God's Path for Your Growth - Saddleback Weekend Service

Well, everybody, welcome to Saddleback Church. Anybody excited to be in the house of the Lord today? We're so glad that you're here and we are so excited that we get to worship with you. So right now, we want to invite you to join us as we lift up Jesus. Are you ready? Come on. Here we go. I thank the hands that bear the scars and reach down and rescue me. I have known the love of the Father's heart, a prodigal now redeemed. From where I was to where I'm now, it's overwhelming. The more and more I see you move all around me. Come on, let's sing it. I can't help but praise you, praise you, Lord. I can't help but lift up shouts of joy. When I think of how good you've been, faithful now until the end. Oh, I can't help but praise you, praise you, Lord. For the blood you spilled to save my life, a debt I cannot repay. For the cross you wore with open arms, salvation that called my name. From where I was to where I'm now, it's overwhelming. The more and more I see you move all around me. Oh, I can't help but praise you, praise you, Lord. Oh, I can't help but lift up shouts of joy. Oh, because when I think of how good you've been, faithful now until the end. Oh, I can't help but praise you, praise you, Lord. Come on, church, here we go. I can't help but dance because I'm free. No chains holding me. I'm healed and redeemed. Oh, I can't help but call on the name that buried my shame and opened my grave. Oh, I can't help but dance because I'm free.

No chains holding me. I'm healed and redeemed. Oh, I can't help but call on the name that buried my shame and opened the grave. Oh, I can't help but praise you, praise you, Lord. And I can't help but lift up shouts of joy. Oh, because when I think of how good you've been, faithful now until the end. Oh, I can't help but praise you. Come on, let's give Him praise, church. Well, you came on the best weekend because we have one of our church family, Kathy, who is going to take her next step in her relationship with Jesus and get baptized today. And we get to be a part of it and celebrate. So excited about that. Now, Kathy has already made a decision to follow Jesus, but baptism is her outward expression of what Christ has already done in her heart. So when she steps into that water, there's nothing special about the water. It's a symbol of her old life being buried with Christ and then raising to walk in a new life and a new identity in Him. And in just a moment, her baptism is going to be up on the screen. So our assignment is to cheer really, really loud. And just a reminder that the Bible talks about that heaven rejoices when one sinner repents. And so let's rejoice as loud as the heavens today. All right, we in? We got it? All right, let's continue to worship and celebrate Kathy. I'll praise in the valley, praise on the mountain. I'll praise when I'm struck and praise when I'm doubted. I'll praise when I'm thundered, praise when surrounded. Because praise is the water, my enemy's stranded. As long as I'm breathing, I've got a reason to praise the Lord, oh my soul. Praise the Lord, oh my soul.

I'll praise when I'm feeling, I'll praise when I don't. I'll praise because I know you're still in control. My praise is the weather, it's more than a sound. My praise is the shout that brings Jericho down. As long as I'm breathing, I've got a reason to praise the Lord, oh my soul. Praise the Lord, oh my soul. Oh I won't be quiet, my God is alive. How could I keep it inside? Praise the Lord, oh my soul. I'll praise because you're solemn, praise because you reign. Praise because you rose and defeated the grave. I'll praise because you're faithful, praise because you're true. Praise because there's nobody greater than you. I'll praise because you're solemn, praise because you reign. Praise because you rose and defeated the grave. I'll praise because you're faithful, praise because you're true. Praise because there's nobody greater than you. Praise the Lord, oh my soul. Praise the Lord, oh my soul. Praise the Lord, oh my soul. Praise the Lord, oh my soul. I won't be quiet, my God is alive. How could I keep it inside? I won't be quiet, my God is alive. How could I keep it inside? I won't be quiet, my God is alive. How could I keep it inside? Praise the Lord, oh my soul. Well, come on, is there anyone in this room who would say that you've got something to praise the Lord for today?

The Bible tells us that we're to enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. That's why we're lifting our voices today, because we believe he's worthy of every moment we can say, hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Come on, let's lift our voices in this room and give him praise today. So I throw up my hands and praise you again and again, because all that I have is a hallelujah, hallelujah. And I know it's not much, but I'm nothing else fit for a king, except for a heart singing hallelujah, hallelujah. So I throw up my hands and praise you again and again, because all that I have is a hallelujah, hallelujah. And I know it's not much, but I'm nothing else fit for a king, except for a heart singing hallelujah, hallelujah. Come on, can we just say it? Let's just say hallelujah. Come on, let's just say it again, hallelujah. Come on, one more time, even a little bit louder, hallelujah. Oh, come on, my soul, oh, don't you get shy on me, lift up your soul. You've got a lion inside of those lungs, get up and praise the Lord. Oh, come on, my soul, oh, don't you get shy on me, lift up your soul. You've got a lion inside of those lungs, get up and praise the Lord. Come on, even louder than that church, let's really lift our hearts and sing. Come on, my soul, oh, don't you get shy on me, lift up your soul. You've got a lion inside of those lungs, get up and praise the Lord. Come on, my soul, oh, don't you get shy on me, lift up your soul. You've got a lion inside of those lungs, get up and praise the Lord. So I throw up my hands and praise you again and again, because all that I have is God. That's it, come on, hallelujah.

