Fruit Under Pressure | Pastor Ashley Garza

In Luke 1031 to 33, it says now by chance a certain priest came

down the road and when he saw him he passed by on the other

side. Likewise A Levite when he

arrived at the place came look and pass by on the other side.

But a certain Samaritan as he journeyed, came where he was and

we saw. When he saw him he had

compassion. I have over the scripture.

What motivates you? A lot of us can walk around

doing the exact same thing as the person next to us, but how

many of you know the motivation behind why we do can be vastly

different? Can I get a Amen?

We all have a lot of things that God has called us to do, but the

reasons behind why we do what we do?

I want to talk to you about those reasons this morning

because those reasons actually matter.

Now, if you're operating through the Old Testament mindset, you

can just go along doing what God has asked you to do and just

kind of operate like a robot, like beep bop, boop, bop.

I'm just going to do what God has asked me to do.

But when you move on to the New Testament, the New Testament, I

love almost every story of Jesus when he's walking through and

he's helping people and he's reaching out to the people, it

says, and he was moved with compassion.

When we read the story about the Good Samaritan, it says he

looked upon the man laying on the ground and it says and he

had compassion. We have to understand that we

all can do the same thing, but the motivation behind why we do

what we do matters. It may not start out as a right

motivation. You know what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about children. I have to tell my kids what they

have to do, right? They don't really understand.

Everything that they think I'm doing is a punishment.

Go brush your teeth. It's a punishment.

Go take a shower. We want to smell good.

It's a punishment, right? So they're doing it because

they're operating out of rules. But eventually they're going to

grow up and they're going to be like, oh man, I do want to have

fresh breath. Obvious thing, right?

Oh man, I don't want my teeth to fall out.

Well, I do actually want to smell good so people aren't away

from me at school, right? We have to understand the reason

behind why we do what we do actually matters.

I want to use a situation that happened this past week with one

of my children to kind of break it down for us and and talk

about this reason. So the school that my kids go

to, the school that my kids go to, I won't get into all of the

details about this school, but they have a lot of different

rules that the kids have to follow.

And and my kids, if you've ever met my children are pretty like

free spirited. I don't know where they get it

from, but so they have these things called demerits.

And if you do something wrong, you get this e-mail that's like

confidential with like all these stars next to it.

And it's like secret, top secret information about your child,

right? And you don't want one of those

emails. I can promise you that.

So this past week, I was sitting in car line, just minding my own

business, sitting in car line, just chilling, wait for my kids

to come out. And I just randomly happened to

check my e-mail and I have all the stars and it says

confidential. And I'm like, Oh my God, like,

just to add, you know, another thing to my day, to my week or,

you know, you get in those moves, right?

And I open it and I'm like, who cares about all these words that

are written here? I just want to get to the point

of what happened. And it's like your daughter got

out of her seat when she wasn't asked to and brought me a pencil

even when I didn't ask her to do it.

And I was just like fuming. I screenshot the e-mail and I

send it to Mike with a bunch of those faces with like, steam

coming out of their nose. And I'm like, and then I I was

like, maybe I should read this e-mail again.

And I go to the bottom and it was a merit.

So I text Mike wrong emoji and then I sent a bunch.

So my kids get in the car and I'm just like, well, actually

the teacher who sent the e-mail, she stops by and she's like, you

got to ask Layout all about her day today.

I am just so proud of your kids. They are so kind all the time.

I had to catch this one. So Layout comes in the car and

she has a little certificate and it says character catcher on it

and then explains the situation. And I'm like, my mom's heart is

just like, I'm crying. Not really crying, but you know,

I'm like so happy for her to be caught in the action of being

kind and displaying such awesome character.

So it prompts the conversation, what are my boys?

Well, what did she get? What what happened?

I want to know, right? And I'm like, she was caught in

action. She has character because she

showed kindness to the teacher without the teacher even having

to ask. And they're like, well, what did

she get? I'm like this paper right here,

it says character catcher and they're like off paper.

I thought she was going to get like extra recess.

So I'm like, wow, this is the perfect example because I

already know what I was talking about when this situation

happened. I'm like, this is exactly what

I'm talking about, right? She did it out of the kindness

of her heart. She was not doing it because she

was going to earn a piece of candy or earn an extra recess.

She had the motivation in her heart.

I want to bless my teacher. So I'm just going to do it.

And it's funny because I use this story and you're like, oh,

I would never be like your boys. As an adult, we are so many

times do we look at the person laying on the road and it's like

no one's around. I'm just going to, you know, one

thing that I got from my mom, she always is picking up trash.

