Good morning, church. Good to be with you this morning. I would love to welcome all of you that are here today, as well as those of you watching online. Welcome to you, wherever you find yourself watching. We're just glad that we can be together as a family, that we can open God's Word, that we can together figure out how we move forward in this thing called walking with God. And so, super cool. And one of the things I love about this family, too, is just like what you just
saw. We're not all just focused on what's happening inside this walls. We get to care about the people outside of our walls. We get to care about the people that are going through difficult times that are hurting. And we get to partner with people that are walking with them. Sounds a whole lot like Jesus, right? It's pretty awesome that we get to be a part of a family that does that,
which I absolutely love. I heard this quote recently that kind of really stuck out to me, and the quote was this, is when an elderly person dies, it's like a library burns to the ground. And man, I don't know about your experiences with that, but mine, that rings so true. I had the privilege of growing up right next door to my grandparents, and my granddad was my best friend. I did everything with him. We'd go do yard work together, and we would go out and play catch
together. I'd just watch him and stand with him as he was cooking in the kitchen, man, everything. But one of my favorite things to do with my granddad was just to sit and listen to his stories. To sit and listen to stories about World War II. To sit and listen to stories about growing up in Detroit during the Great Depression. I just sit and listen to these stories that, man, have just had such an impact on me because I think about them all the time. They're in my head.
They just sit there and I get to reflect. I get to think about them because they stick with you, man. There's something about, stories, right? We know that there's something about stories. In fact, the research shows the same thing. Stanford University did a study that showed that stories help us remember or remembered up to 22 times
more than just facts. Stories help do that, and it's supported by neuroscience, and there's been research done in neuroscience of this as well, that the amygdala, which is the part of the brain that processes emotions, right? I don't know where it is, so I'm just pointing in general. It's somewhere up here, right? I think it's in your brain, right? But the amygdala, it interacts with the hippocampus, which is the part that is responsible for memory, which is on this side,
apparently, because that's what I'm doing. Don't quote me on that. but somewhere in there. But when they interact together, when we hear a story, what it does is it makes narratives a lot easier to remember. And I think Jesus understood this because Jesus walked around and Jesus taught in stories. Jesus told stories, right? We talk about them and we know them as parables. And Jesus goes around and he talks about parables. He teaches in parables and he tells these stories.
that are super important. And over the next five weeks, we're going to be diving into the stories that Jesus told. And in fact, the collection that we're heading into is called Stories as Told by Jesus. Stories as Told by Jesus, because Jesus told stories, and if Jesus told them, they're probably important for us to listen to. They're probably important for us to lean into. And so we want to focus on these stories. And today we're going to kick it off with a story that
is for you. Okay, sometimes we get confused. Is this for me or is this for someone else? Right, have you ever been in the grocery store and someone waves and you don't know if they're waving at you or the person behind you? That happens to me all the time because of you guys. You wave at me and I'm like, okay, now I'm faced with a decision because if you're waving at the person behind me, I'm gonna look like a real dummy. Right, when you're waving at the person behind
me. But I have that in my mind, and then I realize if I don't wave at you because I think it's the person behind me, then I look like a jerk because I didn't wave back to you. See, sometimes we're like, I'm not sure if this is for me or if this is for someone else. And when it comes to church, a lot of times we do the exact same thing. We hear a message and we go, oh, I wish this person was here today. You hear a message, you hear a teaching, and you're like, man, I hope the
person next to me is listening right now. Hey, I'm going to take that pressure off of you today, this one. This is for you. This one is for you. This is a message that is introspective. I want you to take the time to look inside of yourself, to judge your heart, to figure out where you are in this story, to realize where God wants you to move today. This one is for you. We're gonna be in Mark chapter four. Mark chapter four in the subtitle in your Bible says the parable
of the sower. But I really think this is the parable of the soil, the parable of the soil. In verse one, it says again, Jesus began to teach by the lake. It says the crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake while all the people were along the shore at the water's edge. If you were with us at Watson Lake two weeks ago, picture that crowd, 6 ,000 deep, pushing in on Jesus without a sound system. So Jesus does the
