settle into a place of complacency.
Now complacency is defined like this. It is a feeling of quiet pleasure or security.
Often, while unaware of some potential danger, or defect or the like, self satisfaction or smug satisfaction with an existing situation or condition.
Just satisfied. Just just satisfied. And in and of itself, that doesn’t sound bad to be satisfied.
What makes it bad is when we are satisfied with less than what god has for us.
And it e it is easy to become satisfied with less than what god has for us because we don’t always know what god has for us.
And we don’t always understand what it takes to really revolutionize our lives and come to a place where we really go after what god has.
It is difficult now to distinguish between, like, peace and faith and things that we’re taught in church and complacency.
How how do you determine the difference between peace, which is also a calm and a settle and a relaxation and complacency.
So let’s distinguish it by saying there’s a difference between trusting god after you have done all you can do.
As opposed to complacency is the assumption that you can invest less effort and still maintain more responsibility.
You get to the point in your mind that you don’t think that you really have to give your best because you’re in now.
It let me break it down where you can get it good.
It’s the difference between the dating you and the married you. You’re in now.
Yeah. It’s the difference between your 1st month on the job and your 10th year on the job.
Complacency complacency begins to occur when we no longer put our full effort into becoming what god wants us to be.
We are living in a world that creates 2 polarized ideology. Follow me.
I want you to think with me a little while.
We’re gonna have church in a minute, but I want you to think for a little while.
The the world the world has 2 polarizing ideologies that I wanna deal with.
1 is a deep feeling of inadequacy. On one hand, you got people who feel inadequate.
This is a voice that says your best is not enough. And maybe you’re not enough.
They live with an inferiority complex. And insecurity. Nothing they do is ever applauded within.
It it doesn’t mean that it’s not applauded outwardly, but but inwardly, you never clap for you.
You never appreciate your accomplishment. You’re off to the next battle. You’re off to the next thing.
And when you look back at it, there’s always something wrong with it, and you can always see what’s wrong with it, and you can never see what’s right with it.
You have been conditioned to see yourself from a position of inferiority.
Often we seek affirmation from it makes you hungry for affirmation. You’re starving for affirmation.
See, when you clap for yourself, you don’t desperately need somebody else to clap for you.
This is important.
It it’s ruining our relationship because we don’t often marry it because we we want companionship, we we sometimes marry it because we want affirmation.
So so we assigned to our spouse the job of clapping And as long as they clap, we’re good.
But the spouse eventually gets tired of clapping into the life of someone If you’ve ever tried that, no matter how much you clap for them, they’d never hold on to your clapping.
These are the people that keep asking you, do you love me? You asked me that yesterday. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Do you think I’m pretty? I told you Monday, you’re pretty. This is Tuesday.
It it it leaked out over. Do you think I’m smart?
Uh, yes, I think you’re smart. And then, uh, no, filled out.
The reason it’s leaking is because you are pouring into them things that they don’t agree with.
I’m not just talking about so much just believing in in oneself.
I’m not even talking about believing in god.
I’m talking about allowing positivity to be internalized when it is due, when it is really due.
I mean, when you’ve really done work, and you’ve done a good job to take a moment.
And I have to I have to work on this in my own life, to take a moment to take in good moments.
Sometimes I’m so busy going on to the next thing that I don’t take time to just see law.
The word see law in Psalms is a musical term that means to pause and just breathe in and just take that in and really allow that to soak into you what you’ve been able to accomplish.
Am I talking good this morning?
If if if you don’t internalize it, don’t assign me the job of telling you what you ought to be telling yourself.
I’m not talking about pumping yourself up when it’s not good.
I’m not talking about lying to yourself when it’s not good. I’m talking about applauding yourself when it is good.
Clap for yourself. Some of y’all even felt funny doing that.
You just felt funny doing that. You’re not you to clap it for yourself.
But god shows us how to do this in the book of Genesis.
The Bible says that god stepped out on nothing and said, let there be something and let there be light, and there was light, and and the evening in the morning was the first day.
And guess what? No angels, no choir, no spouse, no friends. No person came along. Nobody started dancing.
No praise team came along. And, sir, god Clap for himself. He said, and it was good.
And it was good. It doesn’t have to be finished to be good.
It it it doesn’t have to be finished to be good.
