* DR JAMIE SMITH *

Good morning, everyone. How you doing today? How was your week? Did you get some rest?

What are you saying? That people were popping firecrackers outside your door every night, like for four or five days? Hey, listen. We live in the greatest place on the face of this planet. And I'm so thankful today.

I'm so thankful today that we can come into this room without the fear of someone standing there at our door with guns, threatening our life. But I want to tell you that that's not true around this world, that we have brothers and sisters today who in the fear of their life, are gathering together to worship our great God. In fact, I want you to hear Jesus own words in John chapter 8. When he said, he continued. He said, if you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine.

I had to read that first so that you could get the next. He says, then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. And he's sparring back and forth with the Pharisees. And he goes on to say, if the Son sets you free, then you are free indeed. You may be American, but you're not totally free.

The only way you're totally free is if you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. And so we stand here today in freedom, not because of a war, not because of a nationality. We stand here because we're children of God through Jesus Christ. And so I'm so thankful. Are you thankful?

Are you thankful for the Son of God who came and died on the cross for your sins? Are you thankful for someone who loved you so much that even while you were still sinning, Christ died for you? And so today I think it's just awesome time just to give thanks. Can we give thanks to God above? Can we get excited about Jesus Christ today?

You see this morning in our prayer group, and by the way, I'm just gonna put a plug for that. We started a prayer group back at the first of the year. We communicate through our app and we gather every Sunday morning at 8:30. I mean, yeah, 8:30. Our deacon's praying and our prayer group is praying.

And I'm asking you today, like, if you are interested, reach out to me. But as we were talking today, we were just reminded that, you know, the purpose of our life is to abide in him.

Did you hear that? To abide in him. And if there's something standing in your way, Jesus was telling them, sin has you bound. And the only way to experience freedom is to take care of the sin in your life. Well, you can't you can't take care of your own sin.

You can't wash it away. You can't sweep it under a rug. None of that. The only way your sin can be taken care of is for the blood of Jesus to cover you. And if you haven't done that today, today, especially today, would you consider if you've walked away from Christ, if you don't know Christ, if you're just stuck.

Today is a day of freedom. Before you leave this place, find that freedom. I'm excited today. Told you last week there's a great surprise. Our friend Grant Ware is going to come up here in a few minutes, and he's going to preach to us.

And I am excited. Let me tell you why I'm excited. Number one, he grew up here. And number two, God's got his hand on him. And number three, I asked him, like, what are you majoring in?

In college, and he rattled off about three or four things. So I think he's getting every degree Toccoa Falls has. But, guys, this is an honor for us to be able to give one of our own a chance. And it excites me that God is giving us this opportunity to be able to see young men and women raised up in the ministry, especially for pastoral ministry. Grant, we're proud of you.

I told him to be himself. I know he may be anxious. He might be a little bit nervous, but church, Can y' all pray for him as he comes in a few minutes to preach to us? And I'm going to ask you to stand with me. I can keep on.

Y' all know I can get on soapbox and go for an hour. But even in the midst of today, there's tragedy. And I'm thinking about Camp mystic in the state of Texas. It's just. I can't.

I can't. If anybody says, why would God let something like that happen? I can't answer that question. But what I can answer is this. God is still good.

And if we start pointing our finger to heaven and blaming God for every little nick and bruise we get in this world, we can't seek him for our comfort. Suffering is a reality. Jesus said, in this world, you will have what, suffering and tribulation. But he said, take heart. Why he's overcome the world.

And, Father, we pray for our brothers and sisters today. I think about the governor issuing today as a state of prayer in Texas. But, God, those are our brothers and sisters. And I think about moms and dads and grandparents. Oh, Father, it breaks my heart to Think that with two girls of my own that I'd get a call that one of my little girls was swept down a river.

Father, I just pray that comfort and healing would come. Lord, some of them can't find closure because they don't know where their girls are. I pray that today that they would find them. And, Lord, in the midst of that pain and that suffering, we just heard the words of Christ that the only way to be freed from this world of sin, from our own sin, and from this suffering, is to know Jesus Christ. So, Lord, I pray that you would minister to them and to those that are searching and those that are hurting.

And, God, as we stand here, Lord, we stand here in the hope of a better tomorrow. Not that you're going to fix everything today, but there's coming a day when Jesus is going to bust that sky wide open and we're going to go into eternity, into a perfect place. Lord, give us that longing. And as you give us that longing, Lord, help us that we be stirred in our spirit to long to see other people to be set free and saved. Lord, birth it in our hearts.

