I'd like to start in Mark, chapter four, verse 20, mark chapter four, verse 20, and these are ones on whom seed was sown on good grounds. Everybody say good ground. He said, those here who hear the word of God and accept it and bear fruit, some 30 fold, some 60 fold and some a hundred fold. Now, I believe that it is God's desire and it is God's will for us in what glorifies God is that we bear fruit. In fact, Jesus said in John, chapter 15, verse eight, he said by this is my father glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove or demonstrate to be my disciples by this is my father glorified God is glorified. When we bear fruit, it honors him when we bear fruit. And bearing fruit is really simple. If we would just do what Jesus said, let the seed go down into the good ground and the ground will put a demand on the seed and the seed will put a demand on the ground to produce good fruit. Just as he says in Mark Chapter four, verse 20 and he says it'll bear fruit thirty fold, sixty fold and one hundred fold. God is the ultimate farmer and he is the ultimate cultivator of his seed and he is the ultimate giver and receiver or sower and rieper. He sold his son and he reaped millions and millions and millions and billions of sons and daughters. God understands that if you sow seed and good ground, you'll get a harvest. And he believes you are good ground. So he sent Jesus for you to you and planted him in this earth and planted him in your life because he believes your good ground, your good soil, the heart. Is the soil and the word of God is the seed, in fact, if we look over in Luke's version of this in Luke, Chapter Luke, Chapter eight, because I want to talk to you about how to develop a soft heart for supernatural living. God isn't intended for you to live by the sweat of your brow. He's intended for you to live with a supernatural harvest continually flowing of your life, 30 full, 60 fold in one hundred fall. And why should we be interested in this? Because by this is my father glorified that we bear much fruit. Discipleship as Christians is not us being perfectly holy and never making mistakes. Discipleship is bearing fruit for the glory of God. And the way that we bear fruit is by planting the good seed of God's word into our heart. But if our heart is hard and our heart is prideful and our heart is stubborn, then the good seed can't get rooted in the ground and it can't produce the kind of harvest or the kind of of of what glorifies God bearing much fruit of can't produce the kind of fruit that glorifies God. Now notice what he says in Luke A11. Now, the parable is this. The seed of the seed is the word of God. So what's the seed? The word of God and those by the wayside are they that hear it? Then the devil comes to snatch away the word out of where? Out of where their heart. So your heart is really important because that's where Satan steals the word of God. That's where the word is sown. And that's where the devil comes to steal. And then he takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved, you know, believing, believing God is the most important thing we can do because. Right. Believing will always produce. Right. Living. But believing God is not is really not as hard as people have made it. Well, you've really got to believe you really got to believe. Hold on to your belief. Fight for believe. You better believe. He better believe. You better believe. Really believing a simple if the word of God is sown in your heart and Satan doesn't steal it, then what does he say? He says, Satan comes to take away the word from your heart, lest they should believe and be saved. In other words, if the devil cannot succeed at stealing the word from your heart, you will believe. Believing is a natural byproduct and what is how does Satan steal the word from your heart? We'll look at Matthew 13 and I'll just read this to you, Matthew. You can look it up in your Bible if you have your Bible with you. Hopefully you're looking it up. But Matthew 13, verse 19, this is how Satan steals the word Matthew. Chapter 13, verse 19 says When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, Matthew, chapter 13, verse 19. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes. Who's the wicked one? He already told us in Luke's version, the wicked one is Satan. The wicked one is the devil. So he says the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in the heart. These this is he who received seed by the wayside. Now, notice what he says here when you hear the word and do not understand it. So this is why. This is why we need the Holy Spirit. This is why we need a pastor. This is why we need good teaching, because if we don't understand the word, it'll get stolen. Like, I could stand up here and quote scriptures, but if I don't help you understand it, it is subject to being stolen. But if I can get you to understand it, if I can teach it in a way that you understand it, Satan can't steal it. And then what's going to happen? Go back to Luke, Chapter eight. What's going to happen is then you're going to believe it and then it's going to save your life, not just salvation