Multiply | May 3 2026 (Part 4)

Well, why don't you grab a Bible and open up with me to Matthew's

Gospel, which is the first book in the New Testament.

We're in Matthew Chapter 13 this morning.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

If you are a golf fan, you would likely know what the Masters

Tournament is in August. Augusta, GA.

So 2011 Rory McIlroy, 21 years old, was going into the final

day of the tournament. So this is after playing three

already 3 days, 3 rounds of golf into the final day and he's up

by 4 strokes and this young sensation and it was so much

hype about him and what what was future would look like.

And final day, 4th day on the Sunday, his game completely

falls apart and he ties for 15th place.

Absolutely devastating. And over the years, Rory tried

to win that tournament and continued to lose that

tournament kind of breakdown. People would commentators would

say he's choking. You know, the kind of there's

he's jinxed somehow the the tournament is sort of against

him it etcetera. And so it was a very frustrating

experience for Rory. He's won all of the other major

titles, but the Masters alluded him.

Frustrating would be frustrating for him.

Very disappointing. A lot of anxiety around that

tournament as well, but he stayed in the game and 14 years

later of losing that tournament and losing that tournament 2025,

he finally won it and then back-to-back wins.

He won it again this year in 2026.

The importance of sticking with it, staying in the game.

I wanna talk this morning a little bit about staying in the

game on a from a spiritual standpoint.

We're in the middle of a series called Multiply and we are

looking at this really the command that God has given to

us. It began way back in Genesis

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1. The very first words that God

spoke to human beings was be fruitful and multiply and fill

the earth. God had created us in His image.

He created all things well, all things beautiful, and He wanted

us to fill the earth with His glory, with those that would

bear His image. Now we know how things went.

Chapter 3 of Genesis Early enough sin enters the world, we

are broken, the image of God is marred in us.

But when he sent his Son Jesus Christ into the world, he came

to bring forgiveness to heal our relationship with him and begin

to restore us that we would follow Jesus and be restored.

Image bearers, not far from perfect to be sure, but calling

people into God's Kingdom. And so the last words that Jesus

speaks to his disciples was go and make disciples of all

nations, multiply my ministry around the around the earth and

bring people into my Kingdom. We are meant if you're a

follower of Jesus, we're called to pass on this relationship

with God, this opportunity we have to engage with the king.

We're called to multiply the number of followers on the earth

to bear much fruit. Now, if you're a Christian, you

may look at your life and say, Amen.

I don't know how much fruit I'm bearing, you know, maybe a

little bit of fruit. You know, there's people that

have been praying for, people perhaps I've been sharing my

faith with. I feel like I'm having very,

very little impact. Today's message I'm hoping is

gonna speak to us because this is what the parables that Jesus

is communicating to to us, it's really all about.

He's teaching about what the Kingdom of God is like.

We have expectations of what the Kingdom of God is like, and

Jesus is teaching us specifically about his Kingdom.

It's not a geographical realm like a a dominion.

It is wherever His rule is taking place, and He's referring

to the human heart. We have been.

All those who have bowed the need of Jesus Christ have now

changed from status of being an enemy of God to a friend of God

all through the work that He has done on the cross and now being

made right with him. We have a we have a a different

kind of resource. We have joy, we have peace with

him, and we're called to display that and to pass that on to

others. Expand just to expand God's rule

in the world, in a world that's built on pride, the world that's

built on prestige, world that's built on power, God's Kingdom

operates in a very different way.

And this is one of the things that Jesus communicated starts

as a seed, and it's planted in one person at a time.

Slow growth, slow growth, but we're called to sow the seed and

let God do His work, stay in the game and allow God to do His

work because He is at work and He is providing opportunities

for us if we will avail him to be be available for Him.

We just need to be faithful in the little things.

Over this past week, I heard a couple of testimonies really

about how God has been at work in our midst.

And I, and I've asked Leah and Mark Corelia, Debora, Mark

Corval, once you guys come up right now and just share briefly

about the experience you shared with me.

Bless the rest of the congregation.

Thanks, Leanne. One OHP there we go.

So if you don't know me, my name is Leah and thanks John for this

opportunity to stretch myself and share with you all I was

sharing with John at our last prayer meeting.

