12+1 Core Values: Growth Resulting | Pr Matthew Chang

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

We hope this message will light up your day.

Today, we're going to be going to growth resulting. Okay,

growth resulting. Now, let me, first of all, just go

through the scripture. Let me just open up. I prepared

some slides as well. And so, wow, yeah. Okay, I

do a very simple slide, a very, very simple one, okay?

Growth resulting, so let's read at Acts chapter 2, verse

Acts 2:46

46 to verse 47, okay? This is the part where

the church has just started out after Jesus ascended to heaven.

It says here in verse 46, it says, so continuing

daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread

from house to house. They ate their food with gladness

and simplicity of heart. How many of you are happy that,

you know, when we are growing up, we got a

lot of food, you know? Yeah? Yeah. Growth also means

got a lot of food as well. They were eating food,

have a simple heart. They were praising God. They were

having favor with all the people, maybe because they were

sharing the food as well. And the Lord added to

the church daily those who were being saved. Okay, so

we notice that one of the key things that happened

to the church is that growth expanded. Not growth expanded,

like growth was accelerating in the church. God was added.

It didn't say they grew. It says that the Lord added. Okay,

so the writer Luke and the apostles discerned that the

hand of the Lord was upon the church and it's

something they could also learn from how God works. Now,

The first thing we want to talk about here is

that growth is biblical. A lot of times the word

growth has been, how do I say, commercialized, corporatized. It's

taken on a bit of a stigma to it. Every

time we talk about growth, it brings me back to

my business strategy days, you know, how to grow, how

to grow, you know, every time we talk about growth, oh,

you talk about big church, you know, where I don't

feel belong, anything, everything is all, when we talk about growth, oh,

talk about KPI and pressure. So, every time you think

about growth, it's always the negative stigmas and the negative emotions,

what do you call it, that is associated with it.

And that is, You know, the world and the devil

tends to like to steal a lot of these very

powerful words from our lives, doesn't it? But growth is

such an important thing. How many of you don't believe

in growing? How many of you wish you grow a

bit taller? How many of you wish that you grow

a bit, you were a bit wiser? Yeah, I'm sure

most of you are. My daughter is always saying that

I wish I was taller. I said, you're tall enough already.

She said, you want to be taller. I was like, really,

how tall? I said, not as tall as me. I said,

you're going to get a lot of life inconveniences, okay?

Getting in and out of the car, not that easy,

you'll say. Basketball, yes, very handy, very useful. I agree

with that. But everything else, you know, yeah, I just

knocked my head the other day walking to a kopitiam,

you know. I was going to buy some pao. I

just got out of my car. I was just like,

the whole tiang, the zing. Everyone at the kopitiam looked

at me. I was like, so painful, so painful. And

I remember there was one time I was in Kuching.

I was with my brother. And we rented a car

because we were there to visit my dad. So we

didn't have the car, so we rented a car. We

arrived and we rented a car. We arrived at the

hotel very late. And then I opened up the boot.

I can't remember what car was it. So I opened

up the boot and I lifted up my head and

I knocked the edge of the car. It was so

painful and so sharp, so painful. Then, oh, it ran.

Then after a while, I hold my head and you

know what I felt? I felt wet. It was wet.

I was like, is it raining? Oh my goodness, why

is it wet? Then I look at my hand. It's

like all full of blood and it was dripping into

the boot. Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip. I was like,

oh no, what is happening to me? And it's like

freak accident, freak accident. I actually had a picture, you know.

Then after that, I show Pastor Kenneth, hey, Pastor, this

is what happened to me. He's like, oh, what is

going on? But you know that, you know, it was

dripping so much blood. It was late at night, about 11.30.

I was outside the hotel. My brother is, he can't

really move that well. So he was like, oh no,

what to do, you know? I was like, oh no,

dripping blood. Then I was like, uh, uh, it must

be something. So I walked to the hotel, the front hotel.

We haven't checked in, you know. We were just barely checking.

And then the hotel guy, can you imagine what they think,

you know? It's like 11.30, no one already. Suddenly these

two dudes, you know, walking in there with blood and

dripping in, you know. Then they looked at me and said,

who are you? And I said, oh, no, no, we

are supposed to check in. And they said, you've been drinking?

I said, no, no, no. You're fighting? I said, no, no, no, no.