God said I got some more to do tomorrow, but that that I’ve already done, That was good.
That was good right there. And see, some of you wait too late to clap.
You’re not gonna clap till it’s finished. But you gotta clap behind every accomplishment and celebrate every step.
The steps of a good man all ordered by the lord, and he to light it in the way.
And every time you take a stop, you need to clap for that step.
Because at least I’m further than where I was. I may not be where I’m going, but I’m further than where I was.
Am I talking to anybody this morning?
And so you need to praise god for baby steps. Praise god for progress.
Praise god for improvement. Celebrate within yourself and not be afraid to look yourself in the mirror and say you did that well.
You did that real well.
You’ll never be able to determine who you need in your life until you feel your own void.
You’ll choose somebody out of your pain.
And then when you get well, you don’t want them.
I call it marrying your nurse.
You you’re attracted to him because he’s sick.
And they’re good at making you feel better.
But then when you get better, you have no purpose for them in your life.
And all of a sudden, you say you’ve outgrown them. No. You haven’t outgrown them.
You just built a world around your affliction.
On the other extreme, but equally as dangerous, but the antithesis of inferiority is the assumption that what god has given to you requires nothing of you.
You don’t put anything into it. You just received it. You got it.
You think it ought to be there. Anything you add to your life requires your attention.
If you have a goldfish, you have to feed it.
If you get a cute little puppy, you gotta walk it. You gotta take it out.
You gotta clean it. You gotta take it to the vet. If you buy a car, you’re gonna need oil.
If you buy a car, you’re gonna need gas.
Anything you add to your life is gonna require more of your stuff adding more than you’re willing to maintain.
Satan’s word with me. No. Oh.
Some of you have said, yes.
So much because you assume that you are collecting whatnots to keep on a shelf.
But in reality, you keep saying, yes, and not really taking care of what you already got.
You keep adding more and more and more and more to your life.
And then somewhere on some therapist couch You say I’m overwhelmed, and I’m nervous. And I got anxiety.
And I I guess you do.
To him who much is given much is required.
This grandiose mentality that you have has led you to a place of utter frustration, you underestimate what greatness cost.
I’m a say that, again, you underestimate what costs. This is a dangerous thing.
You don’t seek to keep up, advance your skills, study, or work out You don’t seek to maintain the relationship.
Keep it spicy and interesting. You think I got that on luck. You do not have that on luck.
You have come on. Come on. Come on.
You never you never have it unlocked.
You don’t have your husband on luck. You don’t have your wife on luck.
You don’t have your career on luck. You don’t have your child on luck.
You don’t have your mama on luck. You don’t ever have anything on luck.
That’s why you gotta celebrate people while you have them. You have to love them while you got them.
You gotta pour into them while they’re there. You don’t have it on luck.
Somebody is out in your job right now. Somebody’s after your spouse right now.
Somebody’s after your house right now. Somebody’s after your position right now.
Never fall into complacency and think that you are so wonderful that you’re just being there is all that’s required.
No. No. No. No. Complacency will not do it. You have got to put some grind in it.
Some sweat into it, some work into it.
That’s why you don’t need too many it’s because every it you take on is gonna take something from you.
It’s gonna give something to you, but it’s gonna take something from you.
And there may not be of you to handle all the places you said yes to.
And you’ve got to be able to evaluate.
Am I a pints am I a pints sized container with a gallon sized appetite.
Complacency expects reward without sacrifice.
You wanna be rewarding as if you were doing more than you’re really doing.
They take people places and things for granted. That’s all it means. You just take them for granted.
You just think they’ll always be there.
And often blame anyone past president or future to avoid taking responsibility for outcomes.
You’ll even blame gun you’ll even blame god. God didn’t come through. I paid my tithes.
I gave my offers, and they said god was gonna give me a double portion and god didn’t come through.
He did come through. You spent it.
You’re not gonna like me today, and it’s mother’s day.
The message might not be good, but the dinner after this is gonna blow your mind.
It’s gonna be a great dinner after this. Come on, somebody. You you don’t understand.
God gets blamed for everything that we didn’t do ourselves. God didn’t do it.
You can’t sit back hypothetically and differently put it on autopilot and expect god to do everything in your life.
It does not work. It is a lack of days ago attitude.
