Check Your Soil. Check Your Heart | Pastor Micah Berteau | Parable

He had some statements about parables. This is what he says about parables. Look at this. I think he said to them this first one specifically that we're gonna talk about, Mark 413. Jesus said to them, don't you understand this parable? He just, he told him a parable. He's like, don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? Let's set this up. The first parable that we're gonna be going into, he actually tells them if you don't understand this one, you won't get the other ones. So if you want to know why we're starting with the first one, this is why. What good are all the other ones? If you don't understand this first one that is called the parable of the sower. Now what is a parable? Parable is nothing more than a story that reveals kingdom secrets, kingdom principles. And what I've learned is that every kingdom principle is connected to a kingdom promise. Some of you want kingdom promises, wait for me if you want a promise of God to happen in your life, to show up in your life. I don't know about you. I want all of God's promises. Shout out, balcony, you know what I'm saying? If Rapture comes, you go in first.

Save us a seat up there, you know what I'm saying? Hey, but here's the deal. Like, I want the promise of God, but I need the principles of God to get the promise of God. I don't just accidentally walk into the promises of God. I have to intentionally live into the promises of God. So how do I get kingdom principles? There's these things Jesus taught with called parables. Stories, oh, we love story time. We love story time since he was kids. And Jesus takes stories and unveils kingdom revelations through stories. And it's amazing. So this first one he says, if you don't get my first one, you're not gonna get the other ones. And that is the parable of the sower. And that's the one that we're gonna start with today. The parable of the sower, we're gonna read in Matthew 13, 3 through 11, Matthew 13, 3 through 11. And then he told him many things in parables. That's what we're gonna do over the next seven weeks. We're gonna talk about all the stories of Jesus. A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path and the birds came and devoured them. That's the first soil. Other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil. And immediately they sprang up

since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched. Since they had no root, they withered away. That's the second soil. Other seeds fell among thorns. And the thorns grew up and choked them. That's the third soil and the last soil is right here. Other seeds fell on good soil and produce grain. I love this. Some 100 fold, 60 and 30. He who has ears let him hear. That's Jesus dropping the mic right there. Then he said this, then the disciples came to him and said, why do you speak in parables? Verse 11, and he answered them to you. It has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. But to them, it has not been given. So what he's saying is this, the secrets to the kingdom of heaven, the idiosyncrasies, the insider knowledge, the big revelation is found in the parables of Jesus. So you better believe over the next seven weeks, we are going to find the heart of God through the stories of Jesus. And today, jumping into my sermon title, talking about all these different soils, is this check your soil, check your heart. Check your soil, check your heart. God be with us today.

We give you the next few minutes, God. We lean in. We open our hearts. We open our ears. For we have ears to hear and a heart to know your word. We pray that in the mighty name of Jesus. And everybody said amen. Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen. Let me just ask you a really, really honest question right out the gate, right out the gate. Can I just ask you real quick? Does your phone ever tell you how many hours a day you average on it? Now, last service, we broke the record at 12 hours. So, let me start the bidding at six. And he said, "God is six hours." He said, "I got six, I got seven hours." Do I have seven hours? Seven hours, okay, eight hours. Do I have anybody that has eight hours? Your phone told you eight hours in the balcony. Thank God, I would have had to stop there. Nine hours, nine hours, oh, we got a nine. We got a nine and it's a man. I like it, we got 10. We got 10, we got 10. Okay, the demographic is getting younger. Oh, 10 hours 'cause those adults out here in these streets, we got 11, we got 11, we got 11 hours, we got 11, come on now.

He's just praying over them cowboys, I guess. He says, "Jesus, touch him." Oh, you don't even wave the Bible app out me. I'm just on the Bible for all 10 hours, shut up. So. (audience laughing) That's awesome. 11 hours. I got 11. Oh, come on. Let's let's break the record. 11 hours. No 11s. No 11s. Oh, hold on. You're 11 hours balcony. Don't even lie to me. Don't even lie. Don't clap for that. What are we? All right. 12. Do we need to go? We got a 12. All right. 13. That's a record breaker. 13 hours. Give it up for 13 in the back. Praise God for you.