In Jesus name, Amen.

* GRANT WARE *

Well, good morning. Wow. That was nice. Well, I just want to start out by saying thank you guys for having me. I'm so glad to be here.

You know, a lot of people might look into this crowd and they just see a lot of faces, but I see brothers and sisters in Christ, I see family members, I see friends that I've had my whole life, and that means a great deal to me. But, you know, as Jamie said, we just got finished celebrating Fourth of July, and if you don't believe I'm patriotic, I got my Captain America socks on, so I am patriotic. I do believe in that. But, you know, as we're thinking about this country, as we're thinking about the price that freedom has, there are very few images that stick in my mind more than Normandy. And you think about World War II, and there's a lot of battles going on.

There's a lot of things that are happening. You know, the world is in. Europe is being captivated by darkness, really. And Normandy was that place where they said, you know what? We're going to push, and we're going to push hard.

And this morning, as we think about 4th of July and we think about God's kingdom, I want us to think about ourselves like Christ's soldiers, and we're going on that beach, and by golly, we're going to take back freedom and we're going to take back what's the Lord's, and that's his children. And so this morning I just want to talk a little bit about the kingdom. And the passage that we'll be in this Morning is Matthew 13, starting with verse 1 or 31. Excuse me. And we'll be in that in just a moment.

But to tell you a little bit about myself, I grew up in Stevens County, I'm from here, and I didn't go too far for college. I decided to go to Cole Falls and I was trying to sift through. Okay, Lord, what is my major? What do I need to. I know I'm called to ministry, but how exactly do you want me to minister to your people?

And my major, I'm double majored in Bible and theology and sustainable Community Development. And that's a long name to say, help people learn how to sustain themselves. But as we know as Christ's people, that the best way to sustain yourself is to have a relationship with him. I can teach people how to garden, how to farm, and sustain themselves physically, but he teaches them how to sustain themselves spiritually.

In Matthew 13, starting in verse 31, give us a little context. As Jamie's talked about in the messages previous to this one. Christ is teaching the people about the kingdom. But people are saying, jesus, what is the kingdom of God like? And he says, well, it's like this.

It's like this. And this week he says, it's like a mustard seed. And that's our passage for today. So Starting with verse 31, if you don't mind standing with me in honor of God's word.

In verse 31, it says he presented another parable to them, saying, the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field. And this is smaller than all other seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches. Lord, I pray that as we gather here this morning that you'll be with us and you'll speak to our hearts and you'll help us remember that we are your child. And Lord, that if we're not, that we'll come to faith in you. Amen.

You may be seated.

So we're looking at this passage, and as I said, Christ is talking about the kingdom of heaven is like. The kingdom of heaven is like. And then all of a sudden he says, the kingdom of heaven, it's like a mustard seed. And if you're like me and you're a Big gardener. And we'll get to that in a few minutes.

I got to brag on my garden, you know, but got to get back to gardening. I'm thinking, okay, a watermelon seed, a cantaloupe seed. You know, we're talking about a mustard seed. And he starts out, he says, it's the smallest of all seeds. And kind of for perspective, this morning, this is my paper clip that I was using this morning.

And it takes 38 mustard seeds to equal the weight of this paperclip. They're that small. And so, in other words, if I was having to sow, I might have to be kind of like pixie dust. I'd have to sprinkle them around. They're very small.

And so that makes us think, okay, so it's something that starts out small. He says, the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. And so point number one for this morning is the kingdom of God starts out small and seems insignificant. You know, when I'm out there planting my garden for the first time and the soil is tilled up, I had a good friend of mine come and plow up the soil, get it prepared. And I go out there and, you know, the rows are laid off, and I'm planting different seeds in each hole, you know, and deciding where I'm going to plant different things.

But it doesn't look like much to start with. You know, it just looks like a bare spot. And anybody, you know, the untrained, I may look at it and say, man, that really doesn't look like a whole lot. And I'm sitting there wiping the sweat off my brow, saying, it feels like a whole lot. You know, it feels like it's something, but that's just like what the kingdom of heaven is like.

And that's what Christ is saying here. It starts out small. You sow it in your life. You sow it in the field of your life, and it starts out small, but it's going to grow. And so that's the key words there in verse number 31 is, it seems insignificant.