It is a naivety that we take for granted and assume that we are so wonderful, and we are just so special, and we are just so great, and we’re just so grandiose that that’ll be glad that I showed for work this morning.
No. I’m not glad that you showed up. What did you get done?
And it starts in our childhood. You just wonderful. You just gorgeous.
You just special. You just wonder. And you think you’re so wonderful that you don’t have to work. That’s wrong.
You’re not that wonderful. We’re not that amazed by you.
We’re not that caught up with you that you can be derelict of your responsibilities and now you wanna be celebrated.
It is difficult to celebrate a mother that didn’t mother.
It is difficult to celebrate a man as the head of the household, and he’s not there, and he doesn’t provide, and he doesn’t do it.
He doesn’t work with hunting a man.
It is how I’m glad you told me because these bills ain’t saying nothing.
Stop taking trophies for races you didn’t run.
Stop taking trophies for races you didn’t run. Write that down. Put it on the line.
Put it in your head. Stop taking trophies for races you didn’t run.
Stop comparing yourself to other people, other couples, other careers, other jobs, because if you don’t put that work in, you don’t get that result.
You can’t say to your wife.
I want you to treat me like sister Jake’s treats, misha Jake’s. You you don’t act like mister Jake.
You didn’t do what Bishop Jakes did. You didn’t serve like Bishop Jakes did. You you didn’t stand by me.
You didn’t go through the phone with me. You don’t get that just because you’re in the building.
You gotta put some work into that. Complacency. Complacings. I’m a mess with you this morning.
Complacency needs your frustration. The Bible says comparing yourself with one another is not wise.
Oh, I’m a get to you.
If I don’t make you happy, I’m a make you good man.
One way down there, I’m a get a good re I’m a get some kind of reactions out of you.
Complacency expects reward without sacrifice, then it creates a lukewarm nauseating attitude in god God said, I wish you were either hot or cold.
But because you are lukewarm, complacent people are lukewarm people, I fueling you out of my mouth.
There’s nothing worse than a lukewarm employee. Maybe there is some words. A lukewarm manager is worse.
A lukewarm CEO. Lukewarm people are nauseating. Lukewarm. You’re not hot. You’re not cold, you’re indifferent.
Lukewarm doesn’t change the temperature in my mouth.
I must you you’re the only one got it in the whole church.
Lukewarm doesn’t change the temperature in my mouth.
If you’re coming and going doesn’t change the temperature, that I had without you.
Oh, lord.
I can see him getting mad now.
You have to be courageous enough to ask yourself a question am I a lukewarm person?
Am I lukewarm daughter? Am I lukewarm son? Am I my mother used to say all the time to us.
Do something that makes folks miss you.
What would they not have if you’re not there?
If you can’t point to several significant things, I’m talking to you.
If you can’t figure out whether this message is for you or not, if you can’t answer that question, what do you bring to the table?
And what do you keep bringing to the table?
And how are you advancing what you’re bringing to the table?
And how do you avoid being complacent All these years, Hannah has settled into a routine, and Hannah has enabled her by making as if she had what she did not have because he loved her.
Some people love us to our own detriment.
They give us compliments, and this is what’s unfair in a relationship because a lot of time when somebody ends up leaving you.
You’re shocked because they just bought you roses. The day before, but you didn’t earn them.
They just gave them to you because they’re supposed to. It’s February 14th. It was supposed to give you roses.
Brought you roses. Don’t mean I’m happy. Means I got a calendar.
Don’t want me. It happens all the time.
And you you it does it does not mean a thing.
If you cannot point to how you change the temperature when I take you in, you are lukewarm.
What do I lose if you leave?
It’s like somebody getting ready to leave your company, and they wanna exit meeting with you.
What? For what? Go. Go. God bless you later. Have a nice night.
God is fine. We couldn’t tell you. He was here anyway.
See, see, and people of faith are really good at this because it is so easy to give god our job.
I I’m walking by faith. I just believe god’s gonna handle it. I’m just believing god.
My career is on lot. I’m just believing god. I played the angels of the lord. And camp about them.
If I plead the blood, you plead the blood all you want to, all over your house, but the blood ain’t gonna make reference.
The blood ain’t gonna cook dinner. The blood I ain’t gonna make happiness of blood. I ain’t gonna have sex.
The blood ain’t gonna do anything.
