299 ~ RETRIEVING LOST SEEDS - SEED ~ Part Two

We welcome you to the We Are Zion sermon podcast.

We are a church based out of Chennai, India.

We are thrilled that you tuned in today and hope that you will

be refreshed, revived, and energized by what you hear.

Our desire is that you will live life with a renewed sense of

purpose that stems from a vibrant faith in Jesus.

During this year of a divine takeover, we are discovering

that there are a few essentials that we cannot overlook.

One of these is the fear of God. To live in awe and reverent fear

of God is imperative in order for God to take over our lives

and lead us in His ways according to His will.

We pray that as you listen in, you would invite the Holy Spirit

to give you a fresh revelation of God and that you will live in

the fear and wonder of God. Even as we get into God's word

this year we have been on, you know, just seeking God for

different things. And one of the things that he

told us was this a year of divine takeover from the book of

Zechariah, chapter 8, verse 12. It talked about how the seed

Zechariah 8:12

will grow well, there will be a sowing of peace.

And this month we want to specifically look a little bit

at this word, the seed. Last week we had Pastor Vasu

with us who shared to us about from the parable of the sower

and how the word of God has to take root in our hearts.

And when it takes root, it begins to transform us.

And he talked about certain things that make our hearts

rocky, which choke out the seed from taking root and bearing

fruit. And today I want to look at

another part of the same parable, which is the the seeds

that fell on the. Pathway Matthew chapter 13

Matthew 13:3–4

verses 3 to 4 says then he told them how many things in parable,

saying a farmer went out to sow his seed.

As he was scattering the seeds some fell along the path and the

birds came and ate it up. Going down to verse 18 of the

same chapter. Listen then to what the parable

of the sower means. When anyone hears the message

about the Kingdom and does not understand it, the evil 1 comes

and snatches away what was sown in their heart.

This, this is the seed sown along the path.

Now when you look at that word over there, it says the person.

Who? Heard the word but didn't

understand it. That word understand the the

word for it actually in a broader context means someone

who didn't comprehend or perceive or act on it.

So basically there was inaction, there was disobedience, and

therefore the word was lost. And today I've titled my sermon

as retrieving Lost Seed. Is it possible to retrieve

something that is lost? You know, in our schools, in

colleges, we have something called the lost and found

property. And I remember some of my

friends you. Actually used to.

Do a bit of shopping in the lost and found property because you

find so many interesting things that people have lost and never

wanted again. But here we're looking at the

word of God many times in our life, in earlier seasons, and

maybe when you were a child or when you were an adolescent or

maybe early days of being a Christian, you received a word

from God, maybe through a person, through a trusted

friend, through the word directly.

And then somehow along the way we forgot about.

It we let it drop, we let it slide and eventually we didn't

act on it. We didn't understand the depths

of that scripture and the enemy took it away.

He took over territory that belonged to us by right.

I want you to take a few seconds, if you can just close

your eyes and try and remember one such scripture, one such

word that God gave you. It could have been from the Old

Testament. It could have been from a

prophetic book. It could have been from the

Gospels. It could have been from the

episodes. It could have been a word of

mouth, a gift from someone in terms just as a word of

knowledge to you. And you probably kept it with

you for a while and then you dropped it.

But can we just close our eyes for a second and say, Lord, can

you bring to mind over this next half an hour something that you

gave me as a treasure, but that I dropped along the way?

Last week, Pastor Vasu was teaching us about how the word

of God, one of the Hebrew words for it is jewel.

When it's given to us and when it's spoken over a situation or

a person, it's like a jewel. It's so valuable.

It adds so much wealth to someone's life.

And so many times the jewels that we have received overtime

in the, in the sense of the word of God, we have lost it.

I remember I think it was a few years back when I received this

Zechariah chapter 8 verse 12 over us as a.

Zechariah 8:12

Family and I will be in the middle of a very weird

transitional season and I just when I was sitting and reading

the word, this just jumped off the page at me.

The seed will grow well, the wine will bear its fruit, the

ground will yield its harvest, and the heavens will drop their

dew. And God dropped this word saying

tandem blessings. And so I took it down.

I have a journal. I wrote it down.

I wrote tandem blessings on it, and I began believing for it.

But one month into actually standing on this promise,

believing it, it felt like all hell broke loose.

And so somewhere along the way I.

Ditched the word. I said, you know what, this

doesn't make sense. Maybe it was not for me, maybe I

took it wrongly. Maybe I misunderstood God and so

I let it go. Imagine my surprise when 2025

December. Actually not December, it was

around October. I'm reading the book of

Zechariah and the Lord is telling me to read this passage

again, and this time I'm reading it in the NIV.

And in the NIV 2 words jump off the page at me, which is inherit

and possess. And interestingly, last year's

theme was positioned to possess the promise and God had been

talking to us about inheriting up and possessing.