But I can tell you, when God's working, it's never insignificant. It's always significant.

And we continue, Christ is talking about this man sows in his field. And as I mentioned, you think about sowing. I always think about sowing, like, okay, here and here and here and here. But then they'd scatter it. So he's scattering mustard seed all throughout the place, you know, and it's a lot of work.

It's a lot of work there's been a lot of times where I've sat there and said, lord, you know, please just help me to continue a little further. Get the next row or get to the next plant. Plant the next seed. Help me to go back and get water where I can cultivate a little longer. It takes obedience to plant a garden.

It takes obedience to how you. To your plan. You've got to have a plan to plant a garden. And it also takes obedience to follow Christ and to allow him to build his kingdom in your life. If we don't show intentionality in sowing the truth of the Bible in our lives, then God's kingdom will never grow in our lives.

When we plant things to grow in a field, they grow. And so if I'm planting things that are ungodly or they're not right, that's what comes up. We've got to make sure as children of God that we plant godly seeds. Godly seeds, such as spending time in God's word, focusing on Christ throughout our day, spreading the gospel to those around us. And this is when his kingdom grows in our lives.

When we spread the gospel, we're spreading those seeds to all those around us. When we spend time in God's Word, we're taking that water and we're saying, here you go, I'm going to plant a little bit more. I'm going to give you some nourishment there to make sure that you can continue. It says there, it says that seed starts out smaller than all the other seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than all the other garden plants. And I can tell you that's quite an accomplishment because I've had tomato plants before 8ft tall, you know, I've had them just keep growing.

And it's saying here that it starts out small. It seems insignificant. But as you water, as you cultivate, as you allow God's word to take root in your heart, the kingdom of heaven grows to something really special and really important.

Point number three, the growth of God's kingdom is up to Him. It's by his strength. You know, I just have to go back to my experience with cultivation. And, you know, when I plant my garden, I'm pretty intentional about it. Now it's months later that it gets a little bit hairy.

I was telling somebody this morning, mine's got a few weeds in it right now. I'm trying to work those out some, but I'm intentional. When I start, I decide, okay, I'm going to plant watermelons over here or I'm going to plant corn here, I'm going to plant tomatoes here. Starts out intentional. I've got to plant certain varieties in certain places to make sure that it's the right depth, but it's by his strength.

And so as a gardener, I'm responsible for the beginning of the garden. As a Christian, we're responsible for opening that Bible up and saying, okay, I'm going to focus on Christ, I'm going to pay attention to him and what he has to say to me. Got to be responsible for that. It's on me if my garden's not laid out right, you know, But I'm also not sitting out there going, alright, seeds sprout, rain, fall, sun shine. And luckily I'm not because I'd get tired of that after a while.

But even though it's my job to have the obedience and the intentionality to plant the seeds in my garden, it's not my job to provide growth. The Lord provides growth. He provides growth both in a garden and he provides growth in our hearts. And so the kingdom of heaven flourishes in our lives only when we have obedience to his calling. Now that mustard seed can turn into a mustard plant.

Huge tree. But it takes obedience of us to sow that seed to begin with and we have to rely on his strength to grow it.

Point number four, when we obey God, our lives can provide a refuge for others.

It says there in verse 32, it says it is larger than all the other garden plants and it becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches. And you know, as I was kind of sifting through this message, thinking about, okay, what does a mustard tree look like? Is it really a really wide plant? Is it really tall? And it's kind of both, it really just spreads out and just kind of grows.

It's kind of like, it's kind of like a tree version of kudzu. It just kind of, it's an ugly plant a little bit, I'm sorry, but it is. But it grows and it has the perfect refuge for little birds that come along the air and are looking for a place to land. And so it says there in that verse, it says, when it's full grown mustard seed, the birds of the air come and nest in its branches. So it starts out insignificant, seemingly starts out small, but then it grows into something that provides refuge.

And so I think about, I think about all the little birds that are in Stevens County, Georgia. We got a lot of them. My grandparents have a lot of bird Feeders. And so they'll have all these different birds out there, you know, and they'll be little woodpeckers and little cardinals. And I wish I could name more birds, but if I could.

They're all over the place, and they're just pecking here and about. But if you ever notice about them, they're very frantic. They're very scattered. They're looking here and they're looking there, and they're always. And it doesn't take but just one person walking across the yard, and they just fly all different directions.

