~Open in prayer~
Icebreaker
• What weird fashion trend would you bring back?
• What actor would you want to play you in a movie about your life?
• What is the best romantic comedy?
Message Review
The Bible says first comes the natural then the spiritual. For example, the first Adam was natural then spiritual. The Bible says we have a natural body here first, then in heaven we are going to have a glorified body. Whenever God wants to do something spiritual, there must be a systematic lifestyle, or the Bible calls it new wineskin to sustain it. There must be something you build on earth that can hold what God wants to dispense from heaven and that’s where wisdom comes in.
It is the time and season for some of you that God wants to release blessings in your life, but what do you have that holds those blessings? For example, we know that God wants us to worship together when we come together so we have to have something that will hold that worship, which is our worship team. We have to evangelize the world so we have something that will hold that ability, or provide us the means to do that, which is our social media. Everything in the earth is a container that’s built to hold what God wants to do. Revival is when God comes in and smashes an outdated container because you have to have new wine in new wine skins. That’s what Wisdom Society is for us. We are helping you to get new life in a place where the blessings of God can flow uninhibited.
Let’s Talk About It!
Read Proverbs 6:11
He’s talking to apathetic people in this verse that just watch life pass them by, and don’t seize moments, or prepare today for the outcomes of tomorrow. He says I want to give you wisdom from the ant for those of you that have no initiative, or diligence in your life. He’s talking to the spirit of the ant that is diligent and takes initiative. The ant understands that the season it’s in now is preparation for the next season.
Why is the ant an important creature to study and learn from?
Read Proverbs 30:24-28
This is Solomon speaking, which is the wisest man that ever lived. Diligence is doing something little for a long time. There will be long moments of nothing taking place in your life until, bam, it finally happens. People look at that “bam”, or the outcome, but they didn’t see your many days of nothing happening while you were being diligent.
They also didn’t celebrate you as you were being diligent. It says that the ant has no ruler or overseer so went from being diligent to self-motivated. There is a lack of initiative in our generation today. We have to be celebrated to keep going, but most people are not going to clap for you while you’re chasing your dream. In fact, when Jesus started His ministry at 30, He had the worst problem with his family than anyone else. He had to motivate Himself, just like you have to do, because no one is going to pat you on the back. You’re going to have to be self- motivated in the face of critics and challenges.
The people that have an internal fire to get things done, even in the face of difficulty, succeed. Why? Because God turns things around for them and they keep rising, even amid ashes, regardless of who is there for them. God is too smart to put your future in other people’s hands. He puts it in your hands.
It’s amazing how people become more diligent when they experience difficulty. Once the challenges cease and they experience God’s blessing, they stop being diligent. They don’t understand that what they did to get those blessings, they need to continue doing to stay in that season of blessing. It’s easy to obtain something, it’s hard to maintain it. For example, it’s easy to get married, but hard to sustain a marriage. We learn from the ant that we need to be diligent and self-motivated to get those blessings, but if we don’t maintain that diligence and self- motivation then we can lose those blessings.
The ant gathers in the summer for the next season. After being diligent and self- motivated, it knows what season it’s in. Do you know what season you are in? How you acted and thought at 35 is different than how you think and act at 55. Sometimes we try to relive seasons from the past that we miss a million moments. God wraps everything in moments and not days, which is why you remember moments. The reward of joy comes in understanding the deposit God has in every moment. What we look at in moments will determine whether we have joy. And we miss a million moments because we can only see what’s wrong in our lives. We can never get joy because Joy is the reward of seeing the good package that God has released in our life.
God has given you three kinds of seed: Your money, your words, and the decisions you make. Seed is for future outcomes. God has given you the Word, decisions you can make to determine the future that you want and the seeds that you can sow to determine that you head in that direction. You can control your own seed. Other people’s decisions will affect you, but the Bible says the Kingdom is about sowing and reaping. You have to learn how to be seed full if you want to be fruitful. A seed of nothing ensures a harvest of nothing. As a result, you have the seed to create the outcome that you want.
You have to understand, once God blesses you, what is your food and what you have to save for seed. Some of us get our harvest and we immediately consume it, which moves us to a dry season because we eat both our food and our seed. That is why God asks us to give ten percent because it’s your seed. He’s ensuring that we are not eating all our food and we have something popping up for the next season.
The Bible says that if you give your tithe, He will rebuke the devourer for your sake. The devourer in that verse isn’t the devil, it’s the seed eater. You may be the one He’s rebuking because you’re seeing your seed and calling it food and eating it. The ant knows this is for me to eat now and this is for me to prepare for tomorrow. They employ delayed gratification because they know that some places are delayed for another day. They know they don’t have to consume everything for their pleasure at this moment. As a result, they eat a little and they plant a little to ensure that they have something to eat tomorrow. That’s what we must do.
