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What Seeds Will You Plant This Spring with Pastor Rick Warren · Voice of Rick warren

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Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. We're inside today in the studio because it's
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Speaker 1: raining outside, but I want to thank Megan for that wonderful,
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Speaker 1: heartfelt prayer. Thank you, Megan. I know that God heard it,
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Speaker 1: and I know that you ministered to many people. You know,
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Speaker 1: before we look at God's Word today, I want to
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Speaker 1: encourage you to pause this video and print out the outline. Otherwise,
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Speaker 1: you're not going to remember the 10 transforming life principles
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Speaker 1: that I'm going to share. You simply aren't going to
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Speaker 1: remember them because there's too many of them. But this
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Speaker 1: is one of those messages that honestly could be a
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Speaker 1: life-defining message for the rest of your life. And I
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Speaker 1: don't want you to miss it. So I want to
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Speaker 1: urge you to pause this video right now. Go print
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Speaker 1: out an outline with all the verses that I'll share
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Speaker 1: so you can refer back to it. I will wait. Now,
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Speaker 1: if I seem particularly cheerful today, it's because I really am.
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Speaker 1: And I have three big reasons to be cheerful. First,
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Speaker 1: daylight savings time starts this weekend in America. And that
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Speaker 1: means we're moving into the half of the year where
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Speaker 1: it's lighter later. Love it, love it, love it. Second,
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Speaker 1: we've been told because of all the vaccinations and because
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Speaker 1: COVID infections are dropping that Southern California is going to
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Speaker 1: likely be moving to a less restricted category on Monday,
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Speaker 1: which means we'll be able to do more things, including
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Speaker 1: reopening our outdoor worship services with reservations and masks starting
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Speaker 1: on Palm Sunday. That's just two weeks away. I'm so
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Speaker 1: excited to see all of you. And all of our
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Speaker 1: campuses will be open for Easter services. So I just
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Speaker 1: can't tell you how overjoyed I am that that's happening. Third,
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Speaker 1: and this is a big one to me personally, we're
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Speaker 1: only seven days away from the beginning of spring. which
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Speaker 1: is my absolute favorite season of the year. Now you
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Speaker 1: may wonder, why is spring Rick's favorite season? Well, it's
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Speaker 1: because God wired me to grow things. All my life,
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Speaker 1: I have been fascinated with helping things grow, starting with myself.
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Speaker 1: You know, all leaders are learners. The moment you stop
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Speaker 1: learning is the moment you stop leading. And growing churches
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Speaker 1: require growing pastors and growing businesses and growing organizations require
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Speaker 1: growing leaders. When you stop growing, the organization stops growing.
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Speaker 1: So I've always been interested in my own growth. But
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Speaker 1: God has also allowed me to grow a family and
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Speaker 1: to help grow this church and to help grow several
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Speaker 1: movements around the world like Purpose Driven and Celebrate Recovery
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Speaker 1: and the Peace Plan and now the Finishing the Task
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Speaker 1: Coalition of about 1,600 mission agencies, churches, ministries, and denominations
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Speaker 1: committed to completing the Great Commission in our generation. But
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Speaker 1: there's another reason I love spring, and it's this. I'm
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Speaker 1: a farmer at heart. You know, this last year, with
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Speaker 1: no travel and not much time traveling around, we were
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Speaker 1: spending time at home a lot, I didn't just plant
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Speaker 1: my usual spring garden of vegetables and fruits. But as
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Speaker 1: soon as that garden was harvested, I then planted a
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Speaker 1: second garden here in Southern California, a winter garden, which
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Speaker 1: just ended a few weeks ago. And now... As we're
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Speaker 1: on the verge of spring, I'm getting the soil ready
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Speaker 1: and preparing for spring planting. You know, in the past,
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Speaker 1: I've planted as many as 57 different kinds of vegetables
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Speaker 1: in a single year, along with 18 kinds of fruit
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Speaker 1: that I grow every year. It's just one of my
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Speaker 1: ways of relaxing, and I get out there and get
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Speaker 1: in the dirt and think and pray and think about
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Speaker 1: you and pray for you. But it's also taught me
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Speaker 1: a lot of spiritual principles that I have used in
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Speaker 1: serving people. Someday, in fact, I may teach an entire
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Speaker 1: series on spiritual gardening, the principles I've learned from gardening.
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Speaker 1: You know, there are at least half a dozen of
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Speaker 1: Jesus' parables that have to do with the spiritual parallels
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Speaker 1: to planting and farming. Whether you realize it or not,
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Speaker 1: in many ways, your life, your family, even your career
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Speaker 1: is very much a spiritual garden. So today, as we
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Speaker 1: get ready for springtime, I wanna ask you the question,
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Speaker 1: what kind of seeds are you gonna plant this spring?
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Speaker 1: What kind of seeds are you going to plant this spring?
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Speaker 1: And I wanna share with you 10 laws of spiritual planting.
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Speaker 1: They're all right here in God's word in the Bible.
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Speaker 1: But to set up these 10 laws, I wanna first
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Speaker 1: read a parable of Jesus. It's called the story of
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Speaker 1: the growing seed. And it's found in Mark chapter four.
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Speaker 1: Mark chapter four. Verses 26 down to verse 29 says this.
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Speaker 1: Jesus said, the kingdom of God is like this. Somebody
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Speaker 1: plants some seed in the ground. And then during both
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Speaker 1: the day and the night, whether that person who planted
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Speaker 1: it is awake or asleep, the seed is growing silently.
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Speaker 1: Now the person who planted the seed can't see how
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Speaker 1: it's growing. because obviously it's hidden under the ground. But
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Speaker 1: in the darkness, the soil is helping the seed to grow. First,
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Speaker 1: the plant sprouts through the soil. That's always exciting to me.
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Speaker 1: And then the tender stalk appears. And then the stalk
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Speaker 1: puts on buds. And finally, the full head of grain
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Speaker 1: or fruit appears. Then when it's ready and ripe, the
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Speaker 1: farmer cuts it because it's harvest time. Now, In this
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Speaker 1: simple parable, we have Jesus clearly saying that if you
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Speaker 1: want to understand the kingdom of God, and you want
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Speaker 1: to understand how life really works, then you need to
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Speaker 1: understand the principles of planting seeds. So what lessons can
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Speaker 1: we quickly draw from this story? Let me suggest four
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Speaker 1: simple lessons from what I just read, and then we're
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Speaker 1: going to look at the laws of planting, spiritual harvesting
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Speaker 1: and planting in scriptures. But here's what we learn from
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Speaker 1: this parable. Number one, God expects growth, okay? That's the
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Speaker 1: first thing. That's the kingdom of God. He says, here's
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Speaker 1: what the kingdom of God's all about. God expects growth
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Speaker 1: in my life and in my church. In my life
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Speaker 1: and in my church. Growth is the evidence of God's
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Speaker 1: kingdom at work. In fact, so many of the parables,
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Speaker 1: the stories of Jesus reinforce this truth, that God expects
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Speaker 1: us to grow up the spiritual maturity. He doesn't want
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Speaker 1: us to stay as busy as babies. And God expects
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Speaker 1: us to grow his church. And God expects us to
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Speaker 1: grow his kingdom and to seek first his kingdom. You know,
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Speaker 1: all living things grow. That is, if they're healthy. Growth
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Speaker 1: is automatically when we're healthy. I don't have to command
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Speaker 1: my kids or grandkids, I command you to grow. No,
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Speaker 1: if they're healthy, they're gonna grow. So the first question
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Speaker 1: I need to ask myself is this. Am I growing spiritually?