I'm not fighting. It's not like gangster fight, you know,

go and take the thing and whack your head. No, no, no, no.

I said, I knocked my head. They took a while

to try to understand the situation. I was like, bro,

I'm bleeding here, man, bleeding. Can you give me something

to hold? They said, can you send me to the

hospital because my brother can't drive and stuff like that.

And then after a while, they eventually put me to

the hospital. But by the time I went to the hospital,

the bleeding subsided already. Ah, because it's been praying. But

I just found out, you know, that when you actually

hit your head and it bleeds, it can actually spurt

one out. It can really spurt because your blood vessel

is so near the skin and it's actually a lot

of blood in your brain. You know, your brain takes

up so much of your blood, you know. Really, you know.

It's like the data center, everything, you know. So much

blood there. So when you click it, it's literally spurting out.

So the gushing is very, it's very a lot. So, yeah,

you know, that's, what was I talking about? Why was

I talking? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Growing tall, yes,

that's the problem, growing tall. Why did I go into that? Okay,

make a note into that, okay? All right, okay. First

of all, growth is biblical. Let's look at some scripture, okay?

Go back to scripture. We are scripture-based church, okay? Yeah,

not story-based, scripture-based. All right, 2 Peter 3, verse 18,

2 Peter 3:18

what does it say? But, grow, it didn't just say rest,

but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord

and Saviour, Jesus Christ. You're not supposed to just to know,

it's not much as to rest in it, it's like, yeah, already,

you know, I said that Jesus, that's it. No, we're

supposed to grow in the grace and knowledge of our

Lord Jesus Christ. You know, before I move on, I

just want to say something. You know, there's some, I

used to learn before that There are three things that

we take great pleasure with in life. Three things. That's

one very powerful wisdom I learned. The first one is

you take great pleasure when you start something. How many

of you like to start something? You're getting married already.

Start a new family, new house, go to IKEA. Maybe you,

you know, you left your job already. Oh, start a

new venture, business. Wow, very exciting one, you know. Wow,

go and check out the new shop, you know. Find new,

recruit new people, teammates, you know. Find new customers, you know.

Venture out. Day after day, you stress, you know. Then

you stress. You're like, oh no. Starting business. Like to

start new thing or maybe, or maybe move to a

new place. You want a new beginning as well, you know.

Starting something is always very, very exciting. You know, we

take great pleasure with starting something. Second thing we take

great pleasure with is what? When you grow something. Okay?

When you grow something. You start something already, but a

lot of people, you know that when they start something,

they actually don't grow. And then what they do to

get the other pleasure again? They start another new thing.

They don't grow, they start another new thing. They start

another new thing. They start a new thing. But the

true pleasure happens when you are able to start and

you are able to push through and to grow something.

So I always tell people, like, don't give up too fast.

Don't give up too fast. Growth is just another corner.

It's not easy, but that's the part, when you actually

break through and you actually grow, you know, not just physically,

but spiritually, mentally, in your character-wise, and you start to

see the fruits come out, it's like, wow, you take

a lot more pleasure, you get a bit more patience. Okay?

So growth is a very important thing. So a lot

of people tend to stop At that, not stop at

the starting, they never grow. But we want to, at

this age of part of your life, you want to

learn to get into and get used to growing and

being patient. It's easy to start, but it's hard to grow.

The third pleasure that we really enjoy is what? When we,

you know already, when we finish something. We start, we grow,

when we finish something. You get what I'm saying or not?

A lot of people start, A lot of people grow.

A lot of people don't finish. True or not? That's

why the Bible reminds us it's not how you start,

isn't it? But how you finish, isn't it? It's not

a speed race, you know. It's an endurance race. You

grow and you are seeing it. But after a while,

you get complacent. You get distracted. True or not? You

get distracted by a lot of things. You know, distraction

is probably one of the major ones, you know. You

grow things you're not supposed to grow. Supposed to grow watermelon,

then come out cabbage, you know. I don't know if

it can happen, but, you know, it's, you grow things,

but you're supposed to finish. And when you finish, it's

a very powerful thing, you know. How many of you

can tell yourself that you've finished something? That's why when

you go to college, don't just start, finish it. You know,

a lot of times people say, hey, now AI, no

need to go and study already, you know. True, how

many of you think like that can save money already?

