Don't Curse The Grave - Touré Roberts

hey family i'm pt pastor toray roberts i'm the lead pastor of the potter's house at one la and denver on behalf of my wife pastor sarah and myself we want to welcome you to our channel and to this word i cannot wait for you to hear what god has for you in this message i want to tell you a few things really quickly subscribe if you're not already subscribed to this channel subscribe so that you can be made aware of all of the word that's coming at you week in and week out and also turn on your notifications so you don't miss a morsel that comes forth we're also grateful for you and your partnership if you are so uh it compelled we invite you to support what we're doing not just our church but what our church is doing there are a number of outreaches a number of things critical necessary things that we support and we're able to do it because of your generosity so without further ado let's get right into this word god bless you i'll see you soon hallelujah what a season and a moment of victory we're stepping into right now i just feel the presence of god i think that song was right on point and i just believe that god is doing something awesome we are overcoming right now and quite frankly we have overcome i just i'm just so grateful for the things that are taking place in the world i see god moving and and things beginning to to normalize a little bit as if there were a normal and i'll touch on that in the message today but i just really feel like god is reinvigorating his church he's reinvigorating his people and we're getting ready to to get back on our mark and really really take territory in the name of god the name of his love in the name of his son and so so i'm excited i got a word from god i believe it's a prophetic word it's an a word of wisdom and insight and so i just want to jump right into it let's just go for it um i want to draw your attention to deuteronomy chapter eight and we're going to look at the first four verses in here it's one of i love this passage of scripture um it just it's one of those rare passages where where god explains himself where god takes a moment and he unpacks why his children had to walk through a certain season and i won't give it away i'll read it and we'll unpack it together but let's just go deuteronomy 8 chapter 1 i will give you the backdrop this is when the children of israel are getting ready to cross over into their promised land and it has been a long time coming they are coming out of a difficult season a very uh challenging season a season that yes there there were miracles in that season there was provision in that season but i mean they went through a lot it was a dark season it was a crazy season and now they have weather that they weather that they made it kind of like us right we we've weathered the pandemic we weathered the storm and they're getting ready to step into the promise and uh and as i just couldn't think of a better passage of scripture to speak to to you about what i'm really sensing god wants us to understand in this season so let's just read it it says every commandment which i command you today you must be careful to observe this is a careful time family that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land which the lord your god swore to your fathers and you shall remember the lord your god let you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness god never left them nor forsook them and then he says this is why to humble you and test you to know what was in your heart whether you would keep his commandments or not wow that's this it's just so rich i can't wait to teach this so he humbled you allowed you to hunger and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know doing a new thing that he might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the lord your garments did not wear out on you nor did your foot swell these 40 years just just i'm gonna run something along signs sometimes the miracle is not in the promised land sometimes the miracle is that you were sustained during the difficulty that would preach right there that's for somebody sometimes the miracle is not in god bringing you out of the trouble sometimes the miracle isn't god sustaining you through the trouble are you tracking with me that was for free let's keep reading he says your garments did not wear out on you nor did your foot swell these 40 years you should know in your heart in other words you got to get this you i don't want you to misinterpret the seasons that i bring you in says the lord this you got to know in your heart you got to understand my character it's very important if you don't understand my character when i'm leading you through a very difficult and trying season then you are open target for all of the negative thinking that will bring you even to the point of self demise so he says you've got to know you should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son let me add a little bit as a man chastens his son who he loves and who he's trying to prepare to do life so the lord your god chastens you i'm a dad i get it right everything is not all pretty and what i want for my children more than anything else is for them to have what it takes for them to do well yeah great you know i i'll leave them you know something in the earth resources real estate perhaps all those sort of things but the most important thing that i want to leave them with is the ability to be great character strength the the wherewithal to overcome anything i will rest in peace if i know that my sons and daughters have a fight in them that they have integrity that they are people of their word that they love people that they're humble right and sometimes the process to getting them there and sometimes for the lord as it relates to us sometimes the process to getting us there is oftentimes a wilderness season or what i also would call a grave season and i'll explain that in just a second the thought for today that we're going to talk about is don't curse the grave don't curse the grave let's pray father thank you so much for your word it is a lamp into our feet it is a light into our path and lord i know this message is from you and i know god it's truth that's going to liberate your sons and daughters is going to prepare them lord this whole thing was about preparation this whole wilderness season was about preparation and i believe that the season this dark challenging season that we've gone through in our country and our world lord god also