Disciple ourself first | Dr Daniel Kong

You're listening to a message to go from acts church.

We hope this message will light up your day today.

I'm going to be sharing from the Word from Matthew thirteen.

If you have your Bibles, if you turn to Matthew thirteen,

it's mainly from there. This may be a very familiar passage.

For many. Okay, this is the parable of the sower.

Okay, but I'm going to look at it from a

different lens, from different perspective.

So bear with me.

First, I'll read scripture, and then we'll unpack it every Okay,

all right, Matthew thirteen. I'm going to read from the

NIV version. It's going to be flashed up on screen.

Here we go.

That same day Jesus went. He's been out of the

house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered

around him that he got into a boat and sat

in it while all the people stood on the shore.

Then he told them many things in the parables, saying

a farmer went out to sew his seed, and as

he scattered the seed, some fell along the path, and

the birds came and ate it, ate it up. Sorry,

some fell on rocky places where it did not have

much soil, it sprang up, and because the soil was shallow.

But verse six, but when the sun came up, the

plants were scorched and they withered because they had no root.

Verse seven.

Other seed fell among the thorns, which grew up and

choked the plant the plants.

Verse eight.

Still other seed fell on good soil, and where it

produced a crop one hundred and thirty sorry sixty or

thirty times what was sown.

Whoever has ears, let them hear. Okay. So, like I.

Said, it's a very familiar passage, and you will hear

this being used quite a fab bit, you know, to

to talk about.

How uh you know, the the the.

Word or the Gospel sometimes has been will be shared

and then some would be more receptive to it, and

some may react a bit differently. Okay, But this is

not the main focus that I want to focus on today,

because I believe there's more to to know that the

passage that we that than just the I guess the

the surface. Okay, now, but don't we all love parables

and how it can be used to teach us different things, right,

And this is no different Like I said, it's the

parable of the Gospel. Predominantly, but I also feel that

it can extend to some ex to some extent, uh,

the way we can use it for how people believe

us take on discipleship. Okay, So one thing that I

have also noticed, if you look very carefully, uh, next line,

then when you examine the particular scripture here, one thing

you notice that the seed didn't change. Mean to say,

it's can system that one farmer had the seeds.

But what is the variable here? Jay?

Engineering a variable? The variable here is actually the soil.

There are different types of soil. So I wanted to

start with this by saying the seed never changes, okay,

whatever that seed could be, but the soil sometimes does.

Okay.

So of course we understand good soil. Right, what is

good salt to you? Just curious? So what does good

salt to you actually mean? Sorry, fertilize soil. Okay, I'll

take that answer. Anybody else good soil? What does it

mean to you? You can be very spiritual, it can

be very you know, normal sciency.

That's fine. What does good soil mean to you? Something

can grow of it, life can grow of it. Yep.

Anybody else ready to absorb? Okay, so ready to activate

ready to do something full. Hey, so yeah, but we

all know the purpose of the soil, right, I mean,

the seed itself is just the beginning. The seed can't

do much or operate or do anything if there is

no dirt or soil in the context. Okay, so of

course good soil. Let's just use the in the context

of believers. If we are good soil, then obviously whatever

seed that that is deposited in us will then you know,

progress to the next stage. Right, So I hope that

all of us would be good soil. Okay, Now the

other question is that is your soil good food?

Probably a lot quieter now.

And one thing that I also wanted to quickly mention,

you know, I did a bit of gardening when I

was abroad in Melbourne, not because of choice, but because

I had to. Okay, to give you some context, we uh,

all houses there are bungalows to some extent because of

the I mean, if you're not in the high rise apartment,

it's all yeah, there is no boundary, as in, there

is boundary, but it's not attached most of the time.

So we had quite a big backyard.

Okay, it's about seven fifty square meters converteds about eight thousand,

one hundred square feet okay of land, and our house

sit in the middle. We've got a backyard and the

front yard.

Okay. So for those of you who have been to.

Places where you experience the summer, yeah, grass grows like

NonStop during summer. You mow the grass, or you mow

the lawn today on Sunday. Next week Sunday you go

to the back, the following Sunday to go back to

the front and more. Again, that's the frequency of the

the mowing. And of course there's other things like weading,

et cetera as well. Okay, but that was my guarden.

But along the way as well, I actually took up

the challenge to grow a tree. Hey, we tried to

grow two trees, a lemon tree and also a mandarin tree.

Why. I don't know.

You could have done vegetables and all that, but yeah,

I just thought trees simple. I just throw the seeds

and then something will happened. The mandarin tree didn't survive.

We had a pet dog dug it up very quickly

and dyed the tree.

Ah.

So that's not my fault, not the soil as well,

not the gardener's fault as well. But yeah, but the

lemon tree. The lemon tree was there for two or

three years until the point we left for good. We

re look at the back home obviously we're here now.

It didn't bear fruit, but when we went back a

year after, it bought fruit.

Yeah.

So I don't know whether it's anyway. That's just a

bit of background of my attempt to do things. But

aside from that, we are we We are killer of plants.

I know, I know, I know Sol has given us

resilient plants that she said, you will not mess it up.

Myself and Jess will mess it up when that charctus

die on earth, succulents die on earths, et cetera. So

that gives you the context. Okay, anyway, but as I

was journeying through this gardening phase, I also realized something

very similar.

I mean, we played with soil a bit, but you

know soil, and yes, it's us.

The soul is quite close in some of the context.

Let me explain why. Now often we say we take

things to heart, right, but does it between soul and

heart anybody?

