Reset Your Soil | Rooted Strength | Abundant Life Church | Pastor Sean Thomas
Reset Your Soil | Rooted Strength | Abundant Life Church | Pastor Sean Thomas
Transcript
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Hey, everyone. Pastor Sean here, and I wanna thank you for subscribing to our podcast. I'm excited to get into today's message. And remember this, God is a good God. He loves you, and he wants to bless you.
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Do me a favor. I want you to turn with me to first Corinthians chapter three.
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Turn with me to first Corinthians chapter three.
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And I'm gonna I'm gonna read a passage there in just a moment. For those of you that were not with us last week, we started this series titled Seeds.
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And, I would say several months ago, the Lord really began to put it on my heart to get back to some foundational teaching in which the reason why we are where we are today as abundant life church is really through what I'm sharing over this season as we teach on seed time and harvest.
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And last week we started this series and the Lord really pressed it on me to get back to this foundational teaching.
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Because number one, everything in life begins with a seed. If you've never written that down or if you don't have that in a place where you can access that quickly, I do want you to just mark this down that everything in life, it begins with a seed.
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The definition of seed is a carrier of life. So, inside of every seed is life.
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And then, important thing to understand is that when you sow a seed, it's because you are wanting to see life truly come alive in a given area.
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When a husband and wife come together and they wanna have children, it requires a seed. If you wanna grow a garden in your backyard, it requires a seed if you want fruit. If you wanna be able to go and get a job, it requires you to actually sow the seed of your time, your resume, for you to be able to go and accomplish the thing that you desire to see happen in your life. So, everything in life, it requires a seed. If you want to have a happy marriage, it's gonna require good seeds. If you want to walk with the joy of the Lord, it's gonna require good seeds. If you want to be strong and healthy and and fit, it's gonna require the seed of your energy and your time to go to the gym. The Bible says in Genesis chapter eight verse 22, as long as the earth remains. Now, quick.
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Is the earth remaining?
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Is your foot on solid ground right now?
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So, the earth is remaining, which means as long as the earth remains, there will be seed time and harvest. Now, I didn't share this last week, but I'll give you this little nugget. The Bible says this in the book of Amos is that even in the last days in the end times after Jesus comes back, there will still be seed time and harvest.
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So, for some of you that are like, I'm just gonna sit this thing out. I don't really know about this teaching.
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I don't really am feeling it right now. When you get to heaven, the book of Revelation chapter 22 says that you will still be sowing and reaping and there will be fruitful trees for your behalf.
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It doesn't stop.
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So, we have to get ahold of this teaching and we gotta get it in our spirit. And so, we kick this series off talking about number one, that God wants you to prosper.
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Now, I love that word because when we start saying and speaking the word prosper, prosperity, prospering in the church, everyone gets tense.
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And the reason why we get tense, I'm just gonna call the spade the spade, is because you've got a bunch of people that don't know how to open their bible and be able to accurately and articulately be able to teach and talk the text.
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And so, what happens is we flex one Scripture one way, and then now it gets a bad reputation, and nobody ever to give because we think giving and sowing is only money.
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And it's unfortunate that that has become the reputation of the church. And so, everybody wants to shun or run away from what we call the prosperity gospel.
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But news flash, God created you to prosper. The gospel in it of itself prospers because Isaiah 55 says, wherever I send my word, it will prosper whereunto I send it.
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So you better loosen up a little bit, because prosperity is woven in your DNA.
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The word prosper means to grow. The word prosper means to increase.
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You don't wanna grow and increase? I dare someone to stop aging. Oh, you'd love that.
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You can't help but to age. That's growth. You're prospering whether you realize it or not. You can't take another breath till you give up the one that you have.
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I love that example. My dad would share that. Everybody would just go,
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hold it, and don't let it out.
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Now, ain't gonna do you that dirty. Alright. Go ahead and let it out.
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Now, do it again. Take another breath.
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Take another one on top of it, and another one on top of it. For some of y'all, you're getting to the point you can't take any more air in until you let out what you have. You can't grab another breath till you give up what you got. Your life is sowing.
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The very salvation that you received from Jesus is because he was sown as a seed. Giving seed time, harvest is God's design and plan for your life. And he's not above it because he functions in it as well.
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And so the Bible tells us in third John that we are to prosper in all things. Someone say all things. All Now, all things and the scripture says this, be in good health even as your soul prospers.
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So from your soul to the strength of your hand, God wants you to prosper.
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From the inside out, prosperity is not just talking about one given aspect of life. You can have millions of dollars in the world and have no joy and be bankrupt.
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You can have the most high paying job, the most fruitful career, but if you've lost your family, you're bankrupt.
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Prosperity is not one thing.
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Prosperity is that you are prospering in all things, in your soul, in your heart, in your mind, relationally, physically, in your health, economically, every area of your life that you're prospering in all things from your soul to the strength of your hand. You you you with me? And the vehicle that God has given is seed time and harvest.
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It's what I sow when we talked about this last week, which is the root all the way to the tree that grows the fruit.
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And of course, we identified last week in the middle is the shoot. The shoot is the actual growing and thriving process of a plant pushing through soil.
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So for some of you, if you have not seen fruit yet, it's not that you're called to be fruitless, maybe you're just in a thriving season.
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And by the way, a thriving season is when you can't see the plant above ground. It's when things feel dark. It's when the pressure is on. It's when uncomfortable in your moving.
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So do not get weary in well doing, for in due season you will reap a reward if you do not give up.
