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Tasting-a-Sample-Learning-Where-We-Fit-in · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: You have a copy of the Scriptures in your hands,
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Speaker 1: please turn to the second book of the New Testament,
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Speaker 1: the Gospel by Mark, and locate chapter four in that
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Speaker 1: Gospel account. This is where Jesus begins to tell stories
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Speaker 1: that are called in the Scriptures parables. You'll find an
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Speaker 1: outline in your worship holder you may unfold and use
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Speaker 1: for your convenience as we work our way through this parable,
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Speaker 1: applying the things we have learned in recent days, as
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Speaker 1: it relates to learning how to study the Bible for ourselves. Observation, interpretation, correlation,
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Speaker 1: and then application. We observe what it says, we interpret
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Speaker 1: what it means, and then we correlate what it says
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Speaker 1: elsewhere about the same subject for the sake of amplification
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Speaker 1: and clarification, and then ultimately we apply it. And this
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Speaker 1: is helpful because in this case Jesus interprets it for us,
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Speaker 1: so you don't have to rely on anyone else's. We'll
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Speaker 1: simply read what he says, and then he'll tell us
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Speaker 1: what he means. Next time we're together, we want to
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Speaker 1: look at Acts seventeen, where the apostle Paul stands before
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Speaker 1: a group of people who have never once heard the
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Speaker 1: good news of Jesus as he's standing at Mars Hill,
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Speaker 1: at what is called there the Areopagus, and he delivers
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Speaker 1: his great Mars Hill message. You want to think ahead
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Speaker 1: and read ahead for next time we'll do the same
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Speaker 1: type thing. Then it'll be acts chapter seventeen, toward the
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Speaker 1: middle around verse seventeen all the way to the end
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Speaker 1: of the chapter. We look there, but now it's marked four.
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Speaker 1: Stand with me as we read the scriptures. I'll be
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Speaker 1: reading from the New Living Translation once again. Jesus began
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Speaker 1: teaching by the lake shore. A very large crowd soon
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Speaker 1: gathered around him, so he got into a boat. Then
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Speaker 1: he sat in the boat while all the people remained
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Speaker 1: on the shore. He taught them by telling many stories
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Speaker 1: in the form of parables, such as this one. Listen.
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Speaker 1: A farmer went out to plant some seed. As he
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Speaker 1: scattered it across his field. Some of the seed fell
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Speaker 1: on the footpath and the birds came and ate it.
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Speaker 1: Other seed fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The
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Speaker 1: seed sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow, but the
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Speaker 1: plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since it
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Speaker 1: did not have roots, it died. Other seed fell among
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Speaker 1: thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants,
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Speaker 1: so they produced no grain. Still, other seeds fell on
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Speaker 1: fertile soil, and they sprouted, grew, and produced a crop
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Speaker 1: that was thirty, sixty and even a hundred times as
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Speaker 1: much as had been planted. Then he said, anyone with
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Speaker 1: ears to hear should listen and understand verse thirteen. Then
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Speaker 1: Jesus said to them, if you can't understand the meaning
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Speaker 1: of this parable, how would you understand all the other parables?
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Speaker 1: The farmer plants by taking God's word to others. The
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Speaker 1: seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear
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Speaker 1: the message, only to have Satan come at once and
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Speaker 1: take it away. The seed on the rocky soil represents
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Speaker 1: those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy,
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Speaker 1: But since they don't have roots, they don't last long.
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Speaker 1: They fall away as soon as they have problems or
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Speaker 1: are persecuted for believing God's word. The seed that fell
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Speaker 1: among the thorns represents others who hear God's word, but
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Speaker 1: all too quickly the message is crowded out by the
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Speaker 1: worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the
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Speaker 1: desire for other things, so no fruit is produced, and
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Speaker 1: the sea that fell on good soil represents those who
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Speaker 1: hear and accept God's word and produce a harvest of
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Speaker 1: thirty sixty or even one hundred times as much as
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Speaker 1: had been planted. What a pleasure it will be today
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Speaker 1: to hear what Jesus said, and then to see how
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Speaker 1: he interprets his own words. You may be seated. Centuries
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Speaker 1: ago there lived an old monk who carried out his
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Speaker 1: ministry and responsibilities as far back as the twelfth century.
