Touré Roberts - When Less Is More

«When less is more» — this passage may not necessarily be an unfamiliar scripture. We’ve heard it quoted, or a variation of this passage quoted, where it states that everything which can be shaken must be shaken so that that which cannot be shaken can remain. We know that, and I just want to unpack it a little more. If I may be really transparent, I’m in a very interesting and unique season right now. It’s not just this season of my life personally but also in my ministry, as I am trying to wrap my mind around what the next stage is supposed to look like. Let me just say this: the entire world seems to be coming out of a pandemic, but I want to give you a better insight into what the world is truly emerging from. We’re not coming out of a pandemic per se; what we’re coming out of is a shaking. That’s what the world is experiencing: a shaking. What I’m wrestling with is my temptation to return to a pre-shaking mentality and an appreciation of how I navigated life before the shaking. A shaking is designed to shake certain things, watch this, so that you and I move differently. I feel the Holy Ghost. There is a particular way that you and I move through life, and what God is doing is guidance. He is fine-tuning our movement; He’s fine-tuning our perspective, our functioning, our relationships with people, our understanding of our calling, and how we perceive and navigate life as a result of how we perceive it. Are you tracking with me? That’s what I’m wrestling with because it’s easy for me to revert to the normal. People are asking questions like, «When are we doing this?» or «When are we going back?» The moment someone asks, «When am I going back?» I become afraid and nervous. Oh, God. Because there was something, watch this, that was wrong or lacking in what was back there, and that’s why God shook it up. We have to begin to ask the question: what was God shaking in your life that was not part of the fullness of who you are? Oh, I’m teaching today. What did God shake off that you are now trying to put back on and reassemble? That is a serious question you and I must ask ourselves right now: less is more. That’s what that text is conveying. He is saying that sometimes I have got to shake your «more» to get you down to a better «less.» I feel God. The Bible says that better is little with righteousness than great revenues without it. Better. He is saying less is more. You know who else offered a prophetic word about «less is more»? Jay-Z. I’m thinking about that song «Pound Cake» by Drake, right? Jay-Z comes in with his verse and says something like, «The homies say, 'Ho, there ain’t plenty of us, '» and he replies, «And I say, 'Less is more, brother. Less is more. There are plenty of us.'» It was powerful, right? Less is more — the homies are saying, «Hold, there are not many of us.» In other words, he was addressing one of his friends who was struggling with the fact that, even though we’re blessed and moving, it seems like we are shrinking in number. Jay says, «No, brother, you’re getting it wrong. Less is more. There are plenty of us.» And I feel that might be a word for some of you. Maybe you have less than before: fewer friends, less money, less time, or less youth. But I’m telling you, what you have left, what God has left you with—that which could not be shaken, I feel God—the stuff that could not be shaken is going to be more than what you had. If that’s your word, say, «I’m more now! I’m more now! I’m more now!» Put it in the comments: less is more, less is more, less is more. That’s what this text is all about. I have to shake everything, watch this, to show you what is real and what is not real. Because not everything that appears real is real, and I must shake it to reveal this. Sometimes you have to shake a tree to see the true fruit versus the fruit that someone stapled on that tree. I always talk about how, as it relates to relationships and situations, I watch a relationship over four seasons. The Bible says, «By their fruit, you shall know them.» What do I mean by four seasons? I know how you are in summer, but who are you going to be in winter? I watch people through four seasons because in summer you might be faking. You could buy those oranges and staple them on your branches, and you look like this robust tree with delicious fruit. I’m like, «Oh, I bought me an orange tree! Yes, yes, yes!» Not knowing that you stapled those oranges on there. But let me tell you something: the four seasons will reveal who you truly are because what is genuinely there will grow. Sometimes I observe people, and what God does is allow us to…