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Torre Roberts
Foreign.
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Hey, good people, this is Torre Roberts. Blessings to you and welcome to the ONE Podcast. I'm excited that you're here. ONE is a community of dynamic and vibrant thought leaders, preachers, teachers, and just a community of wonderful people all together. And we're excited to bring you this weekly podcast from our services from ONE in la. If you haven't been the One, I encourage you to check it out. You can go to one the Word one O N E online and find out all about the service times and all about the teachers and all the philanthropic things that we have going. I believe you're going to be blessed to be a part of it. And speaking of being blessed, we're getting ready to get into a teaching right now that I believe is going to bless you. So tune in, enjoy, and I'll be back with you at the end.
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I see so many of you are here this morning. Welcome to the first Sunday of 2026. Amen. We had that. We had the last word last Sunday. I thought about calling this message the first word, you know, because we think about, I want to get the last word, make sure the last word. But baby, maybe if I got my first word right, maybe if I started saying the right thing, maybe if the first word that came out my mouth was the one that it needed to be, I wouldn't be fighting for the last wor if I was clear on what the first word was. And the first word for us over us this year is abundance. That's the first word over us this year. Amen. Abundance. So many of us have plans and I see you are here on that first Sunday. People are like, it's the first Sunday of church. I'm going to church. And maybe some of you even said is on my list of resolutions this year, I'm going to be in church. Let me tell you, we know what happens in February and then April and then June. 10 resolutions be looking rough. The gym gets empty again, you know, the fresh veggies in the refrigerator start disappearing. All the plans we made. But I want to challenge you to let 2026 be your most spiritual year in your memory, your most spiritually focused year in your memory. If you don't accomplish anything else in the way you listed it, vision, boarded it. Come to church. If you just make that your only thing, I promise all these other things will be added. Get in the room. It will make a difference. It will reset you. The word will remind you. Don't let there be a week where you're like, I am just completely off Let me get myself together and then go to church. Mm. Mm. Come to church. It'll get you together. It'll get you together. You don't know when a word is gonna come forth that will direct you to exactly the thing you've been wrestling for. If you make one promise to yourself and the Lord is that when those doors swing open, if you are in the state of California, you will come through them. If you're part of our global family, when they go live, you go live. If you make that commitment, I'm telling you, December 31st will be something else. Get in the room. Stay in the room. Let this be the most spiritually focused year of your life. It will change everything. Amen. Amen. John 10. I'm going to actually start with verse seven. Then Jesus said to them again, most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep, any sheep in the house. All who ever came before me are thieves and robbers. Let's write every voice that tried to guide you before the voice of the Lord was a thief and a robber. Every idea, every tarot reading, every. Every wrong relationship, every generational curse. This is how we've always done. It was a thief and a robbery. But once I became a sheep of his, I didn't even hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go out and find pasture. Nothing has changed. Jesus is still the door. He is the way, the truth, and the life. No man can get to God the Father except through Him. Get focused. My God, sheep who hear me now, I'm me right now. Focus. Make this the most spiritually focused year of your life. The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more. What? Abundantly. Amen. Grab your seats. Let's dive in here. Oh, I'm so excited about this first word. We're gonna take communion today as well. Yes, we're gonna take communion today as well. Because I felt so strongly in my spirit that it was important for us to begin the year in a sacred mindset. We got a level set who we are and where we are going as children of God, as followers of Jesus, before we jump to all of the pragmatic application to the desires of your heart concerns which we'll get to, because he gives me my desires of my heart. I'm not downplaying that. But sometimes I feel like we have been so clear in this generation of making the gospel make sense, showing People what it's useful for and applicable to. How do you take a word on Sunday and apply it to your life on Tuesday? And that does matter. How does it show up at work, at school, in your family space, at home? And it matters. And so it's pragmatic, yes. But I don't want us to get lost in the Bible and in Scripture and in our following of Jesus to just be our chosen motivational path to our point of desired arrival. It's not just another way to get there. It's the way. It's the way. And so I feel like the Lord has been giving, even last week, the prophetic declaration of the dry bones, and then this week as we talk about abundance, that we have to make sure that we are as spiritually focused as we are pragmatically aware that I don't lose sight of the fact that we are engaged in something that is invisible but real, intangible, but critical. We are people of spirit, and we have to not let that slip away. Amen. And so we're going to start there. When we talk about abundance, what does abundance mean? In our everyday American English, abundance means a very large quantity, ample supply or fullness. It's a quantitative term. It means, I got a lot of something. It's neutral in terms of, like, moral value. You can have an abundance of money or abundance of drama. Abundance is not in itself a valued, positive word. You can have a lot of stuff, and so people use it differently. It depends on what it is. And it is not inherently a description of luxury or excess. That's not what abundance is. It just means a very large quantity in the way that we use it in our everyday English. In