WEBVTT 00:00:05.519 --> 00:00:07.440 Hey, I'm Pastor Steve Holt. 00:00:07.679 --> 00:00:11.759 I want to empower you today to walk in your true identity as a worshiper and warrior. 00:00:11.919 --> 00:00:15.839 Today, embrace the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit. 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:19.120 Welcome to the Born for War podcast. 00:00:24.239 --> 00:00:27.839 Turn in your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 1. 00:00:28.239 --> 00:00:32.479 We're talking about Peter's principles for prevailing over problems. 00:00:32.799 --> 00:00:37.280 Anybody here want to prevail over your problems? 00:00:37.759 --> 00:00:39.840 Alright, well, this is what Peter's talking about. 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:41.439 And he's taking us through a letter. 00:00:41.679 --> 00:00:43.359 It's an epistle of 1 Peter. 00:00:43.439 --> 00:00:45.119 In other words, it's his first letter. 00:00:45.359 --> 00:00:51.039 And he's giving us instruction on how to prevail, how to overcome. 00:00:51.280 --> 00:00:57.200 And if there's one thing that we know about this life, that those that are successful, those that are effective are overcomers. 00:00:57.439 --> 00:00:58.479 You're prevailers. 00:00:58.560 --> 00:01:04.159 And he's showing us how to do that as a Jesus follower, as a disciple of Christ. 00:01:04.319 --> 00:01:05.920 So look at verse 22. 00:01:06.239 --> 00:01:09.760 So I'm going to read the whole passage and then we'll break it down from there. 00:01:10.239 --> 00:01:24.239 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart. 00:01:24.640 --> 00:01:34.239 Having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible through the word of God, which lives and abides forever. 00:01:34.400 --> 00:01:50.159 Because, verse 24, all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass, the grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever. 00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:54.959 Now, this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you. 00:01:55.200 --> 00:01:56.400 Now, chapter 2. 00:01:56.640 --> 00:02:18.479 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desiring the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. 00:02:18.639 --> 00:02:24.080 Now, word is mentioned one, two, three, four times. 00:02:24.479 --> 00:02:30.879 And so I want to talk about this idea of the word in our hearts, this word in our life. 00:02:31.120 --> 00:02:35.599 And I want to say that the word of God has activating power. 00:02:35.840 --> 00:02:39.360 The word of God has activating power in our life. 00:02:39.520 --> 00:02:43.759 Now there's two aspects of word here. 00:02:44.400 --> 00:02:58.319 The first is how we are born again, how we become a new creation in Christ, because the scriptures tell us, John tells us, that the word became flesh and dwelt among us, speaking of Jesus. 00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:05.680 So when you give your heart to Christ, when you surrender to him, the Word, the Spirit comes to live within you. 00:03:05.759 --> 00:03:08.400 So that's another, that's one aspect of the Word. 00:03:08.479 --> 00:03:15.120 The Word begins to be activated in your life because the Holy Spirit has come to live in you, and you're a new creation in Christ. 00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:22.000 But there's another aspect of the Word of God that is in this passage, and that is that part of a newborn babe. 00:03:22.479 --> 00:03:23.680 It was chapter 2, verse 2. 00:03:23.759 --> 00:03:24.960 Look at chapter 2, verse 2 again. 00:03:25.039 --> 00:03:33.199 It says, like a newborn babe, longing for or nursing upon the mother's breast, there's this longing for the word. 00:03:33.599 --> 00:03:44.240 So there is a word that gets implanted through the Spirit, but then there's also the Word as it grows, which is the Word of God, which would be the Scriptures, the Bible. 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:45.840 The Bible's living and active. 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:53.360 Hebrews 4.12 says the Bible, the Word of God, is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. 00:03:53.439 --> 00:04:07.360 So that means the Word is not just a book, it's actually a living seed in our lives that, if connected with good soil, begins to grow. 00:04:07.759 --> 00:04:20.879 So what's interesting about our passage is that the first part, the first few verses that I read, we're talking about a sincere love, having a sincerity of love in our life. 00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:27.120 But then if you go to chapter 2 again and you look at verse 1, it talks about hypocrisy. 00:04:28.079 --> 00:04:33.920 So on the one hand, he's saying, look, there's this seed that gets planted. 