The Law of the Farm

All right.

So open up your Bible to Luke chapter 8.

Luke 8 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 8.

Luke 8 · chapter mention

We're going to look at what I believe is one of the most important parables that Jesus ever taught.

And it's important for a lot of reasons.

It's important because Jesus gives us some inside kingdom knowledge here that he doesn't in many other places.

And Luke chapter 8 is an interesting parable because this is one of the many parables that Jesus taught to the crowd and then later explained more fully to the twelve disciples.

Luke 8 · chapter mention

And if you look in Luke chapter 8, I think around verse 4, it says there that he spoke this to the multitudes.

Luke 8 · chapter mention

A very big crowd of people listened to him describe these four types of soil.

And you can read that for yourself.

And then the disciples, I can hear Peter probably, walk up to Jesus and say, hey, Jesus, boy, that was a good talk.

I'm telling you, that was really good.

Could you explain to us exactly what you meant, though?

And so Jesus in verse 11 sits down with the disciples and he goes into further detail on this parable.

And so tonight's talk has got a very simple title called The Law of the Farm.

The Law of the Farm.

You know, I think a lot of times when we read this, we say, well, of course, Jesus used farming analogies and animal analogies and ranching analogies because primarily the people who were listening to him were farmers and ranchers.

And that is true.

But I think there's a bigger reason that we often overlook about why Jesus used these kind of things.

I believe God created the soil, the seed, and the process of the harvest.

God created by his own imagination the idea of us putting a dead seed into live soil and seeing an abundant harvest come from it.

There's something that God did there, showed us there, that we need to pay attention to when we see things in nature.

And so in verse 11, Jesus goes into further explanation about the law of the farm, and he says, this is the meaning of the parable.

The seed is the word of God.

The seed is the word of God.

Now please don't ever forget that.

There is no other seed that you can plant in your life that brings any kind of eternal fruit than the word of God.

It's the only mechanism that unlocks eternal fruit is the word of God.

And those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts so that they may not believe and be saved.

Now please, can I tell you the greatest thing you can do while you're sitting in that new building in the years to come is while Pastor Robert is speaking, for you to begin to pray among yourselves quietly and just ask God, Lord, I pray as the word comes forth, as they hear the clear invitation of the gospel, that the enemy would not come and snatch away the word from those who are hearing.

And by the way, thousands of people listen to your podcast, thousands of people watch you live online.

And you need to pray, Lord, as this word is heard in the years to come by someone on a treadmill at a health club, as they're listening to a podcast.

Don't let the enemy come and steal the word away.

Lord, I pray that the word would fall deep into the soil of their heart.

I pray that all the time.

As I'm standing, even sometimes, this is pastors have this unique ability.

You know, actually I can have three or four conversations going on in my mind as I'm speaking.

Because I've saying, Lord, I can spot somebody in a crowd and I'll say to my in my mind, I'll say, Lord, I pray that this word penetrate their heart.

I pray, Lord, that they would hear this word, receive this word.

Don't let the enemy steal this word from people who are listening.

All right, let's keep reading.

Verse 13, it says, Those on the rock, which is the second type of soil, those on the rocky soil are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it.

They are the people that go, Pastor, that was awesome.

That was great.

I'm telling you, I've never heard anything like that.

That was amazing.

Thank you, Pastor.

Woo! And they're the cheer, they're cheering all the way out to the car.

But listen to what happens.

But they have no root.

They believe for a while, as long as things are easy, as long as life is good.

They believe that word, but listen to what happens.

But in the time of testing, they fall away.

So life happens.

Trauma happens.

Something happens that rattles their life, and the word that they once were really excited about suddenly has no meaning for them because they had no root.

Alright, verse 14.

And the seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, they heard the word, they listened to the word, they heard it, they hear it.

But as they go on their way, they are choked.

Now listen to the thing that they're choked.

Literally, the life is choked out of them by life's worries, riches, and pleasures.

Notice here, worries, riches, and pleasure.

Worries and pleasures.

Pleasures and worries.

You're worrying about stuff.

Stuff is causing you to worry, and listen, that's the very thing that the enemy will often use to choke out the rich seed, the word of God that God wanted to place in your heart.

Many of us are more concerned about what Steve Jobs is saying than what Jesus has said.

Stuff.

And there's a reason it's called an iPhone, an iPad.

This is not, listen, this is not, they're marketing geniuses there.

