Intentional Planting | John Gray

do you know how many people have thrown me away because of the things that they have seen in my timeline and they assume my 47 years god is finished with him oh girl you heard did you hear didn't you see didn't you read isn't it strange how god does stuff and i told god years ago i said don't fool with me i was talking to him like he didn't know me don't fool with me leave me alone but he sent me here and planted me and said i'm gonna strip you of your facade and i'm gonna remove the chaos and when i'm done with you there will be lights [Music] [Music] relentless church is anybody ready for the word this morning i said is anybody ready for the word this morning pray with me pray with me lord jesus i ask that you would get the glory out of this moment please re-center my mind remove the distractions let me focus in on what it is the assignment is for the moment i said you would give me clarity of thought and i ask that your people would see you more clearly when the moment is over than they do when it first began i am grateful for relentless church i'm grateful for the people i'm grateful for their hearts now speak with precision and power in jesus name amen well uh we've been in the intentional series everybody say intentional and then i got on this thing called intentional creation and i can't let it go i cannot let it go i've got to stay right there this idea of intentional creation everything about what god is doing this year is intentional the timing of god the the the the symmetry of god the the orchestration of god the the orchestral uh symbiosis of your life the things that seem incongruent that don't right now seem to be harmonious he's bringing them into a a symphonic place of uh cordent beauty that will make sense of the painful places and the things that you thought were delayed lost denied forgotten they are not god cannot forget does not forget will not forget and your prayers have come up as a remembrance to him and i want you to know that this sermon is going to change a lot of lives if you hear me for the next 20 25 minutes this is one of those messages that will stay with you i believe in giving the best everybody say fresh bread i don't play games when it comes to the word i'm not a perfect man but when it comes to this word i'm a beast i'm a monster with it because god deserves it i give a hundred percent every time no games are played and i believe that's why our church is continuing to grow and thrive because god is establishing that which is based in his word i say that to say this today um we're gonna have a little illustrated sermon and i'm just gonna need you guys to lean in lock in online for those who who are part of our community because for those who might wonder why am i a part of this church because you know there's different brands of jesus depending on where you go it's different versions and brands of jesus now i don't believe that jesus should be branded at all i think jesus should be presented the way he presented himself i believe that the bible introduces us to jesus and we need to introduce people to jesus the way he introduced himself to people which is i'm filled with compassion i'm rooted in forgiveness i'm filled with mercy but i also walk in truth and i'm not scared of anybody when the pharisees come up on me i'll walk up on them is it what you say and every time they tried to kill him he'd walk right through him because he made them and so even when they came to arrest him and they had clubs and spears and swords and lanterns he was like who are you searching for they were like jesus of nazareth and he was like i am he and when he said i am all of them bowed down because i created you i'ma let you arrest me but i need you to know that i am i am i am so before you arrest me know who you're messing with which means i could take you out i'm letting you arrest me so be glad that this is in the wheel cause if it wasn't in the will i'd snap my fingers and a legion of angels would come take you out and it wouldn't even take a whole legion i got one up there named michael that'll kill 130 000 in one night you better check the old testament people think jesus is nice and soft and tender jesus is nothing to play with god is nothing to play with mountains bow down darkness runs from him even the angels that cry holy don't even look at him they cover their face with their wings and they cover their feet with their wings and with the other two they fly and cry holy holy holy and them some bad boys cause when they shout the posts of the doors shake in the temple you know how loud you gotta shout for the door to shake in heaven them some bad boys people think jesus is a game he's not a game he's not a joke he is not to be played with he is the most high god he is the king of kings and the lord of lords and this is who we serve and this is who we talk about today and i'm giving him an intentional praise right now will there be anyone who would care to join me in giving god an intentional praise you got 10 seconds glory i've gone through a lot of pain man of god but i'm exactly where i'm supposed to be elder ana i'm exactly where i'm supposed to be i was created for this moment you were created for this moment you were create that's the anticipation you've been feeling in your heart the palpitations in your heart that thing where it's hard for you to catch