The Principles of Seed Faith // Rev. Richard Roberts // May 21, 2019 AM

[Applause] good morning everybody listen if it's this cold in May I'm not coming in January I walked out this morning that north wind hit me I said where am I goodness gracious I understand you have two seasons up here in a winter and construction Oh father we bless you and praise you thank you Lord Jesus we give you honor and we give you glory we enter into your gates with Thanksgiving it into your courts with praise we thank you that as the praise goes up the walls come down we give you glory and honor in Jesus name thank you for an anointing today I receive it in Jesus name Amen god bless you you can be seated pastor thank you so much such a wonderful blessing to be here I I was just sitting here or standing there a moment ago as you all were worshiping and I heard the Lord say this to me you're like a sponge today you're full a sponge tell the people just squeeze you out just squeeze put your hand I'll play this and just squeeze squeeze everything you can out of me get everything you can I'm not only well I'm not only want you to be fulfilled but I want to be fulfilled - I want to be able to say that I have finished my course that's when that time comes 120 years from now you know praise God Sunday we focused in on healing and yesterday was focused in on the Holy Spirit and God manifested gifts last night and today I want to focus in on seed faith and I want to remind you as I believe in reminding people remind you of what the Lord spoke to me through my father that as I got into my mid and late 60's and now I'm 70 the Lord showed me that I was to teach on healing the Holy Spirit and seed faith and that I would do it in underdeveloped nations in just a couple of months I will be in central India in the area just south of Mumbai which used to be Bombay and over in Bangalore and I already have 2,000 rural pastors were signed up for this meeting they are coming from areas where there is virtually no internet they have no connection they have to come into the city in order to get Internet to get online and most of them have had no training and they are forgotten they're out there alone and they're in the jungle there in the mountains there are no roads they have to use bicycles they can't get cars in there and we're helping them we're buying bicycles for them we're building we're building not orphanages but places for children and through through the through the churches and we're also we've also built several sewing centers for widows who lost their husbands and they have no they have no income and we're training them how to sew so they can get a job and and these pastors have done all this and they put my name on it I've got the Richard Roberts sewing center this is amazing when I see them but I see the videos and the and the photos that they send me because they our lead pastor their travels about to get all the testimonies and and many of these pastors I was there this past year we had 1,700 pastors in southern India and there now these pastors in the last six months have begun 300 new churches in addition to the churches they are already pastoring and their churches are doubling and tripling in size and they're having Crusades and they're having healings many of them have never even had an idea that they could pray for the sick many of them have never ever prayed for the sick now they're praying for the sick they're having all kinds of miracles they're having cancers fall off of people's bodies and I just got a testimony the other day matter of fact uh of a woman that was just virtually virtually dead and they laid hands on her and God healed her and she's now out testifying of the saving healing power of God so that's a that's a great part of my life and I enjoy doing it so much I enjoy imparting I enjoy I used to watch my dad I watched I watch people just squeeze everything they could get out of him and I said Lord I pray the day comes when when I'm like that when when I have enough to give that I can just pour out and pour out and pour out and pour out and so I thank God for for the opportunity to come up here and to share and I want to thank a pastor Jay and Debbie for this opportunity to be here praise God the you fresh oil churches you you have a you have something great going and it's different and I appreciate it because I've been to some places where you you know after the worship you want to say when do we view the body it's pretty dead but thank god this place is alive praise God I heard the story about this antique dealer who traveled through the little towns in his area looking for bargains in the small antique shops and one day he was in a little town in this antique store looking around when he noticed a cat that was drinking milk from a bowl and as he looked he realized that that was no ordinary Bowl it was a very expensive antique he thought to himself this storekeeper doesn't have any idea the value of that bowl why I'll buy it for little or nothing take it back to the city and sell it for a great price and so he walked up to the storekeeper and said sir I I noticed this cat this cat is so beautiful I've always wanted a cat would you sell me this cat the man said well sure mister just give me $100 and I'll sell anything in the store the catch you're assured so the man paid him the hundred dollars and he picked up the cat and began to stroke it said my what a beautiful cat he said to him I notice he's drinking milk from an old bowl it's not worth much I believe I'll just take that bowl with me and the storekeeper said you put that bowl down that's the best cat seller I've ever had [Laughter] and isn't that the way a lot of people are trying to get to one another that's not the seed faith life Sunday morning I was sharing a portion of my dad's testimony and my testimony of how he came to the Lord and was healed of tuberculosis and how I came to the Lord after experience I had in the hospital and when my father gave his heart to the Lord after having been bed fast for five months and Jesus appeared to him in the face of his own father my grandfather he said to his dad reach up into the closet and get the mason jar for when people had come to visit him and pray for him during those five months that he was bed fast oftentimes they would give