Make it about me, my stuff, my stuff, my stuff.

And listen, I have all that stuff.

I have the same stuff.

But it's not going to replace the word of God in my heart.

I have the word of God on it, by the way.

I actually use them for both reasons.

I actually, all right, never mind.

All right, verse 15, because I felt a little convicted there as I said that.

Alright, verse 15.

Now here's the part I want you to catch.

These are the people that God's trying to create at Gateway Church.

These are the kind of people that God needs at Gateway Church.

God needs an army of people who will commit to verse 15.

But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart.

Notice where it all starts.

Notice where the gospel starts.

The gospel, the central message of the Bible, is an inside out message.

Inside out.

Starts from our heart.

Listen, your mouth will always betray your heart.

Your actions will always betray your heart.

Everything starts with a thought that we believe our heart is the issue and always will be the issue.

And it says the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart who hear the word.

That's the same as the other two groups.

There's two of the, we just heard two other groups that hear the word, right?

One heard it, one heard it with joy.

Then it's this fourth group says, they hear the word.

Now notice this, retain it.

Now I'm not trying to make anybody upset, alright, because, well, actually I am.

Alright, I don't mind.

But I'm only here once or a couple times a year.

So y'all forget all this and forgive me later.

Let me tell you, let me tell you an aggravation I have as a pastor, okay?

I didn't get this word 10 minutes ago.

I've been studying this, praying over this, looking at this, praying for you.

And I and I have about 30 minutes to do it all.

But I'll tell you at New Life Church, especially in everywhere I go, if I'm if I'm speaking and I see people out in a crowd doing this, I look at them and go, in 72 hours, this is a it's a verifiable scientific fact.

In 72 hours, you will forget everything you heard tonight if you don't write it down.

Let me say that again, because that apparently didn't bring much conviction to that crowd over here.

Let me try my shame over here, okay?

See if it sticks.

In 72 hours, you're gonna you won't even remember the title.

You won't remember the key passage, much less the points, if you don't write some of this down tonight.

Gone.

Gone.

So I'm just asking, would tonight would you become, just for my benefit, so I'll sleep better tonight.

You don't have to ever do it again, but tonight, would you just write down, you can be writing down what you want to order at the restaurant.

I don't care.

It'll make me feel better if you write something down every once in a while, at least a couple of times during this talk.

It'll make me feel like that in three days, at least you'll still be thinking about it, considering what God is saying tonight through these scriptures, okay?

Alright, so by retaining it, and by not only you have to retain it, you have to be willing to persevere and by persevering produce a good crop.

Two very important things retain it and persevere.

And so tonight, what I'm gonna give you is the law of the farm.

And I know a little bit about the law of the farm because I grew up on a little farm in northwest Louisiana, in a little town called Logan Sport.

It's the place that every other redneck is required to come at least once in their life before they die.

It's the Mecca of Regnectum, right where I grew up.

I'm serious.

I'm dead serious.

Elvis is living there somewhere right now.

The so when I grew up there, my dad was an hourly worker at a poultry processing plant.

In other words, live chickens came in, dead chickens went to the supermarket at the place where he worked.

And he worked there, worked his way up from like a dock can all the way up to managing the place.

But my dad was a hard worker and my mom was a stay-at-home mom.

We lived in a house, literally, that they built with their own hands.

800 square feet house, square foot house, that mom and dad built with their own hands, a little red house.

And for us as little kids, we thought it was paradise.

And so my dad, we had four or five acres there, and a two-acre, they had about a two-acre plot out back that we planted a little garden, a big garden, actually, two acres of the big garden.

But my dad would come home after a really hard day at the poultry plant, and we didn't even have a tractor.

This is how poor we were.

My dad had a horse named Ranger, and we had a plow that he would hook up behind.

Listen, I grew up in the 70s.

I'm not describing the Great Depression here.

I'm 43 years old.

In case you're wondering, this was not that long ago.

We didn't have a tractor.

So my dad would come and put that plow behind the horse late in the spring after the thread of frost was gone, and he would break these perfectly straight rows along that real sandy soil.

It was good, it would grow anything.

But my dad would hook that plow up.

Now, let me give you a quiz, and you people in South Lake, y'all need to know this.

What I'm about to tell you is really good, rich information, all right?

Now, some of you that grew up on a farm may know this.

There's a word that you say to a horse to make him go right, and a word that you say to a horse to make him go left.

Do you might know those two words?

