The Seed You Plant Today Matters | God's Timing is Perfect | David Nasser

Church family, good morning. Man, I hope you're doing well. What an honor to be back at one of my very favorite churches. If you don't mind, I wanna go ahead and give you the game plan for the next 30, 40 minutes so that you know where we're heading. Like you just heard, there's a moment of response here for us, kind of a trifle response here for us, including communion and prayer bands and then a missions offering. But preceding that will be a time where what I wanna do this morning, if it's okay, is I wanna take about 10 minutes, 10, 15 minutes in the very beginning of my time with you and to give us some theology behind why we're being asked to respond. And then after we look at God's word and we just really talk about just the theology that is before us, the God truth that's before us, I wanna testify to it by telling you a story of something that's recently happened. And then hopefully the biggest part of this would be like, what does this mean for me as an individual, as you're sitting here at the different campuses and you're joining God in his great mission. And so there are just moments where sermons feel a little bit different in that they feel very much like the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. And this week is gonna feel that way

in that it's gonna feel like redemptive truth built around a big testimony. And so buckle up, that's kind of how we're gonna be heading in as we look at the truth. But speaking of the theology part, what we're gonna do today is look at two verses in the book of Matthew. So if you have your Bibles, go ahead and get them out. We'll be in Matthew 13, 31 and 32. And as you're going there, let me give you a little context before we read this text. This is one of the seven parables in the book of Matthew that Jesus gives on what we call his Galilean tour. About 2000 years ago, Jesus comes on the scene and when he comes on earth, on the scene, he begins to work his way around the Sea of Galilee and he uses these parabolic stories, these parables to bring out some truth. And what I mean by that is he uses an example, a living illustration to bring before people, two audiences at the same time, one essential truth. And they have a twofold meaning behind them. Jesus is kind of, in one sense, multitasking when he gives a parable. And here's what I mean by that. Like Jesus knew that the parable that he's gonna say, and we're about to read one of them, the parable he's gonna give is gonna have two audiences, one of them being his disciples and then the other one being lost people peeking in.

It would be like you intentionally having a family conversation today at a restaurant, knowing that a lot of people who are not a part of your family are gonna be listening in. And so if you know they're listening in, that would have two intentions. We're gonna have a family talk, but lost people, non-family members are gonna be peeking in and listening. Jesus is giving a parable with two things happening at the same time. Number one, he's talking to his believers, to his disciples, his followers, and he in them is trying to confirm a reality in them. That is one of the reasons of a parable. To a believer, this is about the king and his kingdom. And if you're a part of my kingdom and I'm your king, this is going to really like, it's gonna inspire you and confirm something in you. But to the lost people, he was actually working on a different sea. And the Greek word for it was actually confusion, but it wasn't like the wrong kind of confusion. It was actually more like curiosity confusion in that Jesus to the lost people was trying to inspire curiosity out of them because he wanted them to be like, uh, what do you mean by this? Tell me more. And so the good kind of confusion

where you're just like, I don't know what's going on, but now you have my attention, tell me more. And so both of those things are happening at the same time. Jesus is speaking in this one truth and he's trying to arouse curiosity for the lost and he's trying to bring confirmation to the found, all right, of who they are. And so now that we kind of see the two sides in the same parable, let's read what Jesus has for us. He says this about the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. He says to them, here is another parable. He says the kingdom of heaven is a lot like a mustard seed. Now stop right there. Let me just kind of give us a little more context on that. When he said that, immediately the people who heard him connected with something that was very much a part of their everyday culture. If I said to you right now, the kingdom of God is a lot like, I don't know, the warriors. Instantly, you'd be like, I know this. I mean, I just watched them in game seven. You know, I like play really, really hard. but then just like the last couple of the last 45 seconds they didn't really close the deal and you'd have a lot of context so immediately I'd be coming right into something where you have a whole lot of backstory already filled in. Does that make sense? When Jesus says the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed the people who heard that were not thinking mustard seed like and only the the ladies who have it in their pantry who pickle once in a while would really resonate. Everybody knew this one. Everybody got this one. That word mustard seed was synonymous with small beginnings that don't stay small. Somebody would for example say um hey man I think I'm

