Get Real With God Part 5 | Bountiful Harvest with Chris Schlotterbeck

Welcome to Hub City Vineyard.

To get connected or to give online go to connect.hcv.church or give.hcv.church.

If at any point during this message you feel called to make a change in your life, text

change me to 970-00.

Thank you and enjoy the message.

Anyway, it's so good to see you and it's so hard to follow up with those two.

They're so good at Mike and Mike.

Good job Mike and Mike.

Such good announcements.

If you're joining us from home, thank you for welcoming us into your space.

Just a couple of updates that I want to throw your way.

Many of you know we collected gently used shoes and new shoes for Souls for Souls for

the month of September.

Jess and Erin just this past week dropped off 1067 pairs of shoes.

Isn't that amazing?

Simple things that we can do like old shoes sitting in our closets that will change someone's

life all around the world.

Now I need to go to another issue that I just want to challenge you on real quick.

Doesn't so much impact our second gathering as does our first, but some of you attend

both our first and our second or maybe you'll be at our first gathering next week.

So after you leave our first gathering, we are asking that people turned right when they

leave the parking lot.

We ask people to do that kindly so that we can have space for the people coming in for

our other gatherings throughout the morning because many of you know our parking lot can

be a little chaotic and it's kind of full.

So we're trying to open an empty spaces so people can get in and out.

We ask you to turn right to protect you one because halfway Boulevard is a little dangerous

and it only takes you three additional minutes to turn right and get back to halfway Boulevard

at that stop sign.

So please if you turn right, just do it kindly.

Please don't try to turn left and run over one of my parking lot attendance.

Because last week that happened and church that just hurts my heart because if you can't

be kind to our parking lot people that are trying to love you and high five you and smile

at you when you arrive, how are you going to be kind to anybody out there?

Obviously you're not.

So please just just turn right.

Okay.

Turn right.

I promise you it'll take you three additional minutes to get to your destination wherever

you want to go.

So just like I've been doing all series long for the month of September, I want to begin

with another question this morning.

Did I welcome our YouTube channel to our Sunday gathering?

I didn't.

I am so sorry I forgot you, but we do love you.

Okay.

And we and we're so thankful you're joining us online.

Hi Trinity.

If you're watching from Florida, we love you.

So just throw that in there.

You know, why not?

To our question this morning, how many moments in this life have you missed?

How many moments in this one life that we are given have you missed?

Because here's the reality.

When we're young, time seems to move so slow, but as we get older, it moves way, way, way

too fast.

And all of us are passing through time in minutes.

And how many minutes of our lives have we missed out on being fully present?

You know, maybe it's the way we are designed as human beings, but we tend to think in chunks,

large chunks.

We celebrate years, birthdays.

Sometimes we celebrate decades with anniversaries.

If we happen to be alive at the right moment, we celebrate centuries, but we rarely celebrate

months or weeks or days, unless of course you're dating.

You know, it's always funny to be around a couple that is dating because after a couple

weeks we hear, oh, we're celebrating.

It's our anniversary.

We've been dating two months.

And immediately in the back of our heads, all of us are thinking, that's not going to

last.

Because if you're celebrating two months together, that's way too low of standards.

I mean, I've been married 27 years and listen, you learn to count differently over time.

Now imagine we were to monitor our progress in life, not year to year or month to month

or week to week or even day to day, but we try to monitor the progress of our very life

minute to minute.

I mean, for many of us, you think that would be absolutely insane, Chris.

It would drive us crazy.

In fact, exactly how many minutes do we actually live?

Well, there are 525,600 minutes in a year.

That means this year we will live 525,600 minutes and about a third of those minutes

we will be asleep.

And in another third, we are going to be basically unconscious.

That means awake, but not quite.

So a third of those minutes, we have the opportunity to be fully present.

Now if we live 70 years, we will have 3,679,200 minutes that we could count.

Now that's way too many minutes to pay attention to.

I mean, that's more than the grains in the sand.

It's in on a beach.