I kind of have a different perspective. I believe that

university is not so much about applying the education, but

it's more like telling yourself and also an evidence to

the world and to around you and to your life

that you can actually stick through three years or five

years of program and finish it. You get me, right?

You actually are able to finish what you started one

and all. You get me, right? You push through and

finish it and you are able to Whether it's a program,

whether it's a situation, whether it's people you know you

don't like, whether it's a subject you like or don't know,

you are able to stick with it and then finish

it and complete it. You get what I mean, right?

And that's what it is, you know. And if you

are able to do that, maybe then you understand that

when you graduate, not because, oh, I'm so smart. How

many of you say that? No, you graduate because, yes,

I finally finished. Correct or not? So the pleasure is

not that you got smarter. The pleasure is that you

completed it. You get what I'm saying? So the completion

is a very, very, very powerful feeling in our lives.

And then after graduation, how many things do we actually finish?

Not many. Some people, nowadays we want to quit our

job and just get over and done with. We don't

complete what we want to start already, isn't it? Not easy.

You learn something, you finish halfway, you don't complete it.

Start a project, you don't finish it already. But you

got to finish, you got to learn to endure to

finish what you started. Now, in Ephesians 4.15, it says,

But speaking the truth in love, you may grow up

in all things into Him who is the Head, Christ.

So Paul is exhorting that not we only speak in love,

but we grow up in all things. That you are mature.

Not that you just accepted Jesus, but that your whole life,

you as a father, as a mother, as a staff,

as an employee, as a boss, and your emotion, your character,

and everything is being filled and influenced and growing and

changing and transforming in a godly manner. Okay? Colossians 1,

chapter 1, verse 10, that you may walk worthy of

the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good

work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Okay, you

know the pattern already. Everything that God is exhorting us

is about growing and growing, okay? 1 Peter 2 verse 2,

1 Peter 2:2

As newborn babies desire the pure milk of the world,

of the word, not world, okay? That you may grow thereby,

all right? So, the next part is that I want

to say that, you probably look in your booklet, they

say healthy things are meant to grow, okay? Healthy things

are meant to grow. You know, a tree, you plant

a tree, a seed, you know, you plant a seed,

a healthy seed is meant to grow. A healthy child

is meant to grow. Meant to, okay? Meant to grow,

you know? We have a DNA inside us, literally the

codes calling us to grow, okay? And it's supposed to

grow uniformly, equally as well. You know, you don't grow

your fingers, suddenly you have the smallest, you know, thumb,

you know? You have baby thumbs, you know? It's supposed

to grow. Then you have one leg, super short, you know,

still have baby feet, but then you have a leg adult.

But everything is meant to grow properly as well. And

the church had few, yet they grew. Okay? You understand that?

You know, when the church started out, isn't it? It

didn't look like they had a marketing budget. They didn't

have KPEX set aside so they can spend on new buildings.

They had very, very few. The people that were attracted

came from more of the poorer demographic. But yet... as

they came together, as they had everything in common, they ate,

they praised God, you know, they committed themselves to the Lord,

God added to them, okay? And so growth is God-driven

and not man-driven, okay? So now, just on that last one,

we're going to expand on that, okay? the point about

that growth is God's work. Now, growth, a lot of times,

I realize that this is a very, very important thing. Okay?

We want to grow, but yet, how we grow, we

go about growing is the key. Isn't it? How we

go about growing is the key. The Bible says here, okay,

it says, you know, 1 Corinthians 3, chapter 3, verse 6,

it says, I planted Apollo's water, but God gave the increase. Okay?

We can plant water, We can do all the things,

but it is God who gave the increase. Now, I

want to go a bit deeper and probably it will

be the central theme of my message here today. And

I'm going to turn you guys to Mark chapter 4,

Mark 4:26

verse 26 here. There is a very short parable that

Jesus was giving to the disciples. I thought this is

a very good passage. Now, in Mark chapter 4, verse 26,

Mark 4:26

it says, the title calls the parable of the growing seed.

And Jesus said, The kingdom of God is as if

a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should

sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed

should sprout and grow. He himself does not know how,

for the earth yields crop by itself, first the blade,

then the head, after that the full grain in the head.