the Bible, it means something different and is often, too often, interchanged with some other words in Scripture. And so I want to dig into what abundance isn't. It is not a synonym for provision. Abundance and provision are not the same thing. Provision means having enough to get by. Your needs are met. It's your daily supply or support. A provision mindset often keeps us living a little too low. It's where many people following Jesus start and stop. I just want him to provide the thing that I need. And when our eyes are constantly on our needs, we are often motivated by fear without realizing it, because we push until our need gets met, and then we go, phew. And you kind of collapse again. When a decision or an action or a creative solution is powered underneath by fear, by scarcity, by an awareness of lack, it doesn't motivate us to keep Going. It causes us to keep going until we get it. And then we're like, phew. And we don't start up again until the level starts to fall down, the gas is full. You calm. Some folks don't start getting nervous at a half a tank. You might be like, let me start getting my gas money together. Some of us don't do it to a quarter tank. Some of us are gaslight people. A different kind of gas lighter, the kind that waits till the warning is on. And then it's like, I need something. You know, I'm driving an electric car now. It has changed my concept because I can't just get it everywhere. So I gotta plan more. And I've become aware of, do I have what I need to get where I'm going and back, because it will deplete and has to be filled up again. And so when we are focused on the depletable aspects of life, we can become provision centered in our faith walk. And we can trust God to provide for us. But we have to be careful that that fear, scarcity, lack, energy is not fueling my pursuit of his provision. And this is a time of year where it really happens. Because for many of us, we go too fast into the new year. You got your resolutions, you got your vision board. Already you're coming in. And the challenge with that is we make those decisions based on. On the experience of lack that we felt at the end of the last year. What did I fail to do? What didn't I accomplish? What didn't I have enough of? Where didn't I get? And then we make resolutions and lists and vision boards centered around last year's shortcomings. It seems like a good idea, but I just want you to see how the enemy can be slick. That's how he steals and kills and destroys, is to get your focus to be around your failure or your fall short or your scarcity. And it sounds nice and looks pretty on the vision board, but underneath it, you came into the year powered by what didn't get done last year. Yeah. People are like, ugh. And that's not how we want to start. And so I believe January is more time for taking stock than taking steps. Can we have a moment? Just take stock. And we must do that through a spiritual lens in order to see clearly what God would have us do. Maybe the thing that you didn't achieve the last two years needs to be off your list. Maybe God wants to restart something, rebirth something, replace something. But if your lack and failure is driving your next It'll take you down. Let's go to the Bible again. My favorite book, Matthew, chapter five, starting at verse nine. It says, this is Jesus giving instruction on how to pray. He says, in this manner, therefore pray. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. And then give us this day our daily bread. Provision is about the things we daily need, and it is okay and expected to ask God for those things. And God does supply those things. But the prayer didn't begin with, our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Give us this day our daily bread, your kingdom come, your will be done. We must prioritize our thinking, and we do it in our regular lives. Have you ever been both hungry and sleepy and late? Anybody hungry, sleepy and late? And so should I eat and cancel? Should I nap and not eat and cancel? Should I leave hungry and sleepy and try to be where I'm going? You're prioritizing things. And so when we prioritize his kingdom, his will, and our daily bread, I might be hungry a little longer. Kingdom come will be done. And also, father, give me my daily bread. He gave us a priority, but provision is a part of it. Exodus 16, verse 16. The children of Israel are in the wilderness at this time, and they are hungry. They don't have what they need. They have whined about not having the onions that they fed them in Egypt, they're so hungry. And God provides, and he gives them something called manna, which literally translates to, what is this? It was round pieces of something that showed up on the ground every morning. And in verse 16 it says, this is the thing Moses is telling them, which the Lord has commanded. Let every man gather it according to each one's need. One Omer for each person, according to the number of persons. Let every man take for those who are in his tent. So if you got five people, you take five Omers. If you got two, you take two. It's just what is needed. Then the children of Israel did so and gathered some more and some less. So when they measured it by Omers, he who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack. That's his own message. He who gathered much still had none left over. And he who gathered little had no lack. It was a match to the need. And every man had gathered according to one's need. And the thing about manna was you could only gather it that day because if you tried to take more than you needed, it would spoil There were no preservatives. This was heaven fresh. It couldn't handle sitting on the shelf overnight. The refrigerator nor the microwave would keep it safe. Why do we do that? Did anybody put stuff in the microwave? Like you don't want to leave it out. Like there's not air in the microwave as well. I don't. I can't seem to stop myself. I still feel like it's protected. If I put it in the microwave, I'm off anyway. We trying to save things that we know will go bad. They were told if you take extra, it will rot. When you wake up in the morning, it will be rotten. But that need, that thing that says, I need my provision for today, but what about tomorrow? What if I'm not in the front of the line? What if there's not enough? What if God doesn't supply it again? Oh my God. They were being trained to trust God for their