And so imagine my surprise. I'm reading Zechariah 8 three

years after I first received that word.

I'm reading it. And at this time I'm reading it

and saying, and this is the inheritance for that the people

of God are to possess. And the minute those words, you

know, jumped off the the page of the Bible at me, I knew God was

speaking again. And so I immediately quieten

down to look through the whole chapter once more.

And that's when God gave us the word divine takeover.

Because none of these things, there's four seed wine ground in

heaven, all of the things that are required for them to respond

to us are supernatural. It has nothing to do with us.

And so this week when I was preparing this sermon, I was

asking the Lord, did I drop the ball three years back when you

showed me this passage, when you spoke to me?

Did I miss it? Did I?

Did I drop it too early because I didn't see answers?

Did I give up because the kind of pushback that came was was on

another level and God was reminding me that there is a

keros time for the fulfillment of certain words, But our job is

to take that word, hide it in our heart and let it.

Grow. So that our senses become tuned

to what God is doing all around. And so 2 1/2 years back, I think

I possibly. Gave up too soon at the first

sign of trouble. When the Word started testing

us, I couldn't handle it. But now, 2026, I believe it's a

careless time for the tandem blessings of God to come upon

His people. Where people are going to

experience recompense for the stuff they've been through.

Where there's going to be reward given for the people who held on

in endurance and there is a time when it has to be fulfilled.

But what did we let go of? What did we forget that God

spoke? To us about years ago in John 14

John 14:26

verse 26, Jesus says the Holy Spirit is the one who will come

and teach you all things and remind you of what I taught you

this week. When I was going back and

remembering how three years back God gave me Zechariah 8.

It was the Holy Spirit who was joining the dots and saying

there were certain things in that in in that passage that you

missed. There were these conditions in

order for the blessings to be unleashed.

You missed that. And so God was bringing me into

a place of teaching me. Again.

So why should you and I retrieve the lost seeds of God's work?

You're probably saying, well, the Scripture's full of other

promises, I can just claim something else.

I can just look for God to speak to me through something else.

Why should I retrieve it? I want us to read Isaiah 55

verses 10:50. As the rain and the snow come

down from heaven and do not return to it without watering

the earth and making it bud and flourish so that it yields seed

for the sower and bread for the eaters, so is my word that goes

out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty,

but it will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose

for which I sent it. Why should you and I receive

lost seeds just as this rain hits the earth?

Changes everything. The Word of God never returns

void. What does that look like?

Something will happen when God's word is released into our lives.

Something changes when we start believing it and declaring that

scripture anything is possible. Just as within a sea there are

infinite possibilities for north number of plants to happen.

In the same way, the Word of God never returns void the the IT

will grow, it will bear fruit in ways you and I never imagined.

And the reason for that is because the fruit that is borne

as a result of the seed will be evidence of God's power, God's

faithfulness, God's steadfastness, His compassion,

His might, his miracle working power.

And this fruit that is born in our lives will be tasted by all

around us. I personally, when when God gave

us this promise for this year, I got excited because there's so

many people we are. We are believing God is going to

come through on multiple levels. We are believing that tandem

blessings are going to break out in people, in people's lives, in

our church. And we've already begun to see

it. Babies are being birthed.

We're starting to see marriages get arranged.

And we can see that God is on the move, but it's important

that we remind ourselves to go back and say, Lord, did I miss

something you were saying to me? The word of God never returns

void. I remember almost 13 years back,

God gave me the scripture, Isaiah 58, and he gave it.

I thought it was just for me. I thought, well, it's my life's

calling, which was basically being a repairer of the broken

breach or a gap standard and all of those things from Isaiah 50.

It is great. But today, when I look at it in

the light of 13 years later, seven years into a church plant,

God is reminding me that was just not a passage for you.

It was for your family. It was what I was going to take

you on the journey where 5 of you stand in the gap for people,

5 of you help prepare the breach in some area of society.

When you look back, you realise that not a word from God remains

void. It never returns void.

It will accomplish something. The second reason why you you

and I should retrieve seeds is that the Word of God establishes

God's will. For our life when you read

Isaiah 58 it talks and 58 and 61 it talks about restoring beauty

from ashes. And I remember 13 years back,

God telling me when we were on a hiatus, we were in in US Gesham

was studying, I was at home with the children.

And I remember God meeting me in that that season and saying I

need you to step into the space of, of helping people overcome

trauma. And when he gave me Isaiah 58

and 61, I didn't understand the magnitude of it.

But what I did was this. I took the scripture.

I would read through it every day.