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Pressure is what makes the gem the gem.
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So, from the root to the shoot to the fruit, seed time and harvest is the vehicle.
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And I and I finished off last week talking about that there are five different seed bags. Five different seed bags. If you weren't with us, I'll share them real quick, and then I wanna get to my text. Are you at first Corinthians chapter three? Yeah. Awesome.
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There's five seed bags that the Lord has given us.
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He's given you time.
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He's given you talent.
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He's given you your trust, your trade, and your treasure.
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Your time is your hours.
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Your talent doesn't first start what you can do with your hands. Your talent is really your gifting, your creativity, your wisdom. It starts with your head.
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Your trust comes from your heart. Your trade is what you've learned to develop with your hands.
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And your treasure is your resources.
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These are your seed bags that you draw from, that when you see a situation, whether it be your life personally, or your family, or somebody else, when you see the need, then you understand I've got a seed that I can draw from that bag.
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And I pull from that. As I see the need, I pull the seed. And I sow into that area because I wanna be fruitful in wherever it is that seed represents, whatever that bag you're pulling it from. I'm sowing it into that. But, I have expectation and we'll get on to this in a couple of weeks. But, I've got expectation and I trust and I know that the seed will perform. I'll say this and I'm gonna move into today. All it takes is one seed for a whole harvest.
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One seed for a whole harvest. Isn't it amazing? One apple seed and you can have a beautiful apple tree. Multiple branches.
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Plenty of fruit. One seed whole harvest.
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So I wanna stir you up today because everything in life begins with seed and seed is a carrier of life. The bible says at first Corinthians chapter three,
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starting at verse five.
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Paul is writing to the church at Corinth because he's there the church is in a little bit of a scuff. They're having a little bit of a tiff. They're not getting along too well.
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Paul was very articulate in teaching the word, and there was another gentleman that was raised up under his ministry by the name of Apollos who was equally, if not some scholars say was even more articulate than Paul in teaching and preaching the word of God.
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And so, the church is arguing with with each other about which person they should follow. Should we follow Paul? Should we follow Apollos?
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You know, who who who should we give our our our attention to? There was division in the church.
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Not like today. There's no division in the church today. Thank God. Right? Nobody's arguing over who's the greatest.
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I remember a couple years ago when my wife and I, we stepped into senior leadership. It's amazing how division and people get all worked up over things.
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And and someone said, well, I'm just not coming to church anymore. I said, why not? Because you ain't my bishop.
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And I was like, good. I'm glad I'm not your bishop. I really don't care about a Toucans Fruit Loop. Go ahead and find another ministry.
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Like, it's if you're here for a person, if you're here for a per then you miss the whole thing. You're here because God planted you here, and this is the place where God wants to grow you. Whether I'm preaching, pastor Aaron's preaching, pastor Chad's preaching, don't matter if bishop is preaching, doesn't matter who it is. Because Paul makes this statement. Listen with your ears. Paul makes this statement. He says, who then is Paul?
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Yeah. Good. Good. He says, who then is Apollos?
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He says, but ministers through whom you believed as the Lord gave to each one. Verse six, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
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So then, neither he who plants is anything, nor who waters, but God who gives the increase. Verse eight says this, now he who plants and he who waters are one.
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And each one will receive his reward according to his own labor.
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Verse nine though, for we are God's fellow workers, you are God's field.
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We are God's fellow workers.
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We are God's field.
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Now, I had been resting in this teaching in this passage for a while.
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Because for years I would hear this.
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Some sow, some water, but God gives the increase.
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And what has been taken away, or at least what I had taken away in years of hearing that scripture was, well some sow and some water. Man, but God will open up the clouds and He's the one that's gonna give the increase. Doesn't that preaching sound good? Man, God's just gonna come down and He's gonna man, He's gonna increase in your life. He's gonna do it for your life. He's gonna make it all happen for your life. Well, who's taking responsibility for your life?
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I wanna I wanna I wanna teach something to you.
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Some sow, some water, God gives the increase.
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How many of all have heard me make this statement and it gets people all worked up?
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Whatever God's gonna do, who's He gonna do it through? Talk back to me now. Don't get quiet on me church. Whatever God is gonna do, who is He gonna do it through? He's gonna do it through us. He's gonna do it through you. Whatever God is going to do in the earth, it's gonna be through you.
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He's not opening up clouds and jumping off his throne. The Bible says he's seated on the throne right now. He's not getting off the throne. The purpose of the Holy Spirit is so that God can do a work through you in the earth. So, if God's gonna give the increase, the question that I have to ask is, how is that increase gonna take place?
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And Paul gives us the answer is he says that we are God's fellow workers.
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Ready for this? Roll your sleeves up. God's saying it's time for you to get to work. You got to get to work. Ephesians says this in chapter two verse 10, for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works.
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In other words, God gave you the power to prosper, but it means that you actually gotta roll up sleeves, get to work so that you can see some prosperity, see some harvest, see some fruit in your life.
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But the reality is this, is that you're not going to get fruit until you're willing to get dirty and lay a root.
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The other day, my kids, they came into the house, and and I looked at my son. He was just wearing a pair of shorts, and, he had no shirt on. He stepped into the room looking all stately.
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And he had, and I looked at him, and stately in stance with dirt all over his body, and I was like, buddy, where have you been? He didn't even tell me where he was. He just said, I'm not taking a shower.
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I said, brother, you got dirt all over you.