But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle,

because the harvest has come. Now, Jesus is not giving

a lesson on botanics, okay? He is, the title clearly says,

he's talking about parable. Not always, what is parable? What

are parables? Basically, actually the disciple asked the same question. Jesus,

why are you always speaking in parables? And Jesus explained

the parable with a parable. He said, the reason I

speak with parable is by giving you this parable. It's like,

what is a parable? But you give another parable to

explain the parable. What Jesus is saying there, I speak

in parables because I'm trying to reveal heavenly mysteries to

earthly audience. Heavenly mysteries, heavenly principles, heavenly mystery to earthly audience.

I'm trying to communicate to you a truth about heaven.

the truth about how God operates, the truth about how

things work in the kingdom of heaven. And I'm telling

to you, because you have never seen, you've never heard,

you've never interacted, I'm sharing with you through a parable.

The parable is a way of connecting and understanding the

heavenly principles through earthly visuals. Let me say now, what

we go through in life. You say, no, whatever experience.

That's why Jesus always used, you know, maybe farming or

different things, you know, to give us a glimpse of

how heaven or the Father actually works.

Okay?

And so, when you look at this parable, in the

context of it, Jesus is not talking about just seed.

He's talking about the context of why is He giving

so many parables. And He is actually sowing word, the

word of God. Okay? In the whole context of it,

if you read the whole entire Mark chapter 4, it's

Mark 4 · chapter mention

about the Word of God. Okay? And the Word of

God is meant to be planted in men, women, and children.

Everyone who hears.

Okay?

And Jesus says that, you know, regarding this, you know,

there are some, you know, in the earlier part, He

said there are some seeds, which is the Word of God,

that may scatter in different grounds. Some are stony ground,

some are ground with thorns, some are, you know, on

the wayside. But here, he talks about the seed, okay,

and not just about where they are scattered, but about

how they grow. And he says here, the kingdom of

God is as a man should scatter seed on the

ground and should sleep by night. He says that, yes,

to grow a seed, you need to put in your effort.

You need to do all the due diligence. You need

to go out. You need to make sure the land

is fertile. You need to make sure that it's not

scattered on any bad places or unfertile places. You need

to plant it. You need to water it. But there's

only so much you can do. How many of you

like to plant things? How many of you are successful

at planting things? There are people who are dreamers. There

are those people who are actually growing it. We tried growing,

you know, having a garden, but I call it a graveyard,

not garden. Oh, we tried to grow things, but then

eventually it became a graveyard. It all died there. So

a lot of good memories there as well. But the

places that it grew was not at the garden or

like the porch. It grew in our bathtub, you know.

We put it near the bathtub because it has like

a square where they had all the sunlight. And one

day I realised that it grew so much because the sunlight,

it started crawling, creeping around different parts of the world.

When are we going to trim this? But we talk

about growing, right? When we talk about growing, it's only

so much you can control. You do the things, you

can put the fertilizers and everything, but you got to

let it be already. And sometimes you really don't know.

You put another seed, it may grow, but you put

this seed, it doesn't grow. Is it the seed problem?

Is it the planter problem? It could be many, many things,

but a lot of it is out of our hands.

But it says that in verse 28, for the earth

yields crops by itself. Wow. The earth yields crops by itself.

It says that you don't yield it. The earth is

the one. You can only do so much. You can

only do actually 1% of the effort, but the rest

of it is the earth, which is the Lord, okay?

Yields crop by itself. But it says, first the blade,

then the head, after that, the full grain in the head.

And when I read this, there's a lot of things

that come to my mind. The first thing that came

to my mind is that, why do we need to

prioritize and look and reflect about growth? And the reason

we need to think about growth is because it reflects

who you are. You know what I'm saying? Think about growth.

Because you see, a tree doesn't have social media. It

doesn't announce, hey, I'm growing. Hey, I went to university. No,

the tree doesn't. A tree is in the ground, right

down there. And the only thing, and the only evidence

you and I can know what kind of seed it is,

it's that it just has to grow. And Jesus says

that you will know it by its fruits. It grows.

How do I know it's healthy? See whether it grows

or not. You cannot do anything else, you know. How

many of you, you check, and then you actually cut

open the seed one? Nobody does that. The only way

you can know whether it's a good seed or a

bad seed, whether it's apple or orange, is let it grow.

And so if you want to ask yourself about your life,

where you are, how you are doing, where you are going,

you have to analyse how you are growing. How you

are growing, where you are growing, what's stopping you from growing.