I would just read it out loud and say, God, I don't know what

I'm called for, but I can confidently say this over 13

years, God has put me into spaces where I had to equip

myself. God has taken me into rooms

where I learnt of others and he has expanded my understanding of

what I was created for and he's been expanding the purpose, the

plan of my life like a blueprint which he keeps unrolling every

year. Even this year I happened to

meet someone who had mentored me almost 16 years back in the

space of dance and movement and worship, and I had the chance to

reconnect and I could see where God was moving me in this next

season. So I want to ask you, when you

lost a word, was it possible you lost an important part of the

blueprint for the God's purposes in your life?

God has a very unique plan for you and me, Mike.

The plans he has for me are not the same as the plans He has for

you. The plans he has for Geshwam is

not the same as what he has for me.

It's very unique because it's tailor made.

To our giftings, our talents, our upbringing, our experiences,

our talent, opportunities, all of them.

But the Word of God is so powerful that it activates the

purposes of God in our lives. So I want to ask you again, can

you close your eyes for a second and say, God, did I miss

something? Was there some seeds of your

word that fell on the pathway that the enemy took away?

Maybe I didn't believe, maybe I didn't obey.

Maybe I looked the other way because it felt too hard.

Maybe I tried applying it and then I just gave up.

Why should you and I consider what?

Consider retrieving what the enemy stole, Because I believe

this. The Word of God endures forever.

Isaiah 40 verses 6 to 8, it says, a voice cries out, and I

Isaiah 40:6–8

said, what shall I cry? All people are like grass, and

all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.

The grass Withers, the flowers fall because the breath of the

Lord blows on them. Surely people are grass.

The grass Withers and the flowers fall, but the word of

our God endures forever. You and I, we are frail, we have

a time period on earth, but the Word of God is it endures.

Past. Generations because our God is

eternal and His word never fails.

So there is no expiry date. So even if you're in your 80s

and God reminds you of a word he gave you when you were 17, I

believe you can bring it back and say, Lord, breathe the fresh

upon this. What do we do with this word

now? Because nothing, no word of God

ever fails what God gave me two years back, three years back

with Zechariah 8 and the tandem blessings word is still

applicable because now I brought it back and now I have a greater

realization of where I messed it up, where I dropped it, and

where I need to step up in my obedience.

I remember about 16 years back, we were just about making the

choice to get into full time ministry, you know, and we were

in between. We were, you know, quitting our

full time jobs. We're going to get into a full

time ministry at our local church.

We had a little baby and I told God, I need to hear from you

before we make such a big shift. Both of us come from families

where our parents were full time, you know, they worked in

the corporate spaces. And so we needed to know if this

was something God was calling us.

There was no precedence. And so I remember sitting with

the Lord and this was 16 years back. 2 Corinthians 9 jumped off

the pages at me one afternoon when I was I just put my baby to

bed. I was just sitting there and the

Lord spoke to me from 2 Corinthians 9.

And interestingly, it was not a passage which said you are

called go out there, do this. No, it was a passage on

generosity. And he said he who sows much

will reap much, And he said that.

God will. Provide you all that you need so

that His grace abounds in you. And that was a passage.

God gave to me and said this is your calling.

This is for your family. This is for you, Geshom, and the

children I will give you. And so I made a note when Geshom

came home that evening, I showed it to him.

And to double check, I ran it by both our parents.

Both our parents are praying they're godly.

So I ran it by them. I said, you know what?

This is what God gave me. Is it possible this is a?

Calling and I love the fact that both our families spent time in

the world and got back and said we believe God is calling you

to. This Here's the deal.

You don't understand the depths of that word.

We didn't 17 years into full time ministry, both of us.

There have been seasons when generosity has cost us.

It's cost us. You know, our heart is broken.

People have sat on us, people have walked over us, we've lost

things. We've been maligned and all of

that is OK. But when I look back every year

I go back to Two Corinthians 9 because I am going to this place

of God. You called us.

Has generosity cost us? Yes.

Lord, do I feel like not being generous sometimes?

Absolutely. But when I go back and retrieve

that word, I'm telling God I'm bringing it a flesh to you.

Will you breathe a flesh upon it?

It is so important to understand that God's word to you didn't

have an expiry date. It didn't just end.

When you drop the ball, it didn't just end.

He still has purposes that He wants to fulfil.

So today we're going to be looking and how we can actually

retrieve the word of God and live in the fullness of its

fulfillment. And the person that I think

about is King Josiah. King Josiah was the grandson of

King Manasi. Manasi was one of the worst

kings in Judah. He had he dragged the nation to

such a low level of apostasy and depravity.

People were sacrificing their children to, you know, Kimosh

and Molech, things that God never asked of them.

He had, you know, got male shrine prostitutes instituted on

the temple. The temple did no longer had.

It was not dedicated just to the one true God.

It had Ashura and Balb poles and things inside.

He had defiled the temple. He had defiled the land.