And as a child, I was just like, do we literally have to stop the

car right here to pick up this cigarette?

But that's disgusting, right? And now this is me.

I know I'm supposed to pick it. Like, I want to step over it,

but I know I need to pick it up right 'cause she instilled that

in me. So I'm talking about just

picking up trash and getting caught in the, the act of

kindness of blessing a teacher. But this is serious stuff here,

the situation that we're talking about.

And this isn't like, you know, you might not be just, I'm not

talking about just a man who's beaten half to death that you're

stepped over. But how many times do we as

Christians just step over the situation because we don't want

to deal with it, because no one's there to witness it,

right? The definition of compassion is

a sympathetic consciousness of others distress together with

the desire to alleviate it. We need to be moved with

compassion, which means you don't just have this sympathetic

consciousness of their pain or this sympathetic consciousness

of their distress, but you're filled with a desire to

alleviate it. How crazy is that?

I think about the priest, right? Man's laying on the ground.

Priest is pilot. Oh my gosh, man, that's

horrible, right? The Levite walks there and he's

like, Oh my gosh, what did they do to him?

We all think we're going to be the Good Samaritan, but how many

times does God present us with an opportunity and we are filled

with the sympathetic consciousness of others

distress, but we don't have a desire to alleviate it.

We have to be moved with compassion.

Jesus was moved with compassion, so we need to be moved with

compassion. And Luke 1034 to 35, it says.

So the Good Samaritan, he went to him, he bandaged his wounds,

pouring on oil and wine, and he set him on his own animal,

brought him to an inn and took care of him.

On the next day when he departed, he took out two

Denari, gave it to the innkeeper and said to him, take care of

him. And whatever more you spend,

when I come again, I will repay you.

Did you know that in this time the Samaritan, the Good

Samaritan that this story is about, would have been someone

that people would have passed over because in this time it

says a certain man was travelling to Jerusalem?

This points to the fact that it was probably a Jew, and the

priest who stepped over him was a Jew, and the Levite who

stepped over him was a Jew. But at this time, the Jews did

not associate themselves with the Samaritans.

They had a long history of animosity.

So to this day, at this point in time, they did not associate

themselves with each other. So the Good Samaritan was

looking at a man who's laying on the ground half dead, and he

knows this guy would have stepped over me, but he decided

to be moved with compassion and to put his love into action,

right? I, I just think this is the most

interesting part of this story here, that God was telling a

story of compassion with that desire to alleviate it.

But it's also about love. A lot of times you hear people

say that love is not a noun, it's a verb.

And we have to live by that because God doesn't want to just

like, Oh, I love you. He wants us to put our love into

action. And that's what this Good

Samaritan did. And this story he says, love

your neighbor as yourself, love your neighbor as yourself.

I, I think that that is very, that's a very difficult

statement to try to explain to someone with words.

And I believe Jesus thought the same thing.

How do I explain this to people? Love your neighbor as yourself.

We love ourselves a lot. If you're if you woke up in the

morning and brush your teeth, you'll love yourself.

If you woke up in the morning and got out of bed, you love

yourself. If you ate some bread, if you

drink coffee, you love yourself, right?

We love ourselves in the Bible's now calling us to love your

neighbor as yourself. This is a crazy, crazy statement

to make. So God says I'm not going to.

Jesus says when he's here explaining it, He says I'm not

just going to explain this in words, but I'm going to create a

story for you. See love in action.

Love does not consider the worth of its object, but it simply

responds to the human need. How many times when we are

supposed to show love to someone or something or a situation, do

we consider the worth before we decide if we're going to show

love to that person, before we decide if we're going to give

love to that situation? I love that love does not

consider the worth of the object, but it simply responds

to the human need. Can you imagine if that is what

moved us, if we saw a human need and said God has called me to be

the hands and feet, God has called me to help alleviate

their pain and their distress. See, it starts again with the

sympathy of others, distress and that desire to alleviate, but we

have to move on to action. I love the Bible, I love the

Bible, I love reading the Bible. I love how it's a very revelant,

relevant word and I love how there's so many cross references

because you're not just taking out one thing and saying, how

does this work? It's like you can like, it's

like you can like bounce back and forth.

I've have you ever seen a picture?

It's a picture of a Bible. Whoa, sitting open like this and

it shows all the no, no one has ever seen the picture I'm

talking about. Look it up when you leave here.

