Pause Week Four | The Parable of the Sower

We worship God because of who He is. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Come on, does anybody believe in Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God? So it's not your good deeds that lead people to Jesus, it's His good deeds. It's not how good you are, it's not how good you act, it's not if you don't mess up or no, no, no. It's all about Jesus. You're not becoming the light, you're just reflecting the light that Jesus is putting off. You don't know what God brought me through. You don't know what He did in my life, and so when I sing and I dance and I praise and I shout the way that I do, it's because I know how good God is. God has plans to bless you and to prosper you, not to harm you or hurt you. He has plans to take your life and use it for incredible things, but it requires full obedience. And the fact that you are here right now, it is a testament of the miracle-working power of Jesus Christ, and it is Him and Him alone that has kept you, that has saved you, that has delivered you, that has brought you up and brought you out. Oh, come on, church, can we give God some praise for what just happened this week? Yeah. Now, look, I know as the pastor of this church, I should be excited about Christmas and Easter. Those, all right. But I'm just gonna tell you, I think my favorite week every year is 12 Conference. There's just something about seeing a room full of the future of this church, the future of this country, the future of the church worldwide. Really, everything is in that room, and they are so passionately just going after God. Their lives are being changed. They're being saved and delivered and set free. Spirits of heaviness and depression are being broke off of them. Their lives are being marked forever and ever and ever and ever, and not only are their

lives being marked. Yeah. Y'all can give God some praise. Go ahead. But what's being planted in them isn't even for later. I see it happening instantaneously, that those students are going to the workers at the Yingling Arena who are not church people at all, and they're approaching them and asking them how they can pray for them, and they're encouraging them. They're all rallying around them and praying them. They are living what God has planted inside them even right now. So come on, give God some praise for what's happening. So I planned my whole summer vacation on coming back to be here for that, and so Amy and I, we're just so just full at the end of that. You know, you ever been so full and excited and exhausted at the same time? That's a good combination right there, let me tell you. But listen, there's a special happening for next year's conference, 2027. We're going back to USF, we're going back to the Yingling Arena as this thing just continues to grow. We have to continue to stay there. Praise God, what a good problem to have. But you know what? You can get your ticket right now. It's actually, the tickets right now are at the lowest price they've ever been. They're normally like $250, and they're $175 for this week. So go to 12 Conference and get your tickets now, and I can't wait to see what God does next year. Let's give him praise one more time for what just happened this last week, yeah. In fact, Amy and I ran into several people throughout the week after the conference just in the community. We were at the movies the other day and saw this student came up to us, and he, I don't,

I guess he doesn't go to church here or whatever, and he's like, wait a minute, were you at the Tampa or something the other day? Anyway, he started telling us about how God just radically impacted his life. So I'm excited about that. Let's keep doing it, amen? Okay, so I have this apple seed in my hand. Obviously, there's no way you'll be able to see it, but I'm just holding an apple seed here, and inside this seed is an incredible potential. Actually, there's a potential for an entire orchard, right? Apple orchard inside this seed right here, but only if it's planted, right? This has to be planted, and then it's actually conditional that you can plant it and still not see any fruit from it. It actually has to be planted in good soil, right? It has to be planted in a healthy environment. I want you to understand something today that this is God's word. If you have your Bible, come on, hold it up. If it's not a printed Bible, hold up your digital device, because that's the word of God right there as well, right? Come on, hold it up, all of our campuses, and just, I want you to understand, this right here is seed as well, and this right here has potential to do incredible things in our lives. This is not just God's word. This actually is God. If you want to get to know who he is, if you want to understand God,

if you want to see your full potential in life and what he's able to accomplish, this right here is the seed of God that he wants planted in your life that can produce incredible things, because this word right here says that God is omnipotent. Come on, church, he's all-powerful. Somebody say amen right there. He's all-powerful, so I don't know what you need, but the power that you need in order to live the full life that God has for you, it's inside the seed. The potential is here, has to be planted in your life, and it is as you plant this word of God in your own life, in your own heart, well, that's when you begin to see, no, I know the world is chaotic, but God is still my peace, and I know that I have needs, but God is still my provider. I know that I'm not finished with this battle over my kid's salvation or this business situation that's happening, but I just know that God is my victory no matter what. I know I'm walking into something, God, that I don't really know how to handle, and I've never been in a situation like this before, but God, your word says that you are my ever-present help in times of trouble, and I have that because this seed can be planted in my life, and it can't come to full fruit and fruition of that unless it's planted in the right soil. Come on, everybody say, this is my Bible.

