Sowing, Growing, and Knowing

Hey in Jesus name we pray and everyone said amen and amen pleasures you may go ahead and receive the offering how many's rate for pastor Lisa right now come on give her a big welcome Thank You Craig don't you appreciate pastor Craig and all he does here at Lakewood Church he's an amazing man and got an amazing family and it's just so great to see all of you did you have a good Christmas did you get some good presents yeah did you bring them tonight show my did you eat enough awesome are you ready to get rid of your relatives all righty I'm just kidding are you ready to study the Bible tonight that's the big question get your Bibles out your notebooks out if you like to take notes we're gonna study the word we're gonna have a good time and we're just so glad that you came tonight how many of you first-time visitors do we have tonight I understand I'll bless you God bless all of you and did we have a group from Baltimore do I understand their hand yeah over here Oh y'all need to stand up y'all just need to stand up all the way from Baltimore god bless you so glad to have you thank you for coming bless you bless you and then I understand we have the youth here tonight is that right let me hear from the end hey you stand up pastor Trevor stand up we appreciate Trevor and Amy and all that they do amen all the youth stand up okay you got the drop see they wants to end up I'll let you stand up one more time will you stand up to all the youth I want to give you a good hand clap bless y'all Pam I'm going to ask you to do something tonight I'm gonna ask you to tweet me something you'd learned in the service tonight Trevor I'm looking for your tweet okay tweet me somethin on you up there some of these guys I want you to tweet me something that you've learned in the that you learned in the message tonight all righty well you can turn in your Bible to mark four and we were gonna read there in just a moment we're gonna read about the parable of the sower and the title of my message tonight is this sowing knowing and growing and I just want to really give you some practical meat from the Word of God that will help you become spiritually strong how many of you want to become stronger spiritually I know I do I want to always grow and I want to strengthen my spiritual muscles and I know you do too and there's an interesting scripture in hebrews 5:13 that talks about growing up in the the things of God and not remaining a baby when it comes to spiritual things and I'm going to quote it out of the Amplified Bible let me just read it to you for everyone who continues to feed on milk is obviously inexperienced and unskilled in the doctrine of righteousness for he is a mere infant not able to talk yet but solid food is for the spiritually mature say solid food there is a place we come in God where we go from being a baby into and eating the milk of the word into eating the solid the solid food are the meat of the word say meat of the word and you know you think about how babies need milk at first but they eventually advanced into solid food and as believers we need to grow from that baby stage into that mature stage where we are feeding continually on the Word of God where we are acquainted with the Word of God and you know we don't act like a baby Christian anymore when we pout and cry when we don't get our way and when God doesn't answer our prayer just like we want him to but we become mature in the things of God and so I was thinking about when our twins were let's see they were almost 1 year of age they weren't walking yet they're 19 today and they're on the front row here but they're yeah amen my son should press are you up there in the youth it's Chris up there he's not gonna tell me where is Chris somebody find was security go look for Chris he's not waving at me he's up there that's good I'll talk to him later yeah now I love you Chris so proud of Chris I'm proud of Katherine and Caroline all our kids love my husband Kevin who's up here - I got God's blessing with the best family but I was thinking about Katherine and Caroline and when they were almost 1 and how they had been on the Bible for all this time and I just decided one night that it was time to switch him from the bottle to the sippy cup and so instead of giving them their bottle at night before they went to bed I just handed them a sippy cup and you know Caroline the happy-go-lucky person that she was she just looked at it she examined it and then she took it and drank it but Katherine she was totally different she's always been our problem child I'm just kidding she threw the sippy cup as far as she could and she got so mad and she crawled over to the refrigerator and she pointed to it like I want my bottle well when I didn't give it to her she threw a temper tantrum and so I just walked out of the room I've learned to do that when kids throw temper tantrums just walk out the room ignore them and they'll know it doesn't work and so I walked out of the room and she finally realized that she wasn't going to get her bottle so she crawled over she found her sippy cup she picked it up and she began drinking and I thought that's how we are so many times spiritually we just don't want to but sometimes we resist change you know we're used to depending on the bottle amen we don't want to go to that sippy cup and there comes a time when we do have to go from milk to solid food amen and you have to mature in the things of God you got to stretch yourself you got to grow you've got to learn more and so in mark 4 Jesus gives us this solid food to help us grow spiritually into walk in victory and I want us to study this passage tonight so let's begin in verse 3 do you have your scripture mark 4:3 and I believe it's going to be on the monitor also listen a farmer went out to sow a seed and has as he was scattering the seed some fell along the path and the birds came and they ate it up some fell on rocky places where it did not have much soil