of your soul, but it's going to save you from sickness. It's going to save you from, you know, worse problems in your life because you're going to believe God's word. And believing God's word is where the power flows. All right. So you see why it's so important. But if you go on in Luke, chapter eight, verse thirteen, the next verse says, and they are on the rock, they on the rock, are they which when they hear receive the word with joy and they have no root in themselves or they have no root, they believe for a while, but in times of temptation they fall away. That word fall away is actually translated as the word offended. We don't have time to get into that. But I'd like to break that down a little, maybe another time and verse fourteen. And that which fell among thorns, are they which when they have heard the word go forth and are choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and they bring no fruit to perfection. And that word perfection is actually the word maturity. So we can't mature, we can't mature in our lives when we when we allow the word to get choked out by the cares of the world and the riches, deceitfulness of riches and the desires of other things, God doesn't mind us having pleasure. Pleasure was God's idea. But the pleasures that this world offers is far different than the pleasures that God offers, because the Bible says in his presence of his fullness of joy, that his right hand our pleasures for evermore. It is God's will for you to have a joy filled, peace filled, happiness filled life. Blessed and happy are the people whose God is the Lord. The Bible says so. God wants you to have this experience where you have joy. That doesn't mean that we we do whatever it takes to be happy. It means that we tap into God's way of doing things, God's way of believing in God's way of doing. And we will experience the joy of the Lord beyond our wildest dreams. So but my my my point here is then he gets to verse fifteen and Jesus point here, but that on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart. Having heard the word keep it and bring forth fruit with patience, so never give up when things haven't been working for you. They are working. Be patient as long as you continue to plant the seed and let the seed be planted in your heart. In a honest and good heart. And honest and good hearted men talk to you about that for a minute, but before I do, I want to say this now, OK, what he's just done, Jesus has just done for us, has shown us something very powerful that the same seed is sown into everybody's heart. But everybody's heart is not the same. And there are four types of hearts, there are those that let the devil, because they don't understand the word, they're not seeking to understand it, that Satan steals the word and you don't bear fruit. Then there are those that the word gets choked out because of the worries and the lust for other things. And then there are those who who don't have a root. They don't let it go down deep and they get offended when persecution comes or opposition comes. That's the you know, those are three types of soil. And then the fourth type of soil is a good and honest heart. Now, why is this so important? Because we're all hearing the same message today. But what's going to determine what happens to the seed that is sown is really up to you. And it's up to me. It's up to us on the condition of our heart and what we allow our heart to become and what we do to soften it or what we allow life to do to harden it. And the decision that we make and the choices that we make about our own heart are what's going to determine what kind of harvest we get. Now, you know, as I'm sharing this, you might be feeling under pressure like, oh, this is too heavy. This is too much responsibility, too much pressure. This is now I got to watch over my heart and but yeah, it may not be a rah rah cheerleader kind of preaching, but what it will do is it may not be exciting while it's going in, just like water going into the pot wasn't exciting, but it when it turned into wine, it got pretty exciting at the wedding. Right. So it may be going in without much excitement right now, but if you will deal with your responsibility, which is the condition of your heart, if you will own that piece of it, then the excitement and the joy is going to come on the other side of this thing when you start having bountiful harvests in your life. And I'm not talking about just finances. I'm talking about harvests of joy and harvests of peace and harvests of good relationships and harvests of your dreams coming true. Man, this stuff starts, if you will, if you will endure what might seem like a boring message. I hope it's not. But if it seems like that all I'm doing is pouring water into your vessel, but the Lord is going to turn it into wine if you will, let it fill your heart to the full to the brim. It was only when the water was filled to the brim that it was turned into wine. Only when our heart is filled with God's word is when it begins to transform everything around us. So are you still with me today? So. So he says he talks about an honest and good heart