 Okay everybody, thank you for coming. We've got somebody else coming in here right on time. Come on in. Adrienne, we saved the front row for you. You and Maxine, your favorite place. Come on in guys, have a seat. Yeah, you're welcome. All right everybody, my name is Erica. I don't have my name tag on. Things were running a little late today, but that's my name. We have another Erica back here. So that should be easy for you to remember. There's two of us. Okay? All right. So today we're gonna talk about the parable of the sower. Does anybody, is anyone familiar with that? You are? Okay, good. And you guys are ahead of the game. All right. So we're gonna watch a little video about the parable of the sower. So I want everybody to be quiet and listen, okay? This is a story about our hearts. I know it sounds like it's about somebody spreading seed, but it has a deeper meaning, okay? Let's see if I can get my little tool to work or if I'm gonna have to do this this way. Probably not. Okay. This is the parable of the sower. Once there was a farmer's field next to a road, as people passed by on the road, they hardly even noticed there was a sower who was sowing seeds in the field. When the sower threw the seeds in the air, the seeds ranted in lots of different places. The seeds ran through the edge of the road. These seeds were out in the open where there was lots of traffic. There were good seeds, and the seeds didn't even get a chance to start growing. Instead, the seeds were run over by the people passing by, and they were eaten up by the birds in the air. Some of the seeds went in so many places. This story wasn't very easy in these places. The seeds started growing right away, but the roots didn't go very deep. And as soon as there was a hot day, the little plants were scorched, and they dried out and shroomed up in the sun. Some of the seeds ranted in the thorns. This was a good spot for plants to grow, but they didn't have any roots to grow. Instead, the thorns took over, and they kept all the new seeds from growing. Some other seeds went in good soils. This spot was far away from the thorns, and the birds, and the traffic, and there weren't any rocks. When the seeds started to grow, the roots went deep into the earth. The plants were strong, and they all brought forth fruit. Jesus taught the meaning of the story. Our hearts are like the soil, and the seeds are the word of God. The seeds that are received in the stony ground are the hearts that receive the word of God with joy at first. The seeds start to grow in their hearts, but the roots don't grow very deep. And when they are tested with hard trials, the seeds can't live anymore in their hearts. When someone hears the word of God, and they don't understand it, then the wicked one comes and takes it away. These are ones who see the seeds by the edge of the road. The seeds that are received in the thorns are the hearts that are taken over by worldly things, and just money to take care of them and to make them happy. These things have taken over our hearts, and there's no room for the word of God to grow. The seeds that are received in the good soil are the hearts that receive the word of God and understand it. They make room in their hearts for the word of God, and they keep trying to follow Him for a long time. And the word of God grows strong in their hearts and receives the roots for truth in their hearts. All right, did you guys like the video? Yeah? Okay, well let's talk a little bit about it, okay? So we've got somebody in the story who is sowing seed. Who do you guys think that is? Who's that a representation of? If the soil is our hearts and the person throwing out the seed is somebody, does anyone have any ideas? Jesus. Close, but not quite. Any other ideas, guesses? Let's see. Anyone who shares about the kingdom of God, anyone who's sharing. So when we're sharing, we're throwing out the seeds, okay? So if you go to school and you tell somebody, hey, here's what I believe about Jesus, right? This is what the Bible says. You're actually throwing out seeds, okay? So you're the sower. What does the seed in the story represent? Any ideas? Hearts. Nope. Remember, the soil is the heart, right? The word of God. Yeah, I think you're right. The seed represents the word. You said it. The good news, right? We call the word of God the good news because we're saved through the word, through accepting Jesus. Jesus. Okay. And what about the soil? Anyone on this side? I know you know it. What is it? Yeah. Nice job. You guys knew that, huh? Yeah, you did. Okay. So the soil is different types of hearts. Remember the seed on the side of the road? Right? What happened? Uh-huh, like birds, right? Like birds come and snatch up the seeds, right? Okay, let's look and see. Well, the people didn't hear, right? Because it got snatched away. So that's right. What else? The devil snatched the word, like you said. The heart was not ready to receive. There was no soil and it was hard there, right? And the seed was out in the open. So it just got taken away. What about the stony ground? You guys remember about the stony ground? What happened? What happened? Right, the roots didn't go deep. That's right, exactly. What's that? That's right, yep. They were happy at first and they started to grow, but didn't go all the way down. Okay, have you guys ever tried to plant the seed and then it grows up a little bit, but then it kind of dies? No, you have? Oh, cool. Okay, that's good. Okay, so what happened on the stony ground? The people were excited to hear, but the stones prevented the deep roots, right? The hard times came and they fell away and the plant died. And they went back to their old ways. Probably, yep. Probably. Okay, what about the seed that got choked out by the thorns? So, you got it, you got it, but then I double took out the thorns. Well, I think that was the other one. But what are the