your breath is because you're literally walking into the thing that you were created for god doesn't accidentally bring a human into the earth but he will process you until it's time to present you always process before presentation i'm already preaching i don't know if they're with me pastor amber but i hope that you hear me there's always process before presentation but he's about to touch you nobody can figure you out you're a a riddle wrapped in an enigma shrouded by mystery nobody can figure you out and you got people that don't like you for no reason and it's but the reason is god has his hand on you and and and they don't like you because god called you but that's not your fault and so you can't worry about it you got to keep moving and if god gave you a word don't you move stay right there because god is gonna make every man a liar while his word is true i wish i had another seven seconds of praise all over the relentless community right there online i'm talking to you now i feel god in here right now elder i feel god in here i'm tired of the casual version of christianity i want an aggressive version of worship i want an aggressive forward movement i want people that go after it every single time i i just i need you to understand there's something stirring in my spirit today we went through hell then god said it's over and i'm establishing you and i said something to charles uh my right hand on the way to church today and i said i have to i had to correct something i had said because i i've shared with our community different things we've walked through and that all of the stuff that we have been walking through is over and and this is finally the place called relentless church it's it it's done and this morning on woodruff road god said uh it wasn't done because of paperwork it was done because i said it [Applause] i need about another seven people do you know just because you haven't seen it doesn't mean that it's not real because if he said it you will see it i need you to know that if he promised it it's coming it was the promised land it took them 40 years but it was still theirs i don't care how long i got to circle it it's still mine i don't care how long i have to wait it's still mine i don't care what hell i go through it's still mine doesn't matter the name of the giants it's still mine if i got to surround it shout over it jerichod and walls are coming down it's still mine i need 500 people to put in the chat feed it's still mine with about seven exclamation points behind it somebody given god and it's still mind praise [Applause] i need i need somebody to go crazy though i need a don't mind me y'all don't mind me i'm just cause sometimes y'all don't know what god is doing because all you see is the dirt [Music] i hope y'all got more of these bags for the next service e by by shondo you're exactly where you need to be this church is not for everybody but it's for somebody my aunt sherry said something last week that shook me she said there are people who are assigned to your voice there are people that are assigned to your voice which means i'm not trying to get anybody that's not assigned to my voice i'm not trying to market relentless church i'm just trying to preach jesus the way he gave it to me and the people that are assigned will show up here the people that are assigned will so here the people that are assigned will go here is there anybody that knows you're where you're supposed to be it's an insecure leader that's uncomfortable when other churches are doing x y and z i want to do that i wish i could preach like i don't i don't wish i preached like anybody i'm me i'm a i'm a i am an amalgamation of all of my experiences and i'm exactly who i'm supposed to be and i'm exactly in the process where god knew that i would be and he's going to work it out for his glory [Music] i wish i had uh just one person that will stay with me go to genesis chapter 2 genesis chapter 2 we're in the intentional series we're going to stay in the intentional series i'm at genesis chapter 2 verse 8. if you have the physical ability to stand i'm going to ask that you do so 2-2 you have the physical ability to stand so do you john stand up i'm going to teach them to genesis chapter 2 verse 8 the lord god planted a garden eastward in eden and there he put the man whom he had formed the lord god planted a garden eastward in eden and there he put the man whom he had formed the title of today's message is intentional planting intentional planting pray with me lord get all the glory get all the glory all the glory in jesus name amen you can be seated do me a favor angela if you'll lower this little pulpit here sometimes life will hit you in a way that you're not sure if you're coming or going if we'll be honest when you're saved when you say you love god it is a challenge to maintain your faith day in and day out especially when life happens unfortunately there have been times when people uh preached this version of jesus that eradicate your problems that every day is gonna be you know cookies and rainbows but you can't have rainbows without rain and everybody wants power but nobody wants the pain and if you really want to know how to get power you should read the word because the bible says jesus learned obedience by the things that he suffered and there is a component to development that people don't want and there