Text: Luke 8:4-8
Summary: Parable of the Sower. The path-like heart and rocky heart do not apply to believers. It really comes down to a thorny heart and a good heart. God wants our hearts to be good and to bear a hundredfold amount of good fruit. Unlike the world, God is infinitely more interested in the condition of our hearts than He is in the work of our hands.
Luke 8
4 And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, 5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Father, this is a very familiar text to all of us. We pray that you give us new ears, that we can hear it in a fresh way. We pray that the good work that you began years ago for many of us, that you would continue that good work in preparing our hearts. We pray that you’ll give us very specific instructions today on how to prepare our hearts to be good soil to receive the good seed. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus Name, Amen
Thank you brother Matthew for the praise. I think all of the songs are in line with what God is going to speak to us today. I Surrender All, Give Them All, Trust and Obey. Especially Trust and Obey, it says, we can never prove the delights of His love until all on the altar we lay. So thank you.
Last week I shared a prayer that I’ve been praying for years. And it goes something like this. Lord Jesus, I give you my doubts, I give you my confusions, I give you my frustrations, I give you my burdens. And then I end that prayer with, Jesus, I trust you. A proclamation of faith at the end. So you may begin with doubt but you want to end every prayer with a proclamation of faith. Five minutes later, if you have doubts and frustration again, bring those frustrations to Jesus and end with a proclamation of faith.
This week, the Lord gave me a new prayer to pray, and I’m going to share it today. And I think it’s going to be a prayer that I will be praying for years to come. Perhaps for the rest of my life. And the topic I want to cover today is, how do we move from surviving to thriving? Spiritually, how do we move from surviving to thriving? And it does have to do with surrender.
Luke 8
1 Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, 2 and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, 3 and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.
This is not the main point but I wanted to point out that it was not just men following Jesus. There were also women. The male disciples who eventually become apostles get all the attention but behind the scenes are these women. And there was a certain script in society that the male is the breadwinner. Well, according to this Scripture, all the finances are coming from the women. It’s just a different picture.
And I think in the body of Christ we have those who are in the front, they get all the attention. But for that person to stand and to be successful, there are many people in the background who are praying, supporting, giving financial services, and providing meals. There are many things that are happening in the background for those people in the front. To do God’s work, and even more specifically, I want to say for every great man who’s married, there is an even greater woman. I think the men of God who are married will never be able to fulfill the purposes of their lives unless the women are fulfilling their role to help the man. And men, we need a lot of help. We need a lot of help. And thankfully, God has brought sisters into our lives.
Luke 8
8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold. ”As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
And we’ve heard this passage probably dozens of times in your life. You’ve probably heard dozens of sermons. But the issue is if you do not have the right ears, you could be reading this every day for the rest of your life and it will not have any effect. You have to have the right ears. And then a similar verse is v.16.
Luke 8
16 “No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. 17 For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light. 18 Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away.”
And people like using v.16 as a verse about evangelism, that you should not hide that light under a bed. And it needs to be prominent so that it shines and everybody sees it. But here it’s talking about what you hear and what you understand. And secret things are made manifest. Hidden things are made manifest. Things that we heard, it actually makes sense. See, this is about revelation. It’s about what we hear and what we understand. That if you actually hear it and you hold fast to that word, and you understand that word, assuming your heart is in a good place, then that good seed that came on to good soil will bear good fruit.
Luke 8
9 And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, 10 he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’
The blessing for the disciple of Jesus Christ, which is different from the rest of the world, is that you and I have the privilege to ask Jesus, what does this mean? And He, as our Good Shepherd, actually speaks and the sheep hear His voice. We actually get the interpretation from Jesus. And our ears begin to hear properly. Because these are not just words because there are many people who are hearing these sermons, but only disciples of Jesus can actually understand and hear properly.
It’s important how we hear and that’s why it says in v.18, take care how you hear. Every time we read the Scripture, every time we listen to a sermon, we need to take care how we hear. It’s not just physically hearing it, analyzing it with our brain, and understanding the text intellectually. Knowing is not like that. You bring the text to Jesus, you ask for interpretation. You take care how you hear, and Jesus speaks the interpretation to you. And assuming your heart is in a good place, the good seed falls into good soil which is a good heart. And then there’s good fruit.
I want to talk about the four types of people, which is the four types of soil, or the four types of heart. It is so clear now as I read it and I wonder how come I didn’t see it before? It is so clear. If I just read it to you, this is just junior high-level reading comprehension, but for whatever reason, there are things in this text that I just didn’t see. Things in this text that I read it aloud and I didn’t hear. But this week, the Lord graciously gave me eyes to see and ears to hear. I pray that for everyone who is here who is listening, that Isaiah’s prophecy would not be true of us. That we see the text, we read it aloud, we hear with our ears, but we understand, we perceive. Unlike the Isaiah prophecy which is for the people outside of Jesus’s discipleship group. They will hear the text, they will see the text, they will not understand.