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I said, you've got, like, a dirty face. And he goes, no, I don't. Just wipes his face and says, no, I don't. I was like, bro, like legit? You're gonna take a shower.
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Gotta get cleaned up. Where were you? He said, was outside planting.
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I was outside in the dirt. He had these shovels. Him and my daughter, they were digging. They had these shovels. The reality is this, is that in order to get good fruit, you're gonna get dirty at the root.
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But now hear me. Hear me. Paul says, you're his fellow workers.
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You are his field.
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You are his field. Now, field is a partial definition of the word agriculture.
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The word agra means field or place potential for something to grow.
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Culture or to cult, well I'm not talking about the occult, I'm talking about the actual planting word, the word cult, it means to form.
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So, you put agriculture together, it's the field that is formed.
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To form the field for what?
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For there to be growth, for there to be good fruit. I'm feel I'm forming the field so that good fruit can come forth.
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And Paul says that you are God's field.
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In other words, you are God's soil. So how is God gonna increase? Through the soil of your life. You wanna see God increase?
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You wanna see everything that you've been praying, declaring, seeking, working? It's because God's gonna do it through you.
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Your next level is what God is doing through you, because you're His workmanship.
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And so, as His field, as His soil, you gotta start tending to the soil. If you'd like a title for today, just simply write this down. Reset the soil.
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Reset the soil. Some of you have been in seasons right now that your soil hasn't been good. It's not a matter of the seeds that you're sowing. It's not the seed, it's been the soil. But when you get the soil right and you sow the seed, then the desired fruit will come to pass.
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We gotta get the soil right.
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And so, Paul says, Agra field and Agra, agriculture is not something that God took from the world. It's what the world got from God because God's system is agriculture.
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When you talk about sowing seed, actually have to form and till the dirt and get it ripe so that the seed can actually stick into the ground.
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I shared this last week. Before anything ever happens in the natural, it first takes place in the spirit.
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And you gotta think of it like this. In Genesis chapter one, when God created the heavens and the earth, verse two says this, the earth was what? Without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep and the Holy Spirit was now hovering over the waters.
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And the Bible says that God said, let there be light.
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From verses three to verse 10, God was getting the soil reset. Go back and look at it. He was separating day from night.
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He was separating the water from dry land. He was resetting the soil so that in verse 11, when He said every herb that is good for seed and every tree that is good for fruit could come forth. No herb for seed, no tree for fruit could happen unless God reset the soil of creation.
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Take a little bit further. When God created man and woman, the Bible says in Genesis chapter two, and if you go back and you read in verse seven, it says and God formed man from the dust of the ground. What was that? He was resetting the soil. And the Bible says that now God breathed the breath of life. What was that? He was sowing the seed and man became a living being. What's a living being? It was the harvest. You can't get away from it. The soil, the seed, and the harvest.
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Think of it like this too, when we're talking about your life spiritually.
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Jesus came to the earth. Why did He not die when He first came to the earth?
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Why why was He here for thirty three and a half years? Would it be safe to say that the three and a half years of ministry was Him getting the soil set so that when He died on the cross, the seed would take?
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I'm preaching better than you're responding right now.
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I'm trying to teach you something.
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It's that seed time and harvest isn't every single thing, but you've got to look and examine the soil.
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Agriculture, the field that I'm forming.
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Culture, to form, it also means to serve.
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So when God put Adam in the garden, He told him to tend and protect the garden. Tend is to serve.
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The word cult speaks to an object that you're serving.
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The the the the object of your affection. The object of your heart. The word cult is the object.
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Now hang with me.
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The word cultivate is the action.
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Culture is the outcome.
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So, for me to cult, it means that I am devoted my objective or my object.
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Cultivate is my action.
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Culture is my outcome.
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You wanna change culture in South Florida?
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You wanna change culture in the city of Margate?
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It starts by what you're culting. What's the object of your affection? What are you devoted to? What are you serving?
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Adam was as fruitful until the day that he sinned because his objective changed. It was no longer walking in obedience in the holy things of God, so he stopped culting the objective of where God planted him and he started tending to himself.
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And as a result, he sowed in corruption, he reaped in corruption, and sin entered in and brought about destruction in his life.
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To cult is my the devotion to the object.
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Cultivate is my devotion to the action. How am I actually showing my devotion to the Lord?
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How am I actually living my life for God?
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It's not just, God, I love you.
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It's also God, here's how I'm going to demonstrate my love for you. Here's how I'm gonna serve you.
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It's not God. I came to church today.
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Wasn't church a great day? Wasn't worship great?
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I don't know about the preaching. There's a lot of conviction going on there.
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Might attend online next week in another church the following. We'll see.
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Sunday, unfortunately, in the body of Christ has become the object. And so, we've reduced God to a place.
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We've reduced the Lord to a feeling.
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We've reduced God to the moment.
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And, He is eternal and He wants to walk with you and be with you and do life with you every day. He doesn't want to be second place. He wants to be first and foremost in your life.
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And this is what Adam lost sight of.
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So agriculture is the field that I form.
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It's speaking to the soil of my life.
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And the soil of your life first starts in your heart.
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Starts here. Turn with me to Mark chapter four.
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Because in order for you to prosper in all things, it's not gonna go from your hand to your heart. It's gonna be from your heart to your hand. Listen to me.
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It's gonna be from your heart to your hand. And this is where, by the way, ladies and gentlemen, listen to me. This is why the church gets a bad reputation when talking about prosperity because we only make it about what's in your hand.