This is my Bible. That's right, that's your Bible. It's God's word that wants to be planted in your life, but it has to be in the right soil. I get so frustrated every time I go to my son Connor's house, him and Brooke's house, because they planted these incredible, beautiful flowers in there, it's really like a shrub, but it has all these amazing flowers all over it, and it's just everywhere. He was telling me the other day, he goes, Dad, it's too many of them. I gotta cut them back, and they're taking over everything. Well, when I saw them the first time, I thought, I like those, so I planted them in my flower bed. They're gone. They just died. They don't even exist. I mean, they just, I was like, what in the world? Same flowers, same environment. I live in Florida. He lives here, too, right? And it didn't work for me. You know why? Something's wrong with the soil. Too many times, people look at the word of God, and they go, well, it's not working for me. And I just wanna submit to you that the word of God does work. It needs to be planted in the right environment.

Somebody say amen to that. We are continuing our pause series today. We do this every summer, and it's an opportunity for us in the craziness and the busyness and the outside the normal schedules to make sure that every day we're pausing and getting into God's word so that that word can get into us so that we can live the life that he's called us to live. And in fact, on our app, by the way, we have a new app, and I don't know if you guys have downloaded it yet, but you need to download it because it's not just a stagnant kind of a place where you go to see what's happening at the church or whatever. Although there are a lot of things going on around here, and I don't know what you're struggling with and what you feel void and empty, and you need resources or encouragement and help, but I'm telling you, this place is better than like Super Target, okay? I mean, whatever it is that's going on in your life, I believe that we as a church can help pastor you and lead you in that. But there's actually community that happens there. People are, there's daily Bible verses that are being sent to you. You open up the app, and you're reading them, and other people are making comments, and people are sharing their prayer requests,

and there's all kind of community. Like what you feel when you come here, like you belong, you know how it feels when you come to church? church, and people for the first time overwhelmingly say, I don't know what it is about this place. I just feel like I belong here. Well, that's now happening through the app Monday through Saturday as well. And so, download it for the resources. The reading plan for this series is there. There's all kind of other things that are happening. I encourage you to do that so every day you can be a part of the reading plan and studying these parables that we're covering. Okay, today, I'm going to be covering the parable of the sower. And if you look in your Bible, there's three gospels that this parable of the sower is actually read in or you can read it in. We're going to cover primarily Luke chapter 8 so you can turn in your Bibles to there. I'm going to use a little bit of the Mark chapter 4. It's also in Matthew chapter 13 as well. But turn to Luke chapter 8 and you can turn to Mark chapter 4, put your finger in there, we're going to read some of that as well and you can kind of hold it. But I want to submit to you that I think that what really is going on here is not the parable of the sower. This is not about God's word. This is about the soil, the condition of our heart. So I'm going to pray today that we are going to receive from God

today and our hearts are going to be ready to receive and then we're going to leave this place different than we came in Jesus' name. Somebody say amen. Okay, everybody close your eyes, open your heart. Would you actually, if you feel comfortable, would you lift both your hands just for a moment of kind of like surrendering? Actually, I would submit to you even if you don't feel comfortable, do it anyway because serving God isn't supposed to be comfortable. God didn't come here, he didn't send his son so we could be comfortable. He sent his son here so we could be changed. So why don't you do something different? Why don't you lift both your hands and God, we pray right now for this time that we have together. God, please, I don't want to get in the way. I don't want to cause your word to be ineffective. Rather, as I scatter your word, as we study this word today, I pray that it would fall on good hearts. God, help us to receive it with gladness. Help us to receive it with expectation so that we can be changed and we will not leave this place the same as we came. And devil, you will not steal the word today but it'll produce a mighty harvest even up to a hundredfold in Jesus' name. And everybody shout it. Come on, everybody shout it. Amen. Okay, Luke chapter 8. Here we go.

