12+1 Core Values: Growth Resulting | Jason Martin

You're listening to a message to go from X Church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

So today, I will go straight into it. So the

12th value. What is the 12th value? If you all

have your books, if you need an additional copy of

the book or you forgot to bring, you might be

able to raise your hand, get one. Yeah, okay. So

the 12th value is Anyone shout it out? What's the

12th value? All right, all the kids are looking at

my slides before it goes up because they're doing XTV. Okay,

so it's called growth resulting. Growth resulting. How many of

us want to grow? How many of us want to grow? No?

It depends on what you want to grow, right? You

don't want to grow wide. You want to grow tall, right?

You don't want to grow and become, yeah, some people

don't want to grow old. Some, you do not want

to grow in terms of, well, I don't want to

grow in terms of the responsibility I take. I don't

want to grow in terms of the pressures of this world.

But we also want to grow in terms of wow,

my bank account is growing, right? How many of y'all

want to say amen to that? Or you want to say,

I want to grow in my influence. How many wants

to say yes to that? That's a double-edged sword, right?

If you want to grow in your influence, with great

power comes great. Yes. So if it grows in terms

of that, Influence, it also comes with responsibility. But all

of us, in general, in general, we want to grow.

In general, okay? And when you look at it, why

is this the 12th value? Because it is also taken

from the book of Acts, Acts chapter 2. All the

Acts 2 · chapter mention

12 values, 12 plus 1 values, are all taken from

Acts chapter 2. Because that was where the first church

Acts 2 · chapter mention

was mentioned. So let me take us through the verse.

Next slide. And the Lord added to the church daily

those who were being saved. Acts 2.47. Acts 2.47. So

who added to the church? Who added to the church?

The Lord. God is the one who added to the church.

And how often did he add to the church? How often? Daily.

God added to the church daily. Those who were being saved.

So if you were looking at it, right? Axe Clank,

how often do we meet? Once a week. How many

weeks are there in a year? 52 weeks. So if

we are following the same formula because we are called

X church, right? And so we are supposed to follow

the church, the first church. How many newcomers that we

would have received would have said the salvation prayer by

the end of the year? 52, right? If you are

following the same formula in terms of this. And that

is quite a remarkable figure. If we can get even

five salvations, we'll be like, wow, that's amazing. But that

was how amazing the first church was. That means every

day there was new people getting saved. But then you're

saying that, hey, Last time, nobody got saved. So now,

first time they're hearing the gospel. So of course, there's

an exponential growth. Maybe. But again, it was because of God.

God is the one that brought the increase. So at church,

we're supposed to be growth resulting. That's the 12th value. Okay?

How do these 12 values work? We covered all 12

values already. So I wanted to do a recap because

how many of us remember all the 12 values? No, right?

Because it is a challenge and we might have forgotten it.

We might have forgotten how it tied into each other.

And more importantly, yes, what is the whole big picture?

Is it just random 12 values that sounds good, looks good,

looks good on a mug, looks good on a t-shirt,

so let's put it into our 12 values?

No.

Because it is what God has placed on X church,

there has to be a reason why. So I put

it together in this next slide. How the values work together.

So you can see that there is actually a big picture.

How all these values work together. This is a picture

of a tree. You know, recently we went for a

short trip to Terengganu. Then when we went hiking up

the hill, there was a massive tree. I think like

300 over years old. Stuff like that. For a tree

to survive 300 plus years old, what it requires is

strong roots. So the strong roots are the first few values,

which is spirit-filled, Christ-centered, word-faithful, and also prayer-powered. So these

few values are the root. Once we get the root right,

what happens next? Then we start building the trunk of

the tree. The trunk becomes stronger, bigger. And that's the

trunk of the tree and also the branches is the community.

Ownership promoting. Unity guarded. You know, we have to stand

together as one. We have to be discipleship focused because

that's how we build a community. We build a church.

And we have to be kingdom-minded. Always looking out. Once

we get the trunk and the branches done, that is

when we will start bearing fruit. And what does the

fruit look like? The fruit looks like faith evident. When

people look at you, they will see that, wow, this

guy has faith. That is what faith evident is. Praise generating.