And God's anger was burning against his people.

And then lo and behold, Manasseh's son Amin comes in.

But Amon doesn't last long. He's just there for two years.

And then Josiah comes in. He is sworn in as king at age 8.

But it's amazing because he did what was right in the eyes of

God, even though he had a granddad who was so wicked.

The interesting thing is, Manasi did turn towards the end of his

life. He was taken into captivity and

all that, but he came back and he repented.

He repented and God heard his cry.

God forgave him, but Joash is a bit different.

Joash started seeking God from the age of 12.

He was instituted at 8, started seeking God at 12.

At 16 was making reforms. And at age 18, an interesting

thing happens. His officials were told to go

rebuild the temple. The temple was in disarray.

So they, he sends a temple, you know, the officials, his

secretary, all the assistants and all of them, they go in

there and one of the guys, the high priest, he finds the book

of the Law inside the temple of God where it should rightfully

be. But unfortunately from the time

of Solomon, the word of God was no longer central to the

governance of the land. What was required ideally when

Samuel instituted Saul was that every person, I think it was

even in Joshua's time, anyone who had the Book of the Law, any

kings who were appointed had to copy that that down and make a

manuscript for themselves. But guys, right from the time of

Solomon, this was not followed. And so gradually the book of the

Law became obsolete. Well, this was the thing that

was to be central to keeping their hearts and minds on God.

So imagine a surprise in 2 Kings chapter 22 when these officials

2 Kings 22 · chapter mention

find the book of the Law and then bring it to the secretary.

The secretary then takes it to King Josiah and says this is

what we found. I want you to read 2 Kings

2 Kings 22:11–13

chapter 22 verses 11 to 13. It says when the king heard the

words of the book of the Law he tore his robes.

He gave these orders to Helkaya, the priest Ahikam, son of

Shafan. Akbour, son of Micaiah, Shafan

the secretary, and Asiah, the King's attendant.

Go and inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people and for

all Judah, about what is written in this book that has been

found. Great is the Lord's anger that

burns against us because those who have gone before us have not

obeyed the words of this book. They have not.

Acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning

us. The important thing to

understand is as soon as the book of the law is presented to

King Josiah, he recognizes their faults.

They start reading it to him and he goes, Oh no, we've messed up.

Step one in retrieving the word of God is retrieve is actually

recognizing our fault and error in in failing to listen and obey

to God's, listen and obey God's word.

He was very sensitive to where they had messed up.

And you have to understand they were not reading the accounts by

Isaiah and Jeremiah because those were contemporaries.

They were only reading the Torah.

So Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers in Deuteronomy was what

was in the book of the law. So in all possibilities,

scholars say that they were probably reading Deuteronomy.

And if you're reading Deuteronomy 28 or you're reading

Deuteronomy 7, you will know that it's laid out, prescribed

on text, that if you turn to any other God, I will abandon you.

I will send you into exile. I will punish you.

My wrath will pour out on you. These are the curses that will

follow you. It is prescribed.

It is written. And so the first thing that

Josiah did was he recognized their faults.

He'd recognized their failure to obey.

Continuing to read 2 Kings chapter 22, verses 14 to 20,

2 Kings 22:14–20

Heilkaya, the priest Ahikam, Akbar, Shafan and Asaya went to

speak to the prophet Haldah, who is the wife of Shalom, son of

Tikwa, keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem in the

new quarter. She said to them, this is what

the Lord the God of Israel says. Tell the man you sent to me.

This is what the Lord says. I'm going to bring disaster on

this place and its people according to everything written

in the book in the King of Judah is read, because they have

forsaken me and burnt incense to other gods, and aroused my anger

by all the idols their hands have made.

My anger will burn against this place and will not be quenched.

Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to enquire of the Lord?

This is what the Lord the God of Israel says concerning the words

you heard, because your heart was responsive and you humbled

yourself before the Lord when you heard what has spoken

against this place and its people, that they would become a

curse and would be laid waste. And because you tore your robes

and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the Lord.

Therefore I will gather you to your ancestors, and you will be

buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the

disaster I'm going to bring on this place.

So they took her answer back to the king.

Look at the posture that Josiah has taken.

It says because you tore your robes, you wept in my presence.

I have heard you. Your heart was responsive, and

you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I've

spoken against the place and its people.

This was a posture that was being moved because of

repentance. The second step in actually

retrieving lost seat is to repent in humility and honesty.

There was no falsity in this. Josiah was not putting up a

show. He was genuinely scared.

He was saying, Oh my goodness, we are in for it.

We have gone so far away from God.

The land is just steeped in idolatry.

People have no love for this God.

What are we going to do? Let me at least as the leader of

these people, repent. Repentance is so important.

