Transformation | Donnell Mann

So we want to give you a praise right now with every voice in the room. Come on call out to your God Lift your marriage to your God Lift your kids to your God Believe that your God can do far more than you can think or imagine Because you put the mighty name of Jesus on it, Father And so we ask that you just meet us right here, right now We ask, Father, that you touch our heads, you touch our hearts, you touch our spirits And do what only you can do Because we put your son's name, Jesus, on you In Jesus' name And the church said, Amen Come on, let's make some noise for Jesus one more time One more time One more again, baby One more again, baby So look, now Some of y'all trying to sit down, I don't want you to sit down yet We need to talk before you sit down Look, I'm gonna try to do this and get my little iPad ready And all this, but listen, so Man, it feel good in here, don't it? Come on, man So I know a lot of people in this house Got brothers and sisters, if you don't know me, you my brother and my sister I'm like your big crazy brother You're about to figure out why in a moment But I wanted to take a moment, man, and This is something I'm learning My name is Pastor Dono, I lead Your Story Church In the west side of Houston, out in Aleve, Texas

I tell people I'm a son of this house before it was a house Pastor Rod experimented on me I got, y'all think he rough now, you said, like, look Boy, boy, boy, he was tough But I want to take a moment Because you're pastors They've discipled me since 2011 When I was an addict struggling on my way to prison For life They didn't ask what I had to offer They gave me what they had Right, and I remember, I just brought this Thank you, Holy Spirit, see And there was this scripture in the book of Acts And me and Pastor Rod was listening to the book of Acts And speaking, there's this scripture where, you know Peter walks by and he says, look, I ain't got money for you But what I got to give to you Is the Lord Jesus Almighty And He can shift some things in your life And that's the type of pastors that they And so I'm a little bit of hood Right, so I need us to turn this way Listen, I love you I honor you It is a blessing to be here And I want the whole church to salute your pastors Come on, man, we gonna do this Make noise, raise your voice Come on, man, listen, ain't you being obedient?

Come on, let's go All right, man, y'all, take a seat Take a seat, take a seat, take a seat Union, Houston, it feels good to be in the house today And so, you know, Your Story Church had the honor Of having Pastor Rod It's a cheat, I can't really do what you did You know what I'm saying? But he went to the house And he spoke a word And he said, y'all stand up when you read the word of God And my church was like, stand up You know what I'm saying? They comfortable, you know what I'm saying? We got to stretch them now When I watched that video, I was like, oh no Y'all in trouble when I get back But something we do at Your Story Church And before we decide Hey, hold on, first and foremost, I apologize to my brothers And sisters in prison This message is just as much for you And when you get out, this is just as much as your house As it is our house Understand that And so, I think God has a word for us today Right, but first and foremost, something I do When I was in the penitentiary, I got there And you know, I got good hair I got light skin

And so it's funny, because when I walk in John ain't be knowing this too They look at me like, dang, is he black? Is he Mexican? Oh no, he got to be a Puerto Rican Right? He just, right? Here's the kicker though The reason why they're looking at you that way Is to find out who's going to come up to you and check you Who's going to come up to you and see what your heart is holding Right, and so before we dive into today's message I want to check y'all's heart And it's something I do every Sunday See, because the world is going to test you Just like those men were trying to test me And test each other The world is going to test you to see what you're made of The enemy is going to see What's that spot I can get him to fold? But if you're in this room you know that your strength doesn't come from ourselves, your strength doesn't come from you, but it comes from the solid rock that we stand on, and if you're standing strong on the immovable Word of God today, uh oh, here's where I'm gonna get y'all. I want you to hold it up. I want you to hold it up. And I want you to hold up your phone, because if you throw that phone you're gonna be mad. It's a thousand dollars down the drain, so, so, so, look, yeah, throw it. You work out, so I already know, you thought the thing was gonna break. But let me tell you something about this Bible. Pastor Ross sent me this Bible January of 2013 when I was in the penitentiary with a fresh 18 year sentence. And let me show you something, this is somebody whose heart is to make disciples, do you know why he sent me this Bible? It's the exact Bible he was using.