You get what I'm saying? There's a few questions that

really you have to ask. It says here, The scripture

says here, it says it starts with the bud. Okay?

Sometimes it doesn't even come out, you know. It doesn't

even want to break out of the seed, you know.

It's happy to remain the seed. You get what I'm saying?

It's just happy to remain. You have to ask yourself,

why are you not growing? Are you choosing not to grow?

And there's a lot of reasons why you are choosing

not to grow. I'm now saying, and when I say

not growing, it could be many, many areas. Spiritual, emotional,

your marriage, is it growing or not? Is your marriage growing?

Is your family growing? Not just in terms of number,

are they growing tighter? Is your character, temper growing? The same,

every time you drive the car out, you still come

back home angry one. Still the same person. Can never,

can never overcome it one. Someone honk you, you still

get upset one. Are you growing in your words? Still

fighting with your spouse? Every time you fight, you cannot

help but keep saying the same thing. You know? Or

now that you grow a bit, then you just keep yourself,

at least you're not ready yet, but at least you

keep your mouth shut. You get what I'm saying? Have

you been growing? You know, you keep getting caught in

the same trap that you really don't want to be in.

You're stuck. You know what I'm saying? Are you really, really,

really growing? And, you know, I want to say something about,

you know, growth. You know, when we talk about growth,

it's really, you know, you really have to be intentional

about it. Yeah, yeah, I remember now. I want to

say this thing. A lot of times people say that, ah,

I'm just lazy. Have you heard before or not? I'm

just lazy. I was talking to a bunch of teenagers

the other day. Then I said, how many of you,

you know, you want to do something but you're just

so lazy. Holiday, I'm just so lazy. I'm just a

lazy person. I just have to overcome my laziness. You know,

one of the things that I learned very powerful is

that laziness is not a problem. You know, laziness is

not a problem. Laziness is just a symptom. It's a

symptom of that you are lost. True or not? What

is laziness? Laziness is you just don't want to pay

the price. True or not? It's not worth it. Why

wake up in the morning to go? Why wake up

and exercise? Why read the Bible a bit more? Why

go and meet this person? Why go and take up

another lesson? It's just not worth it. So, the thing

is not just whether you are just born lazy. A

lot of people just say, I just have this character

of laziness. No. What goes on behind your back is that,

in your mind, is that you just don't think it's

worth it. The value system in your life cannot process

that value and make you want to produce the behaviour,

the character, the decision-making. It's just not worth it. And so,

if you want to sort out your laziness, if you

want to work out on your laziness, first of all,

work out on your why. Really work on your why.

Why is it that you cannot do it? And the

main reason is that a lot of people are lazy

because they are lost. They don't have a vision. They really,

really don't have a vision. You know, I know my

time is cutting short. I know I'm extending it. There's

a very famous proverb, you know, it says here. In

Proverbs 26, verse 13 to verse 16. Okay? Proverbs 26,

Proverbs 26:13 Proverbs 26:13–16

verse 13 to 16 there. And it says that the

sluggard will always say, there's a lion in the road.

Have you heard this phrase before? In Proverbs 26. It

says that there's a lion on the road. A lazy

person will always say there's a lion on the road.

What does it mean there's a lion on the road?

They said a lazy person will come up with every

excuse to not walk on the road, to not travel anywhere,

to not do anything because they will always think of

the worst of anything possible. Eh, go out ah. Ayah,

haze ah. I will choke lah. You know. Anything, you

will create the greater, you will create, the people who

are lazy, they create their own obstacle. Amazing ah. You create,

it's amazing what we can do. We love to create

our own obstacle to justify us being lost and lazy.

You get what I'm saying or not? And so that's

why we get very frustrated with people in our, sometimes

we see people in our lives, when they go through lives,

it's like, why aren't you getting out there and pursue?

You got so much potential into you, but yet every

day you see them creating obstacles for themselves. You know

what I'm talking about? You know what I'm talking about

or not? You see people at work, you see people

in church, you see people in your family, they keep

creating obstacles in their lives. So I'm asking you, are

you creating obstacles in your life? Are you, like what

the Bible says, you keep telling yourself there's a lion

on the road? Quite scary, yeah? You keep telling yourself everything.

There's a lion on the road, there's a lion there

at night, there's a lion in my house. You know?

