“And to the man he said, ‘Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grain. By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.'”

Before being asked this question, I never really gave that idea much thought. I had to go back and read exactly where God placed the concept of work in the garden of Eden. It didn’t take long to see that God put Adam to work before the penalty for sin. And it sounds like it was pretty hard work too! Genesis 2:15 lets us know that God placed Adam in the garden “to tend and watch over it”. In verse 18, we see that Adam needs a helper so God makes Eve. So yeah, there was a lot of responsibility and work going on. So what’s the difference before the curse and after?

The difference was that, after the curse, the work that they were used to doing wouldn’t result in fruitfulness. They would actually have to work MORE and get LESS in return. As farmers, they would sow into a ground that was fighting against them and refusing to give them what their work was worth. (You know where I’m going with this.) The scripture tells us that mankind would still be able to eat grain from an unwilling ground. That was God’s mercy on display. But when the curse isn’t involved, we have a picture of hard work PLUS an environment that is willing to be a blessing to the sons of God. We see the investments of our work and time ALWAYS resulting in fruitfulness.

The key to fruitfulness is in the gospel. Do we really understand what Jesus did when He conquered sin and invited us to abide in Him? He is not a weak Jesus who sheepishly asks us if we would let him come into our heart. The Word made flesh rose victoriously, called us by name, transformed us, and baptized us into Himself. We are sons and daughters of God and JOINT HEIRS with Christ. This is the same Christ that ran up on a fig tree and was like, “I AM the Life. If you don’t want to be fruitful while I’m around you, then you’re the one cursed and not Me.” He flexed on a tree, y’all! He refused to live under the same curse of an unwilling ground that Adam did because fruitfulness has always been a top priority for God. “Be fruitful and multiply”, remember? And here’s the key: Jesus worked HARD. During one of His claims to be God in John 5:17, he says “My Father is always working and so am I.” But he only invested His time into what His Father told him to do. That’s why He was always producing fruit.

I want to encourage you as an artist. Don’t settle for working hard and barely getting a return. That’s not your portion as a son or daughter of God. And don’t let the world OUTWORK you. In one of her songs, Rihanna says “we sweat for a nickel and a dime, turn it into an empire.” If the world can make careers in music and artistry with limited resources and limited revelation in a world that is hostile to fruitfulness, then the people of God can do so much more. Remember who you are!

#RISE

During the soundcheck for my concert last weekend, one of the volunteers came up to me and asked me how many people I would be attending the event with me. I started to add everyone up. “Well, I’ve got my family with me so that’s four total. Then I’ve got my drummer and his wife are with me.” My friend (who was also performing) had two people with him as well. The volunteer said to me, “We’re just gonna reserve two rows for all of you. Is that ok?” Two rows equaled about 14 chairs. I told the volunteer that it was great!

After the soundcheck, the service starts. I do my concert portion of the service, and then I go to the green room to cool down. I grabbed some water and headed back out into the service. If you know me, then you know that I don’t really like to draw attention to myself. I try so hard to be unnoticed that it’s to my hurt most of the time. There were over 500 people at this particular event… and here I am in the back of the building walking around in the dark and trying to find a seat in the back so that I wouldn’t bring any attention to me.

I finally found some seats that were blocked off. The event hosts obviously didn’t want anyone to sit there, but I’m one of the guest artists, right? So I snuck into this row that was blocked off and I just sat down. Oh yeah, there was this huge pole that was blocking my line of sight to a part of the stage and I was wayyy in the back. But I was unnoticed so I was good. Then the Holy Spirit whispers to me, “You have reserved seats in the front.” I totally forgot about those!  But the message had already started, and I couldn’t get up and walk to the front. That would bring too much attention to me when people should be listening wholeheartedly to the message. I decided that I was gonna stay right where I was… but that thought wouldn’t go away. I knew that God was actually challenging me to sit in the front. I stood up, walked to the front, and sat in my reserved seats. Something crazy happened when I did.

I didn’t hear anyone complaining about me distracting them as I was walking up to my seat. I didn’t hear anyone say, “Who does that guy think he is sitting in the front row?” I had plenty of room and I could see the stage clearly without a big pole in my way. Then came the lightbulb moment. People weren’t ever gonna be upset or even surprised that I sat in the front. In fact, people EXPECTED me to be in the front. In fact, some people probably thought that it was WEIRD that I WASN’T sitting in the front with the other guests. Then God started speaking to me again.

He told me that He has reserved places for me. These are places of influence. These are places of “more than enough” for me and for those who are with me. He told me that people are actually waiting for me to step into the places that God has reserved for me. Then He told me that I have actually been (1) holding myself back from receiving God’s full favor and (2) robbing others from receiving what God has given me… and I’ve been calling it humility. Ouch! In an attempt to blend in and feel like I’m no better than anyone else, I’ve been sabotaging my own mission. I wasn’t walking in humility as much as I was living by the fear of other people’s opinions and a mentality of lack.

So here I go. I’m embracing everything that God has called me to be. I’m not average. My life is a unique story that God is writing for all of eternity to read. And guess what? Your life is too. It’s time to RISE.