him gifts of money a dime a quarter now this was 1935 once in a while a dollar and he had gathered money and put it in a mason jar had them put it and kept it in this closet and the moment he gave his heart to Christ he said to his dad pop I called him everybody called my grandfather Papa Papa get that mason jar I want to give an offering unto the Lord it was the beginning of the seed faith teaching which has spread around the world but the first one through the wall usually gets the bloodiest the first one who who comes up with a new idea from God gets hit gets struck at and he began to teach on the principles of sowing and reaping and it was not well-received people got the idea that he was after something from them not realizing that God was not trying to get something from them but instead he was trying to get something to them and there's a difference and I remember all of the struggle as I was growing up seeing all that hearing all that reading about that seeing the the criticism everything that came and I remember when my father wrote the book in the 1950s my blessing pact covenant with God and he taught that wherever he went as a boy I was in those services hearing that teaching then in these mid sixties I guess it must have been 67 or 68 maybe over 68 or so he wrote the book the miracle of seed faith and I thought of this pastor Jeff while you were having me autograph that book yesterday that book the miracle of seed faith which is one of the biggest books that he ever wrote I mean biggest in numbers I mean because that book went more than three million copies around the world and it was it was the it was the textbook of the principles of sowing and reaping seed faith it's called the miracle of seed faith and remember reason I remember it so well is because I typed the original manuscript we had an old electric typewriter it called a Selectric IBM typewriter any of the old left to remember that we had one from the from our office and we set up in the kitchen and my dad was sit in the living room because he wrote by hand and when I write books now I write my hand I you know too hard teaching the old dog new tricks and so I write by him but he wrote my hand and he would write a manuscript and then hand it to me and I would go in the kitchen and type it and I'd send it back to him he makes sure I double-spaced it so that he could make changes and then I could I can type it again and then he'd go and edit change it and I gonna type it again so by the time I finished typing I knew that book backwards and forwards I mean that book was inside me I know it as well today because I typed it was all part of me and I typed it but I was thinking about that one I autograph that book cause pastor Jeff had a had a copy of it yesterday but I also remember at that time when his own denomination questioned him on it called him up before their Board of Directors in Oklahoma City and said the umbrella rots you're not teaching the Bible and I remember my father saying to them say that again and they said you're not teaching the Bible he said say that again and they said well we we just we just said it why he wants to say it again he said say it one more time well why would you ask us to say it again because we just said it he said to them because if you say it again I'll never darken the door of a Pentecostal Holiness Church again as long as I live and anyone who knew anything about Oral Roberts knew that his word was his bond and if he said he was going to do something you could write it down if he or my mother said to me when I get you home I knew they would keep their word and I could be good for the next four or five hours before that you know he said say it again and if you do I'll never darken the door of a Pentecostal Holiness Church again and they said well now now wait a minute where the Roberts wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute let's let's talk this over and of course a 2 or 3 hour discussion followed that but there was such a terrible taste left in his mouth because of the hatred against a seed faith message because in those days many people especially Pentecostals believed that if God would keep you humble the people would keep you poor and that in order to serve God you had to have nothing and they totally discounted the Bible which says beloved I wish above all things that you prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers in fact prosperity is from Genesis to Revelation and he came out of that meeting and came back to Tulsa and shared that with us with my mother and with with with us kids and we were heartbroken because we saw how it affected him and it wasn't long until he he removed himself from the denominational world and became an independent he was always a maverick to begin with because God was always speaking to him and and many of the pastors in those days did not want God to speak to him it wasn't because they were against God's speaking it was because it was against it was because the fact that their members said to said to them how come God speaks to Oral Roberts but doesn't speak to you it was misplaced anger and I can remember I can remember feeling the daggers come from the pastors who were sitting on the platform during the crusade days they didn't want to be there but they're their parishioners their members wanted them there and they didn't want to be there because they were asked questions how come brother Roberts has miracles that you don't so it was misplaced anger see I grew up in all of that and I saw the hurt that my father went through as I said the first one through the wall gets the bloodiest and when he withdrew his papers he thought he would be an independent for the rest of his life but he got a call from Bishop Angie Smith who was the the Bishop of the Methodist Church in Oklahoma and my grandfather had been a Methodist pastor my grandfather had on my own the Roberts side had had founded 10 or 12 churches Methodist churches in Oklahoma and Arkansas and I told you other day my my grandmother was Pentecostal but my grandfather was Methodist they were metha Coastal's but they believed in miracles they believed in healing and they believed everything that you and I believe and those were very very tough days and Bishop Smith called my father and said I understand that