https://sermons.love/joel-osteen/3376-joel-osteen-the-power-of-the-soil.html I want to talk to you today about the power of the soil. You can have a good seed that’s healthy and strong, it’s full of potential, but if it’s not planted in good soil, it’s not going to become what it was created to be. The problem is not with the seed. A scientist could study the seed, run tests, they would find that it’s full of life. If it’s an apple seed, it has apples in it. If it’s a rose bush, it has blossoms in it. But if it’s planted in soil that’s full of rocks, weeds, and thorns, it may grow some, but it’s not going to produce what it should. It may survive, but it’s not going to be healthy. And it’s the same principle in life. You’re a seed. You are full of gifts, talents, potential, but if you plant yourself in unhealthy soil, if you hang around friends that compromise and pull you down, if you’re in an environment that’s limited with people that tell you what you can’t become, you won’t see the growth that you should. Not because there’s something wrong with your seed, you’re made in the image of God. The problem is with the soil. The rocks, the thorns, the weeds are choking the life out of your seed.  Jesus told a parable about a man that sowed seed on good ground, and it produced a great harvest, many crops. Another sowed seed on rocky ground, didn’t produce too much. Another sowed it on ground where the weeds and the thorns kept the seed from growing. All the same seed, what made the difference was the soil. The thorns are things like friends that keep causing you to compromise. The weeds are those co-workers that sit around and gossip all day. The rocks are those family members that tell you how you can’t break that addiction. If you hang around negative people, they’re choking out your seed, and those friends you’re tempted to party with, they may be fun, they’re popular, but what you can’t see is they’re a weed. They’re keeping you from flourishing. The environment you put yourself in is extremely important.