And I know it's not, but I've nothing else fit for a king, except for a hallelujah. Then sings my soul, my savior God, to thee. Come on, church, how great thou art. How great thou art. How great thou art. Come on, just real sweet in His presence. Then sings my soul, my savior God, to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art. How great, how great thou art. Come on, one more time, let's lift our voices and sing. Then sings my soul, my savior God, to thee. How great thou art. How great Thou art. How great, how great Thou art. Come on, just the voice of anybody who sings. Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee. Come on church, really loud. Let's sing it, how great. How great Thou art. Yes, how great. How great. You're the name above all names. You are worthy of all praise. And my heart will sing, how great is our God. Come on church, let's lift our hearts and sing. How great, say, how great is our God. Sing with me, how great is our God. Oh, we'll sing, how great, how great is our God. One last time, with everything we've got, one last time. How great, how great is our God.

Oh, sing with me, how great is our God. Oh, we'll sing, how great, how great is our God. Our God is worthy of all praise, worthy of all of our worship and our adoration. And when we come together each week, it's not just to hear a good message, but if you are a follower of Christ, what we get to do together is to worship Him, to praise God, to thank Him, and to show Him our gratitude for His goodness, His love, His mercy upon our lives. And so I'm so grateful that you decided to join us today as we get to do just that, as we get to worship our Lord and lift His name on high. Well, if you are joining us for church for the very first time today, I am so glad that you're with us. I hope that you feel loved and you feel welcomed by our Saddleback family. We want to invite you to let us know that it's your first time, so someone from our team can personally reach out to you. You can do so by clicking the link in the description if you're watching on YouTube, or we have a Saddleback Church app that you can download at any app store set your campus to online community, and then there you can let us know that it's your first time. And through that app,

you'll also be able to follow along with the message notes today as we hear a message from Pastor Andy, or take a next step and respond to the message afterwards as well. So we want to encourage you to get out that Saddleback app, and if it's your first time, we can't wait to connect with you and get to know you. Well, church family, we are starting a brand new series this weekend called Get Growing, and I'm super excited for it as we're going to learn some practical ways that we can continue to grow our faith. And so we have a great message ahead from Pastor Andy. I'm so excited for you to hear it. But before that, let's take a look at what's going on in the life of our church. So let's watch this together. Hey Saddleback, we are so glad you're here at church this weekend. If being involved at church might be a little new to you, I want to encourage you to check out something that we call Activate. Whether you're new at a church or maybe you've been around church for years, Activate is your starting point to really help you to find community and learn how God has shaped you to make a difference and explore ways to get connected. Check out Josh's story

to see a little more of what I'm talking about. Hi, I'm Josh Root. My family and I started attending Saddleback in 2023. It was important to us to find a place where the kids could be involved and there was something for every part of the family. When I learned about Activate, that helped give me an opportunity to figure out what those next steps were, how to transfer from attending service on Sundays to actually becoming a member, being involved in a ministry. And I was having conversations with my wife and family about what could I possibly be doing. I'm an extrovert, so I can be social. I can be chatty. I was able to volunteer at Activate and become a table leader. So Activate is a place where you can learn about church membership and how important it is to be a church member. part of a church family, a church community. Activate is a place for people to come and understand where they can serve, what opportunities, where their strengths are. It doesn't matter where you are in your journey. Activate is a place where you take that next step. So come to our next Activate, and maybe you'll see me at your table. Isn't that awesome?

We love hearing stories like this and seeing people discover ways to get plugged in and step into what God has for them through Activate. At Saddleback, we are all about taking next steps and growing in our faith. In fact, our current message series, Get Growing, is all about building those habits that help us to stay rooted and keep growing with Jesus. And today, Pastor Andy will talk about growing through prayer and reading God's word. Another way we grow in our faith is through giving. Did you know, because of your tithes and offerings, people are finding hope? Families are being strengthened. Kids and students are growing in their faith, and communities are being served, both locally and around the world. Every act of generosity helps create spaces where people encounter Jesus and take their next step. If you'd like to give today, you can give through the Saddleback app or use the giving envelope. Thank you for being a generous church. Now, let's hear today's message with Pastor Andy. Welcome, church family. I wanna welcome all of you who are joining us online and all of our campuses spread across Southern California and beyond. We're so glad that you're with us. Today, we're starting a brand new message series

called Get Growing. And as I was preparing for this message series, I kind of like went back on this journey of life, looking in the rear view mirror all the way back to high school. Now, I know our church, you know, we've got a lot of different generations that we come from, and we've got a lot of people who've got a lot of different generations that we come from. If you haven't graduated from high school, you won't know what I'm about to say, but you'll experience it very shortly. So at the end of high school, you get a yearbook. I know a lot of you, even if you're in school, you've gotten yearbooks. But when people sign it, there's a phrase that's often used in high school when you graduate. What's that phrase? Do you guys remember it? When somebody really thinks you're awesome and they don't want you to change, what do they say? Always stay the same. That's horrible advice. Always stay the same. Now, I understand the intent behind it is like, yeah, I love you just the way you are. Be the authentic, true version of yourself. I think that that's what that actually means. But isn't it true that when you reflect on your life,