G-haw.

Thank you very much.

G makes a horse go right, ha makes the horse go left.

Now listen, that was worth the price of admission right there.

You're gonna be able to go back and share this with you.

This will be unbelievably good information to share, okay?

All right, so my dad and this horse, I would hear him behind this horse and he'd go, gee, ha, and he would tug a little bit with the reins, but this horse was amazing.

These perfectly straight rows would be cut right down through the middle of that little garden.

And my brother and I would walk behind my dad because when the ground was being broken up, we'd find worms and crickets, and that would be our fish bait for the next day.

So this is the memories I had growing up were these kind of things, breaking the ground.

Now, what I'm gonna share with you tonight, seriously, I believe you can build your life on this.

If you want to become a fully mature follower of Christ, this is the law you've got to follow.

You cannot skip any of the steps that I'm about to explain.

You want to build your business to glorify the kingdom and bear eternal fruit?

I'm about to give you some things that if you'll follow the law of the farm, I'm not talking about, listen, I cannot promise you stuff.

Jesus didn't promise you stuff.

Jesus did not promise you wealth, health, and skinniness.

He didn't promise you any of that.

What he said is, I need some people who will choose to be productive, not just to perform for me, not just to be performers.

I need some producers.

I need some people who will dig down deep, put their roots down deep, and persevere and bear a good fruit crop.

And this is what Jesus was telling his disciples.

And so he says, let me give you these six things real quick.

And the first one is always starts with this.

The first thing that Jesus said there was that the soil is prepared.

The first law of the farm is you cannot plant seed.

God cannot do anything significant in any of our hearts unless we have first made sure that our heart is humble and broken.

God can use a humble person, God cannot use an arrogant person.

God cannot use someone whose heart is shut down, God can use anyone whose heart is wide open.

All of me for all of him.

You want to do something dangerous, mysterious, risky, put a dent in the universe, you be a person that says, Lord, all of me for all of you.

My heart is yours.

Let your heart be broken.

Listen, throughout Scripture, our heart and soil is synonymous.

Let me show you one passage.

There's many.

Let me show you one in Hosea.

Hosea 10.

Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground.

For it's time to seek the Lord until he comes and showers righteousness on you.

He's talking about the ground of our heart being broken.

Listen, broken people can do just about anything.

In fact, I don't trust someone that's never been broken.

If I find someone who's never had gone through any kind of brokenness, their heart's never been wrecked by God, God's not ready to use them.

But you find me somebody that's walking with a little bit of a limp, God has walking through a season where their heart has been totally opened up to God, their heart is broken, I can tell you God's about to do something significant in their lives.

You gotta break up the soil.

And then the second thing happens.

The seeds are sown.

What are the seeds?

See, in our word of faith culture, we've equated seed with money, and that's not what Jesus said.

So let's get back to what Jesus said.

The seed is the word of God.

And when I in fact, when I knew when I said we're gonna talk about sowing seed, all of you thought this was a talk on money.

It's not a talk on money, it's a talk on our heart.

The seeds are sown.

Listen, anytime you hear scripture, anytime the scriptures are taught, when you hear it, that's God sowing seeds into our lives.

The Bible says that the scriptures are living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, able to divide between soul and spirit, and to reveal the motives of men's hearts.

It's a powerful, living, active thing.

And when those seeds fall on good soil, good things can happen.

Seeds are sown.

My dad, this is where we'd always get our seed at Lone Star Feed and Fertilize.

Everybody been to a lone star feed and fertilize plant?

Alright, my dad, I remember going down there, my dad would, you know, go down there, and back then they had these big old bins, these big old 55-gallon drums with seed in them.

So my dad would take one of those metal scoops and he'd scoop up.

He knew exactly how much.

He never weighed it.

He just kind of eyeballed it.

That's what his eyeball his word was.

I'm gonna eyeball it.

And so he would pour in those corn seed and okra.

Uh, we'd we'd plant a bunch of tomatoes and squash and purple hall peas.

Anybody know the difference?

That's a very that's the fruit of heaven, okay, I'm telling you.

So we'd have seven or eight rows of corn, seven or eight rows of okra squash, purple hall peas, and my dad would take us out there and he'd let us help him, and we'd put carefully placed those seeds in that broken up soil, that soil that was rich and deep and loamy and sandy, and we'd place them there along the way.

And then my mom and dad would talk incessantly about rain.

Because the third step is you gotta water the seeds.