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Speaker 1: Or am I growing superficially? That's the question I want
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Speaker 1: you to start with as we head towards spring. Am
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Speaker 1: I growing spiritually, truly spiritually? Or am I just growing superficially?
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Speaker 1: When I know more about culture than I know about Christ.
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Speaker 1: A second thing that we can learn from this truth,
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Speaker 1: from this parable, is that any fruit in my life,
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Speaker 1: and that's good fruit or bad fruit, could be either way,
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Speaker 1: Any fruit in my life comes from seeds planted by people.
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Speaker 1: Now listen very closely here because this is important. The
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Speaker 1: seeds that are planted in your life are either planted
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Speaker 1: by people around you or they're planted in your life
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Speaker 1: by you yourself. You know, anytime you see a farm,
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Speaker 1: you can know for sure that there's a human farmer
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Speaker 1: behind that farm. Because a field of corn or a
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Speaker 1: field of celery or a field of cotton doesn't just
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Speaker 1: suddenly appear on its own. Somebody had to plant it.
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Speaker 1: And did you note that phrase that I read in
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Speaker 1: that parable? It said, somebody plants, someone plants. Who is
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Speaker 1: that someone? Well, that phrase isn't referring to God. It's
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Speaker 1: referring to a human being. So you need to ask
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Speaker 1: yourself this spring a couple questions. Here's the first one,
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Speaker 1: real important questions. Who am I allowing to plant seeds
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Speaker 1: in my life? Think about that. Who am I allowing
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Speaker 1: to plant seeds in my life? Because it's not just God.
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Speaker 1: Either you or the people around you are planting seeds,
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Speaker 1: good or bad, every day. Second, do I want the
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Speaker 1: kind of fruit that will grow from the kind of
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Speaker 1: seeds they're planting in my life? And if not, you
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Speaker 1: want to change it. See, it's important to understand that
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Speaker 1: the people who plant seeds in your life That doesn't
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Speaker 1: just include your family or your face-to-face friends or your coworkers.
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Speaker 1: In fact, a lot of people plant seeds in your life.
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Speaker 1: I plant seeds in your life. I'm doing it right now.
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Speaker 1: I do it every week. Now, if you watch TV
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Speaker 1: or you listen to radio or you listen to podcasts,
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Speaker 1: or you use the internet or you use social media,
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Speaker 1: you are letting all kinds of people plant all kinds
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Speaker 1: of emotional and mental and spiritual and secular seeds in
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Speaker 1: your life and in your heart. That's why as your
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Speaker 1: pastor who loves you deeply, I deeply urge you to
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Speaker 1: be more discriminating in what you watch and what you
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Speaker 1: listen to and what you read Don't just allow anybody
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Speaker 1: to plant seeds in your life. You see, if you're
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Speaker 1: spending more time reading Facebook than having your face in
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Speaker 1: God's book, you got your priorities out of order. And
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Speaker 1: if you spend more time each day listening to Fox
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Speaker 1: News or CNN News or any other news than you
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Speaker 1: do the good news of God's word, you need to
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Speaker 1: realize you're choosing to allow others to plant more seeds
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Speaker 1: in your life than God. That is incredibly dangerous. and
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Speaker 1: it is incredibly harmful. It could be harmful to you. Again,
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Speaker 1: you need to ask yourself, who am I letting plant
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Speaker 1: seeds in my life? Whoever you're spending time with, you're
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Speaker 1: spending time with trolls on the internet, then you're letting
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Speaker 1: them plant seeds in your life. Do I like the
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Speaker 1: kinds of seeds I'm allowing people to plant in my life?
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Speaker 1: Are the people in your life, are the people you're
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Speaker 1: watching on TV planting seeds of anger or seeds of distrust?
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Speaker 1: Are they planting seeds of resentment, making you more resentful?
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Speaker 1: You come away from a show and you go, you know,
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Speaker 1: I'm frustrated and you've got doubts and you've got negativity.
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Speaker 1: Or the people you're hanging out with and watching on
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Speaker 1: TV or listening to on the internet, are they planting
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Speaker 1: seeds of love and forgiveness and grace and kindness and
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Speaker 1: faith and trust? See, let me just be real clear
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Speaker 1: about this. If other people are failing to plant good
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Speaker 1: seeds in your life, because whatever's planted is what's gonna
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Speaker 1: come out. Or if other people are planting bad seeds
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Speaker 1: and harmful seeds in your life, then it's up to
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Speaker 1: you to stop that. Nobody else is gonna stop it,
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Speaker 1: it's up to you. It's also up to you to
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Speaker 1: choose to start planting good seeds in your own life.
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Speaker 1: And so as we are just a week away from springtime,
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Speaker 1: Why don't you start planting some good seeds in your
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Speaker 1: own life? You say, well, what are seeds? Well, seeds
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Speaker 1: can be ideas, seeds can be convictions, seeds can be perspectives,
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Speaker 1: a new way of looking at things, seed can be habits.
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Speaker 1: Every time you start a good habit, you're planting a
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Speaker 1: seed that's gonna bear fruit in your life. You can
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Speaker 1: plant relational seeds in your relationships. You can plant financial
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Speaker 1: seeds in your finances, yeah. You can plant personal seeds
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Speaker 1: in your character. You can plant family seeds in your family.
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Speaker 1: And you can plant career seeds for 20 years down
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Speaker 1: the road in your career that you won't harvest until
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Speaker 1: 20 years. Now there's a third lesson we get out
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Speaker 1: of this parable. We can extract from this story and
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Speaker 1: it's this. We often can't see the seeds that are
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Speaker 1: growing in our lives. And I'm not just talking about
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Speaker 1: the good ones, I'm talking about the bad ones too.
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Speaker 1: Both the good seeds that have been planted by you
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Speaker 1: and your choices and by others and their choices. Good
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Speaker 1: seeds and bad seeds. Notice that Jesus said in that verse,
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Speaker 1: the person who planted the seed can't see how it's
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Speaker 1: growing because it's hidden under the ground. But he said,
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Speaker 1: in the darkness, the soil is helping the seed to grow. Now,
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Speaker 1: I don't have time to explain this in detail because
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Speaker 1: I want to get into these 10 laws. But your growth, listen,
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Speaker 1: your growth requires both dark times and difficult times. You
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Speaker 1: don't just need sunlight. and water and nutrients. There needs
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Speaker 1: to be difficult times, dark times. The Bible says as
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Speaker 1: long as the earth exists, there will be springtime and harvest,
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Speaker 1: winter and summer. The seasons are intentional. I don't know
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Speaker 1: what season you're going through right now, but you can
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Speaker 1: be planting new seeds. Now there's a fourth lesson we
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Speaker 1: can see in this, and it's this. Growth in my
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Speaker 1: life is slow and gradual growth. And it happens in stages.
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Speaker 1: Did you see that when Jesus said, you know, first
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Speaker 1: it sprouts and then it gets the stalk and then
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Speaker 1: it adds the bud and then the bud turns into the,
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Speaker 1: you know, the flower and then you get the fruit.
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Speaker 1: There's no such thing as instant spiritual maturity. There's no
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Speaker 1: pill you can take that will make you like Christ.
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Speaker 1: Growth takes time. T-I-M-E. It takes time. And you know,
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Speaker 1: one of the most frustrating things in life is that
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Speaker 1: we get in a hurry when God isn't. God is
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Speaker 1: not in a hurry for your growth. You need to
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Speaker 1: realize that. And he loves you at every stage of
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Speaker 1: your growth. And we need to remember the promise of
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Speaker 1: Philippians 4, 6. Be confident of this, that he who
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Speaker 1: began a good work within you will continue his work
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Speaker 1: until it's finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus died.