gonna be a butcher and I'm hoping it's a mustard seed and instantly that would mean this that hey I got one goat we're gonna you know we're gonna butcher it and I'm hoping to start with one goat but eventually in a couple of years you can look back and I'd like to have like butcher shops all over the region. I'd like to have a franchise one day like it's not gonna stay small. That would be the idea that somebody would have when they would say the word mustard seed. It also was this reality that it was everywhere all the time anytime. Mustard seeds were not something that that what happening was when I say mustard seed now most of you don't think about mustard plants, mustard trees all around you. For us here in the south it would be like kudzu. Like kudzu's everywhere. Kudzu's all the time. Kudzu don't take a break. Kudzu doesn't have like it's winter time and I stop being kudzu. You don't have to plant kudzu. Kudzu gonna do what kudzu do which is take over amen. Like kudzu will get on your plants. Kudzu will get on your fence. Kudzu don't care. Kudzu will get on your grandma's grave because kudzu don't care and that's kudzu right. Kudzu gonna do what kudzu gonna do. Mustard seeds did what mustard seeds do. They take over. They take care of themselves. They keep growing and so when Jesus says the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed and then keep reading and then he takes it one step further and he says a mustard seed that a man purposefully took and planted in the field. The people who heard that laughed because they were like nobody has to do that. It does that on its own. As a matter of fact it'd be like you and me saying um the kingdom of God is like kudzu that a gardener took and planted in his backyard. He'd be like do you know what you're doing? You don't need to plant kudzu. It's coming whether you want it or not. Kudzu is coming to take over and so this is the the posture that God is giving. He says the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed which a man took and planted in his verse 32. And though it begins this way, though it is the smallest of all the seeds, though let's just let's just call it for what it is. Let's evaluate it in its reality. Let's give it an MRI and be accurate in the description of where it begins. Though it is the smallest of all the seeds, when it grows it becomes the largest of the garden plants and becomes a tree so that even the birds come and perch in its branches. That last little part was so that everybody both the disciples and the non-disciples can benefit from the goodness that it offers. So he's talking about the kingdom of God and he's deciding to talk about the germinating, ever-growing, never-stopping, faithful reality of the kingdom of God. So three applications in in this that we can take away for our lives today. Number one,

the kingdom of God. He's reminding us just like a mustard seed is never hurried. It's never hurried. This is about God's timing, which is perfect. Now listen, don't let it be lost on you. That when Jesus said what he said 2,000 years ago, Jesus said this 2,000 years ago in a small place called Galilee, right? When Jesus said what he said 2,000 years ago, y'all, he said it to about a dirty dozen people. He said it to a handful of disciples. Fast forward 2,000 years later and 2,000 years later, Jesus apparently wrote a check with his mouth that didn't bounce because 2,000 years later, y'all, there's 2.4 billion Christians on the planet. So Jesus says this to a handful of people 2,000 years ago, 2,000 years later. Look at me. We have 8 billion people on the planet today and 2.4 billion of them are Christians. The power of the mustard seed. But it's never hurried. As a matter of fact, here's another stat for you. Since I'm giving you the 2.4, I'll give you another one. You ready for this today? Today at this very moment today, 64,000 people will come to Christ. How you like them apples? 64,000 people today have woken up this morning, not a Christian. And by the time they put their head on a pillow. they will be a Christian. 64,000 people a day are becoming Christians. Jesus says this to a couple of dozen people 2,000 years ago. Today we have 2.4 billion and 64,000 today will be added to our number and faithfully 64,000 tomorrow. As a matter of fact, in this particular moment that you get to call like your existence here on earth right now, you're alive in this moment, you're not alive in the in the Roman Empire, you're not allowed in the Renaissance, you're not allowed in you're not around in the in the ancient ages. The moment that you're in, we're watching the fastest growth rate right now, exponential growth rate of the spread of the gospel, people being evangelized and accepting Christ than ever before. Right now the ROI, the performer of the gospel at its fastest exponential growth rate it's ever been in the history of time. Think about that. I mean so it's a good time to be alive, amen? 64,000 people coming to Christ, amen? But the kingdom of God has never hurried. And here's what I mean by that, like when I tell you 2.4 billion people, when I tell you 64,000, when I tell you right now what's happening at a fastest rate than it's ever happened, can I just stop and just ask the room, what do you think is the percentage? Anybody you want to guess? What's the percentage growth rate of the gospel right now? 64,000 people