that there are a lot of people that just stay the same? It's like you meet them a few years later and they're maybe a few pounds heavier, but like, they're pretty much the same. And you know, the truth is, when it comes to our transformation over the course of time, you can see in various sectors of life, some people transform rapidly and other people seem to stay stuck. This is true all throughout life. And you've seen it. Maybe you witnessed it in school. If you're a student, you've seen some kids, they just grow faster in their education. And then there are some athletes that maybe on the soccer field or the baseball field, I remember when the kids were young, like the kids would go out and they'd play sports and some kids just get it and they grow fast. They change really quickly. This is true in all areas of life that some people grow faster than others. And I wanna start with a question, why? Why do some people grow faster than others do? Why do some stay the same and some transform over the course of time? That's the question I really wanna wrestle through. Because at the core of your journey, whether you're a follower of Jesus

or you're new to this whole thing, I believe that there is a truth from God's word that we can see all throughout the pages of scripture that is deeply connected to God's design, his plan, his vision for your life. And it's this, growth is God's will for you. Do you believe that? That growth is God's intention, that over the course of time, you wouldn't stay the same, that you would grow, that you would transform. Now we know this from his word in Romans 12, verse two. I wonder if you'll read this verse aloud with me. Let's read Romans 12, two says, do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will. So God wants you to be transformed. God wants me to change over the course of time. The question is how? So this series really is going to be a very practical, biblical series on transformation over the course of our lives in a way that we keep growing. Now, I want to give you four habits during this series that we're going to drill into. I'm going to give you an overview real quick. The first one that we're going to look at today is to communicate with God, a habit that we cultivate over the course of time of communication with the Lord.

Living God. Now, there's some reasons why this doesn't happen more. Some of us don't believe that God wants to communicate. I want today to show you that God wants to speak to you and wants you to speak back to him from his word. But next week, we're gonna come to the second habit, which is connecting with God's people through community or small groups. And this is a significant part of what we do as a church family. In the third week, we're gonna look at how we can contribute with our spiritual gifts that God's given us. God gave you a spiritual gift that he wants to be unleashed. And when you use it, you find fulfillment and joy and you make a difference with your life. And then the fourth habit is to cultivate a generous heart. And this helps us grow as we learn to be good stewards of the resources that God has placed into our hands. Now, in all areas of our life, I think that we could agree when you put a habit in place, it changes the way that you grow. And sometimes you get a burst of motivation and that burst of motivation will last you to Tuesday, but to go past Tuesday and to really continue through the years of our life, we need to keep cultivating habits. And you're gonna hear me say something with all four of these habits.

I wanna encourage you to write it down. I'm gonna ask you and challenge you in each of these areas to do something, to do it consistently, and to watch yourself grow over the course of time. And sometimes I think that discipleship or growth, we make it this unachievable thing when God and his word, he gives us the ability to do something, to move forward, to do it consistently, and to watch ourself grow over time. And Jesus is gonna show us in Mark chapter four, what this looks like. So I wanna invite you, if you have your notes, you can pull them out. And we're gonna see from Jesus teaching by the lakeside, this vision of what it means to be a person that receives from God and grows over the course of their life. So Mark chapter four, beginning in verse one, it says, again, Jesus began to teach by the lake. So this is good to recognize, this was Jesus' custom in ministry. He would teach, he would heal, and this would attract large groups of people. So it says the crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and he sat out on the lake while all the people were along the shore at the water's edge. So if you've ever been out on a lake, on a boat, one of the things you'll notice is that sound travels.

So Jesus was using the boat and the water, almost like this amphitheater to speak to people. So he's there and he's teaching them and he's gonna give them a parable. It says he sat down in the lake while all the people were there at the water's edge and he taught them many things by parables. And in his teaching, he said this, listen, listen. You might even circle in your notes, listen, because sometimes you hear, but you don't listen. It says, listen, a farmer went out to sow his seed. And as he was scattering the seeds, some fell along the path and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on the rocky places where it did not have much soil. And it sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among the thorns, which grew up and choked the plants so that they didn't bear grain. Still other seeds fell on good soil, on good soil, circled good soil, on good soil. And that came up, it grew, it produced a crop and it multiplied 30, 60, or even 100 times what was sown. And then Jesus said, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Jesus would often teach in parables like this. I think that part of what he was doing was giving to us images that we can get into our soul that carry over the course of time.