here, so that tells us something about what a good heart is. A good heart is an honest heart now, an honest heart. He's not talking about integrity where which is another topic. And it's important to have integrity. But that's not what he's talking about. He's not talking about being honest about everything. He's talking about being honest with yourself, that you need God's word in your life, to be honest with yourself, that you need Harvest's in your life and to be honest with yourself, that you don't like the harvest you're getting right now and you'd like to see some things change. And if we could be honest with ourselves and say, you know what, my heart is not my heart is not somebody else's responsibility, my heart is my responsibility. If we will just be honest about the fact that your heart is your responsibility. My heart is my responsibility. You can do things to hurt my heart, but I am in control of whether I allow that to heart in my heart. OK, and and if somebody has hurt you to the point where you have hardened your heart, I'm going to show you how to soften it today. You're going to be all right. You're going to leave here with a soft enough heart that any time the word anytime you hear God's word is going to get deep in your soul, it's going to get deep in your heart and it's going to produce 30 fold, 60 fold and 100 fold. And you know what? By this is my father glorified that you bear much fruit. Who wants to bear much fruit here today? So you came to the right place because we're planting good seed, but now you've got to be you've got to be responsible for your heart. What do I mean by that? We'll go over to Proverbs, chapter four, verse 23, Proverbs Chapter four, verse 23, and notice what he says and put this up in the new American standard Bible, if you guys could. And I'd like to read this to you from the new American Standard Bible Proverbs, Chapter four, verse twenty three. Notice what he says. Watch over your husband's heart. Watch over your wife's heart. Watch over the pastor's heart, watch over your bosses heart. Now, what does he say? Come on, help is right there. Open book test, what does he say? Watch over your heart with what all diligence for from it flows the springs, the issues of the harvest's of life flow out of your heart. Remember what I said in the first creation God put man in the garden. But in the second creation, the new creation with who we are in Christ when we're born again, God doesn't put us in a garden, but God does put a garden in us. Your heart is the garden. We were talking about this yesterday. And Grace was saying, well, OK, so if the seed is God's word and the and the heart is the soil, the soil is God's heart is our heart, then what's the fertilizer? Because we've got to because in our neighborhood there's flowers in the front of our neighborhood, but they're not doing real well. But then the same flowers are in the front of our house and they're doing well. And you know why? Because we're fertilizing the flowers in the front of our house. And they are they are booming and blooming. They are great, man. I mean, you walk out my front door, it hasn't always been like this because we tapped into some fertilization that we hadn't been tapping into. And the flowers are really good. But the but ah, but our landscaper, who I love and a friend of mine, he's not fertilizing the flowers in front of the neighborhood. Maybe, maybe, you know, they haven't collected enough association fees or something. I don't know, I find that hard to believe. But they're not fertilizing those flowers the same flowers. But they're not, they're not they're not in bloom as much. So what's the difference? The difference is the fertilizer, because both both of them are getting the same sun because it's it's down the street. It's my neighborhood. The same sun is shining on my on my neighborhood and my front yard. And the same rain is hitting it in the same sprinkler systems are hitting all the same. What's the difference? The difference is the fertilizer mine are getting fertilizers in the neighborhood entrance is not getting fertilizer. And so those flowers aren't doing as well. So she said, well, what? So the seed is the word and the heart is the soil. But what's the fertilizer? I said, oh, that's easy. That's all the crap people give us all the time in life. And how we respond to it, we can let it help our seeds grow and we can let it help. Oh, man, I'm just telling you. You know, I don't know if that offends somebody, but nobody's offended when they put fertilizer in there on their in their garden and it helps things grow better. So I'm just talking about life, that life, man. People dump stuff on you and you're going to get mistreated and you're going to get taken advantage of and you're going to get lied to. And people are not going to live towards you with the golden rule. They don't always treat you the way they want to be treated. A lot of times people treat us the way they've been treated with this, which is bad, not the way they want to be treated. And the fact is, is that you can either let that make you bitter. Oh, man. People are always giving