WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:05.680 I am not going to speak my plan message for this morning. We're just going to postpone that. 00:06.900 --> 00:13.120 But I am going to ask that they bring up the cycle of maturing. 00:13.980 --> 00:18.760 I want to talk about that. Just remind us of a few things. 00:29.230 --> 00:34.030 Everybody goes through this cycle multiple times in your lifetime. 00:34.030 --> 00:37.690 I mean it goes over and over and over. It's a maturing cycle. 00:41.120 --> 00:48.600 We can all be at different places in our personal life, but in a corporate body we go through this also. 00:49.720 --> 00:52.180 And it will affect all of us as individuals. 00:53.960 --> 00:59.260 And right now I believe we are down in the sifting because he's getting ready to do some great things. 01:02.100 --> 01:06.180 Harvest is the mountaintop. It's where the great things take place. 01:07.020 --> 01:10.140 It's where you get saved. It's where you get baptized in the Holy Spirit. 01:10.480 --> 01:16.080 It's where healings and miracles and all this kind of stuff takes place in our life and it leaves us on a high. 01:17.680 --> 01:24.500 And as we come out of that he's going to want us to mature and grow into what we just received. 01:25.400 --> 01:29.140 And to develop in it. So that's the maturing part. 01:29.700 --> 01:32.020 That's where he says, come follow me. 01:32.920 --> 01:36.140 I want you to do this. I want you to do that in your heart. 01:36.240 --> 01:43.140 You just know he's asking you to do things differently than before the harvest time of your life. 01:44.080 --> 01:49.680 Whatever just happened to you, he wants to change us a cog or two. 01:50.260 --> 01:55.120 He will do that by saying, okay now let's start doing this. Now let's start going that way. 01:55.440 --> 01:59.700 Let's get rid of this and start doing this. That's the maturing part. 02:00.920 --> 02:04.380 It's where we get that knowledge. It's where we get that understanding. 02:05.580 --> 02:09.880 The sifting part is where we choose whether we're going to obey or not. 02:11.280 --> 02:18.500 And it's really sad to say that because we as Christians should be quick to obey always. 02:19.960 --> 02:24.340 But we're not. So he will sift us. 02:24.520 --> 02:30.680 Can you bring up Luke chapter 2, Luke chapter 3 verse number... 02:32.220 --> 02:40.420 Oh, I'll do it in the New King James. Let's go with starting at verse 15. 02:42.220 --> 02:47.360 Luke chapter 3 verse 15. Then we'll go back to that PowerPoint. 02:48.300 --> 02:52.520 Now as the people were in expectation and all reasoned in their hearts about John. 02:52.680 --> 02:57.880 That's John the Baptist. Whether he was the Christ or not, John answered saying to all, 02:58.340 --> 03:02.000 I indeed baptize you with water. That's why he was called John the Baptist. 03:02.760 --> 03:09.060 But one mightier than I is coming whose sandal strap I am not even worthy to loose. 03:09.260 --> 03:12.940 Not even worthy to loose the sandal strap on Jesus. 03:14.080 --> 03:17.240 He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 03:18.300 --> 03:23.840 Now here's the verse 17. His winnowing fan is in his hand. 03:24.520 --> 03:28.220 Different translations say winnowing fork, so forth. 03:28.760 --> 03:37.300 It goes back to the picture of harvest years ago when the way they would sift things is not run it through a combine. 03:37.820 --> 03:45.500 They would lay the grain out on a hard surface and trample on it, drag things over it, run oxen and so forth over it 03:45.500 --> 03:51.480 to separate the grain from the chaff. And then they had a fork, a many pronged fork. 03:51.620 --> 03:55.780 I'd like to get one but they're so hard to get a hold of now because they're all old and made out of wood. 03:56.240 --> 04:03.280 And they would have many tines and they'd grab that and on hopefully a windier day they would throw everything in the air. 04:04.040 --> 04:07.020 And the chaff and the straw would blow away and the grain would come down. 04:07.300 --> 04:15.580 That's a winnowing fork. It sifts, separates the good from what's not usable. 04:16.300 --> 04:23.980 His winnowing fork or fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor. 04:24.680 --> 04:30.300 That's where you and I are laying. We're the grain on the threshing floor. 