But I also think that Jesus in this moment is making a very significant point because already in Mark chapter four, as we've looked throughout this year at the gospel of Mark, already there's resistance to the message of Jesus. There's already this group of religious leaders that are trying to stop what Jesus is doing. So Jesus the Messiah, God in human flesh, he's on this mission, he's on a move. And as he's teaching, he's wanting people to reflect and understand what is their response to what is sown into their life. And the disciples afterwards are gonna come and they're gonna say, hey, we wanna know what was happening? What was that whole soil and seed thing that you were doing, Jesus? And I want you to notice before we jump into unpacking it, that as Jesus describes the seed, the seed is the same in every one of the soils. This is important. So the farmer goes out and he scatters the seed along four soils and it's the same seed. It's the same sowing that happens, but the soil is different. The response is different in each of the soils. And Jesus is gonna describe what that means. Now, when he uses the word 30, 60, 100, this was a disproportionate gain for their culture. Like in their culture, over the course of two to three years a seed was supposed to bear three to five times

what was sown. Now that would be a good ROI in the style of Jesus. So Jesus is saying, this is way better than any of that. This is 30, 60, 100 times what was sown. You put a dollar in, and a few years later, 30 comes out. That's a really good return on investment. So Jesus is going to describe the why behind this. But I want you to notice, if we do believe growth is God's will for us, it's also good to see something that although growth is God's will for you, it's not guaranteed. So God wants you to grow, but it's not a guarantee. Just because we go through the motions of life doesn't mean that we're going to transform over the course of time. God has a pattern for how we transform, and the enemy also has a goal to get us to not become the person that God's created us to be. So we're going to see how that happens in this passage. So we're going to look at the question, what was the difference with the soil that multiplied the seed? What was the difference? And Jesus tells us what it is. As we do, we're going to see these four soils. And I want to start with the path. Each of these four seeds, each of these four soils that the seed goes into

represents a different heart or a different response to the word or the voice of the Lord. And the first one, the path, is a hardened heart. And we're going to see the barrier that Jesus describes that what happens in this moment that God's word is going to get snatched up by deception. So it's going to get thrown out, and before it can ever go down into the soil of a heart, it's going to get snatched by deception. So listen to what Jesus says. He says, the farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path where the word is sown. And as soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown into them. So I want you to think about this for just a moment. Jesus is saying the word of God that is sown when it comes forth into a human heart, there is the possibility that the word of God could be thrown onto a heart, and because that heart is so hard, because that heart is so deceived, that the word never goes in and bears fruit. And for some of you right now, maybe you're thinking about a basketball score or a baseball score or something else. Do you ever notice how when you go to open this book, that all of a sudden there are things that start to pop in your mind

that you haven't thought of for a really long time? Do you think that just happens by accident? Is it just that you're ADHD? Well, it might be that you're ADHD, but it also might be the fact that there is a real enemy that does not want the word of God to get into your heart. And one of the things that I've discovered in myself is that all of a sudden when I will open this book early in the morning, I immediately start to think of all the things that I have to get done for the day. And that's because there's a war for the word of God to get into our hearts. So you may sit in a service and you may hear something that kind of goes through your mind. It's like, man, that must be true for somebody else, but that's not true for me. That's the enemy trying to snatch away the seed. Or you might be thinking that there's no way that God could ever love me the way that that pastor's talking about God loving people. That's the enemy trying to snatch away the seed before it bears fruit in your heart. So what I've discovered with myself when I hear the word of God, there is this journey that I have to go on to open my heart and recognize that there are lies that the enemy wants to plant into my heart and my mind to prevent the word from going in and bearing fruit.

So I'll give you a verse that I love that really helps me. Psalm 19, nine and 10. Can we read these words out loud together? It says this, the ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold. They are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb. Now I love honey, by the way. I will oftentimes have like eight honey sticks right before I preach. I love honey. And it's biblical, because in the Bible, there was a story where they found honey and they ate it and God was pleased with the army. So I think often that it's a biblical thing to have honey. I'm just convincing myself of this. Now, honey is very sweet and gold is very, very precious as a metal. And what David is saying in this Psalm is he is saying the word of God is greater of more value than precious metals or really good sweet honey. There's no food that you could eat that's better and more valuable than the word of God. So I want you to imagine for just a moment, tomorrow morning when you wake up, there is a million dollars on the table in your house in the morning.

And if you don't get up and go sit at the table by 5.30 a.m. you don't get to keep any of it. Do you get up and get the money? Yes, I know it's a trick question. I'm kind of baiting you with this. But that picture is what David is saying is that. More valuable than a stack of gold on the table early in the morning is the word of God getting into our hearts. So when I come to that reality of belief that the value of God's word and what he can do in my heart, the Bible says, when the word of God goes forth, it doesn't return void. So when God finds an open heart, there's fruit that comes. Some of you today, you've been deceived and the enemy is snatching away the seed. And I'm gonna ask you at the end of our time together today to slow down and actually wrestle through. Are there some lies that you've agreed with that maybe you've allowed into your heart that are preventing you from hearing the word of God? The enemy will take that word before it can bear fruit. Now there's another soil I want us to see, the second one, and that's the rocks. The rocks are a shallow heart. And this is when God's word gets scorched by difficulty. And Jesus describes it like this. He says, other seed, like seeds sown on rocky places,

hear the word and at once they receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. And when trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. I want you, if you're taking notes, to write those two words down, trouble and persecution. Because those two words oftentimes are the very thing that cause someone who has a great immediate response to the word of God, it pushes them in a place where they actually walk backwards in their faith. And the Bible tells us that that doesn't have to happen. In fact, in James one, James tells us that that very process could be the thing that God uses to strengthen our character. So what the enemy is trying to use to destroy you, God is using to develop you. So when his word gets into our heart, if that soil of our heart is not deep enough, the word will be shallow, it will bear fruit temporarily, and then very quickly it will be gone. And we've seen this. This is the camp effect, where you go to camp. I don't know how long it's been since you've been to camp, but we have camp for all of our students and we love it. We see lots of life change, but you go away and you're like very excited on a retreat and you're like ready to change everything. And you come back and you encounter something difficult and then you forget about the very thing that happened just a few days ago.

