Victorious Secret: Week 3 | Mar. 1, 2020

The Secret of the Seed | Pastor David Hughes


Welcome and thank you for joining us for the Church by the Glades podcast. If you would like
more information about church by the Glades, including service, times and directions, visit CB
glades dot com Way. Hope you enjoyed today's message if you knew you
were doing some
covers with the theme of relationships and most popular songs, whether new or old school,
have that idea of relationships, and the syriza on relationships is called victorious Secrets.
Because I propose the secrets to victory in your relat
ionships are found the word of God. You
know, the Bible is the ultimate relationship manual. God invented relationships. If you want to
dial up all of your vital interpersonal relationships, the secrets are found in the Scripture. So
what I want to go to t
oday at all of our campuses? Let's stop right now and give up our
campuses. Sample Road Campus, Lake Worth Campus Daisy I home, said campus people
watching online right now. Thank you for for logging on people watching on television on the
Hillsong Channel
. Thank you will be in second Corinthians, Chapter five, second Corinthians,
Chapter five. Just to make sure you're a wide awake, By the way, time change next week and
not a big deal. I'm gonna be here. Anthony is gonna be here. About half of you will be h
ere.
Sounds like time change. Next week, we'll see it passes together, said Corinthians Chapter five
loudly second Corinthians chapter. We'll be there a few moments if you want. Bonus points will
also be in Ezekiel, Chapter 18. It's a little balance, Old T
estament, New Testament, talking about
this idea of relationships. And the Bible says, We talk about family today that the Bible says in
Proverbs, that you should train up a child, train up a shot. And the clear indication is that we
imprint our kids, that
we are pre program our kids for success or failure, and the reason is such
a big deal. This imprinting is because they're they're sponges, man. They're soaking up
information from Mom and Dad all the time when we're being intentional and sadly, when
we're
not so sometimes our kids are picking up some erroneous stuff because we're not being
intention because there were in putting our kids for good or for bad all the time. Amen. Mom
and dad. Amen. Like I heard a story about Ah, little girl came home from sch
ool. She's like
second grade and she was all sad and stuff because someone says something to hurt her
feelings. And she came to Mom and said, Someone hurt my feelings. They said this and and
Mom tried to coach her up. Mom said, What do we say all the time?
What do you hear in our
house all the time? Complete this sentence. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but she
Paul's whips and chains excite me, she said Yeah, evidently listening to music by the great
theologian Rihanna. Not sure about pretend like d
on't like you don't know this song anyway, so
that leads me to perhaps the most awkward transition of my entire preaching career. Maybe
talk about change for a moment. We talk about change for just a moment. I'm not an advocate
of that use of change. I'm n
ot promoting that use of chains or whips, surely, but change when I
say three. Would you shout the word change ready? 123 When I think of a chain or chains of
the purpose of a chain clarified that I would advocate is security security? Um ah, chain like
ba
ck as a kid. When you took your bike somewhere, you left your bike somewhere. Have your
bike chain. If you're like me, you own a small boat. You have an anchor with an anchor chain.
Keeps your boat from drifting, keeps it safe and secure. Keep it in the ri
ght place. Um uh,
college college. I went through college and grad school without any student at. Why? Because
my parents save money. I started working the time I was 16 to save money, And I did. I did
college as inexpensively as possible. So as far as my
housing, I did, like, one year in the dorm.