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Speaker 1: comes back again. Now, I know what you're probably thinking.
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Speaker 1: You're thinking, you know, Rick, okay, God is going to
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Speaker 1: plant some seeds in my life. Other people are planting
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Speaker 1: seeds in my life. I can plant seeds in my life.
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Speaker 1: Is there anything I can do to ensure that I
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Speaker 1: keep on growing spiritual maturity? And the answer is, of
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Speaker 1: course there is. God has a part in your spiritual development,
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Speaker 1: and you have a part in your spiritual development. You
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Speaker 1: can't do what God can do in you. You know that.
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Speaker 1: But God won't do what he's given you the capacity
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Speaker 1: to choose to do. So God's not gonna do your
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Speaker 1: work and he wants you to not try to do
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Speaker 1: his work. Now, the best way that you can grow
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Speaker 1: to your fullest potential, that you can plant some seeds
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Speaker 1: today that you'll harvest in years ahead, financial seeds, relational seeds,
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Speaker 1: spiritual seeds, mental and emotional seeds, character seeds, The best
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Speaker 1: way you can grow to your fullest potential and become
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Speaker 1: the woman of God or the man of God that
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Speaker 1: God has always intended for you to be, the best
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Speaker 1: way to do that is to cooperate with what are
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Speaker 1: called the 10 laws of spiritual planting. That's what we're
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Speaker 1: going to go through very quickly right now. Now, let
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Speaker 1: me explain this. God set up the universe to run
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Speaker 1: on both physical and spiritual laws. Both of them are inviolable.
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Speaker 1: Physical laws, the laws of physics, and spiritual laws, the
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Speaker 1: laws of the spirit. Now we learn the physical laws
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Speaker 1: of the universe by studying God's creation. When we look
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Speaker 1: at nature, we learn the laws of physics. We learn
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Speaker 1: the spiritual laws of the universe, not by studying nature,
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Speaker 1: but by studying God's word. Both are important, studying nature,
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Speaker 1: studying God's word. Now, the more you understand and cooperate
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Speaker 1: with these 10 spiritual laws I'm gonna give you, the
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Speaker 1: more fruitful and the more effective and the more productive
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Speaker 1: your life's gonna be. And as I mentioned a little
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Speaker 1: bit earlier, these laws apply to every area of your life.
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Speaker 1: So they apply to your personal life, they apply to
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Speaker 1: your family life, your friend life, your church life, your
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Speaker 1: career life, they apply to your relationships, they even apply
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Speaker 1: to your finances. And you can learn to use them financially.
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Speaker 1: So let me give you these 10 laws, okay? You
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Speaker 1: got your pen and pencil out? Write these down. Here's
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Speaker 1: the first law. Everything starts as a seed. Everything starts
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Speaker 1: as a seed. Every idea started as a seed of
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Speaker 1: an idea. Every dream started as a seed of a dream.
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Speaker 1: Every achievement, every building you see, somebody had the seed
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Speaker 1: thought in their mind. Your own life started as a
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Speaker 1: seed between your mom and your dad. Both contributed a seed.
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Speaker 1: You exist because God set up the seed principle in
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Speaker 1: the universe. God created the world on the seed principle.
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Speaker 1: Genesis chapter one, where he's talking about the creation of
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Speaker 1: the universe. Verse 11, it says this. Then God said,
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Speaker 1: let the earth have seed bearing plants. and let the
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Speaker 1: trees bear fruit with seeds in them. Then let those
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Speaker 1: seeds produce the same kind of plants and trees that
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Speaker 1: they came from. So the earth was filled with seed-bearing vegetation.
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Speaker 1: Seeds are God's idea. He thought it up. Everything in
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Speaker 1: the universe grows from a seed. Now, you know, there's
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Speaker 1: an old cliche, you've probably heard this before, that anybody
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Speaker 1: can count the seeds in an apple, But only God
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Speaker 1: can count the number of apples in a single seed. Why?
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Speaker 1: Because every seed has exponential potential. If you plant one
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Speaker 1: kernel of corn, you don't get one kernel of corn back.
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Speaker 1: You get a corn stalk with eight or 10 ears
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Speaker 1: on it with thousands of kernels on each ear. You
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Speaker 1: always get a lot back more, a lot more back
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Speaker 1: than you planted. Most of you know that I grew
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Speaker 1: up in the redwoods of Northern California. Redwood trees are
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Speaker 1: the largest living organisms on planet Earth. Nothing's bigger that's
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Speaker 1: alive than redwood trees. They can grow to nearly 400
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Speaker 1: feet tall. But you know what? Redwood seeds, and I've
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Speaker 1: seen them, are really quite tiny. And from just a
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Speaker 1: little seed comes a giant redwood. You know, one of
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Speaker 1: the verses that God gave me 41 years ago when
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Speaker 1: we started Saddleback Church with just two people, Kay and me,
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Speaker 1: One of the verses God gave me was Job chapter 8,
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Speaker 1: verse 7. Though what you start with seems small and insignificant,
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Speaker 1: you'll end up in the future with much. That's the
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Speaker 1: power of a seed, the exponential power of a seed.
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Speaker 1: So the first law of the universe and spiritual planting,
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Speaker 1: everything starts with a seed. You got to plant a
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Speaker 1: seed in your life if you're going to see the
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Speaker 1: results of it, physical, spiritual, mental, whatever. Second law, a
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Speaker 1: seed has no power until it's planted. A seed has
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Speaker 1: no power at all until it is planted. You know,
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Speaker 1: a couple years ago, I bought some very expensive heirloom
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Speaker 1: tomato seeds. But you know what? They never grew. They
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Speaker 1: never grew. Not one of those seeds produced tomatoes. And
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Speaker 1: I paid a lot for them. Why didn't they grow? Well,
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Speaker 1: simple reason. I forgot to plant them. I just forgot
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Speaker 1: to plant them. And if you don't plant them, nothing happens.
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Speaker 1: There's no power in the seed by itself. Jesus said that.
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Speaker 1: In fact, he explained why he went to the cross
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Speaker 1: using the seed principle. John chapter 12, verse 24 and 25.
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Speaker 1: We're coming up on the time of Holy Week where
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Speaker 1: Jesus goes to the cross right before Easter. And in
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Speaker 1: John 12, 24 and 25, Jesus said this. Unless a
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Speaker 1: grain of wheat is planted, it's planted. Seed is planted
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Speaker 1: and buried in the soil. It cannot reproduce. He's talking
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Speaker 1: about his own death on the cross. He said it
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Speaker 1: will remain only a single seed. But, he says, if
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Speaker 1: it dies, it will produce many seeds and much fruit.
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Speaker 1: And then he says this. Here's the application. If you
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Speaker 1: selfishly hold on to your own life, you're going to
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Speaker 1: lose it. But if you give up living for this world,
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Speaker 1: you're going to gain eternal life. I've got to be
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Speaker 1: willing to die to my desires and my dreams in
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Speaker 1: order to fully live the way we were intended to live.
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Speaker 1: You know, as a pastor, I've talked to tens of
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Speaker 1: thousands of people, and I will tell you this. There
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Speaker 1: are a lot more people in life who would rather
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Speaker 1: complain and gripe and grumble and whine and moan about
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Speaker 1: how bad their life is than there are people who
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Speaker 1: are willing to make the effort to prepare the soil
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Speaker 1: of their heart for growth and then choose to plant
22:04
Speaker 1: the kind of seeds today that will get them to
22:07
Speaker 1: where they want to be tomorrow. And I'm gonna give
22:11
Speaker 1: you a question right now that can change your life
22:13
Speaker 1: if you'll really think about it. Ask this question of yourself.