it sprang up quickly because the soil was soil was shallow but when the Sun came up the plants were scorched and they withered because they had no root other seed fell among the thorns which grew up and choked the plants so that they did not bear grain still other seed fell on good soil it came up it grew and it produced a crop multiplying 30 60 and even 100 times and then Jesus said he who has ears to hear let him hear now I'm gonna stop there a minute because Jesus began with these words listen to what I'm going to say and then he stops after telling this parable and he says he who has ears to hear let him hear Jesus wanted us to understand the importance of this message and later on if you look in verse 14 he begins to explain the meaning of the parable and he said the farmer sews the word what does he say some people are like seed along the path where the word is sown as soon as they hear it Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them and others like seed sown on rocky places they hear the word and at once they receive it with joy but since they were have no real roots but since they have no root they last only a short time and when trouble or persecution comes because of the word they quickly fall away and still others like seeds among thorns they hear the word but the worries of this life the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things they come in and they choke the word making it unfruitful and others like seed sown on the good soil hear the word they accept it and produce a crop thirty sixty and even a hundred times what is sown so jesus said that the word is the seed that he's talking about the seed is the word of God the soil is your heart it's your spirit and just as the farmer sews the seed into the ground so we must sow or plant the Word of God into our hearts does that make sense see we all know that a seed cannot grow unless it will and it cannot grow unless it is planted and so the Word of God has to be planted in you in order to produce a harvest see it has the potential I think about the word it is full of so much potential it has the potential to bring healing salvation deliverance to transform your life but you have a responsibility first to plant it into your heart and to apply it to your life and so Jesus is showing us this this principle and I want to talk a minute about this how do you plant the Word of God in your life how do you plant it into your heart I'm gonna give you four ways you can do that and the first one is this you plant the word in your heart by reading the Bible on a consistent basis just getting the word into your heart did you know that the word is your spiritual food the Word of God is food for your spirit you know if you don't eat your body is weak and if you don't feed your spirit you will be spiritually weak your faith will be weak you'll tend to get discouraged and doubt God you know I think about how we're so diligent to feed our bodies aren't we I mean on Christmas did you feed your bodies I mean I ate so much turkey and dressing cornbread dressing those sweet potatoes with all that brown sugar and pecans in it so good and not to mention the hot tamales and enchiladas Thank You Norma for bringing those to me we just we can overeat if we're not careful but listen if we don't neglect our bodies let's not neglect our spirit amen we're made of three parts we are a body we have a spirit and we also have a mind and so we have to take care of our bodies we have to take care of our spirits and we have to take care of our mind and listen to this when your spirit is strong it affects all the other areas of your life it makes such a difference and so you have to read the word consistently I was thinking about this how when you put the word of God in you the word is going to come out of you you know it will come out of you when you need it if you put garbage in garbage will come out of you and and then I was thinking about the fact that you can't make withdrawals on your checking account unless you have made deposits first I mean you can't write a check for $1,000 and expect it to to use it if you only have $500 in your bank account you know that right you said well I need $1,000 but it doesn't matter what you need it matters what you put in the bank amen no moola in no moola out no dinero in no dinero out and so I say that to say there's no word in you then no word is going to come out but when you deposit the word in your spirit let me tell you something about the word it comes out of you at the right place at the right time just when you need it amen and talking about the word coming out of you at the right time I remember when we bought our new home and we didn't have a lot of furniture to fill it because it was larger than our other home it's so I was sort of concerned about this because it looked empty and I knew that we didn't have the money and our budgets at that time to buy a new furniture and so I was thinking about this and how empty our house would look and and all of a sudden something came up out of my spirit this scripture came up out of my spirit and so it was this scripture in proverbs 24:3 through 4 and it says by wisdom a house is built and through understanding it is established listen to this through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures now I knew that there was the Holy Spirit bringing that out of my spirit and I had never thought about that passage before in fact I don't remember it but let me tell you something since I was a teenager I've been reading one proverbs one chapter in Proverbs all my life and so that scripture was in me and when I needed it it came out of me at the right time and so when it came out of me I grabbed a hold of that and I said father that is right you said you would fill our home with rare and beautiful treasures and Lord Jesus you're not dependent on our budget you can do that whether we have the money or not and I just began to speak faith and I said father I thank you