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Time to Thrive
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This morning, God has given me a message for all of us: time to thrive. Tell somebody—time to thrive.
In this world today, there is so much happening. Things are going up and down. Life has become so hard that we cannot find our feet. The cost of living is rising, interest rates are climbing, inflation is through the roof, and everything is impacting our daily lives as Christians. It is hitting our finances, our electricity bills, our mortgages—everything.
But in the midst of all this adversity, God is telling us something powerful: his plan for us is to prosper. His plan for us is to flourish. God says in Jeremiah 29:11:
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
In all these adversities, God wants us to prosper. He does not want to see us fail. It is time for us to acknowledge that and ensure we are thriving in the midst of everything happening around us.
Most of us are not thriving—we are just surviving. We are breaking even, getting by day after day. We are not looking ahead because we have made excuses for ourselves about everything that is going on.
Surviving is essentially living a life of maintenance: money in, money out. It is about getting by.
Thriving, on the other hand, means living a life of abundance. Jesus says in John 10:10:
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
As Christians, we should not live a life of surviving. We should be living a life of thriving. Thriving simply means to grow vigorously, to flourish, to bloom.
You can think of it this way: the children of Israel in the wilderness were surviving. But when they entered the promised land of God, they were thriving.
At this present moment, most people want to survive instead of thrive. This is because life can be overwhelming. We feel out of control. Sometimes we feel that God is very far away from us. We do not feel his presence, his warmth, his love, or his direction for our lives.
We sometimes forget that he is closer to us than we ever think. The things we want to see in life, the things we plan for, the things we aspire for—they are not happening. We feel there is no conducive environment for us to grow. We are just hanging on, trying to make it day by day—a life of a survivor.
But I know it is more times that we feel this way. We wake up and think, "I just want to get through the day." I am here this morning to tell you that God has made you more than just to survive. He has not made you barely to get by, barely to survive. He has made you to come alive in Christ, to strive towards him, and to thrive in your life.
We are called as Christians to be more than conquerors through Christ who loves us. Through him, his desire for us is to thrive, to grow in him. He has created us as people to love him, to glorify him, to delight in him. And in him we can do all things. As Jesus states in Matthew 19:26:
Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
No matter what is happening in this world, no matter what you are facing this week—whether you are thinking about your mortgage, whether it has increased, whether your rent has gone up, whether your income is not going up but your expenses are—God says that he knows the plan he has for you. His plan is for us to prosper. So we should stop thinking about just surviving and should look ahead.
In Jesus, we discover that you can find joy, and the things of this world will become less important. People are looking for something to help them thrive, to have meaning in life, but they are looking far away.
But God has a promise for us. In Psalm 92:12–15:
The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon planted in the house of the Lord. They will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, "The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him."
Looking at this message, let us consider the palm tree. Lebanon is a desert. How can a palm tree flourish there? In science, a tree needs certain things to grow: sunlight, chlorophyll, rich soil, and water. But in a desert land, there is no water. All you see is sunshine. So how can a palm tree flourish?
But God says we will flourish like a palm tree, no matter the circumstances around us. God will keep providing for us. Palm trees are different in many ways, but that is how God made them to survive in the land where there is no water, unlike most other trees. Palm trees can stand strong storms. And that is how God has made us—like palm trees, we will flourish.
In order for us to thrive, prosper, and flourish in him, there are things as Christians we have to keep ourselves in. This brings to mind one of the Sunday school songs we always sing:
If you want to grow, if you want to grow, Hallelujah, read your Bible and you pray every day.
This is the basis of all thriving. Spending time in God's word, fasting and praying—regardless of your circumstances, regardless of what is going on around you, God will give you the root of a palm tree to survive the storm so long as we dwell ourselves in the word of God and pray and seek his face. He will make us thrive.
This morning is the time for you to thrive. It is time for you to grow in the Lord. It is time for you to flourish.
As we spend time in the word of God and pray, we must desire to have a special encounter with him in scriptures. Everyone who had an encounter with God or Jesus—their life changed. We can see examples from Abraham to Jacob to Isaac, to the Israelites, to Moses, to John the Baptist.
When John the Baptist was in his mother's womb, when Mary greeted Elizabeth, John the Baptist shook in the mother's womb. That was a special encounter. That is what God is telling me to tell you this morning: we should endeavor to have an encounter with him.
Simeon, the priest, when Jesus was brought to the temple to be presented, saw Jesus and said, "Now I can die in peace." In Christ, our peace and joy is found. So we should stop surviving—it is time for us to thrive because God is our pillar as we walk in the principles of the Lord.
As Christians, we have to ensure we live a godly life. This month, as a district and as a church, we are upholding godly values. We have to live the righteous principles of God. We have to shake up everything in our life that will not allow us to thrive—whether it is our personal or fleshly desires.
The plan of the devil is to destroy us. The devil will bring a lot of things in our way. He will bring a lot of issues that make us think we are living life, but beloved, you might be living life and not living it abundantly, which is God's plan for us. So we have to be careful how we do things and see ways to move away from ungodly living and live a life that is appealing to God.