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And things happen or statements take place or there there is conclusions that that that are made that it's simply this, that the things that I have in my hand measures how prosperous and blessed that I am.
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And, I know many men and women of God that have both pastored and led ministry and have served in ministry that have had things in their hand, but their heart was far from God and they fell. And, I'm not here to cache and gloom and doom and all that, but what I'm simply saying is this, get your heart right and everything else will fall into place. Let the soil of your heart be right and you'll be fruitful for all the days of your life. God listen, God wants you to be blessed in your marriage. God wants you to be blessed on the job. God wants you to be blessed. Deuteronomy 28 is all about the soil of your heart which is obedience so that you can be blessed in your coming in and blessed in your going out. I don't know about you, I want to be blessed in all things and always everywhere that I step foot. And it starts from my heart to my hand. And
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Jesus identifies this when He gives the parable of the sower in Mark chapter four.
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And so, I'm gonna read this. I'm gonna take my time.
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Might be most of the bible reading you get for the week anyway. So, thank you pastor.
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I wanna start at verse three.
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In Mark four
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verse three, bible says this, Jesus speaking gives us parable. Listen, behold a sower went out to sow.
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I could just preach that right there.
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A sower went out to sow.
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You actually have to sow. Don't just go out. Actually, do something.
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I love that. And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside, and the birds of the air came and devoured it. Some fell on the stony ground, where it did not have much earth.
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And immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth. Verse six says, but when the sun was up, it was scorched and because it had no root, it withered away. And some seed fell among the thorns and the thorns grew up and choked it and it yielded no crop.
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But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up and increased and produced some 30 fold, 60 and a 100.
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And Jesus says in verse nine, and He said to them, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Now later on, the disciples seek out the understanding of this parable and Jesus gives it. So stay with me verse 13. The Bible says this and Jesus picks up and gives the explanation.
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He says this.
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He says, do you not understand this parable?
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How then will you understand all the parables?
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Now Church, hear hear me when I say this.
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There are many parables that Jesus taught, but Jesus pinpoints the fact that none of the other parables will make sense unless you understand this one.
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Which means we really gotta lean in and understand what it is that he is saying in this one because this one determines the outcome of the rest of them.
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And so, when we pick it up, he begins to give this explanation.
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Verse 14, the sower sows the Word and these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown.
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When they hear, Satan comes and immediately takes it away, the word that was sown in their hearts.
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These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground, who when they hear the word immediately receive it with gladness.
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And when they have no root in themselves, and so endure for a time afterwards when tribulation and persecution arises for the Word's sake, immediately they stumble. Now, these are the ones sown among the thorns.
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They are the ones who hear the Word and the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches.
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Let me just say say this.
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The thorns that are choking is not riches, it's the deceptions that riches are the answer.
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Riches and resources are needed by the way. The lights would not be on in this building if we didn't have resources.
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The amazing renovation and different work and projects that we do around the church wouldn't happen without resources.
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The ability to be able to do missions work around the world and, and supporting the different organizations whether it be 4Kids or Fire Bible Doesn't happen without resources.
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You need riches.
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It's the deceitfulness of riches that who I am, what I have, and what I do is only going to be determined in the riches.
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It's living my life
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in the deceitfulness of riches. And then the desires for the things entering choke the word and it becomes unfruitful. Verse 20, but these are the ones that are sown on good ground. Somebody say good ground. Good That sounded so good. Say it one more time. Good ground. Good ground. My goodness, I love good ground. I love productive ground. Those who hear the word accept it. Those who not just hear it, but accept it and bear fruit some 30 fold, 60, and a 100.
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Jesus is laying this thing out, and He is saying this.
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He is saying that your life is represented in one of four soils.
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So, if I am God's field, I am God's workmanship, I am God's soil, my life is gonna be reflected in one of these four soils.
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And he says this, as he says the first soil is the is the the wayside, the hardened path. Has anybody recently, maybe even driving on the highway or somewhere or drove driven through an area where you're seeing a lot of the new developments?
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Right? Because South Florida needs way more homes to be built up.
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And so, we're seeing what's happening? You're seeing lots of farmers with farmland selling off off their their properties.
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And one and what once used to bring about great growth in harvest and fruit is now being completely wiped out. And if you ever seen they got these big machines and they bulldoze over and what are they doing? They're compacting and hardening the ground.
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Why? Because when they go to lay the foundation, the last thing that you want is growth to begin to come under the ground. If there is a pre existing root system that has not been excavated, it can create a crack in that hard foundation.
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And so what happens is they gotta get the the the preexisting root system that used to produce good fruit out, and then they bring in these bulldozers and these trucks, and they level it, they compact it, and they lay down a hard foundation.
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Now, do you think that you could go to one of those building developments and begin to sow seed after they have tamped down the ground?
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No.
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Because the earth is not pliable. The earth is not in a place that it could receive the seed. It has been hardened.
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And so Jesus says that the wayside is the place that is the hardest.
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And when we're talking about soil, I gotta just submit to you today, where in your life have you been so hardened that the seed of God's Word can no longer take? See, the the the areas of your life that are hardened a lot of times come out of a place of familiarity. Oh, I've heard it. Oh, I already know that. And what you're doing is you're not tilling soil for fresh fruit in this season.
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Stop living off last season's fruit, get your soil right so that God can continue to do a new thing.
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And so, we allow familiarity, we allow hurt, we allow the things that that that have caused us to grow inward to harden us to the point that you can sit in a service and one person can walk out so excited to sow seed and another person will walk out and say there was nothing with that. The
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hard place of your life.
