Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
we praise you this morning once again, Father. And we just, I come before you one more time, Father, and I just ask that your spirit would work through your vessel, Father. I just present my body to you right now as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto you, which is my reasonable service. Father, we thank you and we bless you in Jesus' name. Amen, you may be seated. Praise the Lord for those who are watching us in television land and online. This is Pastor Troy with you this morning, not Pastor Dean. Got a call a little over two hours ago and basically he just said, tag, you're it. And so he asked me, could I bring the word today? And it's hard to tell Pastor Dean no. Y'all understand that, right? Amen. So I got off the phone with him after talking to him. He said he didn't have a voice this morning. He lost his voice overnight and faith is not doing well. They're gonna take her to the doctor this morning. So those that are out there, we've already prayed for him, but if you would be in prayer today for them as well. And pray for all of Fire and Grace Church and Next Level Ministries. This year has been extremely demonic. And I think you guys know what I'm talking about. I had a conversation with Nancy and Pastor Dee earlier this week, this past week. And we're just talking about this year was something different about the cold and flu season. It's just, they're putting more stuff in the sky. Y'all know that, right? And what they concocted this year is just really, really coming down hard on people. So we have to stay prayed up and do the things you need to do. Eat good food, eat very good meals and take supplements and make sure you're getting enough sleep. We have to do everything we can. And then of course, pray. And we do pray for each other as a ministry. So, but listen, as I got off the phone with Pastor Dean, I started scurrying and I started pulling out all old notes and I was like, okay, Lord, what am I gonna do? I'm gonna start going through old notes and nothing was, and then I was shuffling through some papers and all of a sudden, I heard the Lord speak to me. And so we're gonna do a message I just really did three weeks ago in our ministry. And the Lord just put it in my spirit again. He said, do it again. Now listen, many of you watch Next Level Ministries every week from this particular ministry, the Lord said there are hundreds, even thousands that watch Pastor Dean's ministry that don't watch ours. And he said, I wanted to get this message out to you. So the title today is Placed, Planted and Positioned. Placed, Planted and Positioned. And when the Lord gave this to me, I was writing the work one day. It's amazing how much the Lord speaks to me when you're quiet and he can speak to you. And he just, it was like a download in my spirit. It was Lord just begin to show me something. And so I've taught this at our ministry, but today we're gonna talk about
placed, planted and positioned, what God does. Sometimes you are placed, sometimes you are planted. And then we'll talk about being positioned. A lot of times in our lives, we wonder, God, why am I here? Or where are we going, Lord? Or how come I'm working this job? I hate this job. And you will be wondering, God, why is this? But God began to show me something. So let me pray real quick one more time. Father, I just pray that you, Lord, let this word go out. Let your speak to your people today, Father. I pray in Jesus' name, amen. So let's start with placed. When you are placed by God, this is when God puts you in a certain situation or environment. Often these situations are very tough situations. Sometimes you will meet persecution. Sometimes the situations may even be dire, but God has placed you there. Sometimes, like I said, God will place you in a situation on a job. You may not like the job. You guys, there's always going to be devils on every job. I started working when I was 15 or 16 years old. My first job was at a Burger King. And you guys, I'll be 62 in three months. And I'll tell you, every job I've ever worked, there's been a devil or two. Can I get an amen? Can I get an amen? There's always somebody. I've never worked a job that's been perfect. I've never had a job where it's been Nirvana, where there's 14 people and everybody is Christian and wanting to get along with everybody. Never have. There's always a devil there. There's always somebody there. But God will sometimes put you in a place and He has strategically put you there for a reason. And God will put you there sometimes just to be that strong example of being a believer in that particular situations. You'll find that when you walk and you are light in the midst of all that darkness, when people's lives go awry, guess who they come to? Troy. Can I talk to you for a minute? Man, I need prayer. My marriage is going up in smokes. Can you pray for me? Or people will come to you and want wisdom. You know, when I first did this message and was writing this out, I thought about Pastor Dee. She's been working at the VA for many, many years and it's been very frustrating for her over years. You know, being her husband, I hear the things, you know, there's not the level of excellence from most of the employees there that Pastor Dee has. A lot of people are really not there for the veterans. They're just there for a paycheck. You know what I mean? And I've heard many of her frustrations and there's even somebody at her job that has been a thorn in her side for 20 something years. I mean, a really bad thorn.