They just scatter. But that's because they don't have a refuge. They don't have a place to sit where they feel safe and they feel away from harm, except where they plant their nest, where they put their nest and they build it. They have to have a safe place for that. And so maybe these birds in chapter 32 were experiencing heavy wind.

Maybe they were experiencing drought like we've seen. We've had a little bit less rain than I would have liked the last few weeks, but maybe they're experiencing some harsh conditions. And so they build their nest in this mustard tree. And they say, okay, I found a refuge. I found a place where I can rest and I can be safe from harm.

We cannot have a refuge for others without God's presence in our lives, without his power, without our obedience to his call in our lives, we can't be a refuge. So my question for many of my Christian brothers and sisters this morning is, are we willing to be a refuge? Are we willing to hold out our branches? Metaphorically? I don't think anybody has branches in here.

But if they did hold them out, are you willing to be something that somebody else can land on? A non believer, a believer, a friend, a brother, a sister? Are you willing to be somewhere where they can say, I'm worn out, but this person is providing a refuge in Christ from me? And so the big picture with this passage here, we look at the mustard seed and we see that our obedience must be in place. We must be obedient to sow God's word, God's truth in our lives.

But it's by his power, you know, I've got to be intentional about making sure that I'm sowing God's word and his truth in my life. But it's all by his power, as I said. I've never stood out there and said, sunshine, please, please, you know, grow this. Grow this plant for me. Now I go out there and I enjoy it when the.

When the Plants are beginning to grow. But I can't help that. If it was up to me, I promise you, you'd think, what in the world is wrong with Grant's yard? Because there'd be a bare spot out there. There wouldn't be nothing that would have come up because I can't provide that growth alone.

And it's the same for our Christian lives.

Now, let's think about a few things this morning for believers, primarily with this. Are we sowing God's word in our lives? Is it an integral part of our daily life? Are we spending time saying, okay, Jesus, what do you want me to hear today? I want to come to you first.

I want to make sure that I'm hearing your voice. And because I promise you, especially as a young person in this world, there's a lot of voices that you can hear. But let's make sure that we're listening to his voice. To start with, are we obedient to the Lord's voice in our hearts? How many times throughout the day is he saying, you need to talk to that person.

You need to see how so and so is doing? I don't really like the way you handled that. And we say, okay, you know, I got to go through my day. I got to go about this. I got to go about my business.

How often are we sitting back and saying, you know what, Lord? There's a reason that my heart feels like it's in knots right now. There's a reason that you're speaking to me in this way. I'm going to listen to what you have to say. Are we leaning on God's strength to do his work?

You know, you may be like me this morning, and you've been a believer for a long time, but sometimes you find yourself trying to go through the motions. And. And I got to make this happen, and I got to make sure this person hears the gospel. I got to make sure I witness to this person. It's all by his strength.

It's all by the Lord's strength in our lives that things happen. It's just like that mustard seed. It grows, but it only grows because the Lord gives it the nourishment. He gives it the sunlight to do so.

Are we willing to be a refuge for others? You know, maybe we've got some in this room that have been a Christian for 30, 40 years, and your life has been spent being a refuge for others. And I thank the Lord for that, because what a sweet thing it is in the world that we live in to have Christian brothers and sisters all over this room and all over this world to say, you know what? I'm going to put out my arms and through Christ's strength, I'm going to be a refuge for other people. Because they're just like those birds of the air as it talks about in verse 31.

They're frantic and they're trying to figure out, okay, I'm going to try this. I'm going to try this branch, because I promise you, there's a lot of people in this world. They're just like the birds of the air. They've tried this branch and it broke off and it fell. And they've tried this branch and it broke off and it fell.

And this one didn't work, and this one didn't work. And they're just sitting there. And before long their wings are going to give out and they need somewhere to land pretty quick. Are we willing to be that sturdy branch to say, you know what? I've got somebody for you.

I've got something that can help you. I want to tell you about Jesus Christ. I want to provide any kind of help that I can through his power for you, because you matter to me. I want to provide you that place to build your nest, to build your refuge in Christ.

Maybe we're here this morning and we're thinking about mustard seeds, and we're thinking about the kingdom of God and its growth in our lives. And you say, you know what? I don't even know that. I don't even know that the kingdom of heaven is even present in my life. I don't know that.

I've never felt that way. Maybe there are some in this room that need to accept Jesus Christ, as Jamie was talking about this morning. Freedom is a very special thing. But just because I'm a citizen of the United States of America doesn't make me free inside and out. And freedom comes through Jesus Christ.