today on the planet got saved. What do you think is the growth rate of the gospel today? I've been asking all the different services so I'm not gonna exclude the late one here. So what do you think it is? Give me a give me a percentage right here in the front row. You ma'am right here. Yeah, what's your name? No, the girl said you. I'm sorry? Hey Brantley, good to see you. All right, so Brantley, give me a guess, give me a, give me a percentage. 64,000 people a day, 2.4 billion people a year. I mean, I mean, I'm coming to Christ in the world more than ever. Give me a percentage. What percentage do you think the gospel is growing at a growing rate? Well, give me a percentage from 1%. I'm sorry, 35%. Brantley said 35%. All right, give her a hand. That's pretty good guess, right? 35%. All right, that's awesome. All right, right here on the front row. Ma'am, you right here with the, with the, yeah, with the converses on. What's your name? Hey Lydia, good to meet you. Tell me, give me a percentage. She said 35%. What did you say, 35%? What is your percentage? Give me a percentage. 23%. She's going a little more conservative than you. 23, 35. So we got 23, we got 35. All right, my brother over there with the beard, nice beard by the way. All right, so, so tell me your name. Hey Mike, give me a percentage. What do you think the gospel is growing, growing rate of the gospel? You got 20 something, you got 30 something percent. What do you think you got? By the way, in other service we got 70%, we got 90%, we got 60%, we got all kinds. All right, so what do you think is the growing rate of the gospel right now, percentage wise, in the world annually? 45. So you got 45. He's trying to one-up you by about 10%. All right, so 45. Are you ready for this? You ready for this? The gospel, 2.4 billion, 64,000 a day. You ready for this? Is growing at the alarmingly amazing rate of 0.84%. Less than 1% a year. I mean, you just heard me and you went, dude, you were lathering it up, talking about all these people, 64,000 people. And if I said to you, you gotta get in on this stock and you're like, what is it? This is the Nvidia stock of all times. You ready for this? Yes, I want in. Put me in. And I'd be like, it's gonna grow at less, slightly less than 1% a year. You'd be like, underwhelming. But the gospel is faithful. The gospel is gonna do what the gospel's gonna do at the time it needs to do it. Because God's

perfect timing is always relentlessly what it is. Does that make sense? The gospel is growing at 1%. Now, what does that mean for me? Thank you for that theology and the shock rate of like, you just made somebody say 35% and it was, by the way, other grown Christian people said 80%. So you're slightly closer than them. So I'm just saying that to you to say, some of you applicationally have been sitting here and you're like, when is God gonna save my co-worker? When is God gonna finally grow this relationship in this? And so often, this is so Western right here. We just want it now because we're addicted to convenience and we're addicted to quick. But God is saying, trust the process and my timing. The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. It's gonna start small. It's gonna keep growing, but it's gonna grow at the rate that God wants it to grow. Does that make sense? And right now, the gospel is the fastest growing it's ever been. And what feels underwhelming is not underwhelming. 64,000 people today will tell you, my life is never going to be the same at less than 1%. So the kingdom of God is never hurried. Number two, the kingdom of God is never still. It's never ever still. Do you ever get still? When I get old, like, because I'm getting old. I find myself getting still more and more. Used to be I would go to bed at midnight. When I was in college, I never went to bed at midnight. When I was in college, I would eat my third dinner at midnight. That's why Taco Bell is open 24 hours a day for 19 year olds. I remember like it'd be midnight and I would put six more tacos in. You know what I'm talking about? Anybody else? And then I got old and now I go to bed. I don't know when you go to bed. I'm officially a senior citizen. I'm a guy who's 56.

So I go to bed around 8.30, nine o'clock. If I'm feeling like let's do this, let's live life up, I might look at my wife on a night where we're like really, really gonna stay up late, really gonna, I might look at her and go, you wanna watch one more episode? If she says yes, be like, yes, we're living on the edge. We're not gonna be up for the end of this episode, but one of us can tell the other one. Anybody else with me on this one? So I go to bed around 8.30. I don't know, really crazy, risky, like, whoa, we're not even Southern Baptist up in here. Let's go, 9.30. We shut her down. Anybody else with me on that one? Now, look at me, look at me. The kingdom of God is 24 seven. It doesn't shut her down. It don't shut her down. A friend of mine was telling me this the other day. He said, you know what people are not used to is this new thing about AI. Everybody's hearing about AI, but they're just using it basically instead of Google. But what they're not used to is what's gonna happen with AI is this whole new thing where it's gonna be 24 seven. I go, what do you mean? He goes, oh man, like your cars in the next five years,