Okay. What are we clapping about? I don't know. You should probably not spend that much time on your phone. So, while that's going to be it for the day. You won. Unless there's a 14. I don't know if I should keep going. I don't know. Okay. I'm going to start. There's a 14. Do you sleep? Like, do you know? Like, when the sun goes down? Like, like eyes need to close and stuff. Like, what? Anyways, why did I do this? Because mine tells me the other day. I don't know. Mine's somewhere around seven hours. Eight hours. Something like that. Depending on the week, depending on the day. Some of us work. And let me give you the benefit of the doubt. Some of us work on our phone. Some of us read the Bible for nine hours a day. You don't. But it's fun.

We don't. Like, that's a long time. I can't read the Bible for nine hours. Let's just be real. But maybe you use it in the morning for an hour. Whatever it is. I use my phone a lot. Email. Text message. We're keeping the church going. Keeping the boys schedule. My wife keeping me in line. All the kind of things. My phone is becoming. But here's what I love. I love the data point of it telling us how long we spend on it. You know why I like it? And I don't like it at the same time. Because it is conviction. It is a conviction message saying, hey, this week you said you didn't have time. This week you said you couldn't. However, here's a data point to prove you could have. Here's the proof of it to say that you could have prayed longer. Here's the proof not to say that you weren't using your phones, friends. I'm on mine too. And sometimes we get so distracted. We don't see there's data points in our life that you don't have to guess what you're growing. You don't have to assume at what's growing in your life. Your soil will tell you out. It will tell on you.

It will show you, hey, you've been spending more time on social media than in the Word of God. And your life will show it. Your soil, your personality, your decisions. I'm not just saying on your phone. But this could go towards anything that you do. Anything that you give your life over to. Anything that you start to serve. So you can't just start telling God, well, I just don't got time to pray. I don't got time to get alone with God. I don't have time to go to church. I don't have time to go, you have the time, it was spent somewhere else. It was stewarded somewhere else. It was invested somewhere else. And what I want to tell you today, all of those decisions are making up the soil of your life. And when the soil comes to what God needs from you, he's looking at what soil can I put seed into that can produce great fruit. It has nothing to do again with you. How much are we? That was a fun example. Now, let's get off of that and realize, how am I genuinely building my life? Like, what am I really leaning into? So now the parable comes along. And Jesus throws along. He says, let me tell you about parable, about some people that were too distracted. People that were too busy. People that were too caught up in sin. People that were too all over the place and never saw their potential grow. Except for one soil dead.

He said, there was a sower who had seeds and started scattering seed all over the place. First thing that you need to know about the sower is that the Bible is implicit on us, knowing that the sower is God himself. Jesus telling this story. He's not saying it's any sower. He said it's the sower. So there's the sower that's God himself. So God is the sower basically giving out seeds of gifting, and potential, and growth opportunity in your life. Here's our love about God. He's equal opportunity. He don't care how you erase, where you came from, how you walked in, your background, your bloodline. He's going to give you seed of the Word of God. And you're going to have an opportunity to grow it. When you have to go back to God, you're going to have to answer for the seeds you were given. Not the seed that you judged and other people, but the seed that you were given in your own life. Because he gave you something. He gave you something. And because you have something, you got a steward, that's something. And so he scatters it across all kinds of soil. All kinds of, he said every kind of person gets the seed of the Word of God. If you have an ear and you've heard the word of God, there's a seed of life in you. What are you gonna do with it? And all of a sudden, not me, the sower must be, the sower, and you'll blame the sower. Sower doesn't know how to sow. He didn't sow at the right time.