And I've held it the entire time, I actually had to have it rebound, because I put this thing in, this Bible went to war. And sometimes you need something to hold on to, you need the tangible Word of God, and in these pages is the tangible Word of God. It's the Word of God that says you are a new creation. It's the Word of God that says you are a royal priesthood. It's the Word of God that says you've been separated as far as the east is from the west of your city. It's the Word of God that says you've been blood-bought, born again, empowered by His Spirit. So next time I come back I want to see a room, listen, I want to see a room filled of Bibles. Because I'm gonna start, I'm gonna introduce myself to some of y'all that didn't have your Bibles. That's Noah, right? See, you're already in trouble. So I follow you on social media, by the way, so that's how I know who you are. Congratulations, too, on the marriage, baby. But listen, but listen, but when I see you again, I'm gonna ask, man, where is that Word? I can't memorize every page, so I gotta carry it with me. It stay in my backpack, it stay under my dashboard, it stay in my car, but I just can't reiterate what it is to have that Word with you. Right? And you know, so when Pastor Rod asked me to speak and come and to share my heart, it is always, and I get nervous. Because I don't want to let him down, I don't want to let you guys down. And so, man, it's amazing, but I start to think of things that are nice in my life. I go on a walk, and I live in an okay neighborhood, and I just look at the gardens, right? There's gardens and there's flowers and it smells like mulch. You know when that mulch is fresh and it don't smell like poo, it just smell like outside, right? There's that, no, but I look at it and I admire it. And I remember, and last week, I spent a week with Pastor Rod in a season of my life, and I'll get to that in a minute. That was kind of tough, and he just called me and said, what are you doing next week? I was like, next week is like two and a half days, dog. And he was like, what are you doing next week? Why? He's like, golly, man, can I ask you to go somewhere with me? I said, okay, where? And he's like, come here. He's like, can you say yes or no?

But let me tell you something about being discipled by Pastor Rod. It's something I learned, the most effective thing is simply say yes. Right? And I was going to post a video, but right when we get to where we're going, and I have none, listen, listen. Your boy is from the west side of Houston. I sold dope on Cook Road, Boone Road, Highway 6. I ain't no mountains. Ain't no hiking boots. I needed track shoes, if you know what I mean. So he's got me in some mountain boots, and we're on a mountaintop, and I'm kind of nervous. I lied to you, man. We done drove. No, here's the kicker. Let me back up. We drove 17 hours. We drove 11 hours the first day, six hours the next day. And I'm thinking we're going to get to where we're going. We're going to have us a nice dinner. We're going to talk about the Lord and just, you know, smile and laugh. Man, we get there, man. He's like, look, come on, get your boots on. We're going hiking, dog. I ain't even ate dinner. Your boy be hungry. I'm not slim and trim. I got calories I got to intake. Especially if we're going hiking. Don't worry about it, bro. It happens when you're kids, young, twins. I feel you.

So, no, so we get on this. We start this hike. We start this hike and it was deceiving. Like we start way over here, right? We over here and we walk in. I'm like, oh, shoot. Your boy good. I ain't got a little watch. All of a sudden we hit this corner and it's like. And I'm like, we get to the first leaf. I'm standing about 125 feet, and I'm, ooooh, run, and he ain't stopping. And I'm praying, no, and I'm praying to God. Because I realize that sometimes your mountaintops look like valleys. And the Lord gave me that this morning, by the way. Sometimes your mountaintops look like valleys, and the reason why we were on this trip, and I'm gonna just be transparent up front, is I lead a church, and I woke up two weeks ago, in the middle of the night, having a panic attack about finances, and people, and all these things, and the first person I called in the morning was my pastor. And he was like, I got you, go do what you need to do, and he spoke at our church, and then he said, I'm gonna take you to do something, and so while we're hiking this thing, and I can't breathe, and I'm buckled over, I get my phone out, and I'm recording Pastor Rod Wall, and I'm just walking with him.

I'm not looking to the left, I'm not looking to the right, I'm following my teacher, I'm following my rabbi, because listen, I know where he's going, he's going to Jesus, I know we gonna get to the mountaintop, and we gonna be okay, I know that I can't handle it, but he can. I'm gonna tell you, listen, well, we ain't even got into the message yet, but I'm gonna tell you, see, cause see, God told me we got some people in here who's struggling to look, and be obedient. Faith got them to the door, but obedience is gonna get you to Jesus. That's where that faith without works is dead, because you're gonna be dead in your faith. I ain't gonna get y'all there, but look, that's a whole nother one for what happened at the other mountaintop, until you got multiple mountaintops for your boy, but listen, I realized before this panic attack, I was looking, just like I would look at the beautiful gardens when I walk, just like I would look at the immaculate flowers that were there, I was looking at thriving pastors in big churches. I was looking at business owners. Sometimes we look at business owners, and we see how successful they are, and we look at the healthy marriages when we're struggling, and here's the thing,