you have withdrawn your papers from the Pentecostal Holiness denomination he said yes that's right he said we would like you to consider coming among the Methodists and my dad being bold said well bishop if I do I will not change and Bishop Angie Smith who was a man who was baptized in the Holy Spirit said oral if you change we don't want you and in about 1969 I think it was he became a ordained minister again in a denomination through the Methodists and they wanted two things from him they wanted him to come to all of their great conferences across America and around the world and teach on healing and the Holy Spirit and particularly on seed faith so you see you see where I'm coming from I'm giving you some background so you understand why I'm doing it why the Lord is keeping this going yeah so that you you you don't turn around trying to preach some different gospel and for years for probably seven or eight years he traveled across America and around the world to these great Methodist lay conferences sometimes five seven thousand Methodist laymen and of course he said you're going with me you're gonna sing because their worship was pretty bad and he didn't want it what it wasn't worship he didn't want to dig out of a hole so he had me sing in front of before him and I was he told me where I was going I said okay so I went and we went all in with all of the world doing these these through these conferences teaching on the principles of healing the Holy Spirit and seed faith and there were there were tens of thousands of Methodists who were baptized in the Holy Spirit in those meetings and they got a new understanding of the principles of sowing and reaping and I thought I should share that with you this morning so you have some background knowing knowing where I'm going and I was talking to pastor Jay the I learned when I was in high school took a speech class and my speech teacher said there are three principles of speeches number one you tell people what you're going to tell them number two you tell them and number three you tell them what you've just told them those are the three elements of a good speech you tell people what you're going to say then you say it and then you tell them what you just said that's branding the nail on the other side to get in you so I thought I'd give you the background of that this morning so you'd know where I'm coming from we learn in Genesis that that the Bible says as long Genesis 8 22 as long as the earth remains there will be seed time and harvest and from my earliest days I remember my father preaching on the principles of sowing and reaping and I can remember we were in a crusade once I was just a boy we're out in the Great Northwest up in the Spokane Washington area and we were driving down the Columbia River Valley over toward Seattle and I guess we were south of Seattle and it was harvest time and the farmers were out there gathering their harvest and he would pull a car off the side of the road and teach us on the principles of sowing and reaping and he would say a farmers greatest day is not at harvest but it's at seed time yeah because they know harvest is coming and they were out there gathering in that harvest and it's such a beautiful part of the country anyway the Great Northwest and they were gathering in the harvest and I didn't realize that God was pouring that into me as a boy and he would tell stories and I think one is particularly appropriate because Iowa being a great corn State my grandfather raised corn among other among other crops and one day my dad and my older uncle Baden were taking the big shovels and shoveling the corn into the barn and my grandfather came out and said you're doing that all wrong boys they're doing that all wrong and my dad said pop up what do you mean we're doing it all wrong we're doing what you said you said take the shovels and shovel the corn in the barn he said no no you take the big choice ears and you set them aside that's our seed gourd and we don't ever eat our seed corn things like that have stuck with me and they're just as appropriate today so that we don't forget our roots and how we're supposed to live our lives Genesis 822 as long as the earth remains there will be summer winter hot cold day night and there will be seed time and harvest now a lot of people pronounce it seed time and harvest but if you pronounce it correctly its seed time and harvest there's a difference seed time everybody say seed now say time elongate that now time are you going where I'm going and harvest Lindsey and I are watching TV one night Jerry Savelle was preaching and Jerry asked the question on television what do you call the space between seed and harvest and Lindsay took off her shoe and threw it at the television it said you caught it Hal Jerry you call it he'll tell waiting on that time you know what I'm talking about that he'll time in there where you got to wait that's not what we want we want a microwave miracle we want seed time and harvest we want in the drive-thru line but he said seed time and harvest there's a period of time when I was a boy my mother and I planted a garden in our backyard and we were digging little trenches and she saw that I had no idea what I was doing and so she reached into her pocket and pulled out a package of seed of tomato seeds and handed it to me and I saw those red tomatoes on the cover of the picture and I looked at her and I said mother is this what its gonna look like she said yes not today not tomorrow not next week but the day will come we'll come out here and gather in Tomatoes and I got a glimpse of the harvest I saw it and I was out there every day checking on it just a little boy you know and I saw those little shoots coming out on the ground and we finally had to put some chicken wire to get the tomato vines to stand up and saw the little green buds come out and started turning yellow and then red and the day came when she said now let's get the bushel baskets we started gathering in Tomatoes I began to understand this has been in me for a long this is not a johnny-come-lately thing and all of my life I've learned how to plant seed how did this all begin it began with a man by the name of Abraham he was named Abram and his wife Sarah but God changed their name so for the sake of today let's call him