It's more than the stars in the sky that we could count.

So how in the world can we be responsible for maximizing all the minutes in our life?

Well, inside of those minutes, there is something much more significant and they're called moments.

And I'm convinced that what really matters in this life is not minutes, but the moments

in our lives.

We know that all the minutes, they don't have the same weight.

All the minutes don't have the same impact on our lives, on our future, or on the world.

But in the middle of those minutes are moments that change everything.

In fact, what we discover as we go through life is there are five or six defining moments

in our lives that we can attach all our other minutes to.

And behind those defining moments is divine moments when God gives us opportunities to

unleash a future that is waiting for us.

The question this morning is, will we miss it?

Or will we capture it?

Because I believe if you look closely at Jesus's life, we would quickly realize that Jesus

lived in minutes, looking for the moments that would define who he was and what the

kingdom of God was all about.

And how do I know this?

Well, at the end of John's gospel, the very last verse we read in John chapter 21 verse

John 21:25

25, Jesus also did many other things.

If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that

would be written.

A verse that many people don't even know exists.

And I read that as there would be more books than all those we currently have written in

this world.

And at this point in history, there have been 129,864,880 books written since 1440 when

the printing press was created.

If that many books would contain all of the things or moments in Jesus's life, that means

he was focused on his calling and on what God wanted him to do.

And for so many of us, we miss out on minutes and moments in our lives because we're so

distracted with the everyday.

We're not focused on what is important.

And we literally can miss out on moments that could define our very lives because where

we give our attention is the person we will become.

The question is not, are you being discipled?

The question is, who is discipling you?

Who or what is getting our attention?

John Mark Comer says it this way, your life is no more than the sum of what you gave your

attention to.

How many moments did we miss just this past week because we are so distracted from being

present?

How many open doors over the last decade did we miss?

How many opportunities from God did we miss?

Opportunities to love more, opportunities to succeed more, opportunities to become more,

opportunities to grow more, opportunities to experience more.

But we miss them because of less important things in our life.

I wonder about the presence of God.

It's here right now.

And you say, well, Chris, how do you know it's here?

Because I literally physically saw people weeping during the worship set.

How do I know his presence is here?

Because I can tangibly feel it.

The presence that is no longer hidden from humanity, but available for all to experience.

That presence, which includes his love, his peace, his joy, his fullness is right here,

right now in this room.

But how many of us know that we can be here, but not really be here?

I mean, you can just simply think about the phones in your front pockets, the frigid neighbor

that's right beside you, the person that's talking in the back.

We get pulled in all these different directions.

And the fullness, the abundance that Jesus promised for us in John 10, 10 is right here

for the taking, and we miss it because we allow the enemy to distract us.

Now we've been in this series called Get Real with God for the month of September.

We've been focusing on Micah 6, 8, which I'm going to read to you from Eugene Peterson's

message paraphrased.

It says, but he's already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for

in men and women.

It's quite simple.

Do what is fair and just to your neighbor.

Be compassionate and loyal in your love and don't take yourself too seriously.

Take God seriously.

We have broken down these verses week to week to week and been challenged to be a people

to live out what God desires for us in this one single verse.

We created a complete series from one single verse.

That's how deep God goes.

And I felt God led me to challenge all of us this morning that we can be destroyed by

distractions in this life.

And those distractions can keep us from living out these words that we've been challenged

to be about for an entire month.

Let's open in prayer and invite the Holy Spirit to change us this morning.

Holy Spirit come.

God I'm just thankful for each and every person that's here today.

In Jesus name we silence any distractions of the enemy.

Quiet our minds.

Slow down our hearts.

Open our ears to receive the fullness, the love, the grace, the mercy that you have for

us this morning.

Change us God and make us more like you.

In Jesus name.

Amen.

Now all that leads us to our first thought this morning.

You see humanity is constantly distracted.

Constantly.

Two thousand years ago Jesus told a parable about the seed and the soil.

And when Jesus speaks in parables he tells a story but the story actually has nothing

to do with the story.