for giving us a dining room table I thank you for giving us everything we need the sofas that we need in the name of Jesus and every time I walk through those empty rooms I would just claim that Scripture god I thank you that you're filling our home with rare and beautiful treasures well you know what it wasn't even 2 to 3 weeks when somebody paid appearing and Patty Adams gave us a dining room table that was gorgeous somebody that owned a furniture store they didn't know about this they gave us a beautiful English sideboard and then my sister April had two sofas that she didn't need anymore and all of a sudden our rooms our home was filled with rare and beautiful treasures I mean it was Cod but I wouldn't have even had faith in that Scripture if I had not put the scripture inside of me peace in peace out amen faith scriptures in faith out victory scriptures in faith comes out of you it will come out of you at the right time in the right place and I want to say something to you about reading your Bible because sometimes we have all these mixed-up ideas about reading our Bible and we sort of get legalistic about it but I really don't think that we read the Bible to please God necessarily I mean God is pleased when we read this word but it's not for God it's for us to read his word I mean think about it God's not up there saying well you know real Lisa read five chapters today she gets some brownie points today you know power brother Paul only read one chapter I'm going to take away some of his rewards you think God doesn't think that way we read the Bible for ourselves we read the Bible because it's life-changing it's our Christian manual and it brings us closer to God and it will keep you encouraged we read it because it brings victory into our lives the word in the word out say that with me the word in the word out so take the time to read your Bible every day it's a good thing to begin to do at the end of this year in the beginning of the new year and let me tell you something I tell people all the time read it whether you understand it or not you're not gonna understand everything but you don't need to understand everything right now you got a lifetime for that but see the Holy Spirit will will reveal to you what you do need to know and as you grow in the Lord you'll begin to understand more and more and more sometimes were weak to resist temptation because we're weak in the word it's so so important to understand you have to constantly stay in the Word of God this holiday I was reading a book by our good friend pastor Mark Barclay who lives in Midland Michigan and his book is called God possessed and when he was a very young boy his father became sick very sick he ended up in the hospital and while he was in intensive care he and his other brothers were not allowed to even see his father they were not allowed to say goodbye to him and and so he died without them seeing him and so he remembers that when he was at the funeral he was standing by the casket and he said during that funeral an anger and a rage entered into his life as a little boy in fact he said that the the minister said that God took your father because he needed him in heaven and he just said that made him so mad he kicked the minister but an anger and a rage just entered into his life and so for the next few years he would throw fits of rage and he would fight anybody but his mother he wouldn't fight her the age of 12 he became an alcoholic and he said people doubt me on that but he said let me tell you something from the time I was nine years old he said my my family my my parents had alcohol in the house it was easy to become an alcoholic and so he became an alcoholic and the doctor told him that if you didn't get a told his mother if you don't get him off of alcohol he's gonna die before he reaches 18 well then he got kicked out of high school because nobody could get along with him and he decided to go into the Marines because he could he wanted to fight he wanted to fight somebody and he went to Vietnam and he was able to vent his anger and rage but thank God when he was in Vietnam he became a Christian and he came to know the Lord Jesus Christ I know it's so awesome and he said he instantly felt clean and different inside and the hatred just left him and for the first time he said he could feel alive and strong again and when he got water baptized he said evil lifted from him he said he used to go to bed scared every night and he felt an evil presence no more did he feel that and he didn't want to hurt anyone and he couldn't believe that he could actually feel so different and so he started going to church all the time but he still had these lingering anger issues and other issues and he knew that he had changed but there was this war going on in his flesh and he said that one time even he was in church and a church member was sort of getting on to the pastor and it made him so mad he hit him with his fist and cursed him out you know and I thought this is so funny one time that the pastor was teaching him about about binding the devil and he said mark I want you to do that he started started saying I bind you blankety-blank devil you know just cursing using not blankety-blank so I'm just showing you the the position he was in and he said I wanted to change it so this is what he did he begin to submerge himself into the Word of God and he began to read the word and he began to act on it and he said he read the word and submerged himself into the Word of God that he began to change from the inside out and he said all of that anger left him and he never never cursed he'd never threw fits of anger after that he was completely healed and completely delivered and now that's the power of God word of God's word amen but today today he's a pastor two pastors and he went back to school he got his doctorate degree and he's helping so many people but this is the point I want to make there's power in the Word of God you may feel bound you