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David makes this statement in the Psalms as he says, Lord, I need to have a crushed heart before You. You
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can have all the feeling of the presence of the Lord in a service like this and walk out of here and never have fruit. Because fruit is not engineered off of a feeling.
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Fruit is a heart posture of humility and surrender that says, I know that I went through hell. I know that I went through this offense. I know that this person did me wrong. I know that my business was ripped off. I know that my wife walked out on me. I know that my children won't call me back right now. But God, here I am, and I need the fruit in my life to change. So, Lord, do a work in me. Break up the hard ground.
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And you've to get back to the place and let the hard ground be broken up.
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Because if you're not careful, your life will be a concrete wall.
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And you will live your life always saying what should have happened, what could have happened, but more than anything, you'll say why it never happened.
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And so, you point the finger out rather than examining, God, what are you trying to do within? The wayside is the place where the seed, it can't take.
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And the Bible says that the birds come and they snatch that seed.
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You're just giving the enemy permission to just come and take what God has for you because you're so hard headed over a situation.
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My goodness. Is it really worth it?
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Is it really worth it to lose what God has for you because of a person, a place, or a thing? Man, forget that.
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This is this is why it's like I have this conversation like I just I'm in a place in my life I don't care.
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I really don't care. I don't care what anybody thinks about me.
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I don't care. I don't care what anyone's opinion is. I don't care how you I I don't I don't care. All that I care about is Lord, am I obedient to what you've spoken for in my life? I might not say everything right.
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I might act foolish.
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Don't have the most polished verbiage when I preach. I don't care. I just wanna know that I'm being obedient and I'm sowing what the Lord has asked me to sow. Amen. That's good.
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So, he says the wayside.
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It's the hard place.
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Then he says, now there is the stony ground.
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And here's the deal.
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The stony ground receives it with gladness. Oh man, I'm I'm I'm this is good. I like this word. God, yeah. I'm gonna prosper in all things. That's awesome. But the Bible says the stony place has no root.
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If you've ever tried to plant a plant, you're going to dig up the soil and you'll probably run into some rocks.
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In fact, got an area in my backyard we were redoing.
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And the people that were doing the backyard did not dig beneath the rock and they laid fresh sod on top of rock.
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And you know what happened? That sod withered just as Jesus said because there was no root system.
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And He says and it withers, listen, when pressure and tribulation and persecution comes. You know what that means? That means this is that if you're going to lay a root into good soil, you gotta start developing some grit.
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Persecution and tribulation.
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We live in a generation right now that we want to have a crown, but it requires a classroom.
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You want to be the king like David, but you've got to be on the backside of the mountain.
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I want to have the hall, but I don't want to put in the hustle.
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I want to have the fruit, but I don't want to put down the root.
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Persecution means that I'm going to dig deep, and I'm going to lay this seed into the ground, deeper than the rock, into the rich soil. It's gonna be dirty. It's gonna be hard. There is no overnight success.
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There is not I just stepped into everything. No, it's what I put in is what's gonna come out.
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And we don't want to put anything in anymore.
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We want Hot Pocket salvation.
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Man, them Hot Pockets, they are like a double edged sword. They smell good, but the first bite out of the microwave always burns the roof of your mouth.
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Dang you, Pizza Hot Pocket.
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I told y'all last week, there is the root in the shoot.
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It's the process.
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The greatest character that is ever developed is when you're willing to go through the process.
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I don't want engineered fruit. I'm not looking for an instant fix.
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I want to let the Lord mold and shape the character that is within me.
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Because I want good fruit.
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And so persecution is pressure.
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Persecution I'm going use you, brother, for a second is when there's pressure on you.
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Get up.
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Get up. Come on.
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You're fighting. You're fighting.
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Alright. I'll loosen up a little bit. You did good.
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It's when the pressure's on you, but you're willing to put up the fight. And the more that I'm willing to put up the fight, the resistance is what builds the grit and the strength, and the muscle, and the resilience.
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So, when the good fruit comes that I am in a place that I can continue to steward its growth. But, if I don't have a good root system, if I'm not willing to go through the pressure, I'm not willing to go through tribulation.
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Tribulation is an agricultural word, by the way. It comes from a device called tribulum, which is it is it's a device that they would run across the fields to open up the soil so the seed could take.
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Sometimes I gotta allow my life to be, and and and hear me, I'm not saying God's trying to come at you with hard times to teach you a lesson. What I'm saying is this, I gotta go through the grit and the hardship of life to build up the muscle so that I can condition myself to be stronger on the other side. I go to the gym to break down the muscle so that it can be stronger on the other side.
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What I'm here to tell you today is this, is you gotta get beneath the rocks. You gotta get deep down into the soil, and you gotta allow the Lord begin to make you into something.
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Make you into a tree that will bear good fruit. This is why the disciples, they went through so much when they were walking with Jesus. He put them through every scenario and every situation so that they could bear good fruit. So
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I've got the hard place, The rocky area with no soil is just hollow.
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I don't want a hollow place in my life.
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And then he talks about the place where the thorns and the cares of life and the deceitfulness of riches begin to choke out.
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It's putting all my attention, all my heart, all my devotion on things that are not of God.
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And it's just choking me. I'm thinking that it's the answer. That next relationship is the answer. More money is the answer. More influence is the answer. If I had this thing and that thing, these are all the answers to my life. And the reality is, friend, that is not the answer to your life. It is choking you. It is suffocating you, and it is keeping you from who God has called you to be. You've got to get those thorns and those weeds out.