daily needs. Provision is attached to those things that are depletable. You will need them again and God will do it. But you have to trust, trust him so it doesn't absorb all of your energy. You can use your faith for other things. Prosperity. Abundance is not a synonym for prosperity. And prosperity has gotten a bad rap in the church because in the 80s we had a movement called Word of Faith. Anybody familiar with that? Let me teach you. If you haven't heard of it, you know the consequences. You'll see in a second. The Word of Faith movement was spurred by the fact that we recognized we were giving too little attention to the power of our words. And we were. Words are seeds, they are powerful. And the human capacity to use words is greater than any other creature that God made. And that's because he made only one creature to converse with him. And so our words are one of the most powerful ways that we're made in the image of God. Our words are seeds. And they fall in the soil of our hearts, the soil of other people. People's hearts, and take root. And so what you say does matter. And we had been underestimating that. And so in that movement, it began to say, speak it. Speak what you believe. Speak it. Be specific in your prayers. And it became this phrase, name it and claim it. That sound familiar to some people? Yes. And people were naming it and claiming it, but then they weren't actually getting it. And they were like, but I named it and I claimed it and I ain't got it. What's going on? And it got too focused on material things. And so the world began to look at Us and call us, call it a prosperity gospel, that everything was about the house and the car and the plane and the money. And so it got a little out of balance. It's not wrong that your words have power. They absolutely do. What comes out of your mouth will write the story of your own life. Your words do fall like seeds. The challenge is that we sometimes see people who don't follow Jesus manifesting things, and they got the thing. So you're like, how did they get it? And I'm confessing the scripture, and nothing's working for me. Because we have to recognize there has to be a seed, soil match. When a seed falls on soil, if the soil doesn't have what the seed needs, the soil seed just gonna lay there, it's not gonna take root, it's not gonna grow, it's not gonna do nothing because the soil don't have the water, it don't have the air, it don't have the faith, it don't have the hope. It's not really ready to believe this Word. And so someone who is not a follower of Jesus is actually still constructed in his image. And so when they manage to get their words and their heart state and their mind and their actions all completely lined up, things happen, because that's how we're built. But we are built to have the word of God start that process. But if you are quoting the Word, but your heart is not good ground for it, you're saying, I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. But you haven't done the work to get over that trauma in childhood that tells you that you're not. You can say, say it till you're red in the face, baby, but it's not going to take root in your heart. There's. Everything's got to be lined up. It's so much power, but there has to be a match. And so prosperity is available to us because we begin to live fruitfully, come out of the gardens of our hearts. When everything is lined up, we want that prosperity. The word prosperity actually means that we are. That life is going well. Stability, success, health, flourishing. That's prosperity. Things are going well. And don't we all want things to go well? The Bible gives us that in Psalm, chapter 1, verses 1 through 3. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law he meditates. How often I need this to be your most spiritually focused year. Meditate in his word day and night. Memory verse. Maybe we should start doing memory verses. We did that when I was a kid. That's why I know so many y' all like she just be popping out scripture. I was scared of my daddy. He was like, what's the memory verse for this week? And I better knew it. Now we not gonna threaten you, but I think we should bring it in. Because if we're walking around all day checking on whether we memorized it, maybe instead of doodling, you write out the scripture that you're memoriz of trying to memorize Kendrick's next album. Maybe we memorize these scriptures and that brother's deep. So don't tell me you can't memorize these scriptures because y' all be knowing them Lyrics. Hey hey. Okay, but anyway, verse 3 he shall be like after you do all these things, he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth forth its fruit in season, whose leaf shall not wither. And whatever he does shall what Prosper? There's your prosperity Instructions stay in the word and then second Third John, Chapter one, verse two Beloved, I pray that you may what, prosper in all things and be in health just as your soul prospers. It is God's will for you to prosper, for you to be doing well in terms of your health, your finances, your relationships, everything. But prosperity is not abundance. Abundance is also not a synonym for wealth, and we go quick to that one. But wealth is money, possessions, resources. It's measurable. It's something that you can own. Abundance is not something you own. It's not something you count. We have to be careful with that because God wants us to have wealth. And I am here for it. You don't have to volunteer, but I'm here for it. God wants us to have wealth, but we have to do it God's way. Deuteronomy, chapter 8, verse 17. It says, Then you say in your heart, my power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth. This is where wealth becomes dangerous, because it's always linked to power. You know what they say the golden Rule is, he who has the gold makes the rules. And we see that in a corrupt world. And so because power is what the enemy wanted from God when he rose up against God, pride comes along often with what we perceive to be power that we have. And so wealth can too often be associated with pride if we're not careful. Then you say in your heart, my Power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth. And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant, which he swore to your fathers. As it is this day, when the wealth is coming into your hand or has come or more comes, you must stay focused on the fact that God gave you the power to get it. And we can get a little extra when somebody in our sphere or circle is not where we are financially and well, all if they were just this and just do that. Y' all are probably, probably wasting money. You know, you ask Starbucks every day and am. By the way, I have made progress on one of my New Year's resolutions this day. I got a Venti blonde vanilla latte with only nine pumps of vanilla syrup. