When the Brook Dries Up, Move On: Packed, Planted and Flourishing

Sermon outline

God has already put His treasure in you, so get planted, stay fresh and expect to flourish, and when a brook dries up or a door closes, do not camp there: move on to the next thing God has prepared.

1. We have this treasure: the deposit has already been made

   Paul says we have this treasure in earthen vessels, not that we are going to get it. When you were born again and baptised with the Holy Spirit, God put something in your life in one transaction. That gives you an advantage over the world: they may have qualifications, a good upbringing and a culture, but they do not have the Holy Spirit.

   “God has already made the deposit in your life.”

   • 2 Corinthians 4:7

2. Run your own race and maximise your life

   Paul could say he had fought the good fight, finished the race and kept the faith, and that he was already being poured out like a drink offering. He calls that maximum living. God gives each person a race and has wired you for it, so do not jump into someone else's track: if He has called you to be a barber, a cabinetmaker or a bus driver, be that. Seize every opportunity, and do not slip into retiring mode, even in your sixties.

   “It's not your time for retiring. It's your time to get going. It's a time for refiring.”

   • 2 Timothy 4:6-7

3. You are packed with potential

   God has packed you with His treasure, with specific abilities, talents and skills, and no one else is like you. Joseph had dream killers and dream stealers around him, but he did not stay stuck in the pit. Stop saying 'I can't' when the Word says 'I can'. He dictates some statements for the note-takers: true success is not a project but a journey, life is meant to be a never-ending education, and mediocrity is living below your known true potential.

   Illustration: A vitamin capsule is packed with potential, but it has to be taken before it does anything. People give accolades to a designer shirt, and you are designer-made.

   “You are an explosive thing waiting to happen.”

   • Philippians 4:13

4. Like a tree planted by the rivers: bear much fruit

   He says the Lord told him to read Psalm 1. Picture yourself as a tree by the rivers, not in the desert: your leaf does not wither and whatever you do prospers. Prosperity and success are already built in, and God wants you to work out what He has put in. From John 15 he urges them to be people who bear much fruit, hundredfold Christians, because the Father is glorified by it. Faith for this comes by hearing the Word preached, and before you see prosperity in your house you need the mentality for it.

   Illustration: There must come a time when you have to turn business away while others are scratching for it.

   “God puts it in and he wants you to work it out.”

   • Psalm 1:1-6
   • John 15:4-8
   • Mark 4:20
   • Deuteronomy 28:13
   • 2 Corinthians 4:13
   • Romans 10:17
   • 1 Corinthians 1:21

5. Anointed with fresh oil

   Here he says he is changing his message slightly, and reads Psalm 92. 'I have been anointed with fresh oil' means you are crisp and sharp, on the cutting edge, not wasting time or space, doing your thing and doing it well.

   Illustration: Lettuce that has lain in the fridge too long is withered, but the crisp, fresh lettuce in the shop is alive, and you want to eat it before you get home.

   “To be anointed with fresh oil means you're crisp. You're sharp.”

   • Psalm 92:1-11

6. The righteous shall flourish: it is your nature to come up

   The verse does not offer a possibility, it makes a statement: the righteous shall flourish like a palm tree. He defines flourish as to bloom, to do well, to be lush, prospering, thriving and bouncing. Joseph was put in the pit and in prison and came out of both. Get your expecter up, the antenna inside your spirit. Promotion comes from God, and when God promotes you He makes man promote you.

   Illustration: Gravity pulls a ball down, but it bounces back up. Circumstances and people may put you down, but you do not stay down.

   “You may go down, but don't stay there. Come up.”

   • Psalm 92:12
   • 2 Corinthians 5:21
   • Psalm 75:6-7

7. Planted in the house of the Lord: stop wandering

   It is those who are planted in the house of the Lord who flourish, so the person who is always 'just visiting' will not. God does not send an angel to tell you which church to join. He leads by an inward desire, and if you find yourself somewhere, ask who led you and put down roots. He says the same to young people still waiting for 'Mr Right' when God has already sent someone across their path. If a thing is dead, walk away from it. The planted still bear fruit in old age and stay fresh, and the anointing makes faces shine.

   Illustration: A dandelion seed just floats around. At the Richards Bay crusade, people told him their own church did not pray like that, but they could not leave because granny had been a member. They are 'part of the furniture', stuck with superglue.

   “If the horse is dead, dismount.”

   • Psalm 92:13-15
   • Romans 8:14
   • Proverbs 27:8

8. Fear not, you are Mine: I will do a new thing

   Speaking to the discouraged, he reads Isaiah 43 as a love letter from God. He has redeemed you, called you by your name and says you are His, so He will take care of you through the waters and the fire. The government, the municipality and your family may fail you, but God cannot. Let the past go: a new thing means something fresh, a lifting from one level to another.

   Illustration: Where you have been functioning in one room, now you will have two, and if you had two, now you will have four.

   “You don't need someone to confirm you. You've been confirmed.”

   • Isaiah 43:1-7
   • Isaiah 43:10
   • Isaiah 43:16-21

9. Elijah at the brook: hide, obey and receive

   God told Elijah to get away and hide by the brook Cherith. Sometimes God tells you to get away from certain people or to let something go. There is a time to fight and a time to hide, regain your strength and look again at your strategy. With too many voices speaking into your life you end up confused, but if you pull back and are still, God gives a command. Obedience starts the cycle of miracles: first an instruction, then a brook, then ravens bringing bread and meat.

   Illustration: The ravens may look like scruffy old birds, but they bring something big: God often uses the least expected people to bring your miracle.

   “If God saw to his prophet, he will see to you.”

   • 1 Kings 17:1-6

10. When the brook dries up, look for the next door

    When the brook dried up it was not the devil but God, who then commanded a widow in Zarephath to feed Elijah. When a door closes, Christians start spiritual warfare over it. Leave it shut and ask the Lord where the next one is, because it will be bigger. To those who have been retrenched or whose businesses are struggling, he says ask God for another idea and move on. If you sense a direction but lack the faith, step out as Peter did when Jesus said, 'Come.' The world schemes to make things happen, but the anointing opens doors for a child of God.

    “When he dries up one brook, he creates another one for you.”

    • 1 Kings 17:7-9
    • Matthew 14:28-29

11. A demand on your hidden potential

    You will not know what is inside you until you are placed in an environment that makes a demand on it. God may take you somewhere you think you cannot make it, and hidden skills come to the front. He urges a builder to think about something more as well as building, and tells the church not to stay with the familiar but to think bigger and go a level higher.

    Illustration: A television programme about an airline pilot whose head was badly injured by the propeller of a light aircraft. He could no longer fly, and during rehabilitation the clay he was given to restore his coordination became the faces and buffalo he had been dreaming of. He now sells each sculpture for thousands of dollars.

    “How are you going to know what potential is inside of you unless you're put in an environment that makes a demand on that potential?”