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Speaker 1: He was known simply as Brother Bernard, came to be
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Speaker 1: known in the later years as Bernard of Clervaux. He
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Speaker 1: leaves in his legacy from a Latin poem, a piece
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Speaker 1: of music that has found its way into our hymnal
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Speaker 1: thanks to Johann Sebashtchenbach, who adds the harmony to this
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Speaker 1: magnificent piece. We know it to day as O sacred head,
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Speaker 1: now wounded with grief and shame, weighed down with thorns,
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Speaker 1: the scornfully surrounded thy holy brow, O sacred Head, What glory,
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Speaker 1: what joy till now was mine? And though despised and gory,
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Speaker 1: a joy to call THEE mine? What language can I
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Speaker 1: borrow to thank thee dearest friend for this thy dying sorrow,
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Speaker 1: and all of that reminds us of the Savior who
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Speaker 1: died for us. You'll observe something interesting about the cross.
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Speaker 1: No one hangs on it. The reason is obvious, because
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Speaker 1: the one who hung there took our sin. We sang
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Speaker 1: of that in an earlier hymn, My sin, Oh the
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Speaker 1: bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part.
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Speaker 1: But the hole is nailed to the cross. I bear
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Speaker 1: it no more. Praise the Lord, oh my soul. Your
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Speaker 1: sins may plague you that they have been paid for
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Speaker 1: by one who died in your place, But there is
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Speaker 1: no automatic change that overcomes you because you hear that,
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Speaker 1: or you see across empty of a body. That takes
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Speaker 1: place because you act upon the truth of it when
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Speaker 1: you trust in the one Bernard wrote of as far
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Speaker 1: back as the twelfth century, or Bach adds his part too,
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Speaker 1: as far back as the eighteenth century, or one even
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Speaker 1: in the twentieth century would write about having lost four
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Speaker 1: of his children in a death at sea. Today, you
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Speaker 1: need to know that Jesus Christ's death for you is
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Speaker 1: a sufficient payment for all of your sins. He paid
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Speaker 1: the price that you wouldn't have to answer for them
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Speaker 1: before God. You can live and you can die free
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Speaker 1: of guilt and shame by trusting in Christ. What a
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Speaker 1: wondrous thing to do? Is we bow for prayer? Together?
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Speaker 1: Will you close your eyes with me? How grateful we
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Speaker 1: are our Father for that sacred head, those hands and
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Speaker 1: feet wounded for our transgressions, and that body bruised for
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Speaker 1: our iniquities. How thankful we are that the chastisement for
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Speaker 1: our peace fell upon him, and through his stripes we
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Speaker 1: are healed. We sit before you today as a body
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Speaker 1: of worshippers, healed and full of gratitude for it. Ah.
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Speaker 1: But there are those yet who come today and watch
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Speaker 1: these things occur, wondering what life must be like to
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Speaker 1: be forgiven, cleansed, and healed. We pray they will not
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Speaker 1: leave as they have come in, but they will in
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Speaker 1: this time trust your Son as their savior and master.
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Speaker 1: How grateful we are for the message we have to proclaim.
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Speaker 1: And as we acknowledge all four kinds of soil represented
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Speaker 1: in this very body today, we pray that You will
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Speaker 1: enable each person here to find herself or himself in
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Speaker 1: that soil and come to terms with that and respond appropriately.
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Speaker 1: Our gifts are given today, confident that every dime will
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Speaker 1: be handled with integrity and spent with wisdom for the
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Speaker 1: greater glory of our Savior, that sacred head now wounded
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Speaker 1: for us. In his name we give and we pray.