And I guess prayer for me has been something that's always

been very important in my life. And I've spent a lot of time in

prayer, but not a lot of time confidently being able to pray

with other people. And not a year ago, but roughly

a year ago, our church started these prayer and intercession

evenings. And I just found that going

consistently and praying with other people and it embodying

that experience and practicing so often has allowed God to grow

a different kind of confidence in me.

So last, I don't know, it was last week or two weeks ago, I

had a coworker come into my classroom, I teach at a school,

and she was sharing with me just how difficult certain

circumstances in her life have been.

And for the first time, instead of offering to pray or asking if

it would be offensive to pray for someone, I just said, hey,

why don't we pray together? And she was open to that Seemed

very. Yeah, just like really.

OK. So I prayed for it didn't seem,

you know, like any big thing, but it was really nice to be

able to pray with someone. And I think lots of times we

don't see the effects of when we say yes to God right away.

But I had the wonderful experience of hearing from her

the very next day. She just came over again to my

portable and was very excited about her experience.

She said I have prayed before in my life but never like that.

And she just was filled with a sense of peace about how to move

forward in her circumstance. So God just really said yes and

moved in powerful ways in her life.

And I think that was partly through just honoring him in

coming faithfully to something like the prayer and intercession

meeting where he could build that in me.

And those were times when I was had been praying for her for, I

guess, roughly a year. So yeah, there you go.

Thanks, Leah. Got at work.

At work. Hi, my name is Mark and these

children's story this morning is is very accurate you we don't

need a fishing rod to talk about God to talk about Jesus.

And I just want to share a story.

It happened to Susan and I a couple of years ago.

We went into the Meridian, the local Meridian bank here.

We had to meet with a financial advisor and some some things,

I'm going to refer to his name as Charles throughout this,

during our first meeting, I sense that the Holy Spirit was

prompting me to speak to Charles about God.

And I don't remember the exact exchange that we had.

I was two years ago. And then, you know, I don't

remember what I had for breakfast this morning, but I

know somewhere in our conversation we talked about him

visiting Forest View and that Susan and I would love to host

them and we'd sit down with them at Forest Hue if they wanted us

to do that. I remember Charles saying

something about him and church just don't get along and it had

been many years since he had attended church, but he wanted

to thank. He thanked me for the invite he

had to get back to me with some financial information.

So we exchanged our cell phone numbers, but he gave me his

personal cell phone number and not the Meridian Banks one for

some strange reason. I didn't know why.

It was on that number that I then sent him a link to one of

Force Hughes to Pastor John's sermon.

It was dated in March 24th, 2024.

Was this that sermon? And in a in a message he sent

back thanked me for the for the link.

In July, a few months later I came back to the to the bank.

I had to meet with Charles, Charles again on some other

financial item he had to check out first, something else 1st

and said he would get back to me.

And he did by text. And in that text he said, hey, I

really appreciated that. The video clip, the link that

you sent me, it's been many, many years since I've watched or

heard a sermon, and I really like the way your pastor spoke.

That was the end of it for about two years.

July 2024 was our last last contact with Charles until two

weeks ago. He sent me a text and I'm gonna

read you. The text says, Hey brother, this

is Charles. I met you at Meridian when you

invited me to church a few times.

I wanted to reach out to you and see if you had time to meet for

coffee soon. Absolutely nothing to do with

banking in any fashion, I replied.

Of course I'd love to and we set a date to meet and but I really

didn't know what what this was gonna be all about.

We met for coffee a few days later when Charles and he gave

me, he had tears in his eyes and he gave me a big hug when we

met. Thanked me for bringing Jesus up

and talking about church with him two years ago, taking the

time and reaching out like Susan and I had cause you see, he and

his wife have come to Christ since then.

And he, what he said was that, you know, that little seed that

was dropped helped him get back. Now there were other people, the

Holy Spirit got ahold of him and there were other people,

believers that helped him along his path coming back to Christ.

But now he goes to a, a faith, he goes to a church in Welland.

They live in Welland and he's on the worship team in Welland.

So thought that was amazing. Yeah, that's awesome.

Praise the Lord. Good.

Thanks you guys. God at work, we need to stay in

the game. Stay in the game this morning.

I want to talk about an important topic with regard to

staying in the game, and that is being aware of the opposition,

being aware of the opposition to the Kingdom of God.