only logical things. He hops on and makes a floating stage. He gets on a boat and he floats out to make a stage so that people can see him using the water as the sound bounces off the water to amplify his voice. Jesus in this moment has this large crowd around him and he starts teaching. Verse two, he taught them many things by parables. And in his teaching, he said, listen, a farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path and the birds
came and ate it up. Some fell along rocky places where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants so they did not bear grain. Verse eight, still other seed fell on good soil. And it came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying 30, some 60, and some 100 times. Then Jesus said,
whoever has ears, let them hear. And the disciples said, huh? I don't get it. All right, what do you mean, Jesus? I don't plant seed. I don't know what you're talking about. All right, you ever heard something super important, but you didn't comprehend it? You didn't understand it? I don't know if you know this, but I have five kids, which is equal to 10 ,000 kids, okay? Just
want you to know, right? If you don't know, one kid is equal to one kid, two kids is equal to five, and three or more kids is working equal to 9 ,900 and a donkey and a tornado, okay? I just want you to know, that's how it works. And so, man, we got so many kids, we're headed in different directions, and so every morning, my wife will go, okay, so here's the plan for today. You're going to go pick up this one at this time. Well, while you're doing that, I'm going to be
picking up this one. And then you're going to have to drop that one off over here. Well, then I go here and then you're going to pick up this one. And this was going to happen. Right. And so we lay out the plan for the day. And I was there. I heard it. And I got no clue what she just said. And I got to call her like five times during the day. I'm like, wait, so who am I picking up again? And she's all, let me get this straight.
You can quote the batting averages for every player on the Padres in 1998, but you have no idea what I just said. And I'm like, that is correct. Very, very correct. Sometimes we can hear something important and not understand it. The disciples are going, Jesus, I don't get it. What does this mean? And so Jesus, in verse 10, says this when he was alone with the 12. And the others around him, they asked him about the
parables. Jesus, what does this mean? And he told them, the secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside, everything is said in parables. There's something really important that we need to understand here. Our proximity to Jesus allows for understanding. Everyone was told the same thing, but the disciples had proximity to Jesus to gain the understanding needed. Our proximity to Jesus. allows for our understanding. See, sometimes we don't get it.
Sometimes we don't get it because we're not putting ourself in a place to be able to learn or to be able to understand. All right, it's like this. It's like if we were to take our Bible and we go, this is the source of truth, right? This is the word of God. This is what I need. And not just this, but just using this as an example, we go, okay, I know that this is where the truth is, but I don't actually have a regular reading
time in my life. I don't actually set aside time in my life to open the word of God and to get into it. I go, okay, I know that there's truth there, but I actually have stepped out of community and I don't have people around me that are gonna reinforce the community in my life that are gonna tell me the truth that comes from the word of God. Yeah, I know there's truth there, but I'm just gonna go ahead and I'm gonna make sure that I never actually open my heart and say, God,
would you teach me? Holy Spirit, I invite you in to translate this word to my soul. And then all of a sudden we are not in proximity to be able to understand anything. And we wonder how come God's not here? How come I'm not hearing anything? God, why are you silent? And we've never put ourself in proximity to where we can actually see what God has for us. How we do that when it comes to our relationship with God. We have to be in proximity to God so that he can
explain to us. Billy Graham says it this way. I saw a clip where he explained this. He told the story of a young lady who really enjoyed reading. She loved reading and so she read this novel and she absolutely hated it. She thought it was terrible. And then a couple of months later, she met the author and she ended up falling in love with the author. And then she read the novel again and she absolutely loved the novel.
Listen, church, if we're not in love with the author, if we're not in proximity to Jesus, we're not gonna understand what he's trying to teach us. The disciples here are going, God, we don't get it. And he's going, let me teach you. Because everyone who was there received the same thing. They all heard it, but there was two levels of understanding that were represented. There was the physical level and then there was the spiritual level. And on the physical level, everybody received
it. Everybody heard it. But that's not enough to just understand it on a physical level. There are professors in universities that are world religion experts that know more about the Bible than you and know more about the Bible than me, but do not have the Holy Spirit because they do not believe the Bible. And there's a difference between understanding it on an academic level and understanding it on a spiritual level. And so the people that were there heard the story.
