Process | Kenneth Andoh-Dontoh

Before we sit down, just turn to your neighbor and just tell them, you're gonna make it. You're gonna make it. God's not done yet. You're gonna make it. Amen. You may be seated. Worship almost took me out. I may not have a voice left, but we'll try to get through this. But this morning, I'm honored to be here. And I'm glad that you're here too. Because if you're here, then it must mean that God wants to encounter you, that he wants to speak to you. And whether you drag yourself here, or someone dragged you here, I believe that there's something in this message for you, especially if you're watching online from our Union Houston Prison campus through the Pando app with 600 salvations. We love you. And we know that God has something he wants to give you today. This morning's message is as much for me as it is for you. Because I'm still in progress to God is still working on me to God is still fixing things in my life. And so even as I'm preaching to you, I'm preaching to me. Today we are in week two of our sermon series on seeds. We're going to be looking at the parable of the sower that's found in Matthew chapter 13. In the backdrop of this message, Jesus has these large crowds following him. All kinds of people from all walks of life. It's got fishermen, carpenters, Pharisees, Sadducees, the young, the old, the rich, the poor, but they all have one thing in common. They all want to hear what he has to say. But when Jesus finally starts speaking to these people, he uses these stories called

parables and these parables are confusing to everyone, even to the disciples, especially Peter. I don't know why, but everybody always picks on Peter as a disciple who can never get it right. See, Jesus uses these parables because he can tell what's in the hearts of the people that are gathered. Even though they all want to hear, they don't all want to obey. The parable seems like too much work for those who are not ready to grow, but it invites those who want to go deeper to lean in and ask questions. My prayer is that today your hearts be open to hear what God has been trying to tell you all this time. So would you join me as we stand and read the word? We're going to be reading from Matthew chapter 13 verses 3 to 9. And it says, that same day, Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables saying, a farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path and the birds came and ate it up. Some 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 up, the plants were scorched and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil where it produced a crop a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear. Let's pray. God, we thank you for this moment. I know that you are here in this room and I ask that you speak to your people. I move myself out the way and I pray that everything you've put in my heart to say be heard by the people you want to hear.

May this seed be buried in good soil. May you bear the fruit that you wanted to bear. And it's in Jesus' mighty name we pray. Somebody say, Amen. Amen. Now as many of you know, my wife Elsie and I are union's token African couple. For some reason every time we're introduced, somebody says, our African worship leaders. I've got a blue passport, just so you know. I never signed up for the name Prince Hakeem, but now it's stuck. My parents are actually here from Ghana as well, you can give us a wave. So if you want to take a picture with African royalty, please feel free to stop them after service. They would love all that attention. No matter what Pastor Rod tells you about us, I promise you we're not the coming to America story. We did not come from Zimunda. All we did was come from Ghana. But you see, for us in Ghana, when we talk about a harvest, when we think of a farm, it looks nothing like the farms you go to here with your families. None of those aesthetic places where you're picking strawberries in your flannel shirts and your boots and your cowboy hats, taking cute pictures for Instagram, hashtag couple goals, hashtag family goals, hashtag God first. A Ghanaian farm, however, is not the place we go for a date night. It's definitely not the place for engagement photos. We don't do goat yoga on Ghanaian farms. We breed goats because they taste good. The goat is the reward for all the hard work we put into getting a harvest from the farm. They're not pets, they're food. On a Ghanaian farm, we understand that getting to a harvest takes some work. We understand that it's not just about having seed.

A good harvest requires three things, a living seed, good soil, and time. Every thought and decision is a living seed, and when the seed of our decision goes into the soil of our lives, it reproduces whatever we've been putting into it. So when you see something in your life that's not working out, the question to ask isn't where is this fruit from? The question to ask is what seed did I sow? In Genesis 8.22, it says, as long as the earth endures, seed time will always be followed by harvest time. But in today's society, we rarely ever take responsibility for ourselves and the outcome of our lives. We always have our reasons for why things aren't going our way or why we can't do this and why we can't do that. But most of our reasons are really just excuses. Because let's face it, it's much easier to give excuses than to do the work to go through what's right in front of you. Because you can have progress or you can have excuses. You can't have both. Excuses stand in the way of the future God has in store for us. They stand in the way of what we want to see. They stand in the way of the harvest God intends to see from our lives. Excuses do not stand the test of time, they don't stand the test of life. Before any fruit can be tasted in your life, the seed must first be tested. The seed is tested to see if it's just going to give excuses or if it can survive the process of growth. If the seed cannot make it through the process, then we never get the fruit. This morning I want you to remember this, testing always comes before tasting. What if this morning we changed our perspective to say that if I'm being tested, then it must mean that God wants to bring something out of me. It must mean that he's working on something that I haven't seen yet, so he keeps putting me through situations time and time again until that very thing he's looking for comes