So there is one thing, okay? Let me quickly wrap

this up again. Everybody okay so far? Yeah, okay. So,

it says, it first the blade, then the head, after that,

the full grain in the head. But it doesn't stop there.

He said that, wow, it's growing into a tree. But

the problem is this. They say, but when the grain ripens,

immediately it puts in the sickle. This is what Jesus

is saying. You can grow into a tree or a plant,

but the plant was never the main objective. A lot

of us grow. The problem, this is the next problem.

It's not that we don't want to grow. We grow,

but when you grow, you think you have the wrong

idea of the final product. You think you're meant to

be a plant. We go to gym, we go into

extra studies, study into masters, into PhDs. Okay, and I'm

not saying anyone, you cannot study a master into PhD

or say, okay, but you study. It's sort of to

make yourself feel good, to make yourself feel like you

have a lot of achievement, productivity, sense of self-worth. But

Jesus says, no, you're meant to have to grow into

a full grain. You get what I'm saying? Meant to

be a full grain because you're meant to bear fruit.

But the thing is, if you grow into a tree

without bearing fruit, there is also a consequence, you know.

Because you have to answer to the Master. You have

to answer to the planter. You get what I'm saying

or not? God who is giving you growth into everything

in your life. You can only plant but He makes

you grow but you only grow. for yourself. How are

you going to be accountable for it then? You get

what I'm saying or not? All about me, me, me, me, everything.

And then when you're 80, you're 90 or when you're

answering your last few breaths, where's your grain? Where's your harvest?

You know what I'm saying? And so things, there are

many ways you can really go sideways. You're refusing to

grow and you grow into something that you're not meant

to be or you stop growing. That is why this

parable is very deep because in the sense that you

can look at a lot of people who come to church,

who are so-called Christians, who hear my word today or

you can hear podcasts today. And you think you are

growing but yet for so long, for the past 10, 15, 20, 30, 40,

50 years of your life, you have not even come

out with a single grain But you are a very

nice tree. Very, very nice tree. But Jesus comes, He says,

comes to test the fig tree. No fruit. He gives

it one more year. If not, what does He say?

Cut it down. You get what I'm saying? Cut it down.

That's the warning. So what do we do when growth stops? Okay?

First thing is that don't normalize or explain it away,

as Pastor says. Don't just say, ah, it's normal, we

go through stages like that. Yes, we do go through challenges,

but we cannot normalize it as if it's just meant

to be. So something has taken over. You see, when

you stop growing, it actually reflects what is inside. You

are frustrated. And most of the time, we are lost

when we don't grow. True or not? When you try

to lose weight, and then Two months after that, you

don't lose. How do you feel? Yeah, I don't know.

I'm losing. No, you get frustrated, isn't it? You want

to lose hope, isn't it? How many of you know

what I'm talking about? I feel. I actually got a

lot of failures in that, okay? I tried to lose

then after that. Oh, Sarawat Noodle is too good to pass, man.

It's like, oh, that Sarawat Noodle, that bite is so good, man. Oh,

and I went for it. Frustration, okay? But you cannot

normalize it, okay? Stagnation is not a season just to accept, okay?

it is a signal for us to pay attention to.

And one of the things that we try to encourage

is that we need to go back to the basics.

That's why we go through the 12 core values. And

it's not just for the church, it's just for yourself

as well. It's like, why have I not been growing?

I don't know, I've been through. Have you been reading

a Bible? When you read the Bible, is it just

a textbook or is it really God's wisdom for your life?

Are you doing your quiet time? And when you do

your quiet time, what do you expect out of your

quiet time? It's like, hey, you know, let's go for,

you know, go dating with your wife or your girlfriend

or your spouse. But then you have no expectation. Just anywhere.

You think your relationship will grow? I want to spend

time with my children. But how to spend time? You know,

you think your family will grow closer like that? Just

let it be a CC. Oh, rain already. No need.

That's a sign already. And you allow that. You see,

I believe every parent, every spouse have good intentions. Everyone

has good intentions. Trust me. You look like, you sound

like the best husband, wife, mother and parent. You sound

like the best children as well. Really, you sound like them,

but we will never adopt your intention. But yet, when

it comes to it, you're like, oh, it's okay, maybe

the next time. One day, two days, starts in 2026 January,

now we're in September already. What have you done? You

get what I'm saying or not? So it requires a

lot of intentionality, a lot of wisdom, a lot of

going to the basics, okay? Now, stagnation is an indicator,

not a verdict. It's a call to examine and return,

not to despair. And the God who added daily to

the early church is still adding today. Now, the last

thing I want to add here as I draw to

a close here, actually due to my time already, this

is the mystery I want to, I uncovered from the parable.

