Sunday, January 31, 2010

FRUITFUL

This is the second in the series on being fruitful, it was preached on January 24, enjoy...


“WATCHING THE SEED FALL”
MATTHEW 13
Matthew 13:1-9
“That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2 And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: "A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6 but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears, let him hear.” (ESV)

Jesus starts off in chapter 13 with a parable, what is a parable? A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Now Jesus gives several parables in this chapter, but He only interprets two and we are going to take a closer look at these two this morning. So let’s take a look at verses 18-23. Now I want you to notice that the seed fell on 4 types of soil, I want you to see that there was nothing wrong with the seed, the seed was not the problem, it was the soil, ¾ of the seed did not grow – they died.


1. THE PATHWAY CHRISTIANS

Matthew 13:18-19
“Hear then the parable of the sower: 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path.”
Now remember Jesus said in verse 4 that some seed fell on the path and the birds came and ate it. Now when Jesus told a parable He used things that were common around Him, so here He is talking about a farmer sowing his crop, and in this day and time farmers used a very crude method to sew his crop. First off every field had a pathway through it so that people did not have to walk around it, so this is the path Jesus spoke of. Next, when the farmer plowed his field his plows were not as we know them, they would just scratch the top at best, and the ground Jesus described here was not rocky as in a lot of rocks, but it was a thin layer of soil on bedrock. So the farmer would scratch the top of the ground and then he would go out and scatter the seed by hand. He did not have a grain drill like we do; he did it all by hand.
So the farmer would scatter his seed by hand and the birds would come along and pick up the seed on the path. Jesus tells us that the birds represent the devil. Now let me tell you something, this should cause everyone of us to examine our own heart. Don’t look around at anyone else, look at yourself.
It’s like this poem;
When you get to heaven
You will likely view,
Many folks there
Who’ll be a shock to you.

But don’t act surprised,
Or even show a care,
For they might be a little shocked
To see you there.
The path represents church members, professing Christians. They heard the Word of God, but it wasn’t a hearing of faith. The Word was not mixed with faith, or if it was, it was a formal, intellectual faith; it was a head salvation and not a heart salvation. To people like this belonging to a church is like belonging to a lodge or a club. It’s something you do because you are supposed to; after all we are in the Bible Belt. These people are in a spiritual deep freeze. Not only do we find them sitting in our churches, we find them sitting home on Sunday morning, or we find them falling out of church and getting into some other activity, or a cult, or an “ism.” You know, Mormonism, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism or into something like Islam or New Age or Wicca or whatever. Why? Because they “tried” Christianity and it just didn’t work for them. They didn’t try Christ; they tried the man made version of Christ.

2. THE ROCKY CHRISTIANS
Matthew 13:20-21
“As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.”

Now these people are just the opposite of the first group, the people in the first group had the seed stolen by Satan, the people in the second group have only themselves to blame, it is the flesh that keeps the seed from producing. These people are not in the deep freeze, they are in the oven – they are warm, emotional, crying, and just really moved. They are like Alka-Seltzer, just a lot of fizz. Like a rocket on a launching pad, making noise but never quite getting into orbit. They have great zeal and energy during special meeting and like a burned out roman candle after the meeting are over.
They are like paper on the road, lying there, and when you run over it, it flies up in the air and then settles back on the road again, waiting for the next car. This is the way it is with a lot of these so-called Christians, when there is a sensational meeting going on, they get really excited, but they have no relationship with Christ, it’s just an emotional high. They are the rocky Christians.

3. THE THORNY CHRISTIANS
Matthew 13:22
“As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.”

With the thorny Christians, the world crowds out the Word of God. The Devil got the Pathway Christians, the flesh got the Rocky Christians, but the world chokes out the Word of God for this group. The cares of the world move in. Sometimes it’s poverty; usually it’s the deceitfulness of riches. It’s interesting that the people at each end of the social spectrum – extreme poverty and extreme prosperity – are the people that are the hardest to reach for Christ. I find that a lot of people have let the cares of this world crowd out the Word of God. Now I have used the word Christian to describe these three types, but I have used it tongue in cheek because I don’t believe that they are Christians at all. They have heard the Word and have only professed to receive it.