Soul and heart? Is it the same same? Same? No? No,

not quite.

We are not Okay, I looked it up because I

wanted to make sure, right, at least in the Christian context,

they always say heart is typically you know, encompasses all

the emotions, the desires, intentions, okay, whereas soul generally is

the spiritual essence or your life principles. In the Christian

context or a person's context, so soil is usually it's

still like a hard thing, but it's more reserved for

your convictions, right, your principles, and therefore I use the

word spiritual essence.

Okay. So again back to the first.

Question, if you have good soil, or if I can

rephrase that, if you have good soul, then perhaps any

seed that is deposited can then you know, reaches its potential. Okay,

I'm questioned the lemonry that I try to do whatever

I spoke to it, I water it, I sang to

it as well, I must have done something wrong, probably

a soil. But anyway, but but yeah, let's come back

to this. Okay, So back to this soil. Now soil

just like uh, the physical soil the outside you know,

it's it's we talk about landscapes, right, landscapes in life,

the soul is out inner landscape that some people cannot see. Right,

what's in here most people can't see. People can see

the physical you know what you do, but the inner

side sometimes you can't see. But it also needs attention.

Just like how I mentioned to you there's a soil

and the exterior you need attention to. Gutting has happened otherwise,

like I say, it's overgrown. Likewise, in here, if the

soil is not a dress, you would have a spiritual problem,

because like I said earlier, the soul is a spiritual thing, right,

So let's come back to this. So just like how

we do the pruning, the cutting, the singing, in my case,

the watering, that also has to happen internally. Okay, So

when I read this portion, I took one thing to heart.

I know it's not a one time thing. It's a

continuous process. I mean to say, it's a lifetime of maintenance.

Just to see this process do its thing. Why for

the purpose of then having that soil becoming the seed

becoming what is supposed to to we've become. Otherwise it

will just be like the other the other cases where

it is deposited is something that doesn't work, and then

is it our fault that doesn't work. It is probably

the question here, all right, So coming back to this,

So my next slide is there is a need for maintenance. Okay, yeah,

you know whenever we look through this. And I've also

got scripture here Psalm thirty four. It talks about searching

for peace. Well pieces of the search. You know, I

thought piece was just something that you get. You've got

to search for it. And once you find that peace,

see what's the next word, You've got to work to

maintain that peace. So what it simply means is that it.

Is not given.

Once you accept Christ, once you are a believer, and

then you walk with God. It doesn't mean that it

doesn't do anything. Everything is on autopilot from then on

it if you believe in that, I'm.

So sorry that it's not true.

There is still a process that needs to happen to

go on maintainance mode. Okay, because it says here search

for peace, work to maintain it. Okay, So what does

this actually mean? How do you maintain things? How do

you keep things going? Okay, again, it doesn't mean you

got it. You get it forever you need to do

something about it. It just might simply mean, you know,

need to put some boundaries in place. You might need

to make some decisions, some hard decisions to say this time,

I'm going to approach it because it's how God has

led me to it. You may even have to say

no to some relationships, no matter how attractive that person

is character, wized, or in the physicals.

You know, you have to say no. Maybe there's a

reason why.

And if you get something good in life as well,

there is still work. It doesn't mean that you, like

I said, go on autopilot just like that just because

it's good, just because God gave you a gift, it

doesn't mean they're not to maintain it.

So this is what it means.

To follow Jesus, and we've talked about it for quite

some time. As you know, this year we're going to

a year of discipleship focus. And what discipleship simply means

in a nutshell is to follow Jesus very closely. And

following Jesus is not just the active part, it's also

the the maintenance mode as well. Doesn't mean that you

you don't do anything in the process. Why, because we

need to have healthy soil and healthy soil if you

don't already get the idea. It's also translates to healthy

soil the inside and therefore healthy fruits at the end.

Every okay, so far, all right, So I was also

led to this, this this thought. Then how do we

maintain healthy soil?

Right? How do we do this?

And again putting on my farmer's you know, like a

gardeners kind of perspective person to check with than the

best gardener there is. Okay, if you look at the

John fifteen right, verse one, can you share it on

this line? I am the true vine and my father

is the gardener. You know, it's interesting, you know, because

there's so many things that our God is. You know,

we know him by so many names elo him. You know, God, Creator,

mighty and strong Yahweh, I am who I am el Shadai, God, Almighty, Jovahjirah,

God will provide, et cetera, et cetera.

You know him by many names.

This is one of the most simplistic names ever given

to God. If you think about it, God the gardener.

Sometimes you may even think about it like it's something wrong.

All the other things are like so magnificent. But at

the same time he is the gardener. And what does

the gardener do. They prune the water in my case,

they saying they identify what it's not supposed to be there,

they remove it as well. Essentially, they do all they

can to make the conditions right for the sole purpose

for the seed to grow. Okay, So every time I

talk about soil today, you can also interchange it with soil. Okay,

it's interchangeable lot and again it's not just because it's

one of a bit different. Coincidentally, it's also the main

thing that's our internal soil, is what I'm trying to

say here. Okay, Now, purpose of soil again, re engineering mine? Now,

why is the purpose of soil? I think someone will

raise it already. You know the importance of soil. One

of the things is just to provide a medium so

that the plant's system or the root system can then

anchor into it.

You know, the physical anchor of a ship.

If you think about it, If you drop an anchor

and there's nothing, the anchor hits nothing, what will happened?

The ship will still keep going right in it needs

to hit something, get anchored, and therefore it will eventually stop.

Likewise for the root system as well, it needs to be.