are some scriptures that give us clues into how god operates and into how he works and there's there's one scripture that says planted in the house of the lord they shall flourish in the courts of our god it's in the book of psalms everybody say planted i need some seeds for my seeds here we go everybody say plant it you know your life is a seed i'm trying to help somebody your life is a seed now here's the thing depending on who you are and how hungry you are for the things of god it often determines how deep you go in the things of god there are some people that say they love god but what they really mean is i'm religious i'll go to church but i don't really want to change so i'll go i'll pay my tithe which by the way i know people say that you can't pay what doesn't belong to you tithe is god's you pay a bill god doesn't he doesn't owe you we owe him and so um this idea in genesis chapter 2 verse 8 is very profound because there are people who come in and out of levels of god or levels of spiritual development because either they want something from god or they've been trained in an improper way but i want to talk to the people that understand the power of being planted see because when you're planted it doesn't matter the process because you know that the one who planted you understands where you need to be how long you need to be there and what he's trying to produce now i have watched my life from as long as i can remember who i was and i watched where god placed me and planted me and different people like how did you end up where you got i was like i just always follow the voice of the lord i would love to tell y'all that i had a 10-year plan and a five-year plan and i had these 10 goals and we're going to map them out we're going to mark them off ain't did none of that now i'm not mad at the people who do that i'm proud of you and your goal setting and your vision casting i'm like lord what's next now that's me now i'm not saying that everybody else has to do it that way but at the end even if you got a board sometimes your life doesn't walk according to what you wrote down especially if it doesn't line up with his will so i found myself saying god what do you want me to do and where do you want me to be and he'll always give you clues he'll seed your spirit with what's next if you're listening so where am i going with this let's go to genesis chapter 2. we know that god created the heavens and the earth go to this second chapter of genesis and it says the lord god planted a garden eastward in eden and there he put the man whom he had formed this is really deep to me that god created everything and what we see if you're studying the scripture the word eastward the lord god planted a garden eastward in eden the word eastward means aforementioned or before time or beforehand which means that god planted the garden sometime before he brought adam on the scene now we see the creation narrative from days one through six on the seventh day he rested we understand the principles that are given to us in those seven days we don't see the totality of everything because our finite minds could not process it anyway because these are eternal things from an eternal god but he has given them to us in ways that allow us to understand it so we can process even a minute version of his vastness but the bible says after he spoke everything else god decided to plant a garden isn't that a beautiful picture that the god of the universe says i've got someone in mind to run all this but i'm going to plant a garden eastward in eden and when you study the word eden it means pleasure but the word garden actually means enclosure which signifies boundary the problem with many people is they get out of bounds and don't stay where they were planted so you're upset that your life is not producing fruit but you're in the wrong garden i feel the holy ghost do you understand that there are people who are in this church right now your life is going into some crazy stratospheric places of blessing favor and miracle and it's not because of a man it's because of the god who's speaking through the man for this particular garden called relentless church do you know that when you're planted in the right place at the right time and you're watered in the right way you'll produce a right harvest for a legacy season do you know we're not producing fruit for five ten months we're producing fruit for five ten generations what god is doing in this church is multi-generational can i get an amen the lord god planted a garden how beautiful is it to have the picture of god tenderly preparing a garden planting seeds in the ground and it says eastward in eden which means he planted the garden with adam in mind before adam got there he didn't plant it after adam was formed he planted the garden and somehow he then formed adam and put him there because if the garden was formed while he was there he could have participated but he stepped into what god had already prepared [Music] someone here is about to shout you're about to step into what god has already prepared now here's the thing y'all saw me put dirt and seed in each one of these planters did you see me now what what what do you see do y'all do y'all you see planters is that all you see some of y'all real deep you see what you see growth stop rushing god you you ready for level three i'm ready to be a millionaire