not in the next 50 years, in the next five years, your car will actually not, you'll be partial owner of a car. You actually are going to come to school or come to work and then your car, while you're at work, your car won't be parked in a parking lot. Your car will be making, you know, will go around and it will make like Amazon deliveries and it will go pick other people up and take them from place A to B. And then it doesn't even need to recharge. It will go instead of a gas station to a place, the battery will fall out and then like an oil change place, right? But instead, the battery renewal will come in. It will do what it's doing 24 hours a day. There'll be less traffic because cars are gonna do that 24 hours a day. Anybody here in construction work, contract work? Already in other places in the world, there's robots, they're 24 hours a day building the house. They're laying brick, they're doing the plumbing, they're doing the work. The average house right now in America takes six to nine months to build. That's a quick build. Average house in America in the next five years might take less than two months to build. 24 seven, the house is gonna be building. And by the way, that employee doing what it's doing

is a robot, will not need Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance, will not need a week of vacation off, will not do gossip around the water cooler. So if you're going, what does this mean for me? Buckle up, it's about to change. Now, I'm telling you all that to say, my friend is telling me this and he's like, that's a whole new thing. And I looked at him and I said, you know, that's not a new thing when it comes to the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God has always been 24 seven. The kingdom of God has always been, I don't take a rest, I don't ever stop. And that's why at less than 1%, it gets to where it's getting. Because at all times, God is moving and moving and permeating and shaking. That's the kingdom of God. Sometimes we don't see it, but God is moving. Yesterday, just yesterday, Alex and Meredith, and you know, your pastor is my best friend, all right. And his wife is my wife's best friend. And so yesterday we were sitting there and we were getting ready to watch the basketball game. And right before the basketball game, we had a conference call with a person on just FaceTime. And it was with a person who was 14 time zones away. We met this person a few months ago when a handful of pastors got together with their wives.

And when we were together, a part of our recreation time was an opportunity to learn how to dive. And there's this diving instructor, this guide, this super kind guide that was our guy's name was Keith. And Keith was the guy who taught Meredith how to dive and taught me how to dive and taught Alex how to dive and taught Jennifer how to dive. But as he was teaching us how to dive and we were hanging out and we were taking diving lessons from him, it happened to be that one Sunday morning during the four or five days that we were there, on a Sunday morning, I invited him. I said, hey, bro, we're a bunch of old preachers. You know, we get together on Sundays. We're just gonna open God's word. I don't know if you're into it. You don't have to be, but do you and your team wanna come sit? And he happened to be one of the only people out of the whole team that said, sure. He was bored. And he came and sat down and your pastor, my good friend, Alex, I said, hey, bro, you lead today. And flip-flops on, just very nonchalant, opened up the Bible, taught a little bit about the gospel. We just had a devotional time. And Keith, that little seed,

that little mustard seed put in. As a matter of fact, Alex said something about how the stone being rolled away in the tomb of Jesus was not about Jesus being able to get out, but us. being able to get in. I'd heard that before as a preacher. That's like nothing new revolution for me. Like that was something I've heard before. But to him, it blew his mind. He was like, I've never thought about that. I've never even had that thought. So that little seed was planted. And guess who kept watering that seed? I mean, we were done. We hung out, but our wives do what our wives do. My wife is texting him. She's gotten his address. She's sending whatever she sends, biscuits or whatever she does with her thing. And then all of a sudden, fast forward a few weeks later, and yesterday at six o'clock, he's 14 time zones away. He's FaceTiming with us, and we're just having a conversation. And we're saying, hey, you were our guide in something that you're so... We wanna just play the world role of guide right now about something that... And then the next thing, a couple of minutes more cups, come small talk, a little bit more God talk,