00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:53.839 It's called the incorruptible seed that's planted in your heart, that then begins to be nurtured into sincerity of love, that then begins to work in our life, that I think in 2-1, what he's saying is that it begins to drive out hypocrisy in our life. 00:04:54.000 --> 00:05:03.839 In other words, that's the nature of the work of the Spirit in our lives is that men and women, you're becoming a real human. 00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:06.480 You've heard the term humanism. 00:05:06.560 --> 00:05:08.160 Guess where humanism came from? 00:05:08.480 --> 00:05:13.839 Humanism was developed during the Enlightenment by believers. 00:05:14.399 --> 00:05:19.759 The idea of us being truly human is the essence of humanism. 00:05:19.920 --> 00:05:31.199 Now, the way humanism is being defined today is entirely different than not only the etymology of the word, but also the history of the study. 00:05:31.920 --> 00:05:45.839 But here's the reality: that the more we grow in Christ, the creator of the universe, through the seed that's been planted in us when we believe, the more human you become. 00:05:46.160 --> 00:05:51.920 You become the essence of what you were created in the beginning to be. 00:05:52.800 --> 00:05:57.120 When we're not following Christ, we're actually not as human. 00:05:57.279 --> 00:06:01.600 I mean, you're human, but you're not as human as God created you to be. 00:06:01.839 --> 00:06:05.199 And so it's my 62 Volkswagen. 00:06:05.519 --> 00:06:13.040 My red 62 Volkswagen bug that I had in college. 00:06:13.439 --> 00:06:15.439 I didn't take to a Ford dealership. 00:06:15.519 --> 00:06:17.600 I didn't take to a Chevrolet dealership. 00:06:17.759 --> 00:06:24.319 I took it to a Volkswagen dealership because that mechanic knows how to work on VWs. 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:27.279 God created you. 00:06:27.519 --> 00:06:29.920 Christ created you to be who you are. 00:06:30.480 --> 00:06:43.600 Your DNA has a destiny that God put within you, and the more you line up with the one who gave you your DNA, the more you discover the created person that you are. 00:06:43.759 --> 00:06:45.199 That's humanism. 00:06:45.519 --> 00:06:46.720 That's true humanism. 00:06:46.800 --> 00:07:00.560 And so what he's speaking here of is this word that became flesh on the one hand, but also the written word that as we spend time in God's word, we grow and become the people that God's called us to be. 00:07:00.639 --> 00:07:02.959 Now we're a new creation in Christ. 00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:08.879 So as a new creation in Christ, we are different. 00:07:09.199 --> 00:07:11.279 We're not reforming ourselves. 00:07:11.519 --> 00:07:16.399 So 2 Corinthians 5.17 says, I'm a new creation in Christ. 00:07:16.560 --> 00:07:18.800 The old has passed away. 00:07:19.040 --> 00:07:21.519 Behold, new things have come. 00:07:21.920 --> 00:07:26.800 So when we surrender to Christ, there's this new work of the Spirit within us. 00:07:27.040 --> 00:07:31.360 And what happens in many Christian circles is we try to reform ourselves. 00:07:31.439 --> 00:07:38.720 We're trying to change ourselves, and it's kind of an outward-in discipline that is futile. 00:07:39.040 --> 00:07:40.560 You can't change you. 00:07:40.879 --> 00:07:51.439 But it's more as we surrender to Him that He does his work within us, and as He works inside out within us, we see the new creation for which we were created. 00:07:51.600 --> 00:07:52.399 So C.S. 00:07:52.480 --> 00:08:03.360 Lewis, the great Oxford Cambridge professor and writer, said this: God became man to turn creatures into sons. 00:08:04.160 --> 00:08:11.519 Not simply to produce better men of the old kind, but to produce a new kind of man or a new kind of woman. 00:08:11.680 --> 00:08:21.120 It is not like teaching a horse to jump better and better, but it's more like turning a horse into a winged creature. 00:08:21.680 --> 00:08:41.519 So, in other words, what God's Spirit does through the seed of the Word is he comes to work within us in our natural existence, and he begins a supernatural work within our natural existence by which new desires and new passions are birthed within us. 00:08:41.679 --> 00:08:51.600 And that new birth activity of God is what begins to set us free from those areas we were in bondage to before. 00:08:51.919 --> 00:09:04.159 So, a number of months ago, I was in a conversation with a young man, and he was sharing with me his background in both Gnosticism and Stoicism. 00:09:04.240 --> 00:09:08.159 And I'm not going to go into the differences between the two or what exactly those are. 00:09:08.240 --> 00:09:09.200 You can look them up. 00:09:09.600 --> 00:09:15.279 Stoicism, S-T-O-I-C-I-S-M, or Gnosticism. 00:09:15.440 --> 00:09:16.799 He had been involved in both. 00:09:16.960 --> 00:09:25.120 And we began the discovery of how he got saved, how he came into this new experience with Christ. 