Take care how you hear. I pray you hear things that you’ve never heard before. I pray that you will see things you’ve never seen before. Take care how you hear. Let’s ask the Lord to help us hear properly. And it begins with humility of heart, a posture of admitting, okay I thought I understood but I’m not sure, let me listen with fresh ears. Because Jesus says in v.18, take care how you hear. For to the one who has, more will be given. And so the blessing is, the more you understand and you have the right ears and the right heart, you will understand more and more and more.
And so perhaps when I read it last year or two years ago or 10 years ago, my heart was not in the right place and so I could not hear it. But now my heart is moving in the right direction, hopefully. And now God is saying, okay now I’m going to give you a little more. You had some, I’m going to give you a little more. Because my heart is moving in the right direction. And so I just ask that you just suspend or abandon or put away what you think this text means. And take care how you hear, hear it for the first time today.
The flip side of v.18 says, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away. And so if we don’t take care of how we hear, then even what we think we have, it’s like we have a jar and it’s leaking. We have it for today in the moment, but by tomorrow, it has already all leaked out. So even what we think we have, it’s gone by tomorrow. Let’s take care how we hear every time we open up Scripture. We’re hearing from Jesus directly because Jesus is the Word of God. Jesus is speaking. The word is like a seed that’s planted on the soil of our hearts. Let’s take care of how we hear.
Luke 8
11 The seed is the word of God. 12 The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.
So the first type of person is a non-believer. I don’t even know why we describe this text as, okay your heart may be like the path at times. It’s not true. It’s not true. It may apply if you are a churchgoer who just goes through the motions, then maybe you’re the path. But see the text is so clear and it just requires a junior high level of comprehension, but for whatever reason, the Spirit had to wait for my heart to be in a better place and now I can see it and I can hear it. And I pray that all of us, we can see in here that the path does not apply to any of us. Prayerfully, this is not true of anybody in this place.
It is for a churchgoer who does not believe, or it’s like an itinerant preacher who’s preaching in the city, and people are just walking by, they’re hearing it but they’re not understanding. They’re like the path, they’re like made of Teflon. The seed comes, it just bounces off. It doesn’t sit, it doesn’t even remain for a moment. And so if you’re just a churchgoer, you have the Word, but as soon as you leave, it’s gone. You will have forgotten it. If I asked you what was the Word last week, if you’re a churchgoer, it’s gone. You don’t remember. You hear it in the moment, but the next moment it is gone because if you’re the path, the seed has no place to rest. So let’s never speak of the path when it comes to a believer. Let’s not say the believer may have four types of heart. It’s not true. It’s not true.
The next verse. The ones on the rock, or those who, when they hear the Word, receive it with joy, but they have no root. They believe for a while and in a time of testing, fall away. This is a believer who once believed, but because the test was too difficult and they were so offended, they fell away. And so at the point of falling away, if they die in that state, you can no longer call that person a believer. And so this one, I will also take off the table. This does not apply to anybody here.
Unless you are in a trial and you are falling away, then you are not a believer anymore. And so once saved, always saved assumes, the caveat is, you endure to the end. No matter what, how difficult the trial is. John the Baptist was suffering a little bit, he was struggling a little bit, he sends his disciples to Jesus, and that’s a form of prayer, he brings a request to Jesus. And he receives the answer, and I have to assume because Jesus praises John the Baptist that John quickly, instead of stumbling, he was offended for a brief moment, instead of stumbling and falling away, he turns around, he reestablishes and proclaims his faith and trust in Jesus. And so I want to take this one also off the table. This does not apply to the believer. This is a once a time ago a believer, but no longer a believer. So let’s take this one off the table.
The path, we take off the table. The rocky heart, we take off the table. Now we’re dealing with just two. And I want to focus on the two, the thorns and the good heart.
Luke 8
14 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. 15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.
So the thorny heart is somebody who is barely surviving. I don’t know if you watch this show Survivor. I’ve seen it on occasion. I’m a closet Survivor fan. I fancy myself one day maybe I’ll be on the show. Competing and social and strategic, I think I might be quite good at Survivor It’s a show about people who are on a deserted island, they’re competing and only the one man stands and they’re going through difficult testing. They have very limited food, they’re in the hot sun, and so the last man standing is the winner. And I wonder, spiritually, are we just barely surviving? Are we just a spiritual survivor?