22:17
Speaker 1: What do I need to do today in order to
22:21
Speaker 1: get where I wanna be tomorrow? Let me say it again.
22:26
Speaker 1: What do I need to do today in order to
22:29
Speaker 1: get where I wanna be tomorrow, mentally, physically, spiritually, socially, Okay,
22:36
Speaker 1: what seed do I need to plant today? If you
22:39
Speaker 1: don't plant seed, you're not going to harvest it tomorrow.
22:43
Speaker 1: So plant whatever seed you need to plant. Take a
22:45
Speaker 1: small step. Begin a new habit. Plant a tiny seed
22:50
Speaker 1: of change in your life as we start springtime. You're
22:53
Speaker 1: not going to see the change overnight, but it'll start
22:57
Speaker 1: growing in the dark. One day, it's going to sprout.
23:02
Speaker 1: And one day, you'll have a harvest and it'll have fruit.
23:05
Speaker 1: It'll bear fruit. Just imagine a farmer buying seed and
23:13
Speaker 1: then being afraid to plant it. A farmer buys all
23:18
Speaker 1: his seed at the seed store, comes back, puts it
23:22
Speaker 1: in his barn, says, you know what? I bought all
23:24
Speaker 1: the seed, it cost me a lot. I can't afford
23:26
Speaker 1: to plant the seed. I paid good money for it.
23:30
Speaker 1: That would be foolish. A lot of people are like
23:35
Speaker 1: that with their lives. They wanna complain, they wanna act
23:37
Speaker 1: like victims, but they don't wanna plant the seed that
23:40
Speaker 1: God's given them. You know, a farmer with a barren field,
23:43
Speaker 1: he doesn't gripe, he doesn't complain, he doesn't even pray
23:48
Speaker 1: to God. He just starts planting some seed. You got
23:51
Speaker 1: a barren field, start planting seed. No sowing, no reaping,
23:55
Speaker 1: no reaping, no harvest. Now, I know I may be
24:01
Speaker 1: getting on you a little bit today, but it's because
24:03
Speaker 1: I love you. It may just be possible that you
24:07
Speaker 1: think you're waiting on God when God is waiting on you.
24:12
Speaker 1: You're waiting on God for that ideal job. You're waiting
24:16
Speaker 1: on God for a spouse. You're waiting on God for
24:20
Speaker 1: some offer to come in. I want to suggest that
24:24
Speaker 1: maybe God is waiting on you to start planting some seed.
24:30
Speaker 1: And if you talk to the Lord, he'll tell you
24:31
Speaker 1: what it is. Now listen, planting any kind of seed,
24:36
Speaker 1: is an act of faith. You take what little you've
24:39
Speaker 1: got and you go bury it in the ground and
24:42
Speaker 1: it's all you've got, but you plant it. That takes faith.
24:47
Speaker 1: It was an act of faith when Kay and I
24:49
Speaker 1: took our life savings. It wasn't much, but we took
24:53
Speaker 1: our whole life savings to start this church. You know,
24:57
Speaker 1: in that verse that we just read, Jesus used this
24:59
Speaker 1: principle to explain why he came to die on the cross.
25:02
Speaker 1: He said, unless a grain of wheat is buried in
25:04
Speaker 1: the ground, it can't reproduce. But if it dies, it
25:06
Speaker 1: will produce much fruit. I want you to write this down. Okay,
25:09
Speaker 1: you're taking notes, write this down. Whenever I have a need,
25:13
Speaker 1: plant a seed. Anytime I have a need, plant a seed.
25:19
Speaker 1: That is the second law. Everything starts with a seed,
25:23
Speaker 1: but a seed is worthless until you plant it. When
25:26
Speaker 1: you have a need, plant a seed. Principle number three
25:31
Speaker 1: from God's word. some seed should be planted instead of eaten.
25:36
Speaker 1: You know, we use wheat to, you know, we pound
25:39
Speaker 1: it down, then we make bread with it. But some
25:42
Speaker 1: seed shouldn't be turned into bread. Some seed should be
25:46
Speaker 1: planted instead of eaten. Now, this is the principle in
25:49
Speaker 1: the Old Testament that Joseph used to actually save two
25:53
Speaker 1: nations from famine. He saved both Egypt and You remember
25:58
Speaker 1: there was this terrible famine in the Middle East, and
26:00
Speaker 1: for years there was little or no food, and nobody
26:04
Speaker 1: had any money to buy it, so much that both
26:06
Speaker 1: the Egyptians and the Israelites came to Joseph, who had
26:10
Speaker 1: been made second in command by Pharaoh, and they begged
26:13
Speaker 1: Joseph to buy their land and accept them as slaves.
26:17
Speaker 1: They said, Joseph, buy us and buy our land, so
26:22
Speaker 1: then we'll have some money to at least buy some
26:24
Speaker 1: scarce food. The famine was that bad. So you know what,
26:27
Speaker 1: Joseph comes up with a plan to buy their land,
26:30
Speaker 1: but he also in that plan has a plan to
26:32
Speaker 1: teach them the laws of spiritual planning. Here's what it says,
26:36
Speaker 1: Genesis 47, verses 20 to 25. Because the famine was
26:42
Speaker 1: so severe, everybody in Egypt sold their land to Pharaoh. Now,
26:48
Speaker 1: do you understand this? Because of the famine, Pharaoh ended
26:52
Speaker 1: up owning the entire country. Nobody had any private property.
26:55
Speaker 1: Let me read it again. Because the famine was so severe, everybody,
26:59
Speaker 1: that means all the Egyptians and all the Israelites, everybody
27:02
Speaker 1: sold their own personal land to Pharaoh. Now he owns
27:05
Speaker 1: the whole country. Then Joseph told them this. I will
27:10
Speaker 1: provide you, those of you who just sold your land,
27:13
Speaker 1: with seed so you can plant crops. And then when
27:17
Speaker 1: you harvest it, you are to give 20% of it
27:21
Speaker 1: back to the king. This is a 20% tithe back
27:25
Speaker 1: to the king, back to Pharaoh. And you get to
27:27
Speaker 1: keep 80%. But then here's the wisdom of Joseph. Don't
27:33
Speaker 1: eat it all. Don't eat all your seed. Use your
27:37
Speaker 1: seed to plant next year's crop. So you can feed
27:41
Speaker 1: your family in the future. If you're taking notes, circle
27:45
Speaker 1: that phrase in the future. This is what planting seeds
27:49
Speaker 1: is all about. Thinking about the future, not short-term thinking,
27:52
Speaker 1: not just thinking about today. Not I want to have
27:54
Speaker 1: it now. I want to have fun. Even though I
27:56
Speaker 1: can't afford it, I'll charge it. And it says the
27:58
Speaker 1: people replied to Joseph, you saved our lives. Now, what
28:06
Speaker 1: does this have to do with what we've just been
28:08
Speaker 1: through this last year? Well, you know what? During this
28:10
Speaker 1: past year, during the COVID pandemic, so many people were
28:14
Speaker 1: hurting for food. You know, we fed a half a
28:17
Speaker 1: million people. Saddleback did during the last year, half a
28:21
Speaker 1: million people. eight million pounds of food, why? Because they
28:25
Speaker 1: had no savings. They had used up all their seed.