Abraham and Sarah and God spoke to them as they were living in a place called her of the counties which is modern-day Iraq we hear a lot about Iraq in the news don't we they were there God said get up from your kindred and go to a place that I will show you when you get there now that is something that I don't know how well we would handle today if God were to speak to us and say get in your car get on the interstate start driving and I'll tell you where you're going when you get there but that's exactly what happened and when they got to the place God want them it turned out to be what we know today as Israel and Abraham began to prosper and his numbers began to grow and the day came when his nephew and he got into an argument and there was a squabble a family squabble and they separated and lot chose the well-watered Plains of Sodom and Gomorrah which didn't work out too well for him and Abraham chose the hardscrabble land and continued to prosper and the day came when a lot and his group were kidnapped by four marauding kings and their armies and Abraham sought the Lord and went after them to rescue and when he brought them back to town he was met by a man by the name of Melchizedek who was the priest of Salem who was a type of Christ and he offered him as the bass has bread and wine which was a type of the communion that we received today the Last Supper of Jesus and said to him blessed be Abraham of the Most High God the possessor of heaven and earth and the one who delivers him from all of his enemies up till that point I do not believe that Abraham really knew who God was but Melchizedek told him who God was he was most high he was possessor of heaven and earth and the one who delivers him from all of his enemies and when Abraham understood who God was that he was Most High the possessor of heaven and earth and the one who delivers him from all of his enemies he gave a time which means increase he gave a tenth of all that he had under God that's how it began immediately Satan came to try to wreck the deal and that's what happens to us invariably when you so car will break down heater will go out some medical bill you didn't know about to get you to say oh I wished I hadn't done that Satan comes in immediately to steal the seed and how did it happen with Abraham they happened through the king of Sodom who came and tried to make a deal with him and Abraham being strong in faith at least for the moment said no I won't even take a shoelace lest you say you made Abraham rich and then he went out scared spitless have you ever been scared spitless ain't so scared you can't even spit cottonmouth you know what I'm talking about the reason I know is because you move over into the fifteenth chapter God had to come to him said don't be afraid why would God say don't be afraid if he wasn't afraid don't be afraid I am your shield and I am your ever-increasing reward so the same thing that happens to us happened Abraham when he planted that seed the devil came in to steal it but he stood strong in his faith and that's exactly what we have to do because when we so immediately Satan will try to come and steal the seed and steal your harvest that's when you have to say no devil you can't have me you can't have my family you can't have my finances you can't have my health you can't have my emotions you can't have my job you can't have my ministry you can't have my business no that's when you draw a line and say no devil this is my house this is my car this is my wife it's my child that's when you have to get strong that's what the Bible means what it talks about being violent in your faith you have to say no you have to bind him in Jesus name and rebuke him and say take your dirty rotten stinking filthy hands off me this is how it started it all started through Abraham and Abraham prospered and Abraham was looking for a reward - and the old teaching said you don't expect anything from God you give out of obligation but every time you plant a seed you have a right to a Bible harvest Abraham was looking for something was he looking for he said he said to God what would you do seeing I go childless yeah he was looking for simple now he was looking to God he wasn't look into people because when you look to people nine times out of ten they'll let you down people make lousy sources people are instruments don't look to people look to God and if you study the Old Testament you'll find that principle all the way through you'll see the seed principle and one of the greatest demonstrations was in the life of David the king when he got himself into trouble when he numbered the people and God was displeased with him because of his sin and sent a death angel and before David knew at 70,000 men had died and David was looking for a way to get out of his present mess and he saw a man by the name of Ornan who was threshing wheat and he set out by the threshing floor I'll buy the animals I'll buy the instruments and I'll sacrifice which was tantamount to sowing seed in those days and Ornan saw him coming and tried to make a deal to curry favor with the king and said you don't have to buy it I'll give it to you David said nope I would not give God something that cost me nothing I'll pay retail I'll pay the full price which was symbolic of what Jesus would do on the cross when he paid the full price you see how this all ties together he said I would not give God that which cost me nothing I will buy the threshing floor I'll buy the instruments I'll buy the animal for the sacrifice and when he did God withdrew the angel who went back to heaven remember that angel was standing suspended between heaven and earth with his sword drawn and God recalled him and the day was saved and then you see you see incidents like like Ahab and and Jezebel and Elijah who who said it will not reign until I say so and you see how he was taken care of after he ran for his life down to the brook and by and the Ravens fed him until that played out and God said I've commanded a widow to sustain you in the city of Zarephath and of course that's where so much criticism came my dad began to preach on Elijah and the widow of Zarephath as I grew up you know the criticism came out well that's typical what a preacher would do to a widow you know I remember we once got a we once got a letter from