was about preparation and so so god give me wisdom and revelation and insight god let me flow in the beauty of your spirit god in such a way that it will literally be a spiritual hug to everybody who's listening everybody who's watching that they would get that they're not orphans that they're not by themselves but there is a god who sits high and looks low and walks low that encourages lifts up edifies and and even prepares us for the things that are to come we thank you and we praise you in jesus name amen family the reason why i chose this text is because i think that there is a similarity between the season that the children of israel are in in this text and where we are in our world the children of israel were leaving a very dark challenging season and it was difficult but god sustained them as we talked about in the text and i believe that we as well as as this pandemic we're seeing the the infections decline and and stabilize and and now they're there there is a vaccine there are multiple vaccines and and we're getting vaccinated those who are going down that road are getting vaccinated in and and things are beginning to open up a bit and and there is happiness thank god and there is optimism and and all those sorts of things but i feel a a a burden an unction to to talk to you similar to the way that god is talking to the children of israel as they are getting ready to step into and watch this as they are getting ready to walk into their reopening and i think that it's ironic that this season particularly in america i know you're watching from all over the world but particularly in america we are beginning to to open up again and i think that there is it's ironic that this is happening in this easter or resurrection season where we we celebrate the opening of the tomb and jesus emerging emerging victorious from the grave and here we are celebrating the reopening of the world as we once knew and i want to tell you about something that that struck in my heart real good when i had a conversation with one of my sons over dinner and he was understandably frustrated because of the pandemic he's young he's 18 he wants to get out he wants to live his life he wants to see his friends he wants to drive he wants he probably wants to party a little bit he wants to do his thing and he's frustrated he's like i hate this pandemic and i'm like yeah you know a lot of things that about this pandemic there are a lot of things about this pandemic that i hate too i get it i get it but but i couldn't in that moment i had never considered this before but in that moment as he was just cursing the pandemic and just i hate it i couldn't think before a second that man you know what you were probably protected a little bit by this pandemic i know all my kids and i have wonderful kids and i'm proud of each and every one of them but i know what it's like to be 18 because i was 18. and they're actually doing a lot better than i was doing when i was 18 years old come on somebody i was a freshman in college living on campus they had this thing called jungle juice we used to drink not going to tell you what was in it a little bit more than punch a little bit more than kool-aid spike was something we said we used to get drunk off jungle juice and we would live like we were animals in a jungle so i listen this is not i completely get it they're doing so much better than me but there was a part of me that began to think man to a certain degree you know putting all the death and death and devastation to the side there's a certain part of me that had to acknowledge the fact that quite possibly there was an element of protection in this pandemic and it really started making me think about yes this was a painful season yes this was a dark season oh man that dark season and it was a devastating season but but but i also have to acknowledge that there was some protection in this season right we we it's too early probably to get the statistics but but you know crime had to go down because wasn't nobody out to get robbed you understand what i'm saying there's certain things we're not even looking at that but there are certain things that that because we were closed in right in a closed space kind of like a grave because we were in a restricted place where we could not move much in the midst of it being uncomfortable and awkward and in some cases quite frankly devastating we cannot leave off the fact that there was some protection in it too and not only some protection but there was there was some pruning in it to think about it we learned that we can actually survive off of less than what we thought we could there were things that were important to us there were things that were highly valuable highly important to us that hey once we got into this tight space once we got into this wilderness once we got into this grave type of thing we realize that that that wasn't the most important thing right our priorities shifted if we're honest if we're honest many of us are better human beings more compassionate more loving we're more appreciative of things if we're honest so so so so we can't curse it we can't curse the season i get it and again i'm not trying to be insensitive but i think to fully curse it is a problem just put in the comments don't curse the grave don't curse the grave i'm going somewhere i'm going somewhere and so so when i think about this season that we're coming out of in our world in our nation this season has been kind of like a grave kind of like a grave and i think that this wilderness season that the children of israel will come coming out of was also kind of like a grave the the grave you know it's interesting in in every easter story oftentimes in every easter sermon the grave is the bad guy the grave the grave the grave the resurrection is great but the grave listen if there were no grave there would be no glorious resurrection god has a way of using the grave even the place that is dark and cold and there's no movement the wilderness where i i can't be free i've got to to learn how to navigate things this dark place god knows how to use he oftentimes orchestrates and allows these dark places to produce in us what needs to be produced in us for us to be who we're called to be post the grave i gotta get just give me give me time to unpractice and so i see when i when i think about where we are right now and what we've been through and what we're getting ready to go into and i look at the children of israel and i see the wilderness for the first time in my