4. THE BUMPER CROP
Matthew 13:23
“As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.” (ESV)

These are the ones who hear the Word and receive it, understand it, believe it and live it. Some don’t produce as much fruit as others, some only 30 fold but some produce 100 fold. There must be an understanding of the Word.
Do you remember in Acts 8:26 when the Ethiopian eunuch was riding along in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah and God put Philip in his path so that he could tell the eunuch about Jesus? The eunuch was reading the Word but he didn’t understand that it was about Jesus.
Philip was sowing the seed of the Word of God. This is a kingdom-of-heaven situation as it revels that the Sower, the Lord Jesus Christ, is sowing the Word of God in the world and that the Holy Spirit applies it to the hearts of those who want to believe.

Now Jesus tells another parable, He has already told us that only ¼ of the seed got into good ground, I think that His average is far better than mine, I think for me it’s about 1 in 10 at best, which is about average, some of the big evangelist will say about 3% of theirs can be considered true converts. Jesus had ¼ averages, but now He picks up where He left off.


Matthew 13:24-30
“He put another parable before them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.”
Notice who is asleep? While his men were sleeping, the enemy came. Remember the sower is the Lord, and He neither slumber nor does He sleep. Satan is the enemy, and he sows weeds among the wheat. The weeds are false doctrine, false teachings. There is a lot of that type of sowing going on today.

26 “So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 27 And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?' 28 He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' So the servants said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?' 29 But he said, 'No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'” (ESV)
When wheat and weeds first begin to grow it’s hard to tell which is which, but when they head out you can always tell, when they get some growth on them you know. A lot of these other religions sound good at first but when they begin to grow you realize that it isn’t Jesus they teach, it isn’t Grace.
You will also notice that the sower, Jesus, knew who was responsible for the weeds, Satan! You will also notice what happens to those who are not of Jesus.
Now let’s hear it in Jesus’ own words.

Matthew 13:36-43
“Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field." 37 He answered, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed is the children of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, 42 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.” (ESV)

The time in which Jesus is talking about is now!





1/24/2010

FRUITFUL

I am going to post my last two sermons....the first one I preached on January 17, the first in a series, enjoy....



Before I begin today’s message, I need to explain how this came to be. During my down time, after having my prostate removed, I was doing my bible reading, and I was reading Luke chapter 13. And as I was reading, God stopped me and had me reread the verses that I am about to share with you.

“FRUITFUL”
Luke 13:6-9

“Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?' 8 "'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.'” (NIV)

After God had me to reread these verses 2 more times, He said this to me, He said,
“2010, LET THIS BE THE YEAR OF FRUITFULNESS.”
Now He did not say, “2010, The Year of Fruitfulness”, He said “Let this be the year of fruitfulness.” He said that it is a choice; that we must choose to be fruitful.

Let’s take a closer look at these verses. I want you to see how this relates to you. I want to show you today what God is saying to His Church, what He wants us to understand.

Jesus is talking and He says that “a man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard.”
Now the fig tree represents the human soul, it represents each one of us, and three years represents an ample amount of time.
The man went to the tree to pick some fruit off of it, but he found none. He said, “For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?”
The vineyard owner expected to get good fruit off of the tree, but instead he received nothing, he turned to the man who actually took care of the vineyard and said, “For three years I have tried to get fruit off of this tree and I have received nothing, cut it down, it just sits here and soaks up water and sunshine and nutrients and gives nothing in return. I am sick and tires of looking at it; cut it down and burn it. It isn’t worth the space it takes up.”
But the vinedresser, the man who took care of the trees and vines said, “Master, let me try harder, I will feed the roots and prune it and water it and do everything that I can to get it to produce, and if it doesn’t produce fruit this year, then you can cut it down and throw it into the fire.”
Now we could say that the man who owned the vineyard represents God and the gardener is Jesus or maybe even pastors. We know that Jesus is our mediator, and we know that pastors are to shepherd the flock, so it makes sense. But more on that in a minute.
Let me ask you this;
Did you know that Jesus expects fruitfulness? Did you know that God expects fruitfulness?
Do you know that Jesus expects us to be fruitful, to be productive for His Kingdom?