If God sees us surviving, yes, we’re a believer. But He wants so much more for us. He loves us so much. You know, I think the thing that I’m learning from the Lord is that He is so much more interested in me than what I can do. Meaning, the internal state of my heart. God cares about that infinitely more than whatever ministry I can do for Him. It’s such a tough lesson for anybody, I think for men in particular, it’s hard. I think for male pastors, it’s the hardest lesson to say that God is more interested in the state of my heart than the work of my hands.
Your boss may act like he or she cares about you. But in the end, they don’t really care about you. Sorry to break it to you. Even a Christian boss. They may ask, how are you, and they are genuinely concerned in the moment, how you’re doing and they will even pray for you and they will receive prayers from you. And that’s a beautiful thing for a Christian boss to do that to a Christian coworker. But in the end, you’re there to accomplish work. And if you’re not accomplishing work, no matter how great a person you are, and how well you connect and you bond, your job is not secure. Because in the end, it’s the work of your hands that’s being prioritized in a work environment.
And so society teaches us from a young age, it’s the work of your hands that matter. But God says no, I am different from everybody else. God alone is good, God is intrinsically good. This is a good that comes from the goodness of His heart. And because He is good, when He looks at you, He wants you to be thriving and He wants you to be good. He wants you to thrive.
Like a father to a child. Your child may be a CEO, your child may be on the cover of magazines, but if their personal life is in shambles, they’re drinking, they’re stressed, they’re sleeping very little, they’re taking all these pharmaceutical drugs to try to just keep their life together. If, as a father, you see your son in that state, are you happy? No, of course, you’re not happy. Because even earthly fathers and mothers who are flawed, we know that we want the child to thrive inwardly. We want them to be good in every circumstance, not because they thriving in their accomplishments. And so if we are like that even as flawed, sinful people, how much more our Heavenly Father, who is infinitely more good than any of us. And so when He looks at us, He wants us to thrive. It has nothing to do with the work of our hands.
Even Jesus Christ. If you think about His life, it was 30 years of preparation, three and a half years of ministry. That’s roughly 90% preparation, 10% work. If Jesus was like that, think about us. Do we focus 90% on preparing to work and preparing the soil of the heart, and maybe doing 10% of work for God? Isn’t it the opposite? Don’t we focus 90% on ministry, the work of our hands, our vocational work, or what we accomplish in life, and then maybe 10% we think about our heart on occasion, and preparing it and the state of our heart. God wants to reorient it. He wants us to focus 90% or more on your heart. I want you to be good. I want you to thrive. And then 10%, yes, on occasion, I’m going to ask you to do something, or maybe toward the end of your life, I will give you a single assignment. Just do this one thing for me. That’s not what I’m interested. I’m not going to judge you on how well you do all the things. I’m going to judge you on the state of your heart.
Luke 8
15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.
There are three goods in this text in English. Two of these are in Greek. ESV shows good, honest, and good. But actually, it should be good, good, good. The good soil is kalós. And that means, beautiful. It is good. There’s an outward sign of some inward nobility, a good character that’s shining outwardly. And when you look at something that is good in this way, it inspires you and motivates you to embrace that which is beautiful and praiseworthy, that is kalós. So as for that in the kalós soil, that kind of good soil, they are those who hear the word, hold it fast in a kalós heart, a good heart, a noble heart, a heart that shines because inwardly there’s something that’s good, something beautiful in it. And you see that kind of a good heart and it inspires other people to give praise for seeing that kind of a person with a good heart that outwardly signifies an inward change.
But the other good is agathos. And that is when something is intrinsically good and this is reserved for God. This intrinsically good, you can only associate it with God because God alone is good. No one else is that kind of good. Even the rich young ruler who came to Jesus said, good teacher, agathos teacher. And Jesus says, why do you call me good? This rich young ruler knew that Jesus was from God and yet because of his money, he couldn’t become a disciple. Agathos is the second part. And so let me just translate. As for the kalós soil, they are those who hearing the word, hold it fast in a kalós heart and agathos heart, and bear fruit with patience.
The amazing thing that I see in this Scripture is that God alone is good, agathos. He says that His heart can be implanted in your hearts. That is the amazing promise of Luke 8:15, that we can have the heart of God. And that is, ultimately, first and foremost, what He’s looking for. Because if you have an agathos heart, then, of course, you will have a kalós heart, and it will shine outwardly. If you have the agathos heart, the intrinsically good heart that comes from God, it originates from God, then you will be thriving in all circumstances.