studies i see the wilderness as a grave and the grave as a wilderness i see a connection now what's interesting about wilderness is as i begin to dig into that word what is the wilderness when we think of wilderness obviously we think of wild things we think of wild life we think of uncultivated terrain we think about scary things we think about all of that but that hebrew word for wilderness the root word there literally means watch this to arrange or an arrangement now that had me scratching my head like i don't god i don't get it the wilderness what what does that mean but then as i study that and as i dug into it deeper essentially the wilderness season that the children of israel went through was a season that was arranged by god for purpose arranged by god for purpose and the beautiful thing about this text and what i love so much about this text is this text essentially is god after the fact explaining to them that this was an arrangement to produce in them that which only a wilderness aka grave season could produce there are certain things that you cannot learn in success feel god there are certain things that you cannot learn in prosperity there are certain things that you cannot learn in poverty there's a space between poverty bondage and prosperity and that is the grave season that is the wilderness season and there are things that only i feel the lord that only the wilderness season can teach you and if you go from from poverty to prosperity or you go from obscurity to prominence and you don't have a wilderness season that prosperous season can kill you that's why he's saying you know if we go back and we look at verse verse um let's see verse 1 it says every commandment which i command you today you must be careful to observe watch this that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land of which the lord swore to your fathers in other words you've got to get this you need this you need to hear what i'm saying you need to understand what i'm saying because i'm getting ready to unpack for you why you had to go through what you went through why you had to have the year that you had why did you why you had to struggle here why did you have to go through those dark moments where you even wondered where you wondered if i was even around i'm getting ready to explain to you what this thing was all about i'm getting ready to explain to you that it was nothing but an arrangement i feel god god is a god of arrangements he's a god of arrangements he's he's the master of the universe and he loves us so much that he knows how to arrange a scenario watch this one that we would not choose we wouldn't choose it we wouldn't know to choose it watch this because we don't know what we need and here is the thing there are some things that you can only get from the grave oh it's going to make sense in just a second there's some things that you can only get from the grave so let's look at this let's look at this let's look because i'm going to make it's going to tie all together beautifully in just a second so we look at verse 3 he says as he's explaining god is saying now listen you didn't know this but i want to show you something i'm going to show you something he says so he humbled you and then he allowed you to hunger that's an arrangement and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know that he might make you to know look at god look at the master arranger that he might make you know that man should not live by bread alone but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of god in other words sometimes i can't just tell you sometimes i have to create an arrangement to show you and so and so i humbled you he says i did these three things watch this he says i humbled you first of all humility is everything we all want to be humble but humble humility is hard particularly if you're special particularly you've got a promise in your life particularly if you're you're blessed you're prosperous you know and let me tell you something humility is hard you don't just wake up in the morning you say i'm humble and and one of the reasons why humility is hard is because pride is so seductive i mean seriously pride here here's the voice of pride you know you got it going on right you know you're the best thing you know whatever in the world right you know that you know what i'm saying and it's who rejects that come on let's just keep it 100. when you're at the top of your game or when you're not at the top of your game when you when whatever who rejects pride it's so affirming it's it's false affirmation because god affirms you not because you're the best god affirms you because you're his god just said look i love you because of you in spite of you i don't care if you're the bestest you can be the worstest i don't care because i made you i love you that's true affirmation but pride has this false affirmation and and and it gets us to get off on thinking that we're just this incredible thing and typically you'll know it's pride because you don't think that same way about other people you're just thinking about yourself come on somebody listen keep it 100. yeah so so pride it's hard to be humble because pride is always seducing us he says i got to humble you i want to take a minute there gotta humble you you know what's interesting is if he had to humble them that means that they were proud and didn't know it that's scary because there's a there's a passage that teaches us that that pride comes before fall and we've seen it we've seen some people you know just proud and judging people and all that kind of stuff next thing you know they're on the front page hello somebody and their dirty laundry is being aired out no i think that that means that god saw something in them they couldn't see it says he humbled them then he said to test you right see sometimes god has to test you in the wilderness so you won't fail in the promised land i feel that see see there's some people right now i just feel this prophetically and just let me go and you've been struggling you've been going through some stuff and and quite frankly you've been making a lot of mistakes and and you've been failing and you're you you know but it's the grace of god see god and you've been failing and yet you want more and god is saying no no i'm allowing you to fail in a safe environment see if you fail in the wilderness nobody will know don't be so quick to blow up don't be so quick to be famous don't be so quick to have your name everywhere because what if you're not