He didn't sow in the right season. And you're blaming your lack of growth on God, the unchanging one. God, well, God wasn't with me. No, he was. Where was God? He was right there. Because he's not always gonna meet you in the format you want him to meet you in. He's not always gonna be exactly the emotional connection that you need him to be. Sometimes he comes in truth, just as much as he comes in spirit. And so I have to know the word of God to know God in truth. So I'm not gonna blame the sower 'cause God is unchanging. Well, well, well, it must be the seed. Because he gave them my neighbors and my friends. He gives them seeds of blessing. And he gives me seeds of my truck breaks down all the time. That's the seeds I get. I get the seeds of my tire pops. No, you didn't change your tires after 40,000 miles, like Michelin told you to. That's on you, baby. But at the end of the day, you gotta know it's not particular seeds. So the sower doesn't change. And the seeds don't change, then where's the growth? And who's at fault?

Who's needing to be called out? Who's needing to be confronted? Convicted, changed, cleaned up. Not the sower. You can wave a fist at God all you want, but he is unchanging and loves you just as you are, but you won't have to do it his way. You can try to blame the seed, but God's word is the same. We're the changing element in this entire narrative. Our hearts, our soils, we change. So our lack of fruit is not based upon our family, bloodline, connections, what we were exposed to 10 years ago. And now I'm stuck in this addiction and I'm doing this because that person, no more finger pointing when it comes to soils. The only finger pointing is right here. You know what? I'm in charge of what? My soil. I'm in charge of my heart. I'm in charge of my faith and my mind and my future. I'm in charge with that. What do I do when I say what I'm in charge? I'm in charge enough to give all of it back to God. That's why. I'm not saying I'm in charge of my life. I'm in charge of my decision to submit to God's plan. I'm in charge of giving my will to God 'cause his will needs to break my will. 'Cause some of those are pretty strong willed in the room.

And so seeds, none of it, no, it's God. It's our soil. He doesn't change, we change. So where do we go from here? He gets into the parable, it's a beautiful one. And he says, there's four types of soil. Let's talk about the four types of soil. The first one, he says, all right, let's break this down. First one is the hard soil. The soil comes along and he says, some seed falls along the path. Now, what you gotta know about the path in that day and age and that historical moment and time, they didn't pay paths with submit and they didn't have sidewalks. Have you ever walked on dirt that's been so matted down that so many people have walked on it? The dirt path feels like it's concrete. It's hard, hard dirt. So what it's saying is there are some seeds that fall on hard ground. What that means is this, the word of God, which is the seeds that God is spreading throughout the earth, can't get in. And let me just tell you what's funny about the gospel being preached. The gospel is being preached across the world right now. Get on social media, clips are going viral of preachers and people preaching Jesus. It's not that the gospel's not being preached

and it's not that maybe the gospel's not being heard. The problem is, is the gospel being received? Because if it's not being received, it's just falling on hard ground. There are people that will come to church and you only came to church 'cause you have a crush or your friends made you or your family made you and it's hard ground. There's nothing we can do to get through to you. And you think it's cool to have a distant stance with church and spirituality and God. I'll just figure out my own life. and let God soften your heart to see that He is for you, not against you, and He is everything you need. Your heart, your hard path, and life's made you hard. Can I just tell you just because life's made you hard doesn't mean you need to become like the life you've lived. Your heart looks like the hands of a contractor. Just tough, just rugged, why? Well, you don't know, you don't know what I've seen. I'm telling you what, let God redeem what you've seen, and you'll have a testimony that will absolutely destroy the gates of hell. But let Him redeem it, and if He doesn't redeem it, you just have a horror story. We don't want a horror story. We want a redemption story that tears open the heavens over your life and brings glory to God because you gave everything back to Him. Don't be hard.