Many believers today don't believe in an act of daily

repentance because they're like, well, it was all covered on the

cross. True, But repentance is a gift

to us. Repentance is a gift where I can

come before my Father, come before him in all honesty, in

humility and say, Lord, I lay low before you.

I am a Sinner saved by grace. I still mess up.

I need your help. Forgive me, repentance is our

greatest gift and it is the second position that we have to

occupy in order to retrieve lost seed.

Continuing to read from 2 Kings chapter 23, verses 1 to 15 and

2 Kings 23:1–15

24, it says Then the king called together all the elders of Judah

and Jerusalem. He went up to the temple of the

Lord of the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the

priests and the prophets, all the people from the least to the

greatest. He read in their hearing all the

words of the book of the covenant which had been found in

the temple of the Lord. The king stood by the pillar and

renewed the covenant in the presence of the of the Lord, to

follow the Lord and keep His commands, statutes, and decrees

with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words

of the covenant written in this book.

Then the king, then all the people, pledged themselves to

the covenant. The king ordered Hilkiah the

high priest, the priest next in rank, and the doorkeepers, to

remove from the temple of the Lord all the articles made for

Baal and Ashara and all the starry hosts.

He burnt them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron

valley, and took the ashes to Bethel.

He did away with the idolatrous priest appointed by the kings of

Judah. Coming down to verse 6, he took

the Ashara pole from the temple of the Lord to the Kidron valley

outside and burnt it there. He grounded to powder and

scattered the dust over the graves of the common people.

Verse 7 He tore down the quarters of the male shine

prostitutes that were in the temple of the Lord, the quarters

where women did weaving for Ashara was eight.

He brought all the priests from the towns of Judah and

desecrated the high places from Jibah to Beersheba where the

priests had burnt incense. He broke down the gateway at the

entrance of the gate of Joshua the city governor, and then

coming verse verse 10, it says he desecrated Tophet, which was

in the valley of Ben Hinnom, so that no one could use it to

sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire to Molech.

Verse 11, he removed from the entrance of the temple of the

Lord the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the

sun. Verse 12, he pulled down the

altars the kings of Judah had erected on the roof near the

upper room of Ahaz and the altars Manasseh had built in the

two courts of the temple of the Lord.

He removed them from there, smashed them to species, threw

the rubble into the Kidron valley.

Verse 13 The king also desecrated the high places that

were east of Jerusalem, on the South of the Hill of Corruption,

the one Solomon, king of Israel, had built for Ashtarat, the wild

goddess of the Sidonians, for Kimosh, the wild God of Moab,

and for Molech, the detestable God of the people of Amin.

Josiah smashed the sacred stones, cut down the Ashtarah

poles and covered the sites with human bones.

Even the altar at Bethel, the high place made by Jero Hoam,

which had caused Israel to sin, even that altar and high place

he demolished. He burnt the high place and

ground into powder, then burnt the ashara pole.

Also. Verse 24.

Furthermore, Josiah got rid of the mediums and spiritists, the

household gods, the idols, and all the other detestable things

seen in Judah and Jerusalem. Why did I read all of that?

It felt tiring to even read it. When you have a sore throat,

reading so much feels a lot. But the reason I wanted to read

that to you is because step 3IN actually retrieving lost seed is

to renounce that which was defiling and demonic.

Many times we we stop it at the repenting place.

But John the Baptist talked about this.

He said you brood of Vipers. He talked about the Pharisees

who were coming for baptism, she said, who told Wandy of the

coming wrath. You need to bear fruit in

keeping with repentance. And so a bit of that is what

renouncing is. Renouncing is basically turning

away from the thing that defiled you or pulled you down or

dragged you away from God, and turning back towards God.

In this case, there was a violent cutting off of all wrong

associates. Medium Spiritus, they were moved

out. There was removal of the shrine

prostitutes. There was a clear demarcation of

this will work now this will not.

This causes us to sin. We don't want that.

We want this out, and I wonder if we actually are so serious

and strict about the things that cause us to sin in our lives.

Point #3 Will you renounce that which is demonic and defiling?

Because Josiah did it and it was visible to the whole land.

Imagine the kind of smoke that was going up from the land

because the number of Asherah poles he was burning, because of

the things he was desecrating, crushing into powder, throwing

it over graves. He was very clear.

No more he was saying this is it, this ends here. 2 Kings

2 Kings 23:21–23

chapter 23 verses 21 to 23 says. Then the king gives his order to

all the people. Celebrate the Passover to the

Lord your God. As it is written in this book of

the Covenant. Neither in the days of the

judges who led Israel, nor in the days of the kings of Israel

and the kings of Judah had any such Passover been observed.

But in the 18th year of King Josiah, this Passover was

celebrated to the Lord in Jerusalem.