It's a deeper spiritual meaning that goes way beyond the story and Jesus will say whoever

has ears.

In other words whoever is focused let them hear life changing truth.

Jesus speaks a parable to us that is going to be helpful to us who are learning to navigate

this cultural moment of constant distractions.

Let's read together Matthew 13 verses 3 through 9.

Matthew 13:3–9

He told many stories in the form of parables such as this one.

Listen a farmer went out to plant some seeds as he scattered them across his field some

seeds fell on a footpath and the birds came and ate them.

Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock.

The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow but the plants soon wilted under

the hot sun and since they didn't have deep roots they all died.

Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants.

Still other seeds fell on fertile soil and they produced a crop that was 30, 60 even

a hundred times as much as been planted.

Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.

So I want to show you a photo that was taken of Lebron James taking a jump shot that he

made which broke the all time scoring record in the NBA when he scored 38,388 points.

The record was previously held by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and many people assumed that record would

never be broken because it stood for over 40 years.

Now when he made that shot the entire arena erupted in a spirit of celebration as they

saw one of the greatest moments in the history of basketball.

But did they really see it?

Let's look at this photo.

So you see here, here's Lebron James, right?

Lebron James is taking the shot and there's one person, one person in this photo that's

not distracted by their phone.

Every other person in that photo has phones up being taken but one gentleman in the very

front row, Mr. Phil Knight, the creator of Nike is sitting and watching and taking in

the moment that Lebron James just made history.

The picture, this picture went viral on social media with captions like Phil is a legend,

the only person truly living in the moment, right?

The only person to really witness history was Phil Knight and I believe so many people

are drawn to this photo because deep down inside all of us is this feeling that life

is happening but we're missing it.

It's just passing us by.

Now 1 Corinthians 735 says this, I'm saying this for your benefit, not to place restrictions

on you.

I want you to do whatever will help you serve the Lord the best with as few distractions

as possible, with as few distractions as possible.

Now Jess and I, we enjoy watching different TV and series on Netflix.

We happen to be watching this series on Vikings and we learned that one of their torture methods

involved taking a person, tying each of their limbs to four different horses with a rope

and when the signal is given, said horses ride away in different directions dismembering

that person.

Now I know that is graphic and I know in your minds right now you're seeing that happen

and picturing the pain that would be involved but if we're honest about our lives that's

how we can daily feel and what's interesting is when we really break down that word distracted,

that's the very word they use to describe that form of torture, pulled in different

directions.

Now after Jesus preaches us the parable of the seed and the soil to a large crowd, He

sends them home and in the evening the disciples, they come to Him and they ask why He speaks

in parables.

You know you can almost picture Peter coming to Him, the same man that Jesus told to get

behind Him, Satan, right, literally calls this man Satan, he's like, hey Jesus what's

up?

You know could you explain to us what this seed and soil meant?

You know could you break it down on an elementary level for us?

Which I believe we all need so Jesus does that for us and He says these words in Matthew

13, 18 to 23.

Now listen to the explanation of the parable about the farmer planting seeds.

The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message about the kingdom

and don't understand it.

Then the evil one comes and snatches away the seed that was planted in their hearts.

The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive

it with joy, but since they don't have deep roots, they don't last long.

They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God's word.

The seed that fell among the thorns represent those who hear God's word, but all too quickly

the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth so no

fruit is produced.

The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God's

word and produce a harvest of 30, 60, even 100 times as much as been planted.

Now if you've been in church for any amount of time and in said time you heard this parable,

I believe all of us want to be the good soil kind of people.

True or false?

I don't see you putting your hand up, yeah I love the rocky.

I want to be the good soil.

I want to be the 30, 60, 100 type of follower.

But this morning I want to ask you a few questions.

Is the parable of the sower depicting four different types of people or does it actually

describe the four different conditions of all of our hearts at any given time?

