Frankie Mazzapica - You Are On The Right Road
Thank you for tuning in today. My name is Frankie Mazzapica. The title of the message is "You Are On the Right Road". You Are On the Right Road. You know, so often we wonder if we have drifted on a road where we are not supposed to be on. The scariest thing anybody could face is to wonder if they are completely missing the will of God, if the purpose on their life is being missed because of some type of distraction. I wanna tell you that, at this moment, right now, whatever time it is on your watch at this moment right now, you are in the perfect will of God. You are in the house of God, you are listening to the Word of God. God does not look at your past mistakes, all the things that we did that we regret, he doesn't even consider those, that happened yesterday. God is a present God, he looks at where you're at now. He's also a future God, he sees your future.
The Bible says in Philippians chapter 1, verse 6, it says this. He who started a good thing in you will be faithful to complete it. God started a good thing in you the moment your heart began to flicker in your mother's womb. Some of you have seen an ultrasound before, of a person who just recently discovered they were pregnant, and some of you moms, some of you dads know exactly what I'm talking about because you've been in that room personally. And what you'll notice is the very first thing that God creates is your heart. Your heart does not need your brain to beat, it can beat all by itself. It's the very first thing, you can see this little flicker on the ultrasound. That flicker is the spark of God. No cancer can get into your heart, that is the spark of God. You have never heard of anybody that has ever died of heart cancer, it does not happen, it cannot happen. You can have bone cancer, skin cancer, it doesn't matter, but you can't have heart cancer.
They took a study, and took a heart and put it in a Petri dish, and the heart killed the cancer around it, like 90% of the cancer outside of the heart. Your heart is the spark of God. And the Bible says this, that he who started a good work, he who started your heartbeat, he who started your life will be faithful to complete it. And right now, at this very moment, you are in the perfect will of God. Now, I wanna spend this message talking about certain things, certain roads that we don't want to drift onto, because that's when we start to complicate our life. I don't know if you've ever been in the ocean before, where you're in the ocean, the waves are hitting you, you're jumping around, you're flabbergasted about the horizon as far as you can see, you're looking around, you love it.
And then, all of a sudden you look up to find your towel, where you were before you got into the ocean, and all of a sudden you notice that it's way over there, and you go, "How did I get from way over there to all of a sudden over here"? And the answer is that we drifted, we drifted from where we wanted to be. If we're not careful, we will drift from the path that we're on right now at this moment onto paths that we don't want to be. And so I wanna share with you a few paths that we wanna watch out from, that we don't want to drift on to. And this is in Matthew chapter 13, and we're gonna start reading, the first path, in verse 19. And it's talking about how a farmer comes and takes a handful of seed, reaches into his bag and throws out seed everywhere. It's kind of like, as I'm speaking right now, I'm throwing out words from the Word of God, it's going all over this sanctuary and it's landing on different hearts.
And so it talks about how it lands on certain footpaths. So, in verse 19, it talks about the first footpath, the first path, if you will, where it says this. And the seed that was thrown out on the footpath, it represents people who hear the word, hear the message of the kingdom, but because they do not understand it, the enemy comes in and snatches the seed that was planted in their hearts. See, the enemy wants to lure you, to pull you away, to pull the message of God out from your heart for the reason of not understanding it. I wanna tell you that the revelation of God, understanding the things of God is not on the surface, you have to lean in and study just a little bit. Not understanding something is not a reason to run from it.
My son, the other day, he told me that he decided to read the Bible, he reads it often, my daughter reads it often, and he came across one particular passage. And he was reading and he goes, "Dad, I only read a page and a half but my journal was full, it was like, as I was reading, I could see the meaning but I wanted to go underneath what I read, so I just kind of thought about it a little bit and other things started coming to my mind". I said, "Luke, that's the Holy Spirit speaking to you". And he said, "Let me tell you what I read". He told me this yesterday. He said, "I read about seed that was being scattered on different grounds, that it was being scattered on the footpath". And I'm looking at him and I'm like, "I'm preaching that tomorrow, and if your content is better than mine, I'm stealing yours".
So I wanna say that to find the deeper things of God, to understand how his heart beats, to understand how much he loves you, it takes a little bit of tenacity. See, when you go out into the beach, for an example, using the same illustration I did a moment ago, if you're not purposely paying attention, if you're not purposely digging your feet into the sand, you will drift. But if you purposely, with intent, say, "God, I need, I want, I have to know more of you, and I'm not gonna stop worshiping, I'm not gonna stop listening until I do". And the thing about God, the closer you get to him, the closer you want to get to him. There's always this knowing that there is more.