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And
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then Jesus says that there is good ground.
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Some thirty, sixty and a hundredfold. That's the holy ground. That's the the soil that is holy. So so so hear me. You've got the hard ground, the hollow ground.
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The thorns, it's the hampered ground. Anybody ever put your clothes in a laundry hamper?
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A bunch of stuff in there overtaking that hamper? You have the hampered ground, and then you have the holy ground. I want holy ground. I want my life to be holy ground before the Lord. I want my life to be holy ground, because I want good fruit to come out of my life. I want to see the 100 fold of what God has for me spiritually.
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I want to see the 100 fold of what God has for me and my family, and for this church, and for South Florida. I want to see the 100 fold. I will not stop till I see that 100 fold. We got people to reach. There's lives to be changed and and touched with the Gospel. God, I am not going to I wanna see the 100 fold and so it requires me to continually, by the way, tend to the soil because it's not one and done.
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It's not one and done.
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Because every season is an opportunity to yield fruit and you cannot plant off of last season soil. You gotta till it. You gotta tend it. You gotta turn it. You have to reset the soil.
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Pastor, how do I reset the soil? The Bible says in Hosea chapter 10 verse 12.
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He says that you are to sow seeds of righteousness and reap mercy, break up the fallow ground. Fallow is a hard ground. He says you have to break up the fallow ground. Sow seeds of righteousness, but in order for the righteous seeds to take place, you have to break up the fallow ground. The book of James says this in chapter one and in verse 21 is it says that you are to get out all wickedness.
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Get out all filthiness.
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By the way, wickedness and filthiness is not just actions that you're doing that are flagrant and people can see on the outside. It's what's going on in your heart. Jesus says that that murder started actually as anger in your heart.
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Jesus says that adultery started by how you were in your heart.
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Everything starts from the heart and works its way out.
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And so, have to break up that ground. We gotta get out those things. The Bible tells us in Galatians chapter five is he says that the works of the flesh are evident.
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If you are employed by your flesh, you're gonna live by your flesh.
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And he says that the works of the flesh are evident. You cannot access the kingdom of God when you're living in the flesh. You cannot access what God has for your life. You cannot access the purpose. You cannot access the plant. You cannot access the fruit. You cannot access what God has for you when your ground is hardened with the things of the world. But when you turn back to God, as Hosea says, seek the Lord. Stop plowing wickedness.
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Because if you plow wickedness, you're going to reap iniquity.
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You're going to eat the fruit of its lies.
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You need to stop trusting in your own way. Proverbs says there's a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it will lead to destruction. Destruction. You've You've got got to get rid of the worldly destructive ways. You've got to get out of the sin. You've got to get the junk out of you so that the soil of your heart can take the seed of God's Word.
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I don't wanna eat the fruit of deception.
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It's amazing that the Bible tells us that there is the fruit of the spirit.
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And I know I've taught this before, but there is a difference between fruit and gifts.
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I don't care how gifted you are.
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Your gift tells me nothing about you. It tells me everything about the One that gave you the gift.
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You are not your gift, you are the fruit that is cultivated out of your life through spiritual agriculture.
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And if you want a kingdom culture, then it's gonna require you to start cultivating kingdom fruit in your life.
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Because peace is not in the bottle.
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Joy is not in the lay.
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Success is not in the money.
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It's is my heart right before the Lord.
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And in my living my life surrendered that the soil of my life is tender so that God's word cannot just be received because by the way, it's not about receiving, it's can you retain the word of God.
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Good fruit is on the other end of retention, not receiving.
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Many will receive, not many can retain.
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And I wanna retain God's word. I want God's word to be so deeply rooted in me that as I'm meditating on it day and night, just as God told Joshua, you'll make your way prosperous.
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Do not look to the left. Do not look to the right. Do not depart from this book of the law that everywhere the sole of your footsteps is planned that I have for you. I'm gonna step everywhere prospering in all things because I'm not going left and right.
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But it starts with your heart.
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First Peter chapter one, the Bible, it says this, purify your souls by walking in obedience to God's truth and in sincerity of love towards others. So, it's not just in what I believe, how am I demonstrating God's truth in the way that I love and sow into others?
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Not just seeds for myself of what I can get.
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Seeds of what God can grow so that I can now be a blessing and love others. But I gotta purify my soul. Purifying your soul is your soil. It's the soil of your heart. It's the soil of your soul. Brethren, I pray that you would be prosperous in all things, be in good health as your soul, as your soil prospers.
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God, let the soil of our hearts begin to prosper. Let the soil of our hearts begin to be tilled and and renewed. God, I need the soil of my heart.
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And it brings me to this right here.
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Just lean in for one more moment.
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When Jesus teaches about the parable of the sower
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in Matthew 13, he uses this language.
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The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sows good seed.
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The next parable, the kingdom is like one who sows a mustard seed.
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The kingdom is like a woman who hid three measures of meal. The kingdom is like a precious pearl. The kingdom of heaven is like a drag net. What am I saying? What's the language? The kingdom of heaven is like the seed.
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But in Mark four, Jesus says the kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed on the ground.
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Kingdom of heaven, Kingdom of God. If you want to see good fruit in your life you have to ask where's the Kingdom of God?