jesus but you don't even tithe off a hundred my wife laughed at me because i fell out the planter that's okay you know why i fell cause i wasn't [Applause] [Music] rooted [Applause] it's easy to fall when you shallow it's easy to fall when you have no roots it's easy to fall when you haven't been watered it's easy to fall when you can talk a good game but you don't have enough substance to sit in that thing and allow god to grow you build you mature you prune you develop you that's why i fell there wasn't enough weight this planter is great for small things everybody wants a garden but nobody wants rain god you can use me it's raining i quit what garden you know don't have some rain don't have some tears don't have some pain what garden you know you can y'all better fix that hose there we go see it's the water pressure what garden you know can produce without rain you want prophetic accuracy and wisdom you want authority but no rain you shallow you want power no pain you shallow you easily offended you don't like what i preach so you and your family leaving and taking your 37 a year down the street you shallow i'm trying to be with some folk that want to go deeper if i got seed in the ground then i'm waiting on rain did you hear what i said after everything i've been through i'll please rain please reign i don't already shed the tears so add the water to my tears because i've sown seed i've been faithful i stayed in it he planted a garden eastward in eden it's a prophetic place it's my place and don't get mad that i'm prospering in my place it's my garden now i can give you some fruit from my garden but you can't occupy my garden because god planted it with me and mine you can glean from my oil but you can't duplicate it people people don't just want to be connected to you they want to be you and that's the problem you remember mr harrison live next door to us on dana and remember that big old beautiful banana plant it always had these beautiful leaves beautiful tropical leaves i would we would drive up our driveway and literally three feet to the right was a banana tree in cincinnati a black man was planting banana trees in his backyard it's beautiful the leaves were beautiful green never saw one banana because cincinnati is not a tropical climate no matter what you put in the ground if it's not the right seed for the right soil in the right climate it will not produce and that's why some of your relationships don't work because the seed of who they are cannot produce in the soil that god planted you in baby that relationship is coming to an end because he's he's in the wrong soil what do you see somebody said a planter no it's a garden just because you don't see it yet doesn't mean it's not what it is it didn't say the lord god planted seeds it said he planted a garden he said what it was going to be even while it was planted this is a garden it looks like a seed to you but it's a garden to me i need somebody with some garden faith even when you sow seed you already see where that thing is going is there anybody that knows if you sow it god's got to grow it i need somebody in the chat feed to go ahead and say if i sow it god's got to grow it they so scared over here i love i love our teeny like jesus they ain't here praying in the holy ghost please don't let him fall baby jesus say it again elder elder johnny said you got a deep foundation now i want to talk to the tree called relentless church we're not a bonsai plant we're a tree oh help me holy ghost i've seen trees hang off the sides of mountains how does that happen there what i need somebody to say rooted look at somebody say i'm rooted put it online in the chat feed say i'm rooted put it in big bold letters say i'm rooted oh my god i'm getting ready to say something i'ma bring this service to a close but i need you to understand that the reason why relentless church is walking in a season of unprecedented favor is because we've gone through enough dirt and nothing is fertilized without a big bunch of crap [Applause] did you hear what i said and the the bigger your assignment the more crap you gotta go through and the and the bigger your influence the deeper the roots have to go if you want to have a a casual life and a regular life then enjoy that first planter but if you want to have fruit that remains come on and get in this third planter you're going to have to go ahead and get rooted and sometimes you're not going to see where it's going and it's not going to make sense and you won't understand but your job is not to understand your job is to stand i need some help from the worship thank you caleb i need a couple people over there do you understand that if there were three people here and we had the same level of wind two of them would fall over one of us would remain because almost half of me is rooted beneath the surface you want people to see your anointing now to see your growth now but as high as you want to go that's how deep you got to get if you look at the life of moses his life was two-thirds anonymity and one-third relevance for 80 years 40 years was preparation the next 40 was anonymity then the last 40 was nation building that means out of 122 thirds of it people thought he was done he was underground then god met him in the in the desert in a bush and said hey take your shoes off your feet homeboy you standing on holy ground i'm the most