The Gospel of Travail: When Human Effort Replaces Christ’s Finished Work

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
Well, we're obviously celebrating Mother's Day, but we're also celebrating the kingdom of God.
[00:00:08] And when we celebrate mothers, we celebrate the kingdom of God.
[00:00:15] Jesus says that the kingdom is... Where are y'all at today?
[00:00:21] Where's everybody at?
[00:00:22] Everybody here?
[00:00:22] You know I can see you all, right?
[00:00:25] The kingdom of God is...
[00:00:29] Make sure we're fixing that, oh.
[00:00:31] The kingdom of God is within you, which means it's something that is conceived within you, and if something is conceived within you, in order to come out, you must give birth to it.
[00:00:45] So when we celebrate Mother's Day, when we celebrate birthing, we're also celebrating the kingdom of God because you cannot produce what the kingdom wants you to produce.
[00:00:53] You cannot produce what God wants you to produce without travailing, without giving birth, without laboring, without intimacy first and laboring second.
[00:01:04] Pregnancy always starts with intimacy.
[00:01:07] It always starts with an intimate experience with your loved one, a special experience.
[00:01:12] I won't go into detail but our pregnancy started with an intimate experience that I enjoy very much with my wife and it's established in intimacy and in much the same way that my wife's conception was established in intimacy so your conception with God is established in
[00:01:31] Intimacy.
[00:01:32] You can't labor with what you haven't been intimate with.
[00:01:36] You can't labor for what God wants you to do if you haven't first laid an intimacy with Him.
[00:01:42] And before you can produce anything that the kingdom wants you to produce, before you can do anything that God wants you to do, you have to first lie with Him.
[00:01:52] You have to first know Him.
[00:01:54] that word know it says it's more than just i know who you are and i have knowledge of you are it's i know everything about you it denotes intimacy it denotes being one with and before you can birth anything that god has for you you must first have the experience with intimacy with him and this is a problem often with church because we come
[00:02:14] Wanting to produce the kingdom of God because most of us know that the kingdom of God is where life is.
[00:02:19] The kingdom of God is where prosperity is.
[00:02:21] The kingdom of God is where provision and healing are.
[00:02:24] That is where those things are.
[00:02:26] Every human being on the earth, if they're psychologically whole in some capacity, want those things.
[00:02:33] We're not sadists.
[00:02:34] We're not masochists.
[00:02:35] We don't want death.
[00:02:36] We don't want sickness.
[00:02:37] We don't want poverty.
[00:02:39] We don't want the things that the enemy and darkness provide for us.
[00:02:42] And so we want the things that the kingdom has for us, but sometimes we skip the steps that are necessary to produce those things in our life.
[00:02:51] And some of us even travail without being pregnant.
[00:02:57] Some of us have skipped the intimacy and done the labor thinking that we're going to produce.
[00:03:03] This isn't even in my message.
[00:03:05] We're just going here today.
[00:03:06] Some of us have skipped the intimacy and gone straight to the labor and there's nothing in the womb.
[00:03:17] Before I ever labored for God, I laid with God.
[00:03:22] And I know that's a strange way to put it, but I mean I had intimacy with God.
[00:03:27] I spent time with God.
[00:03:29] I knew God like He knew me.
[00:03:32] And I was inspired to know Him because He first knew me.
[00:03:37] And once it registered that He really knew me, then I was conceived with a purpose.
[00:03:43] and I realized that now was the time with labor but I had to spend the days knowing him.
[00:03:48] I had to spend 40 days on a fast.
[00:03:51] I had to spend time on my face before God before I ever knew that I was called to be a preacher.
[00:03:56] I had to spend time saying, God, I wanna know who you are and who you are to me.
[00:04:01] I had to say, let's develop this relationship and once that relationship was developed, then I could carry forth the labor of his purpose for my life.
[00:04:11] and we can't just come to church and do the labor without the intimacy but we can't just lay in intimacy and miss the labor if you lay with God you will get pregnant
[00:04:26] Does this language bother?
[00:04:28] Some of the men are looking at me like, why are you?
[00:04:29] You're a dude, bro.
[00:04:31] What are you talking about?
[00:04:32] If you lay with God, you will get pregnant.
[00:04:35] And I mean that across genders.
[00:04:36] If you are intimate with God, He will put something in your womb.
[00:04:42] He will place something inside of you.
[00:04:44] You cannot be intimate with God and be devoid of purpose in the womb.
[00:04:49] You cannot be intimate with God
[00:04:52] and be devoid of a conception.