finished failing and you have to be patient you have to be patient with god and you have to trust god's process right and you're like oh i want to be the next big thing and i want to have gazillion followers on social media and all this kind of stuff i'm telling you i'm ready i'm ready i'm ready and god is saying man if i did that for you right now this failure that is all that's on schedule for your life would wipe you out you wouldn't be able to handle it and so and so sometimes oftentimes you need this arranged season right and sometimes it feels like a grave it feels restrictive i can't do anything i can't see anything what's going on you know what's happening when am i going to be resurrected when is it going to open for me and god is saying not a day sooner nor a day later than when you're ready are you tracking with me so these things happen in the grave these things happen in the wilderness right you get humbled you you get you get you get tried you get tested there and then i love this one it says and you shall remember the lord your god yeah who led you in the wilderness these 40 years to humble you there we go i'm sorry to humble you and to test you watch this to know what was in your heart isn't this something he is saying that you don't know what's in your heart without him you don't even know what's in you and sometimes you don't know what's in you until you're put in certain certain circumstances and then you get put in that certain circumstance and you're like dang that wasn't me i just knew watch this watch out for the person that talks about what they will never do oh i would never do that well you have never had the opportunity hello somebody i remember when we you know god rest his soul broke my heart when kobe passed away uh in 2020 kobe bryant and i remember when he got into some trouble uh he was i think 18 or 19 years old and and uh and and it was you know it was an affair or something like that or he was somewhere around 20 he might have been a little older but anyway it was an affair and they were just judging him you know and just judging him and listen i'm not condoning um him you know getting in trouble and being unfaithful to his wife or his girlfriend at the time whatever it was i'm not condoning any of that but i'm like the people that were judging them let me tell you let's just keep 100. dude you don't have half the offers that he has can we just have a real moment for a second we're always saying what we won't do dude this was kobe bryant do you know how much was coming at him left and right night and day all that kind of stuff man he may have said no uh 999 times but that one time so so what god is doing here is god is saying i'm gonna put you in an arrangement because i want to show you that maybe there's some things in your heart that you don't even know are there and these things that are in your heart that you don't know are there will kill you in the promised land can i talk to somebody if you're tracking with me put it right there in the feed say i'm tracking with you pt i'm tracking i'm tracking i'm tracking so what i'm trying to help us to understand is that there are some things that you can only get from the grave we're going to talk more about the grave we're going to talk more about the grave i just see this wilderness season and i see this this we're getting ready to come out as pandemic i see the pandemic i see the shutdown i see all of that as a grave as a grave as a grave things that you can only get from the grave watch this things that you would never get above ground oh god that you will never get above ground watch this because life above ground is too noisy oh god it's too noisy it's too noisy it's too noisy it's too noisy see see the grave the grave is stillness oh god some people you you won't even meditate you won't even you won't even get away you want to you're afraid to be by yourself because you're you're afraid of stillness you need noise you need you need activity you you need action you need behavior you need you know you the idea of of being by yourself and facing by yourself is terrifying you need noise to function when the reality of it is if you need noise to function that truly means that that you're the pro the byproduct of dysfunction oh god i need noise to function i mean no no no no no no no no it's dysfunctional because the noise is hiding something oh god i i i'm very discerning of loud people of loud people young people they're just unnecessarily loud yeah not like me preaching right now but i'm just talking about like because i don't talk like this but but like but like you ever been around somebody like yo what's up man oh dog what's that dog and it's like that like 24 7 like full time like i'm always lit like ow you know the smile never drops your smile is always big you met that person right and i'm sitting back and i'm like what are you covering up ain't nobody that happy what are you coming up but it's that thing you just watch that or somebody that squeezes you what about the guy the macho guy just scratching what are you covering up dude why did you have to break my wrist just now what what what did that do for you you know what i'm trying to say no no no and so and so so the grave is when god forces us into stillness it's an arrangement oh it's an arrangement i can't wait to unpack this we got so much so much more to go it's an arrangement it's stillness the restrictive nature and stillness of the grave watch this it reorders our tastes and our senses right it reorders our tastes and our senses see that's what the the pandemic did for us right that's what the when the grave when the tomb or i might add the womb of the pandemic that's what it did it began to reorder our taste in our senses some taste for things that didn't matter begin to be stripped out of our mouths the taste for things begin to be reordered and and and our senses so so look at this so check this out if we're back in the text and we look at verse four i love this um it says it says your garments did not wear out your garments did not wear out on you nor did your foot swell these 40 years these 40 years it's 40 years see well i think i think was actually verse three i'm sorry so he humbled you allowed you to hunger oh here we go okay okay here we go here we go i'm just excited you gotta forgive me okay so he humbled you watch this then he says you to hunger and then he fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know all of this so so so in the wilderness in the grave this