Touré Roberts - The Tools are Coming

I have today more of a prophetic word than I do a sermon, so to speak. There are some things that God has been speaking to me about this moment that we’re in, this season that we’re in. It’s kind of funny; we talk about a New Year’s message and the word for the year and all that kind of stuff, but real prophets know it’s a message for oftentimes multiple years. Hey, it’s a message for seasons, because the reality is, it takes a long time for the fullness of prophecy to be manifest. Are you tracking? Look how long it took for Jesus to get here. Jesus was, watch this: the Word made flesh, so it took hundreds of years for the Word to be made flesh. So I digress; I say that to say that this is not so much about a 2023 word. This is more about a now word, and this word may carry you on to glory. Are you tracking with me? That’s why, even as Pastor Stephanie alluded to the other night, some people get disappointed because the preacher said, «This year God’s gonna do it,» and He didn’t do it exactly how you signed up for based on the words you heard. He didn’t do it the way that you thought He was going to do, and you’re mad at God and the preacher; you’re a liar. No, I believe that what God will do in our lives oftentimes will take a lifetime. What God wants to do in our lives is so valuable that you don’t want it to be quick, simple, and easy. No, I want the type of blessing that it’s going to take my whole life to walk out, and when I walk out of this life, that blessing is going to fall upon my kids, my kids’ kids, and my kids! Come on, somebody! I’m trying to get us to a place of maturity where we truly understand how God works and how God operates, so we’re not walking around here with our lips poked out when things don’t happen in our timeline because somebody sold it as a quick fix. It takes all of your life to be you, and it takes all of your life to become you. So today, I have a word about this year, and we touched on it briefly last night. Didn’t our pastors do a phenomenal job unpacking the word that I have for this season, for this time, for this era, whatever? And that is that this is a season of equipping; God’s going to equip you. I want to draw your attention to a passage of Scripture that we began to touch on last night, and I want to pull out a few things. You don’t necessarily have to stand, unless you want to; you can if you want. The only reason I wouldn’t have you stand is that, knowing me, as I read it, it’s so good and so rich that I may stop at certain points and elaborate on what I believe the Spirit is saying to us in this moment from this passage. So, if you just feel like not passing out a word—nah, that’s nothing you need to worry about. I have a problem with that, but you do you. The one thing about this church is that you do you, as long as you don’t offend anybody, hurt anybody, cuss anybody out, or act the fool. You know, there are limits to doing you, right? As long as you aren’t doing anything crazy! Okay, Ephesians chapter four—I’m going to jump in at verse seven. I’m gonna read a few verses through 16. This is, first of all, Ephesians 4. I told you, Ephesians 4 is an incredible passage of Scripture. It’s like God gave a download to Paul to teach us ultimately about the ecosystem of the church—the way that God is going to do what He’s going to do. Through these verses, and you can start at verse one and really go through it, He just unpacks strategy for what God came to do, and it’s amazing. Okay, so let’s do it! I’m jumping into verse seven, which starts off with Paul talking about us walking worthy of the calling with which we are called. I’m not there yet; I’m just kind of giving you a little background. He starts off by saying, and he’s talking to the Church of Ephesus, who were converted from primarily pagan worshipers. They were converted; God so eloquently taught the Word of God so richly, the truths of God so profoundly and powerfully. He was just a deeply spiritual man of God, and he converted thinkers. Wow! Sometimes it’s easy to convert people, whether you’re converting them to your faith or anything, right? It’s easy to convert people who don’t think. It’s a whole other level of anointing, a whole other level of gifting, a whole other level of really being in God’s presence to convert somebody who thinks. Because if you’re a thinker, you challenge things, and I like that. I am a critical thinker; you can’t just sell me something. Hello, somebody! I’m looking all up under the hood; I’m pulling your teeth up, looking at your gums. I want to see, and maybe it was because I was conceived in the context of revolution. My parents were Black Panthers.