I'm not gonna go into any details. But I told Pastor Dee, I said, you know what? God has you placed there. God has you placed to be a godly example of what a godly woman looks like. Pastor Dee has been that example. And over the years, am I wrong? People have come to you for prayer. People have come for you to godly wisdom. There's times people come in and Dee's gonna do an ultrasound on them and by the time she finishes up, she done laid hands on them and prayed for them, gave them the word. Why? Because she was placed. She was placed there. And so sometimes we're frustrated and not understanding that God has us there for a reason. I look at Wanda here, for eight years, this woman went down to the abortion clinic in Montgomery, Alabama. The last two years, she went every single day that they were open. God placed her there. Trying to convince those women not to kill their babies. And I believe that by her going there and praying, she would also pray, be praying that God would end abortion in this state. And I believe that her prayers is one of the reasons why the Supreme Court ruled the way that it ruled. Amen? And why we don't have abortions going on in this state right now. Why? Because God took her from California. He said, guess what? I'm gonna place you in Montgomery, Alabama and I want you to pray and look at the result. She was placed. Do you understand that? So a lot of you may be wondering, God, why am I here? Why am I living in this little town? Why am I working this job? God has placed you there, right? That's your husband right there. You know you've been placed, right? All right, now I just want you to understand that. There's a reason why God brought you here, amen? So I want you guys to get that. Romans 8 and 28, I don't think I put that scripture down for you guys, but if you'll put up Romans 8 and 28, it's a very common scripture. It says, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God and to them who are the called according to his purpose. You know, that's a scripture that we like to quote a lot, right, we like to claim that scriptures, but there's some qualifiers in that scripture. It says, all things work to the good of those who love the Lord. How do you know if you love the Lord? Jesus said it very plainly. He said, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. If you want things to work to your good, he said to those that love the Lord. See, that's the first qualifier. Then he said, those that are called according to his purpose.
See, the Bible says we are called out of darkness and into his marvelous light. You have to be a believer, because I don't believe anybody that's out there that's unsaved, they've not given their life to the Lord, things are not working to your good. Y'all, for those 22 years I was out there doing my own thing, trust me, things were not working to my good, amen? The Bible says the way of the transgressor is hard. That's what the word of God says. So that's the qualifier. Do you love the Lord? Are you a believer? Then all things will work together for your good, but I want you to understand that God is the master chess player. He knows the beginning from the end, and we're his pieces, we're on his end time chess board, and he's moving us and placing us where he wants us to be, amen? So let's talk a little bit, we talked about being placed, but what about being planted? Now, when you talk about being planted, planted is a little bit different. No, before we go into that, I want to talk about people in the word of God who God placed, let's do that first, and then we'll get into being planted. So let's look in the scriptures at some of the people that God, he placed. Let's look first at Esther, amen? So Esther was placed as the queen of Persia. She had a gift, you know what her gift was? Beauty. This woman won a beauty contest. She had outward beauty, she had inward beauty, which was godly virtue. So let's put up Esther four, we're gonna look at verses, let's put up verses 13 through 15, and I'll read this right off the board. It said, then Mordecai, this was her uncle, commanded to answer Esther, think not with thyself that thou shall escape in the king's house more than all the Jews. For thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time. Then their enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place. But thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed, and who knows whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this. Then Esther bathed them, return Mordecai this answer. And then verse 16, it talks about them fasting for three days and three nights, and then she goes on to say, if I perish, let me perish. So God had placed her there for such a time as this. That's the same thing with us. God has placed us in certain places for such a time as this. He's just moving pieces. He's moving us where he wants us to be.
Yesterday I did a message on the wheat and the tares. I don't know if any of you guys got a chance to see that, but when you read there in Matthew 13 about the wheat and the tares, there's a place where it says, his angels asked God, basically, his servant said, hey, didn't you plant good seed in your field? He said, they said, do you want us to go and uproot all the tares? Now the tares are the evil ones. These are the ones that work for Satan. And God said, nay, no, not at all. He said, because if you uproot the tares, the evil ones, he said, you'll also uproot the wheat. See, God has us planted. He said, just let them grow together. There's gonna be a day when judgment's gonna come. I'll deal with that later on, but right now I have them placed and I have them planted. Do y'all get that, amen? So let's look at somebody else. Let's look at Joseph. Joseph was placed second in command of all Egypt to save Israel and Egypt from a great famine. Now Joseph went through some things, y'all. Joseph really went through some things. So I wanna tell y'all just a quick synopsis of Joseph. Joseph, the first thing he had was the preview. That was the prophetic dream. He had the prophetic dream and God gave him this dream and showed him what he was going to be. You know, God does that in our lives. Sometimes God will drop a vision in our spirit of something that we are to do or where we're going. You're gonna be a pastor one day. You're gonna do this. You're gonna have the, your business is gonna be awesome. What God does not show you is the whole movie. He just gives you a sneak preview. Becoming to tell you why, if God showed you the whole movie, you would say, uh-uh, I ain't, I'm not starting, I ain't starting that journey. No, no, no, no, no. So he gives you a preview because when you know what the preview does, the same thing it does in the natural, right? I'm going to see Aquaman 2 here within the next week because I saw the preview. I said, oh, that looks like it's gonna be good. The preview gets you started on your way. Am I, am I all right? I'm not moving too much for you guys back then. I'm good, okay. The preview gets you started on your journey. So he'll drop something in your spirit to get you moving, to get you going. But God doesn't tell you the whole story. So let me tell you a little bit about Joseph. Joseph had the prophetic dream, which was the preview. From the preview, he went to the pit. Then he was sold to the Ishmaelites, which were like enemies of his people, right? Then from the pit, he went to Potiphar's house as a slave. But hold on, Lord, didn't you say that I was gonna be, my brothers were gonna bow down, I would be over my brothers?