a woman we were under such criticism because my dad and I were preaching about Elijah and the widow of Zarephath and how we were trying to take advantage of widows across America and we got this letter from a woman she said for the Roberts I am the widow that they're talking about and since I joined your ministry and I've been planting seed every month I got a new house I got a new car my children are going to college I'm the widow they're talking about well and the media would say prophet takes last meal from Widow that's how CNN would report it that's not what he was trying to do he wasn't trying to get something from her I mean he had supernaturally been fed by Ravens and drinking water from the book don't you think he could have used his faith I said they're trying to take something from a widow no he said give me the first portion for thus saith the Lord if you will your meal bearer will not diminish in your crucible shall not fail and if you study the Bible you'll find that that she cooked about a thousand meals out of that empty meal barrel and crucible until the rains came and they could plant their crops and get a harvest again he wasn't trying to get something from her he was trying to get something to her why do we listen to the secular media why do we pay attention to all that nonsense you know why do we listen to the critics to those who who say well God wants to keep you keep you poor and keep you humble so you have absolutely nothing and that has nothing to do with the Bible whatsoever it's God's will that you prosper in every area of your life and I've got news there is an endtime transfer of wealth coming the Bible says so and it's going to happen why to help finance the end times harvest of souls the world is not going to evangelize the world it's going to take us it's going to take people who believe in the principles of sowing and reaping so God can open windows of heaven I'll get to that in a minute but there's an endtime transfer of wealth coming and who's it going to come into in whose hands is going to come into it's going to come into the hands of those who are sewers remember the story of the Little Red Hen no one wanted to you know to plant the wheat or crack the leader baked the wheat but when it came time to eating everybody wanted to eat the bread a lot of people talked about sewing but not everybody sews the latest statistic I saw about 28% of Christians tithe nationally that's a pretty small number and most ministries that I know most churches that I know do not have as much money as they have vision they have a big vision and they don't have the finances to do it they're trying to pay off debt they're believing God for payroll and they're not able to do all that God has put them put in their hearts that's not right we are to fulfill our vision and as you study the Bible you'll see this principle of sowing and reaping all the way through and Israel had a tendency of being strong for God and next thing you know they were worshipping idols of brass and wood and stone and they had gone away from God people like Jezebel brought false gods into the nation and people went away from their moorings and God called on a man by the name of Malachi to talk to the people and he stood before them and said you've left me you've left me and the people had been so far away from God that they actually said how have we left you you know you can be so far away from God that you don't even know you're away how have we left you they said or have we left you he said you've left me in tithes and offerings and he said you're cursed with a curse and that's what happens to us as Christians when we don't obey the Bible but God never presents a problem without presenting the answer Malakai said bring your tithe and offering into the storehouse and prove me you talk about her money-back guarantee prove me see if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing so much so that there's not enough room to receive it and I will rebuke the Devourer the devil for your sake prove me now prove me put me to the test see if I'm not who I say I am prove me see if I will not open you the windows of heaven why would you have to open a window because it's at you don't have to open a window that's open you open a window to chat I'll open you the windows of heaven only twice in the whole Bible is there a mention of windows in heaven once is in Noah's day when God opened the windows of heaven and pour down a flood of rain for 40 days and 40 nights until everything was destroyed except for one family and two of each of the animals that were on the earth at that time the only other time he mentioned windows of heaven is in Malachi chapter 3 when he said I'll open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing a blessing not a flood but a blessing I'll pour you out a blessing so much so there won't be enough room to contain it and then he said I'll rebuke the Devourer for your sake I'm sitting with my dad one night and I said dad what does rebuke mean he said in the original language the word rebuke is translated stop it that's enough everybody say stop it that's enough anybody here ever said that to a child I said that to my youngest daughter Chloe until I was blue in the face I wore out stop it that's enough I said no so many times to that child she's the one now we call her Roberts in a dress I said no so many times one time I said to her what part of no don't you understand she said the old [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] the word rebuke means stop it that's enough and that's what happened when Jesus was asleep in the boat and the disciples came to him and said master don't you care that we're about to drown and Jesus awakened walked to the bow of the ship put out his hands and the Bible says he rebuked the winds and waves what he literally said was winds and waves you stop it that's enough and there was a calm and they made it to the other side where the good day gadarene demoniac was and the other time was when he went into Peter's home and Peters mother-in-law was sick with a fever and he went in and rebuked the fever he literally spoke to the fever and said you stop it that's enough and the woman was healed fixed him a fried chicken dinner I'm sure it was fried chicken mashed potatoes and gravy lakorn