Sowing To Reap Eternal Life — Zac Poonen

God’s Presence and Joy in the Midst of His People

So, that's a great verse for us to remember throughout this year. Turn in your Bible to that verse again, Zephaniah chapter 3 and verse 17. It's a good verse for all of you, all of us to remember throughout this year and all our life.

It's been a great help to me, I must say, in many situations because it tells us a number of things. Just in that one little verse, there's so much content in a single verse. First of all, you know, we have so many doubts whether God is really happy with us.

One of the great teachings of the devil is that God is slightly angry with you all the time. He's not mad at you because you've accepted Christ. But he's not really happy with you. And imagine if you had a father at home and you always feel he's a little angry with you every day.

You're not going to have a very happy relationship with him in the home. And I feel that a lot of people are like that. How do I know? Because I had that type of relationship with God for years. And I was miserable.

I was miserable. And nobody was there to tell me that God's happy with you, man. He's not always looking at you with a frown. And the reason I felt like that was because I said, well, I'm not completely like Christ.

I mean, I'm not going to be like Christ completely till he comes again. So does that mean God's going to be angry with me right until that day? Rubbish. And the other thing is, the devil gives us doubts whether God is really with us.

Is he really with you? Is he in your home? So many things wrong in your home. How can God be there? Well, if God's only going to be with perfect people and perfect marriages and perfect homes, then he'll only be in heaven.

He won't be on earth with anybody. He wouldn't have. He wouldn't even have been with the Apostle Paul. You remember the time when the Apostle Paul yelled at the judge who was judging him, who commanded somebody to slap him?

You read in Acts 23. Because Paul said, I've always kept a good conscience, and the judge said, slap that guy. And Paul got so upset and said, you whitewashed wall. That's not the way Jesus spoke when somebody slapped him.

Paul was not like Christ at that moment. But he immediately apologized. Was God with Paul? You see, from there, he went almost straight to jail. And God was with Paul in jail. So God's not the type of person who jumps on you just because you made one mistake.

Very important to remember this verse, the Lord your God is in your midst. And as we look back, CFC, over the last year, there are many situations which you may not know, which the elders know. There are many situations in many other churches, which only I know, many, many churches, problems with people, with elders.

But I can say one thing in every situation, in every single situation, the Lord our God has been in our midst. We have survived, not just survived, we have triumphantly survived till today. So that's the first thing to remember.

The Lord your God is in your midst. And the next thing to remember is the next sentence there. He's in your midst as a victorious warrior. See, our entire life on earth is a battle. And the moment you become born again, the battle increases.

I mean, the devil is after unbelievers too. But they are his children. He still harasses them, troubles them in so many ways. But the moment you leave his kingdom and become a child of God, he's after you.

And then you become serious and you want to be a disciple. You come to some church like CFC and say, I want to be a disciple. He's more after you. And you begin to take some responsibility in the church.

He is even more. You begin to serve the Lord. You're a target of Satan. What's that? Are we going to get discouraged? No. Because the Lord is a victorious warrior in our midst. He's not just a warrior.

He's a victorious warrior. And we know one thing, you know, unfortunately, when the gospel is preached very often, one part of what Jesus did on Calvary is not preached, not just one part. A lot of people preach that Jesus died on the cross for our sins.

And some people preach he died to take away our sickness as well. Now we got to be realistic. All our sins are not gone from our life just because Jesus died for our sins. He died to forgive our sins.

But being saved from sin, Jesus also died to save us from our sins. It's true. Our old man was crucified with him. That's the second thing that happened on the cross. So that Romans 6 says, so that you should not serve sin.

So you know very well, but until we meet Jesus face to face, there is going to be some unconscious sin in us. And sometimes it pops up like it popped up in Paul's case, in front of the judge, even though he was such a mature Christian at that time, but he immediately said it right.

What I'm trying to say is, there are occasionally sins that surface in us. But the more you walk with the Lord, it becomes less and less and less and less. And the serious ones disappear. But it'll be there.

But in the same way with sickness, Jesus died for our sicknesses too. But we're going to get the deliverance from that only when he comes. Till then our body is going to perspire, have sickness. And the greatest proof is that all of us and all Christians from the beginning have died.

Jesus died on the cross to save us from death as well. But it's not going to happen till he comes again. So remember that. Don't be unrealistic and think that all sickness will go right now. That's like saying death will go, I'll never die.