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Speaker 1: And everyone said, anyone who travels to the land of
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Speaker 1: Israel must visit the Mount of Beatitudes. It's a gently
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Speaker 1: rising slope that comes from the north edge of the
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Speaker 1: Sea of Galilee and rises up to a crest. It's
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Speaker 1: believed that the now famous sermonal Amount that Jesus preached
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Speaker 1: was delivered from that mound. At the top of that hill,
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Speaker 1: looking down onto the sea itself, the sea forms a
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Speaker 1: quiet bay called the Bay of Parables, appropriately because it's
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Speaker 1: believed that when Jesus was involved in his Galilean ministry,
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Speaker 1: it was there that he shared many of the parables
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Speaker 1: that have found their way into the book of God
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Speaker 1: called the Scriptures. It is precisely there Jesus was with
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Speaker 1: his friends who had gathered to share the story that
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Speaker 1: appears in Mark chapter four. Interesting thing about it is
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Speaker 1: that this particular terrain provides a perfect amphitheater, so that
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Speaker 1: the acoustics are boosted. Of course, without any use of
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Speaker 1: amplification through microphones or speakers, the voice of an individual
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Speaker 1: can be heard even among a large group. British theologian
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Speaker 1: James Edwards Wright is Israeli scientists have verified that the
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Speaker 1: Bay of Parables can transmit a human voice to several
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Speaker 1: thousand people on the shore. Following our first morning service today,
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Speaker 1: my longtime friend Wayne Styles, who is a vital part
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Speaker 1: of our Insight for Living ministry and a real lover
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Speaker 1: of the land of Israel, said that in one of
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Speaker 1: his trips recently, they gave that a try. He stood
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Speaker 1: at the shoreline and had a number of the people
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Speaker 1: in his group gather along the slope up here, and
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Speaker 1: he said, I spoke in just a conversational tone, and
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Speaker 1: every word could be heard by those who were there.
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Speaker 1: That's the setting for this. Literally, there was a small
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Speaker 1: fishing boat nearby. They are still there on occasion when
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Speaker 1: you visit Israel. But in those days people made their
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Speaker 1: living from the water, as they would fish the waters
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Speaker 1: of Galilee. And he pulled up alongside one of those
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Speaker 1: little boats. And to make it even more intriguing, we
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Speaker 1: noticed that Jesus doesn't simply stand at the seashore. He
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Speaker 1: gets into the fishing boat, pushes out near the shoreline,
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Speaker 1: and sits in the boat, using the boat, if you will,
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Speaker 1: as a pulpit for him to deliver his story to
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Speaker 1: these who have gathered. And they've gathered spontaneously. No one
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Speaker 1: had a scroll tucked under the arm. No one had
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Speaker 1: a copy of the ancient scriptures. They were a group
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Speaker 1: that came most likely from around Galilee, perhaps as far
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Speaker 1: away as his boyhood home of Nazareth, or maybe up
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Speaker 1: nearer Herman, the mountainous area, or Philippi, maybe from those regions.
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Speaker 1: The crowd gathered, and we read it's a very large crowd.
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Speaker 1: Now because of all of that, he tells a story.
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Speaker 1: Everyone loves a story. We're intrigued by the characters in
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Speaker 1: the story are Our interest is piqued by the plot
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Speaker 1: as it turns, and it's intriguing orbit and brings you
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Speaker 1: to a conclusion that you don't expect. You see, in
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Speaker 1: every parable there is at least one major spiritual lesson,
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Speaker 1: and you never want to miss that lesson. There may
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Speaker 1: be others you could draw, but there's one especially important
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Speaker 1: lesson that is not stated. But as you examine the story,
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Speaker 1: you learn and see the lesson. I remember as a
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Speaker 1: lad when I would be fishing with my father and
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Speaker 1: my maternal grandfather. Would be sitting on my granddad's boat,
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Speaker 1: about a fourteen foot fishing boat, little thirty five horsepower
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Speaker 1: Evan Rude on the back. We would have made our
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Speaker 1: way out to the middle of Kronkaway Bay, a bay
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Speaker 1: that feeds into Matagorda Bay and then on into the
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Speaker 1: Gulf of Mexico. But this little bay usually a quiet
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Speaker 1: body of water, especially in the morning. We would go
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Speaker 1: out long before dawn and we'd put our way out there.
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Speaker 1: My granddad would turn off the motor and we'd cast out.
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Speaker 1: In those days, I couldn't even cast, so I used
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Speaker 1: a fishing pole and I'd drop my line in the
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Speaker 1: water and we'd sit there. As your line landed, it
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Speaker 1: would make little ringlets in the water, just if it
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Speaker 1: was called a slick. When water is that still, it's
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Speaker 1: called a slick. And in that slick, when there were
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Speaker 1: other boats, sometimes hundreds of yards away, you could hear
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Speaker 1: everything they said. It was eavesdropping at its best. They
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Speaker 1: didn't know we were listening, and my dad would say, listen, son,
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Speaker 1: you'll learn a lot ivenue. You know why because because
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Speaker 1: voices carried across the water, we who transmit over radio
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Speaker 1: airways have learned that if there is a transmitter on
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Speaker 1: an island, it will carry literally thousands of miles sometime
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Speaker 1: to a mainland where we're not allowed to have a transmitter.