In other words, is it possible that in the first hour or so of our day when we wake up

and get close to God, we pray, we have devotions, we're on the same frequency as Jesus, we're

connected, we're close, we pour a cup of coffee for ourselves, a cup of coffee for Jesus and

we are best friends, we're prepared for the day, that is fertile soil.

Amen?

But, everyone say but.

As soon as the kids get up, as soon as I reach for my phone, as soon as the first email or

text message comes in, all of a sudden I have shallow soil syndrome.

All of a sudden, those minutes, those moments are being snatched away and suddenly I find

myself at lunchtime, one, two in the afternoon wondering what happened?

I'm being suffocated with the worries of the world and my daily to-do list.

So I want to break down this parable and look at it differently and look at three different

ways we're being destroyed by distractions.

Friends, the abundant life that all of us want, all of us are searching for every single

day is actually right here, available for us right now in the presence of God.

Which leads us to our next thought.

We are distracted by the devil.

Matthew 13, 18 through 19, now listen to the explanation of the parable about the farmer

planting seeds.

The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message about the kingdom

of God and don't understand it.

Then the evil one comes, snatches away the seed that was planted in their hearts.

So what I want you all to do is I want you to close your eyes and I want you to picture

yourself on a beach and you're sitting on said beach, you're relaxing, you're enjoying

your time away, the waves are crashing, but you get a little hungry.

So you reach into the cooler that's right beside you and you grab out your lunch that

you had packed because you didn't want to wander all the way back to your house or condo.

So you get that food out of the cooler and then suddenly out of nowhere, flying around

your head and walking around your feet are a flock of seagulls.

And as you're eating your lunch, they're just looking at you going, mine, mine, mine, mine.

And you think, where did these dirty birds come from?

This is a picture of what's the enemy wants to do in our lives.

For example, right now you have positioned yourself, you've showed up to receive good

seed and God has been scattering all kinds of good seed in this place this morning since

worship started life changing truth.

And the enemy wants to snatch that seed away from you while it's still a seed before it

becomes something more.

We gather at church, we receive life changing truth straight from heaven.

But before we even get to lunch today to talk about worship, to talk about the message of

frustrating text comes on the phone.

As you're leaving today, you get a look across the lobby at someone that you feel is judging

you and you leave angry.

You're on your way to lunch and someone cuts you off.

Only you're at lunch and an unhealed memory from three months ago will surface before

you even get to see the fruit that that seed could grow into your life.

It gets snatched away and it's gone.

The devil doesn't want us to discuss what God is doing in our lives after we gather

on Sundays.

God doesn't or excuse me, the devil doesn't want us to be honest, right?

He doesn't want us to look at our children and on the way home ask our kids, hey kids,

what did you learn from evil Mr. John today?

And some of you are like, evil Mr. John?

Isn't he the kids past?

Why is he evil Mr. E?

You got to find out.

It's just so much easier to put on a song on your way home and just veg out or plan

and talk about all the things we need to accomplish today.

The devil will do anything to snatch a good seed away from your life so it doesn't become

the fruit that he can no longer steal from your life.

You see that?

Once roots are planted and fruit is grown, he can't steal it anymore.

See the devil, he's smart and he knows if he can get that dream while it's still a seed,

if he can get that good plan that God gave you while it's still a seed, if he can get

that one phrase that God wanted you here this morning and snatch it from you, fruit will

never be produced because I know in my own life I have been changed by phrases and statements

that I heard at a conference at a Sunday gathering in a conversation through a sermon that God

used and went from seed to root and good soil and it changed my life as the fruit was produced.

These are the moments we all desire but the devil knows if he can snatch it from us with

distractions, he wins.

John 10 10, the thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy and so many people they

read that and they think that's the enemy wanted to take us out and literally physically

kill us but it's not that.

He wants to steal, kill and destroy our dreams, our hopes, our abundant life.

He wants to put distractions in our life so that we go in different directions and we

miss the moments that define our life.

C.S. Lewis writes this about the devil, there are two equal and opposite errors into which

our race can fall about the devil.

One is to disbelieve in their existence.