And after that, I found the cheapest rent I could find anywhere. And so my college town was in
Waco, Texas. I rent a number a number of houses, these old beat up houses that chip and





Joanna Gaines. And I've gotte
n to yet no fixture up it all. I'm telling them they like the a c didn't
work. The heat didn't work. Uh, faras the security system. The landlord provides a security
system that was not a new alarm system or a camera system. He wouldn't pay for the people i
n
the door. I have that little tiny chain you had, like, a dead bolt. You have little tiny chain who
had a door once one time with little chain. Maybe you still do, right? And so somebody in that
sketch neighborhood knocked on the door. I didn't recognize
you unbolt the deadbolt, and then
you keep the little tiny chain which would save you from nothing. Right? Peek out, like peek
out. Like who is it? I gotta change. I'm safe from secure. Another use of a chain, of course, is to
constrain, to marginalized, t
o limit, to reduce an environment. Uh, animals like animals and the
circus back today, when circuses and animals like they want to restrain a powerful animal, they
might use a cage. Or they might just use a chain like for a really big animal. Like like a b
aby
elephant baby elephant Even. There's a baby is very powerful. And animals what they would do
toe to refine Thio. Restrain That baby elephant was They have a strong guy, you know, drive a
tent peg deep into the earth and they get a substantial chain and
they put one part of the chain
on the peg, the other part around the leg of the Elefant. That little baby elephant use all of its
might all of its muscle and try to break free of the chain. And it would cry stuff it couldn't do. It
couldn't break free of
the chain. And so it just give up live a reduction eri life And that might be
a detestable practice. You might debate. Yeah, that's not very humane, and most people might
agree. But here's one that's not up for debate when a human being seeks to marginaliz
e
another human being using a chain because trafficking is still a reality sadly, today, and slavery
is still a thing today. It's one of the reasons we support Christine Caine and Nick Cain in the 21
movement because they're working all around the globe, l
iterally setting captives free. And,
you know, we're just wrapping up something called Black History Month in America. And if
you're part of our church for watching online, our churches crazy, diverse I mean most. My
church doesn't look like me middle aged
white guy were really diverse, But if your heritage is
African descent, no matter where your people came from, before you got to Florida. They came
from South Carolina or came from Haiti or the Bahamas or Jamaica. Probably somewhere far
back through someo
ne in your lineage who did not come here by their own volition and choice.
They were trafficked, came in chains. I can tell you, God finds that an abomination God finds
that so horrific that one person would profit off another treat someone else like prope
rty. So
dehumanizing, degrading It is sinful. It is wrong. And the God have in haste, that Why? Because
God's into freedom. Let me let me talk about that for a moment. You kind of new to the whole
God thing. Knew the Bible like, Hey, what is God's in game
for me? You're wondering what is
God's agenda for me? What what does God want for my life? I'm guessing rules
commandments, right? Because the Bible has I understand a bunch of thou shalt nots and a few
thou shelves. So God wants to religious legislate. My
life has all these thes rules. No, no, no.
There are some rules, but the God of the Bible is a relationship God. Now our relationships have
some intrinsic logical rules. But God's in game for you. God's agenda is to set you free. Our God
is a great and ho
ly abolitionists. He wants to set you free, David. How? Every way you can be set
free. He wants to set you free spiritually. He wants to set you free relation. Aly, He wants to set
you free habitually. He wants to set you free. Potentially. He wants to set
you free financially.
When the sun has set you free, you are free. Say it. Indeed. So God wants toe holistically. Set
you free. Don't believe me. You say the second Corinthians Chapter five. Let me show you
something. Jesus said for himself early in the M
inistry of the Lord. We're gonna go to a Luke,





Chapter four. Just really briefly So. Jesus In the synagogue. What's happened before? And a few
verses before this. He started his public ministry. So Jesus out there in the Jesus Buzz, right?
He's healing peo
ple. Miracles that happened. He's preaching sermons. So already there's all this
kind of excitement around. Jesus. What? Jesus is a Jewish rabbi. Jewish messiah. He comes to
the synagogue on the day of worship. Very smart practice. He's being honored in th
e
synagogue. Hey, Jesus, would you like to read the scroll? Today we have the scroll of Isaiah. If
you don't know, you're Old Testament. Isaiah is the biggest book among the profits. It's a longer
book at 66 chapters in Your Bible Now, no chapters and vers
es in Jesus Day, right? So it's a big
book is longer than Jeremiah's, longer than his equal is longer than Daniel Amos's the biggest
one. And so it says in Verse 17, when he's given the scroll. So Jesus literate, he starts looking for
a certain verse. Now
66 chapters, he looks maybe five minutes. He finds here it iss. In the 1st
18, he says, You want him about my goal. This ministry. I'm just starting right now. Here's my
agenda is on the screen right now, he says. The spirit of the Lord is on me because Go
d's
anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim My message is
freedom. My heart is freedom. I want to set you free every way you can be set free. And in case
you're like me, you need here Two times he repeats it. As for the men
in the house, we did hear
things more than once, don't we? Brothers, right? What's the set? You free? Wow, That sounds
really cool. It sounds awesome. So here's the question. Please don't answer aloud. How free are
you right now? Do like a little momentary
life. Self diagnostic? How free air you habitually How
free are you Financially? How free you as far as your attitudes. Are you bitter? Are you angry all
the time? Play blame games all the time. I said last week. You never blame your way to a better
futur
e. Are your relationships toxic? Are you addicted? Are you in debt? How free are you?