There are 3 things I want you to see.

1. God Will Not Tolerate Unfruitfulness!
Matthew 21:18-19
“Early in the morning, as he was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, "May you never bear fruit again!" Immediately the tree withered.” (NIV)

Do you know why so many Christians are not happy, or live lives that are so empty? It is because they produce no fruit for the Kingdom of God! When we refuse to be productive for the Kingdom, when we refuse to produce we are miserable.

Matthew 3:8
“Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” (NIV)
We need to produce fruit, time is short. If you don’t believe me take an honest look at what is going on in our world.
We have been warned.

Matthew 3:10
“The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” (NIV)
How long do you think God will give you to become fruitful?


2. God Wants You to be Fruitful!
John 15:1-8
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
Jesus expects fruitfulness!
3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
Now He tells us how to be fruitful! 5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” (NIV)
Why does Jesus want us to bear fruit? For the glory of God!

3. You Can Produce Fruit!

We are back in Matthew 21, Jesus has spoken to the fig tree and it has withered.
Matthew 21:20-22
“When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. "How did the fig tree wither so quickly?" they asked. 21 Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. 22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” (NIV)

So How Do We Become Fruitful?
Well we just read in Matthew 21 to have faith in God, we need to have faith that we can be fruitful, that God wants us to be fruitful, and we need to take action.
Matthew 7:7-8
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”
So we need to ask God to help us be fruitful, or if you are producing fruit to be more fruitful. Did you know that it is impossible to be fruitful the way that God wants us to be fruitful if we don’t ask God to help us? If we are not willing to ask, then we are not willing to be fruitful.
Then after we have faith that God wants us to be fruitful, and we ask Him to help us be fruitful, we need to seek ways to be fruitful for Him. If we have faith that God wants us to be fruitful, and we ask Him to help us be fruitful, but we never look for ways to be fruitful, will we be fruitful? NO!
It’s like a cartoon I saw once; these 4 guys are pushing this hotrod into the gas station. This car has been built to run, big motor with headers and a blower and an air scoop on top, a full race cam, torsion bars, wheelie bars, wide tires in the back for drag racing, beautiful paint and wheels.
And these guys push it up to the gas pumps and they start checking the air in the tires, oil in the motor, cleaning the glass, shinning the chrome, doing everything they can do, except put in gas.
The owner of the gas station is watching and he asks, “Aren’t you going to put in any gas?”
They say, “No, we spent so much on building the car, we can’t afford any gas.” And they push the car away. They looked good, but didn’t do anything!

If we believe that God wants us to be fruitful, we have faith, we ask Him to help us, but we never look for a place or a way to be fruitful, it’s like having the hotrod and no gas.
And then we need to knock on the door of service. When we have the faith, and we have God’s help, and we have found a place to be fruitful, we need to do it! We need to be involved, be active. A great way, is to teach, or be involved in our outreach, go with us to knock on doors. We need to put our fear behind us and walk in faith.
Ask, seek, and knock show a continuance action, showing that we are to keep it up.
We continue in verse 9; 9 "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (NIV)

Do you know another reason we will not be fruitful? When we try to mix the ways of this world with God’s ways. Too many Christians today are trying to please their carnal nature and please God, it won’t work.
Last week we learned that the thing God is most concerned about in us is Obedience!
When we are obedient to God and His Word, everything else will fall in line.
Two weeks ago we talked about prayer. I want to close with this verse.

Matthew 18:19-20
“Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” (NIV)

To be fruitful we must be obedient, and we need a prayer partner or group that will really fervently pray, that will not just say words but will pray until they get through.