04:30.660 --> 04:35.160 We're the ones who just got harvested and now he's sifting us. 04:36.380 --> 04:40.360 The reason is to gather the wheat into his barn. 04:40.740 --> 04:44.220 That's the good things in us that he needs to stay there. 04:44.860 --> 04:48.600 But the chaff he will burn with an unquenchable fire. 04:50.820 --> 04:53.300 So go back to the chart again if you would please. 04:54.520 --> 05:00.240 In the sifting part he's doing numerous things at the same time. 05:02.340 --> 05:05.940 According to that verse Jesus does the sifting. 05:06.700 --> 05:08.900 The Holy Spirit does the burning. 05:10.900 --> 05:15.020 He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 05:16.700 --> 05:19.060 And then it says his referring to Jesus. 05:19.680 --> 05:24.340 His winnowing fork is in his hand and he will clear his threshing floor. 05:25.080 --> 05:28.360 Gathering the grain, separating out the straw and the chaff. 05:28.360 --> 05:31.880 Which he will burn by the power of the Holy Spirit. 05:33.700 --> 05:42.020 When we are being sifted there are things that are going to be separated out of our life. 05:45.890 --> 05:48.950 I was going to say it could be painful to the flesh. 05:49.110 --> 05:52.210 It's always painful to the flesh. 05:53.170 --> 05:58.150 And when the old nature gets in pain it likes to play the blame game. 06:01.010 --> 06:06.070 This in the sifting area is the spot we get offended. 06:08.250 --> 06:11.070 We get offended with spouses. 06:11.610 --> 06:13.350 We get offended with children. 06:13.910 --> 06:15.830 We get offended with pastors. 06:16.430 --> 06:18.290 We get offended with the church. 06:18.730 --> 06:20.150 We get offended with God. 06:22.210 --> 06:28.130 That's the point we want to blame someone else for what's happening. 06:28.150 --> 06:29.250 It's happening in our life. 06:29.890 --> 06:36.130 Because God is separating some things and trying to clean us up a bit. 06:36.390 --> 06:42.130 So that he can prepare us for the next round of harvest. 06:45.090 --> 06:51.090 You can't take grain in its harvested form and replant it. 06:52.910 --> 06:55.590 If any of you are farmers this is like duh. 06:56.670 --> 07:00.690 But they take the grain, they harvest it, they separate the chaff, 07:00.830 --> 07:03.870 they separate the straw, they get just the grain 07:03.870 --> 07:08.190 and then they will re-sift that again to get the weeds and everything out of it. 07:09.390 --> 07:13.510 Before the next spring they plant it for the new harvest. 07:15.370 --> 07:19.270 For us to continue to have harvests in our lives 07:19.270 --> 07:21.730 we have to be sifted. 07:22.270 --> 07:24.370 It's how the process works. 07:27.520 --> 07:34.920 That sifting thing is rarely fun. 07:41.740 --> 07:46.860 We thought we were changed by the harvest and we were. 07:47.960 --> 07:50.080 God did some marvelous things in us 07:50.080 --> 07:53.620 and now he's helping us to grow so we can house that. 07:53.700 --> 07:54.800 That's the maturing part. 07:55.000 --> 07:57.400 We can house what he just did in us. 07:59.140 --> 08:04.160 But in order for the wineskin to handle the new wine that was just poured in 08:04.160 --> 08:05.200 it has to be renewed. 08:06.340 --> 08:10.540 In order for the cloth to not split under the enlargement 08:10.540 --> 08:13.520 of what he just did in our life it has to be made new. 08:13.980 --> 08:16.040 That takes place in the sifting part. 08:17.980 --> 08:21.000 And he will sift on us and work on us 08:21.000 --> 08:24.060 and that's where we decide if we're going to follow or not. 08:24.780 --> 08:26.440 That's where many of us are right now. 08:27.740 --> 08:29.500 There's things God wants us to do. 08:29.620 --> 08:30.720 We know he wants us to do. 08:30.800 --> 08:32.660 There's things he wants us to change in our life. 08:32.760 --> 08:34.600 We're supposed to start handling life differently 08:34.600 --> 08:37.540 making different types of choices and decisions 08:38.220 --> 08:41.140 creating different priorities than we've had in the past. 08:41.140 --> 08:44.200 And the old nature just goes, 08:44.500 --> 08:46.580 I want nothing to do with that. 08:46.680 --> 08:48.580 I like my life the way it is. 08:50.760 --> 08:52.140 And the war is on. 09:00.760 --> 09:07.980 For us to be able to be prepared, replanted so to speak 09:07.980 --> 09:11.360 so a new harvest can come through us personally, 09:11.640 --> 09:12.680 come through this church. 