is we forget that each one of those things, and we're in a season called seeds, and we're gonna be talking about trees. Every tree, every beautiful mountaintop flower, every healthy marriage was buried, was a seed buried in dirt. It didn't just become beautiful, it didn't just become healthy and fruitful, and then sometimes in life, we don't look like a fruitful tree or a beautiful garden. I remember, 2011, conversation goes something like this. I'm going to, that's when Katie Mills Mall was safe. Ain't safe no more, dog. You know what I'm talking about? I'm a convicted felon, I gotta take a pistol there. You know what I'm saying? But again, I remember going to Katie Mills Mall, and this is back when you could check in Facebook on your phone for you younger generation that don't use Facebook. It's just like a little thing you can do, but I remember checking in, and Pastor Rod was like, man, I ain't seen you in 20 years. Matter of fact, last time I seen him, we was in the club. Hey, I ain't seen you in 20 years, man, stop by, man. I'm over here with my youth group. I'm like, and I'm gonna be very honest, I was filled with so much shame, and how I felt about myself, I turned around and left. And that guy got a sense of humor, right?

Because we head to Memorial City Mall. It's been through its phases, it's getting better. You know what I'm talking about? So we go to Memorial City Mall, and I'm gonna check in there. I just want the world to think that I'm doing okay, that I'm at the mall shopping, spending money I ain't got, getting in debt I don't need. I accidentally check into a church. Now listen, up to this point in my life, I ain't never even heard, man, ain't nobody talk to me about Jesus, let alone a church. And this man, he tell me, go get your worship on and say a prayer for me. I'm like, oh, Rod done turned weird. Like I ain't. Well, I messaged him back and I get his number, and we end up on the phone, and this is what he tells me. He says, don't think I'm weird or strange, but God says you need me. And you know when the Holy Spirit move and you can't explain it because you don't even know that dude yet? I was like, he was like, man, let me take you to dinner. I was like, I ain't got no money, I ain't got no car, I barely got any clothes. I just tell him the laundry list of reasons why I can't go. He say, man, I just need you to get there. I got the money, I got the ride home, but God says you need me.

And I get there. And he begins to tell me this story. He fills in some of the gaps of his life. that we weren't connected and he tells me about being in this rehab and getting kicked out and he tells me about this park bench where he encountered God. And what I didn't realize then but I realize today is that he was planting seeds of hope. He was planting seeds of a new life. And to fast forward I ended up giving my life to Christ and same day I wanted to cuss him out, this is how I was. But I started walking this life out and I still was struggling with addiction and unhealthy relationships and all the things. Your boy was looking like a weed. I wasn't looking saved, I'm not going to lie. I put him through, man listen, I called him and told him you ain't my daddy and I quit talking to me. Man I was crazy, I was tough, I was rough around the edges but here's the thing. He knew that I couldn't do it by myself. He knew that I would not be enough, that true spiritual transformation ain't a self-help movement. Quit looking at your 12 ways to become rich on Instagram, your 10 ways to a healthy marriage on Instagram. Get in the Word of God, get somebody discipling you who won't give up on you. Because I'm going to tell you what needs to happen is a supernatural exchange and we may not have had language behind it then but we do now. He knew, he listened. He told me, Donnell, I'm not chasing you but if you want it, I got it and it only happens through the Word of God and being plugged in to the local church. Something had to change outside of myself. I wish I would have wrote some of this down, bro.

Because I realized that God had to step in, He had to take those wild and destructive and selfish and I want what I want ways but He does it through His Word, His Spirit, oh we sound good, right, right, right, right, right, right, we good? And His people. He does it through the seeds that are planted in us and by us. Because we have to remember that every tree, every plant that bears good or bad fruit comes from a seed. And seeds, man, as I was preparing and studying and being in this series, seeds, I realized that Bibles and trees and seeds are all through your Bible, Psalms 1, 1-3, stand up, stand up, y'all are used to it, you say, y'all stand up when you read your Word of God, I'm already standing, y'all might as well join me. We're going to be in Psalms 1, 1-3 and it says, He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruits in the season and its leaves do not wither in all He does and prosper. Take your seat, we got another bunch of scriptures so you can sit down now, I'm going to come back to that. See, Psalm 1 begins with the idea that a righteous person is like tree planted by water, so listen, if you're a tree planted by water, that means somebody planted a seed that was healthy and positioned you to be successful. Because we see when we first in the Bible, it's Genesis 3-17, when Adam and Eve tripped out and God says, hey man, you are going to have sweat in your brow, thorn and thistle, baby, you're going to have to work around them things in order to eat. And that's the legacy of Adam, that's a broken seed saying you're going to have to deal with the weeds. And some of us, all of us have a broken seed inside of us and we wonder why we're bent towards a certain sin or we can't get over some things that is because we're allowing that broken seed to be watered and to be cared for instead of the other seed that I'll get to. But here's what I'll say, Jesus came in the New Testament and tells us a parable about weeds and this is where we're going to pick up today, now you get to stand up again.

