This is “What to Do in the Time of Famine.” God uses less-than-perfect places to prosper you. When others are unkind to you, will you stay faithful? When you feel all alone, will you still worship and dig in, or will your eyes go to the ends of the earth? Our tendency is to run and go somewhere else. But there are times when God says “Stay right where you are!” even when there is a famine all around you. In this message, we learn the significance of sowing into what you have, and the 100-fold blessing it brings forth!
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connection you’re in a place where you
dream it happening like you thought it
would work and and now the business is
struggling you have to have perseverance
through severe times through hard times
through trials and if you hold on God is
faithful you go to Genesis chapter 26
I’ll preach a few minutes hallelujah
there was a famine in the land besides
the first famine that was in the days of
Abraham and Isaac went to Abimelech the
king of the Philistines the Lord
appeared to him there and said do not go
down to Egypt live in the land that I
have put you verse 3 dwell in this land
I will be with you I will bless you for
you you and your descendants I’ll give
you these lands and I will perform the
oath which I swore to Abraham your
father verse 6 so Isaac dwelt in
Guerrero verse 12
Isaac sowed in that land what land the
land that was in famine and reaped in
the same year a hundredfold and the Lord
blessed him verse 13 the man began to
prosper continued prospering until he
became very prosperous that’s a good one
well and that was just in his soul verse
14 for he had possessions of flocks and
possessions of herds great number of
employees I love this part and the
Philistines envied him the ungodly
so I want to talk to you about what to
do when you get in a famine when things
dry when you’re going through a tough
time I want to show you something in the
scripture when we talk about famine we
really don’t understand in the bless
state that we’re in in America what a
famine is a survey this group here I
don’t see anybody in a famine usually
there are two things that cause a famine
usually it’s either war or it’s
weather-related and they were in that
kind of famine swollen bellies disease
people dying crops failing everything
nobody had food nobody had nothing and
God said to Isaac stay right where you
are
don’t go anywhere now this is in
contrast and I want to leave that story
we’re gonna come back to it in just a
minute I’m gonna take you on a little
trip to two other stories in the Bible
that go right with it and then we’ll end
I want you to see that the contrast
between him obeying God and staying in a
place that God said it’s your land I’ve
given it to you this is yours and just
because you’re in a famine you don’t
walk away from it just because it’s not
producing for you right now you don’t
quit pack your bags and go somewhere
else that looks better you stay right
where you are
I’m giving you a stay here command God
said to Isaac I don’t want you to do
like your father Abraham I don’t want
you to do like Naomi Naomi got in a
famine we’re told about it in the Book
of Ruth and the Bible said that she was
in the city and in the place the Holy
Land she was in Bethlehem which means
House of bread but it seems like there’s
something wrong with that that the house
of bread would be breadless and she was
without bread and there was a famine in
Bethlehem and she and her husband and
her two sons and their wives left
Bethlehem the house of bread and they
went to Moab
which was a city list
this twenty five miles away now realize
they didn’t have transportation like us
but that’s not very far and it’s a very
logical thing that you’re in famine and
people are starving to death and and and
and there’s no food and everybody’s
going all the other families have gone
so so Naomi why don’t you and your
husband and your sons and their wives
pack your bags and go to Moab and that’s
exactly what they did they went to Moab
but when they got there they found out
and heard that there was bread in
Bethlehem see when you’re in Bethlehem
God’s house and there’s anise breadless
and there will be famines I don’t care
how blessed and called you are to a
place a business a marriage a job a
calling there are times when you go
through leanness there’s times when you
go through hardship there’s times when
you go through battles and you have to
persevere you have to it’s hard it’s
tough we are so quick to jump ship and
hop over somewhere else that looks so
much better that we don’t ever stay
where God told us to stay and so in that
land in that marriage in that business
in that place we’re always looking for
something way out there that’s easy and
go get it quick get-rich-quick and we
don’t understand that all the things
that you need God has given you if you
sow into that land and the Bible said
when they went to Moab her husband died
her two sons died and she says I’m
bitter and just let me die but her
daughter-in-law the only one left that
stayed with her the other one left said
there’s bread in Bethlehem let’s go back
but notice that in famine they left and
they traded three funerals for one
famine sometimes it’s better to stay in
the house my my worst day in the house
of God is better than my best day in the
world and you know what I may be going
through things and sometimes we feel