It needs to grip onto something to some extent, right,

and that's what the soil does, you know. But of

course bonus material is soil also, you know, does other things.

It provides nutrients, it provides the water to support the

life that is above ground, right, that we don't quite

see sometimes if you're looking from the ground perspective. So,

now that we sort understand what's the purpose of the soil,

we sort of know what's the ideal soil to some extent,

then whose responsibility is then to maintain.

The good soil that we just talked about. Is it

God's responsibility? Question? Is it our responsibility? Maybe? Is it

a joint responsibility?

Oh?

Amen, then it's like half half, you know, like the Lord. Okay,

but yeah, so the next slide it's actually yes, it's partial,

which is a good thing. You know, it's a personal responsibility.

But at the same time, just for the seat to flourish, right,

two components have to work hand in hand, right, the

gardener and the gardener is only not one gardener. I

should put a bracket as the gardeners are involved, because

why the best gardener is also involved. In case you

don't er say who I'm talking about God? All right,

got is involved, yourself, will do your part, and of

course we are working all working towards the soul. So

there's two components that needs to work together, all right

for this to work. So the question is not why

do you think we are not saying you yourself? Or

why did God even give an open invitation, or why

do you even say I want to help you, son,

daughter for this to work? Why do you think that's

the case, Because He probably want you to succeed, right,

But sometimes even when God wants to co work or

call the corporate with you, you may not be having

the same kind of a perspective.

You may say it's okay, I would do it on

my own, or you know.

It's okay God, I'll try I'll try out eventually. I

don't bother you too much as well, okay, because the

invitation is always there. But he wants to be involved,

like we say earlier, every single detail of your life.

But sometimes we think that things are too small, to

to dirty, you know, like to too small for him,

that he's not going to get involved. No, but he

wants to every single aspect of it, okay. And you

can see this even as early as the days of

Adam and Eve. Right, he was very involved. He co

labored with with them. But of course Adam and Eve

choose to co labor with somebody else.

Right, the devil. You youn know what I'm talking about?

Okay, Yeah, So I hope you know we understand that

we need to choose God in this process. And at

the same time, the soil here is also me and

you and your neighbor because there's something that we're working on.

So it's kind of funny, right, you're working on yourself,

like self operating like that, right, But but it's very

true the soil is you and you need to be

very clear about this as well. That only when these

two elements, or if you're gonna count God in the picture,

these three elements working hand in hand and you get

it right, then life will begin. Otherwise. Yeah, and again

it's a partnership, so you need to get involved. So

to some extent, those that say that, ye say yes,

it's your responsibility because if you don't to partner him.

God also can't do much.

I mean, you can water with automatic sprinklers, but you

know it's not going to work effectively.

He needs you to be involved.

The truth is you have access to your own soul

more than anybody else. Like I said, nobody can see

what's inside, right, and nobody is responsible to it. So

next lie your garden.

Your responsibility.

Right, Like when we go away last time, we have

to make sure that we tell somebody to still do

water whatever otherwise you come back.

And it's the same with animals as all right, you don't.

Just yeah unless they're tortis is Yeah, they can last indefinitely,

I hear. Anyway, Yeah, And most important thing is that

I wanted alse who say this. The responsibility is only

on you sometimes even as a married couple, you must

understand it's still the responsibility of the man the wife,

not a joint responsibility. Because on judgment Day you'll be

accountable to God. So it'll be you, not your spouse

and God. You your not your children and God. On

judgment day, you and God and not your best friend

or your heart leader or your you know, your discipler

or your leader or pastor can or anybody else you

get the idea, all right, or your favorite I don't know,

your favorite podcaster that talks about spiritual stuff and nothing

like that, or your favorite worship leader. He or she's

not going to be there. It's only you and God.

And that's why the responsibility is really on you. Maybe right, Yeah, anyway, okay,

so finally, the title of my sermon today, I know,

right next night, disciple first. Yes, that's our team, but

let's disciple ourselves first, just to add to it. Otherwise,

you know, the whole thing we talked about many times

where we talked about disciples, what's the purpose of it

is to grow, is to mature. But again, the responsibility

is not on the leaders and the program, et cetera.

You got to take it on.

And I can tell you that if you take it

on more seriously, I understand that the seed will not

grow if you do not take it on yourself. Then

you know, the church should be at another level. You

will grow in a level you will not be. Let's

use the word did, because it's to life and not

shallow anymore. And that's the key to a healthy soil

and healthy Christians. Because we did say this right, Christians

are just little follows of Christ. So no one can

do this for you, not your friend, not your brother,

not your sister, not your not your wife, not your

husband not past the can if et cetera. You need

to take on this responsibility and take actions.

So this one here is really title and.

Action call oh in one and why Daniel you can

see see how pretty name you then no, no, no, no, okay,

So right, I'm gonna take a post for a while.

I'm gonna share a quick video.

I know horrible.

I might stop you somewhere, Gabriel, go ahead, yah.

H m hm.

Experience is the best teacher. No smoking saves h.

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Yah smalling smoking did you know that exact anything?

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Oh my god? Oh what, Oh my goodness. What's the procedure.

What do we do with people?

You don't know that?

Smoll gonna kind of doing it?

Oh my god, okay.

Anytime like everybody say, let's procedure. God damn Collo tops

the handle if you talk, can get fire.

In the hole. Was warning.

Right next to.

The door, take that out the handle down, And I

was like, oh my god, the place those people who

went on hand this talk to okay, tap the oversp ha.

I ha BASI.

See see.

Said let me.