Makes no sense. I went from the pit to Potiphar's house. I'm a slave now. From Potiphar's house while he was there, he had a phony accusation come against him that he raped somebody. He forced himself on somebody. Do you imagine what he was going through? If God had showed him all of that, instead of just giving them the preview. But now he's the phony accusation. Then from the phony accusation, he goes to prison. He's in prison now, right? And then while he's in prison, things begin to change because now he begins to flow in the prophetic and he begins to interpret other people's dreams. And then flowing through in the prophetic, he ends up in the palace. Exactly where God told him from the beginning. And he was placed there. He was placed in the palace because there was a great famine coming and he preserved them from starvation because he was placed in the right place. But I want you to understand, you might have to go through some things to get where God is taking you. But he was placed. What about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? What about them? They were placed in the fiery furnace. Why? To show us that when we are going through our worst trials in life, there's a fourth man also in the fire with this. Y'all put up Daniel 3 and 25. Says he, meaning Nebuchadnezzar, answered and said, lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire and they have no hurt. And the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. See, sometimes you'll be placed right in the fire. You won't understand why am I going through this? Why is this attack on my body? You won't know. Why are they persecuting me? But God will have you placed there because he's gonna show himself strong through you. Let's look at one more. Why was Daniel placed in the lion's den? To show the power and the protection of almighty God. So let's read in Daniel 6 here. We're gonna read Daniel 6, 19 through 22. This is after Daniel had been thrown into the lion's den and the king came to find out what happened to him. Then the king arose very early in the morning and went in haste unto the den of lions. And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel and the king spake and said unto Daniel, oh Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God whom thou service continually able to deliver thee from the lions. And then said Daniel unto the king,
oh king, live forever. My God has sent his angel and has shut up the mouth the lion's mouth that they have not hurt me for as much as before him innocency was found in me and also before thee, oh king, I have done no hurt. Wow, now let's go down to verse 25. Let's read a little bit here. Look at the end of this. Then King Darius wrote unto all people, nations, languages that dwell in all the earth, peace be multiplied unto you. I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom, men tremble in fear before the God of Daniel. For he is the living God and steadfast forever and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed and his dominion shall be even until the end. Did the king get a revelation? Did he not get a revelation? But it was all because God placed Daniel in the lion's den. It makes no sense to the natural mind, does it? But sometimes we are placed. Now let's go on to being planted. Being planted is a little different than being placed. When you are planted, it is all about ministry. This is ministry now. When you're planted, you're supposed to produce fruit or a harvest for the husband, the vine dress, or you could say the father. When you're planted, like I said, you are planted for the purpose of ministry. The apostle Paul was planted in the soil of the Gentiles, you guys. He was planted, then the planted became a planter. All those books y'all see in the Bible, Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, Rome, Romans, Colossians, guess who planted all those churches? Paul planted all those churches, amen? So next level ministries is planted in Montgomery, Alabama. Sometimes you guys, I don't even know why we are planted there. But God is using our ministry. We moved, what, a little over a year ago. We moved from one house to another. We were living in Montgomery and God had told us when we moved in that house many years ago, we were gonna have another move. So we knew eventually God was gonna say it's time to move. Well, I wanted to get out of Montgomery, Alabama. I wanted to get to Pike Road or Prattville.
That's where we wanted to go. And for two and a half months, you guys, we looked at houses. We looked at house after house after house. We got so, I got so frustrated with looking at houses. Me and Dee were getting on each other's nerves. What I liked, she didn't like. What she liked, I didn't like. We could not come to an agreement. But we were looking. And I'm gonna tell you something. When you try to move, when you try to replant yourself, the Holy Spirit will try to frustrate you. And so after two and a half months of looking, trying to get out of Montgomery because we didn't like the mayor, he was too liberal for us. We didn't like the things, the street racing and all that stuff that's going on, uncontrollable in Montgomery. We go to this last house that I didn't even wanna go see. I said, I don't wanna live off Atlanta Highway. Dee had been trying to get me to go to this neighborhood for the longest time. I don't wanna live off Atlanta Highway. Sometimes men can be stubborn, y'all. Y'all know that, right? Sometimes we should listen and we don't listen. And I said, okay. Our realtor said, there's two more houses in County Downs to look at. And we were about to put a bid on another house that was just like so-so, but we had just got tired of looking. And so I said, okay, let's go. I said, unless I'm blown away, we're gonna put a bid in on this house. I'm tired of looking. And we went to County Downs. We went to the first house, which was in what we call old County Downs, the older part of the subdivision. And we walked in. I walked around two minutes. I said, nah, this ain't it. Let's go. So we get in the car. And I'm just doing this as a courtesy to our realtor just to look at these last two houses. So we go to the next house and we go to new County Downs. We started riding back. Oh, these are nice houses back here. And we go in, we walk into the house, you guys, and it's just everything we wanted. And Dee and our realtor, Brittany, they just walk around. And I said, mm-hmm, y'all can do all the him and her. You want to, we can't afford this house. But anyway, when we walked into what's called the Florida Room, and for those that have been at our ministry, that is our sanctuary now. I knew, I said, God, this is our sanctuary. So I'm not gonna give you the whole story, but God worked it out. They had to drop the price on the house, the whole thing. And we end up getting the house. And I remember asking the Lord, he said, why Lord? He said, because I got you planted in Montgomery. Why are you kicking against the Gulf? I got you planted right here. And I had to resign in my mind and in my spirit, God, this is where you have us. And you guys, we are reaching that city. We are reaching people all over the United States. We're reaching people,