[00:04:55] You cannot be intimate with God and not have the kingdom of God within you.
[00:05:00] This is why we can say with confidence that the kingdom of God is within you.
[00:05:04] And this is why we can also say with confidence that your labor will not be in vain, that if you run the race, you will see it to completion, that all things work together for those
[00:05:17] We can say those things because we know that we're carrying something because we've been with God.
[00:05:27] And so when we celebrate motherhood, I want us to celebrate natural motherhood and I want us to celebrate the things that are so great and we just love mamas and it's a beautiful day but I also want us to realize that every single thing that God has instituted on this physical earth is a reflection of a spiritual reality.
[00:05:44] And so when we're celebrating mothers, we're also celebrating the process by which we bring deliverance into the world.
[00:05:50] We also are celebrating the process by which salvation comes into the world.
[00:05:56] We are celebrating more than motherhood.
[00:05:58] We are celebrating the institution that brings forth the kingdom of God.
[00:06:08] and there's pain in it and there's joy in it there's weakness in it and there's power in it how is it that a body can both have another life inside of it and is strong enough to cultivate another life and yet in the middle of cultivating this other life inside of it is so weak that it can't get out of bed
[00:06:32] It's so tired that sometimes the doctor says you can't even leave your room.
[00:06:38] You have to stay in your bed in order to see this thing through.
[00:06:41] You have to stay on your face in order to see.
[00:06:46] You're at a place in your delivery, in your, what is it called, the process, in your gestation, in your labor, in your carrying, where we can't even let you get up.
[00:06:57] You've been able to go for two trimesters and do your thing, but in this last one, you gotta just stay where you're at.
[00:07:05] I know you wanna move, I know you wanna get somewhere, but in order to get this thing done right, you just gotta lay where you are.
[00:07:17] You go through trimesters, you go through seasons, you go through different cycles within the same pregnancy.
[00:07:23] It's not the same experience all the way through.
[00:07:26] I'll never forget one day Rachel, who was just devouring applesauce when she was pregnant with Asher, one day went to get applesauce and just up chucked everywhere in the room and hasn't eaten it since.
[00:07:39] You remember that?
[00:07:44] My wife was devouring applesauce for six months and then just one day when she was pregnant with Asher and then one day she went to have applesauce and everywhere.
[00:07:54] It was horrible.
[00:07:54] Hasn't touched it since because something changed in the process.
[00:07:59] There's some things that you taste at one point in the process that all of a sudden turn sour to you.
[00:08:05] That all of a sudden in the part of the process.
[00:08:08] And see sometimes we treat it like at every point of the process is going to be the same.
[00:08:12] Like all your tastes are going to change at the beginning.
[00:08:14] Like everything's going to be the same way at one point.
[00:08:16] But the reality is this thing has phases.
[00:08:19] Tastes change, moments change, requirements change.
[00:08:27] Pain and joy, weakness and power.
[00:08:29] There's fear and faith.
[00:08:30] Fear and faith.
[00:08:31] And when you're producing something, it produces fear and faith.
[00:08:34] And I speak as a father that I had no fear of flying in my entire life.
[00:08:39] I see a psychiatrist who does counseling with me, which is a good thing.
[00:08:43] Don't look at me funny, but it's a good thing.
[00:08:46] We all want to get better.
[00:08:47] That's going to be part of our health and part of our church.
[00:08:49] I want to be the best possible pastor I can be.
[00:08:51] It's not because I'm crazy.
[00:08:53] It's simply because, well, a little bit, but we're getting there.
[00:08:58] And he said, he asked me for triggers.
[00:09:00] He says, you know, tell me when something triggers you and we went.
[00:09:04] And I was flying into DC and the turbulence freaked me out.
[00:09:09] And I'm a man of faith.
[00:09:10] I know I can't go until it's my time.
[00:09:14] Like I know, you know, I'm in purpose, so I can't die.
[00:09:17] It's just an impossibility.
[00:09:18] But something inside of me was just like .
[00:09:22] And I was like, man, I was never scared of flying, never scared of turbulence.
[00:09:25] He's like, well, I need you to trace that and tell me when it began.
[00:09:33] It began the first flight I had after I had my daughter.
[00:09:37] Up until that point, you live, you live, the plane goes, you know, whatever.
[00:09:41] Like, I love my wife.
[00:09:44] But being a father or a mother is a different experience.
[00:09:49] It's a different experience.
[00:09:51] I'm intimate with my wife.
[00:09:53] I had an argument with a pastor one time.
[00:09:56] He said the most intimate relationship is one between a husband and a wife.
