A (0:00)

Here's my hope. My hope is that when I do this series, at the end of it, you've rediscovered your Heavenly Father. Did you hear what I just said? Because here's what happens, guys. Here's what happens. Some of our tenure with God has produced familiarity and your familiarity. Watch this. Your familiarity has stopped your pursuit. But there's something called progressive revelation where God progressively reveals Himself because there's too much of him for him to show you all of him at the same time. And so all throughout Scripture, you see him incrementally revealing Himself so people can know him in different ways. I hope that by the end of this series, you've rediscovered your pursuit. And so we're going to spend seven weeks doing that. So I just kind of want to lean into what's on my heart for today. And we're going to start this year strong as a church. Our Made Men Basic training is going to be launching again in January, our 180 Nights. It's going to be an incredible, incredible year. Matthew, chapter four, verse 18. And this is my fourth time. I need to know where my help is. I got the Holy Ghost. I need to know where the help is in the pew. Matthew 4. 18 says, as Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. Come, follow me, Jesus said, and I will send you out to fish for people at once. They left their nets and followed him going from there. He saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. And Jesus called them. Listen to verse 22. We're done. Verse 22 says, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. I'm gonna say it one more time. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. I want to talk from this subject in our time together, I believe this is some of our conviction going into 2026. I can't do this anymore. I can't do this. Can't do this anymore. This passage Here in Matthew 4 is a powerful principle that is a picture rather of a powerful principle that Christian thought leader Henry Cloud calls necessary endings. The core argument in his book is simply this. Some endings are not failures. They are requirements for fruitfulness. He argues that entrances into new seasons must be preceded by exits from old ones. In other words, you and I will never be able to walk into something new if we are not willing to walk out of something old. Therefore, a kingdom life skill for the believer developing the discernment to know when to say goodbye. And I pray in 2026, God perfects your wave. I'm going over here. Because they missed it. I said, I pray in 2026 that God gives you the discernment and the insight and the impulse and the knowledge to know when it's time to wave. Come on, church. Because entrances into new seasons are preceded by exits from old ones. And this principle is not just logical that Dr. Cloud puts before us, it is biblical. The sage Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes, says, says to everything there is a season. And seasons have beginnings and seasons have endings. And some people fall in love with seasons, so they cannot make shifts. And what ends up happening is they end up stuck and stagnant in a place that is less than God's best. Because it was for you, but it is no longer for you. And it takes deceit, discernment to release what God is trying to pull away from you. This is. This is an incredibly important principle for us to revisit. If you've been a part of our family for any significant period of time, you have heard me teach this. But it is incredibly important to revisit this as we stand on. On the edge of entering into a New Year family. Because many of us have come to the revelation. We have accepted the reality that there are some things that do not end when the year ends. There are some things that will only end when we end them. Things do not change when the ball drops in Times Square. Things change when you draw a line in the sand and when you make a definitive decision that this is the last day that I am allowing myself to be subject to a season. God is trying to shift me from. Endings don't always mean loss. Endings can mean leverage. Endings are God's way. Come here. Church of creating space for something that's coming that he hadn't talked to you about yet, but he won't send it until you make the space. He won't show you the ram until you offer. Isaac. He won't show you what he got in his hands unless you're willing to offer what you got in your hands. And just in case you don't know, I need to let you know that what he's got in his hands is far superior than what you got in your hands. Did you hear what I said? His plans for your life are so much better than your plans for your life. And I know you say, well, Pastor, I don't know his plans. And you don't have to know his plans. He didn't say you would know his plans. He said, through Jeremiah, I know the plans I have for you. Plans not to harm you, plans to prosper you, to give you hope and the future. Some endings are necessary. But there are certain things that won't end until you end them. I said, certain things will not end until you end them. Certain things will not end until you end them. And what if your advancement, your evolution, your elevation, and your evolution was on the other side of something you've been unwilling to end? This text here offers some interesting