we have people that watch us from overseas every single Saturday. And so it's been a blessing. And we're having impact, and that's what we are supposed to do. I look at fire and grace ministry, this little church planted in Opelika, Alabama. Just small ain't much to it, but y'all, it is having so much impact for the kingdom of God, amen? Look at the growth and understanding. See, you gotta understand that when you are planted, there's certain things that God is looking for. And one of them is, you're supposed to produce fruit in the lives of believers. Believers should be growing spiritually, and this should be clearly evident from the fruit in their lives. You should be maturing, amen? You should be maturing. I think of fire and grace, how much, you guys, I'm still learning. I come every Sunday, we come almost every Sunday. You wanna know why? Because I'm still learning. And Pastor Dean, Pastor Nancy, they are our heads, they are our overseers. We place ourselves under them, because I'm still learning, I'm still growing about things and understanding of things in the kingdom. But look how much power, the truth about flat earth, look how God just blew that thing up. I mean, in the natural, it looked like there was some negative aspects to it, but this thing just went around the world, you guys, from this small little ministry, from this vessel across the world. Thank you, across the world. Thank you for the correction, brother. But this message, this truth of God's word just blew up. And it's from this ministry, God using this man, this vessel in Opelika, Alabama. He was planted to be right here. And see, if you look at it in the natural, it makes no sense. But I've learned that everything in the kingdom and everything in the world is completely opposite. They're completely opposite. The word is all about the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Jesus said, I am the truth. The Bible said, God is not a man that he can lie. He is all about truth. You know, the world is all about lies. Y'all, after this last election, I have not watched the news one time. I used to watch Fox until I found out that they were in on the coup as well. I mean, it's nothing but lies, it's propaganda. The school systems, you think they're getting truth. It is all indoctrination, mostly all indoctrination. And so they're two different worlds. I mean, God says, turn the other cheek.
Somebody ask you to walk with them, walk with them an extra mile, give them your coat if they ask for it. In the world, you don't turn the other cheek. Other words, somebody go bad, but you just get a little better, right? It's so different. You have to so transform your mind because it's so different, the kingdom of God, amen? But this has been such a great ministry. I think about prophecy quake. I know Pastor Dean used to have a ministry called Prophecy Quake, a show, and he would deal with end time events and how they lined up with scripture and prophecy and all that. I know he hadn't done that as much recently, but I'm just thinking about how much this little ministry planted in Opelika, Alabama is having impact all over the earth. That better, a little better? Okay, I had to make that little correction. You had to make that little correction right there. So I said this, but I wanna put some emphasis on it. When God plants you, you must resist trying to replant yourself, right? There's only two ways that you can be replanted in both ways God has to do it. Now you can do it yourself. It ain't gonna work to your good. You either have to outgrow what you're in, okay? So I don't have a green thumb, my thumb is black. I can't grow anything, okay? But I know many people here have gardens. I know Wanda has gardens. We get a lot of stuff from her garden. She goes to our ministry. And if you have something in a plant, right? If you have something in a container, you have a plant. Eventually, when the roots grow out and sprout, those roots have to keep growing. Otherwise, it will thwart the plant or it can even die. So that'll happen sometimes. Sometimes your church will, God will just enlarge your tent and enlarge your territory. And then he'll have to move you. Right now, we have a home church, a house church, right, out of our house. We figure we could do 40 to 50 people at that house. If it ever got any bigger than that, guess what? God would have to replant us. Then we'd have to start looking for a building. So that's one way that you can be replanted. Here's another way. God just, you end one assignment, what I call kingdom assignment. While we're here on the earth, once you meet a certain level of maturity and growth in the Lord, God's gonna give you something to do. You're gonna get a ministry. And sometimes you have an assignment. That assignment may come to an end and God says, I'm gonna put you on another assignment. And sometimes that may mean you have to move
from one part of the country to another part of the country. You might have to do something different, switch jobs, whatever. But that's another way that God can replant you. But let me tell you what happened a lot in late 90s through 2000s, you saw pastors that were replanting themselves. I wanna tell you guys, and I seen it happen. It was before I was a pastor, but I saw it happen and I knew it was out of order. Let me tell you what they would do. They would want to become a big ministry. They would want to become a mega church. God didn't tell them, but they would want to become one. What they had, the 50 to 100 people they had wasn't enough. And so the whole focus and the mindset change from somebody who just, Lord, I'm gonna be faithful to what you gave me, to how do I become big? How do I become mega? And so now they begin to do things to draw more people, right, light shows and make sure you got a coffee and donut when you come in and all this kind of stuff, right? Guess what happens though when that happens? You water down the word. Because see, once you go get that huge building and you got that big note and you got that big loan to get it, guess what? You gotta start preaching not to offend. Because at that point, it becomes all about nickels and noses. How many people can we get in and how big can the offering be? And so what it hurts is your flock because now you start just giving them Kool-Aid messages. Not the kind of messages you're getting from fire and grace and next level ministries. You just get Kool-Aid. And so really, you're big, but you have no power, right? You end up having a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof, the power of the word, the power of the Holy Spirit, amen? So, and then here's another way I saw pastors begin to replant themselves. This was real popular like, especially in the 90s. Every pastor would have his own side ministry, Joel Jackson Ministries, and they begin to write books. And then they would want to go nationwide or worldwide. What they would be trying to do is to blow up. And many did it and became rich. And so others began to do it. There was a church in Montgomery, it was a dynamic church, went there for a couple years. It was a mixed congregation church full of the Holy Ghost. The pastor was planted in Montgomery. And then the enemy turned him because he decided, I want to be big.