00:09:25.440 --> 00:09:27.759 And he said this was the essence of it. 00:09:27.919 --> 00:09:40.639 The essence of it was that in Stoicism, as well as in Gnosticism, it was about me attempting to discipline my life better and better to be a better person, which by the way is a good thing. 00:09:40.720 --> 00:09:46.799 I'd rather for you to be disciplining yourself to be a better person than not disciplining yourself and being a crummy person. 00:09:46.960 --> 00:09:48.720 So I think it's great to do that. 00:09:49.039 --> 00:09:54.639 But in the end, he saw the vanity and the futility of that. 00:09:54.879 --> 00:10:01.519 And when he came to Christ, it really resonated with him that Christ does the work. 00:10:02.799 --> 00:10:08.320 And what Peter's saying here is there was a seed planted when you believed. 00:10:08.559 --> 00:10:13.039 This incorruptible seed that's now growing within us. 00:10:13.440 --> 00:10:25.759 And so in Ephesians 2 we read, even when we were dead in trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ by grace. 00:10:26.080 --> 00:10:26.960 You've been saved. 00:10:27.039 --> 00:10:36.159 Not by works, but by the grace of God you've been saved, and raised us up together and made us sit together with him in heavenly places in Christ. 00:10:36.399 --> 00:10:41.679 And so this is a work of God, though we be dead in our sin. 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:47.919 He pours life into us through this seed. 00:10:48.159 --> 00:10:49.039 John 4. 00:10:49.279 --> 00:10:54.080 John writes, True worshipers worship the Father in spirit and truth. 00:10:54.320 --> 00:10:57.120 For the Father is seeking such to worship him. 00:10:57.600 --> 00:11:03.759 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. 00:11:03.919 --> 00:11:06.240 So we give our hearts to Christ. 00:11:06.480 --> 00:11:08.720 Some of you may have done that last week. 00:11:08.960 --> 00:11:13.600 We had a lot of spontaneous baptisms up here at all the services. 00:11:13.759 --> 00:11:19.039 And you might have gotten baptized either the first time or maybe the fifth time. 00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:21.360 Maybe this one's going to stick. 00:11:23.039 --> 00:11:29.600 And I say that because I have so much experience with people in the church who have gotten baptized because it's going to turn over a new leaf. 00:11:29.759 --> 00:11:30.879 They're going to turn over a new leaf. 00:11:31.039 --> 00:11:32.399 I'm going to change my life. 00:11:32.639 --> 00:11:35.840 And that right there, that phrase right there is already a big mistake. 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:37.519 You can't change your life. 00:11:37.759 --> 00:11:41.600 And so they think that somehow getting physically baptized is going to change everything. 00:11:41.919 --> 00:11:42.240 No. 00:11:43.360 --> 00:11:45.120 It's your faith in Christ. 00:11:45.200 --> 00:11:47.440 It's for by grace you're saved through faith. 00:11:47.600 --> 00:11:49.120 So it's his grace coming in. 00:11:49.200 --> 00:11:55.200 Then we get baptized because God's doing a fresh work in our life, and we're making a public statement about that. 00:11:55.440 --> 00:12:03.200 So with that, church, God transforms us from the inside out with this incorruptible seed. 00:12:03.279 --> 00:12:04.720 So look at verse 22 again. 00:12:04.879 --> 00:12:06.240 Look at verse 22 again. 00:12:06.559 --> 00:12:20.879 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart. 00:12:21.120 --> 00:12:25.919 God desires that we have sincere love in our relationship. 00:12:26.080 --> 00:12:30.559 God desires that we have a sincere love in our relationship. 00:12:30.639 --> 00:12:38.720 And that's one of the first things that happens in a person's life when we're born again, when we come to know Christ, is God begins to give us a sincere love. 00:12:38.879 --> 00:12:50.080 It's pretty interesting because the word here starts in the Greek, if you were reading the word for sincere, the word is ano kritos. 00:12:50.399 --> 00:12:52.320 Anupo kritos. 00:12:52.799 --> 00:12:56.879 So a is a negative when it's in Greek. 00:12:57.200 --> 00:13:01.759 Pokritos comes from hippocritos, which is the word hypocrite. 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:06.399 So how many of people have ever said, I don't go to church because it's full of hypocrites? 00:13:06.639 --> 00:13:07.360 Raise your hand. 00:13:07.519 --> 00:13:08.240 That's you, okay? 00:13:08.320 --> 00:13:08.559 All right. 00:13:09.039 --> 00:13:10.720 Well, you're all hypocrites. 00:13:11.279 --> 00:13:13.360 All right, so let's just settle it. 00:13:13.759 --> 00:13:16.799 We have hypocritical ways in certain parts of our life. 00:13:16.960 --> 00:13:18.159 Nobody's perfect in that. 00:13:18.240 --> 00:13:27.759 But here's what he's saying: is that the incorruptible seed, which he's about to explain, the first thing that it begins to do in our life, it starts to give us sincere love. 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:30.000 So remember I talked about humanism? 