28:29
Speaker 1: They had not saved any seed to plant in bad times.
28:34
Speaker 1: They were living on the edge. They were spending everything
28:38
Speaker 1: they had. You know, just as it takes great faith
28:42
Speaker 1: to trust God and tithe 10% to God, it also
28:47
Speaker 1: takes great faith to save. to not spend it all
28:52
Speaker 1: on yourself right now. But God wants us to learn
28:54
Speaker 1: how to live on less, how to live on less
28:57
Speaker 1: than we make so that no matter how little we make,
29:00
Speaker 1: we learn to live. And when you spend everything you got,
29:05
Speaker 1: you're working for your money. But when you save some
29:07
Speaker 1: of that money, then the money starts working for you
29:11
Speaker 1: because it's making money while you're sleeping. It's earning interest.
29:14
Speaker 1: Paul talks about this principle in 2 Corinthians 9. 2
29:19
Speaker 1: Corinthians 9, 10, Paul says this, God who supplies seed
29:23
Speaker 1: to the farmer, it all comes from God, and bread
29:27
Speaker 1: to eat, that's what we make from the seed. He said,
29:30
Speaker 1: he'll give you more and more seed to plant and
29:33
Speaker 1: he'll make it grow so that you can then give
29:35
Speaker 1: away even more and more fruit from your harvest. You know,
29:41
Speaker 1: the purpose of gaining wealth is so you can be
29:44
Speaker 1: more generous. That's the purpose. He says, so then you
29:47
Speaker 1: can give away even more and more. You know, I
29:52
Speaker 1: learned this early on in life. Actually, I started saving
29:55
Speaker 1: for retirement when I was still a teenager. Somehow I
30:00
Speaker 1: learned this principle early on. And at 17 years old,
30:03
Speaker 1: I disciplined myself to start giving the first 10% back
30:07
Speaker 1: to God in a tithe. Everything I made starting as
30:11
Speaker 1: a teenager, 10% goes first to God. And then the
30:13
Speaker 1: second 10%, I set aside for savings. And I learned
30:17
Speaker 1: to live on 80%, no matter how meager that was.
30:21
Speaker 1: You say, well, where'd you learn that? I actually learned
30:23
Speaker 1: that from reading about John D. Rockefeller. who during his
30:27
Speaker 1: generation was the wealthiest man in the world. He called
30:30
Speaker 1: it the 10-10-80 principle. People said, how did you become
30:33
Speaker 1: the wealthiest man in the world? He said, you tie
30:35
Speaker 1: 10% to God, you save 10%, and then you live
30:38
Speaker 1: on the 80. Okay, 10-10-80. You pay God first, you
30:43
Speaker 1: pay yourself second, and then you live on the rest.
30:46
Speaker 1: And here's the fourth law. Whatever I plant is what
30:51
Speaker 1: I'll harvest. Whatever I plant is what I'm going to harvest. Now,
30:56
Speaker 1: this is the law of reproduction. It's kind of common sense.
31:01
Speaker 1: I mean, if a farmer plants a field with beans,
31:03
Speaker 1: what crop should he expect? Cauliflower? No. Does he doubt?
31:09
Speaker 1: Does he wonder? Hmm, I wonder. I just planted a
31:12
Speaker 1: bunch of beans. I wonder if I'm going to harvest watermelon. No.
31:17
Speaker 1: This is whatever you plant in life is what you're
31:19
Speaker 1: going to harvest. In the story of creation, in the
31:22
Speaker 1: book of Genesis, there's a phrase that's repeated over and
31:24
Speaker 1: over and over. It's the phrase, after its own kind.
31:28
Speaker 1: God says that after its own kind. When you plant
31:31
Speaker 1: an apple seed, 100% of the time, you're going to
31:34
Speaker 1: get an apple tree. When you plant pumpkin seeds, 100%
31:37
Speaker 1: of the time, you're going to get pumpkins. This is
31:39
Speaker 1: the law of the universe that we will always reap
31:43
Speaker 1: whatever we sow in life. Galatians 6, 7, do not
31:49
Speaker 1: deceive yourselves. No one makes a fool of God. You
31:53
Speaker 1: will reap exactly what you plant. You will harvest what
31:57
Speaker 1: you plant. You will reap what you sow. Now, friends,
32:01
Speaker 1: this principle, whether you believe it or not, whether you
32:04
Speaker 1: understand it or not, it works both ways. You will
32:08
Speaker 1: always in life reap what you sow. Now, that means
32:13
Speaker 1: it could be a positive blessing or it could be
32:15
Speaker 1: a negative curse in your life. Whatever I dish out,
32:22
Speaker 1: I'm going to get back in life. And if I
32:25
Speaker 1: go around planting seeds of kindness, seeds of love, and
32:29
Speaker 1: seeds of grace, and I go around planting seeds of generosity,
32:32
Speaker 1: guess what? That's what I'm going to get back. People
32:34
Speaker 1: are going to give me kindness and love and grace
32:36
Speaker 1: and generosity. But if I go out and I plant
32:39
Speaker 1: seeds of gossip, seeds of criticism, and seeds of anger
32:44
Speaker 1: and judgment and prejudice and hate, all kinds of things
32:48
Speaker 1: like that, bias, that's what I'm going to get back
32:50
Speaker 1: from others too. If I plant hatred, I will get
32:54
Speaker 1: hated back. It's foolish to think that I can plant
32:57
Speaker 1: one kind of seed and harvest a different kind of reaction.
33:02
Speaker 1: I could really spend a lot of time on this,
33:04
Speaker 1: but let me just show you a few of many
33:05
Speaker 1: Bible verses that talk about this law that whatever I sow,
33:09
Speaker 1: I reap, whatever I plant, I'm going to harvest. Regarding
33:13
Speaker 1: integrity in your finances, the Bible says this, Don't be dishonest.
33:19
Speaker 1: Proverbs 11, 18. Dishonest people can get rich for a moment,
33:24
Speaker 1: but if you plant righteousness, there's that plant, you'll harvest
33:28
Speaker 1: a reward that lasts. Dishonest people get rich for a moment,
33:32
Speaker 1: but it's not going to last. How about regarding your relationships?
33:35
Speaker 1: The Bible says this, Proverbs 13, 10. Stupid person plants
33:39
Speaker 1: discord and conflict by making arrogant assumptions. Oh, let's just
33:45
Speaker 1: stop there for a minute. A stupid person, it's dumb
33:48
Speaker 1: of me to make arrogant assumptions and think I know
33:52
Speaker 1: what's going on. And when I plant discord and conflict
33:56
Speaker 1: with friends, with neighbors, with staff, with members, with a
33:59
Speaker 1: small group, when I plant discord and conflict, he said,
34:04
Speaker 1: that's dumb. But he said, those who listen to advice
34:08
Speaker 1: will be wise. You don't make arrogant assumptions. Proverbs 16, 28,
34:12
Speaker 1: troublemakers plant seeds of strife. You probably know some troublemakers.
34:18
Speaker 1: And their gossip separates the best of friends. How about
34:22
Speaker 1: this verse, Proverbs 22, 8, regarding society. Those who plant
34:26
Speaker 1: seeds of injustice will harvest disaster and their reign of
34:31
Speaker 1: terror will come to an end. And how about this
34:36
Speaker 1: one on a positive note? Your personal character, the Bible
34:39
Speaker 1: says this, Hosea 10, 12. If you plant the good
34:44
Speaker 1: seeds of righteousness, you'll harvest a crop of my love.