We're in Matthew chapter 13. We're gonna be looking at the

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

parable of the weeds, and this is talking specifically about

that opposition. And so Lord, we pray that as we

look at your word this morning, that you would open her eyes to

see marvelous things from Your law this morning.

Speak to our hearts exactly what we need to hear this morning in

Jesus name, Amen. Matthew chapter 13.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

Starting at verse 24, Jesus told them another parable.

The Kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his

field, but while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and

sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.

When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds

also appeared. The owner's servants came to him

and said, Sir, didn't you so good seed in your field?

Where then, did the weeds come from?

An enemy did this, he replied. The servants asked him, Do you

want us to go and pull them up? No, he answered, because while

you were pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them.

Let both grow together until the harvest.

At that time, I will tell the harvesters first collect the

weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned.

Then gather the wheat and bring it into my barns.

I want you to note the placement of this parable in Matthew's

Gospel. So this is this is in the in the

middle of a number of parables, but the first one, which is the

primary ones we looked at a couple of weeks ago is the

parable of the sower. And this is all about the

harvest. This is the seed, which is the

word of God that is being scattered on all different kinds

of soils which represent people's hearts, human hearts.

And it looks like 3/4 of it is just a waste because it produces

no crop. But on 1/4 lands on good soil

and a crop is produced. And not just the little crop,

but 3060 a hundred fold. Talk about multiplication, all

about the harvest. And then we have the parable of

the weeds. And then after the parable, the

weeds is the parable of the mustard seed and the yeast, how

something very small grows and expands and permeates.

This is what the Kingdom of God is like.

And then the disciples asked Jesus to explain the parable of

the weeds. And so we're back to the weeds

again. And then he moves on and he's

talking about the parable of the hidden treasure and the Pearl.

Like the Kingdom of God is so valuable it's worth selling

everything for it. And then the parable of the net,

which is refers to a net little Kingdom gathering, gathering

many people into the fold of God.

The parable of the weeds is integral to these parables,

interrelated, meant to be taken together.

Now what is a parable? Spoke the other the other the

other day about a parable being para means alongside of and so

Jesus is telling us these stories, a very common

experiences in order to help us to understand more complex and

spiritual experiences. I want you to I want to explain

what the Kingdom of God is like. You haven't quite got it.

So I'm gonna tell you a little story about a farmer about a

about about seed, etcetera. And so he's explaining this and

this then this parable is about a very common experience at that

time. So the Greek word for the weed

is Azania, which is a, a type of weed.

Darnell. It's called a Darnell.

And we've got a picture up here of it.

And when it grows, it looks exactly like wheat.

You would never, you would never be, never be able to distinguish

between until the heads begin to form and then you see the

difference. And Jesus is explaining that

there's an opposition that we don't always see, we don't

always understand. And like in Ontario, weeds, like

they're growing everywhere, right?

If you own lawn, weeds are coming up all the time.

They don't need any help to grow in Ontario.

Jesus's day, he's referring to an enemy actually throwing

darnel seed into somebody's wheatfield.

And this is what people would do in like someone, someone that

would would be getting under somebody's skin or it was an

enemy. This is how they would, this is

how they get back at people. They would throw weed seed on

somebody's wheat field in order to sabotage their harvest.

It was actually a strategy of, of, of ancient enemies in

warfare. It was, it was actually, it was

actually a Roman law that outlawed throwing sewing Darnell

in, in people's wheat fields. So this was a common everyday

experience. We, we don't, I don't know if

our neighbors are throwing weed seed on our lawns very often,

but this was what Jesus was referring to help us to help us

to understand more fully the Kingdom.

And so verse 36, he's explaining the parable, the disciples come

to us and then he left the crowd went into the house.

His disciples came to him and said, Explain to us the parable

of the weeds in the field. And he answered, The one who

sowed the good seed is the son of man.

The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people

of the Kingdom. The weeds are the people of the

evil. 1 and the enemy who sows them is the devil.

The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are

angels. Let's just pause right there.

So already we see, if you know the parable of the sower,

there's a different representation going on in the

sewer. The seed.

The seed is the word of God. The parable of the sower.

Here the seed is people and there are there's good and bad.

There's wheat seed and weed seed and notice that you know the

soar in the parable of the sower was God himself.