It's as foolish to say I'll never get sick as to say I'll never die. Did Jesus die that I might be delivered totally from death? Yes. The Bible says, Hebrews 2 .14 is very clear. He took away the power of death from Satan through his death on the cross.

But we have to understand what becomes ours fully when he comes again and what is ours partially now. What we are having now is a foretaste of the future. And healing is a foretaste of the resurrection life.

I shall have in my body one day. Need to understand that. But Satan has been defeated completely on the cross. That was not true in old covenant times. He's a victorious warrior, we read here. Warrior over whom?

Over Satan. Satan has been defeated 100 even if you're not free from sin 100 and you're not free from sickness 100%. And remember one thing, Satan has been defeated 100 on the cross. And the reason why the Lord allows us to come into that victory progressively is because that's how we become strong.

It's not that the Lord just gives us strength one day and suddenly we are strong. No. He fills us with the Holy Spirit and makes us exercise our will in different temptations and that's how we become stronger and stronger and stronger.

The Christian life is like going through a gym, a gymnasium where we exercise, exercise and become stronger and stronger. Our muscles become stronger. It doesn't happen overnight but that's how it is.

God Rejoices Over His People

So that's the second thing it says here in this verse. He's a victorious warrior. He will exalt over you with joy. Now exalt is a word which is more than rejoice. It's not just that he will rejoice over you.

Exalt is like you know like the cricket fans in India rejoice when India wins and the crackers go up. In the middle of the night you hear crackers mean somewhere India won, maybe in Australia or somewhere.

They're exalted. It's not just joy. It's not just saying yeah I'm happy. It's more than that. It's an exalting. Now we exalt in what Jesus has done for us but to think that God exalts over us with joy.

If somebody tells you God is exalting over you with joy, you look around and say who is he talking to? Is he talking to me or somebody else? He's talking to you. God exalts over you with joy and you know who doesn't want you to believe it?

The devil doesn't want you to believe it. He'll think it's somebody else, a person sitting next to you or behind you or something but not you. It is you. So that's the second thing or the third thing there in that verse which you must remember that he's not just rejoicing, he's exalting.

I mean think of how a mother, I mean the best way I can describe it is in Isaiah 49 15 God said he's like a mother, he's a father but God is also like a mother. He says even if a mother forgets a newborn child, I will not forget you.

Even that mother may forget but you know think of a mother who's never had a kid for 10 years and suddenly gets a baby. Do you think that mother is going to forget that kid in the first week or so? No.

All the time her mind is on that kid and it says even that mother may forget, I won't forget you. So that is how God exalts over us. A mother picks up that child and you know the child can't say anything in return, can't do anything for the mother but the mother is so happy with the child and that's a picture of how God exalts.

Think of a mother exalting over her newborn baby and picture this throughout this year in the moments when you're discouraged with something that may happen. We don't know what's going to happen the remaining 360 days of this year but one thing we can be sure every single day, God will exalt over you with joy.

There's no doubt about it. Especially if you seek with all your heart like the Apostle Paul to keep your conscience clear. It's the only condition, well I would say two conditions. One that you keep your conscience clear before God and men and the other is that you always choose the way of humility.

I always tell people if you want to remain filled with the spirit every single day and every single moment, you don't need 25 rules, you need only two things to bear in mind. One keep your conscience clear always and the other is choose the way of humility in every situation.

If somebody's coming into conflict with you, go down. If you're having a problem with a group of people, go down. If somebody's coming to argue with you, keep quiet. Choose the way of humility. I always take this attitude that when someone wants to argue with me and prove something, I keep quiet.

I say okay, let him think he has won the argument. Even doctrinally, sometimes people have tried to come to my house and argue with me about some doctrine. I can prove him wrong from so many passages of scripture but it'll only show that I know the Bible better than him and I don't want to prove to people that I know the Bible better than you.

I want to pursue the path of love and I want to help him to see the truth, not convince him that I know the Bible better than you. I want him to come into life. So I know I won't lead him to life if I just prove to him that I know the Bible better than you.

I can show you 25 verses or 100 verses that prove that you're wrong. So I keep quiet. Let him go away thinking he has won the argument. Choose that way. That's the way of peace, the way of humility. I'll never forget years ago when there was a Christian organization where I had some responsibility and I had to discipline someone.