You know, here's a real picture. You don't want a real picture of different soils coming together as church. It's one of the best ways, because if you go to a sporting event, what's funny about a sporting event, most in the stadium, go to the Cowboys game, most in the stadium are Cowboys fans, right? You're mostly on the same team, and if the team score has nothing to do with spirituality, it's all shallow. So you don't really know, but you come to church, and it gets real honest real quick, especially when you're talking about this, like Cowboys score, everybody's hands go up. We tell somebody to lift their hands during worship, 70% of you don't have hands go up, 'cause they're 30% like, nope, not gonna do it, not about it, that's emotional. I don't feel God, or I had a bad week. I don't feel like I should. And what do we, we're finding there's just levels, because you thought again, a lot of what, you walk with God, and your spirituality had to do with you. So you made it about you. You made worship to God, about you. You made you lifting your hands to God, about you. And then, see, Cowboys score, it wasn't about you, it was about them, but you come to church, and it comes to you, and is there a group,

and the group needs to be about me, and then I need, well, the church needs to be about me. It's too loud, well, it's about you, and if it doesn't do this, and I don't get free coffee, I'm gonna go to Yelp, it's become about you, and you're a consumer, not a contributor. We gotta take a step back, and have we become too hard? (congregation applauding) Have we hardened ourselves? It's about God. It's not about me, it's not about you. I love you, but it's not about us. If we could lay our lives down long enough, we would see that we have something worth worshiping, we got something worth praising, and we got something worth celebrating, come on. (congregation applauding) God's been that good to you, don't have that heart disposition of no God, you gotta do more for me to soften up. No, no, no God, you gotta prove yourself. What are you talking about? God's gotta prove, he's done enough, and you just don't recognize it. What you need to go home do is journal. Real quick, if you sit down for three seconds, you'll see God's real, it took you three seconds. 'Cause all you had to do was have a flashback of the moment that you would have had nothing to do with your life,

or you would have been strung out, things would have happened to you, things addictions would have actually taken a hold of your life, but by the grace of God. And then you would have noticed it. You have no reason to be hard, friend. So here's your prayer, God's soften my heart. Did you know that one of the toughest things you can do men is to have a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit? I think for men, we get like, I'm not soft. Ugh, I can bench, I don't skip that day, I do, but fam, I can bench 300, but I'm squatting nothing right now. And there is, I'm the same way. I'm a, my football loving workout junkie, and I wanna be tough in some ways, but the more that I learned, God, the more sensitive I've become. You can be both, tough in life. You can be a hard worker, man. You can give your life over to build a life for your family and to do well and to pave a way forward. And when the Holy Spirit speaks, you melt. And say, you know what, if that's what you want, God. It's being, it's not being hard at every. And then the second one, it coincides with the heart, so the heart is, the seed can't even get in. The Word of God even can't even get in, can't get through to you. But the second one is the shallow soil. This is the Word, can't get down.

The first one is like, not even a chance, right? It actually says in the first one that the seed is devoured. You ever see pigeons eat bread? Snatch. You ever see the New York? They say they don't feed the animals? Your boy feeds the animals. I like feeding the animals. I went to New York once and I fed the birds. Let me just tell you, they did not have a discussion on how many rations we should split up and have even, what do the birds do? And then they fly away. They said the enemy, and Jesus broke down this called exegesis, he breaks down line by line what this means later in the parable. He says, when you have hard soil, your seed is devoured, like birds that come and grab. So what it is, when the Word hits you, it sits on your surface and it never gets to your heart and the enemy comes in and it doesn't wait. It doesn't wait till tonight, it doesn't wait till, let me see if they're gonna inherit the Word. The enemy will snatch at the moment you're walking out of this building because you didn't let it get in. And then it goes to number two, which is the shallow soil. Shallow soil, which means the Word can't get down into, it's rocky underneath your soil.

This is dangerous, the shallow one is maybe one of the most dangerous ones, the next two are very dangerous. They're all a little bit dangerous in their own way, right? But the shallow one is this, you're deep enough to take in the Word of God, but your sin is hidden enough for no one else to see. So I can take the Word of God and I can dress the part, I can look saved, but deep down, I am stuck, I'm addicted, I'm struggling, I have a lot going on, I'm broken, but I wanna look Christian. And this is what the Bible says. The Bible says you have the form of godliness, but you lack the power thereof. That you are more addicted to the form of Christianity than the foundation of it. You would rather the shape of it than the real genuine salvation of Jesus Christ hit in your life. That's shallow soil, it's called. And it's funny that it's called shallow soil, Jesus called it shallow soil, because that just means we're shallow people. It's kind of funny how Jesus is just pretty spot on with this, they say, hey, look, there's the seed of the Word of God, but it only got surface level with you. Maybe it got to your mind and never got to your heart. 'Cause you ever meet those people that can tell you the scripture, but never live it?