me crap. People are always giving me this. People are always doing this to me. People are always doing that to my boss. This my husband, my wife, my parents, my relatives, this, my pastor, this. Oh, don't you talk about your pastor now. I'll come down there. But we get yes, we all get dumped on and we can either let it become fertilizer for us by choosing to have the right attitude or we can make we can let it make us stink the rest of our lives. It's a choice. It's a choice, you know, it kind of reminds me of the story of. Some researchers at a university a while back did a study to identify the most optimistic and pessimistic people that they could find and a little girl, and this has nothing to do with whether she was a girl or a boy, but a little girl, one in the pessimist category, and a little boy happened to win in the optimist category. It had nothing to do with their gender. It's just randomly one was the most pessimistic and one was the most optimistic. The researchers brought these two children to the research center for the final observational portion of their study. The pessimistic little girl was brought to the laboratory and put into a large room behind a one way mirror where they could see her, but she couldn't see them and the room was full of new toys. She was told that each of the toys she played with over the next 30 minutes would be hers. You don't have to do anything except open up the new toys and play with them. And whatever she opened up was hers. She could open up all the toys in 30 minutes and they would all be hers just by opening them up and playing with them for a second. She looked at the research team skeptically as she entered the toy field room, pessimistically wondering what they were up to. What happened that next half hour shocked the researchers. The girls systematically opened every single box in the room and rejected every toy that she saw. The researchers heard her saying things like, these aren't new toys. These toys will never work. There's no toys that I want in here. There's no batteries in here to operate these toys. They'll never let me keep these toys. They're lying. I don't like these cutesy little sweetie dolls. The stuffing is coming out of these animals. And she was saying things like that. When the 30 minutes ended, the girl left the room without any toys. Watching this cheerless, lifeless, sour, bitter child leave the room carrying no toys, the researchers had enough data for the definition of a pessimist. So they were worried now. After the dramatic display by the pessimist child, so they brought the optimistic boy to the research lab and they didn't give him the same test, it was different in the same room behind a one way mirror. He was shown a room full of horse manure. Just piled up, man, just everywhere, horse manure in this room. He he was told that he only had 30 minutes in the room. They didn't give him any instruction, except there's your room. You got 30 minutes to do whatever you want. To the amazement of the research team, the boy entered the room and go right into the manure. He threw it all over the place. He was excited to live happy and animated. He kept digging and digging, shouting with joy. He was ecstatic in the pile of manure. After 30 minutes, a little boy by this time was covered with manure from head to toe. And he brought and he was brought to the head of the research team. The director of the study looked at him and said, little boy, what was going on in there that made you so happy? The boy with excited eyes looked up and said, Well, ma'am, with all that horse manure, I just knew there had to be a pony in there. And I was determined to find the pony. What is the moral of the story? When all life is giving you is a pile of horse manure, dove in with joy, with excitement and start looking for your pony because something good is in there, based on the attitude. Based on the attitude. Of your heart. Do you know each of those children chose? The attitude of their heart. Nobody chose it for them. Hey. One got toys and didn't even enjoy any of them and one got horse. Stuff. And he had all the joy in the world. Because he had an attitude of expectation and attitude of his heart, guess what he learned to do? He learned to watch over his heart with all diligence full of faith and optimism versus a heart of pessimism. You know, pessimism is just a person, a pessimist and somebody who's just. Finds the problem in every solution, right? And we need to be we need to let our heart we need to make our heart. Soft and good, a good heart is an honest heart. Number one, number two, a good heart. Is a teachable heart. You know, we should never get to the place where we think we've learned at all or we know it all or we don't need to be taught or we don't need to learn or we don't need to grow, it doesn't matter how long we've been safe. Paul the Apostle had been preaching for years and he was about to be killed. He was in prison and he was about he was about to have he was about to be beheaded for preaching the gospel. And he wrote one last letter to Timothy called Second Timothy, and he said, come visit me. I'm