I love this, bro. I see why you do it in the beginning and let them sit down. It wasn't happening today, dog. Hey, it ain't happening today, man. Y'all going to sit down? I'm going to just tell you, I'm going to sit down again and get back up one more time. Just how I work. You know what I'm saying? You're going to sound like her, you know what I'm saying? Come on, man. So we're going from Matthew 13, 24 through 30 and it says, Jesus told them another parable. The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, the weeds also appeared. The owner's servant came to him and said, sir, you didn't sow good seed in your field. Where did the weeds come from? Did this, he replied. The servants asked him, do you want us to go and pull them up? No, he answered. Because while you're pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. And at that time, I will tell the harvesters, first collect the weeds, tie them in bundles to be burned, and then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn. You may take your seat. So whenever I speak, and I don't speak at places very often, but when I do, I ask God to ensure

that I'm supposed to be there. Give me a sign. I'm a, well, I ain't gonna use that word. I like a sign from God. Let's just say that. You know what I'm talking about? I was gonna say superstitious, but it don't work, right? You know what I'm saying? That's why I ain't gonna say that word. Come on now, let me make it, you know what I'm talking about? But I need a sign from God. And as I was researching and I was reading up on this, man, the word weeds, Jesus, it's called, my name is Darnell, and people like to refer to me as Darnell. It is a common mistake, right? And as I was looking and getting ready, the weed that Jesus is referring to is called Darnell. Right, it looks almost identical to wheat while it's growing, and you can't tell them apart until they mature. See, how many of us was at that club and we was looking at something we thought was wheat and it really was a weed? When I don't get a lot of response, I mean, some of y'all still in the club doing it. I'm just letting you know, but see, no real talk. We wanna get in that relationship. We like, ooh, that thing look good. He make good money. He gonna take care of me.

And then that relationship starts to develop and you find out he ain't just taking care of you. He does a couple of yous. He just got a good job. I am, man, look, I'm glad, listen, I'm gonna behave. I'm gonna behave, I'm gonna behave, I promise you. But no, so no, but planting this weed in this time, right? This is an agrarian culture, right? So farming and things of that nature is how their livelihood, how they trade, how they make money, how they provide for themselves. So planting this darnel could ruin and reduce their harvest, right? It could contaminate their grain and it's actually mildly toxic. So we could even cause sickness. So this wasn't a prank. This wasn't for giggles and grins. This could ruin someone's life. This was economic violence then and it actually was against the law. It was malicious damage to property. That's a felony in Texas. So let's think about that. And so we think about these weeds and we think about when we see people, now I'm gonna flip it on you. Some of us are in here and we're we. We serving on the team. We looking good.

We opening doors. Man, y'all have amazing people with smiling, had a youngster got me a cup of coffee and all that. But I've been into some churches the same time I have, but you look, look, they don't need to be here. I don't know what's wrong with them. They know they was at the club. Your patience and love for somebody that looks like weed is getting real thin. And they're saying, hey man, can I be a shoulder to cry on? You need to be, look, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. You better repent or you're going to hell. No, that's the patience we have as religious people. I've experienced it. But Jesus, we put his name on it. Come on, man, y'all killed that by the way, but put his name on it. There used to be this old ring tone that didn't say put his name on it, but it made me think of that. And I was like how life has changed by the glory of God. But Jesus is more patient than we are. He's willing to give time for every weed to turn to a weed. Thank God. He's willing to give time for opportunity for heart change to happen. And here's where we stand up again for the word of God. This is cool, baby. It's my notes, dog.

I didn't think it through, dog. And if I would have had to, we'd have read a whole chapter and y'all would have said, either way, y'all would have been upset with me. All right? So we're going to 13 at 36. It says, then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field. He answered, the one who sowed the good seed is the son of man. The field is the world and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds, they are people of the. evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are the angels. As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire so it will be at the end of age, the son of man will send out his angels and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all that do evil. I'm gonna pause right there real quick. You don't sit down, I'm gonna go, but let me explain, let me say this right now. If you're in here and if you're online and you don't know if you're a weed or a weed, I need you to pay attention right now. You can forgive anything else I said before, don't forgive anything else I said before this,

but listen, I need you to tune in to me, I need you to listen because we're about to go somewhere, and listen, I need you to understand what it does say in here, right? They will throw them into a blazing furnace where there will be weeping and gashing of tea. There will be a separation one day of wheat and weeds. There will be, it ain't our business. It ain't our job, but there will be a separation. So I need you paying attention. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father. Listen, whoever has ears to hear, let them hear. And the way you hear this passage is all about the way you see God. And so I got a question, take your seat. I have a question. I got a statement. What do we learn from the wheat and weeds? The first thing we learn is that the difference between the wheat and the weeds is deceit. We can look, listen, listen, this happened in my church, and it happens in churches across the world, and it probably happened here, but on Easter Sunday, bro, Rob, I had somebody in like a, what's that, a quarter length pink suit with a fedora and a feather, looking good. I was like, I was like, Kanisha, boy, you look good. I said, come on, girl, do your thing. You know what I'm saying?