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Speaker 1: But because it's on an island and there is the
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Speaker 1: transmission of the sound across water the surface of the water,
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Speaker 1: it is able to carry clearly in that way, much
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Speaker 1: easier and better than across the land. But enough of that,
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Speaker 1: we come to the story, and we want to observe
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Speaker 1: and interpret and correlate and apply, just as we're learning
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Speaker 1: to do in our method of Bible study. Together, I
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Speaker 1: wanted you to have a couple of examples of our
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Speaker 1: doing this. So right here before us is our place
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Speaker 1: to work. If you're sitting at home, at your desk
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Speaker 1: or in your living room, and maybe at your kitchen table,
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Speaker 1: you would open your Bible to mark chapter four and
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Speaker 1: you'd begin to read it. We observe the scriptures by
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Speaker 1: seeing what the scriptures say. So we read Jesus began
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Speaker 1: teaching by the lake shore, so you know exactly where
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Speaker 1: he is by the lake shore. A very large crowd
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Speaker 1: soon gathered. So he got into a boat. Maybe the
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Speaker 1: crowd was so large it pressed against him almost to
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Speaker 1: the water. And to get in the boat is to
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Speaker 1: give a little bit of space between the ones speaking
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Speaker 1: and the one's hearing. So here he is in a boat,
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Speaker 1: and he sits down by the way. He rarely spoke.
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Speaker 1: Standing up Standing to preach came into vogue later in time,
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Speaker 1: but to this day often rabbis will sit to teach.
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Speaker 1: In those days, the rabbi the teacher always sat, and
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Speaker 1: he sat down one among them in the boat, and
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Speaker 1: we read while the people remain on the shore. He
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Speaker 1: taught them. Now how did he do that? Read for
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Speaker 1: yourself by telling many stories in the form of parables.
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Speaker 1: If you're reading, you're on your own. You come to
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Speaker 1: a word that's not familiar to you. If you don't
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Speaker 1: know your Bible, and there are many who don't, there's
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Speaker 1: no shame in that. You want to learn your Bible.
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Speaker 1: And so when you come to a word like this,
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Speaker 1: you look it up. You find some thing interesting. You
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Speaker 1: will find that parable is a word from the Greek
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Speaker 1: parah ballow. And I will tell you para means beside
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Speaker 1: and think of a ball, it means to throw. The
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Speaker 1: verb bellow is to place or to throw something. And
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Speaker 1: when you put them together, you're putting something alongside something else.
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Speaker 1: You're placing it alongside something else for the purpose of comparison.
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Speaker 1: Now you hear me tell you that, and you think, Oh,
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Speaker 1: I wish I was a scholar like you are. I
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Speaker 1: am not a scholar. I simply have books that give
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Speaker 1: me that information. And then I tell you what the
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Speaker 1: books say, and you think I'm a scholar. All I'm
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Speaker 1: doing is reading and remembering or having written down what
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Speaker 1: was written in the New Hunger Bible Dictionary. You can
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Speaker 1: buy one for yourself. When you do find p Am
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Speaker 1: I going too fast, locate parable and you will read
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Speaker 1: parabllo to lay by the side of to compare so
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Speaker 1: as to see the likeness or similarity. You can read
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Speaker 1: it for yourself. You can own a few books, or
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Speaker 1: you may wish to get online and purchase logofs, and
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Speaker 1: you will have a number of resources you can use.
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Speaker 1: And when you get serious about Bible study, you will
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Speaker 1: no longer be satisfied simply to sit with a Bible
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Speaker 1: in your lap. You'll want to have a pad of
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Speaker 1: paper and you'll want to begin to take notes. I
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Speaker 1: do that every time I study. I have yellow tablets.
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Speaker 1: I don't know why, but they have to be yellow.
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Speaker 1: Part of my being anal. You have to be a
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Speaker 1: certain ritual and minor yellow, and I certain colors that
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Speaker 1: represent certain things. But I'll write my notes on this
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Speaker 1: piece of paper. From those notes, I transfer to what
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Speaker 1: become my sermon. It is not rocket science. If it
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Speaker 1: were rocket science, I couldn't do it. But because it's simple,
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Speaker 1: I've developed a method that works. So I'm like you today.