temporary holding place that god has arranged for us because we need what it gives to us what it provides for us in this place our taste is reorder look he says i cause you to hunger who said that they were hungry i think that god often times manages our hunger because he ultimately wants us to desire what he wants to give us oh god he said that better he wants us to want what he wants for us and so what he will do is he will cause us to hunger he will manipulate our appetite so that we can be in agreement with what he wants to do in our lives and so what he does is he causes us to be hungry for the things that matter most you know during this time of pandemic you know people started really pressing into their spirituality when when before you know they were pressing into you know particularly you know for from l.a and you know man the the the entertainment industry shut down right film production stopped like this and so the things that you know my next job and all this sort of thing all that sort of stuff that we were hungry for you know and i'm trying to you know kiss this but i'm not gonna say that i'm trying to um a chum up with this director i'm trying to chum up with this professional i'm trying to trim up with this person all of a sudden that's what we were hungry for at first but then all of a sudden no that didn't matter i'm trying to stay alive i'm trying to survive and so now we started getting hungry for spiritual things we started getting hungry we're reading books now we're opening up to scripture we're trying to find solutions we're trying to get close to god right so god knows how to watch this it is a blessing to be in an arranged environment that causes you to prioritize the things that you we should have been prioritizing the whole time let me tell you something in my season of prosperity when i'm man doing well that's when i get nervous i know i say it all the time but i want to reiterate this when i'm in a wilderness season when i'm in a grave type of season it's not it's not easy i'll be honest with you right i just came out of one recently it's hard it's difficult we'll touch on in just a second it's challenging i get it i totally understand it but i trust what god is doing or i trust watch this i trust me more in the grave than i do in the resurrection because there's something about prosperity that brings me to a place where i'm not hungry for the things of god i'm not hungry for the things that got me to where i am are you tracking and so and so god reorders our hunger and our senses he causes us to be hungry for what matters most but then he doesn't stop there so it's not like he's just i'm just going to leave you hungry he causes us to be hungry for what matters most and watch this and then he rewards he rewards our hunger with deep hidden treasures look at it it says that so in verse 3 he says that so he humbled you he allowed you to hunger and then he fed you watch this with manna what is this which you did not know nor did your fathers know right so they tap into this new dimension hallelujah right i'm not gonna just leave you hungry right i'm gonna i'm gonna make you hungry and then i'm gonna show you that there are goodies that i have for you that you've never seen before nor anybody around you and that's why as we press into god even on a practical side we started seeing innovation stuff that we started coming up with stuff like wait where did that even come from right but it was because of hunger because god put us in a position to pivot and to shift our hunger and now innovation is taking place now there are various relationship things that we're doing relational things that we weren't even thinking about that we discovered our families are better now for the most part and so that thing that was playing itself on the out on the practical side what i'm getting at is in this grave in this wilderness and this challenging time god often times does this wonderful thing called reordering our tastes and our senses in this still place in this dark place and i think that this this dark place that we've been in for the longest i believe that that the blessing in it is that in the darkness of the grave watch this it forces the activation of your senses of your senses oh god see we we have senses that go unused because we're never put in a situation to rely on anything other than what we see i need to say that better i need to say that better see you have to when you can't see i talked about this with samson a few weeks ago when you can't see when samson when his eyes were put out he had to sense things well he had to become more spiritual and when you become more spiritual you're able to perceive things and and exercise and utilize utilize gifts and talents and abilities that you never would have had access to if you weren't put into this dark place of being stripped i feel it see in the grave it's dark you can't move right you can't rely on your strength right and sometimes you know maybe it's so tight you can't even rely on your brain but but sometimes there are other senses i feel this that there's something about being restricted that releases senses and sensitivities that you didn't know you had to fill it and that's why you have to stay positive when you're in the grave you have to stay positive when you're in the wilderness you have to stay positive when you're in the cocoon you have to stay positive when you're in the womb because i believe that the reason why you're feeling pressure is that god is trying to squeeze another dimension of your senses out of you i feel it and you're going to sense your way into the miraculous you're going to sense your way into the next dimension you're going to sense your way out but these things can't happen when everything is exactly the way that you like it are you tracking with me and so and so what this what the grave does family i know some of us are coming out of the grave maybe some people are still in the grave but what the grave does is it teaches you how to live in a dark place god it it teaches you it teaches you you learn how to live in a dark place and sometimes you have to close your eyes in order to see sometimes in order to really really obey god and and walk in everything that god has for you you're gonna have to learn to trust him you know the passage we walk by faith and not by sight sometimes in order to progress you're going to have to close your eyes all together and so the womb the grave the wilderness the tomb whatever you want to call it teaches you how