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. It was 12, then it was 10. But I'm at 9. Baby steps. And do I need, you know, does that add up every month? It does. But anyway, I have other ways that I am financially responsible, but we can be judgmental of people. Well, if you just did what I did and you don't realize, first of all, there's no humility in that, no recognition that God gave you the power to get wealth. And so if you do want to help somebody along that way, make sure you come humbly and in love and ready to hear how God might want to move in their life rather than telling them to photocopy yours. Their pride can hide in there. We have to remember he gives us the power to get well. 1 Timothy 6. Another verse, and I'm not downing wealth. I want y' all to do it well. Verse 17. First Timothy 6, verse 17. Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty. That's uppity bougie extra. Nor to trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy when we have wealth. He says, let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life. And so the purpose of your wealth is that you should be wanting your works, your good works to outweigh your wealth. I want my works to be worth more than what I have because I used it to give to change lives, to shift atmospheres, to give people resources, to show them about the kingdom of God. So be wealthy. Don't forget that God gave you the power. And let your good works Exceed any talk about how wealthy you are. Let the word be how good you were to people and what a difference you made in this world. Amen. Amen. Okay, so then we know what provision is. We know what prosperity is. We know what wealth is. Abundance is not those things. Abundance, ha. Give it to us. Abundance is a lot of something, but you cannot define it without context. You can have wealth. That's a noun. You can have prosperity. That's a noun. But abundance is really more of an adjective. Cause it's like, I have an abundance of what? And so what we're gonna start with now is spiritual abundance, because that's the first thing we need. And so we're going back to John 10, 10 and 10. The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have what? Life. And that they may have it more abundantly. So today we're gonna talk about what it means to have abundant life. Because that's where everything starts. And it has to be our base. That word translated as life is Zoe. Zoe in the Greek. It is not biological life or livelihood or anything to do with our material existence. I believe that I am going to stand in the verse in scripture that says that with long life, he will satisfy you. I am going for 104, minimum. My grandmother lived to be 103 years and 11 months old. So I'm like, I'm gonna take that generational blessing. That means I'm only half done. I'm 52. I'm going to 104. I believe God for that. I believe my Bible promises me long life, but that's not Zoe. Zoe is not biological. It's not psychological. It's not my mind, it's not my emotional self. Zoe is life that originates in God. When those of you who follow Jesus made the decision to receive Jesus as your savior, Zoe came upon you. This is the life that replaces the life we were living, where things were being stolen, killed, and destroyed. It is the opposite of steal, kill, destroy. You had that life, but I came that you may have this life. So everything you ever lost, everything that was snatched from you, pilfered from you every time you tried to get there and didn't make it. The frustration of wondering if you were where you should be. Zoe is the opposite of steal, kill, and destroy. It is the life of God. God doesn't have the capacity to do those things to you. He is light. In him is no darkness at all. Zoe comes from God. It's something you experience that's why so often when people come down here to give their life to Jesus, or if you reflect on when you gave your life to Jesus, so many of us did it in tears because something was already happening on the inside that was difficult to articulate, but we were coming alive. Zoe is not about material things. It's not primarily about duration. It's about relationship with God in order to have Zoe, not only do we receive Jesus as our Savior, but it's not something we go and do by ourselves. Zoe comes through in relationship, vertical relationship with God and our horizontal relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. You cannot fully experience Zoe alone, by yourself. We need to be together. And we are in an era where we are very busy. So much so that just to come to church every Sunday is a resolution for some people because all these other things are constantly encroaching on our lives. When I was a kid, talk about revival. Are you guys excited we're having a revival? 28th, 29th and 30th of this month, we're going to be in revival. We're going to be looking at spiritual abundance. And I'm so excited about it. But let me tell you, it was a normal thing for me as a kid. My mother is a preacher and she was a revivalist. She went out and ran revival. She preached six days a week. The only night she didn't preach was Monday. She ran revival Tuesday night, Wednesday night, Thursday night, Friday night. Wasn't no guest groups. Shirley was preaching every night. I don't know how she did it. Then Saturday morning she'd preach at the prayer breakfast and on Sunday she'd preach at church. And then she took Monday off. And on Tuesday she was back. And 90% of those, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Fridays, I was with her. I grew up under my mother's preaching, but I also grew up spending so much time in church. And I know a lot of pastors, kids, and church kids complain to have me in church all the time, but I actually love church church. I had so many opportunities to be in the presence of God. I was filled with the Holy Ghost, with the evidence of speaking in tongues at seven years old, because I was in the room. I watched people be healed because I was in the