00:13:30.159 --> 00:13:32.960 The reality is you're becoming the real you. 00:13:34.639 --> 00:13:40.799 When the spirit comes in, when the seed comes in, you start to become the authentic you. 00:13:40.960 --> 00:13:42.639 The problem is religion. 00:13:42.960 --> 00:13:52.559 The problem is religion because we have in America or we have in our church backgrounds, mine would be, you know, a background with my dad actually being a pastor. 00:13:53.440 --> 00:14:03.679 There's a veneer, there's an outward veneer of spirituality that comes with that, and you just embrace it when you're a kid, and you just think that's what it means. 00:14:03.759 --> 00:14:07.360 And I remember thinking, like, even as a pastor, like, I'll never be a pastor. 00:14:07.440 --> 00:14:09.039 That's like the most boring job. 00:14:09.200 --> 00:14:14.080 I mean, not only is it boring, but you wear that cardboard thing on your neck, man. 00:14:14.159 --> 00:14:16.960 It's like, it's like my dad's choking all the time. 00:14:17.200 --> 00:14:19.360 You know, it's called a clerical collar. 00:14:19.519 --> 00:14:24.399 That's a religious, that's religious paraphernalia, religious fashion, I guess you could call that. 00:14:24.480 --> 00:14:26.639 But there's also other religious things that go with it. 00:14:26.799 --> 00:14:31.120 And what happens is we start becoming posers. 00:14:32.159 --> 00:14:46.879 We become fakers because we're not, that's not really who we are, but we begin to become pretenders, hypocrite, hipocritos means actor, a poser, a faker. 00:14:47.519 --> 00:14:56.320 And what Peter's saying is the purpose of the work of the Spirit is to make us sincerely who we are. 00:14:56.799 --> 00:14:58.159 That's pretty exciting. 00:14:58.399 --> 00:15:02.799 And folks, who you are is different than the person you're sitting next to. 00:15:03.200 --> 00:15:16.559 So you have gifts and talents, and you have a DNA and a genetic code given supernaturally by God that gives you the mind you have, the heart you have, the body type you have, the eye color. 00:15:16.720 --> 00:15:17.840 That's from God. 00:15:19.039 --> 00:15:25.120 And what he wants to do in our lives is enable us to love him and love ourselves. 00:15:25.360 --> 00:15:26.480 To love him and love. 00:15:26.799 --> 00:15:28.720 Love what he made you to be. 00:15:28.960 --> 00:15:31.120 And quit trying to be something that you're not. 00:15:31.279 --> 00:15:35.279 Comparison is like the death knell of our lives. 00:15:35.679 --> 00:15:38.960 God is happy with how he made you. 00:15:39.360 --> 00:15:41.120 So, how do you find out who you are? 00:15:41.360 --> 00:15:43.039 By a sincere love for him. 00:15:43.360 --> 00:15:48.879 So it starts with loving God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and then your neighbor is yourself. 00:15:49.039 --> 00:15:56.879 So as we learn to love God, that work, that incorruptible seed begins to be birthed in us, and it's super exciting. 00:15:57.039 --> 00:15:58.240 It's really good. 00:15:59.120 --> 00:16:05.519 And so we say things like, Well, I don't love people that vote that way. 00:16:06.240 --> 00:16:07.360 Anybody ever said that? 00:16:07.519 --> 00:16:09.200 I can't love people like that. 00:16:09.440 --> 00:16:14.240 I can't love people that are going to vote for that person or this person or whatever it might be. 00:16:14.720 --> 00:16:22.639 Well, what God will begin to do in our lives is He starts to give us a sincere love for people that are different than us. 00:16:23.840 --> 00:16:28.159 That's what the civil rights movement was all about in the South back in the day. 00:16:28.320 --> 00:16:34.159 That's the reason my dad was a leader in the civil rights movement as a white guy. 00:16:34.399 --> 00:16:39.039 I mean, we had black pastors coming in and out of our house all the time. 00:16:40.399 --> 00:16:42.639 And I just thought that was normal. 00:16:43.600 --> 00:16:49.279 I mean, I remember going to school and realizing when I heard the N-word and things like that, I'd never heard that before. 00:16:49.519 --> 00:16:51.519 And I just remember being shocked. 00:16:51.919 --> 00:16:55.759 And I remember thinking to myself, I think that's derogatory. 00:16:56.960 --> 00:17:00.559 But I had to go home to mom and say, Mom, is that seventh grade? 00:17:00.639 --> 00:17:02.960 I said, What does this mean? 00:17:03.120 --> 00:17:05.119 And she goes, Don't ever say that word. 00:17:05.359 --> 00:17:07.200 And I go, whoa, okay. 00:17:07.519 --> 00:17:08.160 You know? 00:17:08.559 --> 00:17:16.319 Um, but it was because I grew up in a home where there was a sincere love for all the races. 00:17:16.400 --> 00:17:17.680 And that was my background. 00:17:17.759 --> 00:17:19.599 But but for some of you, it's the opposite. 00:17:19.839 --> 00:17:24.559 You grew up in a background where you're always right and you're superior to everybody. 00:17:24.640 --> 00:17:27.359 You saw it in your mom and dad or your grandparents or whatever. 