may feel like since you were a little boy or a little girl that you have hurt you have changed in your life but there is nothing too strong that God can't break in your life and God had a plan for Mark Barkley and he has a plan for your life and he doesn't want you to continue that way he wants to you to break free from that but getting into the Word of God will set you free amen you see you have to submit to the word and allow it to grow inside of you until it produces a harvest of deliverance and a harvest of freedom can I have an amen how else do you plant the Word of God in your heart you do it number two by meditating on the word day-and-night meditate on the word you know this is the thing we're gonna think about something so we might as well might as well think about the Word of God we might as well think about the faithfulness of God and the goodness of God in our lives and when you're tempted just as an example when you're tempted to worry about your finances you know meditate on this instead God you said you would supply all my needs you are my source I believe that father you're a good father and I'm not going to worry about my finances I'm gonna trust that you're going to take care of me see just meditate on those scriptures that talk about God meaning your need you know there's something good about brainwashing I discovered let the Word of God wash your brain clean of all those negative thoughts and all those confusing thoughts that are only produced in chaos in your mind and in your life meditate on the Word of God another way you plant the Word of God in your heart is by listening to the preaching and teaching of the Word of God that's what your doing tonight listen I'm sowing the word into your heart right now and you're receiving it God anoints people to teach and preach the Word of God and when you hear the Bible says the faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God over and over and over makes such a difference another way number four is to obey and act on the Word of God how many of you know that faith without actions is dead so when you read it act on it start obeying it like dr. Barkley did don't just read it do it it says and when you do it will produce a mighty harvest in your life so you have to so we talked about sowing knowing and growing you got to start sowing the word into your life knowing what the Word of God says growing and the things of God now I want to turn my attention to your attention to this Jesus gave us a big warning he said I'm warning you that when you sow the word in your heart three things are going to come into your life to try to steal the word from you did they have that graphic up there no they didn't that's okay when Jesus said this when you plant the Word of God in your heart there are three things that will try to steal the word from your heart and so you have to watch over it and you had to protect it you have to hold on to the Word of God if you let go of the word let me take something you let go of your harvest and you don't want to let go of your harvest the first thing that Jesus said comes to still the seed that you plant in your heart is Satan Satan will come like those birds of prey that just came in and took what the seeds at the farmer so he will come to try to steal that word out of your heart and he doesn't just come listen he comes immediately you have to realize that this is very important to understand this is a clue for us because Satan will come immediately listen you can hear a great word from God you can hear a sermon you could go out of this service and you you are so excited and you receive the word and somebody can say one negative thing to or something bad can happen and all of a sudden you think that words not for me it's not really gonna work and you just forget the word and you let it go why is it because Satan came immediately to steal I have so many people tell me this when they get saved in a church service that they'll leave the church they'll get in their car they'll get home and the devil will tell them you're not really saved God didn't forgive you you you're too much of a sinner you see what is that that is Satan coming immediately to steal the Word of God from you and so you have to recognize don't allow him to do that recognize it next time and say I'm going to hold on to the word I believe the Word of God over the lives of the enemy amen see we need to grow up in this area and not just let anybody or anything talk us out of the Word of God or talk us out of our blessings the Bible says that Satan is a thief and he's after the Word of God in you now why is that why is he after the Word of God think about it why is he after the Word of God I tell you one reason he's after it because it's alive and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword it's life changing another reason he's after the Word of God is because it is the will of God and it will transform your life and then the Word of God it is the wisdom of God say wisdom of God you see the Word of God is the wisdom of God and when you begin to put the Word of God in you you begin to know God's plan for your life and you begin to make right decisions and choose right friendships in your faith begins to grow and in the Word of God you can learn how to run a business you can learn how to treat people how to treat your mate and children you can learn how to manage your thought life I mean there's a scripture that even says Lord through your Commandments you have made me wiser than my enemies the Word of God is full of the wisdom of God and it has all the answers that you need and there are so many ways that that Satan will come in and try to steal the word from you and and one of the ways procrastination don't you just hate that word you know you know what to do but you put it off you know what is the definition of insanity they say that doing the same thing over and over and expecting to get different results I mean it's just not going to happen