What was the Passover? The Passover was basically what

happened when the the Jews were leaving Israel, leaving Egypt,

right? It was the last night they were

in Egypt. They were going to move out the

next morning and and Moses had given them an instruction.

Apply the blood of a lamb on your doorpost because the Angel

of death is visiting tonight. So all of them.

Had a meal at. Home.

They had a Passover lamb that was killed.

The blood was applied on the doorpost and then they were

inside the house. None of them were outside.

They were all inside. They stood around the table.

They actually had to, you know, wear their cloaks.

They had to tie it up because they were in a rush.

They were going to leave. They were leaving.

They were leaving Egypt. And this meal commemorated what

God was doing in their midst. What was God doing?

He had just shown up with these mighty signs and wonders.

He had disrupted the whole of Egypt.

And tonight, that night, the Angel of death was going to

visit and and take away every first born from the cattle to

the Pharaoh's son. Everyone was going to die.

Anyone who didn't have the blood of the lamb on their doorpost

was liable to lose a first born. And yet these people, the chosen

people, the people of Israel were kept safe.

So when they celebrate the Passover, they're basically

remembering how God came through for them, how God came through,

took them out of slavery, set them in a spacious place.

It was remembering that God vindicated them in the eyes of

their enemies. And so the fourth stage of

actually retrieving something that you've lost in terms of the

word is rejoicing the victory and vindication that God brought

in the past. Why is it so important to

celebrate? You know, if you, I don't trust

a Christian who doesn't celebrate because you know what,

we have so much to celebrate even in the hardships.

When you think about it, when you remember the hardships, you

remember how God came through and you cannot help but say,

wow, God, you are amazing. You are worth celebrating.

Even in the midst of struggle. I can say he is worth, worthy of

all praise. He's worthy of all glory because

he gave me Jesus. Jesus is the greatest reason to

celebrate. I can celebrate him for

eternity. And so we need to, when we're

retrieving that which has been lost to the enemy, we retrieve

it with the joy that God, you came through.

Then you will come through again.

So what do we do when we retrieve the lost seeds of God's

Word? Like Josiah, I want to reiterate

this. The first thing is we need to

recognize our faults and failures, to listen to God's

Word, voice and Word, and to obey.

The first thing is recognizing it.

Many times we go straight to repenting.

Sometimes we don't go to repenting because we're not

recognized where we failed. And it's so important that we

stop looking at the fails and the the faults and the failures

in someone else's life. And look at ourselves.

And say, Lord, you know what? I messed this up.

You did give me this word. You did encourage me, but I just

let the enemy take it away. It's important that we don't

pass the buck, but we take responsibility for the word that

is given to us. It's important to realize that

the word that is given is mine to hold on to, mine to receive,

mine to obey. If there's been disobedience,

it's important to say, Lord, I'm sorry I disobeyed.

I recognize that there's been disobedience in my past.

I recognize that there was inaction.

I recognized that I tried to bend Your Word according to what

fit me, and the minute it didn't work or I just ditched it.

That first moment of accepting is powerful because it begins

the process of reclaiming the seed of God's Word.

The second thing is to repent in humility and honesty.

You know, repentance, like I said, is the greatest gift.

One of the things that I do repetitively, it's just

something that's very therapeutic for me, it's

cathartic, is to clean my garden.

So we have a dog. And so she uses the garden for

her, you know, business to do her business.

So every day, almost every day, the kids were supposed to, when

we got the dog, their job was to clean the, you know, the

droppings of the dog. And then they, they just

somehow, you know, fantastically, they have a great

memory. I guess they've forgotten to do

it. So I do it every day.

Now suppose I'm out of town for about four or five days.

The place is a mess because the dog has still been using it, but

nobody's been cleaning it. And so after I go out, if I've

been out of town, I was out of town last week and I come back

on a Monday. I was sitting at the dining

table and there's this terrible smell that was coming from my

sweet garden. So I went out and I noticed it

hadn't been cleaned over 4 days. And so I went out to the

newspaper, cleaned up all of the litter, and then took the hose

out and hose down the place. And as I was doing that, I

realized the gift of daily repentance.

You know, when we leave things hidden within us, it's like that

four days left litter. The smell starts to, you know,

corrupt the entire environment. And it's time that we start

taking responsibility to do a It's just a simple discipline

when you lie down in bed or when you're just sitting.

With that green tea at the end of the day.

If you would just have that conversation with the Lord and

say, Lord, I repent, I am sure I'm mucked up in some way today.

I just want to say I'm sorry if you know where you messed up,

that one conversation that went offline, that bit of gossip,

that bit of slander, that bit of bitterness that you allowed in,

it might be good to say, Lord, can you just take it out?

I'm sorry because the place to be the gift of this Christian

life is that I can come to Him anytime.

There is no mediator required. Jesus stood in for me.