to live in a dark place or you track it with me just if you're tracking with me put it right there in the feed see i'm tracking with you pt i'm tracking i am tracking with you and here is another thing watch this when you know watch this not that there is light but when you know that you are light darkness doesn't matter oh god god is trying to to break some of you god is trying to deliver some of you out of the fear of the dark the fear of the dark fear the dark when you know your light you're fierce you don't care about the dark god's trying to to cultivate something in you where if the sun is shining great if the darkness is there great because you recognize that you are the light and the light so jesus says you're the light of the world and the light is always greater than darkness god wants to break you i feel this and i want to say this right god wants to break you out of this mentality where i only feel good when everything is that which i can see or i can understand or i can perceive when everything is worked out god is trying to break you because that is weakness you're going to have ebbs and flows you're going to have high times and low times and god does not want you to be a fair weather human being he's trying to develop something in you so that if you're blessed great if you're going through great he wants to get you to this place of contentment so that no matter what season you're in you are good he's going to break you out of this high and low i feel that thing so strongly are you tracking me put it in the feed see i'm tracking with you pt we got a little bit more ground to cover and so so i want to point out something i want to point out something about the grave that i had never considered i want to point out something these grave wilderness grave experiences are part of our personal evolution and our personal transformation in other words these grave experiences are necessary here's why it's all about who you become in the grave you gotta catch this who you becoming the grave see in the grave your fight comes alive you you have to fight off it's about the lies that you have to fight off to overcome the grave you ever felt like you've been buried by a situation i feel this i'm gonna let the lord do what he wants to do but i feel this so strongly you ever been you've ever had your back against the wall and maybe you were at this moment and maybe you're at this moment now but your back was against the wall and you had to come to a place if you knew if you didn't fight back it was going to be game over see sometimes god wants to teach you that the god in you is stronger than the pressure outside of you and in some seasons in that grave season you get to a place where the thoughts are coming hard and heavy the negative thoughts are coming at you thoughts of saying you're not going to make it thoughts of saying you can't handle this thoughts that are saying this is the big one that's going to wipe you out and there comes a moment that if you don't fight back against that thought it's going to overwhelm you see one of the things that i love about the grave is that you have to wrestle with some things in that grave and you got to fight back and you discover a fight that was in you that you didn't even know was there we need the grave i don't like it i've been in some tough situations i've been in some tough spots man where i had to fight off thoughts i mean thoughts that said all kind of things about me but you know what i did sometimes you just got to keep on standing sometimes if you can just weather the grave i feel it your resurrection is coming if you can just hold on in the grave and if you can just hold on to the things that god has promised you in the grave before you know it that tomb that stone that was over the mouth of the tomb is gonna roll away and you're gonna come out i need the grave because the grave produces something in you the grave cultivates something in you the grave manifests something in you and i know that we always want to be in gardens and i know we always want to be on mountaintops but that is not where the strength happens that's not where the strength is developed the strength is developed in the wilderness the strength is developed when you're in the grave when you have to submit yourself to a process and be like jesus and say not my will but your will will be done and i trust you god if you have got me in this wilderness if you have got me in this grave if you have got me in this dilemma it's because there is a resurrection with my name on it and i'm coming out of this thing so i'm gonna trust you i'm gonna lean on you you're gonna move on my behalf come on if that's your word say i'm coming out it's not gonna be wilderness forever it's not gonna be grave forever you are coming out it's just an arrangement it's just an arrangement i feel it some of you right now you're in an arrangement and you got to trust the arranger you got to trust like romans 8 28 says god is going to cause all things to work together for good in your life don't curse the grave the grave is there to help you the grave is there to develop you the grave is there to equip you the grave is there to protect you don't curse the grave and i believe that when god gets finished with you you're going to thank him for the grave yeah that thing that you're crying about right now that thing that you're struggling about right now that thing that's got you on your knees saying god will you please deliver me when god gets finished cultivating what he is cultivating on the inside of you you're gonna thank him for the wilderness you're gonna thank him for the grave if that's your word say that's me pg come on put it right there put it right there put it right there god is strengthening you you're getting your fight back you're getting your fight back i want you i want you to start getting comfortable with the idea of graves i want you i want you to not be afraid of graves you know it's all scary and you know halloween and there's the graveyard no no i want you i want you i want you family i want you to rethink graves i want you to rethink graves graves are not there to kill you graves are there to kill what's not you oh god you got to catch him yeah there's death in the grave but it's a death to everything that's not you it's a death to insecurity it's a death to fear it's a death to brokenness that leads to poor decision making i want you to get comfortable with the idea of graves you know that passage that says oh grave where is your victory