[00:10:01] And I said, well, there's an argument that could be made for that, but I think the most intimate relationship I've ever seen was between Jesus and the Father.
[00:10:09] And the most intimate relationship I ever witnessed was between a father and a son.
[00:10:13] There's something to parenting.
[00:10:16] There's something about producing.
[00:10:17] There's something when you carry and you labor and you have to do something to produce that it creates an intimacy because there's a part of you in it.
[00:10:26] Even when you're producing for the kingdom of God, there's a part of you in it.
[00:10:31] That's why I'll care about this ministry long after I'm retired from it.
[00:10:35] I'll care about where this thing goes because there will always be a part of me in it.
[00:10:42] And so I was tracking my fear and I realized, wow,
[00:10:46] Not only does this thing provoke faith in me, but it also provoked fears that were dormant or that I was not aware of.
[00:10:55] And they were new to me because I cared about it and it was important to me and it was external and it was vital.
[00:11:02] And so in the same way that children can bring forth all this dormant pain and joy, weakness and strength, fear and faith, so does the purpose that God impregnates you with.
[00:11:13] So does your carrying the kingdom purpose that he has for you begin to raise up a whole litany of feelings.
[00:11:21] And one of the things that I do not like about church and religion and how we do things, especially ministries that aren't so focused on purpose, is that we have a bad way of handling the process.
[00:11:35] We don't handle the process well.
[00:11:38] We expect people to be one way.
[00:11:41] And so when all of a sudden they're beginning to labor with what they're pregnant with, all of a sudden they realize that they've conceived something from God, and they have to deliver this thing, and all this stuff begins to come up.
[00:11:52] It comes up for their deliverance, but we treat it like their sin.
[00:11:56] We treat it like they're ostracism.
[00:11:59] And instead of being patient and saying, okay, you're pregnant with something, so let's work through this fear.
[00:12:06] Let's work through this pain.
[00:12:07] Let's work through this weakness.
[00:12:09] Because on the other side of that is strength.
[00:12:11] On the other side of that is faith.
[00:12:13] On the other side of that is joy.
[00:12:14] We disqualify the pregnancy.
[00:12:19] All right, y'all with me?
[00:12:20] Am I all over the place?
[00:12:21] Let me get on track.
[00:12:22] Pull it in, goodness gracious.
[00:12:30] 1 Timothy 2.15 This is the cherry on top of a section that is complicated in Scripture.
[00:12:42] This whole section, I would love to teach it, and I thought about actually breaking the whole section down and going into it, but...
[00:12:48] For time's sake, it doesn't make sense.
[00:12:51] I need to stay focused.
[00:12:53] And so, verse 15, you see this verse that is confounding in some ways.
[00:13:01] Because Paul says, we're going to start with 13 actually.
[00:13:05] For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
[00:13:08] And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
[00:13:15] Notwithstanding, she shall be saved and childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.
[00:13:27] That's a wild scripture.
[00:13:30] Let's say somebody is saved and childbearing because we know that there's a lot of mothers that aren't saved just by giving birth.
[00:13:36] We know that salvation comes through Christ alone.
[00:13:39] There is no other mechanism for salvation.
[00:13:41] So being a mom can't be the provider of salvation.
[00:13:45] Right?
[00:13:46] If Jesus is the provision for our salvation, then that is inconsistent with the idea that any workspace processed would provide for us salvation.
[00:13:55] So, since we know that, that's the reality going into it.
[00:13:59] We know that just doing something, anything within our power, within our power cannot provide our salvation.
[00:14:05] What is Paul actually saying here?
[00:14:07] And what does it indicate?
[00:14:10] It isn't.
[00:14:11] It isn't workspace.
[00:14:12] It isn't saying that, hey, you just had a baby, so you're good to go.
[00:14:15] You're saved.
[00:14:17] It isn't a command to be pregnant.
[00:14:19] It's not something that you should read and say, oh my gosh, I have to go be pregnant.
[00:14:22] We know that because Paul recommends singlehood for some people, as did Jesus.
[00:14:26] And you can't be getting pregnant if you're single most of the time.
[00:14:31] You know, but as far as I know it, and I think biblically they taught it, you can't be getting pregnant if you're abiding by being single.
[00:14:38] So we know that it's not a command to be pregnant.
[00:14:43] So what is it?
[00:14:44] And what I see in this verse is a divine inversion of what we experience in Genesis.
[00:14:50] What I see in this verse is the process by which God works amongst his people.
[00:14:58] What I see in this verse is that salvation is not simply a matter of going to heaven, which is a part of it, but it's also a process of restoration.