We're going to read this whole parable and then we're going to teach it. We're going to look at it. Okay. Luke 8, 1. I'm reading in the NIV version. After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The 12 were with him. And also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases. Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had come out. Joanna, the wife of Juzah, the manager of Herod's household. Susanna and many others. These women were helping support them out of their own means. Verse 4 continues. While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told them this parable. A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path it was trampled on and the birds ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns which grew up and it choked out the plants. Still other fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop a hundred times more than was sown. When he said this, he called out, whoever has ears, let them

hear. His disciples asked him the meaning of what this parable meant and he said, the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God have been given to you, but others I will speak in parables so that those seeing they may not see, though hearing they may not understand. This is the meaning of the parable. The seed is the word of God. Everybody say the word. Those along the path are the ones who hear and that the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts so that they may not believe and be saved. Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing, they fall away. The seed that fell among the thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by life's worries, riches, and pleasures, and they do not mature. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering, produce a crop. Everybody say amen. Okay, so I wanna look at the different types of soil or the different kinds of hearts so we can evaluate where do I stand and how can I receive God's word so that it produces a hundredfold in my life. Here we go. First one is, write this down, the hard heart. We're going to look at the back in Luke and we're going to jump

in the verse that explains it or the verse that teaches the parable and then explains it and then we'll dive into it. Okay, it says, a farmer went to sow a seed as he was scattering. This is the ones that fell along the path, right? It was trampled on and the birds ate it. Explanation all the way down in 11. This is the meaning of the parable. We just read this, but it says that the seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear and the devil comes and takes the word from their hearts so that they may not believe and be saved. I like this part in helping you understand the fact that this seed was sown on what this passage calls a path. Really, it's some areas where oftentimes farmers, if you were at a farm, you would see there's normal places that they walk all the time and it creates a path or a very trampled on area so that when they're scattering seed, it may land there, but it can't get inside because it's actually, you know, there's a routine of them walking all the time and actually becomes hard and the seed won't get in there. And I'm here to tell you that I believe that there are hard areas in our life for the word to penetrate us because we have these normal patterns, these ways of living our life, and it's hard to break those so the word of God can change our routines and our habits. It's kind of like driving. You ever been driving home from somewhere that you normally go and you get home and all of a sudden you realize, I don't even remember the drive. Come on, right?

Listen, I have pulled out of my house before going to a particular place, but because of routines and habits, I just started driving here to the church and I'm halfway here and I realize, where am I going, you know? I mean, my body arrives, but my mind was not there, right? You know what I'm talking about. That is a perfect example of our lives is that we come here to church a lot of times and you hear the word of God and then all of a sudden we jump back into our same old routines, same conversations, same patterns, same ways of thinking, and because of that, the word of God never gets into our lives and our hearts. It never actually produces any kind of change. God's word never gets below the surface because we just immediately fall right back into our same patterns of living again. And it's not because the seed isn't powerful, it's because we are not receptive. Imagine if you were to join a gym and you were to get a membership, you were to pay the dues, bought some new shoes, you got that new outfit, you got your new workout clothes, like you were just like looking like you ought to go to the gym. You show up, you take pictures in the mirror like, pulling it up a little bit, trying to flex, all right? But you never lifted a weight. Eventually, you would say the gym doesn't work. No, the gym works, you didn't. And just because we got the church merch, just because we bring our Bible, or just because you show up for church, just because you take a picture and go, oh, what a great word

today by Pastor Randy. But if you don't let the word of God change your everyday life, then it's never going to produce anything. You know, I'll never forget when I gave my life to Christ, I had an old way of living, right? For those of you who don't know, I was heavily involved in drugs and alcohol. In fact, I overdosed one time and was brought to the hospital and, of course, God gave me life again. But here's my point, is that the moment I gave my life to Christ, I immediately said, I have to change patterns. And I immediately, I went to my Jeep and I threw away all of everything in that Jeep that had any patterns from my old way of living. I got rid of the music I listened to, I cleaned out. I mean, I had all kinds of drug paraphernalia and stuff in there. I wanted to get rid of those patterns so it could soften my heart to learn a new pattern with God. So that's how the word of God produced a hundredfold in my life. I've been free ever since January 30th, 1992. Come on, somebody. Everybody say patterns. I don't know what kind of patterns you're living in. Just like you almost don't even think about it. You just kind of react and go in that direction and live that lifestyle and participate in those things. But maybe in order for God's word to produce something new in your life, you're going to have to break some patterns, have to do something different. That's why the Bible says in James, don't just listen to God's word,