And someone else who heard about that, who knew that brother, who did not know the circumstances under which I had to do that, called me up on the phone. He knew me and yelled at me and shouted at me for minutes, many minutes on the phone.

I could have put the phone down but that's rude and I don't do that to somebody I know. So I listened. I didn't say one word. This is way back in 1973 or something like that. Anyway, I heard and heard and heard and heard and finally he finished, you know, ultimately all people run out of words.

So I said, brother, have you finished? He said, yes. I said, God bless you. I put the phone down, that's all. Six months later, he called me again, said, brother Zach, I'm really sorry. I did not know all the facts when I spoke to you six months ago.

Now that I know the facts, I know that your discipline was right. I'm sorry for what I spoke to you that day. I said, oh, I ignored it and forgot it that day. So I've got nothing against you. God bless you.

What would I have gained by arguing with him over the phone? Wasted another half an hour on the phone? No, I wouldn't do it. So the Lord is the victorious warrior and he exalts over us with joy. That's enough for us to know.

God’s Loving Plans and the Practice of Humility

And then the next phrase here is he will be quiet in his love. And I like the paraphrase of that, which is not found in any of the well-known translations or paraphrases that I know. But here is a paraphrase of that verse, which is a legitimate paraphrase.

Quiet means silent. And if you can add one word there, you understand the meaning. He is silently planning for you in love. What a wonderful truth to know for the rest of this year. I don't know what's going to happen to me or you the rest of this year, but I rejoice in one thing that I have a father who is silently planning for me in love.

You know, like people who hate you are silently planning for you in hatred. There were a group of people once who silently planned to send the police to my house for some silly little thing, but it didn't work.

You know why? Because just like God took away Jesus from before the soldiers of Herod came, God took me away from that house before the police came. So the house was empty when they came. By the time I came back to my house in a couple of days, the problem had been solved.

God is silently, I can tell you numerous cases like that in my life where I experienced God silently plans for me in love. I hope by the end of this year, you'll have a few testimonies of the truth of this verse being fulfilled in 2019 and I'll tell you something.

You must keep a little notebook. If you have a computer, it's even easier. Open a folder for 2019, the things God did for me or God silently planned for me folder and year by year 2019 and you may not have something to write every day.

God's doing something every day, but you may not realize it every day. But when you realize it, something happened, jot it down. And 20 years later, you can tell your children about it and tell those stories to your grandchildren years from now, if the Lord tarries, because sometimes we forget these things.

But when you have a date and a time, you know that was actually happened. God is silently planning for you in love. Let a million people and all the demons of hell plan for you in hatred. They will not overcome because God is a victorious warrior.

So please remember this, my brothers and sisters. It's a very good verse to begin the new year with. And it's almost as though God has to repeat again, listen, I'm, I want to assure you again, I'm rejoicing over you with shouts of joy.

Can you imagine God shouting? We only think of somebody shouting means he's angry with me. Shouts of joy. Have you ever heard anybody with shouts of joy? Shout is always related to anger, right? The guy yelled at me.

What does that mean? He's upset with me. He yelled with joy when he saw me. That's a rare expression. I've never heard it used of anybody, but God does that. He rejoices with shouts of joy. Well, it's a very appropriate verse that was selected by those brothers in the churches in the US for, and they sent it on to us to use.

You know, even if you don't remember the reference, one way to remember the reference is what I did when I was young. With a red pencil, I would highlight these verses so that later on when I turned to the, to cross the Bible, I, oh, that's the verse.

I remember reading it one year ago. Boy, it's good to remind yourself of it. So some of these verses, if you highlight in your Bible, you'll find it much easier as, as you go along. So I told you, keep a good conscience and choose the way of humility.

Sowing to the Spirit and Reaping Eternal Life

Throughout this life, throughout this year, in every situation. I want to turn now to Galatians in chapter, turn with me to Galatians in chapter six. Galatians chapter six and verse seven. Don't be deceived.

God is not mocked for whatever a man sows, that he'll also reap. There is a good side to it and a bad side to it, as the next verse tells us. The one who sows to his own flesh will from his flesh reap corruption.

The one who sows to the spirit will, from the Holy Spirit, reap eternal life. You know, eternal life is used in a very broad way. It's not something I get like that. It's not like a, a gift. Somebody gives you a hundred rupees and you got it.