room. I listened to testimonies of God's miracles because I was in the room. It matters to be in the room. And so this year, I want us in the room more than we've been in the room in a long time. I'm telling you, it's worth it because Zoe also happens in the relationship, I think of those who were waiting for Pentecost after Jesus's ascension, and they were waiting for the promise of God to fall. And they stayed in that room for, like, 10 days, just praying, 24, 7, 120 people waiting. They didn't even know what they were waiting for other than the promise that he would pour out his spirit. What if we stopped having to have a pragmatic example of what is going to be on everything and just come and say, I just want his spirit. Just stay in the room and let's see what God does. I need us to be spiritually focused. Is going to be abundant. Zoe is relational. Zoe operates within us. It animates our conscience. And so it will change the way that you make decisions. It will increase your discernment. It will be a tool in regulating your emotional life. Zoe is absolutely a base there. No matter what I'm doing in therapy, no matter what. Somatic interventions. Everybody knows what I mean when I say somatic interventions. That means when we're doing certain breathing in order to regulate our nervous system, whether we're tapping, there's all. It works. It absolutely works. But even then, I am thinking spiritually when I'm breathing, Jesus, because I always start with my most powerful space, which is the shift that I get to be in Zoe, and not in the steal, kill, destroy life where I was. So I might be tapping to wake up my nervous system, but I'm saying, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Why? Because my body was constructed by the Creator, my father, God. The fact that I can do this and it works, he built in a mechanism to allow me to even do that. And so it's still spiritual to me because I am working inside the mechanisms of the Creator. See, we're too busy saying, oh, well, this is spiritual, but this isn't. Everything is spiritual. And we struggle to say that because some of y' all get spooky and you spiritual and you express it in ways that are not wise at wrong times. That doesn't mean you gotta get on the work, zoom, and start speaking in tongues. You can be sitting there praying inside your heart and head, and God does hear you, and it's just as effective even if you're not seen and credited. But everything is spiritual because everything extends from the Father. I have a client, that client. I have clients who are not Christians. I still pray before a session. God lead me in the way that will bring them more healing, more health. Because every step they make towards wholeness, they are actually making towards the Creator. Because the Creator designed wholeness. He defined wholeness. And so every step they make towards that, they are actually moving towards the Creator. And I want, I pray God, let them feel your presence just being where I'm at. So if they ever happen to turn on YouTube and find. Because this has happened. I saw you online. Are you a preacher? I'm like, clearly you saw me. And that's testimony. But just because they don't follow Jesus doesn't mean that my work is not spiritually infused. Come on, Wisdom. But everything extends from my Zoe. My identity is stabilized by my Zoe. It keeps me knowing who I am when the wind blows, when things fail, when people call me out my name and force me into positions that I am overqualified for or seem to be overlooking me. My Zoe stabilizes my identity. I am defined by him through him. For Him, I'm stabilized. Zoe guides my judgment, my behavior, my decisions. It works from the inside out. The old saints used to say, jesus on the inside, working on the outside. Oh, what a change in my life. It starts internally, not externally. Zoe works from the inside. It shows up in a way that isn't mood dependent. Zoe will help you still whisper the scripture you memorized through tears and pain. When you don't feel churchy, Zoe won't take away all the hard things. It will stand in the space with you. My Zoe, I don't understand. You may have something happen, a death or a loss, and you don't understand it. But Zoe will keep you from saying, God failed me. You're Zoe's too alive. He'll say, God, I don't understand this, but I know you got this. Zoe will keep you grounded. See, a lot of times we want it to protect us from everybody feeling pain. That's not it. It is an anchor for my soul. Zoe. It is a capacity to love without depletion and to continue to move forward without needing to be numb under pressure. Zoe is not a better version of human life. It's divine life animating me. And Jesus said that I would have that divine life and have it more abundantly. Now here's where we get to the beauty of the word abundance. There's a version of the Bible that I love to read, was translated by a woman named Sarah Rudin. And she only translated the Gospels, not the whole Bible. But I hope she does. She is a classically trained PhD, Ivy League level translator of ancient languages. She was trained to translate plays and stories like the Iliad. She wasn't. It wasn't Bible college, but she decided when she became a Christian that she wanted to translate scripture. And I really appreciate her because she's so focused on making sure she's true to the words. Sometimes she'll even have a footnote that says, I actually wish this said something different. But it doesn't. Oh, I love that honesty. And so she wrote the verse this way. John 10:10. The thief doesn't come except to thieve and slaughter sheep and destroy. I came so that they could have life and have it in profusion. I was like, profusion? How do we get from abundance to profusion? Well, when we hear the word profusion, we think about flow. I'm sweating profusely. They are bleeding profusely. That pipe is leaking profusely. And it turns out that the English word abundance that has been placed in this scripture is a translation of a word whose etymology actually means to pour out. And so abundance is not a quantity. It is a state. Something is pouring out and pouring out and pouring out. And all I have to do is get in the flow and let it drench me. I don't stock it up. I don't keep it. I don't need to worry about running out of it. It's pouring out. And so when he said, I came that you may have life and have it more abundantly, there is a flow of Zoe for me to stand in, and the abundance of it is drenching me. There's no hands, work to do. This is the living water that Jesus spoke of. Remember the Samaritan woman? Yes, that's some of you already there. Like, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. That Samaritan woman, she understood this because of what Jesus told her. John, chapter 4, verse 10. He meets her at a well, and he tells her to give him a drink. And she says, how are you? How am I gonna get you a drink? You don't have anything to draw water with. And Jesus answered and said to her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. The woman said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? She was a little spicy. Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock? Here's what she's saying. You have to dig for this water. You have to work for this water. All she knew was, well water is limited it has to be gotten at your own hand. It will deplete and need to be refilled. That's the only water that she knew, and it was deep in the ground. And that's where so many of us have been. We're following Jesus, but we're living on well water. We're thinking, I got to dig deep and make this happen. I got to dig deep and spend 20 extra hours in prayer. I got to dig deep. No, baby, that works. Grace says Jesus answered and said to her, whoever drinks of this water right here will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. And so when we come into life with God, he pours out Zoe in abundance. It's like standing under a waterfall. It's just drenching us, but we don't stay in it enough. We think it's well watered, so we run to try to dig up something. Where's the scripture I can put on this? Where's that last sermon from last year? Where's that prophetic? We try to get something up instead of just standing in the poor. This is why we need to be in the house. This is why you have to be in worship. This is why you spend time in your prayer closet. This is why you remain spiritually focused. Because I, I can't tell you exactly what he's going to do in your life when you stand still. All I can do is say, be still and know that I am God. That's all. Stand. When you're stressed out, stand there and just imagine the water just pouring down over you. I'm standing in abundance, Zoe. Abundance, Zoe. I want to be soaking wet in Zoe. Because baby, then God will tell you what to put on your vision board. And God will tell you what to prioritize and who to call and what next steps. You only need one resolution, and that's to stay in the abundance of Zoe, to be in the house, to stand in his presence, to memorize his word and meditate day and night. That's the only thing you need to do. And he will take care of everything else. But you just get splashed and you dry in a second and then you're back to the well. Stay in the poor. Abundance is a ever pouring space. The abundance of life is a pour out. And what's beautiful is when we give our lives to Jesus, it starts pouring. But then not only is it poured on us, he promised that it would spring up within us. And so now I got Zoe pouring down abundantly, and I got it springing up in me abundantly. I'm not even having to dig deep, deep anymore. It's just coming up. What happens when somebody asks you a question you didn't know the answer to until your mouth came open? Because it just came up. We don't know how to solve this problem. We're wondering if anybody has any ideas. And you talking without even realizing because it bubbled up. The song, the music, the story, the things that you want to get done that you're digging for. What if you really actually stood in your spiritual space and waited for God? This is a year of abundance being spoken over our life. It's being poured out. You don't have to be perfect. You gotta be in position. You gotta be in position. You gotta be in position. You gotta allow God to use the flesh, foolish things of the world, to confound the wise. It will look foolish when you are making your world plans and schedule around making sure you're in this house when the doors open. I want us in here so much that some of your family members are worried. You've been to church three times this week and last week. They'll be calling Auntie. I know they have them colts in California. Child. I might have to fly out there and see what's going on. Good. Come on, bring them with you. One thing, this one thing. On December 31, to be able to stay. I stood in the abundant flow of a God, of Zoe all year long. And everything changed for me. Oh, I'm almost finished. Because we're gonna. We're gonna take communion. Once you realize that abundance is something poured out, it makes so much sense. All the other things that the Bible says are abundant, there is an abundance of grace in Romans and Second Corinthians. We'll get them all preached to you this year. Don't worry. There's an abundance of the Spirit. There's an abundance of love, abundance of joy, abundance of faith and hope, abundance of fruit and good works, Abundance of provision and resources, abundance of rain, land, harvest. There's so much abundance. We're going to start with the Spirit and walk straight through. It begins with our connection with Jesus, who calls that abundant spring up out of us. Recognizing that abundance is a poor. It makes even more sense why Jesus moved in. Water and blood. Those things pour out profusely. First John 5, 6, 8 says, this is he who came by water and blood. Jesus was born of the water of the Womb. He was then reborn. He experienced in his flesh the experience of being born again through baptism. He came out of that water and then his blood poured out on the cross. This is he who came by water and blood, spirit and natural, tangible things, invisible and visible, intangible and tangible. He came by both water and blood. Jesus Christ. Not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness. Because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness in heaven. The Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit. And these three are one. And there are three that bear witness on the earth. The Spirit, the water and the blood. And these three agree as one. Do you hear that Father word Holy Ghost? I love that description of our triune God, Father word Holy Ghost. We get a little too anthropomorphic with God in our Disney Pixar moment when inanimate objects and animals are given human language and expression. Sometimes we