You plead the blood into all the walls of paint and red in your house.
You can anoint your children until they are greasy as KFC, but that does not take the place of mothering your child.
There is something required of you. You have to put some work into it. Stop having babies.
You’re not gonna take care of.
And that ain’t just for the women.
That’s for the men too. Stop having babies. You ain’t gonna take care of.
Don’t run up to him until I want you to be my baby daddy.
No. I want you to get some diapers.
I want you to bring some groceries in this I want you to leave me happy this rent.
I want you to add some wisdom and some love and attention and time.
Give them a job description that goes along with the baby.
God put out him and even the garden.
He set him up in the garden. He made everything right. He put a system in place.
He put a system in place. He brought them into a a a a a system that had irrigation.
He brought them into a system that was beautiful.
He brought them into a system that was fruitful and then told them to teal it to work it, to garden it, the fact that god gives you something doesn’t absolve you, of the responsibility of working it.
Type on the line. Work that thing. You gotta work that thing.
If you If you’re gonna turn your job into a career, you gotta work that thing.
If you’re gonna turn around and break the curse off of your family, You gonna have to work that thing.
If you’re gonna lose weight, you gotta work that thing. Glory to god. That’s why I’m fat today.
You gotta work that thing. You gotta work that thing. Is not gonna I keep waiting on a pill.
I’m waiting on an injection. I’m waiting on a drug. I ended up with a treadmill.
Maybe someday they’re gonna come up with something that we can just inject and come out here with biceps and triceps until then, you gotta lift them weights.
Are you here what I’m saying to you?
Some people live their whole lives complacent, and you might get by with it until god’s purpose. Watch this.
This is until god’s purpose is compromised by your complacency.
You can live your whole life being complacent and you might be married to an enabler who makes it legal for you to be complacent because they give you a double portion because they love you.
But that love is also enabling you not to be your best self.
I have learned sometimes when somebody cry and let them cry.
Don’t fix everything for everybody.
Don’t create a false reality that makes them feel good about some They need to feel bad about it.
They need to feel bad about it because when you start getting in the way of what god has purpose for your life.
Being god has to send something to provoke you. Somebody holler provoked me.
Uh-huh. Don’t let me spend my whole life living beneath my purpose, leaving beneath my potential living beneath what I could be living beneath where I ought to be going.
I know I’m preaching to you because deep down inside There’s a voice down inside of you that suspects that there is more that god has for you than what you are experiencing right now, or you would need be listening at me.
It is that haunting, nagging suspicion that there’s something else. You don’t even know what it is.
You don’t even know how to get it.
But there’s a nagging suspicion that you were put here on this planet to do more than what you’re doing right now.
And I came to irritate you. I came to get on your nerves. I came to stir you up.
I came to hollering your ear. I came to get you frustrated. Go ahead and cry. You need to cry.
It’s gonna take some tears to break the yoke of complacency that’s been hanging over your line.
I don’t know who I’m talking to, but if you hear this word and you know it’s for you, give god 5 seconds a Prazy, praise.
I’m getting ready to stir this thing up, baby.
I’m getting ready to stir this thing up in here. I’m getting ready to start this thing up.
If I stir you up on Sunday, it’s gonna change your Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, I’m getting ready to stir you up until you stop settling for bad credit, settling for being miserable at home.
Suddenly, for not accomplishing what god created you to do. The devil is a lie.
I rebuked the spirit of settling right now. Complacency has got to go in the body name of Jesus.
Somebody helped me break this I’m gonna ride until I’m braking. I’m gonna ride until it falls apart.
I’m gonna ride until it collapsed on the floor.
Somebody talented 5th month, 3 people, and tell them something’s about to happen.
Something’s about to happen. Something’s about something. Something is about to happen. Something is about to happen.
Something is about to happen. Something is about to happen. Something is about to happen. Something is about to happen.
Something is about to happen. Something is about to happen. Something is about to happen. Something is about to happen.
I thought I was just gonna get a nice little mother’s day message No. I’m about to get a revolution.
I’m about to have a resurrection. I’m about to have an awakening. I’m about to get stirred up.
Something’s about to happen in my life. I can’t hear you church. Give me the praise.
You maybe said that I’m a go a little further.
If I had any hair, it’d be standing up on the top of my head.