My mom and dad would, I could hear them, it's supposed to rain today?

Are we gonna get some rain today?

I mean, it's all we talked about, it was rain.

That's all we talked about during the spring and summer was rain.

It was the top, it was the first topic in the morning, the last topic before we went, because my mom and dad knew if we get the right amount of rain on this broken soil with those really good seeds in the ground, something's gonna good's gonna happen.

We're gonna have plenty to eat through the winter.

And let me tell you what uh water is synonymous with in scripture the presence of God, the Holy Spirit.

And here's what I find about people.

And I think it's interesting that this weekend is the release of your worship CD.

And I'm not up here pitching, I think hoping about a dozen, but that's not the issue.

I challenged the men of my church to turn off political commentators on their radio and put in worship music for seven days, and it changed my men's life at New Life.

The men who did it came back to me the next week and they said, Brady, I have more joy than I've ever had.

I can't believe that I have shut my ears off to the things of worship, and instead I've been listening to the noise of the world.

And I'm gonna tell you something.

If you're not making plenty of room in your life for the presence of God, listen, you're in a church right now, there's water everywhere here.

The presence of God, a culture of worship, making a big fuss about Jesus, about getting out of the way and pointing people toward Christ, about lifting up the name of Christ in your life.

And listen, men, especially men, listen to me.

I know what I'm talking about.

I'm a political junkie, I love all that stuff, but I found I need the presence of God a lot more than the opinions of some dude on the radio.

I need the presence of God.

I need water.

And now, the rest of you charismatics, look at me, alright?

I know who you are, because I are one.

I'm not talking about the deluge that you're so crazy about.

I'm not talking about the epic deluge.

Listen, by the way, if you have that too often, you know where your garden ends up?

Downstream.

What I'm talking about, what I would long for, and I don't mind the miracle epic moment, the powerful thing that God might do among us, but what I'm most concerned about as a pastor is not the deluge.

I just wish people would live with a daily, steady, boring soaking of the Holy Spirit every day, and they'd be just fine.

It's not good in the natural to have a four or five-inch rain.

It washes things away.

People die in flash floods.

I'm talking about the slow, steady, soaking, everyday rain of God that God wants for you to have.

Instead of asking for the deluge, the flood of God, ask God, say, Lord, I'd like a good, boring, steady, misty rain on my life every day.

Because you've planted good seed in my heart.

My heart is broken before you.

Now all we need is some life-giving water.

You know, I was in Texas in, I think it was 2006 or 7001.

I can't remember the summer, but it was a drought here.

And I remember, you know, even in June, I was pouring water on my yard.

It was like$10 a gallon.

I remember that.

You know, I get my water bill and go, you know, gas is not this expensive.

And and we were um, you know, in and no matter how much water I put on my yard, because it was so hot during the day, my grass was already starting to turn brown in June.

And you know what it's gonna look like in July and August if it's brown in June.

But then we had this thunderstorm in June.

Come over, Keller.

I mean, lightning, thunder, pow, pow, and a rain just hit Keller.

It was exactly what we needed.

Well, about three days later, my yard is going nuts.

The grass is going nuts.

And so the guy, this guy that uh uh he's a landscaper.

I asked him, I said, you know, I've been pouring water out of my uh system on my grass, but man, this rain, my grass went nuts.

He said, Brady, there's a big difference between the water that comes out of your uh sprinkler system and the water that comes through a lightning storm.

When it goes through those electrical currents, it literally ionizes the water.

It does something to the nutritious health of the water.

So that water that falls through the lightning storm is much better for your grass than anything you can do on your own.

Now notice this, notice this, okay?

God, the rain from heaven can exponentially build something in your life if you would just stop trying to do it yourself.

Rain from heaven.

Water the seed.

Alright, here's the fourth part, and this is where it gets a little dicey.

The weeds are now pulled.

And you know what happened?

You broke up that soil, you planted good seed, good rain, steady, life-giving rain has come upon the soil.

Well, weeds like that as much as anything else.

Can we tell you the definition of a weed?

It's very easy.

Let me tell you what the definition of a weed is.

Anything that's taking up resources in your life, but it's not producing any fruit.

It's taking up beneficial resources of the soil.

By the way, you know that soil and dirt are different.

Dirt, can't you can't grow anything in dirt.

Soil is what you grow things in.

Dirt is has been rid of its chemicals, I mean minerals.