The other is to believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.

In other words, thinking about him way too much, thinking about him way too little or

not at all.

See sometimes church, it wasn't the devil, you just said the wrong words because you

were hangry and frustrated.

Hey church, it wasn't the devil that put a nail in your tire, you just happened to drive

through a construction zone.

There's not a devil under every rock but at the same time, the other danger is thinking

about him way too little or not at all.

Just disbelieving and pushing it off his make believe.

Yes, we have to acknowledge him but we don't have to elevate him and give him power because

when we elevate him and give him power, that's when he steals away those seeds that define

the moments of our lives.

We acknowledge him, yes, but we don't give him power.

Now John Mark Comer wrote these words in his book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.

And I'm going to say that again because I highly recommend this book but let me paraphrase

it by saying, read it with caution, it will wreck your life.

Read it with caution, it will wreck your life.

John Mark Comer, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, writes this, Satan doesn't show up

as a demon with a pitchfork and a gravely smoker voice or as Will Ferrell with an electric

guitar and fire on Saturday Night Live.

Satan is far more intelligent than we give him credit for.

Today, you're far more likely to run into him in the form of an alert on your phone

while you're reading the Bible or a multi-day Netflix binge or a full on dopamine addiction

on Instagram or a Saturday morning at the office or another soccer game on a Sunday

or another commitment after commitment after commitment in a life full of speed.

We have five to 10 it's this week.

We have five to 10 it moments this week that God is destined for us to walk in, whether

it be with our families, our kids, our friends, our community of faith or people we don't

even know yet that don't know Jesus.

Don't let the enemy snatch the siege away from you that could become moments that define

your life.

We can be distracted by the devil.

The next is the rocky ground which leads us to our next thought, distracted by the doing.

Matthew 13 20 to 21 the seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message

and immediately receive it with joy.

But since they don't have deep roots, they don't last long.

They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God's word.

This is hurry.

We are way too busy and too hurried to put down roots.

I mean who has time for roots?

Roots are painfully slow.

Do you know what else is painfully slow?

Love.

Ask any parent, ask anyone in a thriving relationship or marriage, love is painfully slow.

That life, the freedom that all of us long for, right?

It's not over the next horizon.

It's not around the next turn.

It's not in the next relationship or the next marriage or the next job.

It's not in the next city or town.

It's in the ground beneath our feet.

Do we have the patience, the time, the commitment to put down roots and tap into that abundant

life?

Again, the presence of God is right here available to us today and every day.

If you're in a relationship with Jesus, God's spirit lives inside of those who believe.

And Paul writes it this way in 1 Corinthians 13, 4 that you'll hear it every marriage celebration

and ceremony.

Love is patient and kind.

Patient and kind.

John Ortberg writes it this way.

For many of us, the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith.

It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle

for a mediocre version of it.

We will just skim our lives instead of actually living them.

Shallow soil, surface way of living.

We don't tap into all that God has for us.

We don't put down roots.

And do you know what changed all of this within our culture?

June 29th, 2007.

Does anybody know what happened on that date in history?

Steve Jobs set the iPhone free into the world.

Now fast forward to 2024.

All of us are highly addicted or dependent on smartphones to lead and control our life.

Again, I'm not throwing them under the bus.

I'm not saying they're not useful.

But what I am saying is, do they control you?

Now when it comes to addiction, if a person wakes up in the morning and the first thing

they feel or think about is the need for a drink, that is a sign of an addict.

If we wake up every single morning and the first thing we feel like we need to reach

for is our phones, we have to honestly answer the question, do I just have a phone or does

my phone have a human?

Busyness is the biggest badge of honor in our culture today.

Now with our phones, we have an opportunity to never not be busy.

And hear me out, busyness is not necessarily bad.

Jesus was busy, right?

Busyness can be a sign of a full life, but it's our chronic over busyness that begins

to create an internal state of hurry in our spirits.

See busyness is an external schedule.

Being hurried is an internal condition of the spirit.