The Bible says by faith and patience we inherit our promises. When you consume all your harvest on yourself, you enter a dry season. In Hosea chapter 9 it says that God wants to bring us to a day where there are no more dry seasons. A perpetual harvest takes perpetual seed, and the ant knows this. Success doesn’t spring out of what you do, but what you do habitually. Your outcomes will be out of daily habits not occasionally. For example, getting in shape is something that you do diligently, habitually daily and overtime you’ll see the results you desire. It doesn’t happen just one time.
• How does diligence work in our lives?
• Can you lose the blessings you receive from being self -motivated and diligent and what do you have to do to maintain those blessings in your life?
• What is joy and how can we determine that we have it?
• Why are moments important?
• What are the three forms of seed that God has given us, and do they work in our lives?
• Can you control the outcome of your own seed, and can you be fruitful without seed? Why?
• What does it mean to know when to save a seed and when to eat a harvest? How does that affect our lives and how do we do that?
• What do you have to do to ensure that you have a perpetual harvest? How important is that in our growth and fruitfulness and why?
Read Ephesians 5:15
Wise people walk circumspectly, which means to walk carefully considering all circumstances and possible consequences. Live your life in a way knowing that whatever decision you make is going to come back around and revisit you. In other words, live your life in such a way that you understand that life has seasons and what goes out will come right back around. That means seizing moments and opportunities when they visit you. It means doing right by others and operating in peace and love with everyone every chance you can get. Why? Because everything is circumspect; you understand that it’s going to come right back out to you and it’s going to be dished out to you the way you dish it out to others. In the same measure you use, it’s going to be measured back to you it says in the Bible. What does it mean to walk circumspectly? Are there no consequences for the decisions we make in our lives, or how we treat others? Why?
Read I Samuel 15
The ant can carry things much bigger than itself. Maybe that’s why you haven’t been promoted yet because you can’t carry burdens beyond your own. Maybe that’s the reason you’re not married yet because you must be able to sort out your own emotions before you can sort out the emotions of a partner. God knows that we have to learn to carry things of our own first before we can carry that of others.
The Good Samaritan saw the man hurting on the street. He carried him to the inn, took care of him, and paid his bill. God wants us to be people that have enough in us to not only have the ability to take care of ourselves but have the ability to take care of others and pay their bill as well. Promotion is about to come because when you learn to carry your own burden successfully, God will let you carry one another’s burdens successfully, which brings promotion.
Wise people don’t ignore their weaknesses. We have too many people that know their strength and concentrate on their strength to make them stronger. For example, your company, or place of employment, concentrates on your strengths. Even we, at the church, are trying to get you to go through Growth Track so that you can find your strength and be fruitful using those strengths to serve God. However, it’s not your strength that sabotages your future, it’s your weakness.
Inside every man there is a little boy that wants to compromise him. Inside every woman there is a little girl that wants to compromise her. Inside every king there is a Sheppard and inside of every Sheppard there is a king. David was a king, but what he did with Bathsheba and her husband, that was the little boy. If you can’t be a king and overcome your boyish desires, then the weakness in your life will sabotage what God wants to do in your future. You do not ignore weakness; you confront weaknesses and in your weakness He is strong.
Saul was Israel’s first king, which God didn’t want. He wanted Israel to be a God ruled people, but they wanted to be like others and have a king. As a result, He made Saul king and Saul did evil in the eyes of God. God told him to destroy the Amalekites and wipe them out completely. Instead, Saul went in and kept the best of the cattle, sheep and livestock of the Amalekites and he kept their king as a trophy.
Delayed obedience and partial obedience are still disobedience. You don’t sort of obey God. War time comes and Saul is no longer God’s anointed, and David is rising to be king. They are fighting the Amalekites. There is an Amalekite boy that sees Saul hanging on his sword and he kills Saul. What you fail to destroy will destroy you. Saul didn’t think his weaknesses could have an effect. But the thing that God told him to take care of and wipe out, came back around, and destroyed him.
To summarize: the ant is diligent, knows his season, is self-motivated, can carry loads beyond himself, and knows how to compensate for his weaknesses. Those are the characteristics of a wise person.
• How do we experience promotion in various areas of our lives where we want change?
• Why is it important to be able to carry the load of others?
• What will happen if we ignore our weaknesses?
• Why is it important to overcome our weaknesses regarding what God wants to do in our future?
Prayer Focus and Requests
Ask your members if they have any prayer requests or praise reports. Encourage one another to stir up your faith and pray BIG prayers this week and expect God to blow your mind with His answers.