a little bit more gospel conversation. And then boom, right there, yesterday, he's one of the 64,000 of yesterday he gave his life to Christ. And the kingdom of God does not take a nap. Because when you sometimes think, man, we're sleeping and we're going, and we just think God is on this nine to five and God's like, nope, nope, I'm not Dolly Parton. I'm not working nine to five. I am God and I'm 24 seven. And AI ain't got nothing on me, amen. And so know that sometimes you think it ain't working, but God's working. And so, you know, I'm not gonna lie to you. Sometimes you think it ain't working, but God's working. Sometimes you think it's sitting still, but it's never sitting still. The kingdom of God is never hurried and the kingdom of God is never ever still. Number three, this is the biggest one of all. The kingdom of God is never insignificant. It's never insignificant. As a matter of fact, I love that old hymn that says, little is much if God is in it. Little is much if God is in it. Because what's so often seems insignificant is God saying, hey, it might start small, but he won't stay small. Trust me, if my name is put in, it never returns void.

If my name is put in, it always yields good fruit. About three months ago, I woke up one morning and when I woke up, I realized that some of my friends in ministry that woke up before me that morning, earlier, like an hour before at a different time zone had already turned on their TV and knew something that I didn't know. I don't know if you've ever like looked at your phone and people are texting you like, bro, I can't believe this is happening. And you're like, what is happening? But when you're the only Iranian, a lot of people know. And about three months ago, like in the middle of the night, America and Israel decided to bomb Iran, but actually not to like hurt Iran, but to liberate the people of Iran from the IRGC and these horrible people. All of a sudden you realize like, when you're the only Iranian they know, they're gonna text you the morning that that's happening. So I woke up and I look at my phone and there's literally like 40 texts, 25 texts, you know? 30 texts from people like, bro, we're praying for you. All my Pentecostal friends are like Ezekiel 38. They're going right into prophecy, you know? All my other, not all of them were spiritual. This one guy, this was my favorite text. This was the weekend about three months ago during the SEC basketball tournament, you know? The championship game, weekend.

And so this one text, I looked at it and he said, what a weekend, bro. Auburn lost, the terrorists lost, roll tide. That was my favorite one. Anyway, so I'm like, what is happening? So I turned the TV on and realized like, oh, Iran is getting bombed so that hopefully it can get liberated. And man, the next hour texts just keep coming in, texts keep coming in. The next thing you know, I have to go speak at a conference. And so I get in the car, the whole drive to this local conference. I mean, texts are just going, woo, woo, woo. They're just coming in. Then about 20 minutes later, I'm in the screen room, texts are coming in. Then they say, hey, we're ready for you to speak. I'm sitting side stage, there's a LED screen and I'm like getting ready to go speak. The song is being finished. At the end of this one song, I'm supposed to come out and I made the mistake of having my phone with me and my phone's going, woo, woo, woo. I'm just hearing from people. And I finally, it just dawned on me that all morning long I've been distracted and the assignment in front of me is to preach to this like room of about 800 young adults, you know?

And I've just been thinking about Iran. And so I put my phone down, I'm literally side stage, like there's a LED screen in front of me. And I thought, I put my phone down and I thought this, I thought, I've got to stop thinking about Iran. And I literally mouthed out loud, stop thinking about Iran. And I thought, I got to focus on what I got to preach on. And as soon as I said, stop thinking about Iran, I put my phone down and closed my eyes and they were worshiping in front of me. And instead of not thinking about Iran, the opposite happened. I felt like I got physically transported into Iran. Because I had this like vision and my vision was I was physically in a room right in Tennessee where people are worshiping young adults are worshiping and my vision I instantly felt like I was in Iran and there was a soccer stadium that I was in and they're like 30,000 people in Iran 30,000 young adults in Iran high school kids college kids young adults in Iran and they are all just going after God they're having a revival in Iran and they got their hands up and they're singing and instantly they were all singing holy forever in the room and so instantly I imagine like these kids in Iran are all singing holy forever and they're just screaming I mean I'm just hearing in Iran these 30,000 people and they're going your name is the highest your name is the greatest your name it stands above them all all thrones and dominions all powers right and you got to understand words like that would be very different in Iran talk about thrones in Iran like in Iran we had an actual throne and a monarchy and a king and that didn't play well and talk about Dominions in Iran we literally have the this Dominion this demonic Dominion of the IRGC that a strangle held this nation so words like that would just mean something very different and so I'm side stage and the song is wrapping