Dirt is something that's completely lifeless.

Soil, on the other hand, has living organisms inside of it that causes life to happen.

And weeds know how to find good soil.

Anybody that gardens knows that you've got to use good herbicide.

You've got to be out there and be diligent, or weeds will literally take over the very soil that you want fruit to come from.

Can I tell you what I think is a weed in our culture?

And I'm as much I'm as guilty as the rest of you.

Facebook.

In fact, some of you are more fascinated by Farmville than you are the laws of the farm.

See, I'm only here a couple of times a year so I can say that kind of stuff, and I'm gonna bail out of here and take off.

Listen, let me tell you something, the laws of the farm are better for your life than Farmville.

And I've never done Farmville.

I just know I can't believe that it takes four hours to unlock some squash patch or whatever they do there.

And I'm I I love social media.

I think it's a brilliant, I think it's wonderful, I'm on, I do it all, but I find that there were days when I first started getting on it that I was spending more time talking to virtual friends than my real ones.

That I'd not I looked Pam and I had meaningful conversations with her, but I'd commented on eight or nine posts.

And I'll tell you another thing.

I'm just just for me, okay?

I'm just gonna conf confession's good for the soul, so I'll confess to you.

Sports is another thing that I find it takes up a lot of my resources and doesn't produce a whole lot of fruit.

And I love sports.

I'm a sports nut.

I used to do sports play by play.

I used to do a sports calling show.

I'd love all that stuff.

But I used to have to make sure, I have to make sure for myself that I'm not allowing something that's good.

There's nothing wrong with it.

I plan to watch, well, I don't know if I well, I was gonna watch the Cowboys game tomorrow night, but it may I will watch it.

But I'm not gonna let it consume resources, too many resources for me.

Because it can.

And it won't produce much fruit.

It does produce some fruit, it's a nice, relax, relaxing things, good way to connect with friends, it's a good way to have fun together.

I don't mind any of that.

But when it starts taking away things that are important, that's when you've got to be aware.

It's a weed.

Alright, now most people don't get this right, so don't feel bad if you get it wrong, all right?

So you've prepared the soil, great seeds have been planted, you've gotten the beneficial rainfall, life-giving rain from heaven.

You've been diligent to make sure that the weeds are pulled.

And by the way, I'll tell you this out of a great story.

A lady, just to follow up on that, a lady in our church came to me after I spoke this at some event, and she said, Brady, um, with my hands trembling, I had to go pull a weed out of my business this week.

Up until she had heard this talk, she was supposed to, her husband died, she took over the business, and there were two men that worked in her warehouse that she was afraid to fire, but she needed to fire them.

They were just ruining her business.

She said, I had to go pull a weed.

They were draining resources from my company, but they weren't producing any fruit.

I don't know why I said that.

I didn't even say that in the four o'clock.

I think that may be for some of you.

That may be prophetic for one or some of you out here.

That thing that you're afraid of, they're draining resources.

It is draining resources.

Alright, so you've you've soil is prepared, seeds have been planted, water has come, weeds have been pulled, and what's the next thing that should happen?

I hope say it out loud.

Most people say harvest, but you're right.

And this is the hard, hard, hard part.

You gotta wait.

Now you gotta wait.

No farmer puts seed down in the soil and stands there looking over it, going, Well, those are bad seeds.

Been a half an hour.

Mom, let's go.

We gotta get some more seed.

See, we're lit- we live in an industrialized culture where everything is instant.

Most of us in this room would starve to death if our driver's side window wouldn't roll down.

Come on now.

Well, I had a guy tell me one time, well, I'd open the door.

Well, thank you.

Genius.

Here's my point.

We don't wait on anything in our culture.

God's into marinating, not microwaving.

God is into a process.

In fact, we come to church.

Pastors have trained you.

We come to church, I'm gonna give you one, two, three points to solve any problem you have.

That's why I had six.

I want to make sure it wasn't three.

I was gonna use that line.

We train you.

Hey, come for 30 minutes, hear a talk, and it's gonna change your world.

God's not into that.

God's into forming, shaping, molding, marinating.

He's into a process.

That's why he won't let us plant a seed in the ground and have a full-grown harvest the next day.

Waiting takes faith.

So I'm gonna, you know, this is what pastors do when they go to each other's churches.

They complain about the church they're pastoring.

So let me tell you what happens at New Life.

Robert will do the same tomorrow at New Life.