00:17:27.519 --> 00:17:34.160 And so you're working out a sincere love for those that you saw your parents hating. 00:17:34.559 --> 00:17:45.519 And then, here's the part that really makes it fun is the deeper your convictions about something, the harder it is to love those who don't have your convictions. 00:17:45.839 --> 00:17:49.119 So you say, well, maybe I shouldn't have such deep convictions. 00:17:49.279 --> 00:17:50.240 I'm not saying that. 00:17:50.400 --> 00:18:00.079 I say let your convictions grow deep, but then allow the word of God, the supernatural word of God, to give you a law for those who are different than you. 00:18:00.720 --> 00:18:03.279 Because it ain't gonna happen naturally. 00:18:03.599 --> 00:18:05.519 It's not gonna happen naturally. 00:18:05.759 --> 00:18:07.680 It would have to be a supernatural word of spirit. 00:18:07.759 --> 00:18:09.039 He does it all the time. 00:18:09.920 --> 00:18:20.799 And you guys know the stands that I've taken since COVID and all the different things that have happened, and people that have come against me and the papers and people who've actually come into the sanctuary and said stuff to me and everything. 00:18:20.880 --> 00:18:23.599 And my response is always, man, I love you. 00:18:24.319 --> 00:18:28.160 And they're like, Well, I mean, it just throws the whole thing in a spin, man. 00:18:28.240 --> 00:18:28.880 I say, I love you. 00:18:28.960 --> 00:18:30.000 Hey, you want to go get coffee? 00:18:30.079 --> 00:18:31.440 I'd love to hear your perspective. 00:18:31.599 --> 00:18:35.359 Sounds like you have some really deep convictions, just like I do. 00:18:35.599 --> 00:18:37.839 I'll treat you to coffee. 00:18:38.400 --> 00:18:42.960 But I'm not gonna get in a match where I'm trying to degrade people. 00:18:43.119 --> 00:18:43.440 What? 00:18:43.599 --> 00:18:45.200 I'm a Christian first. 00:18:46.480 --> 00:18:49.039 Politics is way down on the list, man. 00:18:49.599 --> 00:18:49.920 Okay? 00:18:50.640 --> 00:18:53.839 So be a Jesus follower first. 00:18:54.240 --> 00:18:54.319 Okay. 00:18:54.880 --> 00:18:57.519 With the sincere love of Christ. 00:18:57.759 --> 00:19:03.920 Other convictions, as deep as they may be, and I know I'm yeah, I know some of you are going, Steve, that's there's no way. 00:19:04.079 --> 00:19:06.319 There is no way I'm doing that with that person. 00:19:06.559 --> 00:19:06.880 Okay. 00:19:08.079 --> 00:19:11.680 You keep coming here, you'll be doing it in a year. 00:19:12.319 --> 00:19:14.000 Because Jesus will work in your life. 00:19:14.319 --> 00:19:19.519 And it's and it's really freeing to realize that they don't have anything on you. 00:19:20.160 --> 00:19:21.680 There's no hooks there. 00:19:22.079 --> 00:19:24.400 Because I mean, there's some jabs that come, right? 00:19:24.720 --> 00:19:27.039 You go, man, I'm a punching bag. 00:19:27.279 --> 00:19:27.599 Fine. 00:19:27.759 --> 00:19:29.119 You want to get coffee? 00:19:30.240 --> 00:19:33.759 And sometimes they take you up on it, sometimes they get scared. 00:19:34.240 --> 00:19:36.720 Because they know I can talk pretty good. 00:19:37.039 --> 00:19:38.720 So anyway, look at verse 23. 00:19:38.880 --> 00:19:39.759 Verse 23. 00:19:40.079 --> 00:19:46.559 So here's how this works: this is how sincere love begins to work in our life. 00:19:46.799 --> 00:19:57.359 Having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever. 00:19:57.680 --> 00:20:00.960 Because all flesh is as grass. 00:20:01.920 --> 00:20:04.799 And all the glory of man is the flower of the grass. 00:20:04.960 --> 00:20:08.319 The grass withers and its flower falls away. 00:20:08.559 --> 00:20:10.640 But the word of the Lord endures forever. 00:20:10.799 --> 00:20:13.599 Now, this is the word which by the gospel is preached to you. 00:20:13.680 --> 00:20:21.599 So the seed of God's word is incorruptible and it activates transformation, men and women, in your life. 00:20:21.920 --> 00:20:23.680 We're fading out. 00:20:24.480 --> 00:20:25.599 We're fading out. 00:20:25.680 --> 00:20:34.079 From all the shooting that I've done and all the worship services I've been a part of and all the practic, I mean, loud music. 00:20:34.160 --> 00:20:37.279 I mean, my right ear ain't so good anymore. 00:20:37.440 --> 00:20:37.759 Okay? 00:20:38.240 --> 00:20:52.319 So I'm gonna ask, I'm gonna ask some people to pray for me at noonday prayer because there was a big healing of two ears getting healed recently, and I thought, I want in on the healing, man, because it'd be great to have that ear healed. 00:20:52.559 --> 00:20:57.920 But we're we're fading, we're fading, and yet the incorruptible seed is growing. 00:20:58.240 --> 00:21:02.799 So we may be fading on the outside, we can be growing on the inside. 00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:17.279 We can be fading out in our ability to ski or to run or to lift weights or whatever it might be, but we can be growing stronger on the interior of our heart. 