out of me. If you feel like you're constantly being tested, being tried, being pulled in different directions, if you face the same situation over and over again, could it be that God is just putting you through the process? Introverts, I know you're not going to like this again. Just tell your neighbor, we're an interactive church, okay, can we be interactive? Come on. Just tell your neighbor, I'm in process, God's not done with me yet. Now that's not an excuse for you to just keep living the way you're living, okay? What do we see here at Union? God loves you just the way you are, but he loves you too much to leave you where he found you. The space between seed time and harvest time is process time. The process we're talking about is sanctification, and I know that's a big churchy word, so let's break it down. Our sanctification is the intentional process of actively allowing God to bring out the fruit of Christ-likeness inside of us. Some of us are willing participants in our sanctification. We're responding to God's guidance, we're responding to his leading, we're responding to his pruning, but some of us are just spectators, living life in cycles, ignoring every sign God sends us. I know it. I've been there too. When we think we're in charge of our own lives, but we don't realize that God is using every situation we go through to try to teach us something. He is a farmer and his goal is to make sure that we grow in our scientification. In the parable of the sower that we read, we see four different conditions of the heart, but we also see four different stages of growth in the sanctification process. The first stage is implantation. This is when we hear something from God's Word and we understand it and are convicted by it. This is when we receive God's Word into our hearts. David says it this way in the Psalms. He says, I have hidden your word in my heart that I may not sin against you. Just let that picture sink in for a moment. The seed isn't just at

the surface. It breaks through the ground into the soil, but that doesn't happen without being intentional. That doesn't happen without being aware. That doesn't happen without making a decision. In Matthew 13, for it says, as he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path and the birds came and ate it up. The first seed the farmer sows doesn't even make it to the stage of implantation. As it stays on the surface of the soil, the birds come and grab it. The enemy grabs the seed before it can even start to get roots. The farmer sowed the seed, but the soil never received. So what does that look like for us? It's when you hear God's Word or a message like today and you said to yourself, this word must be for someone else. I think my husband needs to know this more. I think my wife could use point two, maybe even point three. I think this whole sermon is from my spouse. See, sometimes our pride acts as a barrier that prevents the Word from going any deeper than surface level. So we never go back home and say to ourselves, I wonder what God was trying to tell me. I wonder which part of this message is specifically for me. Can I tell you something? God never orchestrates a meeting like this without seeking to speak to someone. God doesn't have services just for show. When he invites you to a place and when he encounters you here, there's something that's meant to be received. Some of us never actually say, God, what do I need to change? How do I do what it is that you're asking? Do you take God's Word as your personal message or are you already thinking about lunch and the soccer games after today? Go USA. Ghana sucks, so I'm not doing that. Y'all will be all right. It's not your team. See, the process requires a heart that is open to receive what God wants to sow. It requires heart soil that is soft enough for the seed to be buried in. And once proper implantation happens, the roots begin to develop. The plant gets anchored. It gets rooted. This is the second stage of the process, anchoring. See, the hope of every sermon and every connect group and any kind of teaching moment we have here at Union is so that all of us will eventually have so much of God's Word inside of us that it becomes our foundation that our roots can grow deep and we can get anchored. I promise you, Pastor Rod is not getting up here and yelling at you for 40 minutes

to an hour with some spit if you're on the first row just so you can post on social media, good word, but none of it actually changes you. See, even though your pastors and leaders want to see so much fruit in your life, we understand that the seed has to send roots down before it sends leaves up. And in the same way, we only grow deeper if we grow personally, intentionally, and behind the scenes before anything shows up on the outside. In Matthew 13 5, it says, and some fell on rocky soil where there was little depth of earth. The plants sprang up quickly enough in the shallow soil, but the hot Sun soon scorched them and they withered and died for they had so. little root. Just as quickly as it sprung up it withered away because the roots didn't get deep enough. Can I tell you what that looks like for us sometimes? It's when we try to follow God from our emotions instead of our convictions. Emotions are fickle. If you don't believe me just ask any taller parents in the room. Toddler parents can I get an amen? I see you Brian. My parents have been with us for about two weeks and I think we've traumatized them already with the amount of noise and crying and tantrums and all the craziness that goes on in our house with toddlers under four. Living our lives based on our emotions is like going to a toddler for advice. Emotions are not convictions. They can leave just as quickly as they came. I know when we get together on Sunday mornings and especially in our worship nights people are laid out, someone is speaking in tongues, somebody's throwing up, getting deliverance right here. The moment just feels great and nobody ever wants to leave. But can I tell you what we're really hoping for in those moments? We're hoping that it's more than just an emotional high. We're hoping that what you feel goes beyond your emotions and goes into your convictions. We're hoping that every time you show up here you come with an expectation for God to do something that translates into your daily life. Because spiritual growth isn't measured by how emotional worship moments feel. It's measured by what happens in between. So our hope is that God gives you more for Monday. Our hope is that God gives you some truth for Tuesday. Our hope is that God gives you a word for Wednesday. Our hope is that God