She had been coming in and out of the church for a little bit, and then I go and I do the message, and she comes up to the altar call, and then she starts crying and bawling and telling how she's struggling with her sexuality, how she's struggling to obey God in certain areas of her life, how she's struggling to be who she know God, and of course, see, she was looking like a wheat, but she was feeling like a weed. And so we gotta be, listen, we gotta be careful about who we surround ourselves, but not Kanisha, but you wanna be around your homeboy or your homegirl, and you know they not saying, oh, but they got a good personality, they a good person. Listen, let me explain something to you. It might be a doornail that the enemy sent to contaminate your life, to contaminate your marriage. If you married, you ain't got no business going to your single homeboy or homegirl asking for advice. It says in 1 Peter 1, 23, for you have been born again, not of a perishable seed, but an imperishable through the living and enduring word of God. See, the great thing is, see, listen, here we go. Every human, every one of us has that seed. We got that corrupt seed, that broken seed. I got that bad relationship seed. That was my, I was terrible at relationships.

It was what it was, and it goes all the way back to Adam in the Garden of Eden. See, in the first garden, Adam says, listen, not your will, my will be done. And that's that seed of sin, that beautiful legacy he left all of us, faith be. That's why we fall short. That's why we all sin in some way. I don't care how religious you is, I catch you slipping. Nobody tell my people, oh, Daniel, you know such and such. Don't worry about it, I'm gonna catch you slipping. Now I'm watching. But I wanna tell you the good news, but in another garden, the Garden of Gethsemane, the second Adam writes this wrong. Jesus, the perfect son, says, God, now listen, I'll show her, look, she like, ooh, he's sweating like a. Ooh. Ooh. I'm gonna behave, you know what I'm saying? Listen, but in the second Garden of Gethsemane, the second Adam writes this wrong. Jesus, the perfect son, says, listen, God, not your will, not my will, but your will be done. Here's what's crazy. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Adam was in the Garden of Eden. He's living. the life. He's got food in the pantry, money in the bank. If I could rap, that would have been a good intro. You know what I'm talking about? I ain't that guy. I'm kind of square. But he got money in the bank, he got food in it, his wife and him married, they

got a good life, they doing their thing, and he still tripped out. Jesus is in the garden about to give his life. Not just give his life, but he's gonna be beaten, he's gonna be spit on, he's gonna be poked, prodded, gonna be made to carry a cross, he's gonna be ridiculed, he's gonna be all these things. And he says, God, your will, not my will. Let me tell y'all, man, like, your story, church, is thriving, and we bumping, and we doing things, and I've been on what I thought was a mountaintop. I got my head down, I'm loving on people, I'm serving. And let me tell you something, no, your boy was not in no favorite moral sin. That's not what happened. What happened is that I tried to carry my sin, or my part where I fell short, is I tried to carry the weight of the world by myself, right? I was like, I could do this. My will is accomplishing this thing. My preaching is doing this thing. I should be able to get these people here. I should be able to provide for the finances. And God said, no, not your will. My will needs to be done, Donnell. So while you think you're on a mountaintop, I'm gonna reveal the valley to you. And then when Pastor Rod takes me up to this, what I call crested booty, none of my circumstances had changed. We're walking, and if you know a little bit, and I just learned all this, by the way, so I'm not no expert. So if you got questions, go to him, or somebody else that's been up there with him. You know what I'm saying? You might not want to go to Mike. I heard about you, Mike. You know what I'm saying? You're kind of like me, dog. It's all good. Hey, there you go. But mountains in Colorado are rocky. There's a couple little rocks to try to take your boy out the game, but it's rocky. But we go up this thing. It's the second day, and this is a long, long hike, right? And there was some rocks, and there was some trees, but we come around this area. We really don't know. And Rod said, man, I got a word for you. Don't worry about it. I got a word for you. He ain't told me no word yet, and you tell me something like that, you need to give it to me right now. If he gave you a word, give it to me. That's how I am, and he knows it, too. That's the bad part, right? And so he told me, I got this word for you, and I'm like waiting for this word. I'm like, oh, my gosh. So we're hiking. I'm dying. We come around this mountaintop, and I got my breath, and we