He'll say, Let me tell you something about Gateway, it's just driving me nuts.

This is a safe place, right?

Is this a safe place for me to do this?

All right.

Let me tell you, by the way, this happened at Gateway when I was here too, so don't get prideful.

So a pa a a couple will come into my office and they'll say, Pastor Brady, our marriage is a mess.

We need to meet.

You know, we're about to divorce.

I said, why are you just now calling me?

Where were you when it started getting bad?

Well, we just didn't want to bother you.

Well, you're not bothering me.

I say, how long, how long has your marriage been like this?

And almost always.

Six months, a year, three years, since before the honeymoon?

Seriously.

I I I just wish somebody would come in and say, hey, Pastor Brady, you know, in the last couple of weeks our marriage, there's some things that have kind of come up in our marriage in the last couple of weeks.

Could you could you walk alongside us and help us figure this out or pray with us?

Instead, we wear our church mask and pretend everything's okay until it blows up on us and then we beg for help and then it's too late sometimes.

And I hope all of you go to Pastor Jimmy's marriage conferences, and I love love and respect with Emerson and Sarah Egarick.

They're coming to new life.

I love all of them.

But I'm gonna save you a weekend.

If you can't go, I'm gonna give you a guarantee that'll save every marriage in this room.

So a couple, if you're gonna meet with me, I'm gonna save you a trip to Colorado Springs, and I'm gonna tell you what I'm about to tell you.

All of us in this room are eating the fruit in our marriage from seeds that we planted a long time ago.

And there are no instant fixes.

I wish I could.

I wish I could just pray over you and instantly fix your marriage, but I can't.

I'm not even gonna try.

What I am gonna do is talk to you about the law of the farm, though.

I'm gonna tell you that if you will just encourage and bless and pray for one another for one calendar year and avoid any criticism, any condemnation, any condescending remarks.

Just love, encourage, and serve each other for one year.

You will begin to plant different seed than the one you planted.

And in one calendar year, a new harvest will begin to appear, and it will replace the old one that you planted, and you'll eat much better fruit than you're eating right now.

There are no shortcuts.

And I have people that come to me and their finances are a wreck.

And I'll say, how long has your finances, how long have your finances been a mess?

Since I got my first job.

Pretty bunch, what happens?

I say, listen.

Start spending less than you make for a really long time.

I mean, this is not to be captain obvious or anything.

But if you'll spend less than you make for a really long time, you'll always have money.

That's my brilliant counseling.

Because I believe in the law of the farm.

I just believe that's the law.

And be willing to wait for the harvest.

Don't get impatient.

She's not gonna stop, she's not gonna treat you better overnight just because you went one day without complaining, guys.

Ladies, he's not going to do what you want him to do that first day, probably.

You gotta be patient.

You know, I grew up, my pastor, I meant many, many pastors in my life would tell me, don't ever pray for patience, because you'll be tested.

Well, you know, then I started praying for love, and a Washington Redskins fan moved next door.

We're always gonna get tested.

You pray for any of the fruit, patience is a fruit of the Spirit.

Why would you not pray for it?

Don't you pray for more love?

Don't you pray for more joy?

Don't you pray for more peace?

Gentleness, kindness, goodness, self-control?

Don't you pray for all the things you should be nodding your head.

Yes, we pray for those things here.

Do you pray for those things?

Why don't you skip over patience?

Because you'll be tested.

Well, you're gonna be tested for all of it.

Every bit of it's a test.

Pray for patience, Lord.

Let me not get in a hurry.

Lord, give me patience in the process.

Give me patience to wait.

I have my heart is humbled.

The seed of the Word of God is in me.

I am a worshiper.

The rain of heaven has fallen on me.

I've pulled every weed I know.

No, Lord, give me the sp the ability to be patient.

It's the fruit of the Spirit.

And it's interesting, it's called the fruit of the Spirit.

I wonder why?

Because it takes a long time to grow.

And then the sixth thing happens, the last part.

The harvest.

I want to encourage some of you tonight.

The harvest starts out as a little green shoot coming through the soil.

Tiny at first.

In fact, only a highly skilled farmer can tell the difference between corn and ochre and all those other things when it first pierces through the soil, because it all looks the same.

Small beginnings.

But the farmer knows, man, those something was happening that was invisible.

Something was happening when I wasn't watching.

Underneath that soil, a miracle happened.

Germination is a miracle.