like that listen to me young people
sometimes it looked like everything out
there in Moab is fun
and there’s no shortage of fun and music
and party and and all kinds of stuff
going out there and Here I am in the
house of God when I first got saved it
was exciting but now things are dried up
no big miracles I’m just what do you do
you take the Word of God in that land
sew it into your life sew it into your
life so the dreams of God and get in
services like this let him so and if
you’ll stay in God’s house even when
it’s breadless there will come a time
when it’ll come back listen to this a
hundredfold you can’t get the
hundredfold unless you make it food a
famine in that land that was famine is
the land that brought forth a
hundredfold I think we need to
understand what the scripture says in
proverbs 17 and 20 for wisdom is before
the eyes of him who has understanding
but to the eyes of a fool there on the
ends of the earth listen to that
scripture it says that wisdom is before
the eyes of him who has understanding
another way of saying that is when
you’re wise person you begin to
appreciate the people that you have
around you you begin to appreciate the
things that you have around you but the
fool his eyes are upon the ends of the
earth if I had that if I could go over
there if I could if I was in LA if I was
in Chicago if I could go and they never
see what they have if I had that man and
not this man if I had that girl and not
this girl if I had that woman she
doesn’t have the problems that this
woman has you are stupid they all have
problems you don’t you just go and trade
out problems so into that land so into
that marriage so into that
why don’t why don’t you instead of
having an affair having an affair with
your wife and go off on a weekend why
don’t you sow into that land when it’s
in a famine it can produce a hundredfold
that can produce divorce and attorneys
and all that other stuff
so into that land when I think about the
Lord listen to this God uses less than
perfect places in our life to do
something in famine that feasting cannot
do for us God uses less than perfect
places
he says I’m telling you Isaac I’m
telling you now God shifts it now we’re
back to the story and I’m gonna close it
in a minute but he says Isaac I don’t
want you to do like your daddy did I
don’t want you to do like Naomi did I
want you to stay in this land don’t go
nowhere I know it’s not a perfect place
I know it’s not beautiful as Egypt
always say Egypt had a river so they
never had a famine and then the enemy
wants to show you the glitz and glamor
of the world and says if you just go do
that but the truth is sometimes it’s
better when you’re in a famine to stay
right here and I’ll so the word and I’ll
so the truth into my life and I may not
be prospering right now all my friends
have gone over there and they’re doing
just fine without God and doing just
fine without the word and all this
discipline trying to live for Jesus but
I’m telling you that there’s something
about sowing into your life when you’re
in a famine sow into that ground God
told Isaac remain right here I want you
to stay in this place the word the word
Guerard means to drag off roughly and
the chew up I’m telling you that my will
for you is not easier better more
comfortable I’m telling you to stay in
Guerard or what is that it’s a place
where they’re gonna drag you off roughly
they’re gonna treat you ugly they’re
going to chew you up and spit you out
and oh by the way you’re in a land that
the Philistines are all around you
there’s warlike people all around you
and it’d be so much easier just to leave
and to go over here to Egypt where
everything looks fun but I want you to
stay right there
where you get drugged off roughly where
you get drugged off roughly where you
get chewed up spit out where you going
through all kinds of stuff and everybody
over there that ain’t even
even for God don’t even try to live for
God they’re doing so good here you are
getting chewed up and spit out and
drugged off roughly and treated wrong
and warlike people all around you
anybody ever felt that way as a
Christian as a believer you don’t quit
you don’t go back to the addiction you
don’t go back to the alcohol you don’t
go back to the drugs you don’t go to
another lover you don’t get out of that
you stay in the house of bread and bread
we’ll come again even when it seems like
it’s breadless you stay there plant
there so there I’m saying to you that
Jesus Christ was a root out of dry
ground and some of the greatest things
God will do in your life is not when
you’re on top of the mountain and
everything’s blessed but some of the
greatest things God will do for you is
if you learn to stand in the middle of
the famine and keep sowing the truth of
God’s Word until you see it break
through he located Lazarus on the fourth
day when he was smelling of decay he
found David on the backside of a desert
God works in unusual places surprising
places
he found Moses in the desert he found
Jobe in the trial he found the three
Hebrew children in the fiery furnace he
found Daniel in the lion’s den he found
Elijah under a juniper tree trying to
kill himself suicidal warning to die
he found Jeremiah in a pit Peter in a
prison and Paul in a storm and God said
I use surprising places to bring my
glory out of them and if he’s got you in
one don’t run don’t don’t don’t don’t
pack your bags stand and so into that
