2025: Seed, Time, and (Supernatural) Harvest

2025: Seed, Time, and (Supernatural) Harvest

 

2024 was an amazing year in the life of this great church! We have grown, we have built a new home, we have planted a new church in our new home, and we are flourishing where we’ve been planted! Now, there’s another step! Now, we are moving into greater Kingdom business!

 

is here!

 

Sacred Season is a specific time for our church family to put first things first. We acknowledge God as our priority by fasting those things that are not sacred to demonstrate our desire for the Lord! The Israelites demonstrated a similar devotion when bringing their first fruits offerings to God and committing themselves to sacred assemblies. 

 

When the Jewish people begin a new year or Rosh Hoshana, they enter what’s known as the 10 days of repentance, followed by Yom Kippur. A day of atonement. There is a fast, marking a time of making things right with God and others. We want to start our 2025 off right!

 

It’s important we refocus as we move forward into the new year. God honors our faith with the greatest gift; we become more aware of His presence and voice. This 21-day WS First church fasting, and prayer season is special.

 

Please consider what/how you would like to fast from January 5-26, 2025:

 

1. Fast: eliminating meat and sweets/alcohol from your diet.
2. Fast: soups and shakes only.
3. Fast: eliminating social media/entertainment.
4. : eating only predawn and after dusk.
5. Fast: a personal sacrifice that releases your time for prayer.
6. : give up one meal per day for prayer and scripture study.

 

We will pray each day from 12 noon to 1 pm in the auditorium. All are welcome!

We will have a concert of worship and prayer each Wednesday evening starting at 6 pm

We will have a night of worship, prayer, and healing on Friday, January 24, 2025 at 6 pm

 

This is a time to join our church family in a concerted prayer effort. You may come and go as you please during this time as we collectively seek God. If you cannot depart from your workplace to attend our prayer gatherings, please feel free to join us from your location as we pray across distances and boundaries.

 

Sunday, January 26, 2025 we will come together in our culmination of the fast for Sacred Sunday! Sacred Sunday is our ceremonial service where we celebrate all God has done and will do in our lives. We bring our Sacrificial Sacred Seed offerings to the Lord and receive a blessing from the pastors as we give! It’s amazing! 

 

Today’s message comes from the beginning of God’s creation:

 

Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”

 

So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God, he created them; male and female, he created them. Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”

 

Then God said, “Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food. And I have given every green plant as food for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along the ground—everything that has life.” And that is what happened.

 

Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good! And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day. Genesis 1:26-31 (NLT)

 

I just plain love the way God speaks to His creation. I love how He always leads us into victorious situations. He always causes us to triumph! In 2 Corinthians 2, Paul describes a believer’s life as a captive to God’s triumph paraded through the community to demonstrate God’s greatness! Tell your neighbor: “I am a captive of God’s !”

 

At the very first moment of humanity’s creation…in the infancy of our intellectual emergence, God tells us to ! 

 

I have given you…every seed-bearing plant…food.

I have given…every green seed-bearing plant for all the animals…food.

 

Everything that has life was to consume fruitfulness! Plants have seeds…fruit has seeds…life is all about seeds!

 

Before I can lead us into 2025 with the power of God’s word, I must prepare you. Church, we need to be looking in the right direction!!

 

God made a lot of wonderful things in these six days of creation. I mean, the entirety of existence was established in those moments. But in this moment, He wanted Adam and Eve to look in the direction of that which would sustain and bless them. The things that would cause their lives to be fruitful as well. He commanded them to “Look!”

 

Have you ever been so distracted by all the other things of life that you failed to look? We are God’s children and we often find sorrow in our sandbox…but joy is just over there on the slide! Look! 

 

The very first time Satan got a chance to tempt Adam and Eve, what did he do? He got them to look at the one thing they couldn’t have and focus on it, instead of the tens of thousands of trees upon which they had full access!

 

The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. Genesis 3:6-7 (NLT)

 

Church: Seeing is !

 

The question is: What do you see? What has your focus?

 

What Adam and Eve were focused upon brought rotten/decaying fruit into their lives.

 

The answer to the problems we’re facing right now isn’t found in focusing on our situations.

 

The answer isn’t in your strength

The answer isn’t in your effort

The answer isn’t in your words

The answer isn’t in your intellect

 

Today, God is calling us to examine our lives. Are our lives built with God’s will at the center?

 

The answer is in your ! God has something He wants to show you…are you ready to look?!! 

 

God has given us seeds!

 

First: the Seeds: What God has provided for you! There’s fruitfulness and victory attached to it!

 

Later that same day Jesus left the house and sat beside the lake. A large crowd soon gathered around him, so he got into a boat. Then he sat there and taught as the people stood on the shore. He told many stories in the form of parables, such as this one:

 

“Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seeds. As he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn’t have deep roots, they died. Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted! Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.” Matthew 13:1-9 (NLT)

 

After telling this parable, Jesus explained to the disciples His reasoning behind these stories:

 

 He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. That is why I use these parables, For they look, but they don’t really see. They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand. Matthew 13:11-13 (NLT)

 

This is the year for us to listen, read, and study the word of God. We must become hungry for the word of God and apply it to every part of our lives. God is calling us to a higher level of discipleship. Where we do more than consume…we study and prepare a feast from what we’ve learned. (listen to the word read to us in the Bible app) (Read Spiritual Enriching Books)

 

Second: the Seeds: Care for what He’s provided for you!

“But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but they didn’t see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn’t hear it. “Now listen to the explanation of the parable about the farmer planting seeds: 

The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message about the Kingdom and don’t understand it. Then the evil one comes and snatches away the seed that was planted in their hearts. 

We must no longer be satisfied with ignorance! FIND OUT! Search!! Ask!!!

The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word. 

Get connected to people who love God, fresh and seasoned in their journey with Christ! Let loving people tell you when you’re going off the rails!

The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth, so no fruit is produced. 

We cannot serve God and money…trust God and be faithful in what He tells you to do! Tithing is a test…and it’s not God’s…He doesn’t want our cash, He wants our LOVE!

 

Third: the Seeds: Share what He’s provided for you!

The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!” Matthew 13:17-23 (NLT)

Harvest is happening every single day! The things we did decades, years, months, days, and even hours ago are coming back to us in abundance! 

 

You reap what you sow is actually not true! You reap MORE than you sow!

 

Every act of kindness, love, or service has a multiplied effect upon you and the world in which we live!

 

How are we going to start this year? Are we going to continue to plant the seeds of the past? Are they seeds that promote the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Are our actions fruitful and our resulting harvest supernatural?

 

Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work. You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.’ But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest. The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike! You know the saying, ‘One plants and another harvests.’ And it’s true. I sent you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest.” John 4:34-38 (NLT)

 

If not, let’s begin our journey into procuring the right lives in keeping with our great commission:

 

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”Amen. Matthew 28:18-20 (NKJV)

 

Church 2025 is our year to see a tremendous number of people coming to faith in Jesus…but what will happen to them when they come to us? Will they find us faithful or full of filth? Will they join us in farming the fields or feeding our sinful flesh? Jesus fed Himself by doing Kingdom business for God. Good news? He established a spiritual family to do it with! US!

 

Let’s get our lives aligned with the fruitfulness of the seed of the Gospel! This is our first step toward your harvest in 2025!