It's a great photo. It shows all these cross

references and what I love about this is because when you just

look at the story of the Good Samaritan for face value, you

read it and it's like, oh, that's a great story.

I shouldn't pass people over, but I love because it talks

about the oil and the wine. Why did it talk about the oil in

the wine? Why did it say that He went up

to this man and he poured oil and wine on him?

Oil in the Bible is the anointing, showing mercy and

care for the wounded. Pastor Lauren's been talking

about this new wine. We have a new wine that God

wants to fill us with. And do you know what the new

wine is? It's taking the fruits of the

Spirit, Lovejoy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.

And it's putting those fruits under pressure.

The priest and the Levite, they may have looked on him and

thought, man, I just pray God that you heal him.

They weren't willing in that moment to allow their fruit to

be put under pressure. They weren't allowed to allow

because when our fruit is put under pressure, that means you

have to have a situation in your life where you feel that

pressure. When he saw that man laying on

the ground and he was filled with compassion, he was able to

say, you know what? Who knows where that man was

going? We don't know if he was running

late for something. You don't know if someone was

expecting him to be somewhere. But he said I'm going to stop

whatever it is I'm doing and I'm going to allow my fruit to be

put under pressure in this moment and love my neighbor as

myself. I was laying in bed with my

children last night. We had an insanely crazy day.

Yes, it's always it's kids. It's crazy day, right?

Mine's no more crazier than yours.

However, I allowed my crazy day to get to me and I'm laying in

bed with my kids and I'm like, I always, if you know me, I always

talk about the fruits of the Spirit.

I'm like God's working patience in me.

And last night God showed me something.

He said I'm working gentleness in you.

And I'm like, I'm not physical. I'm not talking about I haven't

given physical with my kids, although I want to sometimes,

but he said, but God was like I'm I'm putting your fruit under

pressure and it's the gentleness that I want to work with you and

it doesn't feel good stopping in that moment for that man laying

on the ground may have been an inconvenience.

It may not have came at an opportune time, but when our

fruit when we allow our fruit to be put under pressure, we're

responding to that human need and it produces is the new wine.

God has says you cannot put new wine and old wineskins.

He's calling us to a time to pour out that new wine on other

people. What does it mean We're not just

praying for them, but we're putting it into action How many

times I will pray for you. I'm not the only one you said

I'll pray for you. Time goes by and they're like

thank you for praying me. You're like, you're welcome.

Y'all are laughing because you've been there before.

This new wine isn't one that just says something, but it does

something and it allows us to be put under pressure so we can

produce that new wine to pour out as a drink offering to the

people that God is asking us to pour that drink offering out too

in Luke 1029. I mean, I think this entire

parable is about this man. The parable is called the Good

Samaritan. But man, this lawyer something

else. But the lawyer wanting to

justify himself said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor?

What a statement, what a statement.

All right, love my neighbor as myself.

Who's my neighbor? Because if they're not my

neighbor, I'm not going to love them.

They're not my labour not loving them.

They're not my labour neighbor. I'm not loving them.

How many times do we as Christian, we want to know who?

Who must I reach out to? Who do I have to reach out to?

Because if it's not that person, I ain't doing it because I got

something else to do. I have over the scripture, what

do I have to do? How many times do we have this

mindset of Lord, what is it that I have to do?

What are you expecting of me? What are you requiring of me?

In the very beginning of this parable it says what do I have

to do to inherit eternal life? He was seeing, so I say short

sighted, but he was singing with such a small glimpse into what

God has called us to do and who God has called us to be.

If we're just having the motivation of why we do what we

do. And it's just to get that jewel

on your crown when you get to heaven.

I mean, you can live by this. I'll do it if I have to.

God hasn't called us to live life doing it because we have

to. I love at a very young age here

at church. I'm, I'm pretty sure sorry

because of my mom. I don't know, but I learned from

my mom. But we do it here at church with

our kids. We don't have to go to church.

We y'all know it. You get to go to church this

morning. I like to wake my kids up.

I turn the light on in the hallway so I can they can just

kind of like ease into waking up right?

Because I'm that nice of a mom. So I turn the light on and I go

back to my room and Asher's like, I don't want to go to

school. I was like, bro, it's Sunday.

We're not going to school today, We're going to church.

And he goes, yay. And he jumps out of bed and runs

to the bathroom. He's like, I'm ready to go

Because I have instilled inside of him we don't have to go to

church. We get to go to church.

Amen. We don't have to stop to help

the man, we get to stop and help the man.