I want to do what these other guys are doing. I want to get rich. And so he literally left his church to a guy that was not ready to be pastor. So he could write his books. He moved to California because he wanted to get a big name. That church plummeted. The guy was not ready. The church went down, people start coming. He had no anointing. Think he ended up getting a divorce from his wife. It just totally imploded. And it's because this man left his assignment because he wanted to blood. He was trying to replant himself. Do y'all get that? So we have to resist that. We don't replant ourselves. God has to plant us. Now next level ministries, I will tell you in the natural, we have about five to 10 people there on a Saturday. And here's the thing about Pastor D and I, we're faithful to that. If y'all saw what we did every Saturday morning, we get up early. I'm usually writing my final outline because I work a full-time job as well. And my job is very strenuous and I'm moving and grooving all day long. And it's hard to find time to pray to get in the word sometimes. So I usually, my messages are I work on it hour and a half to two hours this day, hour and a half. And then finally, Saturday mornings, I usually get up about three or four in the morning to finish writing out the final outline. But then I have to get up and clean the bathrooms. I sweep and mop all the floors. Pastor D is doing the things. We have a little thing. She's doing her thing. I'm doing her, my thing. I am faithful to this little where I'm planted because I understand I've been planted. That's what God gave me. Amen. So, as I said, three, when you are planted, there's three, it's all ministry related. And you are planted, there's a threefold purpose God does. As I said, one, to produce fruit in the believer's life. Like I say, you should be spiritually growing with clearly evident fruit. Y'all, there is something wrong. If you've been going to a church for 10 years and you're still out there fornicating all the time. There's something wrong. Because either there ain't no powerful word coming from that ministry. Or the pastors have no discernment. Because I just discerned, you know, when you're walking with the Lord close, you just discern things on people. You know that? You can just look at a person sometimes and say, they dealing with this. Now you don't always say something. Sometimes the Holy Spirit don't say nothing. Sometimes the Holy Spirit just says pray. But if you've been going to the same church for 10 years and you're still fornicating, you're still smoking doobies. Either that's the weakest word coming from that ministry or nobody is discerning anything in the spirit. Either way, that's not good.
Because you should always be growing and producing more fruit, right? Matter of fact, in that one parable that Jesus gave, I'm the vine. My father is the vine dresser. He said, those that produce fruit in me, if you stay in me, he said, but if you don't produce fruit, you're gonna be cut off from the vine. We're not gonna get into that. But you should always be producing fruit. You should be growing in the Lord. If you ever get stagnant, something ain't right. We need to do a self check at that time, right? Amen. Here's number two, harvest. We should always be bringing people into the kingdom of God. That means converting the lost. We should always have that heart to bring people into the kingdom. And harvest also means sometimes God will bring people together or ministries together to do a kingdom work, amen? And then here's the final thing, and I talked about this a little bit, but impact. Your ministry should have impact. And what I have found, you guys, and this is not always the case, but most big ministries have very little impact. God is working through remnants. He's working through remnants. This little church, as I said, all the things that are coming out of this little church, about 50 people, 60 people on a given Sunday. Most pastors that I meet over the years, I've been saved since I was 22 years old, all right? Most pastors that I meet, so about 40 years in the kingdom, you wanna know what their biggest pride and accomplishment is. Well, I have 500 members. I have 2,000 members. We have 10,000 members and three services on Sunday. It is all about numbers, quantity. That's not how God does things. What God is power in unity, right? As I said, y'all know, one of the messages that I do is what Gideon started off 32,000 men when God got through, he had 300 guys and just did a great miracle. Defeated three kings that had armies were so big, the Bible says that the horses and chariots could not be numbered. They didn't lose a man with 300. God does addition by subtraction because God can do more with a few that are on fire that are in unity than thousands that are lukewarm. So that's why I say in most big churches, because you gotta preach not to offend. There's no power, amen?