1/17/2010

Sunday, January 10, 2010

STATE OF THE CHURCH ADDRESS, 2009

Today is the day that I do my State of the Church Address, for those of you who are new to this, I started doing this in 2002, after watching our President’s State of the Union Address. And at that time we were without a physical house of worship, the fire had taken our church building, the Church, the ecclesia, was of course still in tact. We had just broken ground in December and were in the process of moving dirt. I watched the President’s address that night and the Lord showed me that our body of believers needed to know what state we were in. It had been an unusual three months; we were meeting every week in the City auditorium, having to carry everything in and out every week. We were excited that we had finally agreed on what to build and that we were starting to do just that, build. But we were uncertain about what the future held, so the Lord showed me what to say, He said that I was to report on the past year and give plans for the new one. And so I called it the “State of the Church Address.” I continued to do these every year and then I believe it was 2006, I thought that everyone was getting tired of these so I didn’t do one. I was asked towards the end of January that year why I hadn’t done one yet, so I did. So here is this year’s “STATE OF THE CHURCH ADDRESS.”
During 2009 we saw presidential history; we saw history made when Barak Obama was sworn in as our president. We saw the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan increase as the war in Iraq decreased. We saw the economy go into the tank as the recession grew worse and as our elected officials pushed through healthcare reform that will cost the taxpayers billions and sign a stimulus package the we will never got paid off. We lived through all of the swine flu hype and fact and then watched as it wasn’t as bad as any other flu in the U.S. We listened to all of the Climategate people as they tried to tell us how doomed our planet is if we didn’t agree with them, even as they themselves ignored scientific facts that global warming is a natural cycle that the planet goes through, and as a matter of fact we will be in global cooling for the next 50 years.
We saw Edward Kennedy and Michael Jackson die, and we saw a radical Muslim gun down military personal at Fort Hood. And we also saw how a very courageous pilot of a commercial airliner hit a flock of birds and the set his plain down in the Hudson River, sparing all of his passengers and crew. We also saw how another Muslim tried to blow up a plane with explosives in his underpants, making airline travel even more stressful for law-abiding people.

Personally, 2009 was a rough year for our family, we started off driving over 500 miles a week taking Becky to have cancer treatment, and then as she went into remission, we found out that I had cancer, and then that my mom’s cancer had returned. We had our ups and downs during 2009, but we ended on a high note, Becky is still in remission, mother’s treatments are going well, my cancer has been removed and we have another grandkid on the way!!

In our church in 2009 we saw 6 Salvations, 5 Baptisms, 6 New Members and 2 rededications.
As you know I set goals, why? Because numbers are important! People who try to tell you that numbers are not important are just making excuses. Why are they are making excuses, some of them may be too lazy to go out into the hiways and byways and tell people about Jesus, or bring people to church. Or they may be comfortable with things just as they are, or maybe they are trying to cover up for whatever, or it may be many other excuses. Whatever it is, Numbers Do Matter!!

I want to share with you some concerns that are on my heart concerning our church;
1. CORPORATE PRAYER
We need to have more corporate prayer going on in the church, not only do we need to have our personal prayer time, we need to be meeting in prayer groups for the church. We need to get back into the habit of praying with each other for the life and health of this church, this body of believers. If we don’t make this church a matter of priority and concern we will lose it.
2 Chronicles 7:14
“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (ESV)
This is a very power packed verse; it starts off saying if we will humble ourselves. If we will not humble our selves it means that we have a pride issue.
Proverbs 11:2
“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.” (ESV)
Proverbs 16:18
“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” (ESV)
We cannot not let our pride get in God’s way; we must humble ourselves before Him.
And then it says that we are to pray and seek His face, but it is impossible to do that unless we humble ourselves and turn from our wicked ways. Did you know that the person who is not willing to humble himself is also not willing to turn from his wicked ways? Why? Because when pride is in the way we are not only unable to see our wicked ways, but we are unable to really pray.
If we are willing to humble ourselves, and pray, and seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways, then God says that He will hear us from heaven; He will forgive us of our sins and heal our land.
But we must get ourselves out of the way. And a good way to start is with corporate prayer, praying with each other.
2. EMPTY CLASSROOMS
I look around and I see 3 empty classrooms where we used to have no empty rooms and we were looking for more space, and some of the rooms that we do have being used, some weeks no one shows up for class. Our Kidzone classes we have had to combine, going from 6 rooms to 4 because we had some teachers who had to step down and we had no one to replace them.
Acts 5:21
“At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people.” (NIV)
We must be willing to teach the people, no matter if they are children or adults, and if we don’t teach, we need to make it a priority to be here.