34:48
Speaker 1: This is God talking. If you plant the good seeds
34:51
Speaker 1: of righteousness, you'll harvest a crop of my love. So
34:54
Speaker 1: plow up the hard ground of your heart, for now's
34:57
Speaker 1: the time to seek the Lord, so that he may
34:59
Speaker 1: come and shower goodness on you like rain. You see,
35:05
Speaker 1: I can't sow irresponsibility and reap success. I can't sow laziness.
35:11
Speaker 1: and reap reward. I can't sow stinginess and reap blessing. Now,
35:16
Speaker 1: the Bible's literally filled with illustrations of this principle of
35:20
Speaker 1: sowing and reaping or planting and harvesting that can work
35:23
Speaker 1: as either a blessing or a curse, that you're gonna
35:25
Speaker 1: reap whatever you sow in life. Jacob cheated his brothers
35:29
Speaker 1: and his father, and guess what? His father-in-law cheated him.
35:33
Speaker 1: Haman was hung to death on the gallows that he
35:36
Speaker 1: had prepared for somebody else. Sow a thought, reap an act.
35:42
Speaker 1: Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a habit, you
35:45
Speaker 1: reap a character. Sow a character, you reap a destiny.
35:50
Speaker 1: You will reap what you sow, either positively or negatively.
35:54
Speaker 1: So plant seeds, good seeds this spring. Number five, fifth law.
35:59
Speaker 1: I'm not the only one planting seeds in my life.
36:03
Speaker 1: You realize that? You're not the only one planting seeds
36:07
Speaker 1: in your life. I mentioned this earlier, that you are
36:10
Speaker 1: reaping both the good and bad from those who went
36:14
Speaker 1: before you. Ancestors, family members, other people who've influenced your life.
36:21
Speaker 1: Everything and everyone have consequences. You're not the only one
36:26
Speaker 1: planting seeds in your life. You're letting other people plant
36:29
Speaker 1: seeds in your life, for good or bad. So think
36:31
Speaker 1: about this. Your life and your decisions aren't going to
36:36
Speaker 1: just affect you right now. Your life and your decisions
36:41
Speaker 1: and the seeds you choose to plant are going to
36:43
Speaker 1: affect future generations too. That should all make us a
36:48
Speaker 1: little bit more circumspect about what we do. Well, people say, well,
36:50
Speaker 1: it's just my life. I'm not hurting anybody. Oh, yeah,
36:53
Speaker 1: you are. You're hurting the next generation. John 4, 38,
36:57
Speaker 1: Jesus said, I sent you to reap where you didn't plant,
37:00
Speaker 1: and others have already done the work before you, and
37:03
Speaker 1: you're going to gather the harvest. Other people are planting too.
37:07
Speaker 1: Here's the sixth law. I harvest in a different season
37:13
Speaker 1: than I plant. That's kind of obvious. I harvest in
37:17
Speaker 1: a different season than I plant. Plants take time to grow.
37:21
Speaker 1: This next week, I'll start putting in my first part
37:24
Speaker 1: of the spring garden. Well, I'm not gonna plant a
37:28
Speaker 1: tomato seed and then the next day have tomatoes. No,
37:32
Speaker 1: I'm planting for summer. And some of the crops I plant,
37:35
Speaker 1: I plant and I'll harvest them in the fall. There's
37:38
Speaker 1: no instant maturity. Rome wasn't built in a day. It
37:40
Speaker 1: takes time to gather wisdom. Instant fame, you can have
37:45
Speaker 1: instant fame, but you can't have instant success. Plants take
37:48
Speaker 1: time to grow. The Bible says this, Ecclesiastes 3, 1
37:51
Speaker 1: to 5. There's a time for everything, and there's a season.
37:56
Speaker 1: There's a season for every activity under heaven. There's a
37:59
Speaker 1: time to plant, and there's a time to harvest, and
38:01
Speaker 1: they're not the same season. There's a time to scatter,
38:05
Speaker 1: and there's a time to gather. There's a time to sow,
38:06
Speaker 1: there's a time to reap. Fruit ripens gradually. It doesn't
38:10
Speaker 1: usually ripen all on the same day too. So that's
38:14
Speaker 1: just another law. I hope you're writing these down. Here's
38:16
Speaker 1: the seventh law. Very important. This is the law of multiplication.
38:21
Speaker 1: I always harvest more than I plant. I always harvest
38:27
Speaker 1: more than I plant. So one peach seed isn't gonna
38:31
Speaker 1: give me one peach back. It's gonna give me a
38:34
Speaker 1: peach tree that'll give me hundreds of peaches. One tomato
38:38
Speaker 1: seed is gonna give me a plant that'll give me
38:41
Speaker 1: hundreds of cherry tomatoes. And so I always get more
38:47
Speaker 1: than I put out. Well, that means both ways. If
38:50
Speaker 1: I gossip, people are gonna gossip about me. If I'm cranky,
38:54
Speaker 1: people are gonna be cranky to me. If I'm angry,
38:56
Speaker 1: if I'm haughty, if I'm arrogant, other people are gonna
38:59
Speaker 1: treat me that way. If I treat people with disrespect,
39:03
Speaker 1: they're gonna treat me with disrespect. You cannot violate the
39:07
Speaker 1: laws of the harvest. Mark chapter four, verse eight, Jesus said,
39:12
Speaker 1: some seed fell on good soil and it came up
39:15
Speaker 1: and it grew and it produced a crop multiplying 30, 60,
39:20
Speaker 1: and even 100 times. Now, this principle will either work
39:25
Speaker 1: for you or it'll work against you depending on what
39:28
Speaker 1: kind of seeds you choose to plant. in your life
39:31
Speaker 1: So develop some habits for integrity develop some habits for
39:35
Speaker 1: generosity Develop some habits for humility and then you'll get
39:40
Speaker 1: these back develop the seeds of love and forgiveness and
39:44
Speaker 1: grace Here's the eighth law I increase my my harvest
39:51
Speaker 1: by just planting more seed. Again, this is pretty obvious,
39:55
Speaker 1: but it's the law of proportion. And God set up
39:58
Speaker 1: the universe this way, that if I want to have
40:01
Speaker 1: a greater harvest, it's real simple. Plant more seed. If
40:05
Speaker 1: I want more financial blessing, give more. It's like if
40:10
Speaker 1: I want more energy, give my energy away. If I
40:15
Speaker 1: want more love, give my love away. Whatever you need
40:18
Speaker 1: more of, plant more seeds. 2 Corinthians 9, 6 and 7.
40:25
Speaker 1: Remember this. Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. And
40:33
Speaker 1: whoever sows generously, plants generously, will also reap or harvest generously.
40:40
Speaker 1: Each one of us should give what he's decided in
40:42
Speaker 1: his heart to give not reluctantly or under compulsion, for
40:46
Speaker 1: God loves a cheerful giver. I remember a leading CEO
40:51
Speaker 1: of Orange County one time saying, Rick, anytime you teach
40:54
Speaker 1: on giving or tithing, you need to tell people the
40:57
Speaker 1: best time to start tithing is when they're in debt.
40:59
Speaker 1: And I said, what do you mean? He said, well,
41:01
Speaker 1: they want God's help to get out of debt. You're
41:04
Speaker 1: not going to get out of debt on your own.