do you have to do something different to get different results and I encourage you just to start maybe taking ten minutes in the morning and opening your Bible and read your Bible and and start talking to the Lord and and just take the time to let the Word of God get into your spirit you'll see that it will transform your life you say well I don't really think I have the time to do it I'm tired when I get up let me tell you something calculate all the time you spend on social media and all the time you spend watching TV and then tell me you don't have time to read the Bible ten minutes that's all I'm saying ten minutes don't procrastinate any longer the word in the word comes out another way he steals the word is through the voice of others sometimes people just speak discouraging words over us they try to come in no you can't do it now that's not really true you know where they say something negative that makes you feel discouraged it makes you want to makes you want to give up on the word that God has given you sometimes they just say ridiculous things that discourage us like when my mother was fighting cancer the liver in 1981 someone came up to her and said oh my aunt had that too but she died you know just ridiculous things that people need to keep their mouths shut don't they but what I'm saying you know my mom didn't it discouraged my mom but she didn't she didn't listen to that she stood on the Word of God but I'm just telling you that to say you know you may be believing for something and you've gotten you know terrible words or people have said negative things you don't give up on it just because of what people say you have to learn to trust the voice of God over the voice of others another way Satan steals the word is through accusations accusations listen Satan is the accuser of the Brethren and he will come with feelings of guilt thoughts of guilt you you have your past is too bad you've done too much but it'll also make you think you know you're not worthy here I felt that you're just not worthy for the blessings of God you're not worthy to be forgiven but the fact is none of us are worthy are we Jesus made us worthy he made us worthy and so you have to realize that is the enemy that's trying to accuse me and I'm not going to believe him I'm going to believe what God says about me I'm gonna believe the Word of God I'm not gonna let go of that word that says I am clean I am forgiving God has a plan for my life just because Satan tries to come in and discourage me amen and then the fourth thing is exactly that Satan steals the word through discouragement we get discouraged because things are not happening like we want them to we give up on the word but all the while the harvest is on the way if you plant the seed the harvest is coming I'm gonna say that again if you plant the seed the harvest is coming you know I think about I think about the farmer and how he worked so hard in long hours to till the soil and and then to sow the seed and the next step is patience it's it's the longest step in the process he has to wait for the harvest to come and he has to wait for the seed to germinate to take root he has to wait for the rain and he has to wait for the plants to mature so it's this long season of waiting and patience and he has to be patient really in the winter months because winter is the hardest time to be patient because it's a season of dormancy when you don't see anything happening but you know you don't see the farmer go out there pull up the seed to say are you working no he knows it's just it's the winter season it's a season of dormancy and so in the same way you ever prayed and prayed and prayed and it feels like you're not--' your seat that's never going to come up you feel like it's never going to happen nothing is happening to you but that just means it's wintertime amen that just means that you can't see God working but he's working behind the scenes it may be a time of dormancy in your life but listen that's when you just keep walking by faith and not by sight amen you can't go by what you see you have to go about what you know the second thing that Jesus mentioned that comes in to steal the Word of God is this he said you have an absence of roots and maturity in your life now we're talking about growing up in the things of God Jesus said you hear the word you receive it but when trials and persecution come you have no roots and you quickly fall away you see one version says you quickly just let go of the word and you know I think this is one area where believers really mess up or they get mixed up because they think if God is a good God then why am I going through these trials if God is a good guy why am I being good God why am I being persecuted but you know you had to grow up in this area and remember that jesus said in this world you will have tribulation and he said you will be persecuted for my name's sake but be of good cheer because I have overcome the world and so Jesus never said we weren't going to have troubles and sickness and things come against us but he did say he would bring you through those times and so you have to realize that you have to put down your roots when things like this come you know the roots of a tree the deeper they go the stronger the tree is amen and when you put your roots down you base your life on the Word of God it doesn't matter what storm comes your way you're not going down you're gonna stand strong because your roots are strong proverbs 24 10 says if you faint in the day of adversity how small is your strength listen you're stronger than you think you really are say I'm stronger than I think to develop roots and maturity in your life you have to develop a consistency in your life see no consistency no roots develop spiritual disciplines that's what I'm talking about like coming to church like you do like reading your Bible on a daily basis and and getting around friends who will build you up and mentors and just growing the things