transforms you for Thursday. Our hope is that God gives you some freedom for Friday. Our hope is that God settles you on Saturday so we can come back here on Sunday morning and celebrate. And this is why. Because encounter without formation is just religion. But Jesus didn't call us to religion. He called us to transformation. To maturing in our faith. This is the third stage of the process. Maturing. This is where the real work happens. The seed has been sown. Our roots have gone down. The leaves are springing up. And now it's time to mature. Pastor Ra taught us this two weeks ago. He said normal life is not an excuse. If I can be honest with y'all, I was a little offended by that. Because what do you mean it's not an excuse? I've got a wife, a job, two kids. A wife, a job, two kids. I'm trying to lose weight. I'm trying to get my hairline back. Trying to get rid of the gray hairs in my beard. I'm trying to do the yard. I just don't have time. But what if that's exactly why I can't keep making excuses? If all those things and all those people are so important to me, then maybe I should be more focused on growing so I can show them how to grow. So I can be better for them. Men, Father's Day is coming up next week. Yeah, I know. Everybody forgets Father's Day. So I'm just saying now, since it's next week, y'all have seven days to prepare. Ask your man, hey what you want boo? I see you Fabian. Stop it. But I just wanted to say to us men this morning, God is counting on us to be the one that leads our home. You can't depend on your wife to be the one that prays all the time. You can't depend on her to be the one that hears from God. You can't depend on her to be the one that experiences life change first. You can't be dependent on her to be the one that leads the way. That's your job. If you want your children to grow, if you want your family to grow, you grow first and then you'll see the fruit that you're hoping for. For most of us, when we experience some kind of difficulty, any kind of temptation, worries, trials, betrayal or grief and sometimes even when we experience blessings from God himself, we all of a sudden forget that he's called us to remain anchored to him. We abandon the word that was supposed to be growing in us. We abandon the process of sanctification.

This is something that I've had to learn from myself time and time again. That God is not outside the problem. He doesn't want me to go figure it out by myself and then come back to Him. Here's what a lot of us don't know. That the growth that you want to see is most likely hidden within the problem or pain you're avoiding. Some of us are avoiding the process because it feels like dying. But that's okay. Because Christians are called to die. To die to our flesh. To die to our idols. To die to our wealth. To die to worldly identities. To die to the world. In John 12, 24, it says, Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. I know the process can be difficult. But I want to make sure you know this morning that you can take the heaviness of that struggle to Him too. I'll be honest with you all, that's the only way I make it through. I'm not some Superman who's got it all figured out. I'm not some perfect person who knows just what to do and just when to do it. I'm someone who's working through the process. Who when I face something that's difficult, something that I don't want to do, something that takes everything out of me, I go back to God and say, God, can you help me with this? I just don't know how to do it.

I just don't know how to work through this. I just don't know how to grow through this. But I'm praying that you give me the strength to make it. You can feel like your heart is broken and you can still trust in Him. It doesn't have to be one or the other. He's there even for the moment of your weakness. In fact, He says, in your weakness, He is made strong. So whatever you do this morning, don't stop growing. For some of you, the enemy has told you that this process is too hard, that it's too costly, that there's no way you're going to make it through, that this process is meant for people who grew up in church, people who are holy, people who speak in tongues. But can I tell you something? He's only doing that because He wants to stop you. He knows what God has in store for you and that if you stop now, you will never see it. Don't just trust the process. Trust the God of the process. Don't quit. I know it's hard. But just like Pastor Sarah said, don't quit. Just one step in front of the other. You don't have to think about how you're going to make it through tomorrow or next week or next month or next year. You just have to think about, God, right now, what do I do? Right now, what is my response? Right now, how do I hold myself together? Right now, how do I be obedient to what you've called me to?