I can approach the throne of grace directly, lift up my hands

and surrender and say, Lord, I keep making this mess, could you

help me, forgive me? I love that God fully knows me

and yet fully loves me. There is no condemnation.

So when I take my my junk into the throne room, it doesn't

surprise him one bit. I in fact, I think that he

beckons me in with my junk so that I can come before him

honestly and say, this is who I am, Lord.

I struggle with bitterness. I struggle with unforgiveness.

I'm blaming it on family history.

I'm blaming it on genes and this and that.

But no, this is who I am, Lord, forgive me.

And just like that hose which did the job, it could have been

easier had it been done every day.

It was a larger job and I had to do it after four days.

What if we came before God consistently?

Maybe it's not every day. Maybe every other day you spend

time and say, Lord, convict me of anything that's corrupting my

heart. The third thing is that we

renounce that which is demonic and defiling anything that is

not of God, anything that doesn't bring peace, anything

that does not bring joy, the fruit of the spirit is not being

birthed out of. It is not from God.

And Josiah was so ruthless about dealing with the things that

have corrupted the land. He didn't he was not trying to

entertain it. Or let's make another room and

keep the shrine prostitutes there.

No, he said get out. He he got the mediums out.

The spirit is out. We don't need you guys.

We have to be ruthless about eliminating the things from our

life that defile us. What are the associations in

your life that lead you into a lifestyle of habitual sin?

What are those relationships where you know, the minute you

connect with that person or persons, you're just going down

a dark path? Maybe the conversations are

terrible. Maybe it's what you indulge in

together. That doesn't make for the godly

life. Jesus called you, called you to,

and God is calling us into a place of, you know, not just

saying sorry with our lips, but acting on it, actively turning

away from the thing that defiles us, actively saying no to the

enemy and saying yes to Jesus. There are many things that

defile us physically, spiritually, mentally,

emotionally, materially. It's time to get rid of those.

I want to ask you, what door have you left open in your life

for the enemy to come in and play havoc with you?

When I say open the doorway to all kinds of sin, imagine this.

There was male shrine prostitution.

There were child sacrifices to demon gods.

There was the worship of sun, moon and stars.

Fertility gods of Canaan were being worshipped.

When God, I said I'll make you fruitful and multiply you.

They were bowing before Asherah and Bal who were fertility gods

of Canaan, everything that Moses had warned them about.

I was reading Deuteronomy yesterday just to get a

background, and it's stunning how God gives a prophetic word

through Moses saying when you go into the land of Canaan, you

will see all of them worship their gods, but you're not to

get an alliance with them. You're not to give your sons to

them in marriage, not get give your daughters and to them in

marriage because when you get married, the association gets

tighter, The idolatry enters your bloodlines.

Everything was talked about and yet they went and did it because

the word of God had been stolen from them.

I want to ask you, are you willing to be ruthless with sin

in your life? Are you willing to renounce the

works of the enemy in your life? It's as simple as praying these

things out. It's as simple as maybe getting

rid of certain articles in your home.

It's as simple as as shutting the door on enemy in terms of

forgiveness, asking for forgiveness, forgiving those of

Sindhu, releasing them into blessing.

But it's time that we renounce that which is demonic and

defiling. There is no point in only saying

sorry to God, but not actually turning away from the thing that

causes us to sin and finally rejoice in past victories and

vindication. When you look at the psalmist,

even if he's in the hardest season of his life, he keeps

saying, I lay on the bed. I thought about times past.

I thought about how the the my my ancestors walked through the

Red Sea and then you know you, you killed all king of Bastion.

And I wonder why they've been so historical.

Because here's the thing. When you're being historical in

your praise, you are remembering who God was then and who God is

now because the. God of God is very clear.

God doesn't change. We change.

God doesn't change. And if God did that, then he

will do more. So now, if God was powerful,

then he is still powerful now. He's unique, He's creative.

So he's not going to do the same miracle the same way this time,

but he's going to show up. And so when I rejoice, when I

celebrate, hope gets restored. Faith is stirred up and I start

believing for God to show up again in a fresh way.

As I close I want to read what was said about King Josiah.

It says in 2 Kings chapter 23 verses 24 to 25 it says this he

2 Kings 23:24–25

did to fulfill the requirements of the law written in the book

that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the temple of the

Lord. Neither before nor after Josiah

was there a king like him who turned to the Lord, as he did

with all his heart and with all his soul, and with all his

strength in accordance with all the law of Moses.

Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him.

Why was he, you know, acclaimed for being different?

He turned to the Lord with all his heart, soul, mind, and

strength. Now if you remember what Jesus

said in the New Testament, he when someone asked him, Lord,

what is the greatest commandment?