And what the Bible is saying is God wants a deeper heart to work with so that fruit can come up and be sustained over the course of our life. So the question I have to ask myself and you have to ask yourself is, how much of your heart does God have? I'm gonna encourage you to wrestle through that. How much of your heart does God have? And it's okay to be honest. He knows all, by the way, you don't have to lie to yourself because you think he might not figure it out. He already knows how much of your heart he has. But if you're honest with yourself, there may be significant portions under the surface that God is saying to us, I want you to surrender that to me so over the course of your life, you can be increasingly fruitful. So the seed that gets scorched by difficulty, trial and difficulty comes along and it has a tendency, if we don't have the proper theology in our heart and mind about difficulty, we can find ourselves moving backwards in our journey of faith. Jesus would say in John chapter 16, he would talk about difficulty. And he would say, in this world, you will have trouble. Like there's going to be difficulty. If you're a follower of Jesus,

the one that you follow and worship was crucified on a cross. So we cannot live with the assumption that when we go through difficulty, somehow we did something wrong and that God is mad at us because our lives are difficult. It's actually a part of the fall and the journey of walking with Jesus that that very difficulty, I want to ask God, God, use my circumstances to transform me. Don't waste the pain. Don't waste the difficulty. God, let it be used to form me to become more like you over the course of time. And then those who've been walking with Jesus for a long time, if you've been faithful, you have all these trials that God sustained you through. Times where you shouldn't have had strength. Times where you shouldn't have been able to continue to move forward. Times where you should have been anxious, but you had peace. And God was using that difficulty to bring you further into his presence that you might know him more, that you might walk with him wholeheartedly. This is what the apostle Paul said in second Corinthians one. He said, we don't want you to be unaware of our difficulty. We were so troubled that we despaired even of life. They had been shipwrecked.

They had been beaten. They were almost murdered for their faith in Jesus. And Paul says, these things happen so that we might learn not to rely on ourselves, but on God who raises the debt. So if we have a theology or a belief that God God can use that difficulty to give us a greater source of power and a greater source of strength in our character. It allows us to go deeper in our faith. And the question really is, I wanna encourage you, if you didn't write it down earlier, how much of your heart, how much of my heart does God have? And God wants to get all of it. When he gets all of it, he can work at a totally different level. So God's word gets scorched by difficulty. The third one I want us to see is the weeds. And Jesus uses this to describe the distracted heart. And what he says here explains how our hearts can get suffocated by distraction. So God's word ultimately is suffocated by all the worries of this world. And listen to what Jesus says here. He says, still others like seeds sown among the thorns hear the word, but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desire for other things come and choke the word and they make it unfruitful. So there's all these things that pop up and maybe somebody is on a path of growth. And you've seen this happen before.

I remember vividly, one of my most vivid memories of this was a guy that I'd been building a relationship with, inviting him to fully surrender his life to Jesus. Finally, he did. And when this guy surrendered his life to Jesus, he was a young single guy in his mid twenties at the time. And as he surrendered his life to Jesus, he desperately wanted to be married. He wanted to move into the future and get married. And there was this one girl that he loved that he deeply cared about. And he had tried to pursue her multiple times. She had broken up with him multiple times. It was this really dramatic kind of like college thing. And so this guy, when he comes to faith in Jesus, this girl that he hasn't talked to for three years, all of a sudden, like two months after coming to follow Jesus, this girl reaches out to him to try to get back together. Do you think that that was an accident or was somebody planning that? There was a force of evil trying to take this guy with distraction away from what God wanted to do in his life. And this happens to all of us. I give you that example because sometimes if our eyes are open, there are things, maybe there are job opportunities that pop up in front of you. And if you say yes to that job opportunity,

it's going to cause you to have to travel way more than you do right now. And you're going to be away from your family and not able to disciple your children the way that God wants you to. Or maybe there's like this boat that you really want to buy, or there's this thing that you really want to buy with your money and all of a sudden, it becomes a hobby that distracts your entire life. Now, God bless golf. That's wonderful if you golf and that's a great hobby. But there are things like that, that hobbies will become such an obsession for people that it's like their eyes and their focus is completely distracted from the mission and the vision that God has given to their lives. So you have a temptation and I have a temptation. And I wonder what is that distraction that has a way of pulling you from the very thing that God created you for. It could be a relationship. It could be somebody that you should not be in a relationship with, a romantic relationship, and it's distracting you from being focused on what God's called you to. It could be related to finances. There's so many ways. There are literally a myriad of ways that the enemy could use to pull us away. And what is happening is that the word of God