is it less time but that's what rebuked means it means stop it that's enough he said I'll not only open you the windows of heaven but I'll pour you out a blessing not a curse not a flood of destruction but a blessing so much so you won't have enough room to receive it and I will rebuke the Devourer I'll say to the devil you stop it that's enough that's my child you can't have him and when you get your word in harmony with his word then the devil doesn't have a chance let me tell you what we're in a fight we're in a battle but it's a faith fight [Music] and it's time to play dirty where do you put your seed he put it in the ground put in the dirt time to fight dirty [Music] [Applause] time to fight dirty my grandfather used to tell me the story of how in the 1920s in Depression days when he was a sharecropper farming and pastoring in southeast Oklahoma and one summer a hailstorm hit and in our part of the country not unlike this part of the country when hail comes sometimes the hail is large and that year the hail was as big as softballs and it destroyed the crop in the field literally beat the paint off their house they lived a little shotgun house and my dad was still a boy and my grandfather as he told me the story walked out on the porch after the storm was over and saw that the crop had been destroyed and he knew what that meant he knew that there would be no new school clothes there'd be no new shoes it wondered how he would pay his bills and he began to weep now my grandfather was a big man who's six foot two about two inches taller than me as was my dad I'm six feet they were both six two and both had big hands big men and my grandfather began to weep my grandmother who was about five feet tall and about five feet wide came out on the porch her name was Claudius Priscilla and my grandfather's name was Ellis Melville and she came out of the porches at Ellis go back in the house and get that hundred-dollar bill you've been hiding from me now these were days of the Great Depression and my grandfather kept a hundred-dollar bill hidden in the secret compartment of his wallet so that no one could call Reverend e/m Roberts broke and she said Ellis go get that hundred I'll bill get oral my dad Vaden my uncle it jumped the wagon they didn't have a car drive into town which is a couple of miles go to Jeter's feed store and buy seed we're going to replant my grandfather knew that in the natural it was too late in the season to replant the frost would come the freeze would follow it was a wasted effort but he also knew enough not to argue with his Pentecostal wife and so he and my dad and my uncle got the wagon and went into town with that hundred dollar bill in his overalls pocket and when he got to the Jeter's feed store opening front door mr. Jeter came out on the porch I said mr. Roberts how did your farm do in the storm and my grandfather said mr. Jeter the crops gone and he said yes all the crops in this area are gone and my grandfather pulled that hunter dollar bill out of his pocket said we've come to buy seed we're gonna replant and mr. Jeter just stood there and laughed at him because he knew it was too late in the season and something changed so my grandfather said mr. Jeter changed and said to his sons who were also standing there drive brother Roberts wagon around to the back to the big feed doors and fill their wagon with seed take that hundred dollars they're gonna replant and they drove the wagon around filled it with seed and the next morning my grandmother my grandfather my my dad my my my uncles and aunts and their children and all the Robert skinful that kinfolk they were in the area started replanting by that time the word had reached the others in the community and the other farmers came and lined the fence posts to laugh and mock and watched the stupidity of a family that would replant replant that late in the season but my family just kept their head down planting in the dirt funny thing happened that year in Oklahoma the frost was unusually late and the first freeze didn't come till almost the end of November and only one farm in that area got a harvest it was the Roberts farm my dad used to call that the seed of the equivalent benefit that when something strikes you that's the time to sow may not look like the right time maybe in the natural it seems like it's all lost but that's the time to get down in the dirt that's the time to fight dirty and whenever God wants to raise an empire from its hinges he has a baby born and that's how Jesus came into the world it entered his his own public ministry teaching on the principles of sowing and reaping whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap and he put together a group of ramshackle men who some were failures some were outcasts some were hated tax collectors some were fishermen some were zealots some were about half with him kinda reminds me a lot of the church members I saw other churches he was on his way into Capernaum to preach big crowd was following he looked down his saw man washing and mending his nets the name was Simon Peter and he took a look at Peter and took a look at that empty fishing boat and knew the story Jesus at the gifts of the Spirit operating in his life and he walked over to Simon and said loan me your boat now you got to know the Bible is a synopsis it's a synopsis of what happened I mean all the books in the world all the libraries in the world couldn't contain the books of what really happened so synopsis so you have to know there's something going on between the scriptures it's got to be some conversations we imagine the conversation that must have ensued something like what do you want my vote for and that's a question you'd ask what do you want my book for you're obviously not a fisherman what do you want my boat for well I needed to preach I don't have a place to preach loan me your boat let me use your boat what he was saying to him was so a seed into my ministry and let me take that seed and use it for the glory of God and then let me multiply it back to you that's what he was saying really well Jesus that's my that's my boat that's my best the best of God and Jesus must have said something like well it's empty innit [Laughter] and Peter gave up his excuses and said ok and loaned him his boat and Jesus preached and