The 1st Occupant

&15 (NASB) 8 The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. 15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.

1. I did not use wisdom when I appointed some leaders. I did not follow the model of leadership placement.

A. Here’s my disclaimer, this message is not to bash anybody, it is to leaders and their stewardship of where God called you to Occupy.

B. We witness and we believe in people and we want to clean them up and we don't think we’re better than anybody else… but we have not done a good job protecting what God has entrusted to us.

C. But we need to look at the lessons from 1st occupants and learn how not to get kicked out of the promised land.

D. You’re going to leave here with permission to do what you have to do and make the necessary changes you know need to be made to advance the kingdom of God.

2. You are responsible.

A. You have been designated as the one who has been placed and planted. Make the decision today, are you the man or woman for the job. If not, you need to move out of the way.

B. You are to occupy, cultivate and keep what God impresses upon you until He returns. You have a charge to keep and a God to glorify.

3. God does not take kindly to ignorance.

A. The judge does not care that you do not know the laws rules and regulations of the city you’ve entered. If you break them, you still pay the penalty.

B. God is not accepting, “I didn’t know” as valid excuses. Especially when the information and revelation is being made known.

C. Everything that is being taught is added to the realm of what we are responsible for.

D. When I was a chemistry teacher, you could decide not to come to class, but you were still responsible for the information. My students lack of attendance did not change the test questions.

4. Passive aggressive leadership does not work in the kingdom of God. We need leaders who will occupy and present back to God a return on His investment. ()

A. Whatever you’re going to do, do it quickly. You do not have time to meander and play games.

B. You’ve hade time and you didn't execute. So, now instead of being able to message the problem out, it’s got to be cut out.

C. If you are going to be a leader in the kingdom of God, lead. How can you know you’re behind and still move slow.

5. (NASB) 1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”

6. There is a difference between Garden folks and Field folks. We are garden folks and we have been entrusted to occupy, cultivate and keep the garden.

A. Many of our leadership occupancy issues are a direct result of letting field folks lead in the garden prior to their transformation from field folk to garden folk.

i. When I was a child, I would run inside after playing all day and my mother would say two things, (1) take your shoes off and don't bring that dirt in my house. (2) you smell like outside, go take a bath.

ii. You cannot be trusted to be the chief occupant and designated kingdom authority if you are unwilling to tell people not to bring inside the house, what they picked up outside the house.

iii. What happen to our leadership discernment? You don't know you smell like outside, because you’re used to it. But there has to be an authority that can say, let’s get you clean.

B. There must be a line that separates who we are and who we are not.

i. The garden has boundaries.

ii. We go into the field to reach and recruit, but we cannot let the field kill what is being birthed in the garden.

iii. We love people from where they are, but they still have to be transformed by the renewing of their minds.

iv. We want to make leaders out of them, but we have to do it the right way.

v. Get the field folks serving in the house so you can keep them close and teach them, but do not give them a microphone, do not give them a title, do not give them more than their character has proven, that is, until they have been transformed.

vi. We cannot continue to water down kingdom mandates, structure and order because you need more help.

C. Allow me to use heuristic devices.

i. Cain and Essau were both men of the field.

ii. Whereas Adam and Jesus were both men of the garden.

iii. Cain and Essau understoond how to fight.

iv. Whereas Adam and Jesus understood blood sacrifice.

v. We want God to give us more to occupy, when we have yet to subdue the place we have been planted.

D. Field Folks

i. Fight – everything you say. Tear up the vision. Bring tension.

ii. Fuss – complain about everything. There’s always a problem.

iii. Fatigue – they drain energy more than they supply energy.

E. Garden Folks

i. Give – systematically, sacrificially, & spontaneously.

ii. Go – when you send them and perform admirably.

iii. Gain – to add to the house. They are profitable.

F. If any of these ring a bell about those you have in leadership, it is because they have not been transformed.

7. Be careful, the first occupants did not handle leadership wisely.

8. The serpent came from the field seemingly without much resistance which causes me to ask, were there any garden gates?

A. Are there no boundaries or alarms set around what you’re called to protect?

B. Let’s not through away all that we have learned as we embrace the new. Because somethings we call cliché have power in which they are based.

C. The things I use to do. The places I used to go. The way I use to talk. All that has changed.

D. It’s not that we don't love you. It’s not that we do not believe in you. But until you are transformed, you are unable to carry the weight if the kingdom mandate.

E. Here’s the issue, I think we confuse the anointing with charismatic gifting and craftiness.

i. The text says that satan was more crafty.

ii. I’m just not sure you are anointed. How is it that my anointing corrects me and yours does not?

iii. (stay with me, I’m talking high come up to the conversation)

9. We cannot occupy without monitoring certain conversations.

A. By the way all of this conversation occurred while Adam was standing right there with Eve according to (NLT)

B. (NLT) 6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.

C. Corrupt communication convinces Christians to cancel covenant. You cannot let field folk highjack the conversation. Whenever there’s an issue one of the first things we need to investigate, is who have you been talking too?

D. People are always talking, but some of it we have to tend too and address.

10. One moment, they are sure about what God says and they are connected, then the next moment, they are convinced of another thing. Like Paul asked the church of Galatia (3:1-3), “Who has bewitched you… you started in the Spirit, now trying to be perfected in the flesh.”

A. In one encounter Adam and Eve committed every sin that can be committed.

B. says all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life.

11. Eve had a conversation, and we act as if she didn’t know what God told Adam. If that were true, how did she quote God to the serpent?

A. Yes, we saw a part of the punishment when their eyes opened when Adam ate, but that does not mean if Adam would not have eaten that she would not have been punished.

B. When God levied the sentence, she was punished too. Everybody has to behave right for their own benefit.

C. Stop trying to pattern your leadership after disobedient people just because they haven't been punished yet.

D. And don’t get mad at God because you want them punished. 1st of all, you only beat your kids for acting up and God is the same way. 2nd, the Psalmist had the same complaint until God gave them a glimpse of their end.

12. Do not follow the example of the 1st occupants. Sharpen your discernment.

A. Who on your team is out of place? Adam, where are you? You are no longer where you were.

B. Who on your team looks different? They noticed they were naked. As a result guilt, fear, shame, anxiety all hit at once.

C. Who is covering up something? They put some leaves together and attempted to cover themselves up.

D. Who told you what you now believe that is contrary to what I taught you?

E. Who is talking to who?

13. Many of us have promoted ourselves prior to the people promoting us. Moses walked with the people, then walked in front of the people, then finally above the people. Your church, organization, department or staff may not be large enough to walk above yet.

14. Ezra stood to read the book, but he had the right people to echo exactly what he was saying to and through the crowd until the message reached everyone.

15. Closing. The 1st occupants were kicked out of their place, and you don't have forever to get the kingdom assignment completed over your life. **God told me I wasn’t the 1st person he sent to Charlotte with vision.**

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