Someone say Well, okay. Being candid, not that free. Like I would say I'm chained to broken
this. I'm chained to all kinds of dysfunction. I'm changing these things. I do
n't like it. I know it's
my responsibility, But truth be told, David, um, this This Brokenness did not begin. It probably
won't stop with May. Uh, is not my excuse, but a reason. The dysfunction in my family goes
back a long ways. So, yeah, I'm addicted. B
ut my dad was an alcoholic. My grandfather was a
drunk, right? I'm broke my brother, with my whole family. No one knows how to manage
money. In my family, we've always been in dead foreclosures. Brokenness. I mean, your parents
help you pay for school. Bla
h, blah, blah. No one. My family ever got the degree. That's not a
value. So right now I struggle because it's the legacy they left me. Yeah, I'm in this chain of
dysfunction. You see it? Another idea with chain is this as Siris of related events like a ch
ain
reaction in chemistry you like? Look, I'm a link in a long chain of dysfunction. The Bible talks
about that. It's just how sin visits even under the 3rd and 4th generation. That's not the guilt of
sin, but the fallout of sin that someone in your family
, maybe your great granddaddy made bad
decisions and the wake of his toxic decision has gonna swept over you. So I got I have
dysfunction. I'm not free. I'm chain. But I'm a link in a chain of dysfunction. Great analysis.
Thank you for your candor. Let's g
et you free. Let's get you free. Let's get you free in such a way
you're history and heritage does not define, you know. Listen, listen, I know, I know it's tough.
I'm not here being less than sympathetic because psychology says this is highly improbable.
Sociology says the odds are stacked against you. Your history says there ain't no chance. There's
been everybody in your family for a long time. You can have a healthy marriage, somebody
healthy marriage, even your family, divorce and Brokenness and infide
lity. It's all you've ever
seen, and you hate that model. But that model has imprinted you. All right, Forget psychology.





Forget sociology. Forget history. Let theology to find you. Let God define you because God, in
this book he is a relationship expert a
nd all he does is speak truth. And this can happen. Let me
show you example. Bonus passage. Ezekiel, Chapter 18. There's a story about a dude. He's a
father and he's terrible. He's a terrible father. He's a really bad person and Bibles candid about,
you kn
ow, successes and failures. And it kind of goes through his resume. Resume of regret. It
says in verse 10. Ezekiel 18. Suppose there is a violent man. This duty sheds blood. Hey, does
any of these other evil things. He eats a mountain shrines. He defiles h
is neighbor's wife. He's a
philanderer. He oppresses the poor and the needy. He commits robbery. Hey, does not return.
When he took him pledge, he he looks toe worship idols. He does all kinds of detestable things,
then dropped the under verse 14, verse 14
on the screen, looking for his 14. This is radical
continues to he has a kid. So suppose this man this this this terrible person, this broken toxic
person who's in all these evil things has a son who sees all the sins his father commits. And
though he see
s them, he does. He does not do such things. What I'm saying is possible. It can
happen no matter how toxic, broken dysfunctional, How much limitation? How locked up your
life. This is a clear biblical example of a chain breaker. I think God brought someon
e here to this
house, his house to break a chain. This chain is going on for generations. You are so deep in this
you think there's no way out and God has shown you Here's an example who just someone
looked at all that This is his model That's his mom. Tha
t's his example. He's been so imprinted
by this stuff. But guess what. It stops with May. It stops with may. I'm gonna break the chain.
I'm gonna break the chain. Stay with you. I'm gonna break the chain. God help me, I'm gonna
break the chain. All right.