It says, if you learn from Mark chapter 4, it says,

Mark 4 · chapter mention

when we learn all this, you can plant But it

is the Lord that grows it. It's true or not?

We plant by the Lord. But how do we allow

the Lord to operate in our lives? Is it possible

that we plant and God is doing all He can

and you are still not growing? Is it possible or not?

Is it possible that you plant and God is doing

all He can and you are still not growing? You see,

God is saying that God is the one who caused

you to grow. But yet, we can stop God from

growing it. You know, the biggest growth in our life, actually,

really the biggest growth in our life, it's not when

we studied. The biggest growth in our life happens when

we fail. True or not? When we fail. You learn

the hardest lessons when you fail. True or not? When

you broke your heart. When you lost money, when you

got cheated because you got greedy, when you hurt someone

and someone, you know, you lost that relationship. True or not?

You learn, you grow the most when, you know, when

you fail. True or not? And what happens when you fail?

You humble yourself. You realize you are not that smart.

You realize, oh, that's smart. Then you begin to be

honest with yourself that you were really actually very greedy.

You say you were not, oh, I'm hearing from God.

But you, no, you didn't hear from God. You used

God's name, but you were actually greedy. You thought you

heard from God. No, you just that you refused to

forgive someone. You thought it was God's word, but you

refused to forgive. It's until you've tasted that failure, you know,

that you really humble yourself. That's when you grow the most,

isn't it? You see, When God says, God is the

one that grows, but we can stop God from working

in our lives when we refuse to humble ourselves. That

is why a lot of the growing in our lives

is when God just steps back and letting you walk

your own way, doing things your own way, and you fail.

And then you cry out to the Lord, Lord, I

have sinned against you. When you humble yourself, that is

when God's Word really comes into your life. And you

let God do the work. You see what I'm saying?

And so, the key to growth, actually the most important

key to growth in our lives, it's not knowledge. It's humility. Humility.

You can plant, but it is the Lord who grows.

You want to learn? You want to save your marriage?

You want to grow closer to your children? You want

to be a better investor, wiser with your money, a steward?

You want to grow spiritually? humble yourself. Humble yourself. Stop

thinking you know everything. Stop thinking you got everything. Stop

thinking you got heard every message. Humble yourself. When you

humble yourself, that's the work of letting God's seed plant

in you. And when you humble yourself, then you truly learn.

When you humble yourself, all the truths of God really

gets to work in your life. then you begin to say,

it's true. Lord, you are true. No one else is

true but you alone. I am wrong but you are true.

And when you humble yourself, even how old you are,

you begin to learn, you begin to grow. You guard

your tongue because you humble yourself and the fear of

the Lord enters your heart. You know what I'm saying?

Humility is the key. You can be lost for so long.

You're frustrated and angry. But if you're willing to humble yourself, Lord,

all these years, I admit, I wasted it. I admit,

I admit, I wasted it. I was foolish. I was upset.

I was angry. I tried to use that to bargain

it against you. All these things, you know, I thought

I was waiting for you, but Lord, you were the

one who was waiting for me. I need to come

out of this childish thinking of holding myself like a victim.

And I will never grow, Lord. I will never grow

if I think like that. I'm coming out of this

childish mentality, trying to bargain, trying to victimize myself. And

I humble myself and say, Lord, I was wrong. I

have been wrong. And I know the years and months

have passed by. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Lord,

forgive me. I don't know how you're going to redeem it,

but I know the only hope I have is in you.

You who can take all these things and make it

around and turn it around. You can. You can take

my broken heart. You can take all the relationships I

thought it was meant to. All the times when I

said it was your voice, it was your word, Lord,

I humbled myself when I said it was myself. I

finally admit it. You finally admit it was me, it

was me, it was me. And when you finally said it,

God says, I'm all here. I never left you. I

never left you. But I will never force myself to

take control of your life as well. Then God begins

to say, let's begin anew. Will you be patient? Will

you wait? Will you seem my hand, hold my hand

and walk with me. Amen.

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

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

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is going to be a good week ahead for you.

God bless.