When people talk to you, they feel happier because you

are praise generating. You speak of the goodness of God.

You testify. No matter if there's a raid. I saw

yesterday on social media, yesterday it was very hazy. And

then my friends, they went cycling, right? Then they took

a picture of the sun in the morning. So it

was red. Then they say, wow, thank you for our

neighboring country that we have such a beautiful sunrise. You know,

that is like you're looking at the positive things. Although

it's surrounded by haze. So you're praise generating. Community evaluated.

The people around you, they look at you and say that, wow,

whenever you are around, things are better. And if you're

not there, you are missed. Not If you're not there, well,

thank God he's not here. Then that also is being

community evaluated, but on a flip side. And the last

one is generosity branded, which will be covered next week. Okay?

So if we get our roots right and we are

building our community strong, these are the fruits that you

will see. And with the fruits that you will see,

The output is the harvest. That results in growth. So

you can see, growth comes when we get all these

things done together. Growth doesn't come bottom. That's why he said,

it is not growth-inducing. It is called growth-resulting. The value

that we are talking about or the value that God

has given to church, our church, is growth resulting, not

growth inducing. What is growth inducing? That means forcing growth.

Can we force anything to grow? The only thing you

can force to grow is your body. Right? You stuff

it with junk food, you will grow. Growth inducing. Right?

Or you want to grow muscles, you can grow. But

you can't, you can't force a tree to grow. You

can't force your child to grow. You can't force, even sometimes,

even your career, right? You can do all you can,

but sometimes there are other factors as well. But what

it says here, our value is growth resulting. Meaning if

we get our foundations right, we get the roots right,

we get the branches right, the tree grows up tall,

it spreads its branches, then it will bear fruit. So

that is growth resulting. Okay. So now I wanted to

play a short video. I'm going to play a short video. Okay,

the kids are panicking at the back. Wow, I didn't

know the fruits glow in the dark.

Stories of the Bible. The parable of the farmer. This

is Jesus, who is the Son of God and the

Savior of the world. While Jesus was on earth, he

taught everyone about God's love. He healed many people from

their sickness, performed many miracles like calming storms, and even

raised people from the dead. One day, Jesus went and

sat beside the sea. A great crowd gathered around him.

So he got in a boat and told them many

things and parables. He told them this story. A farmer

went out to plant some seed. As he scattered it

across his field, some of the seed fell on a

footpath where it was stepped on. and the birds came

and ate it. Other seed fell on shallow soil among rocks.

The seed began to grow quickly because the soil was shallow,

but the plant soon wilted under the hot sun, and

since it didn't have deep roots, it died. Other seed

fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the

tender plants. Still, other seed fell on fertile soil This

seed grew and produced a crop that was a hundred

times as much as had been planted. When Jesus had

said this, he called out, Anyone with ears to hear

should listen and understand.

Hey, Jesus! Yeah.

Later, the disciples came to Jesus and asked what this

parable meant. Jesus said, The seed that fell on the

footpath represents those who hear the message, only to have

Satan come at once and take it away. The seed

on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message

and immediately receive it with joy. But since they don't

have deep roots... They don't last long. They fall away

as soon as they have problems or are treated badly

for believing God's word. The seed that fell among the

thorns represents others who hear God's word. But all too quickly,

the message is crowded out by the worries of this

life and the desire for other things. And the seed

that fell on good soil represents those who hear and

accept God's word and produce a harvest of 30, 60,

or even 100 times as much as had been planted.

All right. Okay.

So this is a story about growth. And it's about seeds.

All right. And there are four different soils that were mentioned.

There are four different soils. So do you all remember

the soils? What are some of the soils? Footpath, okay.

Tons and? And? One more? Perfect soil.

All right.