up and I got to go up and preach and and I'm a mess cuz I'm just weeping cuz I'm just thinking about like what if there was a revival in Iran and God is like leading 30,000 people in Iran like this so I walk out I just kind of stumble my way through the message and the next few days every time Iran would come up which was like literally every two minutes because it was on the news it was all that was on the news it was every podcast request it was every every time I'm looking at my phone people going what's going on and this this this this and and then all that's going on like every time Iran would come up I had found the soundtrack I kept thinking about a soccer stadium of people your age in Iran Iranians just worshiping Jesus and singing holy forever and so I kept praying that song the next couple days and fast-forward a few more days and one morning I wake up I'm in bed and I wake up like it's 5 a.m. you know and I just wake up and I'm thinking about Iran for just a second and I just start singing that song I start praying that song and then it dawned on me that for the past few days every time I've been singing that song I've been singing it in English every time I keep thinking about that song I keep thinking about people in Iran singing that in English like that's how I know it but more than likely since they're in Iran they'll be singing it in Iranian and I don't know that song in Iranian so I go and grab my phone I'm laying in bed and I and I go to YouTube and I put holy forever Chris Tomlin song Farsi that's what it means to speak English and Iranian language is called Farsi and as soon as I put that in like four four different versions come up and I'm like oh somebody's already done it in Farsi they've translated it in Farsi and I'm looking at him and then there's this one this little girl and I say little like she's literally physically like on the phone like a quarter-inch and she her face looked like my daughter's face because she's Iranian and I'm Iranian and so I click on it I got my earbuds in I'm laying in bed and this girl is just singing it this like college-aged young lady's just singing it and I want to show you what I saw I'd like 5 a.m. in the morning laying in my bed in Nashville Tennessee

Oh so you get it right so I'm laying in bed and I'm watching that as I'm watching that my wife wakes up you know she's like what are you doing and I take one earbud out and I give her a earbud and I go look at this young girl she's she's leading holy forever in Farsi you know and so we both just start singing with her so Jennifer's singing it in Southern and I'm singing it in bad Farsi and we're just kind of being led in the song and I get up and I go to get ready for the day and I had to travel that day and I am and I'm getting I'm shaving and I'm getting ready and about 10 minutes later Jennifer comes around and she says hey I was laying in bed and after you left I googled this young girl I found her I found her Instagram feed and she's I found her account she goes her name is gold nosh j-o-l-n-o-o-s-h and I'm like okay she said uh this girl loves Jesus as a matter of fact she went to like Bethel School of Worship which is in Reading California right outside of LA and I said okay and she said this girl loves the Lord she's Iranian and she's praying for God to do a reviving work In Iran too and she's standing there while I'm shaving. She goes, uh, you need to you need to message her and encourage her I'm like, well, honey, she doesn't follow me. She doesn't know me and my wife's like no do it And I don't know how it is with your marriage, but you do it All right and so I get the phone and I'm literally my hands wet because i'm shaving and I and I just dm her and I said, uh, I said, hey gold nose. You don't know me My name is david but i'm an iranian too and I was born in iran and the lord saved me and I was a former muslim and and I just want to encourage you and tell you you led us in worship today I don't even know what I said in the text and I said something like here's my cell phone If you ever want to pray for revival in iran or something like that, and I thought she's never going to see it I put my phone away went That day I was traveling some and different stuff and um and about eight hours later

Eight hours later i'm in the car and i'm driving to go get to a hotel and um because i'm out of town and uh, I um I look at my feed on instagram and I see that she's seen it and she's messaged me And so I um I look and it says, uh, hello. Mr. Nasser. We'd love i'd love to talk. Please call me right away You know something like that. Uh, he's got our phone number. So I click it one ring and she picks up and she goes Mr. Nasser and I said, hey, she goes. How are you? I said good golden. I said man I was just so encouraged by your post that you posted a long time ago I said you were leading me and my wife in worship and she goes we try to She goes my dad and I know who you are She goes we try to get a hold of you like 15 years ago on facebook. I said, well, I don't get on facebook That's where crazy people try to hook up. Anyway, so I like I don't get on there and um, And um, and she said, uh, she goes, okay She goes we'd love to pray with you in person and in my mind. I thought she's at Bethel school of more She's she's over there what we call erangelus. That's where all the iranians live in America or los angeles we call the erangelus. So I said I said well, uh, where are you and she goes well, um, We live in marietta, georgia And I said well that's crazy gomlash because i'm uh, i'm like 40 minutes away from georgia marietta, georgia right now i'm driving actually to atlanta She goes really I said, yeah, i'm gonna be i'm gonna be right there where you are in about less than an hour And the next thing you know Her her mom and her dad And I are in this iranian restaurant in atlanta an hour later. There's one And we're sitting there This precious family and um, i'm looking at her dad and her mom and her and she's crazy We're sitting there like none of this was on our ical, you know And I looked at mr. Cyrus and I said, sir, what do you do? And he He looked at me and he goes well, I drive an uber on purpose he goes I I drive an uber because it gives me the flexibility to be able to Stop work when the people need me because i'm a underground church planter in iran