They're like, we get it. You plant seeds. Some work, some don't. I get it. But there's a spiritual level to understanding what he is saying here. Everyone received it, but the disciples were granted understanding at a spiritual level. Why? Because of their proximity to Jesus. Our proximity to Jesus directly correlates to how we understand what he wants us to know. Jesus continues and he said, listen, it's all spoken parables. And
here's why, Mark 4, 12. So that they may be ever seen, but never perceiving and ever hearing, but never understanding. Otherwise they may turn and be forgiven. What in the world does that mean? Jesus is quoting Isaiah. He's quoting a passage in the Old Testament that he's speaking right here. And then he goes on to say this in verse 13. Then Jesus said to them, don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? All right, listen up. This is the
key right here. All right, you wanna understand it? You wanna understand any of the other parables? This is not any randomness that we are doing this one first because if you don't get this, you're not gonna understand the next five weeks because the posture of which you receive something absolutely changes how you understand something. I remember being in college and going to class and not wanting to be in class and being angry that I was in class and sitting there just like,
I don't care. This person doesn't know what they're talking about. I don't wanna be here. How many think I learned really well in that environment? All right, our heart posture matters when it comes to receiving something, which is why this matters so much. When this matters so much. And so Jesus, in this parable, some of the parables that we're gonna go over, they're like riddles. You gotta figure out what they mean. This one, we have the privilege of Jesus just telling us
what they mean. We get a behind the curtain look because he tells everyone. And then the disciples ask him, hey, what does this actually mean? And then he tells the disciples the true meaning. Verse 14, the farmer sows the word. The farmer is Jesus. And the word, we have to understand this, the word is the word of God. The seeds are the word of God. And the word of God does not return void. There is nothing wrong with
the word of God. When you and I plant something, Right, when you and I try to figure out the schedule of Prescott, Arizona to actually plant something so it doesn't freeze and then it actually grows, don't worry, I'm working through that in my own heart and soul right now. But when you do that, there's a lot of factors. Man, the seed might be bad. This seed is not bad. There is nothing wrong with it. The seed is the word of God, which means that it has no problems. Therefore, it
is the soil. The soil is what matters. Verse 15. Some people are like seed along the path where the word is sown. And as soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others like seed sown among thorns,
hear the word. But the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seeds sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop some 30, some 60, some 100 times what was sown. What we see here is we see four types of soil, four conditions of the heart. For those of you that still think we're talking about dirt, four conditions of the heart. First is this,
first soil is the hardened soil, right? You're here, but you're not here. Lights are on, but nobody's home, right? You're physically here and you're like, okay, I'm showed up, but you don't actually care. Your heart is hard, right? You're close by, but really not engaged. All right, another way to say it is this, is it is a checklist for you. All right, check. Checked it off my list. I showed up to church because
that's what I'm supposed to do. The man upstairs will be happy with me because I showed up for him. Check. All right, you were dragged here by your spouse. You're in this place right now because you're like, okay, that's what I'm supposed to do. But your heart is hard to what is happening. I remember when I was 18, 19, and 20, I lived at home after I graduated high school. My parents said, you can live at home, but the rule is this, you have to go to church if you're gonna live
here. And I told them, I don't wanna go to your church. Your church is boring. And they were like, that's okay. You don't have to go to our church. You just have to go to a church. And so I picked a few different churches and I went to a couple of different churches and I went there and listen, I didn't care at all. I went there because I wanted free rent because that was a requirement. Check, off my list, I was here. I can't tell you anything they talked about.