00:21:18.319 --> 00:21:21.119 That does not fade. 00:21:21.759 --> 00:21:35.359 It's an incorruptible, internal, eternal seed that's growing within us, and it's activating transformation in your life. 00:21:35.839 --> 00:21:39.359 If you spend time in it, if your soil is good. 00:21:39.519 --> 00:21:41.519 And the word here for seed is spora. 00:21:41.759 --> 00:21:44.319 It's like the spores on a flower. 00:21:44.640 --> 00:21:46.319 God is working within you. 00:21:46.400 --> 00:21:50.960 Now turn in your Bibles, go left in your Bible to Mark. 00:21:51.279 --> 00:21:52.880 Mark chapter 4. 00:21:53.200 --> 00:21:56.720 Look at Mark chapter 4, 26. 00:21:56.880 --> 00:21:58.720 Look at Mark 4, 26. 00:21:58.880 --> 00:21:59.759 Mark 4, 26. 00:22:00.640 --> 00:22:13.920 The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow. 00:22:14.240 --> 00:22:16.400 He himself does not know how. 00:22:16.640 --> 00:22:24.640 For the earth yields crops by itself, first the blade, then the head, and after that the full grain in the head. 00:22:24.799 --> 00:22:25.759 Verse 29. 00:22:25.920 --> 00:22:33.920 But when the grain ripens, immediately it puts in the sickle because the harvest has come. 00:22:34.640 --> 00:22:40.559 Now we think that if we go to the store, that's where food comes from. 00:22:40.799 --> 00:22:42.799 Oh, that came from Safeway. 00:22:43.039 --> 00:22:44.720 Oh, this came from King Soupers. 00:22:44.880 --> 00:22:50.400 No, it came from a farmer somewhere out there who planted a seed somewhere. 00:22:50.799 --> 00:22:54.799 And in some cases, he sprayed it like crazy with pesticides. 00:22:55.119 --> 00:22:55.440 Okay? 00:22:56.880 --> 00:23:01.440 But the seed was the corn which grew. 00:23:01.599 --> 00:23:07.200 And that farmer, when he plants the seed, does not go out into the field every day. 00:23:07.279 --> 00:23:17.359 I grew up on a farming community, and my grandfather never went out into the garden or into his area and just sat there and screamed at the seed to grow. 00:23:17.599 --> 00:23:24.720 No, he slept, he drank water, he smoked cigars, and he chewed tobacco, and here came, and here came the corn. 00:23:24.960 --> 00:23:25.519 All right? 00:23:25.759 --> 00:23:30.880 So that's the way the seed works, church, is that God plants his seed in your life. 00:23:30.960 --> 00:23:41.599 And for some of you, you know, you just got the head coming up, some of you, you got the stalk coming up, some of you got the limbs coming up, and then some of you are bearing fruit. 00:23:41.759 --> 00:23:49.759 You're actually getting fruit on the vine because, listen, you take such good care of your soil. 00:23:50.559 --> 00:23:52.400 Soil's everything. 00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:54.240 It's not the seed. 00:23:54.319 --> 00:24:00.799 The seed has got everything that it needs to be corn or to be wheat or to be a tomato plant. 00:24:01.039 --> 00:24:05.359 Believe me, that that tomato plant's not going to change its mind. 00:24:05.920 --> 00:24:07.759 It's going to be a tomato plant. 00:24:07.920 --> 00:24:10.880 And so Liz has a greenhouse at our house. 00:24:11.039 --> 00:24:14.160 And there was the she was just learning how to do all this. 00:24:14.240 --> 00:24:17.119 And first two months, like nothing's really growing that much. 00:24:17.200 --> 00:24:22.400 And so she did some research and found out, listen, how to amend the soil. 00:24:22.799 --> 00:24:35.440 How to amend the soil with minerals, how to amend the soil with vitamins, how to amend the soil, and bam! It was incredible over the next two months. 00:24:38.720 --> 00:24:40.559 We had tomatoes until like a month ago. 00:24:40.720 --> 00:24:48.960 I mean, it kept coming and kept coming because that's what the seed does if it has good soil. 00:24:49.119 --> 00:24:50.960 And that's your job. 00:24:51.680 --> 00:24:55.359 Nobody can amend the soil of your heart but you. 00:24:56.079 --> 00:24:57.599 And sometimes we blame God. 00:24:57.680 --> 00:25:00.720 Well, I'm not growing in this, or this doesn't seem to happen for me. 00:25:00.880 --> 00:25:04.799 And you go, and I understand that's that's that's really tough for you. 00:25:04.960 --> 00:25:10.640 But I want to say, wake up and smell the coffee and realize you're the one who has to amend the soil. 00:25:10.960 --> 00:25:12.319 He's the seed. 00:25:12.640 --> 00:25:21.200 But if you don't have a good heart, if you don't have soil for the seed to grow in, you're gonna be the same person now as you were three years ago. 00:25:21.279 --> 00:25:27.039 You're gonna be the same person five years from now as you are right now, unless you're in God's Word. 00:25:27.359 --> 00:25:35.039 And begin to nurture God's word and to keep planting God's word in your heart by reading it, knowing it, and studying it. 00:25:35.279 --> 00:25:41.759 So, this is where the kingdom of God story in our lives comes from. 00:25:41.839 --> 00:25:46.799 So now look at the beginning of the first part of Mark 4. 00:25:47.039 --> 00:25:48.240 Look at verse 14. 