Enlarge Your Tent: Growth Happens in Stretching

Some of you have spent this whole season asking yourself, why does this feel uncomfortable? And God sent me to tell you because God is stretching you. You thought you were falling apart, but God was really enlarging your capacity. You thought detention meant something was wrong, but heaven has been making room in you for something greater because healthy healthy things stretch before they grow. [01:17:29] (31 seconds)  #EmbraceTheStretch

Survival says protect yourself. Growth says you better trust god enough to stretch again. So bible says play it safe. Growth says you better make room for more. And our theology reminds us of theology of liberation that is that god's work is not merely keeping oppressed people alive. It is expanding their humanity, restoring their dignity, and rebuilding their imagination. [01:05:03] (25 seconds)  #GrowthRestoresDignity

One of the strangest things about human beings is our ability to become attached to versions of ourselves that no longer fit where we are going. People will outgrow environments and still stay emotionally loyal to them, outgrow relationships and still carry the thinking patterns created in them, outgrow survival seasons and still think like they are barely making it, because growth, y'all, is complicated. [00:40:05] (35 seconds)  #ReleaseTheOldSelf

which means some of the discomfort in your life right now may not be evidence that God has abandoned you. It may be evidence that God is enlarging you. Because we love the idea of increase. We pray for increase. We ask God to give us more. God, give us more opportunity. Give us more influence. Give us more blessing. Give us more favor. But very few people pray for the process required to handle more. Because everybody wants enlargement until enlargement starts requiring adjustment. [00:48:02] (34 seconds)  #PrayForTheProcess

And so I need you to stop cursing the season that God is using to develop you. Stop complaining about every hard moment. Stop thinking every difficult season means that God abandoned you Because some stretching hurts, but it is holy. The stretching is building strength. The stretching is building wisdom. The stretching is building endurance. The stretching is pulling you beyond your old limit. So so stretch me, God. [01:18:01] (35 seconds)  #HonorTheStretch

And listen. We're living in a space right now that is deeply uncomfortable with stretching. Everything around us is designed for immediate relief, immediate opinions, immediate gratification, immediate escape. People do not sit with discomfort anymore. God, They medicate it. They scroll through it. They shop through it. They distract themselves through it, but hear me, very few people grow through it. [00:42:09] (35 seconds)  #GrowThroughDiscomfort

Hear me. God is asking traumatized people to think beyond survival because suffering has a way of shrinking people. Pain has a way of narrowing vision. Disappointment reduces expectation. Oppression trains people to stop hoping for for more. And black people in this country, we know all about this because, historically, our communities have had to learn how to survive systems that were never designed for our flourishing. [00:51:26] (31 seconds)  #ThinkBeyondSurvival

Because oppression always tries to convince people that smallness is wisdom. But god says you better not hold back. You better stretch that vision. You better stretch that faith. You better stretch your expectations because what hurt you does not get to permanently define you. Somebody needs to hear that. [01:05:28] (30 seconds)  #StretchYourExpectations

God help me. I'm talking to somebody right now who's in a mental prison. What you did yesterday, you can't change, but you as a person can change. God is always working to restore us. God's always working to restore our personhood because oppressive systems abide by convincing people that they are only what they have suffered. [01:12:36] (30 seconds)  #RestorePersonhood

they begin structuring their lives around self protection. Not expectation, but protection. That's why this command matters so much because God is not merely talking about physical tents. The tent the tent becomes symbolic of internal capacity, mindset, faith, expectation, possibility, then God is essentially saying your external life cannot expand beyond the limits of your internal vision. [01:03:40] (31 seconds)  #ExpandYourInnerVision

And the reason you did not break is because God was strengthening you while you were carrying it. And so I want somebody to know I'm done. Life stretches you. Life stretched you. But guess what? You're still here. God help me. That's always my favorite tagline. You've been through hell and high water, but you're still here. They didn't see it, but you're still here. They don't understand it, but you're still here. [01:20:08] (40 seconds)  #StillHereStronger

See, that's why you gotta be strong enough to connect with God even while you listen to people. Because, see, people will always remind you that you fail. And because they don't wanna be hurt, they protect themselves. And in protecting themselves, they will constantly remind you of where you were and not where you're going. But that's why every Sunday, I say come to church because it's my job to free you from those shackles. [01:06:30] (33 seconds)  #FindFreedomInCommunity

Part of the reason why you come to church, you read your word, is because God's ways are not our ways. See, because if you deal with people, people, not God, because God God says, listen. I am a God of forgiveness. I want you to repent, turn from your wicked ways, and come to me. But even if you fall while you're turning, I still forgive you. [01:05:57] (33 seconds)  #GodOfForgiveness

Stretch out the curtains of your dwellings. Do not hold back. Now the text seems to get uncomfortable here because god because after god says enlarge, god immediately says, stretch. Stretch out the curtains of your dwelling. Don't hold back. And that phrase right there, do not hold back, is revealing. You wanna know why it's revealing? Because in Hebrew, the phrase carries the idea of restraint. [01:02:45] (23 seconds)  #DoNotHoldBack

Growth is not just about gaining something new. Sometimes growth is grieving the person you can no longer remain. And I think that is where some of us may be right now, not at the beginning, not completely broken, not falling apart, but somewhere in the space between who they used to be and who they are becoming. [00:40:41] (29 seconds)  #GrieveToGrow

The idea of restriction, pulling inward. It paints the picture of someone resisting expansion, someone hesitant to fully expand or extend themselves. And that hesitation makes sense because God has survived because Israel has survived the exile. They've experienced displacement, humiliation, instability, uncertainty. These are people who learn how to survive under pressure. And survival changes people psychologically because when people experience enough disappointment, enough instability, enough pain, [01:03:09] (31 seconds)  #SurvivalShapesMindset

I was in doing a prison tour a couple of weeks ago, and and one brother there had a message that will stick with me for the rest of my life, as they were advocating for policy and advocating for themselves. One brother said to me, my choice, my crime will never change, but people can. Our mess up will never change, but I can. [01:12:00] (36 seconds)  #PeopleCanChange

And some of us have done the same thing spiritually. Life stretched you, so you made yourself smaller. Pain hits you, so you lowered your expectation. Disappointment came, so you stopped imagining more. You learn how to survive where you are, but stop preparing for where God is trying to take you. That's why some people are physically alive, but emotionally cramped, still dreaming small, still expecting small, still thinking small, trying to fit a future god [00:58:39] (34 seconds)  #PrepareForWhereGodIsTakingYou