about to die, but come visit me. I've run the race. I've finished the course. I've I fought the fight of faith. I'm ready. But you know what? Bring my coat, because a little chilly here and bring my parchments. He said, bring the scriptures that I left with you, bring my scriptures, bring my coat and bring my scriptures. Why bring bring my scriptures. He's about to die. Why? What is he want the scriptures for? Because no matter where we're at in life, we should always be committed to learning and being teachable and growing and trust the word to do whatever he wants to do in our life. Who knows what God's work and God's word could have delivered him from the prison. God's word could have, you know, give him brought him more joy and more peace. In his last days, he just believed that he was always a student and a disciple of Jesus. I pray you would always be a disciple. Whether it rains, you show up for church, whether it snows, you show up for church, whether you got whether your schedule's busy or you show up for church, you come to learn, you come to grow. You come to be fed. You come to be to have the seed planted in your heart and you come to develop and cultivate a soft heart. If you do that, if you do that, you can't fail because the word's going to get in. Your heart is going to produce thirty fold sixty thousand one hundred fold because you have a good heart. A good heart is an honest, hard man. I need God. A good heart is a teachable heart. I need to I need to grow. I need to be a disciple. I need to keep learning. I need to keep reading. I need to keep coming to church. I need to keep being fed. I need to keep humble a good heart. Is a teachable and, by the way, about being teachable. I would take it one step further, further and say your heart doesn't just need to be teachable, it needs to be learnable. And what I mean by that is. That I might come up here and I might teach you I might start a topic or a series or a teaching, you know, it's not your favorite. Oh, I wish you would talk about this, but when you call on that pastor, that really helped me. Would you get back to that? I just got done with that. Can I just teach you something else, too, so you can continue to grow? Well, you know, I don't know if I'm going to go find a church where they're teaching that still or teaching this stuff or teaching more on this or teaching more. But you see, you if you have a heart that is teachable and a heart that is learnable, then even if I'm not teaching on your favorite subject, you'll still learn. And you'll still grow because the onus is on you to learn something from what said, rather than the onus being on me to make sure I'm the perfect teacher. Because being a better learner will go a whole lot further than just having a better teacher. I don't don't get me wrong, I'm committed to being the best teacher and the best pastor that you've ever had in your life such that you will never need to look for another one. Don't all say a man at once overwhelming. But if we have a learnable heart, like I said to you last week, I could have an off day. And you'll still learn I could kind of man, what's what's the pastor upset about or, you know, what's he been going through his life, right? He probably fell into sin. He's probably messed up. He probably blew it here. He probably blew it there. He probably did something wrong here. Probably did something wrong there. You know what? You'd be half right, because I probably did way more wrong than you think. Not deliberately. Not because I'm glorifying and doing anything wrong, but because I'm not up here, because I'm holier than you. I'm not elevated here. I'm not higher than you. The only reason I'm higher than you is because the stage is just a little higher than you. That's so that people in the back and see, that's what people on TV can see. It's not because I'm not better than anybody here. I got to live this out. I got to believe God like you do. It's real, but it's really simple to believe God just let the seed get planted in a soft heart. So if you like. Oh, man, I wonder I pastor. He used to be anointed. I'm still anointed. God, he used to be so anointed. Maybe your ears got less anointed to hear. Someone said De. To him, who has ears, Jesus said, let him hear. It's learnability, a good heart is an honest heart, a good heart as a teachable heart, a good heart is a trusting heart. Now, a trusting heart doesn't mean trusting everybody. Some of us got to stop trusting the wrong people and start learning to trust the right people. We know trusting God's word is the right people. We know trusting Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter, you know, Peter, Paul and Mary and all the rest of them trusting them. We trust the word of God. We trust the scriptures, and we should trust a few good people that have our best interests in mind, that pray with us, that stand with us, that believe with us. We should be able to trust your pastor. That doesn't mean you don't trust me to never make a mistake, but trust me to always teach you God's word so that you can grow. And to help you find your place in the church and and if