land do the best you can with what
you’ve got and God is faithful I need
everybody to take a praise break if
Jesus was a root out of dry ground he
can make you one come on take a moment
and praise Him I’m almost done praising
here’s my question for you if you missed
everything get this how well do you
respond to the stay here command even
when you don’t understand and even when
you’re praying and nothing’s happening
and there’s no breakthrough how well do
you respond to God
stay here command because that’s the
only place you can get a hundredfold is
when you stay and everybody else leaves
God doesn’t want you to be like
everybody else how do you respond when
God says stay right here don’t leave
don’t move stand still no clouds no rain
no nothing stand still everybody else is
left stand still right here stay where
you are I’m preaching to some Isaac’s
whose eyes are on the ends of the world
God says everything you dream of is
right in where you are if you were just
so into it I could see him I loved it
because the Bible said that when he
sowed into everybody say that land when
he sowed into that land not he didn’t
sow into what he wished it was he didn’t
sow into what it ought to be
he didn’t sow into I wish it was this
and it ought to be that you sow into
what you have and the Bible said he
reaped a hundredfold in that land
Isaac sowed in that land and reaped the
same year a hundredfold and the Lord
blessed him can you see him for every
seed he dropped in that dusty ground
God gave he I could see him making those
rows in and dropping dropping corn seeds
and green bean seeds and potato seeds
and tomato seeds and preaching like I
want to okra seeds you hungry yet
cornbread seeds I don’t know wherever
that comes from but he was dropping all
those scenes and he comes back and in
that land for every seed of corn he
dropped he has a hundred corn stalks
in that land I could see him eating
don’t you know the Bible said the
Philistines inveted can you imagine him
getting that hundredfold harvest of
tomatoes drop for every seed 100
Tomatoes for every see for every for
every piece of okra seed that do they
have seeds every seat I don’t know but
whatever all that stuff farmers give me
some help out there my god I guess what
I’m trying to say to you is he will
bless you in that place if you will sow
into that place he stayed where he was
he endured the famine perseverance per
means through severe perseverance you
got to get perseverance just because it
gets tough just because you’re in a
place where you dream it happening like
you thought it would work and and now
the business is struggling and stuff you
have to you have to have perseverance
through severe times through hard times
through trials through hardships you go
on through you so the word so
encouragement getting a good church like
this so it into your life and it’ll get
you through those hard times and if you
hold on God is faithful and he wreaked a
hundredfold I want to close with this
true story the Civil War came late and
hard to southern Louisiana a dozen years
before the Civil War a soldier returned
from Mexico and he gave some dried
peppers to a man by the name of a of
Edmond McKinney dried peppers nobody in
southern Louisiana had had ever tasted
this food came from Mexico and nobody
had ever tasted these hot peppers and
the man loved them so much he lived on a
place called Avery Island in south
Louisiana still exists today major
tourist attraction today I’ll tell you
why in a minute
and he planted he took some of the seeds
and planted those peppers among his vast
garden and harvest and he loved that
taste he loved it and he and his wife
had a salt mining business because Avery
Island is on on a salt dome but when the
Civil War came he and his family and all
the families on that island fled to
other places mostly Texas and they left
that and when the war took place it was
an area where the war really got rough
and they they burned his farm down
everybody else’s farm there the fields
were wiped out it was it was nothing but
total devastation they came back after
the war and he’s doing a survey of what
he has his houses burned down his fields
and crops are all gone everything is
torn down the fences it’s everything
it’s just devastation and all of the
other people on the island left they
went to New Orleans they went to other
places other cities there’s nothing here
it’s a salt dome and there’s no life
here but this guy wouldn’t leave his
crops are ruined his house is plundered
everything is gone everything was dead
except in the overgrown fields of
peppers those hot peppers survived and
they spread like weeds and they were all
over the place and it was the only thing
that would grow so he said well let’s
see I’ve got plenty of salt
I’ve got peppers in abundance and he
found some French vinegar in an old
whiskey barrel that had been kept for
three years and he took that old vinegar
mixed it with the peppers and the salt
into a special recipe making a hot sauce
that nobody had ever tasted in that
whole region of the world and it was so
good that he told his wife and she
agreed this is good stuff and they
started putting it on everything and one
day he went to the city dump and was
going through trash and he found 350
perfume bottles
little glass perfume bottles he took
those glass perfume bottles cleaned them
out and took his sauce put them in the
salt put the sauce in the perfume