I can't tell you any other person that I interacted with. I can't tell you a single thing that actually made its way into my life because my heart was hard. I was there, but I wasn't actually there. I think we have to ask ourselves these questions. I told you this message is an introspective message. It's for you to search your heart in this. And so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go over questions for each type of soil for you to understand and ask yourself. Now, listen, they're gonna go up
on the screen. There'll be three questions for each. I'm telling you all of this because you guys are terrible with instructions, okay? I'm telling you there's gonna be three up there and I'm giving you permission to take your phones out in church. and take a picture of it so you can remember and look at it later. Some of you, you're like the A++ students, though, and you're going to take notes, and that's okay, too. I know you've seen the inside of an AP classroom,
and that's good for you. I don't know what mysteries happen in there. I've never been in one. But for you, that's awesome. But here's the questions that we have to ask ourselves when it comes to this. Do I feel emotionless, bored, or skeptical when spiritual things are brought up? Like, I don't know. I'm just going to detach from it. All right, question two, have I made space in my life to genuinely think about faith or do I just brush it off? Do I just brush it off and
go, okay, I don't need to think about this. I don't need to deal with this. Question three, when I hear truth that challenges me, do I shut it down before reflecting on it? Man, I've done this. I don't wanna think about it because if I think about it, I'm gonna have to change something in my life. So therefore, I'm just gonna shut it down before the even thought happens in my mind. That's soil number one, the hardened soil. Soil number two is the shallow soil, shallow
soil. Let me ask you this question. How are your New Year's resolutions doing? Anybody do good? So we're like, bro, it's May, what's happening? You don't know what the date is? Like, come on, that was done a long time ago. All right, there's very few that are still going with what you set out to do. And here's why, because without vision, things perish. If you are not set in the right place, if you don't have things that are anchoring you and rooted down, it's not going to grow.
That's why this year, if you were here, we started off in January with a collection where we dove into this idea of taking shape and the shape of our church, where we talked about what we are for. We wanna be known way more for what we are for than what we are against, because a lot of churches and a lot of Christians and a lot of people are just known, this is what we're against, and we're wrong, we don't like this, and you're wrong if you do this, instead
of knowing what they are for. And so we planted some stakes saying, this is us. This is who we are. Because when your roots go down and you know who you are, you can grow forward. This right here is people who are going, man, I believe in Jesus. Yes, I've said it. I believe in Jesus. Of course. Of course I do. But it doesn't hold up enough for you to go all in. It doesn't hold up enough for you to go all in. Yeah, I believe in him, but man, you don't need everything from
me, right? Like that's kind of excessive, Jesus. It's kind of hard. When things get tough, which they will, You're out, right? When the cost of discipleship, disciple means a follower of Jesus, so a close follower of Jesus. When the cost of discipleship becomes too much, and you're like, man, that's too much. I can't do that. I'm out. I'm out. Why would you want that much from me,
God? It's just getting too hard. It was great when everything was going great, but now that things aren't going great, God, I don't know if I wanna deal with this anymore. And there's no roots that are anchoring down. I had a student probably about 15 years ago that was in the youth group and he was incredibly intelligent and he was really into apologetics, which is the defense of the faith. And he could defend the faith. He knew everything there was to defend the faith.
He knew the scriptures inside and out. He knew all the information. In fact, I'd been with him on missions trips where we would go to different areas where people had different beliefs, different religions, and we would get in a dialogue and a conversation with them. to defend our faith, to talk about what that faith is and have a conversation to know where we stand, what we believe and how we hold true to what we believe. And man, he knew everything. He knew everything there was
to know about it. And so he came to me and he said, hey, Todd, as I go off to college, I feel like there's nothing that can be thrown at me that will stop me from continuing to follow Jesus. And I said, Zach, you're not wrong. There's nothing a professor is gonna say to make you question your faith because you know what you believe.
I said, but when you're starting to be faced with the temptations of this world, when you start to get invitations to the parties and the things that are gonna pull you away, I don't know that you have said your roots are actually deep enough to hold you where you're at. Because you know it all and that's great, but you don't actually have any roots. You don't have that deep relationship with Jesus. And he went to college and he completely walked away from his
faith. See, we can know everything there is to know, but if our roots are not deep, What happens is we will just wither away. We will just wither away. We need to be rooted, not diluted. And sometimes we want to just dilute it and go, okay, yeah, God, I'll give you a little bit. I'm going to put like one foot in, but not on everything. That's just too much. But then you're not rooted. And what happens is we start getting these voices in our head that tells us, okay, it's fine. You
don't have to actually be in church. And we take a little step away. And then the sun is scorching. We start to wither. You don't actually need to be in a group. That's just a lot of time. That's a big commitment. I don't know if we have enough, you know, we can do that. That's, yeah, yeah, yeah. And you start withering away. I don't need to join a serve team. I'm here and that's good enough. I showed up, right? But I can't actually join a serve team. I don't have time for that.