We don't have to have our fruit under pressure.

We get to because then it produces inside of us.

Not that just we get blessed, but we become a blessing to

other people. Yes, Amen.

We have to get beyond this place that says, do I have to?

I remember my mom when I was younger, she says, if I say

jump, you don't say why, you say how high and I'm I'm like, yes,

this is it. How many times when God asks us

to do something? Well, why my children, children,

why every single time I say to do something, they know the

answer. Why?

Why? My children, the ones who drink

milk, are able to say why. My children who are still

immature, they're able to say why do I have to do that?

But God has not called us to remain as infants.

He's called us to grow on to maturity so that we can eat

meat. So we're not asking why or why

do I have to or how far do I have to go or who do I have to

reach out to? How many people God do I have to

be kind to this week? Because once I hit my quota, I'm

done. You may feel like that, right?

But we got to get to the heart of why we do what we do.

What if we ask the question, how much can I give versus how much

do I have to give? Do I have to give of my time?

Do I have to give of my talents? Do I have to give money?

Do I have to sign up for this event?

What if he said, man, I get to give my time, I get to give my

talents, I get to give my money. I get to go to the man.

Your church has so many events, man, my church has so many

events. How many times?

I'm so busy. We're all busy doing the things

of the Lord. That's not a burden.

That's a joy that we get to do church.

We have to get beyond the why do I have to do it or what do I

have to do to say, Lord, you've created me for such a time as

this. I get to be your hands in your

feet to the people in need. Amen.

In Mark 410 to 12 it says, But when he was alone, those around

him with the 12 asked him about the parable, and he said to

them, To you it has been given to know the mystery of the

Kingdom of God. But to those who are outside,

all things come in parables, so that seeing they may see and not

perceive, and hearing they may hear not understand, lest they

should turn and their sins be forgiven them.

Jesus taught in parables to make the spiritual truth clear to the

hearers and put in a form easily remembered and easily

understood. In this scripture right here is

talking about spiritual perception.

The lawyer from the parable, who is my neighbor, he was not

operating with spiritual perception.

He was operating as we call out of a natural side or the natural

tendency. He was saying, well, I don't

want to have to do too much, so just lay it out plain for me.

Who's my neighbor? And then Jesus goes on to tell a

story of compassion, to tell a story of love, to tell a story

of mercy, all these different things.

The lawyer had a outside perspective.

He was looking for the natural or the legalistic, the wrong,

the right, the good, the bad, the left, the right, all these

different things. He wanted to know the rules and

the laws. As kids, you have to teach them

the rules and the laws so they understand the boundaries as

children and they don't go outside of those boundaries.

But the New Testament is teaching us something else.

It's teaching us about a spiritual perspective.

We have so many talks that Pastor Lauren, I swear, has been

talking about this for as long as I can remember about having a

Kingdom perspective, having a perspective that sees from up

here. Yet I still have people coming

to me and saying like, well, what about this and that?

And I said, God doesn't want us to think about this and that

anymore. He wants us to see from here

because if we constantly try to see from this or that, we're

always going to be in this constant state of tug and warm.

Like, what am I supposed to think?

I can tell you what you're supposed to think with the word

of the Lord, right? God wants us to operate with a

spiritual perspective. We can't see the man laying on

the ground and operate from a natural perspective.

We have to see the man on the ground.

We have to see the situations that God has called for each and

every one of us with a spiritual perspective.

But what I love about a spiritual perspective is God has

called every single one of us to do something different.

Can I get Amen. I was not created the same way

that you were created and you were not created the same way as

the person next to you is created.

A lot of times as Christians, we box ourselves in and we box the

body of Christ in and we kind of look at it for if I have a need

for this, you should have a need for this.

If I think that this is important, you think that this

is important. God's word is truth.

Everything else is just opinion, but God places things on our

hearts when we have a spiritual perspective.

One thing that I find interesting is the way that God

convicts certain people of different things.

And I've had so many conversations with people where

they've had a conviction that is different than my conviction.

Now, if it's in the Bible, I'm not talking about the things

that like, oh, well, do you know that God says I don't need to

love? OK, God says love your loving.

I'm not talking about that stuff.

I'm talking about the other stuff.

All right. When God places something on

your heart, you have to have the spiritual perspective to hear

and know what God is placing on your heart.

There, there was this book. Everyone love this book.

So I'm like, I'm going to buy this book.