is getting suffocated by distractions. So I love to ask the question of my heart. Is there anything that is entangling my heart in such a way that it's distracting me from hearing the voice of God? It could be small. It could be large. It could be your bank account. It could be a relationship. There is a variation. But anything that ultimately, at the end of the day, has a tendency to wrap itself around our hearts so that we cannot hear from God, it can become a distraction that pulls us away from God's good work that he wants to do. Now, this has sounded like a lot of bad news, hasn't it? Like, you're distracted. You're deceived. You give up when it's difficult. Now, I wanna convey this as good news. Like, what I'm about to share with you is really good news. Because wherever you are in your journey spiritually, you don't have to live distracted. You don't have to live deceived. And there is a very simple path forward that Jesus gives to us that our lives over the course of time can bear increasing levels of fruit through the word of God and the spirit of God working in and through us.

So the final soil that Jesus talks about is good soil. It's good soil. And it's good news that there's good soil. And the good soil that Jesus is talking about is the open heart. It's to say, God, I want my heart to be open to the thing that you wanna do in me that your word might bear fruit. And that heart is sustained by discipleship. And what that word discipleship means is just literally learning to follow Jesus. At the end of the day, that's the goal. If you're exploring what this means, the goal is to follow Jesus, to get to know the heart of God and over the course of your life to become more and more like Him. And it's sustained through a life of discipleship. Now watch how Jesus describes it. He says, other seed, like the seed sown on good soil, they hear the word, they accept it, and they produce a crop 30, 60, or even a hundred times what was sown. They hear the word, they accept it, and they produce a crop 30, 60, or a hundred times what was sown. So there's a pattern. And I want you to notice this pattern. You probably have seen the pattern in your own life. You can look back on seasons of your life

where you were growing faster than others. And the truth is that this whole idea of four soils, I've found that my heart can drift between the four soils in one day. It's like having a weather, all these microclimates of your heart that God wants to work in and work out. So the goal is that not just in a season, but moment by moment, that God would find in me a soft heart. And here's the pattern. The pattern is I hear the word of God. So I listen, I hear what God's word says. And this is through the actual word of God. This is through impressions that God puts in my heart, your heart. I accept the word of God. So when I hear it, I make a choice what to do with it. So right now you're assessing. You're like, okay, I heard that sermon and maybe you're new here. And you're like, I don't like the guy's pants because they're baggy at the bottom. And I don't like people who wear white shoes. So I don't like what he's having to say. So you might reject it. Maybe something God said to you today throughout the course of this message, you're like, oh, that's for me. Deep in my heart, that's what God is saying to me today.

So you're accepting by faith the word of God that's coming in. So if there's doubt, if there's cynicism, and I'm not saying there shouldn't be understanding and asking questions and really trying to know and understand what the word of God is saying, but that the posture of my heart is a heart of faith. It's a heart that says, God, I believe that this book is your authoritative word for my life. And my heart is open to receive from you. This is what I say in the morning. I say, God, I open my heart. Today, I wanna accept your word, true, authentic, that it is the eternal word that you've sustained throughout the ages and the value that you placed on your word. You said that your word will last for all eternity. And I receive it today by faith. So I accept it into my heart. And when I accept it into my heart after I heard it, there's another part. Because I could actually sit in a service and I can be like, man, I love that message or I love that word, but then I go out and I do nothing with it. So I hear it, I accept it, and then I apply it. I hear it, then I accept it into my heart and I apply it with my hands and my feet. So maybe there's something that happens in your heart. You're reading the Bible

or you're talking with somebody in a small group or you get this sense that inside your heart you needed to share with somebody else the faith that God has been burning in you and the difference that Jesus has made in your life. And maybe there's this stirring of, yes, God, I'm gonna pray for one life and I'm gonna ask you to use me. And then you go out and then you have to ask the question, do you do the very thing that God stirred in your heart to do? So God's word comes into my ear, I listen, I receive in my heart, and then I apply it to my life. So there's this circle that has to happen. I hear, I accept, I apply. You tracking with me? I hear, I accept it into my heart and I apply it into my life. Can we say it together? I hear, accept, and apply. Now, there's one more part that I wanna finish with and it's really important. And it's simply put it on repeat. Hear, accept, apply, repeat. Hear, accept, apply, repeat. Hear, accept, apply, repeat. You're gonna be hearing this when you fall asleep tonight. You're gonna be hear, accept, apply, repeat. And it's the pattern. It's this life that recognizes

there is a God who loves to speak to us. He sees you as a son or a daughter and he wants you to know his heart. Did you know that as much as you wanna hear the voice of God, God wants you to hear his voice. And there is this longing from the heart of. Mighty God, the thing that He loves more than anything else is us, His kids, and He wants us to know Him. Now, He loves Himself as well. I should clarify theologically in case somebody sends me a long email I don't want to receive. So God, His glory is the most important thing, but after that, He loves us as His kids and wants us to know Him and to be in fellowship with Him. So I've discovered there's two simple tools, and these two simple tools, there's variations of them, but they've changed my life. These tools have been in my life since I've been 13 years old, and they've been the hear, accept, apply, repeat that God's used to help me grow over the course of time. And the first one is weekly worship. It's to be in church and you're here. So lean over to somebody and say, good job, you're in church this weekend. You're hearing the Word of God. Let them know you made it to church. You stayed the whole way through. You didn't leave before the service was over. You're speaking prophetically over them all the way to the end of the service today. But you, you're in church on a regular ongoing basis. I believe with all my heart, one of the greatest gifts that God gives to us is the gathering of His body that we get to be with on a weekly basis. And there's something so powerful about sitting under the teaching of God's Word, week in, week out, week in, week out, and you might leave some messages and you're like, man, that was lame.