And we start withering away because we start diluting it instead of realizing that we need to be rooted. Church, we have to fight to be rooted. We have to fight to stay rooted. We have to ask ourselves these questions. Is my faith mostly based on feelings or good experiences rather than conviction or understanding? When it gets hard, man, it's easy to bail. Question two, do I avoid hardship or discomfort when it
comes to living out my faith? When it comes to living out my faith, am I like, listen, as long as things are good, I'm good. But when it gets hard, I don't know if I can live this out. This last question is a very convicting and hard one. Am I more committed to convenience than to Christ? Oh, that's hard. I'm not pulling punches today, church. That one will smack you in the face. Am I more committed to convenience? Because if I'm honest, the answer for me a lot of times
is yes. Yes. I wish I could say I'm committed to Christ, but man, convenience is so easy. I wish it was just easier. That's a shallow soil. So number three is the distracted soil. All right, everything else is too important. We got so many things going on in our life and they are just so important. This is what matters. We gotta make sure that these things in our life are all in the right place and everything's good. It's
what I talked about a couple of weeks ago. It's the problem that when a good thing becomes a God thing. It can be a good thing. Your kids can be a good thing. Your kids are a good thing, but when they become a God thing, it is a problem. Your marriage is a good thing. I hope you have an amazing marriage. But when your marriage becomes from a good thing to a God thing, we have a problem. Your job, your career, your hobbies, those are
great. Those are amazing. But when a good thing becomes a God thing, you put it in a place that should never be in. It cannot hold the weight of what you're trying to put on it. And a lot of times what happens is we allow those other things, those good things to take up space in our life. And what they do is they crowd out what matters. The seed in this parable got to the soil. It sprouted. Jesus, we love you. But it got crowded out because there was not enough
space or time for God. There's not enough space or time for God. I just caring more about the things of the world than that of God. I remember when I was in high school, I went to a youth camp and sat down with one of my leaders. And he asked me some questions that made me really, really mad. He made me really mad because he sat down and he said, hey, I just want to ask you this. Do you love God or do you love baseball more? And I was like, why would you ask me that?
Of course I love God more. This is a Christian camp. I got to tell you that. That's the right answer. He's like, I know, I know, I know. But let me ask you, if baseball was gone and all you had was God, would you be okay with that? I'm like, why would you even ask me this, man? I got baseball and I got God and I'm doing both and it's totally fine. So why does it even matter? He goes, no, no, no, I know, I get that. He goes, I just wanna see you as excited about God as
you are about baseball. See, I think we let all the things in our life take a priority that they should never mean in our life. And they start crowding out, they start pushing in and they start crowding out the things that matter most. And we have to figure out, man, are we the shallow soil? Are we the distracted soil? Are we the soil that's looking at all these other things that are distracted by them? We have to ask ourselves these questions. Do I constantly worry about
money, success, or the future? more than I trust God. Church, I gotta be honest with you, this is me. I'm like, God, I don't know how I'm gonna pay this bill. God, I'm stressed out about finances. God, this project in front of me is too big and somebody has to come along my life and go, well, do you trust God? I'm like, man. And we have to ask ourself, do I tell myself I'll get serious about God later? when things slow down or improve.