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Speaker 1: I'm reading this and I'm learning while I'm reading what
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Speaker 1: it says. He's by a lake, He's in a boat.
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Speaker 1: A big crowd has gathered. He sits down, and he
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Speaker 1: begins to teach them. Now, I've also made an observation.
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Speaker 1: I've observed that he mentions, or someone mentions Mark and
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Speaker 1: others in this chapter the word listen or hear, or
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Speaker 1: pay attention or pay close attention, which is a part
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Speaker 1: of observation. Your mind can't drift to the ball game
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Speaker 1: this afternoon, or to what's for supper, or to something.
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Speaker 1: It work if you're going to get something out of
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Speaker 1: the scriptures, So you pray for the ability to concentrate
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Speaker 1: and to think, to listen, to pay close attention, because
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Speaker 1: every word Jesus uses is important. Unlike us, he doesn't
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Speaker 1: run down rabbit trails, He doesn't use words that just
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Speaker 1: kind of fill in the blanks. He uses words that
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Speaker 1: are significant. Not one is wasted. So we're going to observe.
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Speaker 1: We're going to listen to what he's saying. Now that
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Speaker 1: we know where he is by the shorelon, We're going
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Speaker 1: to observe that he is teaching them from a story.
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Speaker 1: Let me go just a little further, and then we'll
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Speaker 1: move on into the story. A parable is always an
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Speaker 1: earthy story. It's told to communicate a spirit vitual message.
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Speaker 1: So something that is familiar to the hearer or the
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Speaker 1: reader is placed before us so that we might understand
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Speaker 1: a spiritual truth that is not familiar. When you illustrate something,
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Speaker 1: you illustrate it based on the familiar, so that the
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Speaker 1: unfamiliar can become known. If I want to illustrate gravity,
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Speaker 1: I will I will not use some law from nuclear
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Speaker 1: science to teach gravity. Both of those are virtually unknown
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Speaker 1: to the average person. I might take a football to
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Speaker 1: illustrate gravity, or I might take something like something that
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Speaker 1: that that weighs, maybe an iron that you would iron
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Speaker 1: clothes with to illustrate gravity. You use the familiar to
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Speaker 1: illustrate the unfamiliar. Now, when you read parables, you find
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Speaker 1: such familiar things as fish, coins, animals, everyday life situations,
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Speaker 1: a wayward sun called a prodigal son, royalty banquets, a
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Speaker 1: rich person, a poor person. You see, all of those
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Speaker 1: things are familiar to everybody. Now in this parable, farming
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Speaker 1: is the foundation of the story. So we're going to
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Speaker 1: listen carefully. A farmer went out to plant some seed. Stop,
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Speaker 1: I just stop right there. It's an unfamiliar scene to
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Speaker 1: most people in this gathering today if you have never farmed.
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Speaker 1: I have never farmed. I've worked on a farm just
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Speaker 1: long enough to know I don't want to work on
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Speaker 1: a farm for the rest of my life. It is
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Speaker 1: hard work. I don't know that I've ever seen a
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Speaker 1: farmer plant seed, and at this age you would think
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Speaker 1: I have. But it's an unfamiliar scene to me. I
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Speaker 1: certainly haven't seen how they planted seed back in the
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Speaker 1: first century, which may surprise some of you. And here
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Speaker 1: are those farmers. They have no equipment, they're reaching their
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Speaker 1: hand in a bag and they're scattering. They're broadcasting the
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Speaker 1: seed all around, reaching here. They're throwing seed here and
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Speaker 1: there as they walk along the soil of their farm.
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Speaker 1: Very familiar to first century people. So get this. He's
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Speaker 1: placing something familiar in their minds so they will learn
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Speaker 1: something unfamiliar. Got it. If you going to teach through
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Speaker 1: illustration or through analogy, you start with something familiar. It
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Speaker 1: may be a mirror, it may be something that is
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Speaker 1: familiar to everybody, but you're going to use it to
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Speaker 1: teach something else. I love the way Warren Weirsby describes
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Speaker 1: the parable parables start off like pictures and then become
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Speaker 1: mirrors and then become windows. First there is sight as
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Speaker 1: we see a slice of life in the picture. Then
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Speaker 1: there is insight as we see ourselves in the mirror.