Right now, how do I just take one step and just put it in front of me, God? How do I keep going? I don't know how I'm going to be tonight. I don't know how I'm going to get through the night, but I know that in the morning when I wake up, it's a new day and His mercies have renewed. So God will take me through it. One of the questions I asked myself when I was reading this passage was, why does the farmer throw the seed on bad soil? Wouldn't he already know that the ground was bad? Wouldn't he already know that it was shallow ground? Wouldn't he already know that there were weeds here and thorns here? And that if the seed doesn't go into the soil, the birds will grab it. Don't you think Jesus already knows what kind of soil it is before throwing out the seeds? Because He's not blind. He knows the exact condition of our hearts. He knows exactly what the soil looks like, but He doesn't discount anyone because the gospel is for everyone. What do we say? All people. He's not prejudiced. He gives freely. He knows that to you it might look like He's wasting seed, like He's scattering seeds, but He knows that whatever He's sown today might just turn into the greatest harvest tomorrow.

And so we also need to remember this, that the fruit is not just for you. I don't know about you, but I can admit that I've wasted so many of the seeds that He sowed in my life. Too many. And I know that you have too. You've ignored some convictions He gave you, some commands to change some things that you weren't willing to do. You've pretended like you couldn't really hear Him. You've said, no, that doesn't apply to me. I'm not ready to pay the price. You haven't opened your heart to receive what He has to say, but He keeps giving you another chance. He keeps stopping you before you stop Him. yourself he keeps giving you another call back he keeps sowing his seeds I thank God that he didn't stop sowing seeds in my life and now that my heart is ready and open now that I've got some good soil that's been tilled now I can look forward to seeing a good fruit in my life that's 30 fold 60 fold hundred fold now I can begin to multiply now I can begin to reproduce now I can put my hands to the plow and move the kingdom forward because God's plan is for you and I to get to the point where we become like the tree that's planted by the waters bearing fruit in season out of season hard times bad times good times God's plan is for us to get to a point where even when we're going through difficult situations it's somehow producing a fruit inside of us that's that's helping somebody else and even though the ground feels hard and all the conditions seem unfavorable the fruit that we're producing is still sweet to taste he wants us to get to the point where his presence and his spirit dwell so richly in us that it becomes a blessing to those around us I know for

some of you in this morning you have questions about the situations you've been through by the trials that he's taken you through by the tests that you faced about the prices that you've had to pay I don't want to minimize your pain I don't want to dismiss what you've been through no it was real but what if one of the answers to the question of why is that it's not just about you what would your reaction change if you knew that just because you made it through your son would make it through would your reaction change if you knew that you making it through meant the brother that you love would make it through to would your reaction change if you knew that because you decided that you and your family were going to be different and we're going to stick to the process generation after generation after generation will find freedom because of you would you be more ready to make the sacrifice if you could see the future looking at you saying please make the change now for some of you this morning God is bringing people your way that can only be helped by you he's bringing people your way that I've struggled with the same addiction you've struggled with he's bringing people your way that I've struggled with the same mental issues you struggled with he's bringing people your way that I've struggled with infertility just like you have people that have been through divorce just like you have people that have been through certain kinds of abuse just like you he's bringing them your way so even though what you went through was unfortunate now you have the power inside of you have the blessing and the power and the growth and the transformation inside of you to a host somebody else to say get up I'm with you say get up you're not alone get up God is gonna help you get through it because if we never go through the process then we have nothing to give if we never grow through the process then we have nothing to give you can't lead anyone if you're not following God you can't give anyone advice if you're not taking his advice the influence you want him to give you the impact that you want to make all of it comes only by sticking to the process your story is not just your story you're directly linked to all those around you the process of scientification inside of you is meant to

lead to the planting of seeds and others this is the whole point of a seed that yields a harvest of 30 fold 60 fold hundred fold this is our purpose to grow and then to help other people around us to grow your life has to be multiplied to reproduce what God has done inside of you but if he's not doing anything inside of you then there's nothing to reproduce band y'all can come up this morning I'm not here to tell you what to do I'm not here to give you five quick steps to success that's what Chad GPT is for but I want you to really reflect on your life are the seeds you're sowing today going to give you the fruit you want tomorrow when the farmer comes back to look at the seed he gave you what is he gonna find What part of your life have you neglected that's growing weeds and getting out of control? What's the thing that's hidden behind the closet door that you don't want anyone into? What's that thing that's hiding in the dark that God is asking you to open up so He can change it? Are you committed to seeing this process all the way through for the rest of your life? Or is this just a Sunday thing? Is this just because you know we have to be here so you're here? Or are you for real for real? Today I want to remind you that God has a plan for you. A plan to make you look just like Him. Not just to be the best version of yourself, but to be completely transformed into a new person. I'm here to remind you that God does not want you to be a person that merely looks alive on the outside but is dead on the inside. Because He wants you to flourish so that everything around you can flourish too. There's a line in the book that we're going to be reading that says, Tomorrow starts today. When I read that, this is what I hear. Seeds are a prophecy of what tomorrow holds. And if tomorrow starts today, then it begs the question, What does my today look like? Is the you from tomorrow or next year or five years from now begging you to change something today? Is the you from the future that's going to be going through some pain and some difficulty and some hardship saying,