So we should be having impact that's personal and collective, right? So we are God's ecclesia. That word literally, it's a governmental term. It means God's governing body on the earth. Everything should come through the body of Christ. We should be impacting everything with fervent prayer ourselves, amen? So we should be having impact. When plants are rooted in soil, they are not easily swayed, shaken, or moved. When you are placed by God, often the situations and environments are not optimal. There may be persecution attacks from the enemy, possibly even life-threatening. But God will use you as a light in the midst of dark places. People will gravitate to your light, or you could say the light that is within you. People will ask you for spiritual advice, want you to pray for them. You will leave them with deposits of heavenly wisdom, all because you have been carefully and strategically placed and or planted by the master, amen? Do y'all get that so far? Y'all with me? Y'all with pastor? Okay, all right. So one more thing we gotta talk about and we're gonna close today. And that's being positioned. Now, God places us and God plants us, but you position yourself. This is all about you. Being positioned is all about you. You put yourself in position for blessing and promotion in the kingdom of God. Put up Luke 6 and 38. Popular scripture, we like this one, right? Give and it shall be given unto you, good measure, press down, shaking together, and running over shall men give unto your bosom. For with the same measure you meet with all, it shall be measured back to you again. In the kingdom of God, giving is just like a cycle, it's like a circle. If you ain't giving to kingdom work, you're doing yourself a disservice. Now, I do some, I believe some really good and powerful teaching on giving. Pastor D and I, we believe in tithing, we tithe. I know not everybody does, that's fine. But tithing and giving into good soil for kingdom work, you guys are putting you in position for blessing. Look at that scripture. It says, shall men give unto your bosom. Y'all, Pastor D and I have done it both ways. We've done it where we didn't give. And I promise you, it was like living with holes in your pocket. Just walking around, just falling out as you walk in.
Never had enough money, always in lack, always arguing. Because that's gonna come. And then I'll never forget it, around the same time the Holy Spirit dealt with her, that he dealt with me. And like I said, I don't remember who came to who. I can't remember, D came to me, I came to her. But one of us said, we just gotta be, we gotta get faithful in our giving. We gotta start tithing. And I'm just gonna say, D came to me, I can't remember. And I said, yeah, the Lord been saying the same thing to me. We gotta start doing it. And we just made up our minds right then. And listen, our kids were still young. We had, at one point, all four of our kids in private school. And we've talked about it now. We don't even know how we did it. Because we were making a lot less money than we were making now. But we started just being faithful in our giving. And I believe that when you begin to give until the kingdom work, that it supercharges what you got left. I think it makes it supernatural what you have left. God'll start doing things. You start getting blessed. Shall men give unto you, bosom? People start blessing you. It won't make any sense. I'm telling you, you're doing things, you're positioning yourself for God to do things for you. Amen? I still believe in Malachi three. You're bringing the tithes and the offering into the storehouse that there will be meat in my house. What's that mean? There'll be resources in the house of God. You guys, I remember growing up, going to churches where they had to beg for money. They would take three offerings. And so, you know what I watched the people do? They would come in with five dollars, five one dollar bills. And the first offering, they put two dollars. The second offering, they put two dollars. The third offering, they put a dollar. They were just splitting up. Right. Now, Pastor Dean doesn't take offerings. Guess what, we don't at next level ministry either. Can I tell you something? Our ministry is blessed. I mean, financially, we're blessed. That small little church up there. Y'all, we're doing things, we're giving unto, we just gave money to four inmates that are in love with God in Ohio that I found out through a ministry friend of mine. We just sent them a thousand dollars. I talked to them on the phone the other day and they're just like, Pastor Troy, you don't even know us. You just gave unto us like that. I said, Pastor Doug told me what you guys are doing in that prison. We don't even take offerings. God told me, teach on giving twice a year. The Bible says faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. But when you give unto kingdom work, now here's the key. You gotta give unto good soil. See, there's some people that give, but if you go, you're at a church
and the pastor's sleeping around with the women, yeah, you're still giving to the kingdom, but it's not good soil. And just like in the natural, if you don't have good nutrient rich soil and you put, you'll get a little harvest, but you ain't gonna get a big harvest. If you're going to a church where they're messing over the money, you'll get a little harvest. You gotta give it and put it into good soil. Do you know Pastor D and I tied into this ministry? We tied into our own and then we tied into this one too. Y'all, we are blessed beyond measure. They're doing all kinds of things to ruin this economy and to bring this nation down. But I believe that when you give unto good soil, God's gonna take care of you. And what you have left is supercharged in the kingdom of God. Do y'all get that? So you are positioning yourself, amen? Put up another scripture here, Matthew 6 and 33. Says, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all things shall be added unto you. Here's one of those. Your positioning, if you're seeking God first, you're putting him before everything else. He said, if you seek me first in my kingdom, he said everything else, I'm just gonna add it unto you. You need a second car, I'll add it. You need a bigger house, I'll add it. You need a better job, I'll add it. Just seek me first. God said, if you put me first, I promise you, I'm gonna take care of you. But you're positioning yourself for this. Let's look at another one. Zechariah 4 and 10. For who have despised the day of small things, for they shall rejoice and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel? I'm gonna stop right there. So I'm gonna concentrate on that very first part. God says, don't despise humble or small things or small beginnings. Do you guys know how God promotes is being faithful over a small thing? When I got an understanding of this when I was a younger Christian, when I was parking lot attendant, I was the best doggone parking lot attendant there could be. I was early, I was out there directing traffic, I made sure we brought umbrellas, so if it was raining with the ladies getting out the car, we'd go put the, God, you gave me a small thing, I'm gonna be faithful. He said, if you're faithful over the little thing, he said, I'll make you ruler over much. You are positioning yourself for promotion and blessing. When I was over the ushers, I was over the ushers for a couple years. You guys, when I, they used to, the matter of fact,