We should not allow the devil's plan to halt our progress.
The men of Issachar understood the times and knew what it was right to do. This is stated in 1 Chronicles 12:32. In this season, in this time, we have to understand the times we are in. We have to thrive in it as Christians. We must rise above the challenges we face and step up our work with God.
To our leaders of the church—as Apostle Eric Namiche has said, the people of this generation are the same people who can solve the issues of this generation. Let us provide our youth, especially our young adults, with a conducive environment, the right ingredients, the training, the mentorship, the resources to help them grow in the church so that God's church will thrive.
Youth and young adults, as we look at building tomorrow's church today, you must take and grab every opportunity offered to you within God's vineyard so that you can help God's church to thrive. We also have to take the gospel to the doorsteps of our community and everyone around us so that they can testify that indeed we are Christians and we are children of God.
We have to assess ourselves—our role, our responsibility—and prepare so that when the baton of faith is handed to us, we can hold it without failing, without it falling from our hands during the race.
When you look at a four-by-four relay race, when they run with a baton, the person running and the person on the next stage have to be prepared. The person coming, when they get there, hands you the baton for you to run with it. And if you are not ready, if you are not prepared, and they hand you the baton and it falls down, that is it. It will take the grace of God for you to win that race because everyone on your line is a fast runner, ready to run. So if you are not prepared and the baton is given to you, it will fall, and that will be the mistake.
We have to always be prepared in God's house to be ready to thrive in whatever is given to us.
There is a prize, beloved, and it is stated in Philippians 3:14:
I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Paul is talking about a goal. We have to focus on it. There is a goal that we have to look up to for us to thrive. We cannot thrive without the enableness of the comforter, the Holy Spirit. We have to continually desire the spirit of God to help us thrive in our daily lives.
We have to put our faith and hope in God so that we can thrive. God said, "I am going, and I will send you the comforter." When the comforter came, they were able to do marvelous things beyond imagination. Meaning that as Christians, we have to continually seek the Holy Spirit in our lives in order for us to thrive.
God created us to be in a relationship with him. Do not try to do it on your own. If you want to grow, we need God on our side. We need the spirit of God to be in us. We need the spirit of God to walk with us. We need the spirit of God to be with us so that when we get to a place where we think we are just surviving, the spirit of God will lift us up and take us to our destination.
God gives us joy. He gives us peace. He gives us willingness and deep contentment in this world so that we can solve the problems of this world as Christians.
It comes to a time in our lives that we forget that in all we do, we need God. We need Jesus Christ. Because in him is life. He came to seek those who are lost in this journey of thriving.
In this time, God is encouraging us to thrive in our local churches. In this time, God is encouraging us to thrive in our workplaces, in our marriages, in our careers. Are we making good use of it? In all these, we need God. We need Jesus. We need the Holy Spirit to direct us. We cannot do this on our own.
The question is: Do you know Christ?
It comes to a time in our lives when we see we want to make it and things are not going well. Have you sat down and thought—probably you are missing something? You are missing an ingredient in your life, beloved.
As I bring my message to an end, I want you to search your hearts. It might be that you are here this morning and you do not know this Christ I am talking about—the one who can help us thrive rather than survive, the one who can help us make impossible things possible, the one who can change our situation.
It might be that you are here and you do not know this God. As I bring this message to an end, I want you to search within you. It might be that along the way you knew him, but sometime along the way you missed your way. You lost it. You lost faith in him.
God is encouraging us to put our faith and hope in him because he is the one who can help us make it, to grow in him, to flourish and to prosper. Because he knows—he has a plan for us, and his plan is for us to prosper.
As we are going to pray, I want to invite you to know Christ. Perhaps you do not know him. Perhaps you left him behind. You tried to make it on your own, and it is not working. Perhaps things are happening and you want answers. This morning, I want you to go to Christ in prayer. I want you to encounter him for yourself. I want you to get yourself closer to him.
If you do not know him this morning, aspire to know him. Pray for God to visit you in your countenance this morning. I want you to have a different experience and leave this place changing your mindset from a mind of surviving to a mind of thriving. This morning, change your mindset and help God's church to grow. Any challenges, anything—put it behind you. For God is telling us it is the time for us to thrive.
You might be in your workplace. You have been in the same place for long, and you are comfortable. No. There is a goal forward. Focus on it and go and achieve that goal. It might be in your education. You think you are all right, but there is always a prize. Focus on it. With God on your side, you will make it—if only you bring him in, if only you invite God into your life this morning. He will make all things beautiful.
Beloved, God is calling us this morning to thrive in him. We cannot thrive without the Holy Spirit. So I ask you: are you going to pray? I pray that as we are going to pray, you pray that you get to know God by yourself, know Christ by yourself, and encounter him in a whole new way so that we can move from a life of surviving to thriving. Amen.