bottles and started going around to
different cities around selling from his
his little hot sauce and it caught on
like like like you wouldn’t believe
grocery stores started asking for it and
the next thing you know he ended up true
story with a little perfume looking
bottle of hot sauce called Tabasco sauce
it came from a man when everybody else
was leaving and saying this land is
useless he said I’m going to sow into
this land and this Tabasco label is in
22 different languages 175 Nations it’s
a 5 generation organization he’s not a
public company it’s privately owned by
him and his family for five generations
of millionaires it’s sold let in 2014 it
sold over 200 million dollars worth of
those little peppers salt and vinegar
but can you imagine that five
generations would have missed the mega
blessing and this is natural but apply
it spiritually five generations of
untold blessing because the father said
I’m in a famine but my eyes are not on
the ends of the earth like a fool
there’s something right here that God
can bless if I was so in the land in the
same land in the time of famine I’ll
reap a hundredfold and God will bless me
and my descendants for generation after
generation after generation you gotta
clap better than that Oh hallelujah
[Applause]
well if you’re going through a difficult
time in your marriage or business or
your finances I believe this message is
for you and my prayer is that God will
give you the spirit that Aizen had the
spirit that never gives up that never
gives in to the discouragement that
tries to overwhelm us and especially
that discouragement will come in the
time of famine but he decided to so
praise and prayer and set his heart and
say nothing’s gonna move me God’s given
me a promise I’m standing on that
promise and he will prosper me right
here
I’m telling you that today God’s gonna
prosper you more and more in 2018 God is
your source did you hear me
God is your source you just have to keep
sowing and it’s not just resources or
money we’re talking about we’re talking
about so in love sowing forgiveness
we’re talking about sowing in and you
know just determination that what God’s
told me is going to come to pass and all
of that begins all of that is contingent
upon you being in relationship with
Jesus Christ right now you in this
moment can have a holy moment pray this
prayer say Lord Jesus I give you my life
I need your help I need your forgiveness
I need your grace I messed up but but
you don’t ever give up on people who
mess up you love me and I receive your
forgiveness your help your love your
healing in my life in Jesus name and
father I do pray for people who are
physically sick that you would heal them
today yes you care yes you know yes you
do heal and I pray you would heal and
deliver people from all of their fear
and torment and
an infirmity sickness addiction in Jesus
mighty name we pray amen
somebody is praying for you and if you
prayed that prayer I sure would love to
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what God has done in your life you’re an
overcomer by the blood of the Lamb
that’s what just got applied to your
life but there’s a second part the word
of your testimony tell somebody what
Jesus has done and our closing moments I
would really like to encourage all of
you who have been blessed by this
ministry to participate and help us get
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you’ve seen some beautiful things that
we’re doing around the world and the
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we’re at a point where we have so many
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daily we have to make calls and
decisions will we you know will we go I
think of that vision that Paul had when
he saw a man in a place called Macedonia
in it and and they were they were saying
come and help us come and help us and I
I get that vision sometimes in my spirit
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people pray and saying come and help us
and the only way that we can do that is
if people like you say I have resources
I believe in those people I believe they
do what they say and when you give we’re
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somebody’s prayer Paul said in the book
of Romans how will they hear unless
somebody preaches and how will they
preach unless somebody ascent in other
words there’s preachers in their centers
and I’m a preacher but I tell you what I
thank God for I thank God for you who
are senders of the gospel you so you
give great some you know it’s not the
amount
it’s the obedience ask God what he would
have you to do I’m not even asking you
to give a certain amount I’m asking you
to ask God should I be a part of the
expansion there we’re adding 20 new
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on a secular station Los Angeles it’s
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unless we preach and how will we preach
unless we’re sinned thank you thank you
thank you for hearing the call to send
the gospel into all the world and I know
God will bless you one day when we get
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believe there’s gonna be a section that
we’ve helped populate together you and I
because you cared enough to give thank
you so much let God speak to your heart
we’ll see you right here next time on
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