Maybe this morning you're an American, you're free. But in your heart, you know that there's something missing. You know that there's another part that needs to be added into that, and that's Jesus Christ. We need to accept him as our Lord and Savior. We think about the kingdom of Heaven.

And as I was kind of, you know, I was thinking through this. This message, I was thinking, okay, the kingdom of heaven is like. The kingdom of heaven is like. One of the most precious things that I can think of is when somebody accepts Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. He died on the came to earth.

He died on the cross, he died. He was Rose three days later. If we trust in that, that sacrifice for our sins. You get little bits of the kingdom of heaven grown in your life. And you say, well, what is the kingdom of heaven?

It's focus on Christ is focused on what he's doing in our lives, is spreading his gospel. And something that I've been thinking about that's really precious to me is as you walk with the Lord and as you metaphorically you allow that mustard seed to grow, you get little bits of the heavenly kingdom in your life. You get little bits of heaven as you get older and as you get closer to seeing Christ face to face. And so I want that this morning, I want to continue to grow and to continue to allow that mustard seed to grow. That way that I can feel little bits of heaven.

Because there have been times in my life where I keep going on or I've maybe gone astray for a while and I don't feel the kingdom of heaven, that it's growing, that I'm growing closer to Christ and I'm focusing on Him. But I promise you, there's only one way in this world to have true peace, to have true love, satisfaction and assurance for the future. And that's coming from somebody that has just graduated high school and is trying to set a course towards Christ. There's nothing like him. There's nothing that's worth my attention, worth my time, worth my cultivation, worth the attention than Christ.

He's it. I've heard it once said that the Bible is a hymn book. It's all about Him. And I agree with that. I think our lives should be all about him because he's the only thing worth that attention.

And so do you want assurance this morning? Do you want to be a refuge? Do you want to focus on Christ? And as we think about 4th of July, do you want to set your course like those young men did at Normandy that morning as their boats teetered and they were going towards France and they were thinking about what lie would was ahead of them? Do we want to set our course for Christ and say, you know what?

I'm proud of my American flag, but I'm very proud of my relationship with Jesus Christ, and I'm his soldier. And I'm going to go forward out of these doors and I'm going to say, you know what? I'm going to take the world by storm for him because he's the only person that can really provide people freedom that's going to last. Would you bow your heads with Me this morning.

Lord, I pray, asking that you will be with us all through the rest of the morning and through the afternoon and into this next week. Lord, I ask that you will show us how we can have true freedom. I ask that you will provide us with clarity on what the future should look like for us. Lord. Please, Lord, help us to remember how valuable you are in our lives, to remember that you're the only person that provides true freedom.

Amen. And now, this morning, we're going to have a. We're going to have an altar time where if you would like to. You would like to just have a moment with Jesus Christ, I'm. You know, I won't sugarcoat it.

Jesus Christ is here this morning. He's here in each one of our hearts. And if you feel like, you know, I don't really know that I have that assurance that I have that relationship with him. I don't really feel like that I'm being. Maybe you do have a relationship with Christ and you don't feel like you're being a refuge the way that you need to be.

Maybe you're sitting here and you're saying, you know what? I've been a Christian for a long time, but I want to stand on Christ's freedom even more than I ever have. I want to charge forward towards the darkness of the world and say, look, I'll be a refuge. I'll be a refuge. I want to provide you freedom.

I can promise you this morning that there's a man named Jesus Christ, and he's sitting here and he wants to provide you that freedom. And he's not sitting there with his arms folded like this. Mmm, look what Grant did again, he's so sorry. No, he's saying, come on, come on, I want you bad. Now's the time.

Now's the time. We're not promised this afternoon. You know, it talks about in the Bible that we're not promised tomorrow. I'm not promised another minute. After I get off this stage, I'd like another minute because I'd like to eat lunch.

But I'm not promised another minute. We're not promised another minute. If you don't feel like you're right with Jesus Christ, please come talk to one of these pastors down here. They'd love to talk with you about that. They'd love to talk about your relationship with Christ.

Because freedom in Christ is the most important thing. Not for 10 years of your life or 20 years of your life, but for your whole life. That relationship with Christ that mustard seed that grows that kingdom of heaven in your heart. That's what really matters. And he wants to provide you that freedom this morning.

So if you feel like you need to do that, you're more than welcome. Thank you.