Psychology today now has defined something called hurried sickness.

And before I define it, I want you to take a minute and reflect on your life and see

if you have this sickness.

Hurried sickness, a behavior pattern in which a person feels chronically short of time and

so tends to perform every task faster and to get flustered when encountering any kind

of delay.

It's a chronic sense of rushing.

For example, you're on your way to lunch today, you turn right and get to halfway boulevard

and as you pull up, you see the light is turning red.

Quickly your mind goes to which lane has the less cars so I can get in said lane so I can

get through the light faster and go get my lunch.

Or you're at Walmart or Martins or Sam's or Foodline, wherever you shop.

And as you're going to the self checkout lines, because we all know that the employee checkout

lines are way too long, you're looking for a self checkout line that is empty so you

can get everything done quicker and get home and do what you need to get done.

Feeling irritable and frustrated at things that shouldn't be frustrating you because

our minds won't slow down.

When we're with loved ones, we miss out on moments because we are looking down at our

phones.

Exercise, Chris, healthy eating, who has time for that?

Basic spiritual needs like prayer, meditation and reading the Bible, they're the first things

that go.

And therein lies the problem with hurry.

I don't have time for it.

You don't make time for it.

Because it's in those basic spiritual needs is where we connect to our source, John 15

or remain in me, and I'll remain in you.

For a branch cannot produce fruit is severed from the vine and you cannot be fruitful unless

you remain in me.

Now Jesus, we all know this walked everywhere and the average human being walks three miles

an hour.

Therefore, love moves about three miles an hour, because God is love.

And he walks three miles an hour.

Are we willing to slow our lives down and be open to the moments that God presents for

us?

Not this month, not this year, this week, today, in the next three hours.

Corey Den Boom writes, if the devil can't make you sin, he will make you busy because

sin and hurry have the same impact on your spirit.

They both cut off your connection with God.

Are you willing to put down roots and grow your relationship with Jesus that will then

produce life changing moments that all of us are searching for?

See life, and we all know this is in the roots.

It's in the presence of God that is available where?

Right here.

Right now.

Which leads us to our final thought.

Distracted by deceit.

The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God's word, but all too quickly

the message is crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, so no fruit

is produced.

Worries and wealth.

Something begins to grow.

There's so much potential, but it's the worries and the wealth that have so much in common.

Both distract us.

Both deceive us.

Both have a way of controlling our minds and the devil can suffocate the next season of

our lives by simply making us believe something is true.

Here I say conspiracy theories.

The fears, the worries of this world.

I know my husband is going to cheat on me, my dad cheated on my mom, even though my husband

is not my dad.

Just saying.

The devil can literally suffocate a beautiful season that God wants to write in your life

just with worry and doubt.

Phrases like the best is behind me.

The world would be better if I wasn't here.

Nothing good happens to me anyway.

So why even try?

For so many Jesus followers, they don't know how to discern the voice of our enemy from

the voice of God.

And let me give you a few pointers.

God's voice will always direct and protect.

The enemy's voice will doom, distract and destroy.

God uses conviction to push us forward while the enemy uses condemnation to pull us down.

God will sometimes speak warning.

Everyone say warning.

To us.

But he will never create worry in us.

Warning yes, worry no.

He speaks his promises to strengthen our faith.

But what does the enemy use?

Lies to paralyze us.

The worries of this world, the wealth of this world distracts us from the very moments that

God promises.

And we miss out on the fruit.

And you say, Chris, what's the fruit?

Well, Galatians five.

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Wouldn't life be so much better if we were eating that fruit every single day?

This is what our spirits long for.

But yet within our culture, people want to buy their happiness.

I need a new pair of shoes.

I need a new purse.

I need a new hairstyle.

But in that happiness, you won't find the fruit of the Spirit.

But when we fix our focus on forever and begin to live and give with a focus on eternity,

that's when we begin to store up for ourselves 30, 60, 100 times the treasure that God promises

for us in heaven.

This is when we take hold of the kingdom fortune.