In Isaiah chapter 62, actually, let me think, 62:6, yeah, 62, verse 6, it says this. Those of you who pray, give yourself no rest, give God no rest until he completes his promise. When you don't understand something, you just keep worshiping, you just keep praising. You say out loud, "Satan, you're not gonna cause me to drift just because I don't understand something". Now, the second path is when, all of a sudden the seed goes out, and the Bible says that the seed landed on stony ground. It's kind of like if you're playing golf, and you hit the ball, and it flies up and it hits concrete. Well, you can forget about that ball, that ball is gone, it's on stony ground.
And so the Bible says this. The seed that lands on the stony ground represents people who hear the message, and they receive it with joy. They're excited about it. But because they don't have deep roots, they fall away all too quickly the moment they have problems or the moment they receive persecution, people teasing them because of what they believe or attacking them. I find it fascinating that the enemy will say, "All I have to do to get them to drift, to drift from the things of God, is just send them a problem, that's all I gotta do, is send them a problem". That is an insult to me, and I know you believe it's an insult to you. We love God, we want more of God. And for the enemy to say, "All I gotta do to make them drift, all I gotta do to knock them off course, all I gotta do to keep them from praying or keep them from worshiping is just send them a problem, and it all shuts down". It's because there's not deep roots.
Let me give you an illustration. If I plant a tree in my front yard, and I back up and I go, "You know what? I think I want the tree to go on the side of my house," and so I dig up the tree and I move the tree to the side of my house, I've done this before, the tree kind of goes into shock because its roots were uprooted, he was uprooted, the tree was uprooted. And so, if the tree survives, and you're cheering for the tree, "Come on, come on, stay alive, please stay alive," I'm watering it, I'm talking to it. Have you ever talked to it? Come on, baby, stay alive, come on, come on, come on, stay alive, come on. And so you're spraying it, you're praying over it, you're staring at it. And if the tree survives, there's this moment of, "Yes".
But if I look back at the tree and I say, "You know what? It would really be nicer in my backyard," and so, then, I uproot the tree again and then I put it in the backyard, the probability of that tree living after I have uprooted it so many times is extraordinarily low. And why is that? Because I never gave the tree an opportunity to get any roots. You see, when you raise your children in the house of God, their roots are there, their roots are deep, it's deep in there. Sometimes you gotta grab your kid by the ear and say, "I know you don't feel like going but we're going". There are certain trees that, when the storm comes, you're nervous about it, those branches will snap. But when you see pine trees or palm trees, you're not worried about those, they can withstand a storm. And when your roots are deep, you keep hearing about the Word of God, you keep worshiping, you keep talking to him, in the car, in the office, before you get out of bed, when you go to bed, your roots are going deeper and deeper.
Like I said at the beginning of this message, right now you are on the right path, your heart is tender, that's why you came to church this morning. If you didn't have a heart for God, if you didn't love the Lord, you wouldn't be here. Now, some of you may be saying, "I got drug here, I didn't wanna come here, I got drug here". Don't worry about it, I had a mom who had a drug problem too, she drug me to church. But let me say this, you're a grown man, you're a grown woman, you could do whatever you wanted to do, nobody put a gun to your head. You came here because you have a desire to know more about God, you have a desire, you are on the right path right now.
And I'm here to say this, be careful not to drift on the footpath, be careful not to drift on the stony path, and then, also, be careful not to drift into the thorn bushes. The farmer throws out seed, and this is in Matthew chapter 13, verse 22, it says this, that the farmer throws out seed and a lot of it lands in the thorny bushes, and the Bible says this. And this seed that lands in the thorny bushes represents those who hear the message, they hear the Word of God, but because it lands in the thorns, the message is quickly pushed out. In one version of the Bible, it says that the message is choked out. And so the message, hearing of the Word of God, is quickly pushed out, by what? What's in the thorns? Worries and the lure of wealth.
Now, this is when I feel, even more than earlier, insulted by the enemy, that he could get me and he could get you to stop praying because we're worried about something. All he has to do is just take an arrow of worry and shoot it in our direction, and then, all of a sudden we stop praying, we stop worshiping, we stop coming to church, until that worry goes away, and then we're like, "Okay, I can worship again". Do you know how many people I talk to in the lobby, and I say, "Hey, it's good to see you," and they say, "Look, I'm sorry you haven't seen me in a long time, I've just been going through a lot lately, my life has been going crazy, I've just been going through a lot," my heart breaks? Because I think to myself, "You have been going through a lot and you decided to go through a lot without coming to the house of God".
The house of God is where his presence dwells, the house of God is where we feel the strength of God. In Matthew 11, verse 28, it says this. "Come to me, all of you who are tired". Let me give you the Frankie International Version. Come to me, all of you who are full of anxiety, all of you who are full of worry, all of you who think you're never gonna get out of the season that you're in, all of you, I want you to come here and let me give you rest. This is when you say, "Look, I'm in the thorns right now, I'm worrying". You know what's interesting is Mike Tyson. He was in a press conference back when he was fighting, and he knocked out 75% of the people that he fought. And during one particular press conference, a guy said, "Mike, I've been watching video of you, I know every move you do, and I'm gonna knock you out".