41:06
Speaker 1: He said, decide in your heart, not reluctantly under pressure,
41:11
Speaker 1: God loves a cheerful giver. You know that word cheerful
41:13
Speaker 1: in Greek is the word hilarious. We get the word
41:15
Speaker 1: hilarious from it. Now the law of generosity works for
41:20
Speaker 1: anybody who follows it. It'll work for a non-believer. I've
41:23
Speaker 1: known non-believers who became incredibly wealthy because they learned the
41:27
Speaker 1: law of generosity. Proverbs 11, 24, the world of the
41:32
Speaker 1: generous gets larger and larger, but the world of the
41:35
Speaker 1: stingy gets smaller and smaller. Here's the ninth law. We
41:41
Speaker 1: got two left. The ninth law is this. I should
41:45
Speaker 1: always be planting seeds. I should always be planting seeds.
41:52
Speaker 1: Don't wait for a better time. The sooner, the better.
41:55
Speaker 1: Some people say, well, you know, I'm going to start
41:57
Speaker 1: being generous when I retire. I'm going to start serving
42:00
Speaker 1: at church when I retire. I'm going to start. One
42:02
Speaker 1: of these days is none of these days. Ecclesiastes 11.4
42:06
Speaker 1: says this. Those who wait for perfect weather will never
42:11
Speaker 1: plant seeds. And those who look at every cloud will
42:16
Speaker 1: never reap a harvest. If you're waiting for a perfect
42:22
Speaker 1: situation to start planting seeds, whatever you're gonna do, get
42:26
Speaker 1: on with it right now. Start that new habit. Begin
42:29
Speaker 1: that new step. Take that first initial thing to make
42:33
Speaker 1: the slow steps that, what do I need to do
42:36
Speaker 1: today to get where I need to be tomorrow? Perfectionism
42:40
Speaker 1: paralyzes potential. Perfectionism paralyzes potential. You just gotta say, you know,
42:47
Speaker 1: there's never a better time than right now. Now is
42:49
Speaker 1: the time. Start planting some seeds. Don't wait till COVID's over.
42:54
Speaker 1: Do it now. Ecclesiastes 11.6. Do your planting in the
42:58
Speaker 1: morning and in the evening. Notice, morning and evening. Said,
43:02
Speaker 1: do it in the morning, do it in the evening too.
43:04
Speaker 1: You never know whether it will all grow well or
43:06
Speaker 1: whether one planting will do better than the other. I
43:10
Speaker 1: wish I had time to go into this, but there
43:12
Speaker 1: are laws of investing in Scripture that are helpful in
43:18
Speaker 1: trying times as we're in. 2 Corinthians 9 verse 10
43:22
Speaker 1: says this, For God who supplies seed to the farmer
43:25
Speaker 1: and bread to eat will give you more and more
43:27
Speaker 1: seed to plant and make it grow so you can
43:31
Speaker 1: give away more and more fruit from your harvest. So
43:34
Speaker 1: here's my question. So it's the question of the day.
43:39
Speaker 1: What kind of seeds are you planting? Are you planting anything?
43:43
Speaker 1: Are you just coasting along hoping that COVID ends at
43:46
Speaker 1: some point? This is the time to be making the
43:49
Speaker 1: small changes that will pay off for you in the
43:53
Speaker 1: days ahead. Are you planting seeds of trust? Are you
43:58
Speaker 1: planting seeds of doubt in your marriage? Are you planting
44:02
Speaker 1: seeds of joy with your children? Are you planting seeds
44:06
Speaker 1: of anger with your children? Are you planting seeds of
44:10
Speaker 1: romance and love? Are you planting seeds of argument? You know,
44:15
Speaker 1: words are like seeds and we have to choose them wisely.
44:18
Speaker 1: And when you use the wrong words, you're planting the
44:20
Speaker 1: wrong seeds in the life of people around you. Finally,
44:25
Speaker 1: here's the 10th principle, all right? I wish I had
44:28
Speaker 1: more time to go over all these, but here's the
44:29
Speaker 1: 10th law of spiritual planning. While I'm waiting for the harvest,
44:36
Speaker 1: I must be patient. and not give up. While I'm
44:40
Speaker 1: waiting for my harvest, I'm waiting for the seed that
44:43
Speaker 1: I planted months or years ago to harvest. I've got
44:48
Speaker 1: to be patient, not give up. I can't even see it.
44:51
Speaker 1: It hadn't even sprouted yet. I don't even see the sprout,
44:55
Speaker 1: but I never, never give up. You know, that's what
44:59
Speaker 1: the parable that Jesus taught at the beginning that we
45:01
Speaker 1: looked at. He said, this is what kingdom God's like.
45:04
Speaker 1: He said, you know, while you're sleeping, whether you're working,
45:07
Speaker 1: while you're doing your business, it's growing, but you can't
45:10
Speaker 1: see it. It's down there in the dark. You know,
45:14
Speaker 1: I have taught the principle of bamboo planting to pastors
45:21
Speaker 1: all around the world. There's a certain kind of bamboo
45:24
Speaker 1: that grows very slow, and there's a certain kind that
45:26
Speaker 1: grows very fast. If you're going to grow bamboo, I
45:29
Speaker 1: planted bamboo in my backyard. Here's what you do when
45:33
Speaker 1: you plant bamboos. You cut a piece of bamboo like this,
45:36
Speaker 1: a little about this size, and you bury it in
45:38
Speaker 1: the ground. And for the first year, you water it,
45:41
Speaker 1: you fertilize it, nothing happens. And on the second year,
45:44
Speaker 1: you water it and fertilize it, nothing happens. And on
45:46
Speaker 1: the third year, you water it and fertilize it, nothing happens.
45:49
Speaker 1: The third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth year, you
45:51
Speaker 1: water it, fertilize it, nothing. Seventh year, you water it
45:54
Speaker 1: and fertilize it. And on the seventh year, it sprouts.
45:58
Speaker 1: And guess what? Some bamboo can grow three feet overnight.
46:04
Speaker 1: And some bamboo can grow nine feet in a week.
46:07
Speaker 1: Once it sprouts, boom, it just shoots up. And I
46:11
Speaker 1: tell a lot of pastors, you may be in a
46:14
Speaker 1: bamboo church, and you've been there, and you've been watering
46:18
Speaker 1: and nurturing and loving and caring for those people, and
46:21
Speaker 1: it looks like nothing's happening, nothing's happening. And along about
46:24
Speaker 1: year six, you decide to leave because you're discouraged and
46:27
Speaker 1: go to some other church. Some new guy comes in,
46:30
Speaker 1: and he gets to water the seventh year, and it explodes,
46:32
Speaker 1: and he gets all the credits. when really you just
46:36
Speaker 1: weren't patient. Galatians 6, 9 says this, we must not
46:41
Speaker 1: become tired of doing good. We will, not might, we
46:46
Speaker 1: will reap a harvest at the right time, okay, in
46:51
Speaker 1: the right season. It's not in the season you plant,
46:54
Speaker 1: it's in the season of harvest. We will reap a
46:56
Speaker 1: harvest at the right time if we do not give up.
47:01
Speaker 1: Now let me say a word to you about, about
47:05
Speaker 1: this last year, because 2020, for many of us, was
47:08
Speaker 1: the worst year on record. You can't do anything about
47:14
Speaker 1: last year's harvest. It's done. It's over. 2020's gone. But
47:22
Speaker 1: you can start planting good seeds today. So what new
47:27
Speaker 1: habit can you start as we enter spring in another week?