have God when you develop consistency in your life consistent spiritual disciplines like that you will begin to mature and grow in the things of God and not only that your life will become more stable how many of you want your life to be stable God doesn't want it to be up and down all the time God wants you to have stability in your life and the Word of God will give you that stability the third and the last thing that that Jesus mentioned is this the distractions of life they will come into your life to steal the word from your spirit from your heart Jesus called them thorns and he said that they come in they choked the word in your life he mentioned three of them he said it's the worries of life the deceitfulness of riches and the desire for other things come in and they choke out the word let me ask you something do you have any distractions in your life that are just choking out the word any distractions think about that tonight you know you can become so busy that you put off doing the very things that will bring you peace and victory you can make feel like you're too stressed out to pray but you don't realize that if you'd pray you wouldn't be so stressed out maybe you have a hard time saying no to people you mean well but your schedule is so full that it's just crowded out the Word of God had crowded out some things in your life Hebrews 12:11 says let us lay aside everything that hinders and the sin that so easily besets us and entangles us and I just encourage you and I'll do it myself too let's pray that God will show us anything that is distracting us from him I say let's go into 2018 full of the Word of God with no more bondages no more change hey not a lot of baggage in our life let's go in mature mature in the things of God amen at the end of this parable Jesus said this he said he who hears the word and accepts it will produce a harvest and listen he said sometimes it will be 30 times more sometimes 60 times more and sometimes a hundred times more than the seed you plant it in you think about that you never get the same amount that you plant it you will get 30 60 and 100 percent more you'll see that God's Word works amen I like what the message Bible says it says you will produce a harvest beyond your wildest dreams I love that amen so that's really all I have for you I just want to encourage you I realize that was at the end so the Word of God into your life know the word of God and then continue to grow and the things of God sowing knowing and growing let's say those together sowing knowing and growing amen well you can bow your heads a minute and I'm just going to pray with you and I want to ask you a personal question if you're here tonight and you would say least I've never known Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior I've never prayed this have Asian prayer I really don't have peace with God but I'd like to know him I'd like to receive Jesus as my Lord and Savior I want you to raise your hand right now I'm gonna look all over the building you want to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior I want you to wave your hand to me right now I see those hands I'm looking to my left you can put them down if you're here and you would say Lisa I've known the Lord but I've been away from him I need to rededicate my heart to the Lord I want to get in on that prayer - I want you to raise your hand right now amen you can put your hands down I'm so proud of y'all for responding to the Lord I take god brought you here he has you at the right place at the right time we're gonna pray with you and God is going to your prayer and when he does he's gonna forgive you of all of your sins and you're gonna receive salvation and eternal life and you're gonna be different let's pray this prayer together say Oh God I come to you right now just as I am I'm a sinner and in need of a savior I ask you to forgive me of all of my sins wash me clean by the blood of Jesus Christ Jesus I want you to come into my life I ask you to forgive me be my Lord and Savior I want to serve you all the days of my life in Jesus name now look at me give them a good hand clap I forgot to have them stand I forgot if you've raised your him for the first time stand up real quick we want to put a book in your hand I'm so sorry I forgot to have you stand just stand up real quick and let us put a book in your hand if you raise your hand give them a good hand clap amen [Music] we're so proud of you and we know that God has a great plan for your life 20:18 is gonna be your best year ever amen amen amen okay I'm gonna do something different tonight before you leave I want to just ask you if you're here tonight and you just you feel like sort of like pastor Barclay you've just been hit one after another through your life you've been going through hard times you just seem to can't get free I don't know what it is addictions and anger rage hurt bitterness I don't know what it is but I just want you to come down to this altar and we're gonna pray for you because we're not gonna let you go into the New Year like that we know that God is going to touch you he's gonna set you free and this is a new day for you and I'm gonna ask my family just to come up here Deborah I want you to come up and I want some of the worship team if you're here just come up and I want you to face some of these people so that we can pray for them come on I tell you we don't judge anybody we used to be just like you before Jesus saved us lost and without God come on down y'all just come on down and gather come on you Jonathan the care on if y'all want to come help pray y'all do it that's okay just come down here in front awesome this is so awesome God is so good god is so how you doing man I just felt drawn toward you Father thank you for touching what's your name huh Brendan father I thank you for touching Brendan I thank you that Lord Jesus you have a plan for his life father I think you did this is a new day for him in the name of Jesus we