Eternal life is not like that. Jesus defined eternal life in John 17, 3 as knowing God, knowing Jesus Christ. And you can't get that in one moment. You can't even get it in a lifetime. It's progressive, more and more and more and more.

That's why Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 6, 17, lay hold of eternal life. Lay hold of it. That means it might go away, lay hold of it, get more and more. And Timothy was 45 years old, already a Christian for 25 years.

And he's telling him lay hold of eternal life. He's not saying be born again. He's saying what you got when you were born again, lay hold of it and progress more and more and more. It's like, you know, climbing up a rope, going up and up and up and more.

You got a hold of the rope, but go up more and more. So we can reap eternal life if we sow to the spirit. That's another good verse for us to remember throughout this year. Throughout this year, you're going to be sowing seeds every day.

Thoughts, Temptation, and the Door of the Heart

And one of the primary seeds you sow are going to be your thoughts and attitudes. Many thoughts pass through our mind. The devil put thoughts into Jesus' mind. You know that? Turned the stones into bread.

Thought flashed into his mind. Jesus said no. He quoted a word of God. Jump from the roof of the temple, God will protect you. No. Bow down and worship me. No. These are thoughts flashed into your mind.

But Jesus didn't sin. So just because some horrible thought came into your mind, don't condemn yourself. Did you want it? Did you accept it? Or as soon as you're aware, you say, no, I don't want that thought.

Then you have not sinned. You were tempted. But you didn't sin. Please remember throughout this year the distinction between temptation and sin. When a thought is flashed into your mind, it's from your flesh, from the lust in your flesh, but it may be areas where you've indulged yourself for a lot.

Those thoughts will come. Or from the devil. What do you do? I'm not going to condemn myself because if I condemn myself, I'm defeated already. I'll never overcome the devil. I'm not going to condemn myself.

I'm going to say, I don't accept that. That's not my thought. I reject it. In my flesh dwells no good thing. The flesh is sort of throwing up a thought into my heart and I don't accept it. Sorry. It's like somebody coming knocking at your door.

You're going to decide, you can't stop people knocking. You cannot stop people from knocking at the door of your heart. But you can reject it. Don't open the door. Say, I don't want that. So we have control over the door to our heart and mind.

So don't get condemned if you hear a knock. That's a thought. Say, are you going to open the door and come in? No. No. If you open the door, you're sowing something into your heart, into your mind. And if it is to the flesh, it will finally bring corruption.

Not immediately. I mean, if you sow a seed of a tree in your garden or anywhere, it's not going to come up tomorrow. But many years later or months later, you go by and say, hey, there's a little plant come up there.

Because you sowed a seed some time ago. That works for good and for bad. So if you allow that seed to come in, and you don't throw it out, it will produce a plant which will become a tree one day. It could be an attitude towards someone.

Have you noticed in the past how you developed a wrong attitude towards somebody? Somebody you don't like too much? For some reason you don't like? I mean, you've got to be honest. There are certain people in this church you don't like for some reason.

It's not a good reason. Don't ever use this wrong expression that some people say, I love you, but I don't like you. Is that right? You'll say, I love everybody in the church, but I don't like some of them.

Supposing God were to tell you like that, listen, I love you, but I don't like you. Will you be happy? What if your husband tells you, sisters, I love you so much, but I just don't like you? Or you tell your husband, I love you so much, but I don't like you.

How can that be? It's foolish. So God doesn't say, I don't like you, but I love you. It's a contradiction in terms. So let's not have that attitude. So you don't like somebody, but I'm not saying you have to agree with all that they do.

I don't agree with a lot of things that even some people do in the church. And certainly I don't agree with a lot of things that other people do in other churches, but that is not going to stop me from loving them.

And it's because I love them that I speak the truth to them. You may not love them enough and so you don't tell the truth to them because you love yourself. You love your reputation. You say, oh, I don't want to spoil my reputation as a kind, gentle type of person.

So I won't tell him the truth, even though I know the truth about him. But I say, I love the person enough to tell him the truth. But you may not be called to fulfill my ministry, so don't condemn yourself.

But loving a person does not mean that you don't tell them the truth. Don't you tell the truth to your children? If your children misbehave or they behave badly, if you don't correct them, how in the world will they become better?

So we are sowing seeds in our thoughts and attitudes that will reap strong trees one day. And if you allow it to become so strong, I've seen people here in CFC who have not been careful with their attitudes and thoughts towards others.