when I was over the ushers at this church, I was not an ordained minister or anything at the time and people start calling me Pastor Troy. I had them men, we had three shifts, three different teams, so every three guys wouldn't burn out. So you only had to do it every day. When we did communion, you guys, I had them like military. We walked down there, steps, look at each other, I mean, with boom, boom, people would come and say, oh my God, I've never seen anything like that because I understood I was trying to go somewhere in God. See, in being over the ushers, it might've been a small thing. You know what a lot of people do? Well, you know what, I can preach, oh, I'm anointing. Just give me a, that's not how God promotes. Just give me the mic, no? I can sing, no? God says, I'm gonna give you a little thing. He said, will you be faithful over that? He says, if you'll be faithful over that, that's how he promotes. He wants to know, do you love me enough that you'll be parking lot attending? When it's hot, when it's cold, you'll still be out there helping those people. You're positioning yourself for promotion. Oh, I hope y'all are getting this today. Listen, if you're a man, let's talk about waiting on a mate, okay? Waiting on a wife, or waiting on a husband. If you're a man, I'm about to give you the blueprint. You ready? You go after God, you begin to pray for her. Pray that God will send her, and you get yourself financially prepared for her. You know, in the church world, there's been a saying, girl, I'm just waiting on my boa ass. Everybody wants a boa ass. Can I tell y'all something about boa ass when you read that story on Ruth? There were two qualifications to be a boa ass. He loved God. When you listen to the words he spoke, he was a man that was going after God. Here's the other thing. Boa ass was good with finances, he had some money. So if you really wanting a boa ass, you know, he can be saved, but if he broke, he ain't a boa ass. Or he can have money and not be saved, he ain't a boa ass. Now I have a joke with Dee, when we first met, I was saved, loved the Lord, I didn't have no money. I told her I wasn't a boa ass, I was just a boa. At that time, that was all I was then. God didn't change some things for us. But men, listen, you should be preparing yourself for your wife. I told my own son this, just pray for her. You go after God with your whole heart. Just pray for her. And God, listen, I know this doesn't, once again, in the kingdom, it makes no, it's completely opposite from the world's thinking.
Your wife will come quicker if you don't look for her. Because when you get in that mindset that I got to find, I gotta look, I gotta date, I gotta go, let me tell you what's gonna happen. The enemy's gonna set you up, he gonna say counterfeit after counterfeit. She gonna be the way you like, you like brunettes, he'll send you, you like blondes, he'll send you blondes. She might even be able to talk a little word. It'll be a counterfeit. Because you're going after, out of the flesh. But if you just go, he said, seek ye first the kingdom, and all these things will be add unto you. And you just pray for her, and then be thinking about her, and say, I need to put some money away. See, I just believe, when I look in the Old Testament, when they would go ask for a woman's hand in marriage, they said he, and he left her with 100 goats and 50, I mean, back in those days, you know, that was a Cadillac. And so many of this and so many of that, he was letting that father know, I can take care of your baby. I got her. So while you're waiting on her, be praying to God, send her to me, but start putting money away. I think it'll be nice by the time God sends your wife to you, you already got a house waiting for her to decorate. Do y'all get this? You're putting yourself in position. See, once you get in your flesh, and you start going after it yourself, God said, oh, you got it, and he backs off. Y'all, so many things happen. That's why Pastor Troy does not believe in dating from the sense of how the world dates. It's trial and error. God never meant for that to be, because most of us, you know, Michelle, you date a guy, two or three guys, by the end of it, your heart's so scarred and messed up, and you got problems, and when God finally do send you somebody, he'd be like, what's wrong? I'm just trying to touch you, and you're jumping all over. Well, you know, Jeremy used to beat me. You know, things that you go through, or you were in love with somebody, and you were just totally in love, and then they just drop you. Do you think God wanted y'all to go through that? No, it comes faster. You can be out there four or five years dating, never find the right person, and if you had just went after God with your whole heart while you were walking it out, God had a Kairos moment. That's a marked moment in time. You were in the grocery store, and y'all both going for the same grapefruit. What? I promise you, though, God gonna pull it together. You ain't gotta use dating sites. There's Christian dating sites. All this, y'all, that's flesh. That is all flesh. Just trust God, and when you see her,
when you finally meet, you'll know that you know, that you know in your spirit. That good stuff? Now, let's talk about the woman. I ain't forgot about y'all. What do you do when you're waiting on a maid? Same thing. Go after God with all your heart. Seek godly virtue. Pray for him. Prepare yourself to be a godly woman. Listen, I know we're in a time, women work, and all that good stuff, but listen, y'all may not believe this. Men still like a clean house. Y'all may not believe this. Men still like a woman that can whip up a magnificent meal. Do you follow me? Prepare yourself to be a wife. I do a message, it's like a dual message, called, are you man enough? And then D follows it up, where one says, but are you worth finding? Because the Bible says, when a man finds a wife, he finds a good. I have not found a scripture yet that says, when a woman seeks after a man, or when a woman wears scantily closed to attract men, she finds a good, no, I ain't never found that scripture. You're found. Do you understand what I'm saying? You are found. He finds you. He discovers you. Same thing. You ain't got a date. If you have godly virtue, let me say this, when I first got down here from New York, I moved to Alabama, New York never did any fishing, okay? All I did was play basketball in the hard court, okay? Got down here and met a couple country boys. Man, you ain't never been fishing. No, come on, we're gonna take you fishing. We'll get all my equipment. I fell in love with it, you guys. For three years, I would fish every time. If I had two hours, I wouldn't do it, and I'd find a pond. I just loved it, but this is what I found out. When you're fishing for catfish, you use different bait than when you're fishing for bass. Because catfish feed off the bottom. So you use worms and stank bait and liver and all that kind of stuff. But a bass, he feeds off the top and he's looking for something shiny and colorful. It's different. And you guys, when you're talking about a woman and you want to be found, that godly man, that Boaz, he ain't looking for that woman that's showing all her breasts, scantily clad, cursing, going to the clubs. He'll look right past you.