you're not if you're bumping up against stuff like work through stuff, learn to resolve things, don't be a runner where you just run away when things aren't resolved, learn to resolve things because that's what a soft heart does, which is my final point about the heart. And then let me tell you how to get how to cultivate a soft heart is a good heart, is an honest heart. A good heart is a teachable heart. A good heart is a trusting heart. And a good heart is a soft heart. A good heart is a soft heart. Why is the heart so important? And I'll talk about a soft heart in a moment. But why is the heart so important? Because the heart is where seeds grow. We found that in Mark Chapter four, verse 20. The heart is where seeds grow. If we want the seed of God's word to grow, we got to have a heart that is soft, that can cultivate the good seeds. Why is the heart so important, because with the heart man believes Romans Chapter 10, verse 10, it says it right there, Romans ten, verse 10 with the heart man believes so. If we don't have a heart that is soft, it's going to be hard for us to believe and to activate God's promises in our lives. Because the Bible says all the promises of God are yes. And with us is the amen. In other words, our part is simply to believe Jesus said. They said what was we do? They said to Jesus, what must we do to do the work of God and John? Six twenty nine. And Jesus said, this is the work of God, believe, believe. This is our part to believe. And we don't even believe in our own power. We believe because the seed gets in a soft heart and causes you to believe. So our part is just to cultivate a soft heart and receive the word. And it will. And then you will believe and it will produce 30 fold, 60 fold and hundredfold when you have a soft heart and when you have a soft heart, you'll cultivate seed. The seed of God's word will grow and it will produce what, thirty fold, sixty fold and hundredfold. And what will glorify God by this is my father glorified that you bear much fruit. As my disciples follow, this will really set you free when you realize, OK, so all I need to do is bear much fruit, that doesn't mean I have to strive to bear much fruit. Fruit is the fruit of God's grace, the fruit of God's power, the fruit of God's promises. It all flows. In a good heart. And a good heart. Is an honest heart, you know what, I need God's word. I need God's help. I can't do this on my own, I need his grace, his grace is sufficient for me. His word has the power. So another teachable hard, a good hard as a teachable heart, I'm going to keep learning, I'm going to keep going, I'm going to keep humble in myself a good heart. As we said, is a trusting heart, trusting God, trusting his word, not trusting in the flesh, trusting the Holy Spirit, trusting Spirit filled people that God puts in our lives, our pastors, our. You know, our good close people. Inner circle, that doesn't that isn't out to get something from you or disrupt what God is doing in your life, but someone without an agenda except just to be an encouragement to you, man, have some good friends like that and you and that you can trust you, you it'll be good for you. And a good heart is a soft heart. Why the heart? Because the heart is where seed grows. The heart is where we believe the heart is where dreams are conceived. God puts dreams in our heart. But if our heart is hard, the dream will stay in there. But it'll never come forth. That's why we need to soften the heart. So not just sow the seeds get planted, but so that the dreams can come forth. The dreams that God puts in there can come forth. In First Corinthians to nine, we went over this verse rise not seen here is not heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man. All that God has prepared for those that love him. God has wild dreams prepared for you above and beyond your wildest dreams, above and beyond what you can ask or think is in your heart. But if your heart is hard, it's in there because you're born again. But it can't get out into your life. It can't get from your heart into your hands. You can't get from your heart into your head. It can't get from your heart into your life and into your plan and into your daily preparation. Your dreams can't come true when you have a hard heart. It makes sense to anybody. And the heart is where relationships become healthy or unhealthy. The heart is where relationships become unhealthy, healthy or unhealthy. Look at Matthew nineteen seven and then let me close with a few thoughts that will help you develop a soft heart when they why then they ask Jesus did Moses order and give a certificate of divorce and and to put his wife away. To put her away. To dismiss her. Why did Moses do that then? Because Jesus was talking about divorce and adultery and they were talking about they were asking about adultery. And Jesus said Moses gave you a permitted a certificate of divorce. He permitted you to divorce your wives because of the hardness of your hearts. He said he was. What he was trying to say is you guys are this is what these guys were doing. Listen, this is what these guys were doing. They were going