They got it in their bio, but they don't got it in their body. You know what I'm saying? (congregation laughing) It's like, hey, that scripture, your body is a temple that's up in your bio, but you ain't living there in your body. You know what I'm saying? That some point it's gotta transition into reality. I don't just need head knowledge, I need to have heart that knows of Father. I need a heart that knows my God. I don't want to be shallow. I don't want to live where I get the seed of the Word of God only underneath the surface. I got a lot of rocks. Man, I got a lot of things I have left undelt with that I haven't spoken about. This is also called secret sin. This is also called unspoken brokenness. That God wants to help you with. God wants to heal you. God can forgive you. God can restore you, but you have to admit it. Did you know that God gave you the easiest way to freedom? All we had to do was admit it. And he said, I'll do the heavy lifting. I went to the cross. He said, you don't have to go to the cross for what you did. I did that. You don't have to bleed for what you're doing.

I did that. And you just have to accept Jesus. And you know, there's this tree. There's a maple tree that every time a storm comes, they are the most susceptible trees to falling over. And here's a maple tree that they can throw up on the screen. It's because the roots grow wide. Now, the tree, it actually, Jesus said this, I thought this was really interesting to say about shallow soil. He actually said the seed grows fast. It actually sprouts fast. I thought that was really interesting. This is why you cannot just look at somebody else's life and think that God's blessing them. Because you don't know if it's a blessing from faithfulness or a blessing from faking it. they have maybe what God's given them, they won't be able to steward it because they had a bad foundation. Because God is still good, by the way. God is so good. So good. He's going to what? Release. Seed. So God's just going to... Hey, I'm a dispenser. I'm going to release seed. It's just not always going to fall on good minds, good hearts, good people, and the right people.

So what happens, you see this massive tree, right? You would be like, "That's a healthy tree." You would be like, "Yeah." "Oh, a little thunderstorm ain't going to mess with that tree because you could already see at the core of it. That thing's looks pretty sturdy, but I wanted a picture of the roots." For a tree that big, that's not a deep root system. Because here's why. Maple trees roots grow wider than they grow deeper. Here we have a problem. It happens when a storm, a hurricane comes. Maple trees are some of the first trees to uproot and fall over, same with our lives. Just because a storm came, you'd be like, "I can't believe they left the faith. I can't believe they freaked out. I can't believe I've failed the way I do, and it's only one storm. It's only one storm." And by the way, storm's past. So let me just challenge you. The storm isn't the problem. The sewer isn't the problem. The seed isn't the problem. Your roots are the problem. You're growing wide, but staying shallow. God's saying, "Will you go deep in the Word of God?" I think it's time that we learn more than John 3, 16. I don't think we need to go Bible study a Hobby Lobby anymore. I think we got to go deeper, by the oven mitt, that sure, faith is forged in the fire. Whatever. I don't care. However, in real life, you're going to need something more substantial from your faith.

It's going to be real out there. It's going to get heavy out there. You're going to hear some news that might crush you out there. My root system is deep into the Word of God. Come on. And number three, after shallow, it's the crowded soil. Crowded is interesting as well, because this, we're getting, we're crowded soils three or four. That means we're so close. I would actually venture to say most are in this category. I found myself, if you would ask Pastor, where were you? Maybe a lot of your Christian life, even when I was younger, prepastering, trying to find my way. I'd probably say crowded soil, because it's soil that is good enough to produce, but it's producing two things, fruit and thorns. So I'm producing, and it looks like I'm doing well, but I allowed thorns to persist in my life, and I thought just because I had fruit, people couldn't see the thorns. But people experienced the thorns way before they experienced the fruit. You don't realize that, because when people brush up against you, it hurts, because you're still thorny, but you have a life that looks like God has touched, because you still have things in your life that, yes, God has given you seed, and you have a lot of good soil. I liken it to something like this, when we work with percentages, about 85% obedient to God, but you have 15% that you think you're better at than God. I say it like that, because that's a little bit more of a dogmatic way to say, there's 15% of your life you haven't submitted to God yet. That language is, I think I can do better with that part of my life than if I give it to God. I still want to do what I want with my body, I still want to do what I want with my money, I want to do what I want with my life, I want to do what I want with my future, that 15% is mine.