Okay, so can I go to the next slide? Go

to the next slide. Yes. So you have the wayside

soil or the footpath, the wayside, the rocky ground, the

tawny ground, and good soil. So the wayside soil is

actually hardened. You know, we hear, this is people who

hear the gospel, but their heart is hardened and the

devil snatches it away. So how do these 12 values

tie to these four soils? You know, this is my

interpretation of it. It's not the interpretation of the parable,

but how do we draw parallels about these four soils

and the 12 values. So for the wayside soil, the

values that we can counter this is that we have

to be Christ-centered. And then we have to, when we

are Christ-centered, we fix our attention on Jesus. Word receptive.

We are open to the Word. We know what the

Bible is saying. And we receive that. Because those who

are on the footpath or the wayward thing, Christ is

not centered. That's why the devil is easily able to

snatch it away. And the top right is rocky ground.

So rocky ground are people who hear the good news

and they accept Jesus. They accept Jesus. They accept Jesus,

but Because it's rocky ground, you know that when the

growing gets tough, these guys get going out of the faith.

They leave the faith. Because it becomes too difficult to

follow Jesus. It becomes too challenging to follow Jesus, so

they decide to leave. And how do these 12 values,

how do we ensure that we are not Christians of

the rocky path? The 12 values that we cover is

that we have to be prayer-powered. When we are going

through tough times, we pray so that we sustain our root.

We cry out to Jesus. We have to be faith-evident.

That means when the going gets tough, do we exercise

our faith? Faith is a muscle that needs to be exercised.

And it's the same as the gym. If you go

and take a dumbbell which is 1kg and keep on

working out at it, you will only have 1kg muscles.

You know, the muscles, the size. If you want to

grow bigger muscles, you have to have bigger resistance. Same thing.

If you want to be a stronger Christian, you will

go through different challenges. And that will build our faith muscle.

So that is faith evidence. And also word faithful. What

does the word of God say? Even though times are tough,

even though I walk through the valley of the shadow

of death, I will fear no evil. So you know

the Bible, you quote the Bible, you believe in what

the Bible says. So that when challenges come your way,

you can stand firm. Next one is tawny ground. So

tawny ground, you know the word. You know, you believe

in Jesus. But right now, there are things that seem

much more appealing than following Jesus. It can be fame.

It can be fortune. It can be popularity. It can

be sports. It can be anything. Anything. that draws our

attention away from God. You know, and all these things

are not bad. But the moment they become bad is

when they become God. They become an idol. And that

is tawny ground. So tawny ground, we are choked by

cares and riches. So this is when the values that

we need to counter this tawny ground is we have

to be kingdom-minded, not worldly-minded. We have to be kingdom-minded.

We have to be generous. Because a lot of times,

it's about getting more for me. All these distractions, right,

is about getting more for you. whether it's health, whether

it's wealth, whether it's popularity, whether it's fame. But when

you are generous, you are thinking about others. And also

ownership promoting. Do you take ownership of your faith? Do

you take ownership on what you believe? And finally, the

last one is good soil. So the good soil, it

hears these people here retain, persevere, and bear fruit. And

this is what we want. Because the good soil, they

are unity-guarded. They will be discipleship-focused. And they are also community-evaluated.

When people look at them, they say, oh, this guy

is a Christian. No wonder he doesn't do that because

he is a Christian. And that's good soil. So when

you look at it, the 12 values... If we need

all these 12 values in our lives so that then

we can be growth resulting. So there are three questions

in the book, right? So the first one. Next slide.

Growth is biblical. So growth is biblical. Growth does not

just belong to all the internet gurus, you know, YouTube

gurus talking about growth, mindset, stuff like that. Growth is biblical.

God wants us to grow. Next slide. Healthy things grow.

Do you believe that healthy things grow? What is the

opposite of growth? It can be decay. And decay starts

with stagnation. Right? You stop growing. So when we talk

about growth, it's not just a church strategy. It's how

life works. Your career, you want to grow. All the

students in church today, right, in service, How many of

y'all have repeated standard one? No, right? You always want

to grow and go to year two, year three, year four,

year five. All that is considered growth. You want to

grow even if you're doing sports. Why do you practice?

You practice so that you will grow as a sports person.

All of us want to grow. So it's not just

about chess strategy, but it is about life. The moment

we say that, hey, I had enough of growing. And that's,

some people do say that. It's like, hey, enough already.