insight into what I'm trying to articulate. In Matthew, chapter four, we get to eavesdrop on a conversation that Jesus is having with a group of men the Bible calls disciples. Everybody say disciple. Come on, say it again. Say disciple. Okay, okay. What does that mean? Because a word can never mean what it never meant. What does that mean? The word disciple literally means apprentice. Not just student, apprentice, not just learner, apprentice. Students get information. Students get education. But. But that doesn't mean they engage in application. An apprentice is a word that describes the purpose of the learning. So if someone is an apprentice of a plumber, they're not just with the plumber because they like the plumber. They're with the plumber because they want to be like the plumber. They're saying, it's something I seen you do. Hallelujah. And I want you to teach me how you do that. So when a person says they're a disciple of Jesus, what they should be saying is, I seen the way you do some things, and I need you to teach me how to do that. I've seen when you and your disciples were in a boat in the middle of a storm, in the middle of the sea, and the disciples are screaming, but you sleeping, you were sleeping in a storm. They screaming, you snoring. They upset, you unbothered. They anxious, you anchored. I need you to teach me how to do that. I've seen you walk on water to get to your disciples. In the middle of a boat, in the middle of the sea. I seen you walk on what other people drown in. You missed it. When people get in water, water normally gets on top of them. But when you walk on water, you on top of it. I need you to teach me how to walk on what other people sinking in. And some of you should be celebrating right there. Because when you look at your 20, 25, you should have been sinking in anxiety. You should be sinking, sinking in bitterness. You should be sinking in anger, but somehow you're on top of what should be on top of you. Somebody ought to shout cause you on top. Should be out of my mind. Should be going crazy. Should be so bitter on the inside. But God is keeping me afloat. Teach me how to do that. Can y' all handle this next one? I said, can y' all handle this next one? Jesus, I seen you be so unbothered by your ops. You sit at a table with them, have a last supper with them, and then look at the one you know is about to betray you. And refuse to beg him to treat you right, but to look at him and say, whatever you're gonna do, do it quickly. Cause you can put me in the grave, but you can't keep me in the grave. Cause as soon as you put me in there, the sooner, sooner God can get me out. Do it quicker. Teach me. Teach me. I want to learn how to do that. That's a disciple. Teach me. Teach me how to do that. Teach me how to go in a grave. Stay there all night. Friday, Stay there all day. Saturday. Stay there all night. Saturday night, but early Sunday morning. Get out of there. Teach me how to have a resurrection. A resurrection of my joy, a resurrection of my peace, a resurrection of my focus, a resurrection of my vision. I need a resurrection. Teach me how to do that. That's a disciple, not just a student, not just a learner, an apprentice. This is important because without this context will be robbed of the richness of this conversation. Because the conversation Jesus is having is with disciples. Did you hear what I said? This? He couldn't have this conversation just with a fan. This conversation he having is. Is a conversation he's got a hell with followers. Watch this. Because the stage of our spiritual maturity determines the types of conversations the Father will have with us. Did you hear what I just said? The stages of our spiritual maturity determines the content of the conversations God's able to have with us. Oh, I got Bible, I could back. I got Bible, I got Bible. Yeah, I could take you to Corinthians, where even the apostle Paul said, there are some things that I like to talk to you about. And he uses the word meat to describe the substance of the spiritual conversations he wants to have with them. But. And then he uses the word milk to describe their infant status. And he says, there's some things I want to talk to you about, but I can't give. Give meat to an infant. So he says, I got to keep having milk level conversations because that's where you are. And there's nothing wrong with milk when you're two. But when you are 22, and spiritually, some of us are 22, Listen. So he, he can have a different kind of conversation with them. It's a different conversation. You see, this conversation is put in the beginning of Matthew. But remember I taught you this. Mark's Gospel chronologically is actually the oldest. Got me? Okay, so the Gospels aren't in necessarily chronological order. And then I explain to you the way the Gospels work. Some, some writers wrote certain things, some writers wrote other things depending on how they were wired. Luke is a physician, so he's more detailed. So if you're just reading Matthew, you think this is the first time Jesus is engaging these disciples, but it's not the way John kind of rolls out his narrative. You'll see in Matthew 4, the wedding in Cana Galilee has already happened. He's already had an initial encounter with the disciples. You got me. So watch