no doubt did miracles because wherever he went he preached he taught and healed so he must have done miracles because the Bible speaks of the miracles he did in Capernaum then he came back to him said now now that you've sown that seed to launch out into the deep waters and let down your nets for a catch the Peter began once again to rehearse his excuses we have fished all night and we have taken nothing we've kept all the rules all the regulations of fishing in the Sea of Galilee at that time they only fished in the dark of the Moon at night because the waters are crystal clear and if you were to throw a net over the side of the boat the fish would see it and swim the other way and also they did not go out into the deep waters the only fished along the shore because the boats that they had in those days were not strong enough to withstand the storms that could hit the Sea of Galilee because the Sea of Galilee is two hundred feet below sea level and is subject to violent storms almost without notice and if they were to be caught out in the middle of that lake they would not have time perhaps to get to the shore before they were capsized and they could drown so they fished at night and Peter had kept all the rules we did everything right Jesus and we didn't get even a bite now you're telling me launch out into the deep you must not know much about fishing jesus said I'll get in the boat with you and Peter half-heartedly said I'll do what you say nevertheless because you say so I'll do it but notice what he said I will let down the net Jesus has said let down your nets Peter said I let down the net now I don't know which net he was talking about perhaps he had already washed and mended other Nets and now he had this one net that he wasn't gonna wash and wasn't worried about mending maybe it was full of holes I don't know but say but whatever it was that's the net he was going to use and you know Jesus will let you make your excuses and he'll still get in your boat with you but you may not get the same result if you had gone all the way with you and that's exactly what happened they got out there on the water and he who created the fish spoke to the fish hit that net suddenly Peter felt that tug on his shoulders and he began hauling the nettie and first thing you know the net broke oh my god why didn't I listen why didn't I use my best nets I got this old holy one here and I don't mean hol why and the Fisher's twit oh my god that's a ten dollar fish woman right there that net look at that he turned to Jesus and said master master I blew it I'm a sinful man I didn't listen Jesus said get up I'll make something of your life called on his partners in the other ship and they had their nets Bible says they'd come over and their nets were filled he still got a net breaking boat sinking load but he could have got a lot more if he'd paid full attention and that's where many of us are today we get a word from God and fear strikes us and we wonder how we're going to do certain things how are we gonna how we're gonna make it when God says plant a seed because immediately Satan comes in to steal the seed and to mess with our minds that's the battlefield that's where Satan comes to attack us but I'm telling you when you learn how to make your life a seed your love your time your money your prayers your smiles your compassion a good word a pat on the back all of that is a seed and as you sow it unto the Lord through people through ministries yes God is obligated then to watch over his word he said when you do that I will open you the windows of heaven I'll pour you out a blessing so much so there will not be enough room to receive it that's why Jesus said in Luke 6:38 give and it will be given to you again good measure pressed down shaken together and running over shall men give to your bosom for with the same measure you give it will be given to you and God demonstrated this principle when he said in John 3:16 that I loved the world so much that I gave my only begotten Son so that men would not perish but have everlasting life and here's where so much of the church over the years have had a problem that you're not supposed to expect anything back but God expected something back he gave that he might receive us back he gave us the formula he gave his sons so that men would not perish he gave that he might receive mankind whom he had lost in the Garden of Eden he gave that he might receive and to do anything less than that to do what he did is wrong it's not scriptural so when you plant a seed you have a Bible right for God to use that seed for his glory and then multiply it back to you good measure pressed down shaken together and running over you should expect it I love to tell the story about how if I get thirsty if I'm in a hotel and there's a coca-cola machine down the hall I'll go get some coins and I'll go down the hall and I'll see what's on the machine you know you know they have different drinks and I'll put my money in you know and then I'll make my selection you know what I do next I reach down to receive put my money in I make my request and I reached down to receipt you want to tell me why we treated coca-cola machine better than God [Music] somebody said well that's sacrilegious no it's not God gave that he might get us back I put that money in which means I have a covenant I got a contract with coca-cola it's not dr. pepper but it's coke you better if there's a dr. pepper machine but his coke those hotels have coca-cola but nevertheless I got a contract with that company when I put my money and make my selection I gotta write put my hand out to receive and what do you do if it doesn't work you get the machine right a lot of people kick in God because you didn't do it on your schedule didn't do it on your agenda didn't do it exactly the way you wanted it but I got news when he does it it's ten times better than anything you ever thought that my god when I asked you to pull it out of me this more I didn't do you Apollo miss out could you squeeze a little less my god you getting everything in me my grandfather my grandfather was quite a case he he as I said he was a big man and he had a big voice he didn't need a microphone he would preach and my grandmother would get up and follow me and pray for the sick and he'd get people saved and