All the reporters looked back at Mike Tyson, and Mike Tyson said this. "Everybody has a plan until they get punched". You know, it's interesting, we've gotta be able to take a punch, we have to be able to say, "Satan, I might not be good at anything in life, but I can tell you this, I'm gonna be a great worshiper. I might not be consistent at everything in life, but what I can tell you is I'm a consistent worshiper, I'm a consistent prayer, I pray in my car, I pray in my house, I pray at church, I pray when I'm on vacation, I pray when I'm at work. This is how I live". The enemy can't say, "All I gotta do is send a problem, all I gotta do is send some anxiety, all I gotta do is give him a punch". You know, I like sports, and it's up for argument whether or not boxing is a sport or not, but I read this. A fighter once said this, "It's not the punch that you're expecting that hurts, it's the punch that you didn't see coming".
You know, the enemy is gonna come exactly where you didn't anticipate it, it's gonna be a surprise every single time. But when you have dug your roots in, when you say, "Look, I understand that worries are the thorns, and the things that God has for me are not gonna grow if I get caught up in those thorns of worry and chasing a dollar". Have you ever seen one of those clips on social media where a guy takes a fishing pole and he puts, like, a $50 bill at the end of the line, and then he puts it out on the sidewalk and you can't see the fishing line? And then he sits behind the corner of a building or something like that, and as soon as the person goes down to grab the $50 bill, he starts reeling it in. And the guy thinks it's wind, so he starts chasing it, until he realizes, "Okay, I just look like an idiot, and there's 100% chance this is going on YouTube". He starts reeling it in, and the enemy always tells us that a little bit more work, a little bit more time will bring you a little bit more money.
And here's the thing about more, more always wants more. And here's the thing about money that we all have to realize. In Proverbs chapter 18, verse 11, it says this. The wealth of the rich is their fortified city, they believe it's a wall too high to climb. In other words, they believe that, with all the extra money, if they can make just a little bit more extra money, they'll have a fortified city around them and they can't be taken down. And that's the thing, you just always need a little bit more, and if you have a little bit more, you'll have a little bit more joy, you'll have a little bit more security. And then what ends up happening is, subconsciously, you start chasing that more than you pray, more than you worship, because you really believe that that dollar is your fortified city. These are the thorns, these are the thorns, worry and the lure of wealth.
So, we've talked about the footpath, we've talked about this stony ground, we've talked about the thorns, now let me remind you of the path that you're on right now. You are walking on good ground. You say, "Well, you don't know what I did yesterday, five years ago, last night". I really don't care, because if God doesn't remember it, why should we remember it? So, right here, right now, you are on the right path and you are the perfect soil. I'm looking around this room, I'm making eye contact with so many of you, your attention, your heart's affection is on the Word of God. You are good soil. And the Bible says this, and it's in verse 23, Matthew chapter 13, that when the seed goes out, when the message of God goes out, and it lands on good soil, that person will produce 30, 60, even 100 times more than the seed that was scattered into their heart.
You know, think about that, that your life is so fruitful, that by the time you reach the end of your life you have this long string of moments where you know that God used you. This is what he's saying. You know, can I tell you? When God uses you, it is a moment, oftentimes it's a moment, it's a second, it's five minutes, where you look eye to eye with someone and you share with them an encouraging word that you believe that God put in your heart. A friend of mine passed away earlier this week, it truly broke my heart, he was only 53 years old. And it reminded me that none of us know when our heart is gonna take that last beat, and we have to know that if our heart were to stop beating in the next five minutes, where would we spend eternity?
It was a complete surprise, he was driving down the road, he got out of the car, and he looked at his boys and he said, "I think I'm gonna faint". He fainted, went to the ground, never got up. And if you're in this room, this is a sidebar, and you say, "I don't know where I'd spend eternity," I want you to know you're the most important person I'm talking to, and you've got to prioritize. Very, very, very soon you've got to say, "God, I want you to be my Lord and Savior, and I'm sorry for my sins". But this is when the seed goes out, when the seed goes out onto good soil, like you, and you produce 30, 60, even 100-fold, you look back on your life and you see that lives have changed because you've partnered with God.
This is when you have set your face like flint. And I wanna say this, you are always on good ground and you are always on the path that you need to be to live the life that God has planned for you when you are praying and when you are obedient. Some of you, right now, you're praying, you're being obedient, and you're saying, "I don't know what's going on, I'm still in a funky season". My wife said this last week, she said it to me, and I know it's for you. Many of us, are living in the season before the season. If we can just get through this season, through this battle, we are being prepared for the next season of opportunity. Does anybody receive that? Come on.