Hi, this is Joel in Victoria. Thanks for listening to our podcast and thanks for supporting the ministry.

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We appreciate you and pray for God's very best in your life.

God bless you. It's a joy to come into your homes and if you're ever in our area, please stop by. Be a part of one of our services. I promise you, we'll make you feel right at home.

I like to start with something funny. I heard about this husband and wife. They'd been arguing for a long time about who should make the coffee in the morning.

The husband thought it was the wife's job but she just didn't agree. After several heated debates, she finally told him, I can prove it to you from the Bible that it's the man's job to make the coffee.

He said, what are you talking about? Nothing in the Bible about the man making the coffee? She said, sure there is. She opened her Bible and pointed to the book of Hebrews.

Say it like you mean it. This is my Bible. I am what it says I am. I have what it says I have. I can do what it says I can do.

Today I will be taught the Word of God. I boldly confess my mind is alert, my heart is receptive. I will never be the same in Jesus' name. God bless you.

I want to talk to you today about the power of the soil. You can have a good seed that's healthy and strong, it's full of potential, but if it's not planted in good soil, it's not going to become what it was created to be.

The problem is not with the seed. A scientist could study the seed, run test, they would find that it's full of life. If it's an apple seed, it has apples in it. If it's a rose bush, it has blossoms in it.

But if it's planted in soil, that's full of rocks, weeds and thorns, it may grow some, but it's not going to produce what it should.

It may survive, but it's not going to be healthy. It's the same principle in life. You're a seed, you're a full of gifts, talents, potential, but if you plant yourself in unhealthy soil, if you hang around friends that compromise and pull you down, if you're in an environment that's limited with people that tell you what you can't become, you won't see the growth that you should.

Not because there's something wrong with your seed, you're made in the image of God. The problem is with the soil. The rocks, the thorns, the weeds are choking the life out of your seed.

Jesus told a parable about a man that sowed seed on good ground, and it produced a great harvest, many crops. Another sowed seed on rocky ground didn't produce too much.

Another sowed it on ground where the weeds and the thorns kept the seed from growing. All the same seed, what made the difference was the soil.

The thorns are things like friends that keep causing you to compromise. The weeds are those co-workers that sit around and gossip all day.

The rocks are those family members that tell you how you can't break that addiction. If you hang around negative people, they're choking out your seed.

Those friends you're tempted to party with, they may be fond, they're popular, but what you can't see is they're a weed. They're keeping you from flourishing.

The environment you put yourself in is extremely important, no matter how good the seed is, it's dependent on having good soil.

You have to be selective with whom you give your time, energy, and attention, because people are contagious. You're going to catch what they have.

If your friends are prejudice, you're going to become prejudice. If your friends have limited thinking, they don't have any goals, no motivation, that narrow-minded mentality is going to rub off on you.

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