Let me give you some steps You like? Well, how? How Preacher God,
How in the world I do that. How do I break the chain? How do I find it? Okay, here's the key
that unlocks the chain. Second Corinthians, Chapter five read the whole chapter. The whole
chapte
r is phenomenal, but there's one epic verse. Verse 17. Verse 17 is one of those verses. If
you're committed, Christ follow. You probably need to memorize. This verse is so full of truth. It
describes how holistic and absolute the transformative power of Go
d is. When God changed
you, he didn't just change you a little. When God changes, you didn't make you look a bit
better. Hey, here's the new and improved. You know, it's radical, holistic. Absolutely. Look,
look. Human language almost defines how great and
profound the change of God is. It says
therefore, if anyone is in Christ. He is a new creature. Hey, guys, highlight that for the next
service. That's that's awesome. If you are in Christ, you're a new creation. You're a new
creature. Your new spirituals
species mutated the moment you come to Christ. So, like 12
minutes at the end of the service. If you're not in Christ today, combined a prayer partner
today, right? Ryan, Prayer partners will meet you. Take 10 minutes. Show you some biblical
promise and yo
u walk out of this room. Not with religion. One. Religion, right. Rules
condemning people relationship with God in Christ. How did you all do that? Give it up for the
tech team. No, seriously, that's crazy, man. Listen, that's one of the hardest ministry i
n the
church because they're so awesome. And the only time you ever noticed on the rare occasions
something goes wrong. It's so rare. Brilliant job, Tech team volunteers, most of them volunteers
who spent 20 hours a week here in the House of God. Thank you
guys so much. Let's read it
with the highlight of word. Now that's good. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ is a new look at
this, the old things passed away. Behold new things. New things, new things. New future, new
destiny, new pathway, new progress, ne
w optimism, New victory, new freedom. New things
have come fast. The key. Then it locks the chain. David, How How does it work? All right, let me





wrap up this. Take out your phone sex and notes. Let me give you kind of five ways to apply it
to your life. L
et me use the word chain as an acronym across Norcross Stick. I give those
confused, you'll get those confused. All right. Thank you, Heather. Menu. They all have figured
out so that that's an acronym because it says the word right chain chain C h a I give
me a C.
Come on, give me a C. It all begins with a courageous choice. Meaning this something is radical
is breaking free. I don't think you drift into that. I don't think you just slide into freedom, right? I
don't think you have all this Brokenness and t
oxicity and all this heritage and all this mess in
your past. I'm not judging you at all. God bless you for surviving that. You're that you're saying
that's a miracle in itself, but oh, my gosh. The fact you're gonna break that chain has to be a
decision.
Got to draw a line in the sand here. Let me say, if your parent, I will not pass on the
Brokenness to my Children that my father's passed on to May it starts before me. It stops with
me now. I said courageous because, yeah, it takes a moment. You like? Yea
h. I mean, Jesus, we
got this. I mean, courageous after the fact, because everything you do that's free after that's
gonna feel weird. Stay with me because the dysfunction has been your norm. If you're growing
up a Brokenness and weirdness and addiction an
d poverty, if dysfunction has been your norm,
normal will feel dysfunctional. I mean, when you step into something healthy and normal, it's
gonna feel weird. It's gonna feel strange. It's gonna feel foreign, and you're gonna freak out a
bit. You're a neoph
yte when it comes to normality. Um, I listen to a podcast recently Ah, young
woman. And she has been through several marriages and divorces and she was the child of
divorce. In fact, her parents married, divorced and married to get divorced again and said,
If
you're that kind of kid man, you resolve I will not go through a divorce. And she said her first
marriage didn't know what to do because she said I married a guy who is normal. He was just
nice and normally love you. I had no idea for me relationship f
or chaos, Brokenness and
infidelity. I didn't know what to do with normal. So if you've come from ah, background of
dysfunction, dysfunctions, your norm and normal is gonna feel dysfunctional, you're gonna
have courage and hang in there anyways. Gonna feel
strange and foreign. Don't you give up.
Listen, your comfort zone is your enemy. In this case, I know comfort zones a beautiful place.
But nothing grows there, man. Nothing grows there at all. So you cannot value your comfort
zone and at the same time tak
e your pathway to progress and freedom. Ah, courageous choice.
A See what's after the c Barney hold Say the word. Hold 123 hold See My past Brokenness has
hold of May has made me a slave put me in bondage. It is my chain. It holds me. But Secretary
is 5 17
said therefore if anyone is in Christ, He is a new creature. The old things, the old things
that have hold of may have passed away. So it means this means this your reality, how God
sees you the nanosecond, You say yes to Jesus. So you're not a Christian.
You say yes to Jesus
today. That moment Jesus set you free and the heavens. You're declared free. You're free of
sin. You're free of guilt. You're free of all that. I set you free, I guess. What? You don't feel free?