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Jesus says the Kingdom of God, the soil of the kingdom is within you. So if I wanna get heaven into the earth, I need the seed of God's Word, the seed of heaven to hit the soil of the kingdom that's within me. But if the kingdom that's within me is not purified, is not right and is just completely filled with things that's in opposition of God, I can have the seed of heaven all I want. But his kingdom will not come and his will will not be done because every seed needs good soil to be planted into. You
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have to check the soil.
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Now let me go beyond you.
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You have to check the soil of where you're sowing seed around you. Some people here today you need to reevaluate the seeds that you're sowing.
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Because not everybody is gonna receive what you're sowing.
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And if they receive it not everybody's gonna retain it.
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You have to do a soil check. Anytime someone goes to build they always do a survey and what do they do? Right? They do a soil check. Right? They do a soil check to make sure that that is good ground to be built on. Paul says, we're his fellow workers.
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We are his field.
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We are God's building.
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God wants to grow something great in you. God wants to build something great through you. But it starts with the soil.
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I
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wrote these things down. I didn't give them to our team so I apologize.
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But I'm gonna say them and then you can write them down. If not, I'll make sure that our team gets it online.
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I sound like my dad what I'm about to do right now. I got 57 principles.
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I love my dad. He's great with this stuff. But I wrote these things down this week because it began to minister to me.
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Good ground receives and retains.
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Retention determines the root system.
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Trouble doesn't destroy the seed, it tests the soil.
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Hear this, the sun doesn't change with the four different grounds that you sow into.
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Same sun on all four soils.
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The same sun that scorches is the same sun that photosynthesizes.
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Your life, based upon the soil that you're tending to, is proof of what you believe.
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Do you believe that God's Word truly can bring about thirty, sixty, and a 100 fold?
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And, if you conclude that then your habits will reveal your roots.
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Your roots are routines in secret.
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It's not what's seen before others. It's how you're living your life privately, not how you walk around publicly.
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Because you can show up to church with the right lipstick and hairdo ladies, but deep down inside if you haven't dealt with the root of bitterness, you will just wither and fade.
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And Mac makeup is making a killing off you right now.
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But, your heart is so far from the Lord, you gotta get back to the soil.
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What you do daily becomes who you are permanently.
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This
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is definitely for the younger people in the room. It's for everybody, but the younger people.
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You can't binge distractions and expect depth.
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Fruit
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is not in the scroll.
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Fruit is in the seed in the soil that you're tending to.
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The Jesus that you know, is it because you met him personally?
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Because you encountered Him in the secret place?
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Or is it just another quick quip?
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A statement, a real something that you got from online that all that was was a fix?
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It's all good. Let the child run loose.
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If we can't run around like children in the house of the Lord, where can we run?
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You can't binge distractions and expect there to be depth in your life.
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I wanna go deep.
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Here's the last one I'll share with you. I got many more, but I'll just leave it on this one.
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Discipline yourself in truth until confusion is illegal in you. Discipline yourself in truth until the lie and the deception and the things that have compromised three out of the four soils is illegal in you that you reject it because you know that has nothing to do with the soil that I'm cultivating.
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I wanna take a moment and minister.
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Last night I was here praying, and I was spending time with the Lord. I do that on Saturday evenings, and I was sitting right here on the platform
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just beginning to just pray in the spirit, and the Lord began to speak to me.
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And in some ways He began to kind of remind me of a previous season that we had been navigating through, which was a hard season.
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All all all joking and things and whatever aside.
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When my wife and I came into senior leadership, if you go back and roll the footage on it,
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We were being installed a senior pastor and we had our missionary Jeff Dove with us. We had doctor John Avenzini who's gonna be with us by the way next month for our conference. It's gonna be so exciting. That man's 90 years old and he's traveling the world still cooking.
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He I love brother John Avenzini. I'm telling you, we're gonna have a great conference next month.
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But brother John Avenzini was with us.
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Jeff Dove was with us.
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I had my parents, my wife, myself.
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We were sitting on the platform.
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And our missionary Jeff Dove began to say, when troubled seasons come and hardship comes, trust in the Lord.
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It's gonna be hard.
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Now listen, when you're about to step into something new, the last thing you wanna hear is how hard times are gonna be.
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And brother John Avenzini starts praying in the spirit and he was almost saying verbatim the same exact thing. The Lord says, there's gonna be a lot of hardship. There's gonna be a lot of this and that.
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So now, don't know if I'm crying tears of joy anymore for the moment.
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God, what am I signed up for right now?
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And then my dad echoes the same thing.
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And my wife and I, we were like, and the night was beautiful and it was awesome. And we walked away and we were like, kinda like, what is this next season gonna look like?
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And for the next nearly three and a half years till this point right now.
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And I'm not saying I don't I'm not saying this because I need affirmation and this and that. I could care a lot. It's not about any of that stuff. I'm just being honest with you. Can I sow vulnerability?
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The last three and a half years, my wife and I, we went through hell and back.
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Resetting the soil of this house.
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Because prior to our season of leadership, my parents led for over three decades.
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Three decades of soil that was producing fruit.
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But, what we didn't realize at the time was that the soil needed to be reset for future generations and for what was to come.
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And so, for three and a half years, we went through great hardship.
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Many of nights that we said, are we even really cut out for this thing? Like my God, I would rather church plant and start fresh because renovation is always way harder than new build.
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Because you gotta rip down to the studs and examine and look and get deep down into the dirt.
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And while there had been a lot of amazing fruit of what God done through this ministry in this church, God was saying that there's gonna be a pruning season because there's still so much more fruit that is to come.