But if you got that godly virtue and you're going after God, I remember Dr. Mull, he's our head doctor where I work. He's a believer. And he was in his early 20s and he was at church one Sunday. And the lady that he's been married to for 30 years now or so, he said he, in service, it was doing praise and worship. He looked over and he said she had, Melissa had her hands raised up and she was, he said she was not only singing, she was literally worshiping God and he couldn't take his eyes off of her. And then he started talking to her and she was still a virgin. And he said, and he courted her, not dated. Courtship is completely different. Courtship, the ultimate aim of courtship is matrimony. Not trial and error. They've been married all these years, have a child. But I remember him telling me it was her virtue, it was the way she worshiped God. Boaz will find you. You can position yourself for a blessing. Oh, I hope y'all are getting this today. One more thing I wanna talk about. For two more things, let's say that. The wealth of the wicked is laid up for the just. We all know that scripture. But I don't believe every single person, if there is going to be an end time wealth transfer, I don't believe it's going to be, everybody is going to get it. I think it is people that are out there doing their kingdom assignment, working for God, given into kingdom work, into good ground. If there's, I believe it's gonna be people that have positioned themselves for it. Not everybody, not everybody. And so place planted position. Some of you out there today are listening to me. And there's been something stirring in your spirit because you feel like God is saying, I gotta leave here and I gotta go there. I sense I need to move there. I think it's very, very possible. It'd be in prayer about it because God may be re, maybe he wants to place you somewhere else. Maybe he's beginning to move you on his end time chess board. Because I believe God is pulling remnants together in this hour and this season. I've been believing this for about 10 years. Many of you are here today because God, you felt that compelling that I gotta get down here where my people, these are my people. What do you call them? Tribe.
Wanda said when she got around us, she said, finally, I'm with my tribe. She used to say that when she first started coming to the next level ministries in here, she said over and over, I'm with my tribe. She knew this was the remnant that I was supposed to be around. And I believe there may be many of you out there. God may be speaking to you. He might be ready to shift you and move you. Because I'm telling you guys in the next couple years, there's gonna be some things that's gonna go down in this country and in the world. And you're gonna need to be with your tribe. You're gonna need to be with like mind, like people because God's gonna do miracles. Can I tell y'all something? When Moses went to get the children of Israel out of Egypt, when those plagues came, when you go back and read that, you'll see something. It came to Egypt, but it didn't come to Goshen. Y'all, we're gonna have to be living in our Goshen. I do a message called sacrificial giving for supernatural living. Listen, your giving gonna have to be right. You're going after God's gonna have to be right. You're gonna have to be around the right people and it's probably not gonna be a mega church. And God's gonna, the plagues that are gonna come around everybody else. The sickness is gonna come around everybody else. The poverty is gonna come around everybody else. Greg, you might have to cut my hair during that time. We would do what we have to do. I'll get my eggs from mama. Y'all hear me. Y'all hear what the Lord is saying. Place, planning and position. Let's pray and then get ready to keep us on. Father, we thank you for the word of God today. And Lord, I pray that the Holy Spirit has spoke to each and every heart today. Every person that has heard the sound of my voice, that they, maybe they understand a little better now, Lord, Lord, now I understand why you have me at that job. Father, now I understand why my church is in this little town or in this place, Lord, and I really don't wanna be here, but you got me planted. And Lord, I can't uproot myself. I gotta wait for you to move me. Lord, maybe there's that person out there that's been debating, is it time for me to leave this state and move somewhere else and shift over here because it's you, Lord, that's speaking to them. You've stirred this in their heart. Father, I pray now that more people have a revelation and an understanding of how you do things. Lord, we are placed, we are planted, and Father, we decide how much we are positioned to get blessing and promotion for you. So Father, we thank you for the word once again. Father, we give you all the honor, all the glory, and all the praise in Jesus' mighty name.
Amen.
I got caught up into the worship. He said, you gotta go back up there and say goodbye to everybody. I said, oh, yeah, that's right. So look, thank you guys today. I hope you were blessed by the message. I thank all you guys for being here today. Pastor Dean, we hope you and your family are feeling much better. Do you want me to go ahead and do this announcement? Okay, so we're still having our service tonight, okay? And it starts at seven. We go from seven to 10. So for those that wanna come back for what we used to call watch night service at church I used to go to, but it's really just praying in and worshiping in the new year, amen? Because it is a blessing to go from one year to the other, amen? All right, so I would be remiss if I did not tell you guys you've got to hug some necks before you leave, okay? Gotta hug some necks. All right, y'all be blessed.