Because I think there’s something else inside of you. I think there’s more inside of you.
I think god created you for a purpose. I don’t think you’re a mistake.
I don’t think you’re an I it in. I don’t care what the circumstances of your birth were.
I think you have been designed and created by god and that you ought to be a asset to the world.
You ought to change the world in some way. You ought to make a difference in the world.
Even if it’s a little difference, you’re supposed to make kind of difference in the world Forbes, uh, women, it’s, actually, Forbes, women.com wrote a very interesting article about complacency for women and careers.
I was reading the article and talked about complacency will ruin your career.
And it said some things I wanna share with you.
Though the article is written to career women, it’s really genderless truth.
It applies to ministry, marriage, uh, any aspirational accomplishment that you might have in your life.
All of it is true. They gave 5 warning signs of complacency, and I wanna share them with you.
Number 1, you are complacent when you are no longer striving to do your best.
In every area.
Now if that stretches you too much, drop some I’d rather have less areas and do more than more areas and do less.
In in the country, we used to say it like this you can be a mile wide and an inch deep.
So you spread yourself so thin that you’re ineffective at everything.
If you know, you can only handle 3 things, only take on 3 things.
Because if you’re not, you’re complacent when you’re number 1, no longer striving to do your best.
To bring the best to your best mind, your best self, to really be present where you are.
Visionaries have a challenge with this because visionaries always have a tendency to live in where they’re going.
At the expense of where you are.
So when you get to where you’re going, you have lost where you are. Oh.
Oh, that’s good. Visitors. I’m not talking to evil people.
I’m telling the good people, visionaries, you are so consumed with your goal and your vision and your future.
And what’s next? That you are negating, starving, underutilizing, unavailable for your now You can’t neglect now and earn next Number 2, you’re operating off of at an old playbook.
You must remain a lifelong learner.
What was best 20 years ago is not best now.
When I learned to type, we had a typewriter.
Y’all don’t know what I’m talking about. We didn’t have a laptop.
We had a type type writer. It was a manual type writer. It made noise.
You had to depress every key.
If you could type 90 90 words a minute, on a old typewriter, you ought to be doing a 150 on a laptop, because then things, you almost had to crank them in spending pennin’ in it.
Come on. Yeah. You know what type of movie to be. Yeah.
Some of you are living in a laptop world but you’ve got a manual typewriter effort.
I’m a drive home that number 2. It’s important.
I’m not finished with it yet. You need to understand giving somebody what they used to need.
Doesn’t work. You have a tendency to have to to not really grow.
You you’re you’re you’re not doing anything to grow. It was good 20 years ago.
It was enough 20 years ago. Complacency assumes that what was enough is enough.
How do I fix it? Ask? Yeah. Seek. Knock.
Read, get magazines, keep enhancing yourself, developing yourself, You cannot be a doctor and not take any more classes once you get your, uh, uh, your degree.
I’m a doctor. I’m through with it.
Knew I I’ll lead them because they’ll still be giving you Linament and stuff like that.
You can come you take some Linament for that. You’ll be alright. No. Linament. Do they still make Linament?
You have to keep enhancing yourself, which means you have to be comfortably uncomfortable.
You have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable to be living on the edge where you gotta keep assuming that I need to know more.
I need to grow. I need to go further. Let me get hit number 3. Let me hit number 3.
You aren’t seeking to take advantage of new opportunities.
You’re not seeking to take advantage of new opportunity.
I like to call this remaining in a state of growth and challenge.
Just as much as you need rest and no one has to pay you to lay down, you need new challenges to keep you engaged.
I shouldn’t have to tell you you tired, you need to go to bed.
Nobody has to tell you to go go to bed.
I shouldn’t have to tell you to get up in the morning.
I shouldn’t have to tell you that you need to keep reading. Keep growing. Keep learning. Keep studying. Keep praying.
Keep worshiping. Keep talking to god. You can’t wait till Sunday morning to have a worshiper.
You know why I saw a heart on y’all to lead people in the worship?
They wait for Sunday morning to worship god. There are people in this room that haven’t worship god all week.
And here, you are supposed to, in 15 or 20 minutes, compensate for a life that had worshiped god all week long.
And you up there giving them a grade on the worship service. We came to worship.
We didn’t come to raise the band.
We didn’t come to raise the dead.