47:30
Speaker 1: What small step can you take today? Now, I want
47:34
Speaker 1: to say a word to you about grief. You say,
47:37
Speaker 1: what does that have to do with all this? Well,
47:40
Speaker 1: I've been telling you all along, I've been predicting all
47:42
Speaker 1: through 2020, that in 2021, that the world will have
47:47
Speaker 1: a tsunami of grief. Around the globe, there will be
47:51
Speaker 1: a tsunami of grief as people began to realize what
47:56
Speaker 1: they lost during COVID. Because all of the life experiences
48:00
Speaker 1: that were postponed or canceled are just lost during the
48:06
Speaker 1: last year because weddings that had to be shortened and
48:10
Speaker 1: cut down and only a few present, births of kids
48:14
Speaker 1: and grandkids that you missed because you couldn't travel, funerals
48:18
Speaker 1: of dads and moms and relatives that you couldn't be at,
48:22
Speaker 1: graduations that were cut down and done online and all
48:27
Speaker 1: of these things as people come out of the fear
48:32
Speaker 1: of the pandemic, the grief is gonna come to the forefront.
48:37
Speaker 1: Why am I telling this? Because as Christians, maybe your
48:41
Speaker 1: greatest ministry this next year, maybe your greatest ministry will
48:45
Speaker 1: be ministering to the people around you who are struggling
48:48
Speaker 1: with unexpressed grief from all the stuff they lost. You
48:53
Speaker 1: may have to deal with your own grief first before
48:57
Speaker 1: you can help other people. And because of that, I
49:00
Speaker 1: wanna deal with, I wanna close with just two questions
49:03
Speaker 1: and give you two Bible verses, two questions, two Bible verses.
49:06
Speaker 1: Here's the first question. What loss in the past year
49:11
Speaker 1: have you experienced that you haven't grieved over yet? Grief
49:17
Speaker 1: is a good thing. It's how we get through the
49:18
Speaker 1: transitions of life. The Bible says Jesus wept. The Bible
49:22
Speaker 1: says blessed are those who mourn. They will be comforted.
49:24
Speaker 1: What loss have you experienced that you haven't taken time
49:27
Speaker 1: to grieve over? You see, if you don't grieve over it,
49:31
Speaker 1: you get stuck. We are products of our past, but
49:35
Speaker 1: we're not prisoners of our past unless we get stuck
49:38
Speaker 1: because we didn't grieve. Grief is a good thing. It
49:41
Speaker 1: helps us get through the transitions of life. So what
49:44
Speaker 1: have you lost that you haven't grieved over? What are
49:48
Speaker 1: you lacking right now? What need has gone unmet in
49:51
Speaker 1: your life? Does the Bible have anything to say about
49:55
Speaker 1: this grief and harvesting? Yeah. Psalm 126. Psalm 126, five
50:01
Speaker 1: and six says this. Those who plant in tears. Are
50:07
Speaker 1: you hearing this? Those who plant in tears will harvest
50:12
Speaker 1: with shouts of joy. They will weep as they go
50:16
Speaker 1: to plant their seed, but they will sing as they
50:21
Speaker 1: return with the harvest. Okay? What does that verse say?
50:26
Speaker 1: It's okay to plant with tears. It's okay to grieve
50:31
Speaker 1: the losses in your life. It's okay to weep over
50:36
Speaker 1: what you've lost while you're planting seeds, Maybe you lost
50:40
Speaker 1: your job. Maybe you lost your retirement. Maybe you lost
50:44
Speaker 1: your bank savings. Maybe you lost a big deal. Maybe
50:47
Speaker 1: you lost your health. Maybe you lost a loved one.
50:52
Speaker 1: Grief is healthy. Mourning is legitimate. But mourning is not moaning.
50:59
Speaker 1: Mourning is just going around griping. Mourning says, I'm even
51:03
Speaker 1: in my tears. I'm going to plant some seeds today.
51:07
Speaker 1: Start planting some seeds today. Here's the second question. Before
51:11
Speaker 1: you plant some new seeds in your life, new habits,
51:14
Speaker 1: new attitudes, I'm going to start thinking about the future.
51:17
Speaker 1: I'm not going to just be putting my mind in limbo.
51:21
Speaker 1: Before you plant some new seed, do you need to
51:23
Speaker 1: do some plowing and weeding first? I do. I just
51:30
Speaker 1: planted a spring garden and I planted a winter garden
51:33
Speaker 1: and now I've taken that all out. But you know what?
51:36
Speaker 1: With the garden gone, weeds have taken over and the
51:40
Speaker 1: soil's getting hard. So I'm gonna have to go out
51:43
Speaker 1: there and before I plant again, I've gotta do some plowing.
51:46
Speaker 1: I've gotta do some weeding. In Jeremiah 4.3, God says,
51:51
Speaker 1: this is what you might need to do with your heart.
51:54
Speaker 1: So as we come out of COVID, this is what
51:57
Speaker 1: the Lord says, Jeremiah 4.3. Your hearts have become hard
52:03
Speaker 1: like an unplowed field where weeds have taken over. So
52:09
Speaker 1: plow up the hard ground of your heart and don't
52:12
Speaker 1: waste good seed by planting among weeds. What does that mean?
52:19
Speaker 1: Before I can plant the seed, I got to take
52:22
Speaker 1: out the weed. I've got to till the soil and
52:28
Speaker 1: weed the soil. Get the hardness out of my heart.
52:32
Speaker 1: Come back to Christ today. Come back to Christ today.
52:38
Speaker 1: Recommit your life to Jesus Christ. We've gone through a
52:42
Speaker 1: very difficult time. And as I end this, I want
52:45
Speaker 1: to ask you again the question that's the title of
52:47
Speaker 1: this message. What seeds are you going to plant in
52:51
Speaker 1: your life and in your heart this spring? What seeds
52:56
Speaker 1: will you plant this spring? Remember, you have a need.
53:01
Speaker 1: You plant a seed. It's a time to plant. Let's
53:05
Speaker 1: bow our heads. Father, I know we've been through a
53:09
Speaker 1: very rough year and it looks like we're coming to
53:12
Speaker 1: the end of the tunnel with the vaccines and things
53:15
Speaker 1: opening up and looks like we're going to be able
53:18
Speaker 1: to have more freedom and be able to start our
53:20
Speaker 1: services again at all of our campuses. I pray that
53:24
Speaker 1: we will not waste the lessons of this last year
53:28
Speaker 1: that we'll learn from their experiences, that we won't waste
53:32
Speaker 1: the hurt, and that even as we grieve over things
53:36
Speaker 1: that we've lost, that we will be able to comfort
53:39
Speaker 1: others who are grieving and don't have you. I ask
53:43
Speaker 1: you to give us the courage to help those who
53:47
Speaker 1: are in pain, the courage to share with those who
53:49
Speaker 1: are grieving, who've lost things in their lives during this
53:53
Speaker 1: last year of COVID. And I pray that together as
53:57
Speaker 1: a church family, we would begin a season in the
54:00
Speaker 1: springtime of planting new habits, new attitudes, new commitment. And
54:06
Speaker 1: if our heart has grown cold, if our heart has
54:10
Speaker 1: grown hard and the ground needs to be replowed and
54:14
Speaker 1: we need to do some weeding, may we do that
54:16
Speaker 1: this week. If you've never opened your life to Jesus Christ, say,
54:21
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, come into my life now. I don't understand
54:25
Speaker 1: it all, but I want to, I want to know you.
54:27
Speaker 1: I want to know your plan for my life. Jesus Christ,
54:30
Speaker 1: as much as I know how, I want to open
54:32
Speaker 1: my life to your love. Fill me with your love.
54:37
Speaker 1: I want to learn to follow you and trust you.
54:40
Speaker 1: Thank you for dying for me. I want to turn
54:42
Speaker 1: from my sin and turn to you. In your name
54:46
Speaker 1: I pray. Amen.