she'd get him healed they were quite a pair and when my dad entered his healing ministry they had they kind of had a revival in their own lives and they went out on the field again as husband and wife and they were quite a pair of priests he had this booming voice and he'd preached and then she'd get up and win the 30th seconds she'd had the whole congregation in tears she's just that way she had she's so powerful and then she prayed for the sick and and had miracles but as I said they were they were farmers and pastors in southeast Oklahoma and one day one of the ranchers in their church brought a live chicken to their front door as an offering and those days farmers would often time give what they used to call poundings they because they didn't have they didn't have a lot of money till harvest time came so they give offerings of food and they were called pound II these are food that they put up you know the canned and so this chicken Rancher brought a a live chicken to give to my grandfather and grandmother as an offering and he left and they took the chicken in and and they're going to kill it need it and a little while later before they killed it the the chicken rancher came driving up in his truck again honking on the horn and beating on the door and said brother Roberts have you killed that chicken yet and my grandfather said well no not yet we were going to he said well did you notice that the chicken I gave you had only one eye and my grandfather said well we noticed it had only one eye and he said well as I drove home the Lord spoke in my heart and convicted me that I should not give the Lord a chicken that has only one eye I shouldn't give him my worst chicken I should give him my best chicken and so I brought you a chicken with two eyes and I want you to give me that chicken with one eye and they exchanged chickens and I can hear my grandfather telling me that story and I wonder how many Christians today are given God they're one-eyed chickens get the close-to-home done then you know I won't miss this I won't miss it I won't miss it so I'll just give it to God that's a one-eyed chicken well I got news if it doesn't mean something to you it's certainly not gonna mean anything to God makes me wonder how many people been given God their one-eyed chickens everybody look straight ahead don't look left or right first murder in the world was over a one-eyed chicken Cain killed his brother because Abel gave of his first fruit he gave the best Cain gave when he got around to it it meant nothing to Cain and because it meant nothing to Cain it meant nothing to God and God rejected Cain's and accepted Abel's and Cain rose up and killed his brother over a one-eyed chicken and I wonder today how many people are giving God their one-eyed chickens I won't miss this I don't need this I'll give it to God acting so holy so pious so sanctimonious with God saying I'll spit you out of my mouth I grew up on a ranch we had cattle we had horses have a little 3 acre pond that I loved to fish in we had some chickens and had about 300 acres and we had a couple of milk cows and when I got old enough they let me milk the cows which I thought was great had a little stool we didn't have any automation in those days had a little stool I got under that cow and I would milk that cow I had the greatest time other others would come and help me and we get into milk fights we'd be next to one another and we go like this would [Music] come home soaked they take all that milk and put it in those containers in their barn refrigerator and the next morning my mother and I would come down to get that milk and take it back to the house and she put that milk up on the counter and set me up on the counter and she would say look son look the cream has risen to the top and she would say that's the best part the cream and she would say to me son when you give to God don't reach down off the bottom give off the top creams the best give of the cream don't reach down to the bottom give off the top give your best and then ask God for his best don't you want God's best the only way you're gonna get God's best is when you give him your best plant your seed and the three key principles in that book and I signed for you yesterday number one God is your source number two plant your seed and number three expect a miracle now that's the first part of this message tonight you're going to get the rest okay I have been sufficiently squeezed [Music] so I'm gonna go and pour some more liquid in so I can be squeezed tonight but let me give you a word let me apologize in advance for what God is gonna do to you tomorrow I take no responsibility what's going to happen in this place tomorrow night and tomorrow morning because I'm gonna share how my life was transformed through the joy of the Lord and when I do all heaven is going to break loose [Music] you better bring your seatbelt you may need a pillow because you may be here a while don't want to miss tonight or tomorrow morning or tomorrow night squeeze me taking everything you can get it all I don't want to I don't want to take a drop home with me you see I'm looking I'm looking to God as my source I'm not looking to you people don't make good sources people are instruments I remember once we got a pastor we got a letter was from a man who sent a large check to our ministry and he said brother Roberts I'm sowing this seed because God told me but don't think I'm sowing it cuz I like you and I read nothing nothing he said I don't like you but God spoke to me told me to send this yeah he said you're gonna want to send it back but don't just remember I don't like you the truth I read the letter well that was uh that was Luke 6:38 said that God will give back to you through men may not know you may not like you they'll be compelled good measure pressed down shaken together running over shall men given to your bosom you don't look to the man or the woman you look to God that God choose the instrument you look to him he's the author he's the finisher of your faith everybody say seed harvest praise God give the Lord praise today Halloween

Channel: Jay Eberly Ministries

Views: 14,428

Rating: 4.8676472 out of 5

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Id: WIb2GiliCdU

Length: 68min 33sec (4113 seconds)

Published: Tue May 21 2019