And I see them a few years later. And I see sometimes carelessly they say something of that person I can see. This guy or this sister or this brother or this sister has had a wrong attitude towards that person for years.

And I've known it. And I can see that in the way he or she speaks about that person now. It's never been judged. It's never been cleansed. So it comes out in a moment of weakness. This tree springs up.

Yeah. What you sow, you will reap one day and it's destroying you. You don't realize it. And someone with more maturity than you can see through you, that is destroying you. And you'll get a big surprise when you stand at the judgment seat of Christ and Jesus reveals all this to you who thought you were so spiritual.

And you suddenly discover the judgment seat of Christ that you are not spiritual at all. Be careful with the type of thoughts and attitudes you are sowing in your heart towards people. And you need to be particularly careful about thoughts and attitudes towards those who have harmed you.

Because it's very easy to develop very negative attitudes towards somebody who's harmed you even many years ago and you keep thinking about it. Yeah, you cannot remove from your memory the harm somebody did to you.

I mean, I cannot remove from my memory the various harmful things people have done against me. But I'm not guilty because of that. Because memory is something I have no control over. But my heart, the door to my heart is not in my memory.

The door to my heart is in my will. And I choose that I will not hate that person. I choose that I will love that person. And one way I can test that is I say, Lord, I want you to bless that person. It says bless those who curse you.

And Lord, I want you to bless his work and his family and his business and his children. And if he's got grandchildren, bless them all. And say it sincerely from your heart with your will and you're okay.

And don't worry about thoughts. Thoughts are coming from your memory. Don't condemn yourself because of that. But make sure your thoughts and attitudes that you're going to sow this year are going to be good, loving thoughts.

And I'll tell you, believe me, if you take my word today, you'll come to the end of this year more spiritual than you ever were in your entire life. And more useful to God, more used by God to bless others.

Open Doors, Faithfulness, and the Name of Jesus

Do you know that it's God who can open doors? There's a verse in Revelation 3 which the Lord tells a very faithful church, church in Philadelphia. He says, I've seen your works and I'm setting before you an open door and no one can shut it.

Do you know that verse? Turn with me to Revelation 3 and verse 8. The Lord says, I know your works. That means he's saying, I know exactly what you've been doing. You've been faithful, okay? Here is my reward to you.

I am opening a door before you of service for me, which no one will be able to shut because you have sowed something. You have very little ability. You're not a great preacher. You don't have the gifts that outstanding preachers have.

You have a very little power. And with that little power, you are true to my word. And you are not ashamed of being known by my name. In your place of work, you are not ashamed to be known as a disciple of Jesus.

Even if you lost your promotion, you say, that's okay. You made it known that you were a Christian. See, some of you have names which are very similar to non-Christian names. And when you sit in the office, you can say, boy, these guys don't know I'm a Christian.

So my promotion chances will not be hindered by my boss, who's a rabbit anti-Christian. That's the person to whom you must make clear that though you have that name, you are a Christian. Don't deny the Lord for the sake of a promotion.

Psalm 75 says, promotion comes from the Lord, not from man. I believe that all my life, promotion comes from the Lord. Promotion in your job. I was in the Navy, and I believe that promotion comes from the Lord.

So I said, well, He will give me the promotion I need at the right time. And God will give you the promotion you need at the right time, if you honor Him. He's the one who opens doors. He's the one who closes doors.

And if He sees that you are sowing good attitudes, good thoughts, and you're not ashamed of His name, it says here, you've not denied my name, verse 8. Even though you've got very little ability, you're not a very mature saint, you converted two years ago.

You didn't deny my name. I will open doors for you. I'll give promotions to you. Nobody can stop. I know in my own ministry, when I was gripped by building the church and not just being a world-famous preacher, so many doors closed, because people didn't want to hear the message of discipleship, the message of leave the dead Babylonian denominations and come out and be a new covenant church.

People didn't want it. I mean, today, we've become popular. Unfortunately, I say unfortunately, we were safer in those days when CFC was despised and rejected as a heretical group and to be associated with Zak Poonen was terrible because I was considered a heretic.

So what? Paul was considered a heretic. Jesus was considered a heretic. And all the great saints throughout the greatest prophets in 2 ,000 years of Christianity were all considered heretics in their lifetime.

After they died, people recognized their prophets. The heretics of today are recognized as prophets tomorrow. It's like that. So if you don't deny, and I've seen in my own life how, as I've sought to be faithful to the truth, God himself has opened door after door.