you must do what it says. Yes, otherwise you're just fooling yourself. If you hear it and you don't do it, you're just like a fool, the Bible says. It says, but if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free and you do what it says and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it. I don't think our problem is a lack of information. Our problem is a lack of changing our patterns in life. We have to, it says you have to look carefully. It means to scope it hard, like to even stoop and strain your eyes into understanding what that means. Look, I'm getting old now and when I'm trying to read a label or something, it's, you know, if I don't have any like readers, then I have to take a picture of it and then zoom it. You know, any of y'all old people do that? I'm having to strain really hard to see what it says. And I'm here to tell you, that's how we handle God's word. God, what are you really saying to me through this? Straining, looking intently to say, God, I wanna understand your word, what needs to get deposited in my life so I don't live the same patterns, but I live a new pattern according to your word in Jesus' name. Come on, that's the hard heart. How about the shallow heart? We're gonna jump in Mark chapter four and look at this one.

Let's look at the parable and then the meaning. Some seed fell on rocky places where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came, the plants were scorched and they withered because they had no root. Others, like seeds sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. This soil, the shallow soil represents emotional soil or an emotional heart. This is the person that receives the word of God, like, amen, that's right. Everybody say amen. Amen. But you do it in a way of like you're excited about what God is saying to you, but then you leave and then the problems come in life and the difficulties come in life. And then because you don't nurture the roots of that, it ends up falling away and then it never really produces any harvest in our lives. Because it says when the sun comes out, the sun represents trials, represents testing, persecution, difficulties in life. And when those things happen, a lot of times, if all you're doing is living by the emotion of things, your emotions will start to fade because of the problems

and you'll give up on the word of God and that stuff will choke out God's promises, mainly because you're focusing on your emotions rather than the word. See, the same sun that destroys one thing will bring life to another. You see, the same difficulties in some people's life stirs up their faith, other people will give up. It really depends on what you're feeding in life. I was looking at my sprinklers, this is not long ago, because we weren't getting any rain and it was like 195 degrees outside. So, normally in the summer, you don't need a sprinkler system, but my goodness, it's been hot. And I was adjusting my sprinkler heads and I noticed one of them was just sprinkling the conservation area. My yard was brown, it looked terrible, but the conservation area was flourishing. The poison ivy was like red to get onto somebody. Like it was growing, flourishing. Why? Because I was watering the wrong thing. And when you get caught up in your emotions in life, like, I don't know, man, this doesn't feel right. And you start feeding that, then what happens is that's what grows. The poison ivy in your life grows. The weeds in your life grow.

And it chokes out the promises of God because you have just forgotten about this and you're feeding something else. I said this a couple of months ago in one of my messages, and that is what you look at determines what you look like. If you look at your problems, if you look at all your difficulties and the things that are not going right, then that's exactly what you will feed and that's what your life will look like. But if you're looking at God's promises, if you're looking at God's word, if you're focused on that, if you have new patterns of stains connected to this, then that's what your life will look like because that's what you've been looking at. Somebody ought to say amen to that. Amen to that. Sometimes problems destroy people and sometimes it builds their faith. It just depends on what you're feeding, right? So every morning you gotta decide what you're gonna water, fear or faith, gratitude or bitterness, right? Hope or anxiety. because whatever you water, whatever you feed grows. I love this Psalm. It says, this is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. I read that verse and there's no like little asterisks and you go down to the bottom of the footnote in the Bible

and it says, well, you only have to rejoice on the good days. And only the good days are the ones made by the Lord. The good days are his, the bad days are his. We have to choose what are we gonna water? I'm gonna water the seed that God you are over my life no matter what the circumstances say. I choose today to rejoice. Everybody say rejoice and give him some praise because he deserves every bit of that. I don't know. Look, I don't know what your day looks like, but today is the day you can choose to water your faith in God and choosing to praise him regardless of what the day looks like. I know what it looks like if I look at him in Jesus name. Amen. How about the crowded heart? Mark four, we're gonna read verse seven and then the explanation. It says, other seed fell among thorns which grew up and choked the plants. So they did not bear grain or bear fruit. Explanation is still others like seeds sown among the thorns. They hear the word, but the worries of life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Thorny soil is what this is.