Cry day that's the seasons what.

Yeah, okay, sorry, this will go on forever. You get

the idea, right.

So now ever, of course it's meant to be a

comic relief a little bit. But yeah, what I'm trying

to portray here is that you know, all of us

have been to something of fire drill before, right, right,

hopefully it's not as ko thing as well we just

saw earlier.

Uh yeah, And and what.

What's the purpose of fire drills by the way to

prepare for when something happens? Right and and and this

this is exactly what you know. This this this, this

guy is a very twisted way of doing it because

his name is the White shoot. Uh he he he

thought that, Okay, the best way to learn is actually

true experience, and he knew the people won't pay attention

because some of us are like this, right, we just

it's just another.

False alarm drill, et cetera.

But the question is, really we need to have these

things in place, and these things are in place for

a reason. Right Similarly as well, you know, when we

have things like the extinguishers and all that, it has

to be frequently inspected. It has to be frequently tested

to make sure that when the time comes, it's actually working. Right,

the sprinkler systems are working et cetera, et cetera.

Next slide.

Uh, and we need to know where the exits are, Okay,

And the question really here is that are we ready

for something like that, you know, if in the event

has happened because using fives example, But when we don't

recognize that our soil is a problem, even when things

are in uh, you know, emergency state, we.

May not be ready to react.

So one of the things I wanted to highlight here

is really we need to look at the soil more

seriously and then we gauge whether we're ready for some

any things.

So let's just use the word soul inspection. Okay.

Now, I'm a civil engineer, so I actually inspect soil

and dirt for multiple different things. But if you can

gauge the health of the soil, then perhaps you can

then do something to fix the problem.

So what is unhealthy soil? Who does it have a fever?

Probably not? Probably not.

And it makes me sort of think, you know, what

would be classified as unhealthy soil? Simple answer to that

is that solt that will not do its job right

in this case, the seed will not grow. Okay, And

then we'll talk about how some of these things can

be addressed and hopefully you learn something from today's message.

Okay, but we all know this, right. We are not perfect.

You're far from perfect, and that's why God had to

send Jesus many many thousand years ago so that we

would have a chance to survive and to see things

a bit differently from a different perspective. So next light, Oh,

so we need to identify unhealthy soil or I think

you know this. How we collect sot sometimes we wouldn't

drive things to and get sought on a very much

deeper level or depth, and then we actually run a

serious of tests on it. But anyway, so the first

thing that I want to talk about unhealthy soil, actually

googled it and see just to give you a simple answer.

And what they have actually said on Google is that

when the salt is considered unhealthy is when the nutrients

within the salt is imbalanced. Okay, the nutrients, because most

people when they look at sol, they talk about whether

there's any potential to grow, right, not just about the

moisture and all that kind of thing. So how does

the nutrients when solve be come imbalance or inappropriate? It

really depends on maybe the surrounding what you feed it. Well,

I put a picture of that, but it's not really

feeding feeding. But you get the idea, right, what the

soil absorbs, what the soil takes on?

Right?

And if you think, if you put yourself in a

context of just being dirt, and we're all dirt anyway,

if you think about it the origin story. If you

don't know what I'm talking about, go back to the

origin story. What are you feeding yourself?

Right?

Because what you feed yourself would.

Condition your soil slash soap right, And then it makes

you wonder why you're not groupate.

And even if you can.

Grow, sometimes after the process of growth, you still do

something like I say, it's not static.

You know you need to continue to do it.

Why because if the nutrients were balanced at the start,

but over time you don't do your thing, you don't

put your fertilizers, you don't ourishit, it would deplete.

And then what will we see?

Maybe perhaps the leaves will grow a bit yellowish, or

the fruits will come out funny. And then there's where

it's a sign that something is not right.

Maybe not the plant.

Maybe it is a plant, but it could also mean

something else. Okay, So what I'm trying to say is

that the Bible also talks about us really paying attention

to these things, and it says in matth two six

twenty two, the eye is the lamb of the body.

If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be

full of sight, full of light. Sorry, now, of course,

sometimes you know we have this other expression it says

the eyes are the windows to your soul, made popular

by Rhythiam Shakespeare. Why because if you look through your

eyes right, you see right through what's inside. I mean,

even look at it from a physical that's the only

way you can see inside. The rest of your body

parts are not permeble or are not clear in nature. Okay,

so I'm just playing a bit, playing up with that

a little bit, but it is true the Bible they

say that the eye is the length of the body.

Mean you say, if there's any light that goes into

the body. It's true your.

Eyes ears can lie a little bit, but the eyes

is probably the biggest one that allows light in and

therefore it lights up everything. Right, So if your eyes

are healthy, the next part of the script, the versus,

your whole body will be full of light. But if

the eyes is unhealthy, the whole body will be full

of darkness if it's cloudy. My son went to some

cloudy stage at one point, so some light is minimum

light goes in. And of course I'm not saying that

this is similar, but you get the idea. You know,

when it's not perfect, there might be some reduction in

what's supposed to go in. But the main point I'm

trying to say is that sometimes we need to open

up our eyes to see what's inside ourselves. And again,

it's not always the big things. You know, the devil

often creeps in. You know, his modus operandi is always

to steal, can and destroy, this very sneaky approach.

It's not about the big things.