I didn't have to push, I'll tell you honestly, I didn't even have to push one door in one single place where the CFC church was planted. I'll tell you my honest experience. I'll tell you honestly my experience.

I'd walk up to a place and the door would open. Have you seen these automatic doors? You don't touch it. It just opens. That's exactly how every single CFC church has been planted in the last 43 years.

I never had to push in one place. You go there, it opens. Because the Lord says, I'm the one who opens the doors. If you have to push and shove and all that, brother, God's not opening that door. And if God shut a door, I've experienced that also.

Door shut. Oh, God doesn't want me to go there. I go somewhere else. There's an open door there. So he doesn't open doors everywhere. Partly because the people are not ready. Or in some places the Lord says, that's not your ministry.

That's for somebody else. Oh, praise the Lord. God bless him. God will open that door for somebody else. But he's opened a door for me here. It's a wonderful thing to live like that throughout this year.

You're not in competition with anybody. You're seeking to be faithful to his name. And whatever door, it may be a door in your job or some other door for marriage. Do you believe God can open doors in marriage?

And he shuts certain doors and opens certain doors. It's a wonderful thing to live by faith this year. Lord, you're the one who will open doors. And I will not deny your name. The little seed that you sow is confessing the name of Jesus.

Words as Seeds of Forgiveness and Restoration

So, like I said, our thoughts and attitudes towards people are seeds that we sow. And the other very important seed that all of us are going to sow this year is in our words. As you look back over last year, you can probably see the very harmful, poisonous plants that grew up in your life and in your relationships with others.

Poisonous plants. Because of certain poisonous seeds, words that you spoke. Okay. Pull out those plants. Love them. Bless them. The way to pull it out is ask forgiveness. Jesus said, don't come and pray to me if you have hurt somebody else.

Go and pull that out. Don't say, he also hurt me. No, no, no, no. That's his business. He may not even be a Christian. You hurt him. Does he have to ask your forgiveness? No. Even though he may have hurt you more, he does not have to ask your forgiveness because he's not a Christian.

You hurt him 1 of how much he hurt you, but you go to ask forgiveness because you're a Christian. It's like saying, he stole 1000 rupees from me and I stole 1 rupee from him. You return the 1 rupee.

He may never return the 1000 rupees. That's okay. He's a heathen. Non-Christian. Why should I take anything from him? But I'm determined to do what's right. So think of all the poisonous plants that have come up through words that you spoke foolishly or carelessly, perhaps to your husband or to your wife.

You can remember. You'll never be able to get rid of that in your memory. All the evil words or most of the evil words and actions that your partner did, you remember. But you got to forgive and say, Lord, I'm going to sow a seed of forgiveness today and I know I'll get a good harvest from it in the days to come.

I'm going to forgive and I'm going to ask forgiveness and from that I believe I'll get a good crop this year. Really good. That I'll have a great harvest during this year. Don't be afraid of going home and hugging your wife and husband.

Do Indian husbands and wives do that? I hope you do. And say, Darling, I'm sorry. Use some nice words. It's not a sin to call your wife or husband darling or sweetheart or whatever you call. Don't say, hey, by the way, I was told to ask your forgiveness today.

Not like that. Be affectionate, put your arm around and you know, God's I mean, if you have a difficulty with that, go to scripture. Go to Song of Solomon and read Song of Solomon. You, husbands and wives, must read Song of Solomon and get some suggestions from the Holy Spirit how to speak to each other.

Very important. Ask forgiveness for all that you've done. And let's begin this year with sowing some good seeds. You may not be perfect. But if accidentally one day a bad seed drops out of your bag, pick it up.

Pick it up as soon as you're aware. Hey, that's not a good seed. Pick it up and destroy it. Let's follow that rule. I'm not saying it'll be perfect this year. I'm not going to give you an illusion that you're becoming like Jesus tomorrow.

No. But I say let's progress. Press on. Lovely verse we have in front of our pulpit. Let's press on to perfection. Let's make that a little more of a reality in this year. So that's another thing. Be careful about the words you speak.

Gracious Speech and Wise Responses

Those are seeds that we sow. You have to be very very careful. Make this verse your goal this year. It won't happen in a day. But make it a goal. Colossians chapter 4. Turn to Colossians in chapter 4.