high god now i want you to go over there and get my people out of israel i heard them crying their cries have come up to me and i'm taking you stuttering prophet because you've gone through enough you've been rooted enough and you've been pruned everybody wants to garden nobody wants to be pruned god you can use me let me prune you never mind say it out loud say prune me careful what you ask for because he'll start cutting people things habits proclivities demons flesh memories he'll close off appetites he'll he'll cut it off because the last thing we need is more churches with leaves that have no fruit i'm not trying to be popular i'm trying to be relevant the only way you're going to be relevant is if you have your roots deep and here's what's deep the bible says god had not caused it to rain so a mist went up from the ground to water the earth i'm gonna say this and i'm gonna leave it alone sometimes people are waiting for your external blessing and they'll try to stay connected to you based on that when they don't see it they walk away but what they don't know is you got a secret reservoir is there anybody that's got an underground well you got your you got a praise nobody can see you got a faith nobody can see it comes from under the ground my head might be dry but my feet wet [Music] did you hear what i said because i've been rooted in this thing so i'm drinking from deep places you can't affect me with your shallow revelation and your shallow prayers that stuff doesn't work i need something that goes a little deeper anybody want to go deeper the deeper you go that's where all the minerals are that's where the nutrients are it's where the favor reside where the favor reside you can't see it but god is growing something what you need to thank god for is the people who left because they didn't see it god oh boy i'm getting ready to jump out of here there are people that thought it was going to show up sooner and they were only staying because they know what it's like to be connected to a blessing that they didn't have to participate in god said i'm going to keep everything underground until the people who are not assigned to your garden leave and when the coast is clear i wish i had 100 people who understand you can stay shallow you can go intermediate or you can get rooted did you hear what i said i've made my decision relentless is my church this is my city it's our church we're going to serve this place and we're going to serve the world relentless is not just a local church we are a global church but we have a local assignment if relentless is your church put that in the chat feed this my church if this is your church then i need your point down i need you to be a little thuggish with it this is my church [Music] everybody that's my church look at somebody telling this my church if this your church didn't get planted don't tip your church so if you're getting fed here then stay led here if you bled here then stay here if you stay here then pray here if you pray here then play here if you sow here then grow here this is relentless church we have been planted by god for the display of his splendor and we're walking into a season of unprecedented favor i refuse to stay shallow or intermediate i'm going to the deep place and i need people that will get in that big planter with me so when the wind hits a couple leaves might blow but my roots will not be moved did you hear what i said this is the most fun sermon i've ever done in my life i cannot wait for the next i'm doing it again i love relentless church we love our relentless church family you watch this the bible says i didn't even get into this you're just gonna have to come back to the next service he did all that then he placed the man in it whom he had formed you're getting ready to step into a prepared blessing by this time tomorrow you're gonna you're gonna know what i'm saying one person caught it another person caught it i saw when you walked in today coming around i saw you and i'm prophesying to y'all that that listen to me you're stepping into a prepared place when adam got up when he was awakened the garden was already producing oh my god his job was to tend it and to keep it that means maintain what i started you're stepping into momentum you're not gonna have to create it does anybody believe that all right oh that means that wealth is about to find you see one of the elders just caught that thing you're about to step into momentum and the best way the best time for god to do it would be when there's chaos all around stealing a pandemic not sure about what's going to happen with the economic turnaround guys why don't i just bless you in the midst of all this downturn so no one can get the credit but me and if you want to know how fast the harvest was you should check revelation 22 because the bible says that there were trees in the in the new jerusalem and they produced their fruit every month the reason why god brought eve to adam is because the garden was producing at such a rapid pace that he needed help i'm prophesying that you're getting ready to step into the season where you need help i'm telling you what would normally take years is going to take one month i wish i had one person that believed what i'm saying you're stepping into it [Music] just stay planted stay tell somebody stay planted don't be like the man that was blind that jesus