I wish I made a decision to change something five years ago. Is the you one month from now saying, Man, why did I do it that way? Why didn't I change when God gave me the chance? Why didn't I go a different direction when I heard His voice? Why didn't I stick more to the discipline that He called me to? Why did I keep going my own way? Is the you from the future going to be filled with regret or going to be filled with gratitude? Are you deciding to sow the wrong seeds and somehow hoping for the right outcome? Maybe you're the person this morning who isn't sowing a good seed. Maybe you're really not sowing a bad seed. You're just not sowing anything. I want you to realize this. Not deciding is deciding. You've made a choice. Just because you're not sowing doesn't mean something is not growing. That was for free. I'm terrible at maintaining my lawn. I forget to water it. It's not as bad as Pastor Andre's. But it's not great either. I forget to trim the hedges. And on more than one occasion, I've had to get my neighbor to cut it because I just suck at it. Every time my dad calls me from Ghana on the Royal Landline, I can always expect him to ask me one question. Kenneth, how is your grass? And I rarely ever have a good answer. We actually spent most of the morning yesterday doing a bunch of yard work, getting some mulch, trimming some hedges, getting rid of some dead leaves. But it took way longer than we expected. And the reason why it took so long is because of how long I ignored it for.

I can always expect when I leave things like that to find weeds when I come back. I didn't plant them. I didn't water them. I didn't fertilize them. I don't even have a sprinkler system. But they're going to be there. And that reminds me of another parable that's found in Matthew 13. It says, So the servants of the owner came and said to him, Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares or weeds? He said to them, An enemy has done this, that while men slept, the enemy came and sowed a seed amongst the good fruit. See, the enemy loves fallow grounds. He loves empty spaces. He loves the parts of your heart that you don't really want anybody to look at. The parts that you ignore. The parts that you hide in the dark. That you pretend aren't really there. He does this because he knows that neglect is a seed, avoidance is a seed, passiveness is a seed, procrastination is a seed, lukewarmness is a seed and all these seeds do is bring up weeds that choke out your life. See the world works in a funny way. Weeds don't need your help to grow but fruits always require consistent care, attention, intentionality. Fruits only show up when the seed makes it through the process. Can you all stand with me this morning? A prayer for it as you can come up. If your goal today is to live a fruitful Christian life, then the seeds start this morning. If the goal is to hear, well done, good and faithful servant, then the seeds start today. Today could be the day you make a decision that changes the rest of your life. Today could be the day that you make a decision that changes your

entire generation. Today could be the day that you make a decision that leaves an eternal legacy. So will you make it? Will you sow that seed? I don't know what it is but you know. In this moment he's speaking to some of you. You can already see it in your head. You already know what you have to do. Do it. I know you're scared. Do it anyway. I know you don't know how it's gonna work out. Do it anyway. God's got you. He will keep you. For some of you this morning, that seed begins with you saying you want to walk with Jesus. For some of you this morning that seeds begin with you saying I'm ready to step to salvation. So with every eye closed, every head bowed, if that's you this morning and you're ready to accept Christ into your heart, maybe you have already but just not for real. Maybe you just want to rededicate your life. Don't pass on this moment. Tomorrow is not promised. We don't know what's coming our way. If you have a chance today, do what God is telling you. If that's you this morning, I just want you to shoot up your hand. Don't be shy. Don't be ashamed. It's for something good. For something greater. Just shoot up your hand. Father, I thank you for each and every person that's lifted up their hand in this room. I thank you because you brought them here today for a reason. I thank you because you know what you're gonna call out of them. And so Father, I'm asking in this moment that you plant a seed that will lead to a harvest that's 30-fold, 60-fold, a hundred-fold. A seed that keeps on giving. A seed that keeps on reproducing. A seed that keeps on multiplying until we get to the place that you called us to. I'm praying this morning that for everyone that is looking for a change, that God, you will meet them right where they are and praying that whatever it is that you want to bring them to, that piece of destiny, that place of fulfillment, God, that by the power of your Spirit, you will lead them there today and they won't go back home the same. They won't go back home just the way they came, but by the power of your Word, something is shifting, something is changing, and they will be forever changed. And it's in your mighty name we pray today. Amen.