09:13.860 --> 09:19.580 Something has to change from what we were last week, 09:20.160 --> 09:22.100 last month, last year. 09:23.340 --> 09:25.640 If we can't look back and say, 09:26.120 --> 09:29.440 I am different than I was a year ago, 09:29.840 --> 09:32.020 you have resisted this process. 09:33.500 --> 09:36.460 And you've locked down and said I'm not going to be sifted 09:36.460 --> 09:41.520 because that's where the change of how we live in this container, 09:41.520 --> 09:44.180 how much control we let this container have, 09:44.780 --> 09:46.060 that's where that's addressed. 09:46.540 --> 09:47.560 It's in the sifting part. 09:48.680 --> 09:51.540 And I really want to encourage you. 09:52.680 --> 09:55.900 We keep talking about, oh, God's going to do great things, 09:56.020 --> 09:56.820 great things are coming. 09:57.080 --> 09:59.160 And I believe that with all my heart. 09:59.500 --> 10:02.020 But before we as a corporate body, 10:02.080 --> 10:03.900 before we as individuals are ready 10:03.900 --> 10:05.820 for the next great harvest in our lives, 10:05.940 --> 10:06.940 he has to sift us. 10:09.660 --> 10:11.720 You realize that sifted grain, 10:12.260 --> 10:14.980 before it can produce another harvest, it has to die. 10:15.940 --> 10:18.760 Lest the grain of wheat fall on the ground and die, 10:19.160 --> 10:20.800 it abides alone. 10:21.900 --> 10:23.140 But if it dies, 10:24.280 --> 10:27.340 now it will produce the next harvest. 10:29.240 --> 10:30.280 That's the cycle. 10:30.820 --> 10:31.440 That's how it works. 10:31.980 --> 10:33.380 It works in us individually. 10:34.180 --> 10:35.980 It works in us in our marriage. 10:35.980 --> 10:37.480 It works in us in our family. 10:37.620 --> 10:39.060 It works in our business. 10:39.400 --> 10:42.620 It works in every area of a Christian's life. 10:43.560 --> 10:45.960 I believe I've seen it work in non-Christian's life. 10:46.620 --> 10:47.680 God is just working on it. 10:47.740 --> 10:49.440 I'm trying to draw him closer so he can change him. 10:52.500 --> 10:56.900 Don't pass through this season the same. 10:58.620 --> 11:01.060 Don't resist what he's doing in you. 11:02.060 --> 11:06.260 And I'm not calling tragedies, 11:06.640 --> 11:10.120 or Mary was mentioning that in the last month, 11:11.560 --> 11:13.140 for whatever reason, 11:14.440 --> 11:16.660 and I've got speculation on it, 11:16.660 --> 11:18.120 but there's no reason to go into speculation. 11:18.460 --> 11:19.960 For whatever reason, 11:20.400 --> 11:24.180 there is a huge push for people to die. 11:25.220 --> 11:26.220 We're in the middle of it. 11:26.360 --> 11:27.100 Physically die. 11:27.940 --> 11:29.980 And I'm not talking die of old age, 11:30.360 --> 11:31.520 die of natural causes. 11:31.680 --> 11:34.140 I'm talking die of overdose, die of suicide. 11:35.820 --> 11:39.100 She dealt with, I believe, four people this last week. 11:39.740 --> 11:41.080 Who said, that's it, I'm done. 11:41.180 --> 11:42.240 I'm just calling to say goodbye. 11:42.600 --> 11:43.180 I'm killing myself. 11:44.320 --> 11:44.660 Say what? 11:45.160 --> 11:45.940 Last week it was seven. 11:46.220 --> 11:47.280 Last week it was seven. 11:47.380 --> 11:48.000 The week I was gone. 11:49.080 --> 11:51.080 See now, that's just odd, don't you think? 11:52.020 --> 11:55.120 Seven and four, eleven people in two weeks 11:56.340 --> 11:57.460 saying I'm done with this. 11:57.560 --> 11:58.520 I'm just going to kill myself. 11:58.520 --> 11:59.320 I'm done. 12:01.580 --> 12:05.540 In the last, well, this is probably five weeks into it. 12:05.560 --> 12:07.540 So there was a month period of time 12:07.540 --> 12:11.880 that seven people who have come through TBO's doors 12:14.180 --> 12:15.340 died of overdoses. 12:17.920 --> 12:20.940 It was just, now we're probably a week past that month, 12:21.000 --> 12:22.360 but she told me before I left, 12:22.420 --> 12:23.680 she said in the last month, 12:23.800 --> 12:26.560 we've had seven people who sat in the seats 12:26.560 --> 12:28.560 at TBO's die of overdoses. 12:35.120 --> 12:36.060 What is that? 12:36.220 --> 12:37.880 I'm not sure what that is, 12:38.880 --> 12:40.740 but I can guarantee you, 12:41.600 --> 12:43.660 every one of them was suffering pain, 12:43.820 --> 12:44.660 was suffering wounds, 12:44.860 --> 12:45.920 whether they wanted to kill themselves 12:45.920 --> 12:48.400 or they overdosed, killed themselves that way, 12:48.440 --> 12:49.180 whatever it is. 12:50.580 --> 12:52.840 And any time we suffer those things, 12:53.940 --> 12:57.640 we blame because we're offended. 