this. So for the purpose of this preaching presentation, they already have a relationship with him. They already have a relationship with him. And he, and he, he has this conversation. They got relationship. And now he shifts the conversation. He says, you're at the point in your spiritual journey where we can now start having conversations. Not about your conversion, because you're already converted. Let's have some conversations about your commitment. Did you hear what I said? Yeah, we, we, we, we, we. We've had, we've had conversations about what you want me to do for you. Infants can have those conversations. But, but as you mature, I want to start having different conversations. And that's not just what you want me to do for you. I want to start talking to you about what I want you to do for me. You are converted. And now I am calling you to a higher level of commitment because now your spiritual status can handle harder conversations. If I ask you for your boat too early, you don't trust me enough to leave it. But now you got enough evidence. I got a track record. Am I talking to anybody in the room tonight that's got evidence? See, some people think you are naive. Some people think you are bamboozled. Some people think you are absent of intelligence and that's why you are so committed to Christ. Christ. And you got religious zeal and religious fervor. But we are not people who are operating without some evidence that proves to us that God is exactly who he says he is and will do exactly what he says. I know he's in the miracle working business because you're looking at One. Let me hear the miracles. Make some noise. Here's what one writer says. It says, if someone smart talks you into the faith, someone smarter can talk you out of it. But when you have had an authentic experience, you say in the language of Grandmama, you can't make me doubt it. Why? I know. I know too. I know too much. I know too much about it. I'm not gonna keep having the same kind of conversations. Yeah, as you grow, the conversations are gonna stop. They're gonna shift from what I'm gonna do for you. We need to start talking about what I'm gonna do through you. That's the nature of this conversation. This isn't a what I'm gonna do for you. This isn't a, oh, I hope I don't lose the room. Stay with me. I need my amen's right here. This isn't a what I'm about to give to you. This is a what I'm about to take. This is a conversation about increasing your commitment, which requires something called decommitment. And you can only have conversations about decommitment with disciples because infants will confuse decommitment with quitting. And they will use decommitment as an excuse not to keep their yes, yes, and their nay, nay. So they will use difficulty. They will use boredom. They will use any sort of obstacle as an excuse to abandon something that they agreed to and use that inconvenience as an excuse to be irresponsible. That's not decommitment. That's avoidance. But disciples know that destiny will require decommitment. Pastor, what is decommitment? Decommitment is not quitting. Family decommitment is the willingness to release a commitment you want to keep in order to make a commitment God wants you to have. It means that you are willing to stop doing what you want to do and what other people want you to do so you can start doing what God wants you to do. It means that you have a revelation that your obedience in this season is requiring some. Some subtraction. So infants can handle conversations about what God want them to start. Okay. Okay. Okay. But it take disciples to handle conversations about what God wants you to stop, especially when what you doing is working. I'm not losing. I'm winning. I'm in the text. Bible says. Are y' all okay? Yeah. See, that's why it takes disciples to understand this decommitment. It takes mature people to understand decommitment because many people are afraid to decommit. Because of how they think it's going to make them look when they should be concerned about how they're going to live. They're afraid of how it's going to make their friends feel, but not afraid of how it's going to make. How it's going to make their heavenly father feel. Jesus, walking beside the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake. They were. Y' all all right? I got nine minutes. Don't hold your Amen. You're like, I'm waiting to the end. You got nine minutes. Here it is. They were casting a net into the lake. Casting a net into the lake. They were already doing it. They were engaging in activity. And here comes Jesus. Not even let them finish what they were doing. Did you hear what I just said? Yeah. They're actively involved in fishing. And here comes Jesus saying, I know you're in the middle of it, but you're done with it. You don't do it as long as you think you should do it. You do it as long as I tell you to do it. And when I say the job is done, the job is done, even if in your eyes, it ain't finished. Because I don't have you fishing to learn how to fish for fish. That's not the text. Give me the text. They don't believe me. He says, come, follow me. Is that what it says? And I will send you out to fish for people. So he says, I'm gonna take what you already do. I'm gonna take skills you already have, and I'm going