He wouldn't, for example, maybe influence me to cheer my

wife kind of a thing. Right, Hopefully I've got enough

capacity to process that. There's not the righting to do. Right,

most of the time, it's okay. You wouldn't suddenly go

and steal or murder somebody. The devil won't see that

talks to you. Sometimes he wouldn't attack some of the

more normal stuff, but he may come and you know,

maybe even let business over a little bit to some

extent in my business at work, business at schools, business

in ministry, et cetera. And this is something that sometimes

we have to be very mindful of. Now, what I

mean by that is you need to take a step

back to always review what things are. Again, this is

not always bad, but business is something that you need

to also have a handle for it. Otherwise, if it

gets out of hand, then you might be overlooking something

and then you start to have very poor soil or

sol and then it affects everything else.

So I had to learn about this next line to

slow down and to look and.

In my I guess role as a parent, and a

little bit of more involvement in the church and also work,

et cetera. I almost had to juggle tree areas of life,

so to speak. Okay, there's laundry to do it, So

I do the laundry by the way I do the dishes.

And then sometimes you know, you have a long to

do list on the daily basis, send the kids to school,

you know, do your own thing, do it. Fight fires

at work, no pun intended. And then after the fight

fires after work when it comes to different things and

we meet different ones, et cetera. So business can sometimes

overwhelm us and distract us from taking care of our soil,

is what I'm trying to say here.

Okay, and that's a very subtle. I think they can

creep in even not careful. Okay, Now, how do we

notice these things?

Like I said, if you see the plant, there's a

leaf that is a little bit yellow, maybe that's perhaps

an indication that something is not quite right.

And then what do we do.

We snip it off. Okay, done right, problem solve. Everything

else is very healthy. Again, you snip it off again.

But you know, it's something that if it continues to

happen recurring like recurring from time to time, then it

could be a systematic system. What's the proper term. It's

a system problem. Okay, not so much the tree itself,

but maybe the again the solt Okay, And this is

where you have to identify that it is cycles because cycles,

so it tells you that it's beyond just the tree

or the plant, or the or the tree itself, but

something even bigger. And you can always go and prune it.

You prune twenty leaves, it's still not going to fix

the problem. You prune thirty leaves, it's not going to

fix the problem, but you need to do something to

address the bigger problem. And why am I saying this

is because sometimes you may think that, oh, you know,

I maybe I've heard somebody I say, sorry, move on,

you prune it really right, Maybe it's I wasn't my

best attitude today. You know, again, I'm sorry, sorry for

yelling at us act you know, for not doing the dishes.

You know, I prune it.

But it becomes constant, then something is maybe perhaps it's

more than just those one time incidences or how I

put the one time mistakes the boo boos. Okay, because

when it comes to pattern then perhaps something deeper is

the problem. And if you don' understand talking about talking

about the soil, okay, so mistakes versus cycles. Now, cycles

or patterns are more dangerous than the small mistakes, right,

and cycles needs to be addressed even more, I guess more.

Seriously, you need to create boundaries, save boundaries.

You know, you need to call out and identify and

then maybe even flee from from it so that it

doesn't get a grip of you.

Now, how do we do this?

This is the part where it's beautiful because as we

mentioned many times before this, the Holy Spirit is there

for us to follow, right and mentioned this, you need

to follow eyes on him. Someone distracts you, you still

have eyes on on the v ecal of the Holy Spirit,

and this is exactly what you do want to do.

You need help allow the Holy Spirit to continue to

help you identify what is the bigger problem, what is

the thing that needs beyond what pruning can do, because

it might be a toxic soil that needs to be addressed,

that needs to be cleansed. And this is where you

then have to create some boundaries to isolate it and

then fix the problem. If you get on saying okay,

so that's the first point, really understanding you know what

what is the whether it's a nutrient imbalance, whether it's

a system problem, or whether it's an isolated thing. And

you must understand whatever you feed does create can create

the imbalance.

Okay. First point.

Second point of inspection is that or or clear cut

that the soil may not be right, is that it

depends on the fruits that you bear.

Or the lack of it.

If you bear or fruit clear cut loss, something is wrong.

But if you bear bad fruit, just like the one

that's shown over there. Also, you know something is wrong.

So what I put there is fruit?

Check? Right? Are we living by the spirit? Is the

question here?

Sometimes even fruits, right, when you take a bite of fruits.

I'm quite bad at this.

I can.

I can eat expired food sometimes and even bad food.

And sometimes the apple looks okay. I bite into it

and tastes okay, but funny. But maybe it's then my

WIF will tell me ag that's bad. You know, so

you got to also be very careful and look at

whether the fruit itself is actually bad.

Now, what what are we talking about here? You need to.

These are small things, you know, sometimes like when you

easily get offended, that could be a bad fruit.

So what do you do? Check your soil? Right?

You know, we might enjoy gossiping. What's gossiping? Gossiping is

when maybe three people involved or more. But the poor

purpose of the conversation is just not to solve the

problem anyway. It's just to share the problem with others.

There's no intention to fix the situation. So essentially you're

not to build your actually to tear down. Okay, maybe

you should check your soil as well, because that is

not the fruit of the spirit, or maybe if you're

living in somebody that is not your spouse, maybe you

should check your soil as well. Okay, By the way,

myself and jes we dated for eight years before we

got married and in the final few months before we actually.

Tied the knot uh.

There was also some transition moving to a new country.

She was coming over to Australia, was based there for

a while. Can I say there's no temptention to live together.

I wouldn't say so.

Yeah, it's convenient, it saves costs U but we didn't.

We choose to hold off because not because of myself.

By the way, I was a man of integrity, but

maybe not like today. I think I'm a bit more

not not so not living that kind of like integrated life.