come around this area, and he just stops, and he looks. He looks at me. He says, this ain't normal. We look to the left. No fat deer looking at me, dog. I mean, I could, like, reach out and, like... We're about 11,000 feet in the air, and there's this field that looks like wheat and sunflower and flowers in the middle of this thing, and we walk into it, and he begins to tell you the word he gave me. Basically, faith without obedience. He says, Donnell, he says, look, I'm giving you all a condensed version because that's my word. He says, what do those lilies do to exist? Look good. He said, and then a bird... I can't make this up, and a bird flies by, and he's like, how does a bird eat? God. And he's like, Donnell, you don't need all the money in the bank. You don't need all the assurances. You just need to be obedient in faith. And I share that because that's an incorruptible seed. That was the seed. That was the word of God. He couldn't have made that up. He ain't never been there. That's when God show off like that, I'd be like, golly, man. And see, he did that for me. There was no benefit for Pastor Rob. None. And Jesus sat in this garden, and he said, hey, I'm going to do this, God, because it is your will. And God, I want you to know right now, no matter where you're at, whether you're online or you're in the... And he went, listen, Jesus wanted to plant a seed of restoration, reconciliation. He wanted to plant a seed of life, of power, of all the things in you, and so to do that, he went to the cross and he died for you so that you could have an incorruptible seed. Romans 5.15 says, but the gift is not like the trespass, for it is if many died by the trespass of one man, how much more did God's grace and gift and seed that came by the grace of one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to many? The second thing we gotta learn from Wheaton Weeds

is discover that God's grace allows them to grow together. How many of y'all looked at somebody and been like, look, look at that heathen getting blessed? Be one, Mike, thank you for being real, dog. He from the West. No, real talk, we've probably all been guilty, I just don't wanna raise your hand, it's okay, it's okay. But I realize in church world and believer world or whatever we call, we live like this righteously extreme, we wanna tear down anything that looks like a weed, get them out of the church, repent. Now we wanna attack them with the word of God and all the scriptures that we've memorized. And I know there's some of us in here right now that's like, man, I don't wanna ever hear this boy speak again, he crazy, I'll be back. But we just wanna yank up all the weeds and we wanna ignore the word of God because the word of God says you start yanking and pulling things that weren't meant to be yanked or pulled or something could happen and you can pull up some weed by accident, you might hurt your child, you might be dead. I'm 51, I'm 50, baby. I'm 51 and I remember trying to listen. I took, God, man, you know what, man, I used to date white girls back in the day, dog. I'm gonna look over here before I look over there, man, so, all right, so back to where I was at, so I used to date white girls back then

when I was in high school, right? I'm old now, I'm going somewhere with this, right? I'm all for multiracial dating, I'm biracial myself, you know, half black, half white, so it was legal. But I was trying to date this girl and I remember I was like, and I've been this crazy since I was young, right? So I go to her house, I knock on the door, her mama answer. I already knew that was a bad sign. And her mom say, listen, ain't nothing personal, but don't you think you should stay with your own race? There was a church every Sunday and her mom planted that seed in her that she was supposed to stay with her own kind. See, what happens is when we start to try to pull up things that look like weed, then we start to doing things to this weed in our life and she destroyed that little girl's life, destroyed it. But we got another extreme. We got another extreme and these are the ones that are tough past this here. God shouldn't pull anyone out of the garden. That's what his grace is for. We want all love and no truth. Some of us in here and then we want all the grace that the church has to offer and none of the accountability. We don't want anything that helps us put boundaries and be who God called us to be. And we want to lay grace on it.

Listen, I'm trying to tell you, there has to be, listen, there has to be some pruning. You know what I'm talking about? I think of a bonsai tree. There's gotta be some pruning in that thing. You ain't gotta yank the whole tree up out of there. You just gotta get some of that dead stuff up off you, you right? You gotta put some, you need to quit looking at Instagram if you keep looking at them women. You gotta quit going to TikTok if you can't act right. And I ain't even gonna talk about Snapchat. I'm just saying, there's got to be some truth in that grace because the middle ground, we're a garden growing together. And for us that are weak, cause your boy is weak. I'm like that good. What was that thing we were on the podcast? What's that good, good, the good bread? Man, you'll remember. He'll remember it. I mean, there's good bread and not so good bread. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah. So you know what I'm saying? I'm wheat. There's some wheat out there called barley. I don't know, it ain't that good though. I ain't it. I'm trying to be that good wheat. But listen, but we're in this garden and we're growing together. And all Jesus is saying, Hey, look, you just sit and grow. You plant seeds, you water seeds, you do what I asked you to do. And you let me cook. You let me worry about them weeds in a supernatural change that needs to happen. What I need you to do is keep planting seeds because we need more wheat because the harvest is plentiful and the labors are few. I got it. I got it. It's all good. It's going