I'll go to church, I will worship, I'll be, you know, friends, there is no negotiations with God, sorry. He's not going to give you 5% back. The crowded soil is God, whatever is in my life that looks nothing like you, I don't want it. Start to get more dogmatic about your sin than you are about other people's soil. Okay, well look at them, who cares right now? Work on you and this season on the next 7 weeks, let's work on me and you, because we have a crowded soil. So you know distraction is also a crowded soil. Because what do you mean by that? Because I have seen very faithful people fall prey to a schedule they felt like they couldn't walk away from. How about that? How about a kid schedule, your schedule? You packed your schedule so tight, God can't even fit in. So you can't say you serve God, yet you have an idol called your own rhythm and schedule. Your schedule did not bleed and die for you, but you treat it like it did. You serve your schedule as is it, if it absolutely has to be followed, but God's over here on the back burner saying, "Hey, when's the last time we've talked? "When's the last time you've even asked me something? "When's the last time we've been together "and on this thing?" And it's a crowded soil. You have a good heart, but it's misguided. You have good intentions, but you get caught up.

And then emotions and then opinions. And then here's what it says, the crowded soil. He also said there's other voices. 'Cause if the seed is the Word of God, the Word of God, what's happened is you've taken the Word of God not as the only Word in your life. What you've done is you've built a courtroom with many voices. You've built a jury and you said, "I got the Word of God, but also I got my Word, "I got my friends' Word, I got culture's Word, "I got my family's Word, I got the news, "and I'm gonna put it all together and say, "What decision should I make?" God said, "No, no, no, no, that's an idol. "Cast it down before you follow everything else "into a ditch that you're gonna ask God to get you out of. "There is no other voice, there's no other competition "to the voice of God. "You lay it all down to realize his voice "is the only life-giving voice you'll ever find "in this life. "It's crowded. "So I need to get away from every competing voice, "every competing temptation. "Every competing idol that wants my worship over God. "And I cast it down to let the enemy know "there's only one voice that I serve. "Clear my heart.

"Why, let me get really clear. "Integrity matters, holiness matters, "righteousness matters, and it's still important to God. "I don't care if it hasn't become important to you, "it's still important to God. "Why? "Because number four is the good soil. "And it's the soil. "Listen to me. "It's not the soil of the sinless. "It's the soil of the submitted. "Because so many of you thought the goal was sinless. "You ain't Jesus. "By the time you get in the park a lot "you realize that thing's tight? "It didn't take you long to feel those feelings. "Langer and frustration. "Just pray that we get a new building "and put seeds towards it. "Anyway, where do we go? "I'm not going to be sinless. "Now I'm not trying to sin. "I've resisted the enemy. "And he flees. "So I'm not giving over to sin, "but the goal is in sinless. "The goal is submission. "A submitted life is repelled by sin. "A submitted life is sacrificial in nature. "I want to sin, but I've sacrificed my life,

"my will, my wants, my desire for what God wants from me. "Because I have chosen to believe that God's plan for me "is better than my plan for me, "is better than my mom's plan for me, "is better than my friend's plan for me, "is better than culture's plan for me. "I've submitted. "So this is the good soil. "Drighteousness, it's integrity. "It's who are we really when nobody's around? "How do we really carry ourselves? "How have we really been renewed in our mind? "Do we really get into the Word of God "or do we just regurgitate old scriptures "we've heard over the years? "Do we really have a prayer life "or are we just praying over our food, "hoping that God hears? "Is this real? to show other people that we came? Or are we sitting here to show God that you're ready to submit to something greater? Oh, come on, I feel them. The noise thing of God flowing in this place. So what is good soil? Here's what's crazy about good soil. Good soil is the multiplier you're missing in your life. 'Cause you thought multiplication came through. I got to do A plus B plus B plus B. My fourth grader brings home algebra.