do too much of that with God. And so we got God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost. And we've made it like these three musketeers, these three dudes. It brings God down a little bit. Romans chapter one says to be careful not to compare God to corruptible man. We're supposed to be looking to find out how we were created in his image, not trying to explain him through ours. It's a slippery slope. It's a thin line. When I was in school, one of the things questions that theologians ask a lot how is man made in the image of God? That question is very dangerous. Remember in school they used to have you underline the subject of a sentence? How is man made in the image of God? What's the subject of that sentence? Man. So I asked at creation, before the fall, at creation, how was God reflected in the image of man? See? What about God was reflected by the image of the created person? I gotta make God the subject of the sentence. It changes everything. Because when I say, what about man is made in his image? It makes me study man. But when I say, what about God? It makes me study God. Because if I don't know God, I can't see how he was reflected by the created image. You with me? It matters. It matters. And so when he says the Father Word, Holy Ghost, these three are one. And there are three that bear witness on the earth. The Spirit, the water and the blood. This is why Jesus came by water and blood. But spirit, water, blood, respiratory system, circulatory system, nervous system which is filled with crystal clear cerebral spinal fluid. That's 99% water, spirit, water, blood. Sorry, I can't help myself. Anyway. He came by water and blood and those things pour out. We saw on the cross John, chapter 19, verse 34. One of the soldiers pierces his side with a spear and immediately blood and water poured out. That was representation of the Zoe abundance that we could step into flowing water and the flow of his blood healed us. We are called to have abundant life profuse Zoe. That is our first measure of step into beginning of our understanding of abundance. Everything else has to be built on that. But today I want you to leave with that sober sacred recognition. Everything stems from my spirit life. When I follow Jesus, it will be good if I'm. I. I'm a spiritual. I'm a spirit regardless. But I need to follow Jesus. And everything extends from there. You must begin in that space, not come to it later after you've taken a survey of things and then decide what to pray about. Talk to God before you do anything. Let this be the most spiritually focused year of your life. Meditate in his word. Stay in the room. Worship some of you. This is old school, but I hear God. Your time. Music. When I was a kid, they were so hardcore. We weren't allowed to listen to anything that wasn't gospel. Child. I knew the Winans like an old woman at 9. I'm singing the Winans. The question is, oh, some of y' all old enough to know what that is? Will I ever leave you? The answer is no. I see. But that. Cause that's all I was allowed to listen to. And when we would backslide and get saved again when we came home from church, we'd have to immediately throw away all of our tapes that were secular. Child. My new edition had to go. I mean, it was just candy, girl. My God. But they were very hardcore about this line between the worlds and saying. I'm not saying that you should not listen ever to any other kind of music than gospel or worship. I am saying your percentages be off. Your percentages be off. And I'm a challenge you on that. I really am. I listen to other stuff. Y' all heard me sing a little Olivia Dean this morning. If you were here. I do. I hear music, but nothing outpaces because music is so deeply emotional. You ever be in a mood and you looking for a song to help with the mood, and you're like, nah, that's not it. No, that's. Oh, that's the one. That's how I'm feeling. Music is incredibly emotional. It's incredibly Powerful. Be careful. Let this be the most spiritually focused year of your life. Music that is glorifying God and has you repeating words that are good seeds for your heart proportionately should outpace everything else. I challenge you on that. I do. I do. Some of you are gonna need some social media fasting. Some of you got some TV shows you rewatch that you might need to give up. See, see, the old folks told us all that was sin. It wasn't that. It wasn't that. But that don't mean that they were wrong about how it shaped us spiritually, where it kept our focus and our thoughts. So if you're trying to, like, live a life where your body is contained, some shows just will not help you. Hey, I'm out here in a body. Them scenes come on. I'll be like, hey, Jesus, not today, devil. Till he sends my God. Most spiritually focused year of your life. Y' all know pda. Keep it real. Y' all know I do. Y' all know I do. Y' all know I do. Y' all know I do. You got to be focused on God. This is not a condemnation thing. This is not an everything wrong thing like your grandmother said. But I tell you what, when grandmama prayed, my grandmother could get you delivered with a Jesus, and we. We was falling out because all she ever did was pray. And so when they say, just pray about it, baby. See, I would pray about it, and grandma pray about it wasn't the same. Pray about it. Because Grandma's pray was rooted in a consecrated life where she spent so much time in his presence. All she had to do was say two words and the Holy Ghost would move something. You ain't got them stripes yet, so don't put her down. Yeah, I'm older than most of y', all, so I'm the new church mother out here trying to tell y'. All, stand to your feet. Water and blood, these are the flows that are poured out that we step into for our abundant. Zoe. This is where we must start our year, and this is where we must found our year, as in foundation, and this is where we must stay. We will build on this, and we'll talk about abundance in every dimension of life. But for this first 30 days at least, maybe longer. It's abundance in spirit, because that's what we're doing here. We're not just gathering. This is not the 4H club. This is not the alumni meeting of your sorority. We are in this room for spiritual reasons. And I would not be a good shepherd if I always only sent you out with a list of things you can do and a list of things you can get. Spiritual focus till everything else falls away. That spiritual