[00:15:09] And a more important aspect is the bringing forth of the kingdom.
[00:15:13] and when you are walking in salvation you are bringing forth the kingdom of God in this territory and so by actually referring to the process of childbirth and the terms of salvation Paul is saying listen and he refers and he calls upon Adam and Eve here he says Adam and Eve and we have that call back in mind with the scripture because he's saying listen the process that was once a curse for you
[00:15:41] The process that was once a judgment because of your disobedience is now the process of your deliverance.
[00:15:52] And there's this divine inversion that takes place.
[00:15:56] In this scripture and in all of the gospel that says the thing that was supposed to weigh you down, the thing that was supposed to punish you, the thing that was supposed to bring judgment to you, now brings deliverance to the world around you, now makes you complete, is now the portion that God has given you of your salvation.
[00:16:16] And we see that with Eve, she thinks she will gain the fruit of salvation by reaching for something outside.
[00:16:26] She's deceived into thinking that the fruits of salvation are low hanging on a tree.
[00:16:33] She thinks it's something that somebody can convince her has a location that she can reach for.
[00:16:40] And the sin of Eve still exists today because most of us are looking for the fruits of salvation outside of where it originates.
[00:16:49] We're looking for the product of the kingdom on somebody else's tree.
[00:16:55] We look for it in places that God said don't go to that place.
[00:16:59] We look for it in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
[00:17:02] We look for it in wealth.
[00:17:03] We look for it in status.
[00:17:05] We look for it in areas that it's not going to provide anything but judgment.
[00:17:10] And when we reach for those things, the thing that was supposed to be a deliverance to us, the thing that was supposed to be a promise for us becomes a judgment to us.
[00:17:21] And Paul here is saying, you don't get the fruits of the kingdom from apple trees.
[00:17:33] You don't get the fruits of the kingdom from social media.
[00:17:38] You don't get the fruits of the kingdom from wealth.
[00:17:42] You don't get the fruits of the kingdom from status.
[00:17:45] You don't get the fruits of the kingdom from your own abilities.
[00:17:49] You don't get the fruits of the kingdom from your talent.
[00:17:51] You don't get the fruits of the kingdom
[00:17:54] From your hard work, you don't get it from all your college degrees.
[00:17:58] You don't get it from your high paying job.
[00:18:01] You don't get it from your certifications.
[00:18:03] You don't get it from wherever you think you get it from.
[00:18:06] The only place that you get the fruits of the kingdom is from the pregnancy that God has given you.
[00:18:16] The only place that you can produce fruit is from intimacy with God.
[00:18:24] and laboring forth that purpose that he has placed inside of you.
[00:18:30] We see this in Mary.
[00:18:32] Mary is the prototype of salvation and she carries forth the light of the world.
[00:18:39] And every mother in that sense is a shadow of Mary.
[00:18:43] I really believe this and scripture backs this up which is why I baptize children.
[00:18:49] And I've had people leave the church over it.
[00:18:50] They get mad at me.
[00:18:51] They call me too Catholic.
[00:18:52] which really, that's not even Catholic, it's more Orthodox, but whatever, I won't get into that.
[00:18:57] It rubs them the wrong way, and I refuse to back down.
[00:19:01] I'm always gonna baptize you.
[00:19:02] I'm gonna be dunking your kids, slathering them in oil, saying they're saved, claiming them as part of the kingdom.
[00:19:10] I don't believe you birth neutrality.
[00:19:14] You don't produce neutrality.
[00:19:17] You're either producing for the kingdom of God or you're producing for the kingdom of darkness.
[00:19:23] There is no neutral ground that is determined by some arbitrary age.
[00:19:27] And so, as for me and my house, that scripture doesn't say as for me as an individual and hopefully my house when they turn the age of 12.
[00:19:37] That's not what it says.
[00:19:39] It says for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
[00:19:42] The husband would go forth and slaughter the lamb and place the blood on the doorpost and it would save the whole household.
[00:19:48] It saved the firstborn.
[00:19:49] That firstborn couldn't go out and apply the blood to the doorpost himself.
[00:19:53] He needed his father to do it.
[00:19:55] He needed his mother to do it.
[00:19:58] And so that's why we take these things very seriously in this house.
[00:20:01] I don't know what your kid's journey is going to look like, but I'm going to claim him as part of this kingdom because you're here.
[00:20:07] And I know that Paul said, the grace of the saved mother makes unclean things clean.
[00:20:12] Otherwise, they would be unclean.
[00:20:15] But as it is, they are clean.