I have a network of house churches all over iran I said, well, why are you here instead of iran? He goes. Well, we were smuggling bibles back and forth And bought different stuff from the mountains of turkey and I got caught on the turkey side They actually put us in prison me and my family We were going to be taken back to iran where I was going to be probably executed for doing that But the un got a hold of our story and the next thing, you know, they brought us 14 years ago to the united states And we can't wait to go back to iran. We want a one-way ticket to iran But until then i'm still working on planning churches in iran and helping churches in iran and I do it through a laptop And I do it through you know All this stuff through the internet and all this different stuff and i'm raising support and all these different stuff for them And while he's telling me this I just look at him and I said, well, mr. Cyrus. How did you even get saved? How are you even? A christian weren't you a muslim and he goes? Yeah, and he points to his daughter gold nosh and he goes, uh, Well, he was gold nosh I go. What do you mean? He goes? Well when she was born He said gold nosh was born, um With real issues with her heart physical issues with her heart As a matter of fact, he said when gold nosh was born an entire chamber of her heart was completely missing And so her heart was barely working and the doctors told us after a couple of weeks of being in the hospital that um It was never going to catch up. It was never going to get like she wasn't like a preemie or anything She just had major heart problems and he said the doctor told us that she might have two three more weeks to live And that we should leave the hospital and go spend the last two weeks We have with our first born kid ever like at a home instead of a hospital room he said we leave the hospital completely depressed and down about what had happened and we go and we're home and um we don't know whether she's going to live two more days three more days they've told us two three weeks at most and he said and then a friend found out that we were just depressed and That friend invited us to a christian church a small christian church in iran and Normally, we would have said no because we were devout muslims, but just out of desperation

We just we just felt like we should go and we got up and they took gold nosh their baby and they went to this church and when they went to this church, they um They walk in the pastor sees them Welcomes them and starts to have a conversation and they're just desperate They say our daughter might not make it another week or two And he says would you mind if I pray and he lays hand on this infant and he prays over golden ocean when he says amen he says the weirdest thing he looks at them and he says I don't want to freak you out I don't want to be rude I don't want to I know this sounds weird but when I was praying I just felt like maybe just maybe something moved they're like okay they leave they go home they're like that was crazy what does he mean something moved and they just can't sleep and when you're desperate you'll hang on to anything right so they wake up in the morning take the cab go to the hospital when they get to the hospital they're sitting in a waiting room they don't have an appointment the cardiologist pediatric cardiologist finally comes out and says what do you need and he they look at him and say look I know this sounds crazy but yesterday someone told us that maybe something has moved but you just find out if that means anything and just out of kindness he takes the baby he goes to the back they do some scans and an MRI he comes back a couple minutes later he's completely dumbfounded he looks at him and he goes what happened what has happened because we just checked her heart the chamber that wasn't there is there her heart is what happened and he was getting the question almost right because he was saying what happened but it wasn't what happened it was who happened Jesus happened his name above every name he's the power and the good healer what a wonderful name and he says and as he was saying that the Muslim doctor said I don't know much about this I'm Muslim but I believe in that Jesus and then he looks right at me we're like literally sitting over hummus you know and we're both weeping as he's telling this and he goes and that is when I become a Christian and I looked at Golnish and I said well honey you're you're an evangelist before you could even say one word you'd already led your