He brings, well, he has math homework. And he comes to me and he said, "God, will you help me with these equations? "I gotta get my math homework done by tomorrow." I go over there and I was looking at him. I said, "You know what, son? "This is gonna be really great questions "for your teacher tomorrow. "Cause I ain't no one, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, "I don't know any of 'em." And what's crazy about it is we're learning about what multiplication, multiplication. So I just thought I would teach the class about multiplication with God. 'Cause you thought I had to get in perfect alignment, have the perp timing and hit it right when I... He said, "Actually, the multiplier "is you just having good soil." He said, "If you have good soil, "the seed in your life will not be able to help itself. "It will produce 30, 16, and a hundred full. "You don't need another self-help book. "You need a better soil. "You don't need another better friend. "You need a soil that is ripe for God. "You don't need another network. "You need." Come on, 'cause somebody just said, "God, I need this soil. "I need a better heart.

"I need the oh, I need the every hour. "God, I'm breaking this down to say I'm not living "from myself one more day." I'm submitted, and watch God go 30-fold, 60-fold, a hundred-fold. Why? Because you are ripe soil. You're a life that will be used mightily and greatly for God. Can you stand to your feet? And when you get to the top of your feet, can you bow your heads, close your eyes? God, we thank you. I feel the anointing just flow through this place. I don't know what kind of soil you feel like you have. It's okay, here's what's beautiful about this. If you feel shallow, just say, "God, I want to be deeper." If you feel like you have some thorn, say, "God, I want to be clean." If you feel like you're a hard soil, say, "God, soften me." Soften my heart. Soften my mind. May I feel you again? May I hear you again? Make me good soil. God, I thank you that in this place, we have a bunch of people that are so ready and willing to not blame the soil. We're not blame the seed, but work on the soil. I thank you, God, that in this place,

we're going to grow deeper today. We're going to get even cleaner. God clean is God creating us a clean heart. Renew a right spirit within us. God, I pray you do a great work in our life that if we've been drifting, if we've been wandering off path a little bit, we don't want to waste the seed you've placed in our life. God, we don't want to grow thorns with the fruit. God, we don't want to have contradictions. We accept the conviction of the Holy Spirit. So God in this place, we say yes to submitting to you. You laid your life down, we happily lay our lives down. And if you're in this place and you need to get right with Jesus Christ, because maybe you're hard, maybe you're distant, maybe you have a lot of thorns, a lot of sins, a lot of stuff. And you said, you know what I need to give my life for real this time, like for real this time to Jesus Christ. When I get to three, would you lift your hands if that's you, there's been so many today and there's hands already going up. One, you know who you are. Two, you know you need to get right with God. Let him redeem your soil. Three, would you lift your hands if that's you? Lift him, lift him, praise God. And I just feel the touch I have in on this moment. (gentle music) Let him soften your soil, let him soften your heart,

let him seep into your life again. Can we pray this to the other side, Jesus? I need you. Every hour of my life, every minute I'm alive, I need you, and today I submit my life unto your hands, wherever you want to go and whatever you want to do, I will follow you for all my days. God make me good soil, in Jesus' name. Come on, amen. Can we put our hands together and just thank God for all of you?" Come on, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen. I'm so proud of you, but we're not going to miss a single week of this thing. Let God do work on our lives. I feel the Holy Spirit is still working, jump in a group and go discuss this more this week. You know what I'm saying? But let's read this together. And if you need prayer, our prayer team is down here. Are you ready? I believe what God has spoken over my life, His word will not return void. This year will reveal His faithfulness. This year will produce fruit. This year will be filled with miracles in his timing and bias. Come on, you do it. Come on, amen. Hey, we love you. I'll see you next Sunday. Our prayer team is down here, and the best is yet to go.