It's a miracle of nature, how that dead seed suddenly exploded underneath the soil and begins to work its way toward the sunlight because that seed has something built into it that says, if I can only get to the light, I will grow.

I got some revelation for you tonight.

If you would just get to the light, you will grow.

And don't be, don't despise that little small green shoot that's just now appearing through the soil of your life.

Well, Pastor Brady, I'm still struggling.

I don't feel fruitful.

You got something popping through the soil right now that's rich and powerful.

If you'll just stay steady, God will always finish what he starts.

Every single time the law of the farm is without fail in the kingdom of heaven.

Harvest is coming.

But you can't ignore one single step.

You ignore one single step, it's done.

You can pray all you want.

God's going to take you back to the law of the farm.

He always starts with your heart.

He's always going to start with your heart.

Pray about any issue.

If you hear God's voice, and you just got through with the series called Frequency, if you hear God's voice, it's always a conversation about your heart.

Very rarely does he have conversations about other people to you.

He always starts off with a deep conversation about the inner workings of your own soul.

And if he can get that fixed, the rest of these things can happen pretty quickly.

So I want to pray for you.

You're about to go into a building, and that building's nice.

It's a blessing, it's a miracle of God.

But God's not after buildings, He's after people who will go deep.

He'll go deep.

I remember I was thinking in the first service, I was sitting right there.

Pam and I were sitting right there, second row, right there.

And the first time we ever had a miracle offering.

I was thinking when I heard Pastor Robert saying, Next week is the first fruits offering.

I remember that.

I never heard that when I came here.

I didn't know what that was.

I remember the Pam, there was a back then it was those big water pots that we did that with that time.

And Pastor Jimmy had taught a massive John what Mary knew about miracles, about the water pot.

Water turned into wine.

Pam and I prayed, and God gave us this amount, and it was a big thing for us.

We were just a young couple that trying to learn how to handle things.

I remember sitting right there during worship, and I knew it was about time for me to give that.

And I remember how emotionally wrecked we were to fearlessly trust God like we had never trusted God before.

And it wasn't about getting something back from God.

It was about something happening in my heart.

And it did.

It broke something, a dependence on something that was unhealthy.

That's what's going to happen for you next weekend.

God's going to speak to some of you to do something that's going to sound radical, crazy.

God's going to do it, use it to change your heart.

But in that broken heart, in that place of brokenness, the word of God's going to come.

Water from heaven's going to come.

More weeds are going to get pulled.

And you're going to look up in a few years, and you're going to be somebody that never dreamed you could become.

You're going to become this fully formed Christ follower.

Isn't that what you want?

Let's pray together tonight, okay?

Would you just focus on the Lord?

I don't really care if you close your eyes or not.

I know I can be just as distracted with my eyes closed as with them open.

The main thing is, are you fo are you listening for God to speak to you right now?

Just asking the Lord, Lord, what is it that is my heart really a broken place that you can do just anything you want?

Or have I closed up parts of my heart and won't let you use that part?

Because I know the seed's gone forth.

I know the word of God's gone forth to you.

You're in a church where the seed is always sown.

Are you someone who puts a high value on the presence of God?

I mean, it's always looking for rain, always putting yourself in a position where you're focusing and worshiping on the living God.

Can I pray this?

Maybe you don't have the courage to pray for patience yet, but I'm gonna pray it over you.

Because the harvest will come.

Let me just say, I want to really encourage you tonight.

The harvest will come.

And I'm not talking about stuff, I'm talking about a changed heart.

That's the miracle, that's the harvest.

That's the fruit that God's looking for.

It's just changed hearts.

Father, thank you today for breaking up the fallow ground of our heart.

Lord, thank you for the seed, which is the word of God, which is still as powerful today as ever.

Thank you for the presence of God that you not only want to visit us, Lord, you want to inhabit us.

Father, thank you today that help us to pull the weeds, to not let things take up resources that shouldn't be there.

Help us to be patient.

I pray patience over myself, patience, the fruit of the Spirit, over all of us.

And Lord, we thank you in advance for the harvest, some of which is already appearing.

Lord, I pray blessings over this new season of time that Gateway is entering into.

Lord, what an exciting new season that you're about to do.

Lord, I believe the next 10 years will be the most fruitful ten years in Gateway's history.

Fruitful.

By persevering, I pray they would produce a good crop.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

God bless you.

Come see me in Colorado Springs every once in a while, all right?

Have a great day.