Your reality is not free. You kind of
work out the implications, your salvation and the days to
come. But guess what? He's giving you the power over the old things. You have Dominion over
you, so though it still feels like you're addicted and you still need to go to celebrate recovery on
you s
till need to work your sobriety. Guess what? You now have a new spiritually resource. And
that feeling of bondage is erroneous. Mental and spiritual Muscle memory Is that little elephant
that's been chained up? I don't need the picture again. That little e
lephant had poop in the
picture at that elephant got chained up as a little elephant. When they get bigger and stronger,
what they do, they get a bigger chain. And no, they don't. They use the same chain because





they played like a head game on that elephan
t. Now the elephants like a full grown up. He
could easily break the chain, but it has all those muscle memory that he can't break that chain.
That's you. The enemy is hoping you don't figure out who you are. If she figures out her identity
in Christ, if h
e figures out who he is in him and Jesus, you'll get free. C H A attention attention
you need, Ah, new attention. You need a new focus new faith attention. Because now, if you're
a parent, you're paying attention to anything you want provide for your kid's
education. Uh,
security clothes, food, nurture, love, all the education, all those things. They're great. But guess
what? Don't leave out the God thing because freedom is always a spiritual battle. And so church
and God and scriptures new Guess what? I kn
ow it's not comfortable, but jump in deeply. In
fact, I want to see my family experienced freedom. I'm bringing the people of my house to this
house every weekend. Now, if you're watching online like people staring at me like every
weekends a lot, I'm real
ly busy. How far do you want to be? Oh, preacher guys. Bias preacher
Guys surprise things. We should go to church. I'm biased. I'm not wrong. It's a biblical
command. You need the inspiration. This is inspiration station. This a place we dole out.
Freedom
of information to download, take home apply. So I don't just think you should bring
the people of your house to this house every weekend. I think you should take the god of this
house back to the people of your house. That's when it becomes energetic and p
owerful. When
you when you start taking this God principal back and integrated into your home I'm gonna take
the god of this house back to my house. We're start praying together. Yeah, I don't have to do
that. Either. Will make it up as we go. Right? We're
honey. We'll have a devotion together. Go
online, you verse But you verse you version Which one's the TV? Which ones of the Bible you
versus TV. Don't do that one. You version. Thank you. you version that one reading plan. Jump
in there. My dad. My dad wa
s not a Christian, Um, until later in life till he was a grown man. My
mom grew up in church and s when he went to church, it felt awkward for him. I was like, Man,
I don't know the lingo. I don't know what to do. And she grew up this stuff. I don't know w
hat
he did. He started volunteering with the kid's ministry. He taught second grade Sunday school
because that's what he could learn. The Bible study or the story like one session ahead of the
kids, One session ahead of the kids. That's courageous. Bring g
ot home. Let me show an
example of how this works. Is this kind of random verse. I found my own study this week. Uh,
second Samuel, Chapter six. What's happening is David has established a new capital city. He's
established King David Jerusalem as the holy
city. If you go to Israel when you get to Jerusalem,
it's amazing. It's the birthplace of Christianity and Judaism, you know, and and Islam, it's just
this amazing city. But so he establishes his new capital and he wants to bring the ark to the
capital ma
kes perfect sense in the Ark of the Covenant. You know, they knew God was
everywhere. God could be unlimited. You can't change God. But they also thought God was
kind of like, primarily around the arc. The arc represents the power and the presence of God.
So
David want to bring the ark to Jerusalem, But he he employs a shortcut. He ignores clear biblical
protocol on how you transport the art for the sake of expedience. And there's like, Arc accident
is a tragedy and kinda freaks David. And he's like, I can'
t move the ark. So he decides Toe park
the ark. And there's somewhere, like in the countryside. And they go to the house of this guy
named Oh, bed. Eat him to get tight No one's heard of Oh, bed eating the get tight in church.
Who is this guy? I don't know
, but David Knox his door, he opens door has little chain. Hello.
Hello. Hello, David. What can I do for you can change this, right? Right. I got the arc here. I see
you have a double car. Camel garage. Can I park the arc in your camel garage. If you bring
inside





put velvet ropes around because I want to touch it is sacred, right? Put put stanch is because
it's the thing. And so a bit eating to get diet. So sure. Bringing the Ark. And he's just like the one
versus. Here's what happened when he brought the p
resence of God to his house on the
screen. Second Samuel, Chapter six, verse 11 and the article. Or remain in the house of a bed at
him to get died for three months. And the Lord blessed him and his entire I get to heaven. I
wanna look up. Oh, Betty, eatin
g the get tight. I want someone from a I want Okay, So God
bless you. God favored you. Tell me about that. Well, you know, I'm a herdsman. My flocks
began to reproduce and I went to the market with cows and the milk sold for more money than
ever before. An
d my kids, man, I knew a special time in harmony and beauty of my Children, my
marriage, my sex life. Oh my gosh. Every way relation, Aly. Financially, professionally and surely
spiritually. I was so blessed cause I brought God to my house. I know you're n
ew to this. A
courageous choice. Courageous choice is a little awkward, man. I'm but I'm gonna take it to my
house. I'm gonna figure these things out. C h a I Ah, great relationship. Desire. I will change. No.