[00:20:18] Grace is a powerful and multiplying force.
[00:20:22] And so we see
[00:20:23] Where when you are producing something, even as a natural mother within the kingdom of God, even every natural birth adds to the kingdom of God.
[00:20:33] Every child that you produced and your connection with this house, I don't care if you got saved long after you had babies.
[00:20:40] I don't care if you connected to a prophetic ministry long after you had children.
[00:20:45] I don't care if your children are in a crack house right now on Mother's Day and you haven't heard from them in 10 years.
[00:20:50] I don't care what their situation is.
[00:20:52] I don't care how many times they've tried to kill themselves.
[00:20:55] I don't care how many difficulties these have.
[00:20:58] I know one thing, because you're here and you birthed them, they're connected to this house.
[00:21:02] Because you're here and you birth them and you're in the kingdom of God, there is a rightful claim over their life.
[00:21:08] There is an authority to stand and say, that is not their testimony, that is not their story.
[00:21:14] As for me and my house, we will serve God.
[00:21:17] That means my children, that means their children, that means my children's children's children's,
[00:21:22] That means five generations from now we will serve the Lord.
[00:21:27] And I'm not going to sit back and passively watch these stories unfold without the hand of God being exemplified and grabbing them and pulling them back into divine alignment.
[00:21:42] and you beyond carrying a natural child carry spiritual children in every sense of the word you carry the light of the world and just as Mary carried the light of the world you also carry the light of the world every believer is called to carry the light so much so that when Paul talks about it in Galatians 4 19 he says my little children
[00:22:11] of whom I travail and birth again until Christ be formed in you.
[00:22:20] The language that this apostolic man uses is the language of motherhood.
[00:22:26] It's the language of travail.
[00:22:28] It's the language of pregnancy.
[00:22:30] It's the language of birth.
[00:22:32] Because he recognizes that he is carrying something spiritually.
[00:22:37] And he's not going to finish his travail until the children are birthed and complete.
[00:22:44] and that completeness is their wholeness in Christ and so Paul is saying listen I'm not going to stop laboring until what I'm carrying is fully delivered I see a hand I see a crown I see a foot but the rest needs to come out and I'm not going to let this thing go until this thing is out and breathing on its own and some of us we give up on the process halfway through
[00:23:09] I know we're talking about moms, but I'm also talking about men who just say, I can't take another day.
[00:23:14] I can't go another step.
[00:23:16] I don't know where God is on this process.
[00:23:19] I don't see him and don't feel him.
[00:23:21] I felt him in the first trimester.
[00:23:22] I felt him in the second trimester.
[00:23:24] But this third trimester, he seems lost to me.
[00:23:27] and the only thing you have to do is know that you're going to labor till completion you don't get to quit you don't get to stop when the ninth month you don't get to abort the process in the eighth month you have to see it through and the only time you get to see rest is when that thing has been birthed
[00:23:54] This ministry is a child.
[00:23:56] It's a spiritual light that I'm carrying.
[00:23:58] It's my seed beyond Asher and Nicholas.
[00:24:01] It's my purpose.
[00:24:03] It's my destiny.
[00:24:04] I've negotiated with God.
[00:24:07] I've debated with God.
[00:24:08] I've tried to trick Prophet Gideon into releasing me.
[00:24:13] I've tried to convince my mom that we were all eating bad sushi and we just missed the prophecy for a sushi trip.
[00:24:21] I've done everything I could because I don't see the capabilities of how I can birth this thing.
[00:24:29] My stomach is like, sometimes I didn't see where the baby was.
[00:24:40] There was no evidence that I was pregnant.
[00:24:46] I'm sitting here waiting.
[00:24:49] All the men are so uncomfortable.
[00:24:50] I wasn't lactating, men.
[00:24:54] Y'all better be okay with metaphor, all right?
[00:24:59] There wasn't the evidence that indicated I was pregnant.
[00:25:02] And people were saying, I had doctors, the prophets, saying, you're pregnant.
[00:25:08] And I said, I'm not pregnant.
[00:25:11] You better run another test.
[00:25:15] And then over time, I saw a bump.
[00:25:18] All right?
[00:25:19] A little bit of a bump.
[00:25:20] But even in that bump phase, something new comes along.
[00:25:24] Some other external thing comes in to deal with what you're carrying.
[00:25:30] And you're constantly dealing with the challenges.