had to take out of the city and he said what do you see he said i see men like trees walking well the problem is trees don't walk unless they're out of place trees your only job is to stay rooted you ain't never seen the treats what are you doing mr tree i'm trying to grow you know what a tree does my job is to stand strong stay rooted wait for the rain and trust the gardener everybody stand have you been blessed today give the lord praise for his word intentional planting somebody state my god elder sharon something's happening people are sowing right now i feel the holy ghost let me tell you i felt god and he told me this pastor after he said there are people who are watching that we're not going to sow until they heard the word so now you heard the word that you needed so now i'm telling you do whatever the lord tells you to do however the lord tells you to sow you need to do that oh my god but if i were you i'd be getting seed in the ground elder coleman you hear what i'm saying i got to get seed in the ground pastor robert i this is this is not a word that i don't respond to i have watched god do in a few hundred days what would take years and years and years to do don't tell me what god can't do i'm rooted man of god and i'm gonna stay rooted and elder it hurts but i gotta trust the gardener he's got them pruning shears and he cut stuff off of me and when i tell you that sucker hurts is there anybody else yes it hurts oh but i'd rather take a little pain now so that i can produce more fruit later i don't know how many nights i cried i don't know how many nights i called my mama said mama pray i don't feel like going on i feel like giving up i feel like going home i just want to go see jesus she said you can't i prayed for you i prayed for you i prayed for you you got prayers covering you i can't do it i'm not gonna let you go your grandmother prophesied about you in her journal when you were a little baby back in 1975 you can't go nowhere you are a word you are a seed take the rain take the pain god is not finished with you honor the process what you don't know is the pain is a gift the pruning is a gift honor the gift when's the last time you said lord thank you for pruning me thank you for the pain yes thank you for the tears [Music] thank you for the people that left i believe my cousin just sold i'm getting ready to sew too and i've already given my ties but i'm sewing into this moment i'm sewing into this and you know what i'm sewing for i'm sewing for my daughter's dreams since she told me what she wants to be when she grows up i'm sewing for my daughter who wants to be a veterinarian and professional ice skater well now professor wants to be an olympic gold medalist that's what she said my son who wants to be a civil rights leader and a pastor and an astronaut and i say you can do all three you preach why you up there prophesy to the moon son i'm sowing for y'all and there it goes success i sow my seed into good ground now i don't know cause my kids will be eight years old tomorrow together for two weeks and then my son will be nine but what i just did is i watered i sowed a seed now i trust that god will water it i know we got to go some plant apollos waters god gives the increase my job was to get the seed in the ground and to keep them planted father seal this word in the lives of your people for anybody that needs to get rooted today bring it to pass right now in jesus name if you're here you've never given your life to jesus if you've never given your life to jesus now is your moment online here live i want you to say this with me lord jesus it's me i confess with my mouth and believe in my heart that jesus is lord thank you for the blood that was shed for me i receive the free gift of salvation not through my works but the finished work of the cross the blood is enough to pay for all my sins now holy spirit come live inside teach me how to be more like jesus each and every day this is my prayer and i declare that i am new i am saved and i am planted in the house of the lord in jesus name amen we believe if you prayed that prayer for the first time you just got saved welcome to the family we are relentless tell somebody stay rooted stay planted if you gave your life to jesus or you want to be a member text the number on the screen text saved text member we're following up with you this week next week palm sunday we go back to kingdom kids two weeks is easter start planning now it's going to be amazing and i just want to tell you this as we go i believe that this message is going to stick with you for the rest of your lives don't go shallow don't settle for shallow don't settle for anybody that keeps you shallow if your intermediate keep growing and then get to the deep place get rooted and stay there and let the lord work out the rest may the lord bless you and keep you cause his face to shine upon you may the lord god be gracious to you show you his favor and give you his peace hug somebody that you came in with we love you so much and we'll see you next week see you tuesday for the gathering and then see you next sunday for the next installment of the intentional series you

Channel: Relentless Church

Views: 16,155

Rating: 4.865922 out of 5

Keywords: Relentless Church, John Gray Ministries

Id: GCEEzO5O4sA

Length: 48min 57sec (2937 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 22 2021