to redeploy and redistribute those skills and use them in another way. So I'm gonna take the skills you learned fishing for fish, and I'm gonna redeploy those skills so you can use them to fish for people. Which means you weren't in the fishing business for the reason you thought you were in the fishing business. Did you hear what I just said? It wasn't just your job. It was your school. And once you learn the things I need you to learn, I walk in the classroom and say, class, dismiss. And now I need you to take those skills and use them in another place. And some people can't step into destiny because you won't step off a boat. Yeah, you might not. They were successful at fishing, good at fishing, prosperous at fishing, got money from fishing, had friends in fishing, had a family history of fishing. And God say, stop fishing. That's not the only thing I see in the text, though, the text says he keeps going and he runs into James and John, the sons of Zebedee. And the text says they were preparing their nets. So Peter and his brother were using their nets. James and his brother are preparing their nets. So Peter and his brother were doing something. James and his brother had plans to do something. Peter and his brother had activity. James and his brother had ambition. They had it on their vision board, they had it in their journal. This is what I'm getting ready to do. This is what I got plans to do. They teased it out to their friends and, and had marketing plans built around it. And God says, and I'm not going to let you launch it. Because I need to know, are you willing to give me a dream? I got to go. Did you hear what I said? Yeah. Will you give me a dream? Cuz you're emotionally attached to the dream and you've got affection to the dream. But if I call for the dream, will you give it to me? I know you can do it. I know I gave. I might have gave you the idea, but I gave Abraham, Isaac, and sometimes I ask you for what I gave you. What if I told you you not gonna do some of the stuff in your heart next year? Because you're gonna need the margin, you're gonna need the space, you're gonna need the mental bandwidth, you're gonna need the physical energy, you're gonna need the emotional stamina to do what's on his heart that he hadn't let you in on yet. Did you hear what I just said? Did not the psalmist say that he gives us the desires of our heart? That does not mean he gives us what our heart wants. Because Jeremiah says that the heart is deceitful and wicked. It'll fool you, it'll have you in love with a fool. It'll have y' all not talking to me. It'll block your discernment. It's deceitful. You'll be feeling stuff and the feeling is real. But that doesn't make it right. The heart is deceived. It doesn't mean. It doesn't mean he gives you what your heart wants, but it means it will give you what to want. And some of your want to's he's put on the inside of you. So I'm making space for some stuff I'm gonna put in your heart I ain't talked to you about yet and you want me to have two conversations at once and that's not the way I work. I don't Tell you to give me Isaac, and then I tell you about the ram. I tell you to give me Isaac, and I go silent. And if you can obey me in the silence, I'll give you the next set of instructions. Hallelujah. If you can obey me in the silence, I'll tell you where to look. And if you look where I tell you to look, I'll show you. Show you the ram that's in the thickest. I'm done. I got one more thing. I see in the text. Can I share this one more thing? Text says verse 21, James and John were in the boat with their father. Zebedee. You see that Matthew's detail, right? All three of them in the boat. Got me. You see that? Okay, now in verse 22, listen to what Matthew says. And immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. A little petty, Matthew, because in verse 21, you already told us he owned the boat. Why in verse 22, you couldn't just tell us they left the boat? You put. They left the boat and their father and followed him. With Peter and his brother, he pulled them away from activity. With John and his brother, he pulled them away from ambition. But here, with John and his brother, he pulls them away from an association. Now, here's what makes this. Here's what makes this part of the text real interesting. This isn't a separation for dysfunction. Their father's not dysfunctional. So this isn't boundary setting or. This isn't. I'm gonna have to talk about this next year. This isn't toxic loyalty. That's not what this is. Their father's a good godly man. Am I making sense? I mean, these two men are called sons of thunder, right? So he's a good godly man. So this is not distance because of dysfunction. This isn't, you did something wrong. This is distance because destiny has now pulled us in two different directions. Y' all aren't talking to me. I said y' all aren't talking to me. Y' all aren't. See, I don't know how real can y' all handle. There are some places that destiny is going to take you that you don't get to determine the company you carry with you. Stay with me. Because everybody that you feel is assigned to you isn't assigned to all your rooms. And if you start trying to take people that are not assigned to the rooms into rooms you've got responsibility to steward. You will