to fall again and again. I will put it in my pocket. Sorry, I got to keep looking because I keep going off way over there somewhere. But listen, union. So I go up on this mountain top. I'm going for selfish reasons. Your boy was hurting. I need it. My pastor knew I needed to be up there. And I come down from, I get, I get a word, get a couple of words. I come down and I get in the bed where I take a shower because we were smelling like mountain goats. People were looking at us. Well, we don't belong in Colorado. Let me just say that he's not together. But I got my computer out and I started typing. And while I was just looking at me, I was like, God, give me this word for union. And I was like, I got it. I got to get it out. I got to download. I had already written the message. The message was done. I got to write it. And then it says, union, this is a garden. Your house, this building, the person next to you, this is a garden. And we need to be planting seeds with our time, our talent, and our treasure. We need to be committed to this house, making sure that there was more wheat than there is weeds. Jesus is saying, I got this, but I need you planting. I need you sowing seed. I need you to be giving. I need you to be serving. I need you to be discipling. I got this. Listen, I need you to start creating a place for people to connect to God. So I have some questions and listen, don't lie to yourself because we real quick to say, oh yeah, but I got to work like this. Or I got, I got to do this. Or I got, I don't want you to lie to yourself, but I want you to ask yourself, when was the last time you got somebody's phone number here out at the church, man to man, woman to woman, and reached out and said, Hey, I just want to check on you. I just want to pray for you. I just want to encourage you today. When was the last time you got somebody's news number? Not your home girl to do it for you, but somebody you don't know. How many people is the first time in here? Oh, we got some first time guests over here. I'm sorry. I'm here. She probably like, he crazy, man. I gotta go. I'm gonna come to that past after service. How many been here multiple times? Okay, put your hands down. How many people got somebody news number last week when they were here? I just made my point. So then I'm gonna ask that raise your hand if you're on a team. When are you going to jump on that team? We got a discipleship culture in this garden. We got people that want to do life with you. They want to serve alongside of you. They want to,

they want to help you be all that God can call you to be. And that happens when you join on a team. Community is in a team and in small groups and get plugged on because what happens is you begin to be discipled and then you begin to disciple. We are demoralized. We are demoralized. And then you begin to disciple. We under multiplication, baby. Real talk. Why do you think they're having the event this Thursday for men? It's about making disciples. And I'm going to tell you, guess who's going to be right here in the front seat? Your boy. And guess what? I'm not coming along. I wish I got all the men that I disciple and all the men, all my leaders that have direct access to me. I was like, you better get on that link and pay for it. And if you don't have the money for it, I had disciples that I paid for them all. Challenge you. You got me. Listen, it is about planting seeds in the garden. Oh snap. I'm about to get them with this one though. So we, we, when I'm just going to ask you, when are you going to start being a generous giver and sowing into the kingdom of God financially? Yeah. And my, your story church to God, this church, I still, we call it radical generosity. Right? Me and my wife, we give 12% of, listen, we give 12% of our income to the church. My son gives 12% of his social security check. He gets from his biological to the church because we lead the way. And I know. Your pastors, so, listen, your pastors and some of they lead people have given money just to make sure them doors stay open so that you could be connected to God, above and beyond what they're called to give. Because Jesus says, we're called to be generous, give us. I don't want to hear none of that, but we ain't in a whole lot, we don't tie. Okay, be disobedient if you want to. Now, you want to know why your business ain't taking off. You want to know why your finance is struggling. No, is it going to be perfect? No, faith and obedience and watch Jesus cook. I'm learning that, is that still a cool word? No, but we'll talk, because I'm going to tell you, it takes resources.

And you may wonder, okay, what is...and Rod taught me this in the very, very beginning about giving. He didn't hold no...I ain't had no job. I was about to start robbing people to get tied to the church. I was crucial with it. I was like, Jesus is going to get some money somehow. I'm not going to hell behind that one. No, I'm just joking. But no, in that season of my life, I didn't have a job and people was generous to me and I would give. And we carried this principle because it takes resources for the kingdom of God to be built. And for example, our doors are open and we're able to create a place for people to encounter Jesus and realize he's not done with their lives because of the generosity of Union Houston. Right? During his time, his talent, he's an overseer at the church. That man could tell me, Donald, sit down anytime he want to and I'd have to sit down. When I make my budget, I look in there and there's a blessing from Union Houston. So, you all are creating a place for other people to be disciples. You're creating another garden for people to encounter God and say, I don't know about you, but if we're not about connecting people to God, then why are we here? So, what you got to do is determine if you're a weed or a weed. Because I want you to know because of Jesus' sacrifice, he gives you the power and the ability to be who he created you to be because he created you on purpose for a purpose. Do we have a corrupted seed in us?