Or really this is a crowded life because so many other things are in our life. It ends up choking out the promises of God. This really represents a busy life. I mean, I think it's almost like a badge of honor these days when you talk to people, right? How you doing? Oh, this is busy, man. So busy, right? It's almost like, well, I'm busy so then that means I'm actually, it's important what I'm doing. And I'm here to tell you that I think us being so busy in life that a lot of times those things cause us to be busy with things that won't necessarily feed our faith are the word of God. You know, the plants only grow if you continue to water them, which means you have to give attention to them. And it's not just hearing the word of God in our lives but it's actually feeding that and not letting the busyness of life take us away from doing this, not just on a Sunday but on a regular basis feeding God's word. The weeds will slowly steal everything. Look, busyness keeps us from allowing God's word to produce in our life. And I think, look, if the devil can't make us bad,

you know what he'll do? He'll make us busy. Because he knows if we're just busy with all sorts of things in life but we're not busy about sticking with watering the seed that he's planted in our lives, then those other things in life that we're so busy doing will choke out the life of God and we'll never live in all that he has for us. He says that there are things that do that. He said the worries of life, the wealth of life, and the wants or the desires of our life. Look, the busyness of our schedules and sports, careers, Netflix and vacations and kids' activities and work and all of those things, they're not necessarily evil things but good things, if we spend too much time doing them, will steal God's things that is gonna happen in our life. Amen? I actually was thinking about this the other day when I was watching the FIFA World Cup. I don't know about you guys but the only time I've ever watched soccer was when my kids were younger and they were into soccer. And even then, don't tell them, but I wasn't even into it. I just watched it because they were into it. I always thought, man, we watch this thing, it's a 90-minute game and it's one to zero or something. Like, man, let's score some more goals here, right? But the FIFA World Cup was, like, I watched soccer,

I watched people, I don't care, Cape Verde, I don't even know where that country is. But I watched their soccer game, you know? I'm sorry, football. I watched their football game. And you know why I fell in love with it? It took me a little while to figure it out. But the reason why I fell in love with it, I was enjoying it so much, because of the fans. Like, they were rowdy. You could hear them over the announcers during the game, singing their song, doing their cheers, all the things that they have, they wouldn't stop. It's like the whole time just going. And I thought, man, they are having so much fun. And then what is so different than what happens here in America, when the game ended, no one left. I would imagine some couple of hours later, finally they're flicking the lights on the stadium. I'm like, you people got to go. But they would stay and continue to sing their songs and celebrate and cheering and just, I just, I couldn't believe it. And I thought, how much different is that than in America? Like, we're watching our team and we're like, well, if we leave right now, we can get ahead of everybody else and. We gotta hurry up and get to the, I don't know, Applebee's to eat our wings.

I don't know where you're trying to go after the game. Waffle House is about the only thing open. Anyway. No, but America, we just can't wait to move to the next thing. And we miss celebrating and enjoying and being a part of what experience is still happening in our lives. Oh man, and that happens in church, too. You guys have figured out the pattern. Pastor prays at the end. It's time for me to grab your stuff as soon as he says amen, baby, we're out of here. Where you going? Amen. I think some of the most powerful moments happen because we choose to linger around what God is doing and allow that stuff to marinate and meditate in us. And you just can't wait to get to the parking lot. I don't know about you, but I know the parking lot ain't gonna set me free. Probably make me angry. But what else could I possibly be going to that is more valuable than the word of God in this environment where my soil is receptive to see and I just can't wait to put it down and run out of here. And then those are the things that choke out what I receive here because I'm more feeding them than I am what God is doing here.