mismanage that which God has laid before you because you're trying to Take people that you have affection for. And sometimes you got to love them enough to say, I will see you when I get back. Oh, my gosh. You took them in the room, and they blew up the deal. And you. You took them in the room. Y' all aren't talking to me. Tario, let's go. Let's go. Distance, distance, distance. Not a cut off. Nada. You did some. Sometimes destiny pulls you in different directions, and some people only know the you that's on the boat. You just know the fisher version of me. So you want to limit me to who I was when you met me. And you won't give me the space and the latitude to evolve into something different because you think what I was doing when you met me is all there is in me. But God has put some things on the inside of me, and I can do more than fish for fish. I can fish for people. God's got something that he's deposited on the inside of me that's going to require me. I'm done. This is hard. This is hard because what happens is when you don't create the margin for the people, when you don't create the distance, when you don't allow God to create the distance for the people in the past, you don't create the margin for those that are coming in the future. And I think about relationships I would have missed in these last few years of my life if I would have kept trying to connect, convince people to love me enough to stay loyal to me. I would have missed people that were already convinced, trying to convince people that refuse to be convinced. I don't know who this is for, but don't miss people that God's sending into your life that are already convinced. Trying to convince people that refuse to be convinced. I would have missed some of my greatest relational blessings trying to make some people in my past become what some people in my present already were. And I would be so confused. I'd be like, what happened? What'd I do? You understand? I'd be inside. I'd be minding my business, what I do, and it would pump me. And I realized I'm trying to convince people to see something that other people already see. Destiny created the distance. And this next holy hallelujah. This next leg. I hear you, Holy Spirit. God is sending you people to go the distance. I heard it. I heard it. I said I heard it. God is sending you people. People to go the distance. There's some riders on the way. Hallelujah. That are not gonna jump out of the car when the heat get heavy. There's some riders on the way who are gonna reciprocate. There are some riders on the way who are gonna love the you that God has called you to be. I didn't even go this way to other services. Listen to me. I'm getting ready to pray. Listen to me. Nobody moving. Listen to me. Here's what I just heard. Listen. And I'll. Fact check me. Fact check me. Joseph in the Old Testament, not Mary's husband, but Joseph in Genesis, gave birth to two sons at one point named Ephraim and Manasseh. And he named the son Manasseh. He says, because you have made me forget all the pain of my father's house. Here's what I just heard. Manasseh's coming. What? What? Joseph said, you made me forget all the pain of my father's house. What does that mean? It means remember he was betrayed, left for dead, all by his family in the past. But when Manasseh showed up, the joy Manasseh brought to his life was so great that it made him forget the pain that other people caused him. God's about to send you some manassas. Somebody that believes that he's about to send you, somebody that's going to bless you so greatly is going to make up for the bitterness. Go ahead and praise him in advance. Manasseh's coming. Manasseh's coming. Manasseh's coming. Manasseh's coming. Manasseh's coming. And here will be your testimony. Hear me. This will be your testimony. This will be your testimony. I was asking a friend of mine who had gone through a procedure about the pain, and he said something to me, and I speak this over you. He said, darius, I remember that it hurt, but I'm so healed now, I can't remember what it felt like. I want God to give you one of them. Well, you can say, I remember that it hurt, but I'm so blessed now. I'm so focused now. I'm so healed Now I remember that it hurt, but I don't remember what it felt like. I feel the Holy Ghost right here. Somebody raise your voice and release praise right in the building. Manasseh's coming. Lord, as we stand on the edge of 2026, I take my activity, I take my ambition, and I take my associations, and I take them out of my hands. And I put them in your hands. Father, I pray over this year unprecedented favor and fruitfulness. Unprecedented favor and fruitfulness. May we bear fruit this year. In ways we never have before. And may we experience undeniable manifestations of your favor in ways that we never have before. As we go all in on you, we know you will go all in on us. Now bless this year. May peace be be. May protection be our families. May prosperity be ours. May promotion be in our path now bless us and keep us. Cause your face of favor to shine upon us. Be gracious to us, protect us, provide for us. And above all else, grant us peace. This is my prayer for your life. In Jesus name. Amen. You have the final say. You have the final. You have the final say. You have the final.