thank you for for all of you thank you Father I'm just waiting for it all to get down here God is a good god he died Jesus died for your freedom amen and it's your day of freedom it's your day of freedom how old are you thank you Father praise You Jesus they give you time to get down there surround you don't want to move down this way a little bit move down this way why don't you guys just come on up here with me so you can face them and and see the people anyone else I guess my mom is down there I'm just giving them time to get here thank you Father okay let me tell you something this is your day of freedom this is your day and I don't know what it is I don't know what it is that you're that that's holding you back but it's not too hard for God do you think about Mark Barkley and all the things that he went through listen maybe that's you maybe you're having some of the same struggles maybe someone sexually molested you or or verbally abused you or physically abused you and you have just been done wrong and you know what it's hard when that happens it's just hard I mean that's not right that you should have been treated that way that's just the bottom line and from you know what because they don't ask forgiveness I'm just saying I hope you forgive them and I'm sorry that you had to go through that because that was not God's will that was not God's best and they may never say I'm sorry and they may never you to forgive them but I'm just saying today if you do it you will see God will turn your life around amen and so I want you to think about that thing I want you to think about in your heart what it is you can name it not out loud the anger the hurt the bitterness the rage the addictions I don't know I want you to think about that and I want you to think that today on December 27th I'm gonna leave it here at the altar I'm going to set myself free from that thing I'm going to release it because it's not who I really am that's not who you are you're a child of God God has a plan for your life he didn't make you angry he didn't make you bitter he didn't do all those things to you when he created you he looked at you and he's a man that was good I have a plan for I have a plan for him and then life comes in and it beats us up some time but that doesn't change God's plan for your life it doesn't and I hope today what I really want is for you to just be elevated into that new level of thinking that you don't have to live that way anymore and that you can be free and you can have the joy of the Lord amen father in the name of Jesus stretch your hands out to Lord and father in the name of Jesus I thank you for every precious man woman boy and girl that is here tonight I thank you Lord Jesus that you are cleansing them and that you are setting them free in Jesus name thank you Father for the healing balm of the Holy Spirit thank you father for the anointing of the Holy Spirit that is in operation right now father healing every hurt delivering every fear father in the name of Jesus preach bringing them from every bondage father in the name of Jesus and father I thank you Lord Jesus that they would realize today how precious they are to you and how valuable they are in this world father and I just pray father in Jesus name that you would encourage their hearts that you would strengthen them this day and father that they would not go another day with this heavy burden upon them and father I just thank you for the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives I think you Lord Jesus that you had fled them with your joy with your peace with your power and that they will never be the same from this moment on in the name of Jesus and if you receive that say I receive it I believe it today I let it go I give it to you Jesus I've tried on my own I haven't been able to do it but I don't have to do it the Holy Spirit will help me and today I detach myself from that old life that old identity and I say I'm free in the name of Jesus amen and amen I look at me give them a good hand clap look at me you're free you're free don't go out of here and let the enemy tell you you didn't get free don't go out of here and let the lies of the enemy start bombarding you what are you gonna do you're gonna remember that warning that Jesus gave us Satan comes immediately to steal so you have a tempting thought so you sow something you do something you shouldn't do let me tell you something that didn't matter just say god I'm sorry I did it and I'm gonna just believe I'm not gonna do it again with your help and I'm gonna get the Word of God in me and every time you fall you just get back up because that's what it means to be mature if you fall you get back up I'm gonna I want you to say that if I fall I get back up it doesn't mean God doesn't love you it means that you're making progress it means you don't stay down it means you're saying god I trust you I believe I can do better and listen we believe we believe in you we believe you can do better we believe that God has put greatness in you he has put greatness in you the Bible says he has and so this is a turning point today I want you to say that turning point this is a turning point for you and I want you to go home and I want you to write it down or on your phone and I want you to say this is a turning point for me amen and you're never gonna be the same in Jesus name Amen you want you to say stay right we are you understand in the congregation I'm not gonna let him go just a minute because you know what I want to get down there and I want to shake your hand and I just want to encourage you father we just thank you for a wonderful service today and we bless them in the name of Jesus we love you we'll see you next week

Channel: LisaOsteenComes

Views: 34,217

Rating: 4.9057436 out of 5

Keywords: Lisa, Osteen, Comes, sermon, preaching, sowing, Bible, Lakewood, message, hope

Id: phbZ5rq_jLw

Length: 45min 40sec (2740 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 02 2018