I just want to chill.

You know?

And so my dad, my dad is now 78 years old.

He's 78 years old, so he retired from the government

18 years ago. And he's the type of guy that

he always needs to keep busy. So when he retired

18 years ago, then it was chaos at home. Because

he'll be like, why are you all not doing anything?

What are you all doing? He'll be like, because he's

at home. We cannot sleep in. We cannot be like,

lazing around. So he'll be like, he was so, he

felt that he was, he had nothing to do. So suddenly,

everything else became his business. Then we'll be like, oh man.

But he, yeah, fix the air conditioner. Yeah, maybe. But

you know now, at 78, he's still working. So he

actually retired from the government service, but he went back

to work in the private sector. And the funny thing is,

in June, just last month, not last month, now it's August.

So in June, when we went over for dinner to

my mom's place and all that, then he told me, eh,

so I finally decided to retire. So I was like, oh, okay, good.

Good lah. Good, I finally decided to retire. July, he's like, eh,

I'm starting work on Monday. I was like, what? So

he really cannot retire. And because of that, he's so mentally,

his capability, his fitness, I mean, he has the heart condition,

but that has been treated He's so alert. And he

does that. I mean, he is my inspiration. Because you

know why he goes to work? So he's a doctor.

He's a doctor. You know why he goes to work?

He goes to work and he chooses, he has been

in the government sector all his life. So, even last

time I also asked him, why don't you go to

private sector? You know, private sector, more money. You know,

and then you, of course, can earn more. It's like,

then the private sector, I can't reach people who really

need medicine or really need healthcare. So that's why he

was always in public sector. So now when he goes

back to the clinics also, he goes to clinics which

are in lower income areas. So when he goes to,

and when he works in those clinics, some people come up,

Cannot afford, then he will... Don't need to pay. Give

for free. Or he will come in and then they

will come and talk to him about the different thing

and then he will start ministering to them and pray

for them. So that is his... So he constantly is

growing and constantly giving. Generosity. You know, he's giving of

his time and... And his idea of a holiday. All

the time we ask him, hey, go for a holiday.

His idea of a holiday, right? One of the times

he went, his idea of a holiday is to go

for mission trips. So one of the times he went

for mission trip to Nepal and that was when the,

you know, the Himalayas, there was the earthquake. So we

lost contact with him. But then thank God he was safe.

But he feels, when you talk to him, about missions,

you talk to him about reaching people, his eyes will

light up and he has that kind of fire and passion.

So when I look at it, I'm like, hey, man,

I can't retire. Shouldn't think about retiring. Because retiring, it's

about doing, none of us can retire from what God

wants us to do. You can retire from a job

But you can't retire from a calling. Right? You can

retire from a job. You can retire. But the calling

that God has placed on your life is there until

He calls you back. And that is what it means

by healthy things grow. We continuously grow into the person

God wants us to be. Next slide. I go to

the next slide. Okay. A plant that isn't growing isn't resting.

You know that? A plant that isn't growing isn't resting.

But sometimes, for us, we say that, hey, I don't

want to grow already. I just want to chill. You're

not resting. Because in the natural, a plant does not rest.

It either grows or it starts dying. So that is

something quite... That's a perspective to have. You are either growing...

upwards or growing downwards. There is no in between. There

is no, time does not stop. So when a plant

isn't growing, you look at the plant, you look at it, hey,

something is wrong. I probably have to change the soil,

I have to change, where the sun is, I have

to probably give it fertilizer. We recognize something is wrong

when the plant isn't growing. But do we recognize ourselves

and we see, hey, I'm not growing. Is there, what

do I need to change? What has happened? Am I

in the tawny ground? Am I in the stony ground?

Or am I in the footpath? Has the devil stolen

away my joy? So sometimes it's very easy to recognize

it for others. But it's very tough for us to

recognize in ourselves whether we are growing or not. But

know this, there is no resting. You know? When you're resting,

if you say you're resting, right? There's time stop. No.

Time does not stop. Time goes on. Okay? Next. A

child that isn't developing isn't taking a break. A child

that isn't developing isn't taking a break. As a parent,

when a child is not developing, what happens to the parent?