And when God looks at you, He will be pleased. And when His good seed falls on your good heart, it will lead to good fruit because from beginning to end, it’s all God. It’s all God. 10 years ago, I don’t know if you knew, a very important thing happened in the history of our church. And I’m not sure if the Park family is listening but 10 years ago the Park family moved to England. It radically changed the history of our church, and certainly the trajectory of my life.
And during those 10 years, I was focusing so much on external things. I thought that’s what a pastor does. You see problems, you try to fix all the problems. And I expended so much energy trying to fix problems and external things, including myself. Just externally, what needs to change, what programs need to be put in place, how should I talk to this person, it’s all external. And during much of those 10 years, I ignored my heart. Is God pleased when I’m frantically attending to external things in the church and in my life, and ignoring my heart? So maybe 90 to 99%, I focused on external. And maybe 10% or as low as 1% or maybe even zero for much of that time, I ignored my heart. Is God pleased?
Clearly from this text, He’s not pleased because my heart is never fruitful and so I want to go back to the thorn because I think this is where our struggle lies. It really comes down to the thorns. Because let’s take the path off the table. Let’s take the rocky path off the table, We’re moving toward a good heart. So most of us, if not all of us, we are struggling with thorns. And I want to break it down more specifically. The thorns are the hidden scripts of our life. I didn’t realize I had hidden scripts, but the hidden scripts of your life are the thorns. And if you don’t deal with the thorns, you will stay immature.
Luke 8
14 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.
So there is some fruit. You are a believer, but you are perpetually immature because of the thorns. And so I want to break it down. It is the cares, as in anxieties, it is that which fractures a person inwardly. Can you thrive inwardly if inwardly you’re fractured, if you’re divided? That’s what anxiety does. And the riches and the pleasures. And let me just read some verses about our hearts, just to set the stage for this final portion of what I’m going to say.
Jeremiah 17
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
10 “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”
1 Samuel 16
7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
Luke 6
45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
Psalm 139
24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
Psalm 51
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Ezekiel 36
26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Proverbs 27
19 As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the man.
Matthew 15
18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.
Proverbs 21
2 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.
Matthew 6
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Proverbs 21
1 The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.
As I begin to wrap up, when it comes to the thorns and dealing with the condition of our heart, it is difficult. Let me just say it is difficult. You cannot begin and end prayer for a minute or five minutes and expect to know the state of your heart. It takes time. It takes a concerted effort to bring your heart before the Lord, and ask Him to search it. Because when you look at your heart, you don’t see so much. You only see what’s on the surface. You only see the blatant sins. Of course, you’re dealing with these things, but you don’t see the underlying things. You don’t see the motives, the attitudes, the intentions. You don’t see what drives you. And I want to focus today on the hidden scripts.
If I were to ask most of us, do you have anxieties? Maybe we would have some. Or if I said, do you pursue riches? Maybe none of us would say I pursue riches. Maybe none of us would say the pursuit of my life is pleasure. I’m not a hedonist. But if we bring all of these together, the things that cause anxiety, and the riches and the pleasures, I think if you put the three together, you will start to see a script emerge.
I don’t wake up every day and say, I am pursuing a particular script. But when I’m anxious, it has given me a window into that hidden script when I see the anxiety. And I might not realize but that anxiety is somehow tied to riches and pleasure. It’s connected. You might not say I want to be super rich because you have a different standard. You say, Jeff Bezos, he’s rich. I’m not rich. I’m not pursuing riches. You might say, yeah, I want to enjoy a good meal. I want to have some pleasure. I want to take a vacation from time to time, but I’m not pursuing pleasure. And so we just dismiss outright without bringing our heart before the Lord to see if there is something that’s offensive or grievous to Him.
And it takes time to bring our hearts before the Lord. As I did it this week, I see there is a script. I didn’t realize that there is a script. And let me give you a high-level summary of my form of the script, and maybe you’ll be able to identify. My form of the script is, I want to serve the Lord. I want to accomplish much for the Lord. I want to bless as many people as I can in the Lord. But at the same time, I don’t want it to be too difficult. I want maximum return but very little suffering when it comes down to it. I really don’t want to suffer if I don’t have to suffer.
I’m not living for money but really I don’t want to be uncomfortable. I want to have some measure of security. I want a security blanket so that at the end, I don’t have to ultimately depend on God because I fall, and the blanket catches me. Pleasure? Yeah, I enjoy food. I want to have some good meals. And so as I just share briefly, you might not say that you have a script, but maybe you can start locating and start asking the Lord, is there something deep down I don’t even see? And my worries are showing me.
These days when I worry, I have to prove myself to my boss, for example. Because I just started working and I have to show him that I’m worth the money. I have to show him that I can bring something to the team. And I want to accomplish a lot with a little effort. I don’t want a 40 hour a week job or these days 50 to 60 hours a week. I really want maximum money with about 10 hours of work. I’ll focus for 10 hours but really I don’t want to work that hard.