What did he say? He said.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and

strength. That was Matthew chapter 22

Matthew 22:37

verse 37. And then Jesus went on to

extrapolate that and say, so I'm calling you to first love me

with all your heart. And then of course, he said the

second greatest commandments, love your neighbor as yourself.

It was the 10 commandments. I literally wrapped up in these

two big commandments, right? But Jesus also said in John 14

John 14:15

verse 15, if you love me, keep my commandments.

So today the onus is on us to come to God to turn to him out

of love. He's not just saying, turn to me

with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

He's saying, love me with all your heart, soul, mind and

strength, which means that I come to him and say, Lord, I

will obey you because I love you.

I will read your word because I love you.

Like I shared this, I think in in the last, I think it was in

November when we're talking about the Bible as the word of

God. The Bible Month.

Every time we sit with the Word of God, we're sitting with its

author. Can you imagine that?

I don't take that lightly. Every day when I sit with God at

my table, I picture Jesus seated opposite me.

He's the author of the Word. He's the One.

His Spirit is what inspired this.

And So what if obedience to His Word becomes just part of my

nature because I love Him so deeply?

There's no there's no obligation.

There's No Fear because His word says there is No Fear in love,

for perfect love casts off fear. So if I realize how loved I am

and I want to reciprocate that love, I begin to read His word

and I don't leave it abandoned. I begin to act on it.

I begin to act on it. I remember that three years back

when God gave me Zechariah chapter 8, I didn't read the

Zechariah 8 · chapter mention

whole passage in depth. I just read 8:00 and 12:00.

I got 8 verse 12. I got excited.

I was like, oh wow, tandem blessings.

God's is going to pour out stuff on us.

Nothing happened because I missed the subtext.

The subtext was love, peace, and speak the truth to each other.

There was so much subtext that I missed.

And over the last next three years, God has trained us in the

art of speaking the truth with peace as the outcome.

And only then, only when we live in obedience to His Word because

of our relationship with Him growing, has God come through on

the promise. Many times you've probably been

asking God, you gave me this word, but it hasn't happened.

I want to ask you, can you retrieve that word, sit with it

and see where you need to actually comply with action?

You know the word agape in Greek?

The Hebrew equivalent is Ahava, and both of these words mean

it's a love that's not an emotion, but it's actually

action and commitment expressed. Which means if you and I say we

love God, it will be evidenced in how we obey His word.

Many times we say how I love God as in how I love people.

I'm loving people in response to my obedience to God's word

because in the Word, in the episodes, it's all about one

another, love one another, forgive one another.

If I'm able to do that, it means I'm living in obedience to His

Word. And so as I close, I want to ask

you, what are those seeds of God's Word that you lost along

the way? Maybe it was your impatience.

Maybe it was your stubbornness, your inability to actually

accept it and to obey it. Would you be willing to

recognize your flaw in that, Recognize where you messed it

up? Will you be willing to repent in

honesty and humility and say, Lord, I'm sorry?

Will you be OK to renounce, to turn from that which has been

demonic and defiling in your life and say, Jesus, I turn back

to you? Will you be ruthless with sin in

your life, ruthless with the things that have come into your

life which have threatened to take you over and say enough is

enough? This association ends today.

This dependency, this addiction ends today.

Will I be willing to rejoice in past victories?

Maybe you're saying in this season I don't have much to

rejoice in. That's OK.

Past seasons, remember where God came through.

Remember how he healed you. Then remember how he restored

you. Then remember how He he worked

to renew your heart and mind. Then he will do it again.

God's Word is alive, is active, it endures forever.

There is no expiration date. Every word of His nothing

returns void. It will accomplish the purposes

for which He sent it out. So as we pray, I want you to

believe. And through this week, I want to

ask you if you would revisit. Look into old journals, check

your old online notebooks. Check what God spoke to you.

Where did you feel like you missed out?

Maybe it's time you need to retrieve those lost seeds.

Can I pray for you, Father? I pray that you would help us re

examine our lives and detect the seeds that we dropped, the seeds

that the enemy stole, and we want, O God, to retrieve those

so that we live in the victory and the power that you have

marked out for us. I pray that your children will

come in closeness with you, God. I pray they will renounce

everything that has defiled them and turn to you for strength,

for healing, for restoration. Father, I pray you are the

revealer of mysteries and the healer of everything that is

revealed. So I pray that your people, O

God, will turn to you. I pray that we will continually

rejoice in what that all that you have done and all that you

are going to do. We love you, we thank you, we

glorify you. In Jesus name we pray Amen.

Amen. More than anything, I want to

encourage you that this week you will go after those lost seeds.

You will find those pearls and you will retrieve it and you

will stand and believe that God is going to come through.

God bless you. Remember, whoever finds Jesus

finds life. Have a lovely week.

We hope you enjoyed today's message and we're blessed.

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Most importantly, remember that whoever finds Jesus finds life.