daddy to the Lord and so we're talking about the Lord and Golnish looks at me and she goes well we have a question for you she goes uh how did you even know about me because 12 hours before we had no idea who she was and now we're sitting in a restaurant she goes how did you even know about me and I said well I woke up at 5 in the morning I wanted to sing holy forever I put it on YouTube you came up and she goes oh that is a horrible rendition and I said you're right because it was you just saw it it's not a good take no makeup no polish no good sound system but so often man we get caught up in polish but God wants power and she literally had 24 views and four comments I think three of them were like her mom her dad and her sister going attaboy and so we start talking and then she goes why were you looking it up and I said honey you got to understand it sounds crazy I know this sounds we don't know we know each other we just we just met but um I have a vision that maybe just maybe God will one day bring a revival to Iran and maybe one day there'll be a stadium of people 30,000 people I know that sounds crazy 30,000 people might be in Iran one day singing the name of Jesus and she's looking down at her food and I said what I thought I offended her by saying something that sounded I thought it was a vision that she's probably thinking it's a fantasy you know and she's well I had the same vision she goes except she goes you got the vision right she basically in her sweet way goes but 30,000 is a good place to start she goes I have a vision for a hundred thousand people in Iran we're sitting there we're talking and here's this girl she's got a vision that she's gonna lead in a stadium and I asked her I said have you ever led worship she had never led worship in a room always with her guitar fast forward a few weeks later she's at the Bridgestone Arena in my hometown of Nashville with 17,000 people packed in the Bridgestone Arena and the guy that wrote that song Chris Tomlin playing background and Michael W Smith playing piano and Brooke from Hillsong doing BGV's background vocals for her as she's leading holy forever in that room to 18,000 people in Nashville and then she's like I can't wait to get a one-way ticket to go back to Iran it doesn't matter who is the audience I'm just

really singing the one and man I just tell you that to say that what she thought was an insignificant little seed like I'm just gonna sing this song in Farsi and post it and no one saw it two and a half years later I saw it and then Chris Tomlin saw it and then 17,000 people were being led in it and then Air One and K-Love airstreamed it those are the number one and number two places in the Middle East where people hear the gospel through those airwaves and literally millions of people in the Middle East heard her lead that song in Farsi I tell you all that to say um she's here today and so I thought it'd be fun if we invite her to come and would you just welcome Gholnush my friend and man come on isn't that great man a little mustard seed right here for the glossy glory of God and um I thought I thought it'd be sweet, yeah. And God good. Oh man. And I just wanna make sure, don't sit down, I just wanna make sure, don't sit down, that this isn't a moment where like we, you watch her worship an Iranian. Most of you are not gonna know Iranian, Farsi. But this is the song of heaven. If you're thinking, man, is she gonna lead us? I'm not gonna like this, what's this? Like if you don't like this, you're gonna hate heaven. Because heaven, heaven is every nation, every tongue, every tribe. The song of heaven is every generation. Your great-grandkids will be in heaven if they know the Lord. Your great-great-great-grandfather you never met,

if he's a Christian, you'll be beside you in heaven singing the song of heaven, amen? And so I don't want you to watch her, I want you to worship alongside of her. And I think the Lord for such a time as this, has put this little Esther, I don't know if you knew Esther was Iranian, this little modern day Esther in the moment to come and to just be a little servant that just reminds you, hopefully, look at me, look at me, that that seed that you're putting into your coworker, that seed that you're putting into that lady who works beside you at work, that seed that you're planting, little is much if God is in it, amen? And so this isn't about God using her, this is about God using you. God using her to remind you God wants to use you. And so can we just come before the Lord and just come and join her in the song of heaven, the name of Jesus, beautiful, wonderful name of Jesus above every name, the name of Jesus that's borderless, like there is no blockage, there is no like straight of Hormuz stopping the work of God, there is no passport needed, the name of Jesus above every name, the name of Jesus in Broken Arrow, the name of Jesus in Jinx, the name of Jesus in downtown Tulsa, the name of Jesus in Texas,

the name of Jesus and all over the United States, the name of Jesus in Mexico, the name of Jesus in Iran, the name of Jesus in Cairo, the name of Jesus up and down the Nile River, the name above every name, the name of Jesus, 24 seven, working relentlessly at its own pace to do what he does, amen? Come on, let's just have the hope of heaven as we sing this. Lord, be blessed today. Amen. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Hallelujah Oh, oh, oh, Jesus Oh, oh, oh, Jesus Oh, oh, oh, Jesus Mighty is the throne

Mighty is the seat Chose the world to see All things Exalted above Mighty is the throne Mighty is the seat Amen