00:25:48.319 --> 00:25:50.559 So we're gonna move back, go to the left a little further. 00:25:50.720 --> 00:25:54.319 In this parable, this is what Jesus says. 00:25:54.559 --> 00:25:56.960 The sower sows the word. 00:25:57.359 --> 00:25:58.240 Verse 15. 00:25:58.480 --> 00:26:03.519 And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. 00:26:03.599 --> 00:26:05.680 So he's gonna tell you about four types of soil. 00:26:05.920 --> 00:26:09.279 First one is by the wayside where the word is sown. 00:26:09.440 --> 00:26:15.359 When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. 00:26:15.519 --> 00:26:32.559 You've known people that they hear the word of God, they hear about Christ, they receive it just really quickly, they're excited about it, and then it's like the next day or the next week, boom, it's gone, because Satan came and he stole away the word because there was no root to it. 00:26:32.799 --> 00:26:36.880 Satan comes immediately, takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. 00:26:37.200 --> 00:26:54.480 These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness, but they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a short time. 00:26:54.640 --> 00:27:01.279 Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises in the word's sake, immediately they stumble. 00:27:01.519 --> 00:27:08.000 So I remember so many friends over the years, people in the church even, that for a while they walked with the Lord. 00:27:08.160 --> 00:27:18.559 But soon as tribulation came, soon as difficulty came, they fell away because during the peaceful time, they didn't dig deep. 00:27:19.119 --> 00:27:28.240 Folks, listen, when things are going your way pretty well, that's the time to dig in deep because tribulation's coming. 00:27:28.640 --> 00:27:29.920 Difficulties are coming. 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:37.920 So Tuesday, for wholehearted men, give all you men a, you know, a heads up about what Tuesday is going to be about. 00:27:38.319 --> 00:27:45.839 The title, I haven't worked out totally, Todd, but the title's gonna be something like this: suffering is the secret to greatness. 00:27:46.799 --> 00:27:49.039 Suffering is the secret to greatness. 00:27:49.279 --> 00:27:58.319 You show me any man or any woman who has a successful life, I'll tell you, they have suffered a lot and they kept pushing through. 00:27:58.720 --> 00:28:00.559 So suffering's the key to greatness. 00:28:00.720 --> 00:28:11.519 And so it is in our lives that when tribulation comes, if you haven't, if you haven't allowed the word to grow deeply into you, you're just blown out of the saddle. 00:28:11.759 --> 00:28:18.000 You don't know what to do because you don't have roots that have been dug deep into your heart. 00:28:18.880 --> 00:28:22.640 Then in verse 18, there are those who are sown among thorns. 00:28:22.880 --> 00:28:32.720 They're the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke out the word, and they become unfruitful. 00:28:32.960 --> 00:28:34.240 And then verse 20. 00:28:34.400 --> 00:28:36.720 These are road, verse 20 is road people. 00:28:37.519 --> 00:28:37.839 Okay? 00:28:39.279 --> 00:28:44.400 Everybody say, road people are in verse 20. 00:28:45.680 --> 00:28:46.160 All right. 00:28:46.400 --> 00:28:50.640 But these are the ones who sow on good ground, good ground. 00:28:50.799 --> 00:28:55.039 Those who hear the word accept it and bear fruit. 00:28:55.200 --> 00:28:58.720 Some thirty-fold, some sixty, and some a hundredfold. 00:28:58.880 --> 00:29:02.240 So they they don't just hear it, they believe it. 00:29:02.480 --> 00:29:07.920 They read it, they hear it, they believe it, and they act on it. 00:29:08.160 --> 00:29:15.839 And then what happens is like we read earlier, it's like the seed that just begins to naturally grow because that's what it does. 00:29:16.079 --> 00:29:27.519 Seeds grow when it's in good soil, 30, 60, a hundred times what you could be if you didn't have the Lord. 00:29:27.680 --> 00:29:31.599 So, in other words, God doesn't want you to stay where you're at. 00:29:31.759 --> 00:29:36.079 He doesn't want you to just be good at what you do and naturally I'm gifted this way. 00:29:36.160 --> 00:29:38.559 Well, what are you gifted supernaturally in? 00:29:38.720 --> 00:29:44.319 What are you, what, what kind of work in your character does God want to supernaturally do? 00:29:44.559 --> 00:29:46.799 I already know what you naturally can do. 00:29:47.119 --> 00:29:49.039 Everybody knows what you can naturally do. 00:29:49.200 --> 00:30:09.200 You're born with some natural gifting, but when we start to nurture and the soil of our heart becomes a part of living and reading and hearing and believing God's word, you can have a 30% increase in your gifting, your anointing, and your calling. 00:30:09.359 --> 00:30:11.440 You have a 60% increase. 