Like at that point in time, I actually had a

person who spoke over my life, a leader that look

up to and then he may respect what he says

then And that's what accountability is for as well. Is

to help you, is to give you some safeguards as well,

to help you do life better.

Was it easy? No, it wasn't. Even though we're Christians,

we say hormones.

By the way, you know, we're still attracted to one another,

you know, but we had to put safeguards in place,

and because of conviction, we actually then you know, waited

and some of these things. Anything that may be negative,

sometimes you just have to check it and see whether

it is actually from God or whether it's the what

we call the fruit of the spirit. Right, and you

know this comes from Galatians five twenty two. The spirit,

the fruit spirit is always the good stuff love, joy, peace, patience,

et cetera, et cetera. So whatever that is born that

is not in that category, maybe perhaps the soul needs

attention because when you feed it good stuff you should have,

or spirit stuff you should get spirit fruits. Okay, everybody, okay,

so far, yeah, yeah, okay, next one. I'm going to

be done very fast today. The third thing to look

out for.

Is actually contaminants or pollutants.

These in the simple English food contaminants are things that

are not supposed to be there, that it's foreign, ah,

and what do they do?

They cause harm?

It can be it can come from the natural, It

can also come from human introduction. This is just the

normal contaminants. And of course, like like in the water

or other they all kind of thing. Sometimes you can

can even the contenant can be there, but it's not

very clear that it's contaminant that is colorless.

Sometimes it's very obvious that it's green. It smells, you

know that it's a problem.

But you're gotta be very careful because these things can

come in and and and and and make you sick silently,

or make the plants sick silently, but you don't even

know it because we're all humans, right, Sometimes you don't see, like,

you know, you have a bad doctor's report, you know,

then we like, oh lord, why.

You know you're close?

Or you had an accident, you know, you know you

had so many you're already like struggling financially and you

had another car accident happy the same time. Or you know,

I studied so much for this, my third time taking

that that that that accountancy paper you know is he lean?

But yeah, anyway, no, no, no, she didn't feel by

the way she said she failed, but she always end

up passing them. So anyway, Yeah, but those are potential

contaminants in soil if you're not careful, if you let

it get to you, it becomes a contaminant. So it

may be harmless. But if it let it eats you

up is when it becomes a contaminant.

Now you look at Paul and his life. He was

in prison, right, what do you pray for? Do you

pray for? You know, escape card to just bring him out?

You know?

No, no such thing, No such thing. He prays for

spiritual insights and wisdom. That's about it. That's it.

Because he recognizes there is power in growing or spiritual maturity,

and you grow up spiritually, there's more power in that.

It equips you for greater things. So it's more focused

on that. So one point allude to you here is

that he grew up spiritually, and having spiritual maturity allows

you to see things through different lenses. And that's even

better than the like the THO, those negative reports and

all that.

Right, you grow from it.

So I would say, to some extent, maybe perhaps God

is letting or allowing you to go to certain things.

Maybe it's something for you. There's a potential for you

to grow in that thing. What's He's he's showing you?

What's what are you supposed to learn out of it?

Through the struggles?

What is supposed to learn out of it?

Is probably the question here, But of course you need

to address the contaminant if it's other things like for example,

if you allow it to get to you, you start

dismissing yourself from God. And like God, why you know

that is when the contaminant is the problem, they gotta

seize it straight away, you see, Philippines, one here says

for me, to live is Christ and to die is

gain or just like the biggest statement in terms of

the spiritual growth and maturity. I don't think all of

us are at that level yet, myself also included, I

am not there yet, right, But that is Paul's language.

Despite all circumstances, faith and his love and his heart,

his integrity, his passion, all that is all still in check.

He will not blame God. Why am I here?

You know?

Why am I left here?

In fact, he was writing letters to others to encourage

other You know, he should be receiving letters of encouragement,

but he choose to.

Do otherwise instead. Why maturity? Maturity?

Like I said earlier, contaminating and comes to come from

human activity. Humans and sometimes are very evil and right,

you're okay, then somebody is to whispered to you. You're sure,

you're Okay, then Doug creeps in. So I'm trying to

say here is that you're said to be careful who

you hang out with to some extent. Right, truly, truly,

you need to hang out with people that would speak

life and not speak death.

So how do you do that? You pay attention to

their fruit as well? Do they bear fruit? If they do?

Hey erupt shoulders with them? Man, right, you'll come out different.

Right, leave away people who talks about hate or the

strong words, all the bitterness, and those that just gossip

without any reason. And there you know, you know that

definitely this brother or sisters didn't unforgiveness. Maybe you just

had to speak life in him. And this back up

a little bit because you don't want your soul to

get contaminated as well. Okay, I remember the last time,

very long time ago when uh when when when in Australia,

when Zach was born?

Uh? This this the kids in the the the church creesh. Okay.

What they do is when one baby starts crying, right,

they would take them and put them somewhere else. And

then another kid that cries, they'll take them and put

them something else together, because why cry cry?

No problem? Really but they don't want the.

The one who the catalyst, the one that began the crying,

to then continue to inspire others to cry. That's what

they do in the practical.

Zach.

Fortunately you were not one that was sent out, but

you get the idea, right, you shouldn't be hanging around

people that are not bearing good fruit, okay, and they

know that in terms of childcare perspective. You also can

take some learnings from there. That's why sometimes, right, you know,

they say joy is very contagious, right when you're negative.

If you hang on on negative, I also become negative

after all, So hang around positive people. I'm fortunate enough

to live with somebody who is always nine time positive

no matter what. Yeah, so it helps because I'm the

total opposite. I mean, I tend to be very objective,

very half you know, half a half glass kind of person.