[00:25:34] And you can't look at the challenge and say,
[00:25:36] that does it that forfeits the baby that stops the process all you can do is say nope this thing's still in me and until this thing is out of me I can't stop I can't quit I can't stop interceding I can't stop moving forward I don't know how I'm gonna solve all the problems that I'm facing I don't see a path forward the doctors are saying one thing everybody's saying another life is telling me it ain't gonna happen but I know God said I was pregnant
[00:26:05] And because God said I was pregnant, I don't have a right to terminate this baby.
[00:26:17] Jesus was spoken of in Isaiah 53 11 as travailing the travail of his soul till he be satisfied and the cross is as much a travail it's as a birth that suffering is a birth that he had to give in order to produce the kingdom of God just like his mother birthed him force his suffering birth forth the kingdom of God and let me tell you something what is true for Christ is true for you if you are a believer I believe in prosperity
[00:26:45] I believe in healing.
[00:26:47] I believe God wants good things for you.
[00:26:49] But let me tell you how those good things come.
[00:26:52] Through a cat of nine tails.
[00:26:56] Through bleeding on the road.
[00:26:58] Through hanging on a cross.
[00:27:01] For getting your beard plucked.
[00:27:03] It comes in a crown of thorns.
[00:27:05] It comes in mockery.
[00:27:07] You'll get the kingdom.
[00:27:09] You'll get to where God is taking you.
[00:27:12] You will see what he impregnated you with.
[00:27:14] But do not mistake it, especially because you're carrying the divine.
[00:27:18] Do not mistake it.
[00:27:20] What you carry is so important that all hell will focus its attention on you.
[00:27:24] and do everything that it can to get you to not make it to the end of the process.
[00:27:30] Jesus could have at any moment said it is finished when he was bleeding and Simon had to help him, when they had plucked his beard, when they had falsely accused him, when they chose a murderer and a pirate over him, when they, at any moment he could have said it is finished and he waited until he drew his last breath.
[00:27:55] And some of us, we get excited about being pregnant, but we haven't thought through the labor.
[00:28:02] This is why Jesus says, don't do this thing unless you've counted the cost.
[00:28:11] In churches like this, not as much, but I'm Pentecostal, and I'm associated with Paula White, that's my mom, and I get it, blah, blah, blah.
[00:28:18] They say, oh, you're prosperity, and you believe, and you name it and claim the gospel.
[00:28:24] Let me tell you, that ain't us.
[00:28:25] What I mean by that is we believe two things.
[00:28:31] That everything good comes from God.
[00:28:33] That there is no shadow in Him, as James says.
[00:28:35] That nothing good in your life comes from God.
[00:28:38] You can't have it both ways.
[00:28:39] You can't say that there's something good in your life and it didn't come from God.
[00:28:43] And so when you have financial blessing, that came from God.
[00:28:47] When you're healed from cancer, that came from God.
[00:28:49] When you have a doctor that puts you on the right medicine, that came from God.
[00:28:53] When you had a teacher that tutored you the right way, that came from God.
[00:28:58] Every good thing you have comes from God, and He wants good things for you.
[00:29:12] But there's also the reality.
[00:29:14] That's the only way you get these things.
[00:29:17] These things are a product of his kingdom.
[00:29:20] No one else's.
[00:29:23] And we're in a world that is full of darkness and chaos.
[00:29:27] And it'd be great for him to plant a tree and you to pluck it from the tree.
[00:29:32] It'd be great if a snake could tell you where the good things were hiding, where this fruit was hiding, but that's not how it works because this world needs to be invaded by the kingdom.
[00:29:42] The only way that it can be invaded by the kingdom is by carriers who are willing to conceive and to labor for it.
[00:29:54] And so you have to go through the contractions.
[00:29:58] You have to go through the tears.
[00:30:01] You have to go through the sickness.
[00:30:04] You have to go through the ugliness.
[00:30:07] You have to go through the bleeding, the battles, the pains, the nausea, the uncertainty, the fear, the worry.
[00:30:22] If you ain't going through that, you ain't pregnant or you ain't laboring.
[00:30:32] That's the only way that anything of meaning is produced in a world of cultural confusion, in a world of despair, in a world of narcissism, in a world where they do not share our values.
[00:30:45] The only way for us that anything meaningful is produced is through the suffering of travail.
[00:30:53] It's through the suffering of labor.
[00:30:58] In your womb is hidden obedience, preparation, and carrying that light is costly, but it is the only hope that this world has.
[00:31:12] When I look at you and I say, you're going to change the world,
[00:31:16] You are so important and I look at every single person in this place and I know that just like me and just like anybody else you would look to, you have a destiny that God has designed and orchestrated because there are no exceptions to this rule.