out and committing adultery and saying, well, the Moses said we could be divorce because of adultery. So doesn't that what if that's what Moses said and if that's what Moses meant, then wouldn't you if you wanted to? Wouldn't you just go out and commit adultery, so then it gave you the license to get a certificate of divorce? That's that's how they read into what Moses said. We'll go ahead and commit adultery so Moses can give us a certificate of divorce and he said, no, Moses didn't give you a certificate of divorce because you committed adultery. Moses gave you a certificate of divorce because of your hardness of heart. But it was not that way from the beginning that wasn't God's will, you see? And my point is not here. I'm not here to talk about divorce and adultery. You know you know what the you know, you should know what the Bible says about it, and that's not the point because many people have been divorced and God is the God of second chances. And some of you've got tapped into some third chances. And somebody somebody with that guy, he's your fourth chance. And God is merciful God, but what he's saying is what destroys relationships is hardness of heart, not the mistakes one another makes. That's complicated and it complicates things when you make mistakes and when you commit sins inside of a marriage and inside your life, bad seeds produce bad harvests. But what he's saying is it's the hardness of your heart. That causes the relationship to be broken and not to succeed. So why the heart is so important, because the heart is where seeds are planted, the heart is where. Man believes the heart is where dreams are conceived and heart is where relationships are either healthy or unhealthy. That's why Proverb says or that's why Hebrews three seven says today, if you hear his voice, don't harden your heart in verse eight, don't harden your heart. So what is our part? What is our responsibility to soften our heart? How do we do that? Very simply, humility softens the heart. Humility is to hear God's word and accept it. It's to lower the defenses. It's to get rid of defensiveness. Humility is to accept God's word and trust him with quietness of soul, quietness of mind. Andrew Murray said it best I shared this couple of weeks ago. Humility is perfect quietness of heart. It is to expect nothing from others, to wonder at nothing that is done to me and to feel nothing done against me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me or when I am blamed or when I am despised. It is to expect nothing from others. You say, shouldn't we expect that from people we should expect from God? He said, well, what if I make a business deal and this person commits to that, that's different. That's a contract. That's a business deal. Of course you should expect that. But in your daily life, in your relationships, you shouldn't expect other people to make you happy. You shouldn't expect other people to treat you the way you treat them. You should treat them the way love would dictate to treat them. But don't be mad when they don't treat you back the same way. Don't expect them to be led by the spirit. You just be led by the spirit. That's your responsibility is your heart, not theirs. Humility. To expect nothing from them. To wonder at nothing that is done to me, just don't waste your time. How is that done? Why was that done to me? Why did that person do that? Why was I abused as a child? You don't wonder at it. Let God heal you from it. Just receive in humility the healing that comes. I get it, it's painful. We've all had painful things done to us. We've all been dumped on, as I shared earlier, use it as fertilizer to cultivate your seeds in the soil of your heart. And don't be afraid of it, don't don't live a life where you just lock out anybody ever having the ability to do anything to you, instead lock out anybody, having the ability to control the attitude of your heart. And you'll you'll just you'll go through the roof, you will saw your harvests will grow. A soft heart comes through humility, a soft heart comes when you think about what God has done, when you consider and put your mind on the things that God has done, the grace that he's had towards you, the rescues that he's made towards you, the times he's delivered you, the things that he saved you from, the things that he's prevented from happening in your life. And you say, what about the things that he didn't prevent? Will God trust God can turn those around? God is the turnaround king, he's the turnaround specialist. If something happened to you that shouldn't happen, God knows how to intercept that. God knows how to bend that. God knows how to reinvent that. God knows how to. You know what I've said many times, a thousand times before or more that the enemy set to defeat you got bent to complete you. Think about what God has done, look at Mark 652 in the King James Bible, Mark six, 52 four, they considered not. The Miracles mark 650 to four, they considered not the miracle of the loaves and their heart was hardened. Listen. What hardened their heart was what they were considering. Sin didn't even harden their heart. It