right notice it doesn't say it doesn't say oh grave where are you no it says oh grave yeah yeah you don't have victory you don't have victory don't be afraid of graves if jesus didn't have a grave if he didn't have a tomb there'd be no resurrection oh god help me and so and so this is the most important part of what i came to tell you this is important after our resurrection what do i mean family we're coming out this thing is about to open this world is about to open up again the the wilderness season is ending the grave even right now that we've been in the the grave of restriction that this pandemic has caused the stone i can already see the stone beginning to to roll away from the mouth of the tomb i can already see the light coming in things are opening opening and what the lord wanted me to to tell you and to really emphasize and reiterate in the context of our talk today is that after our resurrection we cannot lose what the grave taught us we cannot lose what the grave taught us remember the grave made us better remember our hunger changed i don't want to go back i don't want to go back to hungering for the wrong things and you got to hear my heart on this i don't want to go back i'm at the end now i'm at the end of my notes i don't want to go back to to being a lesser version of me because i don't have the pressure of the wilderness i don't want to go back to to pursuing things that the lord showed me in my time of prioritization that weren't profitable i i want to i want to watch this i want to always need to need god i don't want so you know what pride is pride is the illusion that you're doing it and that is it's not the grace of god that's making it happen for you and so so the wilderness season the grave season the season that we often times when a curse is a great blessing because it reminds us that all it takes is a pandemic to sweep through all it takes is a computer glitch and our resources are gone all it takes watch this in today's world all it takes is one person to lie on you and that go viral and you didn't even do it we are so vulnerable we're more delicate than we think and we learned that during the pandemic and in family as this thing opens up i don't want you to lose that i want you to stay hungry i want you to stay on your face i want you to pray i want you to pray like you prayed when you didn't know if you were going to make it see think about it there was a time during this pandemic where you didn't know if this thing was going to get you you didn't know and you would take your your test you take your covet 19 test and every time the reports came back negative you praise god you thank god you hallelujah thank you lord you remember that remember how you were washing your hands and you just you remember that humility asking god to cover you and asking god to cover your family you remember that remember when your heart was compassionate towards the poor and the less fortunate remember that remember when you made your family a priority and the people you loved the priority you started checking on people because because the restriction of the grave gave you time to think about the people that you love to check on the people that you love this this this grave this wilderness made us better was a womb of protection and i don't want us [Music] to because of the freedom that's getting ready to hit us real hard again where you can take your mask off you can go out yes i think we ought to celebrate yes you know when we open our doors again it's going to be a celebration but just as much as i am celebrating what god has done i'm asking god keep my heart in that place keep watch this give me the same heart that i had when i counted waking up the next morning a blessing and so i want to pray for you i want to pray for you if you're in a grave season i want you to know that it's been arranged for the believer no grave can hold you down no grave i want you to know it's been arranged and that god knows exactly where you are and that you're coming out of it grave is not going to kill you the grave is going to kill what's not you i want to pray for you i want to pray for you that your hunger would be renewed your hunger for the things of god there's some of you and you've got ministry on your life and i could talk about this forever but let me tell you something the key to growing spiritually is hunger is staying hungry never losing your all never losing your wonder never losing your hunger paul teaches in one of his letters he says i've learned how to be both full and hungry see the challenge is when we get full we're not hungry anymore but see when i get full when god is blessing me when doors are opening when the deals are closing and all these things are happening that's me being full in one dimension and watch this i have to be intentional to be hungry i have to say god i know i'm full but i need more of you i need more of you to manage the fullness that i have watch this hunger is a decision it's intentional and there's nothing that wars against hunger like prosperity like being blessed like having all your needs met can't you see the dilemma that puts god in okay his it's god's desire to bless us we're his children he loves us what father wouldn't want best the best things for his children but he also knows that if i bless you there's a strong possibility that you're going to be so full of what i gave you that there won't be much room for me and yet god does it anyway because his end goal is not reciprocity he's he is love he doesn't need our love he is love he's full of love he embodies the embodiment of love he didn't need our love but he recognizes that when we don't make room for him we're in a slippery slope downhill because whether we acknowledge it or not we need him so i'm praying that your hunger would be renewed i'm praying that god would take the taste out of your mouth for things that that ultimately won't satisfy the fullness of your soul and i'm praying that he would renew for some of you you have a calling on your life great ministry in your life and you just need to get hungry again man you need to come back to that place of hunger where you're like god all i want is you well you say like david said who was a king he had everything and he's like let me tell you the one thing that i desire that will i seek after is that i might dwell in your house let me paraphrase he says that i might be in your presence the one thing that i desire is to be in your presence all the days of my life god i want you i want