[00:31:31] When you're intimate with Him, you get pregnant with what He wants you to carry.
[00:31:38] And so when I say to you, you're gonna change the world and you say to me,
[00:31:44] How am I going to change the world?
[00:31:46] This is my situation.
[00:31:48] I'm just going to point you back to this and say, look at the process that God describes.
[00:31:53] You lay with Him, He puts something in you, and you bring it to birth.
[00:31:59] We don't always know what that's going to look like and it's not always celebrated.
[00:32:03] It's not always noticed.
[00:32:05] But it fundamentally changes the world every time a believer gives birth to what God has put in them.
[00:32:11] It fundamentally changes everything and the only way that this world can do anything and have any hope is if the believers and the mothers and the fathers bring it forth.
[00:32:24] Some of us have been pregnant with callings that we've ignored.
[00:32:28] Some of us have miscarried ministry because we're afraid.
[00:32:33] That's the biggest thing that I guard myself from.
[00:32:37] I've complained, I've been frustrated, I've found it difficult and challenging, but I can't allow myself to miscarry.
[00:32:49] I was talking to Rachel
[00:32:53] We're talking about my moods, like before, like, hey, what'd you think?
[00:32:57] And she was like, sometimes you're like this, sometimes you're like that, given area.
[00:33:01] And I'm like, we have a, I'm like, do you think, are you saying I'm unstable?
[00:33:06] Is that too real?
[00:33:08] I said, are you saying, do you think I'm unstable?
[00:33:09] She said, no.
[00:33:12] She said, you're the most stable person I know.
[00:33:14] Because it doesn't matter how you feel.
[00:33:17] It doesn't matter what in a moment comes over your mind.
[00:33:21] It doesn't matter the battle that is coming to you.
[00:33:25] Every time you think one battle resolved, another one pops up.
[00:33:29] A new one's coming.
[00:33:32] It doesn't matter.
[00:33:35] Because I go, I don't know how this one's gonna happen.
[00:33:39] but I'm walking into the third trimester and I don't know how this one's gonna happen but I'm so close to the birth and I don't know how this is gonna happen but I see that this baby is coming forth and that's the stability that God requires the stability of obedience to travail Mother's Day is not simply Mother's Day it's mission day
[00:34:13] It's about the legacy of birthing and nurturing and caring and fighting until the thing is complete.
[00:34:22] So as I honor mothers this day, I also honor those who have travailed for the kingdom of God.
[00:34:31] There are people who have not had natural children but have birthed God's work in the earth.
[00:34:40] There are people who are so desperate.
[00:34:42] I know a woman of God who wanted kids so bad.
[00:34:51] But what she has birthed.
[00:34:55] There are people who have lost so much in this life.
[00:35:01] And you feel like you haven't.
[00:35:05] I promise you that you showing up, you pursuing God, you persisting in the midst of your pain and your grief and the battle and the hardship will produce things, unimaginable things for this world.
[00:35:31] And when you get to heaven, you will see every child that you carried, every child that you birthed.
[00:35:44] And so, I want to do a couple things.
[00:35:56] but I want to encourage you to carry the light I want to encourage you to carry within you the kingdom of God and to see it through to completion some of you need to get pregnant some of you need to conceive of something which means that you need intimacy with God you can come to church for years and not know God
[00:36:25] I know this is true in the Bible because we have the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
[00:36:31] They were the leaders of their churches and the chosen people, and yet they did not know God.
[00:36:40] And when He was in their midst, they killed Him and rejected Him.
[00:36:45] You can go to church, you can know doctrine, you can be a pastor, you can do a million things and not know Him.
[00:36:53] And if you haven't conceived, I'm gonna pray for you that you would conceive this day.
[00:36:58] I believe in experiential ministry, I believe I can preach a text, I believe I can explain it, I believe I can argue, but I cannot do anything until you have that experience.
[00:37:10] It won't move you until you
[00:37:12] Have that experience with God.
[00:37:18] The second one that I'm gonna pray for, and I'm gonna pray for these two things, is that if you have been, if you've been pregnant with something and you've carried it and you just don't know if you can see it to completion, I'm gonna pray the strength for you to see it to completion.
[00:37:37] I'm gonna pray that everything that God has put in your womb,
[00:37:41] will be delivered into this earth.
[00:37:45] That everything that he has seeded in you will manifest outside of you.
[00:37:52] But then I wanna do a third thing.
[00:37:54] Mom and Rachel, if you could help me with this.
[00:37:56] I wanna pray for the women in this house who desire to have children.
[00:38:02] I just wanna pray for them as a house.