00:30:11.519 --> 00:30:18.640 You can have a hundred times what you could be when Christ comes and takes over. 00:30:18.799 --> 00:30:20.400 That's up to us. 00:30:20.880 --> 00:30:24.240 Letting God's word be nurtured within us. 00:30:24.720 --> 00:30:28.240 And so, men and women, spend time in God's word. 00:30:29.200 --> 00:30:36.880 Get your nose in it, read it, study it, know it, meditate in it, talk about it. 00:30:37.119 --> 00:30:40.000 Just make it a part of your lifestyle. 00:30:40.480 --> 00:30:44.720 So when I got saved, it was exactly what our passage says. 00:30:44.880 --> 00:30:50.720 It was like that nurturing of the baby, 18, and I read God's word. 00:30:51.279 --> 00:30:59.359 I was blessed to be in a group, Campus Crusade for Christ at University of Georgia, where they just talked about quiet time, quiet time, spending time in the Word. 00:30:59.519 --> 00:31:02.480 And so, first thing in the morning, I'd read God's Word. 00:31:02.640 --> 00:31:04.960 Before practice, I would read God's Word. 00:31:05.119 --> 00:31:06.880 At night, I would read God's Word. 00:31:06.960 --> 00:31:11.200 And then once or twice a week, I would go out to this river in Athens, Georgia. 00:31:11.359 --> 00:31:12.960 There was an island in this river. 00:31:13.119 --> 00:31:25.599 It was only like 15 minutes away, and I'd drive over there, I'd park the car, and I'd wade over to this log that was there and some rocks that were there, and I'd cross over and I'd spend just an hour or two by myself reading God's word. 00:31:26.240 --> 00:31:30.720 And back then the praise, they were called cassette tapes. 00:31:33.279 --> 00:31:34.960 Okay, cassette tapes. 00:31:35.200 --> 00:31:38.160 So these cassette tapes, I would listen to praise music. 00:31:38.240 --> 00:31:41.039 And then we had a walkman. 00:31:43.359 --> 00:31:46.880 Those Japanese, man, they really knew how to invent really cool stuff. 00:31:47.039 --> 00:31:48.319 So you had your Walkman. 00:31:48.400 --> 00:31:56.559 So I had my Walkman, my headphones, and my cassette praise music with uh with the word of God coming through. 00:31:56.720 --> 00:32:02.720 Early, early contemporary uh praise and worship like we have, pretty typical now, but it was new then. 00:32:03.599 --> 00:32:15.359 And so I'd go to Southern Baptist Church on Sundays where you had the, you know, the worship director was, you know, they did all this and you had a hymnal and everything. 00:32:15.440 --> 00:32:16.079 Remember that? 00:32:16.319 --> 00:32:20.000 If you were really progressive, you had an overhead projector. 00:32:20.559 --> 00:32:27.839 And nobody could ever put that piece of that little that little plastic thing on and said the sun has like this and this is like that, you know. 00:32:28.400 --> 00:32:31.039 But but that's a progressive church back then. 00:32:32.079 --> 00:32:40.799 So if you want supernatural growth in your life, you must activate God's word in your life. 00:32:41.119 --> 00:32:44.160 If you want to grow, you have to activate. 00:32:44.480 --> 00:32:47.440 And you're what you're doing is you're amending the soil. 00:32:47.759 --> 00:32:54.319 You're amending the soil of your heart, spending sometimes hours and hours before the Lord. 00:32:54.400 --> 00:32:58.240 The word of God is living and powerful. 00:32:59.359 --> 00:33:12.640 The word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, able to pierce the division of soul and spirit in our lives. 00:33:13.039 --> 00:33:20.720 And so, and so the word of God this past week, Liz and I had some time off, and I spent most of the time in Psalm 119. 00:33:20.880 --> 00:33:24.240 Psalm 119, I think, has something like 173 verses. 00:33:24.559 --> 00:33:26.799 I did not memorize it, I'm not planning to memorize it. 00:33:26.880 --> 00:33:28.559 If any of you memorize it, I'll give you a shirt. 00:33:28.720 --> 00:33:34.880 But uh it's like three pages there in the Psalms, but it's all on the Word of God. 00:33:35.200 --> 00:33:36.720 That's what Psalm 119 is. 00:33:36.799 --> 00:33:42.160 And I knew this sermon was coming up, so I just spent an inordinate amount of time in God's Word. 00:33:42.720 --> 00:33:49.519 Men and women spend time in God's Word, it will supernaturally change your life. 00:33:50.240 --> 00:33:57.599 I am always surprised to see how many people who call themselves Christians, how little actual time they spend in God's Word. 00:33:57.680 --> 00:33:59.039 It's amazing to me. 00:33:59.359 --> 00:34:04.000 And that really sometimes their lives are no different than anybody else's. 00:34:04.079 --> 00:34:10.639 They they can tell you the place, the time, and the date of when they got saved, but they're the same person they were when they got saved. 00:34:10.960 --> 00:34:12.480 They haven't changed one bit. 00:34:12.559 --> 00:34:20.719 And the reason is they've never nurtured and amended the soil of their heart where God can begin a new and fresh work within them. 00:34:21.039 --> 00:34:29.760 We grow in maturity as a Jesus' disciple through daily planting the seed of God's word in the soil of our mind and our heart. 00:34:30.639 --> 00:34:32.559