you so i'm praying that god will restore your hunger because nothing satisfies i'm trying to stop but i just feel god nothing satisfies like him i'm praying for your hunger and the last thing i'm praying this is particularly for those of you called to ministry and i believe that if you love god that you are called to to to shine his light in dark places i want to pray that that our offensive posture will return what i mean by offensive offensive posture this pandemic has had all of us on defense we just been trying to trying to make it trying to get by trying to make certain that that we can pay the bills try to make certain that we can stay alive and keep food on the table all that kind of stuff right for some it's been like that and we forgot what it meant to be children of god children of god are powerful people right we lay hands on the sick and they recover we cast out devils yeah all the the stuff that we think is weird is actually love gestures that god empowers us to do not in some weird creepy way but in a way that says i love you i see you and we're representing a god and a kingdom that has authority over everything that is negative that confronts humanity god wants to return us to an offensive posture and that's my prayer for you and so family this has been quite a journey don't curse the grave excavate what you learned in the grave same thing that god told the children of israel i arranged this i'm not saying that god is a murderer god is insensitive but there's something what i'm saying is he allowed it because there's something in it that for those of us who weathered it and survived it it was something for us to learn to see and most importantly to become so that we'll be ready for this next thing let's not forget what we learn stay humble and stay hungry is my prayer i want to extend this invitation i don't know who you are you're watching you're listening but maybe you're you're connected with us at this moment and you say man you're right i wanna i want to come back home or you know what god brought me through this and something resonated with you when i said don't forget because there's some of you that are yes excited about stepping back into life but there's also a part of you that is going to miss some of the good things that you know that took place during this season and i believe that god is able to keep what you've committed to him during this season i believe that but you're going to need him and so i want to pray for you if you say you know what pt i i i hear you and and i want to be hungry again i hear you and i don't want to lose what i gained i want you to just say that's me that's me and i just just say i receive god just put it right i received god put in the feed that's me i received god if you're there and you don't know god and you just you just heard this somebody forwarded this to you or you're watching with somebody and let me tell you something it's not as complicated as people make it it's just it's just not that type of thing god loves you here it is you want to know the truth here it is god loves you straight up and he loves you like nobody loves you and his love is so powerful that when you get a revelation of it it literally drives out all fear this means that it is impossible to fear and perceive the way that god feels about you at the same time his love is perfect and your perfect perspective about that love cast out fear literally fear flees because you're you're loved at the end of the day all we want to be is loved for who we are straight out and god says got you i created you in the context of love i am love and i love you and because i love you and because of the one who is loving you fear what is fear going to do love the love of god and your understanding and love god chases fear away it chases insecurity away it chases loneliness away simple so how do i receive god just receive them it's simple love is talking to you love is knocking on the door of your heart a lot of times that love has to be you know our perspective of god is filtered through our relationships with people sometimes our parents or sometimes you know ministers or leaders who have unfortunately misrepresented who god is it's simple god touches you you acknowledge that he's touching you and you open up your heart and you receive it you trust it you trust him you trust his presence you trust the love and there's no greater demonstration of god's love than to allow his son to become everything that restricts us and hinders us and then putting that in his body putting that body on the cross crushing him and in so crushing him crushing that which restricts and limits and hinders us and then by raising him up and him saying just trust him then now you're raised up above those things that hinder us it's the gospel it's simple for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son it's simple it's not a tic-tac-toe and a whole bunch of laws and a whole bunch of rules and that kind of stuff that's not true it's belief i believe you love me i believe watch this that my whole life is an arrangement i believe that the whole earth all of creation is a divine arrangement to get me back to you and so you just say i receive if that's you you're watching and that's how you feel and you want to open up you just want to god touch and start your journey just say i receive i receive and there are pastors people praying will cover you and walk you through but at the end of the day it's between you and god if the thing this thing happens and me and you never meet or you and my team never connect you just you will know in this moment that god touched me in a way that only he can and he spoke to me in a way that only he could and i accepted him and as a result of that i'm good and you just grow in that you find you know i believe they're good leaders out there good good pastors good teachers i believe that there's great books i believe the scripture i believe it's got truth in it and with discernment and prayer you can find your way and you can find yourself in it and you can become everything that god has created you to be no gimmicks god loves you and so do i

Channel: ONE | A Potter's House Church

Views: 17,386

Rating: 4.9214659 out of 5

Keywords: TPH, The Potters House, TPH LA, The Potters House LA, One LA, Toure Roberts, Sarah Jakes Roberts, tphla, LA Churches, One Church, onela, Sarah Jakes, Pastor Touré, TPH Denver, Bishop Jakes

Id: kEj3b-9njc0

Length: 60min 44sec (3644 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 04 2021