Here it's the Son of man that's Jesus.

He's referring to himself. Interesting connection to note.

He's putting himself really in the place of God there, divinity

of Jesus being shown here. And then the harvest, the

harvest in the sower was really the multiplication of believers.

But here the harvest is referred to as the end of the age.

And This is why we have the angels who are doing the

harvesting at the very end. Let's move on verse 40.

As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will

be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his

angels, and they will weed out of his Kingdom everything that

causes sin, and all who do evil. They will throw them into the

blazing furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of

teeth. Then the righteous will shine

like the sun and the Kingdom of the of their Father.

Whoever has the ears, let them hear.

And so we have at the end of the age, a separation that's going

on. The wheat and the and the weeds

were allowed to grow up together, but then there's a

time when they will be separated.

In fact, when we read on to the parable of the net, this is what

happened as well. The net gathers all kinds of

fish and then the fishermen haul it up and then they separate the

good fish from the bad fish. There's a separation going on.

And it said that the weeds are going to be thrown into the

blazing furnace where there be weeping and mashing of teeth.

This, this language, it's, it's kind of metaphorical for the

final judgment when people will stand before God and not have a

leg to stand on. It's a pretty frightening

picture. Now if you are a follower of

Jesus Christ, there is incredibly good news.

It means that we do not have to fear the judgment.

And this is this is so much a part of the good news that we

have to share with with the world.

There is a day of accountability that everyone is going to

experience and we need to be ready for that day.

And we do not have to have any fear about facing the living

God. Why?

Because for a Christian, for someone who has received Jesus

Christ in his death on the cross, all of our sin is

forgiven sin. It's already judged, it was

judged on the cross, and now we have been declared innocent, and

in fact, not just innocent but righteous as though we had never

seen before. That is the gift that God has

given to us in Jesus Christ. We do not have to fear, but when

we think about the final judgment as Christians, and

particularly those who will face that final judgment without

Christ, it should bring tears to our eyes.

It should overwhelm us. There should be no pride in the

human sense at all, no gloating, no whatever.

It should make us weep. And that's what should be

compelling us to share the good news of Jesus Christ to prepare

others for that day. The very last verse 43 says then

the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their

father, shine like the sun. That language is actually lifted

from Daniel chapter 12 that says this, that those who are wise

Daniel 12 · chapter mention

will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who

lead many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.

You and I were meant to be like stars, but we were meant to be

shining like the sun in The Dark World, announcing the goodness

of God and inviting people in to this experience of His Kingdom,

Each one of us. It's again about multiplication

leading many to righteousness. That is our Commission.

That is our mandate. So what's our take away?

What would we take away from this?

First of all, the, the there's two king.

There's there's, there's two kinds of crops, right, wheat and

the weeds. That means that there's two

kinds of kingdoms, and they're operating and growing alongside

of each other, and it's they're inevitably in contact, in

conflict with one another, which means that we're always gonna be

facing opposition, always going to be facing opposition.

There's going to be disappointments along the way.

Think about it, many of us have children who have lost their

way, maybe have been raised in the church, but are not

currently in a relationship with God and it's just heartbreaking

to see. That's part of the reality right

now. There are frustrations that we

can have. Maybe we have been sharing the

good news with a coworker or with a neighbor and there just

doesn't seem to be any connection there.

It's like there's there's no response can be very, very, very

frustrating. Like why don't they get it?

Jesus is telling us that there there's opposition to the

Kingdom of God. It's operating in all of our

hearts and some in some regard, but also can be very anxiety

producing. And and this is the other thing

is that when we, you know, we, we wanna share the good news,

sometimes we're timid about that.

How are they gonna react, You know, Are they gonna think ill

of me? Am I gonna lose a friend?

Is there gonna be some form of persecution?

There's, there's the fear that's there.

So what do we do with all that? This is what this parable is all

about. Jesus is teaching us how to be

better multipliers. So what do we need to do?

Three things I'll leave with you #1 we need to shift our

expectations. This parable is all about

waiting. It's all about waiting.

At the time of Jesus coming, when people heard that the

Messiah had arrived, there was a great expectation that was gonna

be a political overthrow and it was gonna be immediate.

And when that didn't happen, there was discouragement.

And Jesus is saying, no, the Kingdom of God is.