And we wonder why I'm not living in God's best. I wonder how many miracles people miss out on because they can't wait to get to the parking lot. How many marriages have never been restored because you just hurry up and let's get out of here. Let's move on to the next thing when we ought to be lingering in what God is trying to say to us, the seed that he's scattering in our lives and he wants it to fall on good ground. But we have to be at a place where we say, I'm not running to something else. God, what is it that you're saying to me? Listen, he is the answer. Come on church, he's the answer for what ails us. He's the answer for what troubles us. God's seed gets planted in our life. And by the way, this parable isn't just talking about listening to sermons, although I'm scattering seed right now. It's when anytime you spend time in the word and if I were you, I would make sure I'm scattering seed every day in my life. And Jesus describes this whole concept and he says in Luke chapter 10, Martha, Martha, the Lord answered, you're worried and upset about many things. Can we just stop? I want to take this scripture which is still relevant for today

and you could insert your name there and I want you to know right now, you're worried about many things. But there are a few things that are really needed, indeed really only one. And Mary has chosen what is better and it will not, I declare, it will not be taken from you. If you choose today what is better, then I submit to you, it will not be taken away because you will continue to water this seed and it'll end up dropping in your lives and setting you free in Jesus' name, amen? Okay, we gotta hurry. Should've known, this is my first time back in like five weeks. Some of you didn't even know I was gone, but I was. And so, listen, let me just read the part about the good heart and then I'm gonna tell you what we're gonna do here for a couple of moments. And those of you that have crowded lives or you have a hardened path, patterns in life, to just get out of here, can we just please, I'm begging you as your pastor with all that you have, would you just linger for a few moments once I'm done so that we can create a moment for you to receive from God and Him plant something in your heart today. I'm desperately asking you today for that. So let's just read what is a good heart. I'm gonna read this one verse

and then we're gonna create this moment. The worship team can come on out and join me at all of our locations right now. A good heart. Verse 15, it says, but the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and a good heart who hear the word, listen to this, hear the word, retain it, and by persevering, produce a crop. What that means is if we're gonna have a heart that actually receives from God, then we have to actually create a right heart. And I love what David said. He prayed, God, create in me a pure, a clean heart. As we're gonna have a moment here in just a second, asking the Lord, God, to prepare my heart. God, create in me a clean heart so that I can receive from you. Then we're gonna hear God's word. God's gonna, he's probably already spoken to you something today. And so then we gotta create our clean heart, we gotta hear God's word, and we have to retain it. It means like to stay focused on it. That means you need to write it down somewhere. You need to remind yourself of it. That's like feeding the seed in your heart of what God has spoken. So that it will produce a harvest.

The Bible said there, even a hundredfold what was sown. In other words, when you get a promise from God and you get a glimpse of your life, of what God can do, it's a hundred times more than that. But you have to be the kind of person that creates an atmosphere for your heart to receive. And when he puts it in there, like retain it, write it down, I'm not gonna let go of it. And then persevere. Because storms and troubles and difficulties come. But we have to say, no God, I'm gonna hold on to it no matter what. That's what produces a great harvest in our lives. So at all of our campuses, I'm gonna ask you guys to participate for the next few moments. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to just stay there. We're gonna go into this worship song. It's about being still, settling ourselves to receive from God. So just a few moments. If you wanna stand and you wanna worship and sing along, you can, but I ask you right now, please just forget who's here. Just forget about what you have to go do. Turn your phone off, set it down, face down on the ground. I don't know, just get rid of distractions so we can create this place to be still and hear from God. And then in this moment, during this time of this song and this worship, when you feel like God is speaking

something, would you write it down? That's retaining it. Write it down, like God, I'm gonna hold tightly to this. And then it's through his spirit, he's gonna deposit faith into you to persevere so that you can see this thing produce a hundredfold in your life. So I'm gonna pray and we're gonna go into this time of this song of worship and reflection. God, thank you for your word. Thank you that it has been sown. And God, you're gonna produce something incredible today. I speak against distractions and those that, even now the devil's bringing thoughts and things to them that that would be silenced, that that would begin to become quiet so that your voice could be loud. And I pray that you would speak, we would receive it, retain it, persevere in it, to live in all that you have for us. In Jesus' name, church, just stay for a few moments and receive from the Lord. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ Emmanuel, God's with us ♪ ♪ The Lord of hosts is ever present ♪ ♪ The God who saves is our deliverer ♪ ♪ He's our hope and He's our helper ♪ ♪ He's our hope and He's our helper ♪

