The Decision to Persevere • Ps Nadia Clark

``So often we get stuck because we think, oh man, I've messed up again. Oh, that didn't go the way I thought it would go. But I love that. God's not after our perfection. He's after the fact that, will we just take another step towards Him? Will we take another step of obedience? Will we take another step of faith with our eyes on Him? Because He doesn't use perfect people. He uses persevering people. [00:06:04] (25 seconds)  #PersevereNotPerfect

For a plant to be choked by thorns, it's not the plant's fault. It's the fact that the weed has been given too much room to flourish. Are we giving the concerns of this life too much room to flourish in our lives? Because I don't know about you, but I constantly need to be checking my priorities. Am I too focused on this life rather than the next? Do I have God's plan and priorities as my number one priority? Or are they kind of in the mix of all the other priorities, and somehow we just think that it'll all come together and work out? [00:26:08] (37 seconds)  #GuardYourPriorities

So see, Jesus is saying to us, guard the Word of God as the highest treasure. Guard that seed that's been deposited to us. Guard what He is asking of us, treasure it. Sometimes we can treat the Word of God like it's trying to ruin our parade. You know, here comes the Word. It's time for our bubble to be burst. But it's so not true because God's Word is life. [00:18:51] (25 seconds)  #TreasureTheWord

Come on, consider it joyful when we go through trials. How crazy is that? Because you know what it's going to do in you. You know it's going to develop character. You know it's going to develop maturity. It means that we're going to lean on His strength, not our own, so we'll receive His grace. It means that we go through things and we learn wisdom and we learn understanding. It means that we have greater compassion on others and can help others walk in the same path, similar circumstances, because of what we have been through. [00:25:02] (27 seconds)  #JoyThroughTrials

Come on, that's why the enemy comes alongside us like He did at the beginning in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. Did God really say? And He continues to do that to us. Did God really say? Because He knows if He can take that seed, if He can snatch it from us, it prevents us from growing the harvest that God has called us to step into. Come on, where do we need to guard that seed? [00:19:25] (28 seconds)  #ProtectYourSeed

And Jesus is saying here, protect your joy. Because at the end of the day, that's what everything comes back to. When we are at the end of our life, looking at, man, what actually counted, what's going to matter, is everything we did to live for Jesus. Everything we did to live for eternity. And those other things, there's trials in life. I want to stand knowing I kept my eye on Jesus. I didn't get distracted in my head at all, but I kept following him. [00:24:14] (29 seconds)  #LiveForEternity

Come on, there are harvests that can come. When we guard the seed, when we deposit the seed, when we water that seed, when we treasure it, when we nurture it. Come on, what seed of the Word of God is He asking you to guard with everything so that we'll see that hundredfold harvest in our lives? Guard the seed, treasure the seed. [00:20:30] (22 seconds)  #TreasuredSeed

And it's amazing that Word is there again. By persevering, they produce a crop. By persevering, we produce a harvest in our lives. A harvest that is to be more and more like Jesus. A harvest that is about living beyond self and seeing others know the same freedom that we have. A harvest that is about fruit that lasts for eternity. A harvest where we're living for what truly matters. [00:12:30] (25 seconds)  #PersevereForHarvest

But with this parable that Jesus is saying, He makes it very clear that the seed is the Word and we are the soil. See, our lives are the environment where God's Word either flourishes in our life or it doesn't live up to its potential. We are the soil that determines whether God's truth can get deep enough into our lives, whether roots can get deep enough to produce a harvest. So the question I wanna ask us today is how is the soil of our life going? [00:12:55] (31 seconds)  #BeGoodSoil

Their roots are shallow and they fade just as quickly as they appear. But if you look in contrast to bamboo, for example, for years, sometimes five years, there's almost no growth above the ground at all. But beneath the surface, it's growing strength and the roots are going deep. And then when the time is right, the bamboo can grow over a metre in a single day, shooting to its full height in just a few weeks. See, so often when it comes to our lives, the harvest that we are looking for comes from deep roots. [00:14:05] (44 seconds)  #GrowDeepRoots