It's not like that. It's not like military power

that come in and pounce and use force.

It's happening in people, one person at a time.

It's like a seed. You know when you drop a seed in

the ground, it's not like bombs away.

No, it's you drop it in the ground and it's like, where did

it go? I can't even see it anymore.

It's like, it's that it starts small like that, but God is at

work. I mean, just think about the

Almighty, potent God and the way that he works.

He's so gentle. He's so kind with us and as

Christians we were meant to reflect that to the world, not

trying to force anything, but sharing the love of God.

The the medium is as important as the message as those who are

being changed by it. So the Kingdom of God is, it's

not this political shift. It's far more radical, far more

comprehensive than that. It's working in human hearts and

it does take time. The Kingdom is like farming.

This is what Jesus is saying. It's like farming and farmers

need to plant seed and they wait.

So the seed has been sown and we have to continue to sew it, and

we wait for the crop, and the crop hasn't come yet.

The Kingdom has already come when Jesus Christ came, but it

hasn't been fully realized yet. And so we're in this place of

waiting. We need to have patience.

And there are going to be setbacks, all kinds of setbacks.

Feels like our prayers aren't answered.

Feels like people are taking, you know, steps backwards.

All that stuff is gonna happen. Jesus preparing us for it.

Shift your expectations and don't worry because the harvest

will come and he will win in the end.

He will win in the end. Second thing, we need to avoid

premature judgments. This parable also is about

misreading things. We have two very different kinds

of of plants that are growing up and ones a weed and ones a weed.

And we can't distinguish which one is which right until the

heads, until you know that it's fully grown, and then then we

can see. But we can learn from this and

that is we don't know where people really are at.

And so we don't want to write anybody off somebody that might

look like a weed, like don't judge that way.

The the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

Are you aware of that parable? We often think that that parable

is about the prodigal son, but it's actually not about the

prodigal son. It's about our attitude toward

the prodigal son, our attitudes toward the prodigals.

Jesus in Luke chapter 15, this is this is how it how it reads.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

It says now the the the tax collectors and sinners were all

gathered around to hear Jesus. Tax collectors, sinners, the

riffraff is society, all love Jesus.

But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered,

This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.

Then Jesus told them this parable.

He was telling the parable to the Pharisees, to the upright

religious people, and he's dealing with their attitude, and

he's gonna tell the parable of the lost coin, the lost sheep,

the lost coin and the lost sun in order to confront them about

the way that they saw people who have lost their way.

So we don't want to write anybody off.

But on the other flip side, we don't want to assume that if

someone's morally upright or coming to church that they're in

the Kingdom. We don't ever want to make that

assumption. You know, you might be thinking,

OK, well, is the person next to me a weed?

Like, you know, that's the exact opposite attitude that Jesus is

teaching. He's saying, no, you don't worry

about that kind of stuff, just continue to preach the gospel.

Preaching the gospel is not something we just do with

unbelievers. We need, I need to hear the

gospel every day, multiple times a day.

I need to hear about the love that God has for me because

sometimes I forget, sometimes I lose my way.

I I need to hear that God has shown me, not just told me that

he loves me that he's shown me by sending his one and only son

to live that life that I couldn't live and to die that

death. I deserve to die.

And then he has made his enemy his friend.

I I need to hear that. And through my repentance, my

turning away from my sin and trusting in Him and His work,

that's how transformation happens in my life.

And it's something that's meant to be happening on a daily

basis, on an ongoing basis. I need to hear that gospel.

You need to hear that gospel. We need to be preaching the

Gospel to one another in love so that we will be built up in this

most holy faith. So make no assumptions about our

children, You know, just continue to bring the gospel.

Don't assume that because our children are in Sunday school

that they're now all of a sudden Christians.

We need to continue to bring the gospel, bring the gospel, bring

the gospel to them. Jesus saying, you know, if we,

if we, if we start yanking what we think are weeds too early, we

can, we can do some major damage with the wheat.

And so just realize that there's going to be a mixture, there's a

mixture of weeds and wheat in society, and it's the reality in

the church as well. So we need to keep preaching

that gospel, but we also need to know the difference between a

wheat and weed. We need to know the difference

what is a wheat? A wheat is the good is is from

the good seed. It's coming from it.