You panic Or you're straight away like, hey, what's happening?

I need to seek for help. I need to find out.

I need to help my child grow. I need to

help my child develop. Something needs attention. You will try

and find the right person or the right method, the

right school. You will try to do everything so that

your child can continue to develop. And that is what

we do as parents. Sometimes writers, you know, writers, they

have writer's block. They are writing a book and then

they suddenly get stuck. Or even songwriters, they can't get

a song out and there's something blocked. They need some

external stimulation or something to get that mental block off.

They will go for a walk. they will expose themselves

to new experiences and that will help remove the block.

The next slide. Growth is not manufactured, it is cultivated.

When a plant grows, you have to cultivate the plant.

You have to put it in a proper environment, You

have to put it with the proper nutrients, put it

with the proper care. Then it will grow. You can't

force a plant to grow. How many of us have

bought plants before? Last time before, I was into sports.

I think, no, I was always into sports. But I

think when we first got married, for a short while,

I was into the gardening. What? For a very short time,

it seems now like a distant memory. You go to

the nursery, you go and look at the plants. Wow,

all look so green, so lush. You look at the flowers,

look so vibrant. You bring them home, all like... You're like,

what happened? You can't force it to grow. I can't

force it to grow. I buy it, I bring it home,

I try and do everything that I can, it still dies.

I can't manufacture the growth. I can't buy something that

somebody has cultivated and bring it here and expect it

to grow the same way. It has to be cultivated.

And sometimes, most of the time, we are looking for

the formula. Sometimes, it works in the natural, but it

does not work in the spiritual. There is no formula

for the spiritual. For the natural, yes. That's why you

go to school, you know, you grow from standard one

to standard two, year one, year two. That's a formula.

You go through that, then you will reach university and

then you graduate with a degree or diploma and then

you come out to work. That's a formula. But in

the spiritual, we try and follow formulas and formulas fail.

Because For example, in church. If you've been in church

long enough, you know, hey, we're not getting newcomers. What

should we do? Run some campaigns. Let's do some events.

Let's get busy. Either that or we look at the

number of people. Is this event successful or not? We

look by the number of people. Or, and because of that,

we say, hey, all of us need to work harder.

You know, we have to hustle. Have you heard that thing?

The hustle culture is when you don't see results, you

work harder. You work harder, you sacrifice your time, your talent,

your family, a lot of things because you want to

see the results. But God's way is a better way.

So what God blesses, is about cultivating. So when we

don't see growth, then we have to look at the conditions. Why?

Are we living out the 12 values? Are we being

faith evident? Are we being Christ-centered? If we are not growing,

don't look at all the external campaigns. Look at all

the things. Are we living out the values that God

has asked us to live out? If not, then that

is something we need to fix. Character. Character is only developed.

How do you know if somebody has a good character

or not? Can you judge someone's character based on a

first date? Anyone? This is a good pointer for the

teens or the campus students in the future. Aloysius said no.

So how many dates before you can judge the character? Okay,

there's no magic number. But a person's character or the person's...

the depth, right? You will only know a person's character

when you see the person going through tough times. When

things are going fine, everyone's character looks equal because it's fine.

But when you're going through challenges, that's when somebody's character

really shines. And that is something God wants us to cultivate,

our character. and dependence. When there is no growth, are

we praying? When there is growth, are we praying? Are

we praying no matter what? Instead of looking for strategies,

instead of looking at what other churches are doing, instead

of looking at social media to come up with brilliant ideas,

are we turning to God in prayer? Are we checking

ourselves to see whether we are living by our 12 values?

And are we growing deeper? Our character, you know when

your character grows the most? When you go through tough times,

like I mentioned. Failure produces more character than success. failure

produces more character. You learn failure is a better teacher

than success. And that's why when we go through failure,

do we turn to God? When we go through success,

do we turn to God?

Okay?

Next.

So no marketing, no budgets, no platforms, yet the Lord

added to the first church daily. You ask them, what's

your social media game? How come every time you got

new converts, But it was God that added daily. Okay? Next.