That was kind of a boring message. And then Stacey preaches and you're like, that was the best message I've ever heard in my entire life. And it's like, that's okay. It's just sometimes this do something, keep doing it and watch yourself grow gets boring. It's like, man, another thing, just keep doing the same thing. But really in God's economy, it's that long obedience in the same direction. Some of you have been in this church for 46 years and you've been faithful and you've been loving and serving and you've grown over the course of time. Might I encourage you if you're coming to Saddleback and you're just kind of checking this thing out, that one of the greatest decisions you can make for you, for your growth spiritually is to be in church, is to say, I'm not going to do this once a month. Study shows that the average church going person in the United States of America, and I would guess it's true for international campuses, that it's like 1.2 times per month. So you made it this time, we'll see you next month from now. But the truth is there are a lot of people that that's not their pattern and some that are less. So probably it's more like this that gives us the meme. And wherever you are in that journey, if you're consistent in church, I want to encourage you keep going with it. But if you haven't taken that step to plant yourself in a church and serving and being in groups and being a part of the family and committing to making this your home church, going to activate all of that as you're saying, I'm going to anchor myself in the Word of God. I'm going to do something. I'm going to do it consistently. I'm going to do it over the course of time, and I'm going to let the Word of God get in my heart. And then finally, this last one is to daily read the Bible and pray. I love my daily time with God.

I love it. And I cannot think of one simple habit that God has used to change my life more than opening this book every single day. And there's something that happens in my heart where I get in His presence and I hear His Word and my heart softens again and I have to send apology texts to people and Stacy and the kids. And yet, day after day, He just meets with me. And I just, I'm so thankful that we have a God who wants to be with His people, that wants His people to know His heart. I mean, this is so different than every other world religion, that it's all about what you do and all that you can accomplish. And Jesus comes and He reveals the heart of the Father. And He says, I speak and my sheep know my voice, that He wants to cultivate in you the ability to listen and know His voice. How beautiful would it be to be in this really intense, anxious moment at work and have a word from the Lord fly right in your heart? And all of a sudden you have peace in your heart. How awesome would it be when you're staring in the face of a kid and ready to put them in timeout and like you're so frustrated with that child and the Spirit of the living God just slips in to your heart and gives you a word, love that child. You can discipline them, but love them with the same love that I have for you. The power of one word from God into our hearts, one touch from God can change everything. And the thing you need more than anything else. is an encounter with the living God. It's to know his heart for you. And I wanna ask right now in this moment that we would make space to let the spirit of the living God speak to us right now. Aren't you thankful that God wants to speak to you? That he wants to speak into your heart?

So I wanna give you a question, and we're gonna kinda meditate on this question for a moment, and we're gonna slow it down at all of our campuses, and this is the question. What does the soil of my heart look like today? And I just wanna ask you to reflect on that. What does the soil of my heart look like today? Now you might remind yourself of the soils that we looked at, the hard soil, the shallow soil, the distracted soil, or the open good soil that bears fruit. And God wants your heart to be soft and tender. And maybe for some of you, as you wrestle through that, there's a part of you that just recognizes your heart's hard today. And if you're honest with yourself, there's some barriers that are there. Maybe it might be an experience you had in church growing up, maybe it might be something that happened on the way to church today. It could be big, it could be small. But there's something in your heart that says, my heart is hard right now, and I want it to be soft. I got good news for you. Ezekiel chapter 36, verse 26 and 27. I wanna read this verse. If that's you today, I want you to hear this verse. Listen to what God's word says. I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you a heart of stone,

and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit in you, and I will move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. That's the word of God spoken to the hardest of hearts. There is no heart that is too hard for God to transform. And today, if that's you, I wanna invite you at all of our campuses, we're gonna keep our eyes open. If that's you, could be small, could be big. I'm just clarifying so when I ask you to respond, nobody's around you thinking it's this thing like you just came out of prison and your heart is hard and you just killed somebody on your way to church. That's not what I'm saying. I thought that was funny, you didn't. So let me, if you today, if you're saying, I want prayer for my heart to be soft before God, will you just stand up, just stand up, and I wanna pray over you, just stand up. So if you're just saying, I want a softer heart before the Lord, if that's you, just stand up. And we wanna pray at all of our campuses, if you can just look around, extend your hands to those who are standing right now, and we just wanna pray for God's blessing. God sees you, he sees your desire for a softer heart, and he is able through his spirit to give you the softness of heart that you long for. So Holy Spirit, I ask right now