Don’t we have these scripts, that we want to accomplish things with minimal effort and maximum return? I think this is deep down what we want. We don’t want to suffer. We want enough money in our bank. We want a security blanket. We want to enjoy the pleasures of life. We don’t want to be shipwrecked or poor like Apostle Paul was. That’s him and I don’t want that kind of life. And so, who is dictating? When I worry about certain things, who really is the leader of my life when I have this hidden script that hasn’t been addressed? Isn’t it me?
Every time that something bumps against that script, I don’t even know the script is there, but I complain, I worry. And God has given me a window, there is a script. Let me show it to you. You might think you surrendered everything to the Lord, and at a surface level, yes, I did. But deep down, even when I’m serving the Lord, I want it to go a certain way. I want it to be big. I want it to be fast. I want it to be my way. I want it to be a little suffering. I want everyone to be blessed and me to have enough time to pursue some pleasure on the side.
At the end, who is the Lord of my life, if I have this hidden script and I complain every time God wants to lead me in a different way? Who is the leader of my life? Isn’t it me. And so when we read this text, we might not say that we have thorns. But I invite you this week, bring your heart before the Lord. Examine what you worry about. Examine what words come out of your mouth, the abundance, the treasure is coming out. Examine those things, and underneath it, what’s driving it is probably a hidden script. And when I look at the hidden script, it’s all external things. Money’s external. The things I worry about are external, for the most part. Pleasure is external.
My work, the things that I do for work and the worries with regard to work, are external things. Do I ever worry or am I ever concerned and grieving over internal things? Because God as a good Heavenly Father, He wants me to look at my heart because He wants me to thrive. Because right now, I’m surviving, I’m saved. There’s some fruit but it’s being choked. And so it should be a hundredfold, but why is it capped at 10, or whatever? Why is it capped? The only explanation why we’re not all at a hundredfold good fruit is thorns. It is a worry. It is a care. It is pleasure-seeking. It is money.
And you may say, I’m not living for these things. I want you to dig a little deeper. I invite you to bring your heart before the Lord. Dig a little deeper and pray Psalm 139, ask the Lord to search your heart. Is there anything grievous to you in me, Lord? Is there anything offensive? Give me a clean heart, a good heart. Give me a heart that comes from you. Because this heart of mine, if it’s mine, it’s going to stay very immature. But if I can have your heart, and your good seed falls on a good heart that you produced in me, it will certainly lead to good fruit, which is a hundredfold. Okay, let’s pray.
Father, thank you for giving us ears to hear and eyes to see. We never knew that the path does not apply to us. We never knew that the rocks do not apply to them. It really comes down to the thorns of life. It causes us worry and anxiety. Father, we bring these worries to you. It’s a window into the state of our hearts. Father, we pray that through our worries, you would create a line, you would connect the dots to a hidden script that we didn’t even know that we are following. And that hidden script is often tied to external things. It’s tied to riches and pleasures and comforts, and the praise of man.
We didn’t realize that all of that hidden script is external. Father, but thankfully you are not like an earthly boss who is ultimately concerned with the work of our hands. You care most about us, which means you care about our hearts. I pray that you would begin with the Holy Spirit convicting of us of our thorns, the hidden scripts, anxieties, the pursuit of pleasure and riches. Show it to us, Lord. If there is anything offensive to you, Lord, we want to repent. If there are any anxieties, we want to give it to you, Lord Jesus. If there are any brokenness, we want to give it to you, Lord Jesus.
I pray that you start refashioning, recreating, reforming, healing our hearts, even in this moment. We pray that by next Sunday, we would begin to see a shoot coming out of the soil, that one measure of fruit has begun two, five, ten, thirty, sixty, ninety, one hundred. Lord, we know that you want one hundredfold good fruit, coming from a good heart, a heart that you birthed in us. We pray we surrender our hearts to you and we bring it before you Lord, during this time of partaking the Lord’s Supper. It is self-examination. It is too short a time, but Lord, may you begin the work.
May you continue the work as we leave Sunday afternoon, Sunday evening. May the work of bringing our heart before you continue throughout this week and for the rest of our lives. Because ultimately this is what you are concerned about. The state of our hearts. Lord, forgive us, we are so stubborn. We so much focus on external and not internal. I pray that from this Sunday, we would focus internally. Primarily, for most of the energy of our prayers is internal. Then at the end, we pray about some external requests. Teach us, Lord. Reorient our hearts and our priorities in prayer. In Jesus Name, Amen