So the persecuted churches with no resources still grew. That

showed that growth is God-driven and not man-driven. When a

church is persecuted, it means that they are stripped from

every resource. They are being challenged. They are talking about survival.

You don't even know whether today you'll be in prison,

tomorrow you will be killed. But this is the church

that grew. And it's not because of human wisdom. but

it's because that this growth was driven by God. So

now moving to the second point. So the second point

is growth is God's work. So like what we mentioned,

you can plant the seed. After you plant the seed,

how can you force the seed to grow? Can you

lay your hands and pray away it and then suddenly

it'll grow? God is the one that will cause the

seed to grow. Next, 1 Corinthians 3 verse 6. I planted,

1 Corinthians 3:6

Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So think about this, right?

Even in our own lives, sometimes our career, you might

be trying so hard to have a breakthrough. But God

has just called us to be faithful. God has not

called us to be successful. God has called us to

be faithful. You know the quote by Mother Teresa, right?

And when we are faithful, God is the one that

will bring the increase. So next slide. So it ties

to just now the earlier point or so, right? Between

the manufacturing growth and cultivating growth. If you work in

a company and when the sales is going down, have

you worked in a company where the sales is going

down and then the management comes to you and say,

hey guys, we need to try harder. We need to

measure more. And then we have to look at We

scrutinize everything that you have done before and see what

else you can do. And then you keep on hiring

consultants or getting ideas, new strategies to build that. And

then we try and explain, oh, there was a drop

because of this, because of that. Find all the excuses.

And that's what happens in the natural world. But when

we are working with God, we have to examine. When

we're working with God, right, when things don't go according

to plan, when it stalls, it's about looking inward. Instead

of looking outward and blaming everything else, we look inward.

Am I aligned to God? Am I walking according to

the values that He has given to me? How healthy

am I? And then you believe that when there is

an increase, God is the one that gave the increase.

So if you're going through tough times, then it is

also God's problem. Don't take God's problem and make it

our problem. Because we can't solve it. Only God can

bring the increase. Put the values and then we return

back to basics. So next. We do not add to

the church. He does. Although I'm talking about church, right?

Like what I mentioned, these 12 values applies to our

daily life as well. If we are seeing that we

are stalling in different areas of our life, we bring

it back to Him. Instead of going to all the

self-help books in the There's so many self-help books and

now we've got so many podcasts of so many different things.

And I'm guilty of this as well. Because sometimes you

just want a quick fix. But God sometimes does not

give us the quick fix because He wants to build

our character. And that's why it makes it long and slow.

And until we learn what He wants us to learn,

then only the growth will come. Okay, next. We prepare

the soil, He brings the harvest. So, what is the soil?

The soil is our lives. Our lives. Are our lives

good soil? Or are our lives tawny ground? You know

the parable of the sower, right? We are not the seeds,

we are the soil. Are we the wayward path or

are we stony ground? What our role is to cultivate

our path, to remove all the rocks, remove all the thorns,

make sure that we are put in a proper place,

that we plant ourselves in a proper place where it

is good soil. where not the birds can come and...

You know, the birds can be attack of the enemy.

If we place ourselves right where the enemy wants us

to be, he can attack us. That's why it says,

submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee

from you. He didn't ask us to go and fight

the devil. He didn't ask us to fight temptation. Flee

from temptation. And that will... then we will make sure

that we will be good soil. Okay? And this is

the last point. So what do we do when growth stops?

When growth stops, next, don't normalize it. You just say, oh,

we're just going through a phase. Or it's normal lah.

Everyone is going through this. Like what was mentioned earlier, right?

When a plant stops growing, it does not rest. So

don't normalize stagnation. And this also, like for example, right?

Like I'm also into running, like Denzel knows. And I

know I'm stagnation. I'm not progressing. because I'm not putting

in the effort, I'm not putting in what it takes,

are my values of running, best practice of running, am

I practicing it? If not, I cannot expect to hit

a personal best. Same thing. If not, you will just

explain it away. If I want to normalize it, of

course I'm busy, got work, So that's why it's expected.