We walk in the promises that God gives us each and every day.

God, he's scattering good seed right now in our lives.

But if that seed gets choked out by the worries and cares or riches of this world, we're not

going to walk in all that God has for us today or this week.

Don't stop a seed.

Grab ahold of it.

Allow it to grow.

Get it in the soil.

Allow it to take root.

And what's it going to produce in our lives?

Fruit.

It's going to produce abundance.

We will walk in that fertile soil that all of us want to walk in, which leads us to our

action steps, producing a bountiful harvest.

Listen to Matthew 13, 23.

The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God's

word and produce a harvest of 30, 60, or even 100 times as much has been planted.

Four simple steps in walking out these truths.

Number one, resist the seed that fell among the thorns represent those who hear God's

word like today.

But all too quickly, the message is crowded out by the social media, Instagram worries

of this life.

The lure of wealth to no fruit is produced.

What are the worries?

The anxiety, simple anxieties that we find in life over how are the bills going to get

paid?

There's no sun.

Chris, where did the sun go?

It's been raining for a week and it's going to rain another week.

Hey, the sun's still there.

I promise it's still there.

And if you look hard enough, you'll see it and you'll experience it.

Well, Chris, I need a new pair of shoes.

Well, Chris, you know, what about that vacation that's promised to me on my newsfeed because

I'm on social media and they heard me talking about my frustration of never having a break

and suddenly Carnival Cruise Lines are on my phone and I want to go.

They listen to you.

That's not a conspiracy theory.

Your microphone's always on.

The direction, excuse me, the distractions that pull us away from abundance like this.

I saw this just a few weeks ago.

Choosing to respond to a text or surfing on social media while your son or daughter is

swinging his or her bat during a t ball practice.

They connect for the first time.

They're excited.

Chris is yelling, run, run.

And they take off running down first base line and they get to the first base and they're

happy and they look up to see mom or dad's eyes.

Only to see the top of their head.

How would that make you feel?

I know it broke my heart because I know that kid may never play t ball again because they

feel like they're not important.

They're forgotten and now fear has entered their life.

The anxiety becomes overwhelming those of you that struggle in our attempts to live

life in our own strength.

You're not in control.

We're not in control.

And when we try to be in control, we miss the opportunities presented to us, those God

given moments for our own family, for others.

They're available.

But we've got to eliminate the distractions.

And when it comes to wealth, I thought back this week, it was probably 2007.

We've been planting a church for about 18 months now.

In 2007, for those of you who don't know, we were at E. Russell Hicks Middle School.

And we had a little white trailer that we still use.

And Chris was the only one that could unload it and load it because I played Tetris every

single Sunday.

I was the only person that could fit all the equipment in every nook and cranny because

if I didn't do it, it wouldn't fit because this trailer was literally packed and we would

show up at seven in the morning and we would set up sound equipment and we would practice

and we would set up kids rooms and we would pick up dirty old smelly French fries and

we would serve and serve and serve.

And then at 10 o'clock we'd have church.

And then about 1130, we'd pray for a bunch of people.

And then guess what we had to do?

Tear it all down.

And it was about two or two thirty in the afternoon that we were finally heading back

home.

And it was in that season that someone invited me to lunch.

A wealthy individual from our community.

He sat down across from me and looked me in the eyes and he said, what if I had the ability

to give you your own church building?

I said, oh, tell me more.

I have the ability to give you your own church building.

You can come and pastor our church.

I love your energy.

I love all that you bring and and your service this past Sunday was impactful to me.

And just think we can grow this church and it will flourish and prosper.

I said, oh, tell me more.

You can't be a vineyard if you're going to come pastor this church.

You bring your church to us and you become a church of Christ, to which I kindly slid

a very significant check back across the table and said, no, thank you.

God has called us to reach people that typically don't go to church.

And you know what's going to happen within a year?

Within a year, I'm going to step on your toes and you're going to fire me because you don't

like what I'm teaching.

And I walked away.

And as I walked away, please understand.