[00:38:06] And just ask God to bring forth the blessing
[00:38:10] of those fruitfulness in their womb.
[00:38:14] If any of you want to come up for anything, if this resonates with you in any way, you're welcome to come to the altar.
[00:38:23] But I'm going to pray.
[00:38:28] God knows your heart.
[00:38:31] He knows where you're at.
[00:38:32] He knows everything about you.
[00:38:35] It doesn't require flash.
[00:38:37] Truthfully, it doesn't require you doing anything but coming into agreement and saying, yes, that's me.
[00:38:45] I need to be intimate with him.
[00:38:47] Yes, that's me.
[00:38:47] I'm weary.
[00:38:49] I need to see this thing through.
[00:38:52] So if you are in either of those categories, I'm going to pray for you right now.
[00:38:58] If there's anyone under the sound of my voice, anyone watching online, anyone within the body of Christ that would come across this message, anyone outside that would come across this message and say that they don't know you in a way that has produced conception, they see themselves as saved, they know the stories, they may know the Bible, but they don't
[00:39:26] For some reason that there's been something, an obstacle, a barrier where they don't know you, where the Holy Spirit hasn't had the opportunity to produce in them what you designed them to carry.
[00:39:43] I pray God that every obstacle, whether it be emotional, a stronghold as Paul would say, a spiritual one, a familial one, a generational one, anything, a religious one, a pride one, any obstacle, a logical one, an intellectual one, any obstacle, a bitterness one, a hurt one, a pain one,
[00:40:07] that has hindered intimacy with you, God.
[00:40:12] Any barrier that has prevented their conception, I pray that it be dealt with.
[00:40:20] I pray that it be cast down.
[00:40:23] I pray that they fall like the walls of Jericho.
[00:40:26] And as we lift up our prayers this day, that every barrier around the heart, every guardrail that they have placed up to keep you out,
[00:40:37] Every obstacle, consciously or unconsciously, that has prevented them from knowing you fully, that you would penetrate God, and that they would love you because they know you first loved them.
[00:40:58] Impregnate us with your purpose.
[00:41:03] Impregnate us
[00:41:06] With your seed, let us produce in the earth what you want us to produce.
[00:41:14] Now God, I pray for all those who've known you, who've established intimacy with you, but are either not aware that they are pregnant or have tired of the labor.
[00:41:30] I pray, God, that what they carry will not be miscarried.
[00:41:34] I pray that you will strengthen them and quicken them and let them see the evidence of their progress.
[00:41:42] Let them see the evidence that you have not abandoned them, forgotten them, but that the process is part of the destination.
[00:41:54] It's part of the purpose.
[00:41:57] And God, let them find salvation in their childbearing spiritually.
[00:42:04] Let them find joy and peace and all of these things that we know are fruits of your spirit through their travail and their production.
[00:42:20] God, I just cover every ministry in this room.
[00:42:22] I cover those who are weary.
[00:42:23] I cover those who are tired.
[00:42:25] I cover those who are facing battles that the enemy has sent their way to discourage them, to make fear conquer faith.
[00:42:34] Pain, Conqueror, Joy.
[00:42:35] I just declare that the Spirit of the Lord will descend upon them and comfort them and encourage them.
[00:42:44] But God, I also declare that their battles will end quickly in their favor and that they will see this through to completion.
[00:42:58] God, I cover myself, my family,
[00:43:01] You cover me, Lord.
[00:43:03] I pray for me right now as I continue to go forward and I grow in strength every day, faith every day.
[00:43:12] God, I thank you that there are things that I do not see coming that you do, things that have the potential to rock me, things that have the potential to discourage me, to make me sad, to hurt this ministry.
[00:43:28] God, I ask for strength to finish this race.
[00:43:33] I ask for the strength to see this labor through even when the contractions seem unbearable, even when it seems difficult.
[00:43:48] I thank you, Lord, that all of our children will see their purpose and divine mandate brought to fruition in this earth.
[00:43:59] Now God, I'm going to ask that we pray for those mothers who desire to have children.
[00:44:09] And Lord, I'm going to pray for those who desire to have spiritual children and physical children.
[00:44:18] And God, I'm going to ask that you honor that request this day.
[00:44:22] There are people in this house, there are women in this house, who have prophetic destinies to bear a child.
[00:44:31] And God, I ask that this be the day.
[00:44:34] This be the day of breakthrough.
[00:44:36] That this be the last time we have to pray this prayer for them.
[00:44:45] And that this very prayer itself can be a recorded testimony to future generations to say, look what God can do when you trust in Him.