The wheat is going to grow up into the likeness of the one who

sowed it, and that's Jesus Christ.

We're gonna be coming closer to Him and becoming more and more

like Him. There's gonna be a growing

humility in us. We're gonna see because we're

close to Jesus more and more of our faults and at the same time

we're gonna see just how much He loves us and that His grace is

greater than all of our sin. And we're gonna lose our swagger

and our pride and we're gonna grow in humility and sensitivity

to people as we're that's a sign that we're wheat is when we're

growing in the likeness of Jesus Christ.

We need like structure doesn't do that isn't moving that way.

It might have a religious covering or shell, but on the

inside nothing is happening. And if you're wondering

personally right now, if you're a bit unsure, am I wheat or am I

weed? You know, weed.

I'm talking about a my weed or weed actually.

Sorry, I shouldn't even be light at that moment.

You can be sure like you can know that you're weed and it

comes by just a simple confession saying Lord Jesus, I

need you to save me. I need your saving grace in my

life like I cannot be acceptable on my own.

I need your life and your death on my behalf.

Be my savior. If that's an honest prayer,

that's potency. And the other side of it is, is

I need you to be my Lord. I need you to be my king.

I, I am no longer the king of my life.

I'm not ruling my life. You're gonna call the shots and

if you have him as your savior and Lord you, you are wheat, my

friend. You can have that assurance and

he doesn't want us to doubt that.

He wants us to know. He wants us to know and we enter

into a relationship like that. Third thing, I gotta keep

moving. Last thing and that is that we

need to keep sowing seed. Keep sowing seed.

This is all about shining, shining like the sun.

Jesus says. We talked last week about ways

that we can be sowing seed. And you know, one of those ways

would be to hate sharing my story.

And after the service, right after the service, we're serving

lunch, but we're also talking about how do we get better at

sharing our story. If you're, if you're lacking

confidence in or don't know what your story is to share the hope

that you have in Jesus Christ. This is the, the, the classes

that we're that we're doing 3 sessions.

It's, you know, if you want to be baptized, if you want to

profess your faith for sure. But if you just want to learn

how to Share your story, join us for that would be very, very

helpful. But so we've talked about the

the ways that we can sow, but really the motivation behind it

all kind of comes. We can know all the ways, but if

we're not joyfully obedient to God's command to multiply,

knowing all the ways isn't gonna help us.

And so it has to start with that sense of obedience that we've

been adopted into this family. We have been given new birth,

not just so that we can feel peace in our heart or have warm

fuzzies or have these groovy vibes of Christian community,

which are all awesome, but knowing that man, he, he, you

died for me, Jesus, and now I've got heaven guaranteed for me.

Whatever you want, I want, whatever you say I'm gonna do.

I don't care how impractical it might sound or or what how much

I may want it or not want it, I'm going to obey you.

It always comes down to obedience and it's through that

simple obedience where multiplication takes place.

Remember the the feeding of the 5000?

If you remember that story where Jesus takes this, you know,

couple of buns and a few fish and from, from a little kid and,

and he's gonna feed 5000 people with it.

When does the miracle take place in that story?

It's as the disciples take these meager portions and start

distributing them, distributing them to the people, and all of a

sudden they keep going and going and going, and the food is

multiplied and all the people are fed.

It's in that simple act of obedience.

And sometimes that obedience seems really wild, really

strange, making no sense. But the Lord leads us into that

kind of stuff. This is not a human activity.

Multiplication is not a human endeavor.

We don't do it. We just obey what God has told

us to do and sowing that seed, and let Him do the rest of the

work. Acts 1 verse 8.

Acts 1:8

This is kind of summarizes, but you will receive power when the

Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in

Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the

earth. You'll receive power when need

that power. So when we wake up in the

morning, friends, we need to realize that we're entering into

an adventure with the Holy Spirit, that I'm not just going

to work. I'm not just looking after kids,

I'm not just volunteering in my community.

I am entering into the work of God, this incredible venture of

God to bring His love, spread His love into the world and

multiply disciples. God's at work.

We need to stay in the game. The Kingdom cannot be stopped.

The weeds will not overtake the wheat.

Expect opposition, to be sure, but shift our expectations,

avoid premature judgments, and keep sowing the seed.

Lord help us to do so. Amen.