3. EMPTY CHAIRS
Do you realize that when we fill our classrooms we will also fill our empty chairs? And when we fill our empty chairs we will also fill our empty classrooms?
Colossians 3:16
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.” (NIV)

4. APATHY
A teacher asked her students one day, “What is the difference between Ignorance and Apathy?” No one answered so she asked little Johnny, little Johnny really didn’t like school, it was a wastes of his time, he never gave the right answers and was always in trouble. So the teacher says, “Johnny, what is the difference between ignorance and apathy?”
Little Johnny looked up and said, “I don’t know and I don’t care.”
And the teacher said, “Correct.” Because ignorance means that you don’t know and apathy means that you don’t care.
What is apathy; lack of interest in anything, or the absence of any wish to do anything, indifference, lack of concern, lack of interest, boredom.
The worst thing that we can do as far as our church is concerned is to not care. We need to fall in love again with Jesus, with God and with the church; we need to get excited again.
Colossians 3:17
“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (NIV)

What have we grown apathetic in? What in our church do we not care as much about as we once did? Maybe it’s coming to Sunday school, or worship as we should, or in our giving or some other area. If you were here for business meeting last week, then you saw that giving was down last year

HOW DO WE CORRECT OR IMPROVE ON THESE THINGS?
Hebrews 5:7-8
“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.” (ESV)
Let me ask you something, what have you learned from what you have suffered?
Do you know what God is most concerned about in your life? OBEDIENCE!
How do we improve the things in our church that need to be improved? OBEDIENCE!
How do we improve the things in our own life that need to be improved? OBEDIENCE!
What does OBEDIENCE mean? It is the act or practice of following instructions, complying with rules or regulations, or submitting to somebody's authority.
What does Obedience mean? Submission, respect, agreement, compliance.
2 Corinthians 10:6
“And I am fully prepared to punish every act of disobedience, when once your submission has been put beyond question.” (Montgomery NT)
We must be obedient in everything God says, we must humble ourselves before God, we must be praying. Do you know one of my favorite prayer times? On Sunday mornings before anybody gets here, that’s when I come in and walk through this church praying for you, for the message today, for this church and for the vision God has given me for this church.
Going back to 2 Chronicles 7:14; We must humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways.

Romans 16:25-27
“Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages 26 but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— 27 to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.” (ESV)
2 John 1:6
“And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.” (NIV)

So what happens when we decide to improve or to do better or to try and do better? Do you think it will be easy? Anytime that you decide to improve any area of your life, it is really easy to slip back into the way that you were doing things. But we cannot improve by doing things the way we always have, we can only improve by doing them better.
What is insanity? Doing things the way we always have and expecting different results.
We only get better things by doing things better.
When I was a kid, I would gather the ashes out of our fireplace and mix them with water and pour them into a hole. The water would go away and the ashes would be hard, so in my mind I was making concrete. I wasn’t because the ashes would break real easy. Now if I am going to build a house and I decide that I can save money by going around gathering ashes from everyone’s fireplaces, and I mix it with water for the foundation of the house, will it work? NO, because it is just ashes, not concrete.
We cannot do things with apathy and expect excellent results.
Now I want to ask you, what can you improve on? How can you be more obedient?