that you would touch our hearts, that you would make our hearts soft towards you. And I thank you for every person that's standing right now. And they're saying, I want my heart to be soft. I pray that you would honor their courage to stand in a church service. And Lord, that throughout the course of this week, they would sense you, Holy Spirit, stirring in them and softening their heart towards you. In Jesus' name, amen, amen. Are you gonna be seated? We got two more, and the next one is, maybe you've been doing this here, accept, apply, repeat, and you feel like it's not working, and you've been doing it for a long time, and you're just exhausted. And I wanna give you a word from God. Galatians 6, nine says this, says, let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. So there is a harvest coming. And if you today are saying, man, I just, there's a part of me that I just need a bit of strength to persevere in this here, accept, apply, repeat. Will you just stand right now, and I wanna pray. Maybe you're just saying today, I need some strength. I need fresh strength. I need God's strength in my heart to say, carry forward, to move me into the future.

At all of our campuses, you can just stand, and I wanna pray over you in this moment. Father, I thank you right now for every person that is standing saying, I need strength from the living God. And Lord, I pray that you would embolden them, empower them, help them not grow weary in doing good, and to be reminded that at the proper time, you will bring a harvest into their lives. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. All right, we're gonna finish with this last one, and then we're gonna go into a song of worship, but Revelation 3.20 says this. It says, here I am. This is Jesus. Jesus speaking, I stand at the door and I knock. And if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me. If anybody comes and opens the door, and what Jesus is saying is there's a handle on your side where you open the door to fellowship with God. And today I wanna invite you, if there's a part of you follower of Jesus, new to faith, doesn't matter where you are in your journey, that you're just saying today, I'm hungry for more of God. I'm hungry for more of his work in my life. I wanna make space and room to hear from him. I wanna be willing to do what it takes to open my life to him.

We just stand saying today, I wanna hear more of God's voice. I want to open the door for Jesus to say, come in, fill me, speak to me, move in my heart. So I wanna pray and then we're gonna go into worship and we're just gonna welcome God's voice into our life. We're gonna say, God, we're making room for you. We need you more than anything else. Will you join me in prayer? Father, today we acknowledge, Lord Jesus, that you are holy and set apart. Spirit, we acknowledge that you are with us. And Lord, we need you. We wanna hear from you. And I pray that right now, even as we worship, Lord, that this would be the cry of our heart, that we would make room for you, space for you, God, to do what you wanna do. Have your way. We surrender to you, Lord Jesus, in this moment. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray. Amen, amen. If you're not standing yet, will you please stand as we worship together? ♪ And I will make room for you ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to ♪ Sing that, I will make room. ♪ I will make room for you, Jesus ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to ♪

♪ To do whatever you want, I will make room ♪ ♪ I will make room for you, my God ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to, you always better do it ♪ ♪ We surrender right here, right now ♪ ♪ And I will make room for you ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to, Jesus ♪ ♪ So shake up the ground of all my tradition ♪ ♪ Break down the walls of all my religion ♪ ♪ You're always better, come on let's sing and say ♪ ♪ You're always better, we declare it ♪ ♪ Shake up the ground of all my tradition ♪ ♪ Break down the walls of all my religion ♪ ♪ You're always, you're always better, Lord ♪ ♪ You're always better ♪ ♪ Shake up the ground of all my tradition ♪ ♪ Break down the walls of all my religion ♪ ♪ I've tasted and I've seen that you're always better ♪ ♪ So shake up the ground, shake up the ground ♪ ♪ Of all my tradition, break down the walls ♪ ♪ Of all my religion, you're always better ♪ ♪ Cause you're always better, and I will make room for you ♪ ♪ It's a cry on our hearts to do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ To do whatever we submit our lives to, God ♪ ♪ I will make room for you, Jesus ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to, to do whatever you want to ♪ Sing that again, I will make room. ♪ I will make room for you, Jesus ♪ ♪ We want you, Lord, to do whatever you want to do ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to ♪

♪ Yes, I will make room for you, Jesus ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to, to do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ Well, what an amazing God that we have. A God that cares for us deeply, a God that loves us, a God whose love is unconditional and not dependent. on how good we are or the works that we do, but he loves us because we are his children. And that God is inviting us into a relationship with him. That God is inviting us to draw near to him, to take his word, to read it, to open it, to apply it, and to accept it into our hearts. And so I want to invite you today, if maybe you've been checking out Saddleback every once or maybe you just open your Bible every once in a while, maybe just only on the weekends, to take a step to committing to joining us for church every week, to take a step to opening your Bible each and every day and seeing how the Lord might grow your faith, how the Lord might transform your life. And if there's something that you might need prayer for as well, or maybe you want to explore what a relationship with God looks like, we want to invite you to take a next step by letting us know. Click that link in the description if you're watching on YouTube. You can scan the QR code that you see on the screen, or you can open our Saddleback app and take a next step that way. Our church family would love to come alongside you and to help you grow in your faith. Well, we are so glad that you joined us today for church. It's a great message that we got to hear from Pastor Andy, and I'm super excited to continue this series, Get Growing Together. We hope and we invite you to join us for church again next week. We'll see you then.