Yeah.

So so yeah, I think that's why God sent her

to you know, so that we are yeah, just to

she's my superwoman. Like today she you know, she just

wearing her cape and all that. By the way, she's

the excess to anyway, scrap that from the recording, all right, yeah, yeah,

but jokes aside, you know, sometimes if there is friendships

that is not helping you, maybe it's time to, you know,

just give it a bit of a break. Maybe even

be somebody that you've been your partner, not married yet,

but your partner that you've been journeying for quite some time.

Something has changed, the persons become a bit more not

so positive.

Maybe you should also consider, you know, or maybe it's

the job that's been a bit toxic. You know, you've

done your best. Of course you are saying that you know,

you should do what you can do be the light

in the workplace. But if you've done your part, it's

been too long. Maybe it's so time for you to,

you know, take a try something else, because you don't

want to come to that state that you become contaminated soil. Okay,

and I hope you understand it's coming from Okay, last point,

the last soil inspection. Okay, and this one is uh

rey clear. You need moisture. You need water two for

anything to grow, for life to grow. All of us

can survive without food, can survive the internet. I tell

you you will be okay and right, but you cannot

survive without water.

Right.

And the question is what are you drinking to quench

your thirsts? It's the main question here because when we're

all thirsty, right, you know, we can drink a lot

of stuff. Imagine, like I always use Charles because now

he's like marathon guy, you.

Know, Charles.

If you if you run right just after a heart

race or half within a race, and then there's a

there's a water stop or whatever it is, if someone

offers you, you know, a hot cappuccino, will you take it?

Probably not right? Probably not?

Yeah, you know, as much as both of us have

shared joy for coffee, long black or whatever, if it's

not the right season for it, maybe, or even not

the right type of hydration at that point in time, maybe, yeah,

it will not help you quench your tests. So this

is what it is you need to understand to really

tap into the proper water that would quench that test.

And again not saying that nothing wrong with things like coffee,

nothing wrong with social media, the internet, you know, Netflix, even,

nothing wrong with having some fun, nothing wrong with friends

as well, definitely right, nothing making money as well, right,

But all these things will never build a quencher thirsts

the same way you are designed to, you know, to

to hydrate. It's what I'm going to say here. Only

the gardener, the living water can quench your thirsts. And

where this come from the next verse you have the

worst there, I think I do. Yeah, whoever drinks the

water that I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the

water I give them will become into in them a

spring of water welling up to eternal life. And that's

a promise, right, you will never grow thirsty again. So, yeah,

why drink something that you're not meant to drink. So

if your soil is not producing or bearing what is

supposed to produce, maybe perhaps it's not just absence of water,

but maybe absence of the true living water. So immerse

yourself in the living water, permit yourself in the living water.

And that's what you need to do.

Is vital, it's for survival's sake. And that's why I

started today by saying, you need to disciple yourself and

these things can happen. You can partner with somebody, definitely,

but there's also some responsibily on your end to disciple

yourself with the help of God. You can't do this

without him. You can't do this with just your friends.

By the same time, you can't do this without a

disciple as well. So there's a system that we sort

of deploy to help with all these things. You look

at Jesus as well, Right, he's got his twelfth disciple,

but they have to also learn to disciple themselves when

Jesus was gone. Right, similar thing as well.

Right.

And if you think about it from a practical standpoint,

if Pastor Keneth the ultimate disciple number one, if you

think of it from a hierarchy level, if he needs

to go and disciple every single one in our church, dude,

the guy is gonna I'm not gonna have any sleep

at all.

Right, So it's not practical as well.

Right.

That's why we always say that you need to have

a discipleship relationship with God as well yourself with the gardener,

because it's not realistic. It's not fair as well to

your leaders, your earthly leaders.

Sure is a journey.

Sometimes you do not agree, but you know it's okay.

It takes patience, and over time, you know you would

get better and better at this. I actually wanted to

bring some soil and then take my hand into it.

I did that some time ago, but I thought today

I'll spare my hands. Well, do you realize I'm not

wearying that that that handting today? Apparently to two weeks

ago or the the last time I spoke, I was

wearing that that I'll show you, and I'll show you.

Apparently I was like showing some profenit this sign unconsciously.

It looks as though I'm doing that, according to the chairperson.

So yeah, but I'm sort of heal. So I'm taking

off today anyway, not sorry for another day. Yeah, okay,

So let's come back to this and I'm gonna land

right now. So what are the practical steps to cultivate

your soil? When I say cultivate, that's why I say

mixing the soil, right. God desires you to disciple you

on a personal level. But the personal level can come

to two things. As we mentioned to you before. The

Spirit is here with you. Your spirit is your helper,

is your guide, it's your friends, the only one here

with you for you to follow. Why because Jesus already

up there until the second coming, right, So spirit is

here to help disciple you. Of course, there's also the

opportunity for you to get some guidance through what I

call mature believers. Mature discipless okay, those that, like I said,

are already bearing fruit. Okay, But of course you can't

just depend on them. Like I said, when the time comes,

when you go up there, you are accountable for yourself.

So you still need to do your own thing. So

only two people helping you, the Holy Spirit and maybe

your earthly discipler. But you're still gonna do your part, right,

And that's what this whole message about. You need to

disciple yourself first, right, otherwise there's a bit of a

problem there. Just now, we sang in the lyrics, you know,

take me deeper, right, faith like a child.

Stirs up my soul. See it talks about stirring up

your soul, stirring up the soil in you, and.