Things are just really hard and busy right now, God, but you know that when they get a little bit slower, then I'll come back to you. God, I got a real issue right now. I got problems. And when this problem fixes itself, then I'll come back to you. I'm not forgetting about you. I'm coming back to you. Question three, has my faith taken a back seat to my career, relationships, or hobbies? What is it that you're putting in your life above Jesus? Because those things are
crowding out Jesus. Are you the distracted soil? Soil number four is the rich soil. Soil number four is the soil that where the seed fell and it produced a crop that was 30, 60, 100 times more than what was sown. Soil number four is the rich soil that produces amazing things. What does it produce? It produces fruit. What kind of fruit? Fruit of the spirit. Things like patience, things like kindness, things like goodness, things like self -control. Things that are not natural
for you and I to produce on our own. They don't come out of us accidentally. It's because we have good soil where the word, where the seed that has no problem, that is perfect. When the seed falls on soil, it is ready to receive it. It produces in us the fruit of the spirit. This is somebody who walks in obedience. Oh, we don't like that word. Don't tell me what to do. I don't like obedience. But understanding what God has
said and saying, I'm going to follow him. I'm going to step in and I'm going to follow him. That is a mark of a good soil. At the mark of a good soil is someone who understands in constant transformation, not just one and done. Because I believe that Jesus has the power to transform your life. But a lot of times when we think about that, we think about just the moment where we met Jesus and our testimony is just the moment when we met Jesus. But the word testimony means
a testament to God. It's a testament of what God has done in our life. And so there should be a constant testimony going on in your life because every day is an opportunity for transformation, to continue to be transformed. Every hour is an opportunity to be transformed, to be more like Jesus. It's understanding that our personal life, our private life, and our public life are the same. That's a mark of somebody who's in good soil, who's in rich soil. And we have to
ask ourselves these questions. Am I willing to let the word of God challenge, change, and correct me even when it's hard? Even when it's hard. It's not easy. It's not going to be easy. But I'm willing to let it challenge, change, and correct me. Question two. Is my life bearing spiritual fruit like love, patience, generosity, obedience, and leading others to Christ? Is that what's happening in my life? Is it bearing that
type of fruit? And just to throw all of you type A people off, there's only two questions for this soil. So those of you waiting for the next one, sorry. Go ahead and take your picture now. You can be mad at me later. What type of soil are you? Here's the thing about the soil. When we were in teaching prep this week, one of my friends, she said to me this. She said, here's the thing about soil. Soil receives. It doesn't do it on its own. It receives, right? The sower
comes and the sower sows. God is the sower and he's sowing the word. But the soil's job is just to receive it. What is it in your life that you're holding on to that you need to release so that you can receive? Because you can't receive when you're holding on to something else. So what is it in your life that you need to let go of so that you can receive? So that when the seed is scattered, so when the seed falls, it's falling on good soil. Here's the encouragement to this.
We are the soil. God is the one sowing it. And so if God is the gardener, the power is in him. It is his job to till the soil. It is his job to tend to the soil. It is his job to pull out the thorns. It is his job to pull those other things away to make sure that the soil is good. It is nothing that we can do. It is all on him. But what we need to do is we need to be willing to be tended by him. We need to be open. We need to present our hearts in a posture that says,
here it is, God. Tend me. Open yourself up for him. So when you came in today, you were given the elements for communion. And as we take communion, we have this time of reflection. And it's a time for you to reflect on what God has done for you, sending Jesus to die on a cross. Reflect on that act. Reflect on what he has done. But it's also a time for us to reflect on how we're receiving
what he has done. And so as we take this time of reflection, we're gonna have some of the questions on the screen for you to just reflect, for you to sit there, for you to do some soul searching and go, God, what type of soil am I? What type of work do I need to be to allow myself to be tilled and tended by you? The next few moments are yours. As Jesus was heading to a cross, he was sitting in an upper room with his disciples and they were sharing a meal together. And Jesus
told his disciples this. He took a piece of bread and he broke it and he said, this represents my body that is broken for you. He said, every time you take of this, I want you to remember. He said, take this, eat and remember me. It says that in the same way he took the cup. And he said, this represents my blood. This is my blood that was poured out for you. He said, drink this in remembrance of me. God, we just come before you, Lord. And we thank you that you are the
gardener. We thank you that you are in charge of tilling the soil. God, I pray that we would open up our hearts. I pray that we would not hold anything back, that we would let go of the things that we're holding onto so that we can receive the seed. Lord, that our soil would be rich, that we would not allow the distractions in life to squeeze out the things that you have for us, God. God, I pray especially for the person in here that is the hardened soil, God, that
his heart is hard to you. It doesn't even know why they're here today, but the chains would be broken and they would release that, God, so that they can receive your word, your perfect word. God, I pray for each one of us as we live this out, God, as we do the hard heart work this week. So God, where am I at? to ask the difficult questions. I pray that you would give us the strength to be real with ourself as we decide where we are and what we need to do to take another
step closer to you. I pray that we would all put ourself in a proximity to you to be able to learn and understand and grow. We love you, Jesus. We pray this in your name. Amen.