13:00.060 --> 13:01.060 We blame. 13:04.860 --> 13:07.360 For this body, for the people at TBO, 13:07.700 --> 13:11.260 for we are as a church preparing, 13:11.720 --> 13:13.320 and I believe it's not word of life. 13:13.540 --> 13:16.000 I believe this is a nationwide thing 13:16.000 --> 13:18.300 that's happening by talking to some other ministers. 13:18.980 --> 13:21.740 There is a preparation process underway 13:21.740 --> 13:23.980 for the churches who will follow it 13:25.080 --> 13:28.620 nationwide to get ready for what's coming. 13:28.620 --> 13:32.820 And to get us ready, he has to sift us. 13:34.260 --> 13:36.400 This is not the time to say, 13:38.620 --> 13:39.760 it's because of you. 13:40.540 --> 13:42.580 It's because of Pastor Verner, Pastor Mary, 13:42.720 --> 13:44.140 that this problem is in my life. 13:44.200 --> 13:46.100 It's because word of life teaches this stuff. 13:46.440 --> 13:48.160 That's why I just so fed up with it 13:48.160 --> 13:52.500 that I quit being offended and blaming out 13:52.500 --> 13:54.780 and actually look in and say, 13:54.780 --> 13:56.800 God, what are you trying to do in me? 13:58.620 --> 14:00.360 This isn't an outward problem. 14:00.580 --> 14:04.080 This is a God is trying to sift you, 14:04.720 --> 14:07.720 change you, break off the stuff 14:07.720 --> 14:09.700 that no longer needs to be there. 14:09.940 --> 14:11.160 It's hindering you. 14:11.440 --> 14:13.140 He wants to replant you. 14:13.260 --> 14:14.840 That's part of preparation, by the way. 14:15.700 --> 14:17.700 We usually think, oh, we're going to get 14:17.700 --> 14:19.420 all these gifts and God's going to endow me 14:19.420 --> 14:21.400 with the ability to lay hands on the sick 14:21.400 --> 14:22.820 and everyone's going to be healed. 14:22.820 --> 14:23.620 That's the preparation. 14:24.060 --> 14:25.440 Well, it might be, but you know what? 14:25.500 --> 14:27.440 You're going to have to die before any of that's going to happen. 14:28.940 --> 14:31.800 Because a seed has to be planted and died 14:31.800 --> 14:33.220 before it can produce harvest. 14:34.480 --> 14:36.860 And sifting begins that death process. 14:37.520 --> 14:40.800 I choose to surrender and follow 14:40.800 --> 14:42.760 what you're asking me to do. 14:43.060 --> 14:46.600 No turning back, I have decided to follow Jesus. 14:48.920 --> 14:50.780 See, we're not the only generation who's had that. 14:50.780 --> 14:51.720 That's an old hymn. 14:52.840 --> 14:55.660 There's other generations that have faced the same thing. 14:56.620 --> 14:58.000 It's a human nature thing. 14:58.640 --> 15:00.940 I've decided to follow, I'm not going to turn back. 15:03.320 --> 15:05.820 You say, well, what happens if I choose against God? 15:08.540 --> 15:10.300 You're going to get the consequences of that. 15:10.660 --> 15:12.520 Not that God is going to be angry and say, 15:12.560 --> 15:14.220 well, I'm just going to smack him now. 15:14.680 --> 15:17.160 No, he's trying to take you someplace 15:17.160 --> 15:20.780 that will benefit your life and others around you. 15:20.860 --> 15:23.920 When you refuse to go, you stay stuck in the same old problems. 15:25.040 --> 15:26.940 And that's the consequences of it. 15:27.880 --> 15:31.520 You just get stuck in the same old issues. 15:32.500 --> 15:35.080 We've had this issue in our marriage for 13 years. 15:35.500 --> 15:37.900 Yeah, somebody's not dying, somebody's not sifting. 15:38.220 --> 15:38.880 Maybe both. 15:40.180 --> 15:42.380 You're resisting the process 15:42.380 --> 15:46.140 because he would have pulled you out of that years ago. 15:47.360 --> 15:50.580 And we just keep struggling in the same you fill in the blank. 15:51.840 --> 15:53.700 We're in the season now where he's saying, 15:53.860 --> 15:55.140 I will take that out of you. 15:55.260 --> 15:57.220 I will take that problem out of your way. 15:57.320 --> 15:59.720 I will set you free and set you up 15:59.720 --> 16:02.160 for new harvest in your life like you can imagine. 16:02.420 --> 16:06.840 But we have to be willing to follow and submit. 16:10.510 --> 16:14.810 So Lord, help us be willing to follow and submit.