See what? You've been praying. You've been pra
ying. Change her. She's making me crazy. God,
she's just making me crazy. Oh, God. Please change him. Change him, right. That's okay. Play
that player. But guess what? The better players God change may. How much better with all my
relationships Be if I was
less selfish, less offended, more forgiving, More patient, more polite.
Mawr kind less demanding. How God, How about when you start with Change me? Change me,
See, if you give your life to Christ today on a Sunday, you make that move. Today is as
awesome,
man. Uh, you do that, But like Friday last week. Your balls. That's release your balls,
man. He's tough. He's tough. He's a jerk, right? And so he was a jerk on Friday. And you get
saved on Sunday on Monday. He's still gonna be a jerk. Pray for him, But G
od will change you.
God will change you. How much better would your marriage be? If God didn't change her? He
changed you. How much better would your relationship with your parents if God didn't change
your parents, God began to change. You being the honor
, your mom and dad and submit to
your mom and dad and just pray for your mom and dad. Wow, Obey them. C h a E. Guess
because we've done you all out here, so I'll finish this up in in Give me in. Giving in, in given in.
Okay. This one's kind of complicated.
Stay with me. Nature. Nature. Well, about this verse
again, this verse is not like, Okay, if any man be in Christ, try harder. Be more determined. Roll
up your sleeves. Persevere. Great things do all you gotta do all those things, But it says you're a
new
creature. You mutate you spiritually more If it's a brand new you. And here's what's so
important. So every single creature has its own unique nature, Right? Even a subset like lions
and house cats are related the like cousins or something. Their natures
are very different. So
God's transform your nature from a house cat to a lion. And so this idea that you can change is
not based on your resolve. The resolve matters. It's based on this new nature, right? So here's
the debate. If you're dysfunction, if you
're broke, you messed up. Psychologist will say, Well,
someone who's messages that nature Or is it nurture? Is that nurture? Or is it nature where
they're both valid issues? Right there? Both a big deal. So I would define nurture. Stay with
these nurture i
s your history. Uh, nurture is your legacy. Nurture is your environments. Those
aerial things, man. They matter, right? If you're a toxic environment all the time, if you put
yourself of your own free will and bad environment, you're gonna make what bad de
cisions you
hang out with. Knuckleheads stupids contagious. If you hang out with people like that, right, so
environments matter. Nurture matters, but nature trumps nurture every time they're both
important. Bible doesn't use the word. Nurture uses this ki
nd of language soil and seed, seed





and soil. And Jesus told stories about how important soil was that good soil is a really important
thing. That's environments. That's right, uh, habits that that's leg. All that stuff matters. But
guess what? Seed is stil
l more important than the soil. Great. You know you you like orange
juice. I love fresh orange juice. I'd like to have an orange tree. You can plant an apple seed and
great soil. Fertilized it. Care for it. You're never getting oranges. Now you can plan an
orange
tree in mediocre soil. And guess what? You may get oranges. So guess what? When he made
you knew gave you a new nature, He literally changed your seed. He changed your seed. So
regardless of the soil of your past you are this new creature with this
new seed If you'll just let
your roots go down into Jesus watch what God will grow in your life. Let me show you an
illustration I probably never mentioned I like fishing. I probably never mentioned I should share.