thorns doing to the plants? Do you remember it? Choking them, yeah, it's like taking them away from you. Choking them, huh? Yeah. It was taking over the area. Yeah, exactly. Oh, yeah. Yeah, crowding them out? Yeah, they was too crowded? No. Okay, let's see. The word started to grow, right? Cause your plants were coming up, but there was no room for them. The cares of the world, money, and things got in the way. What about the seed on the good ground? There was no seed, nothing was in the care. It was all good from there. Mm-hmm. Do you know about the good ground? Do you wanna see it? No. Okay, who else? Go ahead. Yeah, that's right. So we have the word started to grow, the word went deep into the soil of the heart, and the word produced fruit. There you go. There you go. What kind of soil do you wanna have? A good one. Yeah, that's right. Everybody needs to have the good soil. With deep roots, you already have it? That's good. That's good. How do we have the good soil in our heart? Any ideas? That's right. What about you, Antoinette? Yeah, that's a good place to start, isn't it? What else? Who else has ideas? How do you keep your heart ready for the word? Do any parents or teachers, helpers have any ideas? Erika has an idea. How do we have good soil in our heart? Uh-huh. Stay in the word. Stay in the word. Stay and do the word consistently. Do the word, don't just hear the word, right? Well, let's see. That's a cool feature. Accept God's word as the truth, listen to what God says in the word, and do it. Do what God wants, not what you want. Sometimes we want stuff that God says don't do, right? Yeah. What can we do to keep good soil? Yeah. Listen to God, that's good. What else? You have one. Well, we follow Jesus, right? What Jesus says in the 10 commandments are a great place to start, absolutely. Read God's word and pray. How many of you guys pray? Yeah, how many of you guys read the Bible? Yeah, okay, that's good. Do you guys understand the Bible when you read it? Kind of. Yeah, do you guys have help that somebody explains to you what it means? Yeah? Great, that's good. Be thankful to Jesus for saving us. Because what does that do? If you're grateful that He saved you, then what will you do? What's that? Meaning what? Well, so if you're thankful to mom, right, for buying you clothes and putting a house over your head, what do you do? You thank her, you listen to her, right? And you want to get to know her more, you trust her. Okay, so that's what it means. To obey our parents. Thank you God. Yeah, that's another really good one. Especially when your parents love the Lord and they're trying to teach you the right way to go, right? Have friends that love Jesus. Does that help? Okay. What if you have friends that don't love Jesus? Mm-hmm, yeah, you can talk to them. Could they become thorns that would choke something? You think so? Yeah, that's something to think about. You guys have godly friends, or you teach your friends and witness, that's a really good thing to do. It's called sowing the seeds. Okay everybody, what kind of soil do you have in your heart? That's the big question. Because today we're gonna end up praying for you guys and if you have some things in your life that you need prayer for, maybe some rocks in your soil, or maybe some thorns in your soil, we can pray about that. Does everybody know what kind of soil they have in their heart right now? Raise your hand if you know. You know, you know. What about you guys in the back? Do you know what kind of soil you have? You do? Okay, because this is what I want you to do. I want you to be ready with your answer when the team comes to pray with you. You can tell them what kind of heart you have and then we can pray about whatever that is. Does that sound good? Now I'm gonna give you a real life example of what the soil looks like. So I want all the kids to come up here and stand right here. Come on, come on, come on up. Everybody's gonna come up. I'm gonna show you guys something. Come on up, come on, come on, come on. Okay, stand right here. You can face me, turn around this way. You don't need to worry about them. Come on up. Come on up, come up. I'm gonna show you guys something. All right. Check this out. This is what I want you guys to see. Which soil is this? Form, form. Uh-huh, and what's happening to that plant? It's not, it's getting crowded. It's crowded and they're choking them out, right? You see that? The thorns? Well, I see them. Yeah, see this plant would be you. It's kind of turning bad. Yeah, it is. It's dying. What about this? Rocks. What's happening in here? I don't see any plants. No, the plants. They died. Exactly, do you guys see? The rocky soil, the thorny soil, and what's this? No, this is the seeds. Look, there's no soil. What happens if a bird comes? He's just gonna eat this. Exactly, you guys see? Elijah, does that make sense? Right, now let's look at the good soil. Sister Erica's gonna bring it over. What's going on here? Does that look better? Joe Gabriela and the boys back here. It's still green. Yeah. It's still green. That's good soil. Now, what's gonna happen? Do you know what kind of plants this is? These are pepper plants. Eventually, if the soil stays good, it's gonna have its own fruit. That's what we want, right? That's what we want. Okay, guys. Okay, I'll eat it and bring it to my mom. All right, so I want everybody to think about the type of heart that you have. Are you the one with the thorns? And you started to grow, but you're getting choked out? Are you the one with the rocks? Or are you the good soil? And if you're not the good soil, then we need to pray and ask the Lord to help you in those areas, okay? So right now, if we can have the ministry team come and start praying with the families, that would be great. All right. What are you doing? What are you guys doing? I'm glad you made it. I'm gonna try this coffee. Thank you.