focus will get your values in correct order. Stuff that matters to you so much might matter less. And something else that mattered little might matter more. If you, if you start right here, everything else comes into right focus. And it starts by stepping in to Zoe. Is there anybody here who hasn't done that yet? Maybe you came to church this first Sunday of the year with intention already I'm giving my life to Jesus this year. You got out of bed and followed through. And you're in this room right now or you're watching online. You said, I'm doing it today. If you're here and that's you, just slip your hand up. Your moment has come. Hey, I see. Look at that. Come on, come on, come on. And step in, step in. We would love to pray with you if you want to meet us at the altar. And now maybe you didn't come that intentional, but now you in here and you're like, yeah, I did start my New Year's resolutions and vision boards with the failures and scarcities of last year, but I came to change my life today. And this is how I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna give my life to Jesus. I'm going to have life abundantly. I'm gonna step into a pour from the heavenlies that I don't have to work for. I just have to stand in. I'm ready to be transformed instead of self helped. I want my life to be lived through the lens of Jesus life. This is your moment. Hey, 2026. Fitting to be off the chain for you. Just like it's been raining outside, it's been raining in the spirit. This time last year, California was so dry from drought that fires ignited that we could not contain for weeks because of the drought. And so many of you stepped into 25 like that, dry and stuff caught fire and burned up stuff. And you spent the year trying to recover from the loss and rebuild. But now here we are. Starting in December, late December, it has rained in record amounts in California. Drought does not exist in our state right now. And drone photos show green things springing up because we have come out of a season of drought. And I believe spiritually we are also out. And so just as the prophet prayed that it would rain, and he said an abundance of rain is coming. That's why it's abundance of rain, the rain is going to pour out of the Sky. We are standing in a spiritual moment of abundant rain. Standing souls are going to be saved. Bodies are going to be healed. True revival is about to be experienced. I cannot emphasize this enough. Stay in this room. It's raining. It's raining. For those of you beautiful people, hey, we came down here to say, oh, yeah, I know what to do. About to 2026. Jesus, Jesus, I hear a couple of your hearts already whispering, I'm sorry, God, I should have been here already. He hears your heart and he's not mad. Just like when our children come to us. They're falling down, they got mud on their clothes. They was playing where they shouldn't have been. Playing and doing things. We just say, you okay, baby? Baby. They say, I'm sorry. We don't say, you don't look sorry enough. Not a good one, not a good parent. And that's the challenge. Some of us, unfortunately, maybe had parents who weren't most. The most emotionally available people. And so a mistake was, that's not our God. He's just love. Literally. And so my Bible says that all it takes to be back in relationship with God through Jesus is to believe that Jesus is. And so I'm going to tell you really quickly again who Jesus is. And if you believe that truly in your heart, then all I'm going to need you to say is, yes, I believe it. We believe that Jesus is the son of God. That when Adam and Eve made that really bad decision that we all paid for at that moment, God already had plans for Jesus to be born because he solves problems before they begin. And that Jesus was born in a human baby body by a human woman, a regular woman. And that he did it for love. That he died on a cross for love. He let some people beat him to death. I keep saying to death, I should say to near death, because death was his choice. When he said, into your hands, I commit a spirit, but beat him to the point of death for love. And then he died. And then we believe he actually literally rose from the dead. Like the last funeral you went to, there was a dead person. Imagine how you. You would respond if they got up. We believe that he literally got up. This is not a story. It's not symbolic. And now he's sitting next to his father, praying for you 24, 7, that your faith won't fail. Do you believe that about Jesus? Welcome to the family of God. He ran to meet you like the father ran to meet the prodigal son. When he saw you coming, he's throwing his arms around you right now. And the life of Zoe is going to change things in you, things you might have been doing before. You're not even going to want to do some of that stuff. And then you'll do it and be and feel terrible about it. And all you say, God forgive me, I know that wasn't in line with who I am in you now. And he'll say, no problem, because it's much easier for God to forgive you. The hard thing is you forgive yourself. But I want you to make your first act of being like your father, to forgive yourself, because he has forgiven you and he always will. If you do not have a church that you say, that's my church. These crazy people want to be your family. So I hope you will let one be your family. If you don't have a pastor that you look at and be like, that's my pastor. I want that job. Dag it. Pastor Ed wants it too. So come back, stay in the house. If you're not in town, watch us online. Run with us. It'll change your life. Amen.
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Hey, family. Well, I pray that you were just as blessed by this teaching as I was. I'm just so grateful again to be a part of a dynamic community full of love, full of revelation and wisdom. One has been a movement that's been blessing people for over two decades, and I'm so glad that you got an opportunity to experience it. I also have a podcast called the called it's right here on wherever you're listening to this Spotify or Apple or wherever you're listening to this podcast. You can just look up the call T H E C A L L E D with myself, Ture Roberts. This is designed for entrepreneurs, leaders and business people. It's a weekly podcast and it will bless you. But hey, I enjoyed having you here. Meet us here next week. Check out the called Much blessings to you. We'll catch you next time.