Just like you have sense sensitivities, inside of you that lets you know when you’re tired or let you know when you’re hungry.
You need to sharpen your sensitivity to let you know when you need to learn grow in hands, accessorize, develop, come to the next level.
Are you with me? Number 4, You aren’t maintaining or building your contacts and relationships that are current that are the currency of growth.
You have no more growth then you have relationships. And you you no.
I just I don’t I can’t like to keep this like it is.
That don’t grow and be complacent and take the risk of missing your destiny.
You need to keep it fresh.
You need to keep it fresh. You need to keep it fresh.
You need to be on the cutting edge.
You need to walk up on stages to challenge you, to make you nervous, walk in the rooms where you don’t know exactly what to say.
You need to walk in the spaces where you have to pray and say, oh, god.
I’m going in here now. Okay? I’m getting ready to make this presentation.
If you don’t go with me, lord, I’m not gonna be able to get this done.
I I need your help, lord. I need your help. Lord, I’m getting ready to do this.
I’m out of my element. I’m out of my comfort zone, lord. I said, oh, god. Scare me again, Jesus.
Here we go. We’re walking into this door. Come on. I’m I’m who am I talking to?
I’m talking to somebody. If you’re if all your contacts are all contacts, you don’t have no contacts.
Relationships are indicators. They are indicators of the currency of growth.
All you have is the same old friends you had when you was drinking at the strip club.
And those are the only people who you can be free. It means you haven’t changed.
You haven’t grown. You haven’t developed. Your new friends ought to make your old friends uncomfortable.
If ain’t nobody said to you recently, you think you so much.
You ain’t growing. See, that’s a real compliment.
When people walk up to you out of your whole life and say, you, thank you so much.
They’re really complimenting you. They’re saying that you’re growing. They’re saying that you’re entering into another level of life.
Stop getting mad at that. That’s a compliment. It’s a sign that you’re growing. Oh my god.
I feel the Holy Ghost talking to somebody in this room right now.
You know, you’re not complacent when you walk in the rooms, and they’re talking about what you used to think was funny, and now you think it’s silly.
You used to think they were fun and now they’re boring.
You can laugh for a few minutes and then you wanna go.
When you get through talking about old times, you don’t have nothing to talk about.
Because everything that’s on your head is not on their mind.
That is a sign you are growing to the next level. Come on. Talk to me somebody.
You’re not supposed to get along with everybody. Everybody’s not supposed to like it.
Stop dumbing down who you are so you can fit in with where you left.
I’m a break it down till you get it.
Give me number 5.
I’m gonna come on through this. Number 5, you don’t risk sharing your opinion or ideas.
These these are these people driving me crazy.
Whatever you say they agree with it, they never add nothing to the conversation.
They won’t risk being wrong so they just parrotate your ideas.
They they don’t risk sharing your opinion or your ideas as a sign that you are complacent.
Fear has got you locked in. Have an opinion.
Even if they don’t do it, have an opinion. Open your mouth and speak it.
You wait on others to be assertive while you just go along to get along.
Without taking the risk of offering your contribution, whether it is used or not, you will never be able to evaluate whether you are growing or not.
Because you’re playing it safe. You’re hiding, Adam.
Get out from behind them fig leaves, and let me see what’s really going on here. You’re hiding. You’re hiding.
Your silence is a cover up because you are afraid to take risks.
You cannot be a leader and not take risks. You cannot be a leader and not get on people’s nerves.
Everybody’s not supposed to lack you if you’re gonna be a frontliner. Stop crying about people hating on you.
They’re supposed to hate on you. If you’re a leader they are going to hate on you.
That’s part of the job requirement.
Hannah is trying to settle in to something that is beneath her.
She has everything a woman could want.
She has a a well-to-do husband who loves her.
She has an environment that allows her to do pretty much whatever she pleases. She’s sitting good.
She’s doing really good. She cares he cares about her. Everything would be fine if it wasn’t for Pannina.
Penina comes into her life as a ministry Write this down.
The ministry of Pannina. I want you to identify Pannina’s in your life.
There are people that god sends in your life solely to get on your nerves.
They are there to save you for mediocrity.
They are there to provoke you to jealousy.
They are there to show up that god has something more.
And if you’re not careful, you will acquiesce into becoming their hater rather than to allow them to become your stimulator.