♪ We still have hope ♪ ♪ And know that He is God, He is God ♪ ♪ We still have hope that He is God, He is God ♪ ♪ We still have hope that He is God, He is God ♪ ♪ He is God, He is God ♪ ♪ We still have hope that He is God, He is God ♪ You are God, You are God, You are faithful. You are faithful, You are mother nature. You are gracious, You are slow to anger. You are witness, You are ever praising. You are faithful, You are mother nature. You are gracious, You are slow to anger. You are witness, You are ever praising. You are faithful, You are mother nature. You are gracious, You are slow to anger. You are witness, You are ever praising. Be still and know that He is God. You are God, Oh You are God. Be still, Oh we know You are God, He is God. I want you to take a moment before you leave. I want you to write that down. So that you can retain it and persevere in it. So please don't leave here without having received that. Would you please do that as we are staying in this attitude of worship. Pull out your phone, however you are going to do it. Write it down on something. What has God spoken? What seed has He given you? What promise has He spoken to you? What pattern do you need to change in your life?

What thing do you need to weed from your life to get out of your life? What is it that He has spoken to you? That He is asking of you right now. Let's seal that. Come on write that down. Be committed to it. Retain it. Persevere in it. In Jesus name. Amen. Thank you Father for the deposit that you put in us today. Thank you Jesus for your teachings that do not fall on deaf ears. But rather a heart that is ready to receive. Thank you for exposing the devil. And how he wants to steal. And take away the promises and the seeds of potential that God puts in our lives. The devil you have been exposed today. We understand your plan. We understand the ways in which you try to steal that potential. We will not allow them to lead our lives anymore. But from this day forward we will live in all that God has for us. We thank you for it Lord. Now with your eyes still closed and heads bowed for just a moment perhaps. You are in here in the greatest seed of potential that needs to be sown in your life is salvation. Maybe you've never done that before. Maybe you've never allowed your life to be settled in relationship with Jesus. You might be religious. You may come to church. You may say that you believe in God. But that's different than Jesus being your Lord and Savior.

Savior. And I'm going to count the three in just a moment. And if that's you, you're like, yeah, I'm ready to do that. I want you to just raise your hand just as a sign of faith. And so that I can lead us in a prayer in just a moment. If you know right now, if you died, you wouldn't spend eternity in heaven with God. And you want to know for sure. Then on the count of three, I want you to raise your hand. We're going to pray this prayer in just a moment. One, two, three, come on all over this place. If that's you don't let this moment pass you by. That's right. Praise the Lord. Love it. Okay. Let's all pray this prayer together. Say heavenly father. Thank you for your love. Thank you for drawing me, pursuing me coming after me because you want relationship with me. I received that today. My life, Jesus is yours. You are my Lord. You are my savior. The work he did on the cross was for me. You died with my sins so that I can be free. I so believe it in my heart and my mouth is declaring Jesus. You are my Lord. You are my savior in Jesus name. Amen. Now, just a moment before we praise God. And then we leave those of you that have made that decision for Christ, or maybe recently you have, and you haven't been water baptized. We are doing water baptism today. And so we got clothes, we got shirts, we got shorts, we got towels, we got everything you need. And it's happening right outside in the, in the roundabout on the East side or the West side on the West side, which is it's West. Never eat soggy waffles. It's West, which is this way. Okay. Just so you guys know. So towards your left. Okay. Anyway, what a great celebration to see people making a fresh decision. What a great way to memorialize that you're going after God. So we would love to see you out there and celebrate with you for your decision, whether you made it today or recently, or you want to rededicate your life to the Lord through water baptism, all those are great opportunities. So, all right. We're going to praise God. We're going to clap and shout for God for what he's done. That's how we're going to leave today. But if you have something on your heart, you need prayer. You need encouragement. Our prayer team is right down here. Anything we can pray with you about, encourage you before you leave. Okay. God did it work today in our lives. Can we give him some praise? Come on church. Yes. God bless you. We'll see you guys next week.