And I mean, I, when I say everyone, I'm like, I feel like

everyone was loving this book and I'm just like, I got to read

this book and I open up this book.

I'm not talking about the Bible. And I open up this book and I'm

like, what are these people reading?

This is absolute trash, right? And immediately God placed a

conviction on my heart. I don't care if anyone else is

reading this book. You're not reading this book.

And I'm like, yes, so I follow this girl on Instagram who, you

know, because I like romance. I won't get into the details,

but I like reading romance, but I'm not interested in reading

about that. Right?

OK, that's a conviction that God placed on my heart.

That was something that the Bible doesn't say.

If there's this in the in the book that you're reading, then,

right? It was something that I had to

allow God to speak to my heart, to show me what it is that he

placed on my heart to give me spiritual perception.

Our convictions will all be different.

The people that you're called to may be different than the people

that I'm called to. The thing or situation that

you're called to may be different than the thing or

situation that I'm called to. That's why we have to be so in

tune with the Holy Spirit. We have to get to the motivation

behind why we do what we do. You know, in the scripture, it

talks about the mystery. It says something formerly

hidden but now revealed, which people cannot understand except

with divine revelation. Our spiritual perception is

divine revelation. This is something people could

never know by their own understanding.

Some things that God's speaking to us are not going to make

sense from a natural perspective, but it will make

sense with a spiritual perception.

So we have to have this revelation given to us by God.

These are the understandings that are revealed to believers.

This is not something that God is trying to hide from you.

We have to be able with spiritual perception to see a

need, because how can we meet a need if we don't see the need?

In the Scripture it says seeing they shall see and not perceive,

and hearing they shall hear and not understand.

This means those who have shut their eyes and ears to truth are

not going to understand the significance of what they are

seeing and hearing. And I don't know about you, but

I don't want to miss out on that.

I don't want to have my ears shut and my my eyes closed to

not be able to see the things that God is trying to show me.

I want to operate out of spiritual perception so I can

see what it is that God's calling me to.

But I want to go to Psalms 95, eight to seven.

It says today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden.

Your heart is in the rebellion, is in the day of the trial, in

the wilderness. When your father's tested me,

they tried me, though they saw my work for 40 years.

I was grieved with that generation and said it is a

people who go astray in their hearts.

They do not know my ways. They do not know my ways because

they went astray in their hearts.

We have to understand that to get our spiritual perspective

and our spiritual perception. It's all about the heart.

Compassion comes from the heart, Love comes from the heart, Mercy

comes from the heart. All of these things that the

story is talking to us about comes back to our heart.

And in here in this story, the lawyer was operating out of this

legalistic mindset. And if we're operating out of

the natural, we can never be motivated by the spiritual.

His heart was not engaged. If we want to have spiritual

perception, our hearts have to be engaged.

That's why the texture of your heart matters.

In your heart matters, the hardness of your heart.

If you want to see God's ways, you cannot have a heart heart.

If you want to see God's ways, you can't have roots of

bitterness springing up inside of your heart and causing you

spiritual blindness. I've.

Mentioned the story before. There was a time that I always

say I don't get offended very easily and I was talking to

Pastor Lauren about this situation.

He's like, you're offended. I was like, I am not offended.

You are offended he. Said and I had to take a real

good look at my heart to see that offense.

You want to know why? Because of that situation that I

had offense in with someone, I couldn't see this person the way

that God had called me to see this person because I now had

spiritual blindness to this person.

How many of you know they say hurt people hurt people.

You've heard that hurt people hurt people, But I didn't see

this person as someone who is hurting because I had an offence

in my heart where God wanted me to see this person with

compassion, with love, and with mercy.

But all I was concerned about is them hurting me and my offence.

Now that was only impacting my spiritual perception, right?

I'm we missed out on opportunity because I allowed offense in my

heart? How many times do we miss out on

opportunities because you are offended, because you are hurt,

because you have bitterness and you can no longer operate out of

a spiritual perception because now you have spiritual

blindness? How can we meet the need if our

hearts can't see the need? We have to understand that the

condition of our heart matters. In Colossians 19 to 12, it says,

for this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not

cease to pray for you and to ask you that you may be filled with

the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual

understanding, that you may walk worthy of the Lord fully.

Pleasing to Him, being fruitful and every good work and

increasing, and the knowledge of God strengthened with all might

according to His glorious power for all patience and

long-suffering with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has

qualified us to be what partakers in the inheritance of

the Saints of the light. This is what we need.

This is the Scripture that we need.

It says we need spiritual perception and perspective.