Either you’re gonna be a hater or you’re gonna be stimulated, but god says Penina and all of her kids, and all of their jelly and peanut butter stained y’alls as a sign to you that what they said about you isn’t true.
There is more possible for you in your life. God, thank you for Penina. Thank you for Penina.
Thank you for Penina. In the face of all the obstacles and the challenges God you sent, Penina.
Are you hearing what I’m saying to you?
Hannah didn’t realize what’s this that her purpose was hidden behind her problem.
Her problem was that she was barren.
Her purpose was hidden behind her problem.
Whenever god this is please get this if you don’t get anything else.
Whenever god has a great purpose in your life, He will put a great problem in front of it Why are you writing it down?
Write this out. Find your giant. When you find your giant, you’ll find your kingdom.
There wouldn’t have been a Goliath in David’s life.
Goliath was the greatest thing that could have ever happened to David.
David would still be taking care of sheep if it went for Goliath.
Goliath is a gateway to the next dimension.
Whenever god is getting ready to take you into a new zone, there will always be a big problem standing in its way The big problem is a sign that as soon as you get over this, you’re gonna step it.
Did you see that You’re gonna you’re gonna step into you’re you’re about to step into a brand new dimension.
Stop shrinking back from Goliath. Stop freaking back from Padina.
It’s a sign that god has something else for you.
So cry if you want to Fuss if you want to.
But when you get to crying and fussing, now it’s time to fight. Now it’s time to fight.
Personal testimony, quick personal testimony. Okay.
The first time I got ready to speak in front of what I call a big crowd, which was about a 120 people.
That that was big. Don’t laugh till you tried.
Don’t laugh till you try.
A 120 people with three rows of church mothers on the front row, all dressed in white.
I came up in a church where being spiritual meant looking evil.
And the more anointed you are, you squinted your eyes and looked hateful.
And the more hateful you look, the more holy they thought that you were.
And I had to go past all of them church mothers and go stand up in front of them and preach And here was here was my problem in order to preach.
I needed a mic. I don’t really need one.
I probably coulda holler than covered the roof, but and my hands would shake so bad.
And then when I knew my hands were shaking and they could see it, be able to shake worse.
And I thought I cannot speak in front of people.
Because my handshake.
Now my my purpose is on the other side.
The thing that annoys you, the thing that irritates you, the thing that scares you, the thing that frustrates you, It’s a very sign that god has something on the other side of it for you.
Somebody holler, leap over it, Questions jumped up in my head.
I’m a give them to you real quick.
Questions jumped up in my Why did god choose a barren woman to birth the prophet?
Talking about again. Why did god choose a barren woman to birth the prophet?
Why didn’t he just give Samuel Tapanina? She it was easy for her to have babies.
God never does what’s easy. He does what’s divine. God never does what’s easy.
He does what’s divine. It’s always gonna be complicated. Why did god choose a bearing woman, the birth of profit?
Why did god use a boy to kill Goliath?
Why did god send a backslider to preach to Nineveh.
Why did god use a century old man to have Isaac?
Why did god use a virgin to birth Jesus?
Why did Jesus tell a man whose hand was withered, stretch forth your hand?
Who tells a blind man to go wash in a pool he couldn’t see how to get to.
Y’all don’t hear what I’m saying to.
Who stands in front of a tomb and tells a dead man to come forth.
That’s how you know it’s god. Whenever it’s hard, it’s god. Whenever it’s difficult, it’s god.
Whenever it goes against the grain, it’s god. Whenever it frustrates you, it’s god.
Pannina was in her life to get on her nerves.
Pannina was there to provoke Hannah for the first time in all of those years, Hannah gotcha.
The Bible says Hannah stood up. Somebody shout. Hannah stood up. I came to tell everybody in this room.
This is the hour. This is the time.
This is the moment for you to stand up and say I’m too crying I’m through being depressed.
I’m through being frustrated. Whatever it takes to break this yoke in my life.
I’m going to break this joke in my life. This is your hour.
This is your moment. That’s why god has you here. That’s why god gave me this word.
On Mother’s Day when he knew you would show up so that you could get this word.
Your barren days are behind you. Your birthing days are before you. Your barren days are behind you.
Your birthing days are before you.
God is about to do a new thing in your life because you’re provoked.