They're laughing if your guests I talk a
bout all the time. So I'm fishing Last last tarpon season
down the middle keys and, uh and I go by this bridge on this bridge. I see something
remarkable. You guys got a picture that picture it. Okay, there's this flipping tree growing on a
bridge. Now the
soil of a bridge is concrete and steal and rust. It's an old bridge when the old
flag would ridges been there about 100 years now, But somehow this seed was deposited like a
little crack in the concrete. Now, how I got there was probably ugly. The wind bl
ew it and we're
likely a bird pooped it out, right? How it got there wasn't pretty, but this seed got deposit in a
tiny crack in the concrete. It's a saltwater environment is touched by storms and hurricanes. But
somehow the seed was tough. This seed was r
esolved. This seed began toe pushed down roots
into the limited environment soil, and it began to grow. You're a new creature. You're a new
creature. You could break the chain so thoroughly, there's we get to the miracle. Siri's come
back next week. I mean
, we're all looking for a miracle, and I don't believe biblically historically
that God is really willing to invest and invade in your circumstance. So I'll show you some great
miracle stories, but the applications, how you have a miracle in your life righ
t now and one of
the miracles I'll probably teaching is Shadrach. Meshach could have been to go that story about
the the young Hebrew men throw into the fiery furnace and God with a miracle stepped in to
save them in. Jesus met him in the fire. And now I l
ove biblical detail. There's a tiny detail that
says When they came out of the fire, not only were they unharmed and alive and their clothing
was fine against this detail and they didn't even smell like smoke Who but God could take
something so toxic as a
furnace and fire and deliver you so holistically you didn't smell like
smoke. Some of you all have been through so much in the past, so much Brokenness. You
shouldn't be alive. You should be in jail. You should be. You should o. D. A long time ago. But
God
has stepped into your reality with a miracle. You don't smell like smoke. So a lot of my
colleagues that lead large churches, man, they're like 2nd, 3rd generation pastors, like their
daddy was a pastor of a large church in the granddaddy, Not my case. I
am the proud son of a
Christian plumber who did not grow up as a Christian, as I mentioned, and I didn't know what I
was a full grown man asking about my grand parents who you know, I knew them as a child. My
dad told me that the grandfather I knew who was
kind and sweet, who gave his heart to Christ
at age 72 was not the father he grew up with. He said. My dad wasn't a bad guy, said that
David. My dad was addicted to alcohol, and it was so bad and the stress of having three boys in
the Great Depression was
so heavy he would drink up his paycheck. We were hungry. We had
poverty. He could not beat his battle with the bottle. He get angry and sometimes abusive, and
I was shocked to hear that. Why? Because because my blue collar dad broke that chain so
complete
ly the know that smoke ever touched us. He told me that story. Hey, didn't know





squat about the Bible and he had man. He stumbled into the kingdom, but he broke that so
completely. I knew a dad who worked hard, went to my ball games and let us the House of
God
and volunteered all the time. That smoke never even touched us. So here's my idea. We'll talk
about a chain. Let's build a positive change. Listen, that seed of grace germinate in your life
because sometimes you see one generation build something bett
er for the next. So our little
Christian school have a great Christians who glades Christian. They did their first ever Black
History Month celebration this past Friday, across the breezeway in the O. W. C. And Zane, my
11 year olds. Part of that he's very
excited now. Sadly, someone cast my son as the bus driver
who threw Rosa Parks off the bus, just saying I was unhappy. The casting is okay. The bus driver
ends up getting saved, becoming a Christian and becomes a civil rights activist. I don't think that
really happened, but pretend like that did, and the fifth grade got up and they quoted I had to
go quickly called teachers because it's so awesome. This brief little story, this poem and turns
out it is a kids book written by Michelle Cook, and the title o
f the book is Our Children Can Soar
and just gonna describe this idea of a positive chain a chain of change a chain where you
become not Maurin Bondi's more free all the time. Instead, this our ancestors fought so George
could invent George Invented so Jes
se could sprint. Jesse sprinted So Hattie could star Hattie
start so Ella could sing l a saying so Jackie could score. Jackie scored so Rosa could sit. Rosa sat
so Ruby could learn. Ruby learned so Martin could march third good ruled so Barack could run.
B
arack ran So our Children consort. So who's gonna break the chain? Who's gonna break the
chain? Let me pray. Did you make a courageous decision, Father? God, there's someone right
now and they're in the Holy Spirit making their heart thumping their chest a
nd they're so
tempted to play it safe. There's attempted just walk out with Sample Road or Lake Worth Or
Daisy. I have Home said, without the change happening because they need to solidify the
decision by talking with someone. But someone else could be so
courageous. They're gonna go
to best next steps and find out the next step in their spiritually journey or someone they need
to make that that main God decision begin a relationship with the great emancipator. Jesus
Christ. They're gonna come to a prayer p
artner of the campus. They're gonna say I don't I don't
know what the lingo is, but I need that freedom stuff. I want that for giving this stuff. Maybe
they just say I'm drawing a line in the sand. The chain breaks with me. That's our prayer in Jesus
name.
Amen