Yes, that is because of Adam. But because if you accept Jesus Christ, then you also have an incorruptible seed. We are new creations. We're white as snow. We are royal priesthood. Because of that seed, you were made new. But the question is, what seed are you watering? Every tree comes from a seed. The difference between a weed and weed is the seed. From the distance, they could look the same. From the distance, I look like that old Darnell. I look like that old Darnell. And then when I get up on you, boy, I look like old money, boy. I look like Darnell Alexander, man. I got that from Rod. He said, boy, you come to church looking like old money, dog. I ain't going to put the other word in there. Can I put the other word in there? No? You know, he said, I got to do it. It ain't bad, it ain't bad, it ain't bad. He told me one day, I was talking to him, he did come to church. He said, boy, you over there dressed up like you old black money, dog. You look like old black preacher, boy. My wife, man, she make me wear slacks every day. I don't dress myself, she dress me. I lost that battle. You know what I'm talking about? Right? But they grow in the same soil.

They exist in the same field. But eventually, the seed reveals its truth. And the Bible tells us something powerful, that when you receive Jesus, he transforms you into a new nature, a new seed. You don't have to try harder. You don't have to become more religious. You don't have to clean up your behavior because God has already planted something new inside of you, a new life, a new heart, a new future. Adam said, my will be done, but Jesus stepped into the picture and said, not my will, yours be done. And because of that obedience, a new seed became available to each and every one of us. So, Union, we're not a museum for perfect people, but a garden where people can be connected to God and receive a new seed. So, I know you might have walked in here feeling like a weed, full of shame, feeling disqualified, full of failures. But I want you to know that does not define your identity. The seed that Jesus planted in your heart, it defines who you are and where you're going. This question is simple. It's not, have you been to church? It's not, do you look like a weed? If the question is, what seed are you growing in your life? Because when you receive Jesus, he transforms you. New identity and new seed. And as I said, I had experience on a mountaintop. It was beautiful. I realized God was not done yet. So I want to talk to two people, group in here. Close this iPad and we got to talk.

So you might've walked in here and if you was 100 with yourself, you far from Jesus. You don't feel him. You don't know him. She ain't reading your word. All you're doing is you out there trying harder. You may be in that cell. You may think because the people around you in your tank don't follow Jesus, that you can't follow Jesus. But I want you to tell, I want you to know today that Jesus doesn't want you trying harder. He doesn't want you doing more. He wants you to surrender so he can plant a new seed in that soil. And there's another people group in this here and then churches are full of these people. You've tasted the goodness of God. And then you went out to the world. You hadn't been watering your seed. You haven't been in community. You feel dry, like dry bones. You feel disconnected from God. Good thing they call Jesus living water. I'll tell you, I could have put a whole bunch of pictures up here, but we hiked up a few miles up to this last, our last hike. We hiked up a few miles. Pass a ride crazy, by the way, if you didn't know. When we come around this corner

and I wasn't prepared for what I would ever see again. I've been, I've spent most of my life in a penitentiary. There's this waterfall flowing. I mean, I'm in the distance. I'm looking at it and it's beautiful. And I think, man, that's the living water. It's natural. It's purified by the rocks. It's given life to the fish. It's given life to the plants. It's just doing what it's called to do. And listen, I want you to know that this is the day that you get to connect or reconnect to the living water to something that wants to bring you life, that the seed is in your heart. Allow him to water it. But if it ain't in your heart, allow him to plant it because you are in a house that is connected to God. And so I want you to know today that he died for your sins. He was crucified. He was spread out on that cross. He was killed. He was put in a tomb and he rose three days later. Listen, the boy went to hell, got the keys. He came back and said, look, I did that. So that you could be born again into the kingdom. Amen. So with every head bowed and every eye closed, if you fall into one of those categories

that you're disconnected from God or you need to reconnect from God, I'm gonna count to three and I want you to raise your hands. One, two, three, raise your hands. I see him, I see him. Listen, don't hesitate, just shoot your hands in the air. He said, God's got a plan for your life. He's got a plan. This is the time to get reconnected and connected to God. Okay, we wanna pray for you. We got prayer partners. Man, this is a prayer team. This is what I'm talking about. We got prayer partners that wanna believe with you. They wanna listen. It says with two or more touch and agreed that we can loosen some things on earth through the Holy Spirit. And so I want you to come up here and get covered and get prayed for. But dear Lord, we come to you. We wanna lift up every hand that was raised to you, God. We ask that you meet them right where they're at and do only what you can do. As that sign of raising their hand was a confession of their faith. God, we ask that you bless and keep them, that you strengthen them right where they're at and allow that good incorruptible seed to grow in their life. We love you and praise you.

In Jesus' name, amen.