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But in order to get to the fruit that is to come, we gotta do a soil check and we gotta re examine and we gotta de weed and take out some things that don't belong. Some things that's gotten overgrown. And when that happens, let me tell you, you enjoy the part where the fruit shows up. Nobody enjoys when you gotta get down to the root system.
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And so, was a lot of frustration and there was a lot of confusion. And along the way, I'll be honest with you, I there was probably decisions and things my wife and I, we probably would have done differently if we, you know, rolled back the clock.
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And along the way, there are many people that were impacted and and and you know, there was hurt and things like that. Never was the intention of of the heart. But it but sometimes when you're getting dirty, you don't you just wanna get the root out.
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We cut down a tree yesterday.
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That's a life I'm living.
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Take that back. My wife cut down a tree.
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I showed up just to take out that last little root system, and I was like, I'm so glad I got this done.
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She's like all sweaty. Wasn't just about chopping down a tree, it was that the root system got so deep, and it's intertwined, and it's tangled, and you gotta get in, gotta and you gotta dig it out. And and and there was a lot of stuff because we knew if God has given us now at this moment in time forty nine years, this ministry forty nine years, next year is fifty.
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Thank you Lord.
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And many of you are fruit from those decades.
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Thank you for your faithfulness.
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Thank you for your resilience. Thank you for enduring and allowing, and I'm being real vulnerable right now, for my wife and I to grow in our process. It's amazing. Everybody wants grace given, but sometimes it's like, can I get some grace back?
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Like, I like, I'm a be like real about this whole thing.
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I think sometimes whenever there is a new person leading, you expect that they've got all the answers. They know how to do it right. And I'm like, dude, like I'm figuring it out as we're all figuring out. But are we not all God's fellow workers working together?
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Just like Paul is saying, hey, me and Apollos, like we're sowing and we're we're working together, guys.
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This was three and a half years, many of times. Many times I called you crying.
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Sometimes you gotta have a good person that you can be able to share your heart and that can encourage you and build you up. I called you There's a lot of people I probably called crying. I'm not afraid of tears.
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What I'm afraid of is walking away from the assignment in the good ground that the Lord's asked me to cultivate.
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And the Lord's place in an assignment of good ground.
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Now, I'm not preaching. I'm ministering right now. I want you to hear my heart. We
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can't afford to get familiar.
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We can't afford to allow the hurts
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to keep us from tilling the ground.
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It's amazing how we glorify this phrase church hurt.
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But you don't say the same language when you show up to the gym, you show up to work, when someone messes with you or crosses you the wrong way. It's only here. And here's what it is.
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Because we get so hurt and offended because it's all about me and no one else.
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Where's grace?
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Are we not working together?
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Are we not the body of Christ? Paul says, let there be no divisions among you. Some sow, some water, but God wants to increase in you as His field, as His soil.
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So the Lord bring me on this journey last night and I'm like, good Lord. Like, that is the last thing I'm trying to be thinking about right now.
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But the Lord reminded me, he said, Sean for three and a half years you have tended to soil and the soil has been reset.
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I give you a prophetic word, the soil of abundant life has been reset so that good fruit can come forth. And the word of the Lord came to me last night and the Lord said for those that have ears to hear, the next four years will be extremely fruitful.
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Extremely fruitful.
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Not just fruitful.
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Because I said Lord, I I need clarity. He said, extremely. Tell the people they will be extremely fruitful for those that have ears to hear, for those that are willing to tend to the soil. And the Lord said, for every year of hardship, I'm giving you one year back of extreme fruitfulness.
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And He said, and it's not about you tell the people.
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Your marriages will be fruitful like never before. Your walk with the Lord will be fruitful like never before. Your children that are far from God, they're coming back to God because there is going to be great fruit that will come forth from your lineage and from your household.
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Wherever you're at on your career, and your job, and your purpose, the Lord says, ready. This is gonna be a season of acceleration of extreme fruitfulness.
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Because what you tend in secret, the Lord will now begin to expose publicly so that we can testify that he is a good God, that he loves us, that he wants to bless us, that he has created us to prosper in all things. And so father, I declare and thank you, Lord, that the soil of this house, the soil of our heart has been reset that the most fruitful days in fruitful years is what you've set before us.
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Father, I thank you, Lord. Our families will be blessed. Our businesses will be blessed. Our health will be blessed.
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Father, we're gonna be blessed emotionally and mentally.
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God, you have never left us or forsaken us.
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The same God that was with you in the womb is the same God that's with you in the war in your mind.
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He is a good God. He is for you. He is with you. His hand is upon your life.
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So today, Father, I thank you, Lord, for ministering to your people.
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Strengthen the soil of their heart.
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Renew the soil of their life.
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Hallelujah, Lord. I thank you, Lord.
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This is a church that's fresh and flourishing. This is a church that's fresh and flourishing.
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This is a church that's fresh and flourishing.
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Fresh and flourishing.
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That was the word of the Lord of 2024.
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That word does not grow stale because it's the word of the Lord, and it will endure forever. Father, I thank you that we are fresh and flourishing. Speak that over your life right now. My family will flourish.
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Speak that over your life. My health will flourish. Speak it over your mind. My mind will flourish.
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Speak it over your heart. My heart will flourish.
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Declare it over every area of your life.
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I will flourish and prosper in all things.
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Jesus' wonderful name.
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Hallelujah, Lord.
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Thanks again for listening to today's podcast. We trust that it has touched your heart and blessed your life.
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Listen to support the ministry, you can go to our website, abundantlife.tv.
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And remember, we are better together.