He said, hey, the offers on the table anytime you want to call.

I thought about that for a few weeks because it would have been real easy.

But God said, no, we have to resist.

The seed that fell on Goodsoul, Matthew 13 23 represents those who truly hear and understand

God's word.

Don't be distracted.

Don't be pulled in different directions.

Think horses.

Think horses.

Which leads us to our next step.

Not only do we resist, but we endure the seed that fell on Goodsoul represents those who

truly hear and understand God's word.

See those who receive and respond to the good news are changed forever.

I've seen it and been experiencing it for the past 19 years.

And then suddenly in your excitement, you're giving out invite cards, you're welcoming

people, you're telling people about Sunday morning matinee.

You got to come see these movies, man.

It will blow your mind.

And life change happens and people are giving their lives to Jesus and families are being

transformed.

And it's in those times of sharing those seasons of growth that we experience difficulties

in persecution.

Because when we go in the offensive against the enemy, guess what?

He's going to fight back.

And I'm thankful to lead a church that invites people and thankful to lead a church that

we see hundreds, everyone say hundreds of people baptized every single year.

So, yes, we're going on the offensive, but you got to endure because Romans five tells

us we can rejoice too.

When we run into problems and trials, we know that they help us develop endurance and endurance

develops strength of character and character strengthens a confident hope of salvation.

So the next time you're struggling, the next time you're overwhelmed and you feel like

the enemy is just coming at you with all his force, be joyful, be joyful, because if you're

joyful, it defeats the power he has over you.

And you're walking in what a fruit of the spirit, which leads us to our third step church.

You got to take risks.

The seed that fell on good.

So I'll represent those who truly hear and understand God's word and produce arms of

30 60 even a hundred times as much as been planted.

Now listen to the definition of the word produced cause to cause a particular result or situation

to happen or come into existence.

Jesus approached life every single day by taking risks.

He was constantly interrupted by the needs of others.

How do I know this?

Read the gospels.

In John chapter five, Jesus freely allows his Sabbath to be interrupted by a man who

needs healing.

And then when he's asked the question, why didn't you live out or walk out your Sabbath?

He says this in verse 17, my father is always working.

And so am I.

My father is always working.

And so am I.

In other words, Jesus recognizes that his father is always at work around him.

And sometimes the father will invite him into be doing something special.

And Jesus was ready to respond just this past Friday.

Right?

My kids wanted to go football game.

We took him to a football game and they were at the football game and just says, let's

go on a date.

So we went out to eat.

Right?

We went out to eat everywhere we went, everywhere we went from eating to picking up Crumpies

Doughnuts to the next stop.

Someone knew us.

It was a date, Harun.

And she's celebrating that everybody knew us.

So now I know I got to leave the state to go on a date.

Chances are that if I go leave and leave the state, someone's going to know me.

Heck, I went to an Orioles game and ran into three people from church a couple Thursdays

ago.

Everywhere I go, someone knows me.

Right?

I'm just his friend started dating someone.

Oh, I know him.

Suddenly you get on YouTube.

Everybody knows you.

I don't even want to be known.

My point is I was driving home from said date.

I looked at Jess and I said, I thought we were going on a date and we ended up working

all night.

But that's just a part of living for God's kingdom.

When opportunities arise, you got to be willing to serve.

You got to be willing to pray for you.

You got to be willing to walk out of the restaurant and make a phone call and encourage someone

that was struggling.

It's just a part of being in relationship with him.

We've got to take risks.

Who have you invited to our community of faith that needs to hear the good news about Jesus?

Which leads us to our final step.

When they do come, we celebrate the seed that fell on goods.

So represents those who truly hear and understand God's word and produce the harvest of 36 or

even a hundred times as much as been planted.

God produces a harvest in our very lives because the lives of others are changed.

Church God is calling us to live in the moment to put down our phones, to not be so distracted

so that we are creating those defining moments for our lives and that other people are being

impacted through us.

Eliminate the distractions and be used by the Holy Spirit.