Then other parts like you know at your word, I

will believe, I will go those songs we sing it

so easily rolls off our tongue, But are we really.

Doing what we are singing?

It's probably a question anyway. Just some points here to

help you, the practical stuff. I'm not gonna go to

all the verses. You can take those verses down and

then you can look look for yourself. But yeah, needless

you say, prayer, daily connection, a life of prayer is important,

right Tessalonian first Sessimonia that talks about praying without seizing

that it's like NonStop. You know, are we at that

level yet?

Maybe not?

Eyem was not at that level yet, you know, So

talk to the father, go to your secret place. Please

do not do it for your spouse. Right, it's not

a joint thing. Sometimes you may How do I pray?

It doesn't matter.

Start up by giving thanks, you know, thank you God

because I woke up this morning. Right Lord, I thank

you because you helped me forgive that person yesterday or

whatever it is. Or give me a chance to forgive

that person. Start off with thanksgiving, you know, get scriptures,

immersive SLF. With scriptures, you'll touch your heart. Declare scriptures

is another way to pray as well, if you can.

If you don't know how to pray anyway, God already

knows what you want to say anyway, so it doesn't

quite matter. But just make it a practice.

Now.

Why do I say that's important. It's because just like

how when you meet somebody new. Let's just Joe as

an example, you know, like when I first made a

lot of small talk, Get to know a lit bit better,

and then you know, over time, maybe even a frequency

may not be so often anymore. But when we come

together and speak, we go straight into it. No beating

around the bush, because there's no more tankgoing and honeymoon

honey mooning. Okay, we want to get to the state

that you know the person so well got in this

picture that you can go straight into the details already.

And that's why you have to happen. You have to

keep doing those dates, keep.

Doing those constant prayer right to come to that point

that it becomes natural.

Nothing is false anymore.

Now if you say, oh, it's gotta get up in

the morning and pray, you know I'm rushing out God.

Don't you know my son has already you know, gotten

up late.

And I don't no make it. Nothing is false. It's

just chilling in God's presence.

Keep showing up. Teach me to pray, Lord, teach me

to pray. You know that even though his descible teach

me how to pray. Lord in the Bible. Look true,

that right, Just ask the spirit how to pray. But

the key thing is consistency, all right. Second word is

to is to study the word. We talked about the

word in homes right, the word is alive. But if

we look at Psalms, you know it talks about the

word being the lend to my feet. Right, So everything

is needed is centered around the word because the word

is truth. That's the way we should respond. Then when

you go to hardships, et cetera. You know nowadays even

like you know, if you can't, if you can't do this,

I know we're advocating this a lot.

You can't do this, you know, it's okay, use this

as well. That's fine.

It's so accessible. No excuses not to read the word right,

because the truth will set You're free because this is

the truth. All right, extreme you can come up ready.

I'm going to end with two more now, trials and

breaking it's quite a big one. Yeah, Sometimes we push

away trials, I would say example, you know, like Daniel

and his friends when they were in the fiery furnace,

they could have prayed for God to remove or turn

down the flame, kill the gas, you know, push away

that that that that gas tank.

Or whatever it is.

Of course they use gas using that as a funny

and energy. They could easily God easily remove that fire

and they could pray that kind of prayer as well.

But no, sometimes when we are journeying with somebody, even

as leaders, we need to help the person you're discipling

to recognize the purpose of that trial, that struggle, because

there might be a reason why God allows for the

struggle to happen. Right, So what we can do we

pray alongside their brother and the sister, maybe even give

the person a glass of water so they can endure

the heat for that moment. But don't pray the fire

away some extent. Why because us you might be short

circuiting the experience that God has intended for that person's

growth through that trial. So that's why sometimes leaders, you know,

we have to just pray and support in that manner

to allow your disciple or the person that you're discipling

to you know, have to breakthrough, but don't short circuit

the trial that is meant to endure or go through.

Why because we all know this, right, you know, the

the most the most beautiful worship songs are written from

a place of brokenness. Right. It's not I don't know

chet GPT or whatever that can write beautiful lyrics these days,

But there's no soul in it. Even you know the

word that's preach. You know, the most eloquent speaker may

not even move.

Any lives at all.

But a person who shares a simple word, broken English, whatever,

you know, once it comes from a place of brokenness,

it will really touch and move hearts and lives.

And that's what I mean. You need to allow God

to see you through that trial and just make sense

of it.

Yes, pray for God to review. But it's okay, like

in his strength in my weakness, I will receive strength

from him. You know, his peace will definitely be there.

We pray for peace for our brother and sister. That's

fine because peace will surpass all understanding and it will

definitely give the person hope.

But do not pray with the struggle. Okay.

So that's the third one over there, last one. Like

I said from the very start, it's maintenance more over

and over again. You you you prune your water, you

make sure the soil is right.

You keep doing it over and over again because it's

not a one time thing. So it's okay.

Pray that the Lord will allow you that patience. Don't

be impatient. You know, forgiveness, it gets easier yes, but

it doesn't mean that it doesn't need work as well.

Right, keep on doing it.

And the reality is sometimes even when we're doing the mundane,

like it or not, God is there, even if you

do not recognize it. He is willing, he's available, he

is there for us. He's always present, and I think

we need to constantly remind us ourselves that this is

the case life of watering, pruning, and patience. It's ongoing,

it's part of the process, and with all that in place,

I can tell you the soil would be perfect for

the seed to take to Germany and to take root

and to grow to his maxine potential how God intended it.

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

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this week is going to be a good week, a

hit for you. God bless