wasn't like, oh, they were all up in pornography and that hardened their heart. I'm not saying pornography can't harden your heart. I'm just saying that's not what Jesus said. Harden their heart. Oh, they were just, you know, they cost and they did this and they were smoking and they were drinking and they were partying and that hard in their heart that didn't look, we were all like that when we got saved. I was my heart started to soften while I was drinking. While I when you say, well, then why not wear Cinnabon? Grace abounds even more. Maybe continuance in the grace might increase. No, may it never be. God delivered us from it already. Well, when your partying is that would soften your heart. No, but it didn't prevent my heart. I know those things did not soften my heart, but those things were not what prevented my heart from being soft. What prevents your heart from being soft is when you take your eyes off of the miracle that Jesus has already done like focus on what he's already done, what he's already done, what he's already done, the 10 Lepre is one of only one of them came back thankful. Why? Because he saw that he was healed. None of them none of the other ones were looking at what Jesus just did. They were looking to go to the priest and tell him. But this man looked at Woa, the leprosy is gone, I'm healed. And he immediately turned back and glorified God and fell at Jesus feet and worshiped him and thanked him. And Jesus said this guy, when he saw that he was healed, turned back and gave thanks. And he's a Samaritan. He's not even of the Covenant. He thank God we're of a new covenant. We don't we don't look to the old one. But he was of the new he was like, I'm thankful for what Jesus has done for me. It doesn't matter what my race is, it doesn't matter what my color is. It doesn't matter what I wear. My nation is from it doesn't matter what nationality I am. He didn't care that he wasn't a Jewish person. He just said, I'm just thankful that Jesus set me free. I'm so glad Jesus set me free. What hardened their hearts, do you see what my point is, it's better not to sin, but would harden their heart was that they considered not the mere see when they hard when you harden your heart, you're more susceptible to commit sinful behavior. And what hardens their heart was not the sinful behavior, some sinful behavior is the result of a hardened heart, but what hardened their heart was they were not focused on the miracles. That's why we come. And why do we start with praise and worship when we come to church is because we're thanking God for what he's done. We're focused on what he's already done. That's why it's not part of the service to skip. That's not the part of the service to skip. And someone's like, which part is? What is wrong with you? We worship. Because we're reflecting and remembering and considering the miracle. Of the loaves, we're considering the miracle of our salvation. We're considering the miracle of God's love. We're considering the miracle of how he saved me so many times, how many accidents, what I've got in how many drunk driving episodes might I have had had it not been for his grace? I know someone said, why did you get sick? How could you get saved so soon and have so many problems before you were 17 years old? I don't know. But if I would have been 18. It might have been my last year. Jesus rescued me from what was certainly going to destroy my life and two. Remember what God has done? Focus on what Jesus has done already. Go back and reflect over and over again. And remember, Deuteronomy 18, it is he that gives he said, look, he said Deuteronomy 18 when you are. When you have built goodley homes and when you have seen all these great things happen, remember the Lord, your God, it is he that gives it is he, that gives it is he. That gives he's talking about the power to get wealth here. But the emphasis is really it is he that gives if you would just wake up every day and realize it is he that gives it is he that gives no matter what I'm going through. It is he that gives I've got some sickness. It is he that gives healing. I'm dealing with some financial problems. It is he that gives blessing. I'm dealing with some family issues or some family situation. Is he that gives peace. It is he that gives it is he the gives it. Is he. That gives it. Is he. That gives if you would wake up every day and go to bed every night and live through your day with this thought in mind, it is he that gives it will soften your heart whatever you need. It is he that gives you some mercy. It is he that gives you some grace. It is he the gifts you need some open doors. It is he that gives you a miracle in your heart. Is he to give you something to happen in your life. It is he that gives it is either gives it is. He needed a job. It is he that gives. And I'd love to keep talking to you about this, and I think I will next time. Next time we gather. Come on, stand up with me. We're out of time. You got enough to go and soften your heart. Humility. Think about what God has done and remember, it is he who gives it? Is he who gives it? Is he who gives it? Is he who gives?