And we can explain non-growth and make ourselves feel good.

But at the end of the day, it is still what?

It is still stagnation.

Next.

So we have to go back to the basics. When

we realize we're not growing, go back to the basics. Why?

Examine the 12 principles values that we went through, which

of it am I not living? Which of it am

I lacking? You know, and as I was preparing this,

I was thinking that although I'm reaching the end of

these 12 values, I was thinking that, hey, my daily

devotion moving forward, I will take one of these values

and do my daily devotion on this. Just to examine

myself to make sure that I am in check. and

I'm heading the right direction. Then only we are positioning

ourselves for growth. Okay, next. So stagnation is an indicator,

not a verdict. When we are not growing, it does

not mean it's the end. It does not mean full stop.

It's just an indicator. It's the same like your car.

When your car got low fuel, it's an indicator to

tell you, please go and fuel up. If you are

not growing, it's an indicator. It's an indicator to tell us,

what do we need to check? What do I need

to top up so that I can go further? And

the last slide is this. The God who added daily

to the early church is still adding today. God does

not change. The thing is, are we positioned, have we

positioned ourselves like the first church? If we say that

God is the same yesterday, today and forever, the Bible,

whatever is spoken today, whatever is written in the Bible

is valid till today, if there is no growth, then

it is not because God stopped. It's because whether we

are good soil is for us to check. So I

wanted to end with this story. Probably I get the

band up. Okay, so I'll end with this story. So

it was a Friday evening in a quiet town in

northern Iran. Eighty believers had gathered in a home. The

walls were thin, the curtains drawn, a single lookout posted

at the gate. They sang softly. No instruments louder than

a guitar. No visible light from the road. They knew

the risk. Meeting like this without a government-recognized church, without permission,

as converts from the majority race, was itself a crime

in the eyes of the state. But they had also

learned something the wider church rarely has to learn, that

the word of God, once it costs you something, roots

deeper than it ever did when it was free. Then

came a knock. Not a knock, a door breaking. 20 men,

plain clothes, the IRGC. They tore through the room. Confiscated Bibles.

The guitar was smashed. The agents moved from believers to

believers searching for anyone wearing a cross. ripping it from

their necks the moment they found one. Some were struck,

some were injured badly enough to need a doctor. But

when the ambulance came, the same agents blocked it at

the gate. One woman was taken that night. She would

spend months in a cell before the world outside even

learned her name. A few weeks later, in another city,

a bulldozer arrived outside a church building. Not a raid

this time, a total demolition, ordered from the top. By

the morning, the building where the believers had gathered for

years was rubble. You would think that that's the end

of the story. A crushed guitar, a demolished church, a

woman in prison, It reads like defeat, but it isn't.

Because in Iran today, there is no headquarters, no church

network the government can decapitate, no single building whose destruction

can stop what's happening. The church in Iran is described

by those who study it as one of the fastest

growing in the world. A movement that owns no properties,

has no central leadership and overwhelmingly not led by professional,

but by ordinary believers. Many of them women, discipling each

other in homes, exactly like the one that was raided

that night. They didn't survive persecution by avoiding the cost.

They grew because of what the cost proved, that their

faith wasn't rented, it was owned. Nobody risked a decade

in prison for a Bible they don't really believe in.

Nobody keeps singing after the door breaks down for a

faith that was a cultural inheritance. That's the rocky ground

and tawny ground tested by fire and it did not weather.

It rooted deeper, it multiplied. So church, this morning, we

have so much more than what the churches in Iran.

This is just Iran. If you search for Nigeria, it

is even worse. They are being killed by the hundreds

and the thousands and yet the church is growing. So

it's not about our strategy, but it's about God doing

the work. So let's arise this morning. Because the church

only grows if we grow individually with our walk with Christ.

We need to grow individually with our walk with Christ.

Is our faith borrowed? Or is it something that we

truly believe in? When the going gets tough, will we

stand firm? Or will we let go?

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit xchurch.org. We are also

active on Facebook and Instagram. We're believing that this week

is going to be a good week ahead for you.

God bless.