It says we need knowledge, we need spiritual understanding

that we may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him.

I don't know about you, but I want to be fully pleasing to

Him. Amen.

I don't want to just do things because like I said earlier, I

got a jewel on my crown. When I get to heaven, man, I

want like the full thing, right? But we're not doing that because

of that. We're doing it because we've

allowed God to work in our heart so much that we have a spiritual

perspective to see the way God wants us to see.

And then it says, why? Why do we do all these things?

To be fruitful, to be strengthened, and to be

partakers of your inheritance if you want to receive your

inheritance. Because we are called to be the

sons of God. Amen.

And he says when you are sons you become heirs and you have an

inheritance. But we cannot get to that place

if we don't allow God to work in our hearts.

In Luke 1036 to 37 it says so which of these three do you

think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?

And the lawyer said he who showed mercy on him.

And Jesus said to him, Go and do what?

Likewise, mercy is God's compassionate, unearned kindness

that withholds deserved punishment, and it forgives sins

and alleviates suffering. The Good Samaritan.

Back to the story of the Good Samaritan.

How many times are we? Treated poorly.

And we kind of allow. Something to spring up inside of

our heart because we were treated poorly and because that

something starts moving in our heart.

We want to treat the other person.

Poorly. Right, the good.

Samaritan, years of animosity between the two and this guy

laying on the ground. In a natural sense, you deserve

that. You deserve to be where you are

at from the perspective of a Samaritan.

But he didn't operate in that perspective or that perception,

But he allowed his heart to get to the place with God that he

had a spiritual perspective and he was able to operate out of

compassion, operate out of love and out of mercy.

Someone who may have deserved that and he could have easily

just slid on by. They would expect the Good

Samaritan to just move on by. But he said, I'm not going to do

that because I'm not operating out of the natural, but I'm

operating out of the spiritual, out of the what I know that God

has called me too. How many times do we try to

justify why we don't do what we should?

Do We have justification for treating people poorly?

If you talk to my children, they always have justification.

I call it excuses. And I'm not trying to be hard

this morning. But that's the reality of.

It. We get to the place where we.

Want to justify why we didn't do what God had placed right in

front of us? God, I'm on my way.

To do something else. God didn't ask you to do that

something else. He asked you to do that.

God, it's. It's inconvenient.

Or I don't have the tools or I'm not the right person for the

job. He says, yes, you are.

If I've called you to do it, I'm going to qualify you to do it.

God's going to give us everything that we have need of

to do what he's called us to do. Don't justify or have excuses

for why you can't do it. And maybe today you feel like

I'm the person laying on the ground this whole time you're

thinking I, I'm the, I'm the man laying on the ground who feels

beaten, who feels. Broken.

Who feels that they have robbed me of everything that I have and

you feel justified to not go out and be the hands of feet of

Jesus because you feel like that you're that person on the

ground. But God hasn't called us to live

in this victim mentality or victim mindset that says, well,

until everyone else does what they're supposed to do and I'm

right, I'm righted for this wrong that I have inside of me,

I can't be the hands and feet of Jesus.

There's no time like right now to be his hands and feet.

Don't come up with justifications.

Don't come up with excuses for why you can't, but allow God to

work in your heart. So when people see you, they're

like Cassie, man, She was moved with compassion.

Jeannie, she was moved with compassion.

Fill your name in the blank. They were moved with compassion.

I want that. I want that for myself.

God wants that for each and everyone of us.

If we can allow our hearts to get to the place that says God,

soften my heart. Do whatever it is that you need

to do inside of my heart so I can be moved with compassion, so

I can be filled with love, so I can put my love into action and

allow the fruits of the Spirit not only to be developed inside

of me, but Lord, I willingly, I get to have this fruit put under

pressure to produce this new wine that God, we know that

you're calling for the body of Christ.

Lord, you are so good. God, you are so worthy, Lord,

and we know that you have a call for each and everyone of every

single person who has walked in these doors.

Lord, you have called, you have chosen, and you will equip us

for whatever it is that you have for each and everyone of us.

Lord, we just thank you, God. Lord, I pray for every heart in

here who feels like they've been filled with bitterness, hurt,

shame, doubt, A hardness of heart that's caused spiritual

blindness. God, deal with our hearts.

Lord, deal with our hearts. This is Pastor Lauren Coburbius.

From Mount Zion Church, we thank you for joining us today and

invite you to connect with our church family by visiting

mountzion.org and following us on social media.

God bless you.