Man, there's power in being planted in God's house. Persevering through the hard days. Persevering when it feels like people may hurt you. Persevering when it feels like maybe you're underappreciated. Persevering when it feels like this is just the same thing over and over again. I want to encourage you. The most fruitful people that I've seen in God's house are those that simply have persevered. [00:09:51] (22 seconds)  #RootedInChurch

Come on, there's nothing like knowing the joy of salvation. Nothing like knowing that Jesus has come and saved us. He's redeemed us. We have eternity in heaven with Him. The joy of our salvation, there's nothing like it. But you know what? We can just get so used to that joy ourselves, the joy of our salvation. And this verse is saying, guard your joy. Guard the joy that comes with knowing the truth of our God. Guard the deposits that He's given us. Guard it with joy. [00:21:05] (62 seconds)  #GuardYourSalvationJoy

Come on, what generational pattern of thinking needs to be transformed? What generational behaviour needs to be broken? What discipline needs to become our normal so that we're closer to God? What faith steps do we need to take to allow God to have more of our lives? Where do we need to keep persevering and doing good so that we'll see that hundredfold harvest? [00:18:12] (22 seconds)  #BreakAndBuildGenerations

But as we continue to follow him, as we continue to pursue him, as life throws us different tribes, as things happen, it can turn into, is he really worth it? Is Jesus really worth his sacrifice? Is he really worth me giving all of my life to? And like the scripture says, it chips away at our joy. And instead of keeping our joy and going, you know what, God, you deserve every single part of my devotion. Jesus, I give every part of myself to you. Instead of living from that place of joy and adoration and worship, we start to ask that question, is this really worth it? [00:23:31] (43 seconds)  #FaithWorthTheSacrifice

You know what? Just as it is with our physical bodies, so it is with our walk with God. We are not called to rust out because we get stagnant in our faith. We are called to persevere, to keep taking one step after the other in the direction that God is calling us to. Not to look at the past and go, why did I do what I did in the past? But to look ahead, turning our eyes to Jesus, what He is asking of us, the disciplines He's asking us to implement, and slowly but surely doing the right thing over and over and over again. [00:03:58] (41 seconds)  #OneStepAtATimeFaith

Man, I wanna be able to say that at the end of my lifetime, that God, I've given You everything. I stayed on track. I pursued You with everything that I had. I didn't get distracted by other things going on around me, but I kept day after day doing the right thing, time and time again pursuing You and everything that You had for me because there's power in our perseverance. [00:05:30] (25 seconds)  #AllInForGod

Faithful in allowing those roots to go deep. Faithful in allowing God to mature. Faithful in not just wanting to do the shallow so we get the temporary reward quick and easy. But God, what do you wanna do deep within me? God, how do you wanna change me? God, how do you wanna do something deep that transforms me from the inside out? That means that I'm not just living like I lived in the past, but I'm stepping into something new because you're doing a new work. You're doing a deep work. [00:15:31] (32 seconds)  #DeepChangeWithin

And when it comes to our walk with God, we need to be committed to those deep roots. Because how God works, He's not just about the superficial. Our God works in ways that are unseen. He wants to grow our character. He wants to grow our maturity. He wants to grow our trust. He wants to grow our faith in Him. And He does it slowly, but deliberately. And our lives are like the soil that God wants to bring to maturity so we can bring the harvest in our lives that we are called to have. [00:14:50] (34 seconds)  #CommittedToDeepRoots

Not looking to the left or right, what other people are doing around us. Not getting sidetracked by other people's lives, but being on mission to what God has called us to do. Not getting stuck, not settling in our disappointments and things that haven't gone right, but continuing to move forward because we know that Jesus is calling us forward and He has the tools, He gives us the tools that we need to keep being persistent in our walk with God. Come on, how incredible is our God? [00:04:38] (34 seconds)  #EyesOnTheCall

Are we allowing the things of God to go deeper in our lives so that we become more mature and can have that harvest in our lives that we are called to have? But see, what I find is the thing is we live in this world today that's about instant gratification. We want results fast, quick, successful, but we don't want the process. It's similar. You know, I love wildflowers. They bloom beautifully. They were the first flowers that Craig ever picked for me. They were limp and almost dead, but they still had meaning. But the thing with wildflowers is that they're only there for a season. [00:13:25] (40 seconds)  #EmbraceTheProcess