Latest / Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris / 07 21 2024 The Parable of the Sower

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07 21 2024 The Parable of the Sower · Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris

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  Most of us eat every day, some of us too much, because yesterday's
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  food is not enough to supply energy for today's needs. Why then, do
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  some of us expect yesterday's portion of heavenly manna, the word of God to
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  keep us through today's challenges. On this program, we are going to change
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  all of that. Let's experience God's words today and receive the power we need
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  to live healthy, vibrant lives. Welcome to Your Daily Portion with your host,
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  author speaker, Elle David Harris. Good morning, Good morning, Good
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  morning. It is Sunday, July twenty one, twenty twenty four. Hello,
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  my name is Elle David Harris. I am your host, and this
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  is your Daily Portion where we give you God's word every single day and today
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  has no exception. We are continuing in our Lesson study series through the Book
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  of Mark, and our caption for today is the Parable of the Sower,
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  The Parable of the Sower. We'll get into that in just the moment,
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  but first I'd like to say welcome to you and ask you to please go
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  over to your Daily Portion dot com. Please join our online community, pick
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  up the Your Daily Portioned book and let us know where you are in the
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  world at your Daily Portion dot com. This is a way that we continue
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  to build faith and fellowship. Good morning. Yeah, let's go ahead and
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  pray, and then we will get underway. Father and Heaven. Thank you
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  for giving us this new morning and for the workweek that is ahead of us.
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  Father, these moments are uncharted, these waters uncharted, untested, but
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  you have seen everything from before there was a beginning. Please help us to
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  only walk in the paths of righteousness, navigate the waters as you see fit.
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  And Father, give us understanding concerning your parables, because really and truly
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  you only intended to speak clearly to us, but because of the hardness of
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  people's hearts, we have these parables. Please give us your wisdom today in
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  Jesus, they might pray, Amen and Amen again. Okay. And so
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  we are going to begin this week with the parable of the Sewer, and
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  let me just read it clearly, and then we'll jump into some lessons that
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  we can learn. Okay. And so from Mark chapter four, beginning at
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  verse one, the Bible reads again he began to teach by the lake.
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  If you notice, Jesus had a habit of just popping up teachings. There
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  were times that he would just you know, we're going along our journey,
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  and he would just begin teaching. It wasn't like how we do today where
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  we stage these things at all times, like Okay, we're going to be
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  meeting at this place at this time, and then we're going to have this
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  series or these teachings. There were times that he's just walking along the way,
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  he is in a boat, he is in the mountain range, and
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  he begins teaching. And this is one of those cases, such a large
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  crowd gap that around him, that he got into a boat on the lake
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  and sat there while the whole crowd was on the seashore by the lake,
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  not the seashore, by the shore of the lake. He taught them many
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  things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them, listen.
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  Now, if Jesus says, listen, what should we do, go ahead
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  and type it in the chat. Yeah, it seems self explanatory. Yes,
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  listen, listen. A sower went forth to sow. And for people
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  like me who grew up in a big city, who don't know what that
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  means. Naturally, he's saying that there was somebody who's about to plant some
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  seeds. They're going to sow or plant seeds broadly, okay verse four.
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  And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds
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  came and devoured it. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did
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  not have much soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not
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  deep, and the sun came up, and when the sun came up,
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  it was scorched. And because it did not have sufficient root, it withered.
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  Other seed fell among the thorns they which grew up, and they grew
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  up it and choked it and did not produce grain. But other seed fell
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  on good soil and produced grain, sprouting and growing, some yielding thirty times
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  as much, some sixty, and some a hundred times. And he said,
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  whoever has ears to hear, let them hear. You better listen,
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  you better listen. And so God is teaching us something very very key here
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  at the very end of that part of the parable, that the Bible is
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  teaching us straight out of Jesus's mouth, that there is good soil, and
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  the people who become, by God's grace good soil will have the optimal outcome,
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  the ultimate result of growth. For some of us, it multiplies.
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  What is the it God's word. The seed that God sols into our lives
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  is his truth, everything that He wants for us, His truth, His
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  word is truth in our lives. And those who are good soil, whose
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  lives and hearts and minds are good soil, It grows and it continues to
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  grow. And it says that it grows in multiplication, some thirtyfold, some
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  sixtyfold, some one hundred times. Whoever has ears, listen, so let
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  me ask you a question. We see the other types of soil and what
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  went wrong with them, But let me ask you a question. Is there
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  anything in your way today? I'm talking about right now, almost six minutes
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  after the hour, right now, that is holding you up from becoming good
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  soil. God wants your life and your heart to become fertile, to be
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  receptive to His will. Is there anything that you are putting up as a
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  barrier to having your life become great soil for the growth of His word in
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  your life, for the benefit of others, and for connection with God.
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  It's something that we need, with which we need to contend. And so
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  what we want to do is look for just a few of some life lessons.
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  I'm not going to necessarily interpret every detail. But today we are going
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  to focus on life lessons. Let's go with five from this parable. The
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  first one is be receptive to God's word. I already preempted myself here,
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  and I'm going again to verse eight. But the other seed fell on good
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  soil and produced grain, sprouting and growing, some yielding thirty times as much,
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  some sixty, and some one hundred times. So the lesson here is
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  that we should be preparing our hearts to be receptive to God's word like good
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  soil, so that the word can take root. It won't stay on the
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  surface, but it will take root and then begin to grow. How we
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  treat people will be a manifestation of whether this truth is growing in our lives.
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  How we respond to God's truth, whether we will yield our will and
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  do his words, or we'll explain them away as if they're not important,
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  that we will explain away our responsibilities. It will be an indicator of whether
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  we are accepting of God's word, and if it is growing. Here's another
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  one, gard against superficial acceptance from verses five and six. And some fell
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  on stony ground where it had not much earth, and immediately sprang up because
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  it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, it
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  was scorched because it had no root, and it withered away. So we
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  shouldn't be okay with surface understanding, surface acceptance, doing the bare minimum.
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  Some people live at the bare minimum status quo. Where God is concerned,
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  He's saying, no, I'm giving you the privilege to be fertile, receptive
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  soil, so that the status quo will not be good enough, that everything
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  that I desire for you will become fruitful in your life. Number three,
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  Resist distractions and temptation. Verse seven. And some fell on thorns, and
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  thorns among thorns, and thorns grew up and choked it and yielded no fruit.
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  And so we are to resist, by God's grace, by yielding our
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  will to God, submitting ourselves therefore unto God, and resisting the devil,
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  resisting temptation, and he will flee from us. So distractions and temptations.
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  Number four cultivate patience and perseverance from verse h and another and verse eight.
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  Again, another fell on good ground, and it yielded these increases. Yes,
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  and so there are times that we need to wait. The seed has
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  to germinate, it has to grow and only people who persevere will see the
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  outcome. And then, finally, the outcome is what we want to focus
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  on. Expect a rich harvest if we are fertile ground. Despite the risks
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  of potential failures. There is a promise that if we will yield our will
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  to God, then his word will yield much fruit. Peace. Thanks for
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  joining us listening. Friends. Always remember we cannot live by bread alone,
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  but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. This has been
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  your daily portion with el David Harris. Make it a great day. Yeah,