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Speaker 1: And then there's vision as we look through the window
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Speaker 1: of revelation and see the Lord. That great it is,
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Speaker 1: It is really great. Some of you are going, what
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Speaker 1: it's a it's a it's a picture that turns into
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Speaker 1: a mirror and becomes a window. How good is that?
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Speaker 1: That kind of story deserves my attention. I want to first,
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Speaker 1: I want to first see the picture and I picture
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Speaker 1: it in my mind from the words on the page.
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Speaker 1: Then I want to turn the picture on the other
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Speaker 1: side and see the mirror. I see myself in the
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Speaker 1: mirror in light of the picture and what it says.
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Speaker 1: Then from that it turns into a framed window through
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Speaker 1: which I see the Lord at work. We're gonna listen
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Speaker 1: to all three today without ever referring again to Wheresby's quote,
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Speaker 1: which is just excellent. However, ten times in this chapter
28:55
Speaker 1: I've counted them. We are told to hear, We're told
28:58
Speaker 1: to listen, to pay attention, to pay close attention. We
29:03
Speaker 1: are told to understand. So while we ask you not
29:07
Speaker 1: to overanalyze, I do urge you to listen carefully. Why
29:13
Speaker 1: do I do that, Because that's Jesus opening command. In
29:16
Speaker 1: verse three, we would say, listen up, listen up, everybody,
29:23
Speaker 1: pay attention. You'll never get the spiritual lesson if you
29:28
Speaker 1: don't pay attention to what he's saying. So allow me
29:33
Speaker 1: to read the story. A farmer went out to plant
29:37
Speaker 1: some seed. Now make your observations as I read through it.
29:41
Speaker 1: If you had a notepad, you could write them down
29:44
Speaker 1: as he scattered it across his field. Some of the
29:47
Speaker 1: seed fell on a footpath and the birds came and
29:52
Speaker 1: ate it. Picture it in your mind. Picture an ancient
29:57
Speaker 1: farmer as he's sowing the seed, reaching his hand in
30:01
Speaker 1: a bag and casting the seed, broadcasting it around, and
30:06
Speaker 1: the birds is smart enough to know some of the
30:08
Speaker 1: seed is right now on the ground. It's time to eat.
30:12
Speaker 1: And they are fluttering and they're cackling and screaming as
30:17
Speaker 1: the birds can do, as they realize all the seed
30:20
Speaker 1: is going on the ground, and the birds come and
30:23
Speaker 1: they begin to eat it. Very familiar scene to farmers.
30:27
Speaker 1: Maybe Jesus pointed over to the other hill besides that
30:32
Speaker 1: when they're at the Sea of Galilee, and he said
30:34
Speaker 1: that farmer right now he is sowing seed and they
30:38
Speaker 1: could look and they could see that. So it may
30:40
Speaker 1: have been a living example. We don't know, but it's
30:44
Speaker 1: a familiar scene, and so he's scattering the scenes. The
30:48
Speaker 1: birds come and they eat it up. Now's a second
30:52
Speaker 1: part of it. Other seed fell on shallow soil with
30:57
Speaker 1: underlying rock. So there's a shelf of dirt, a little
31:01
Speaker 1: bit of soil, and underneath it is a solid rock.
31:05
Speaker 1: I saw where they're digging over here, not far away,
31:07
Speaker 1: right here, in Frisco, and I saw a huge pile
31:11
Speaker 1: of rock. You know why, because the soil in that
31:15
Speaker 1: area is filled with rocks, and as you dig into
31:19
Speaker 1: that area, it's tough digging because it is rocky soil.
31:23
Speaker 1: I thought of this, and they had that in the
31:26
Speaker 1: days of the Lord Jesus. Some of the farmers that
31:30
Speaker 1: cast their seed had some of the seed fall on
31:33
Speaker 1: rocky soil, soil with rock beneath it. There's a reason,
31:38
Speaker 1: he says. It will get to that in a moment.
31:40
Speaker 1: The seed sprowded quickly because the soil was shallow. Keep reading,
31:45
Speaker 1: but the plant soon wilted under the hot sun. And
31:50
Speaker 1: since very important to note, it didn't have roofs. It died.
32:01
Speaker 1: The Greek says it didn't have roots, but your Bible,
32:06
Speaker 1: maybe the new American standard version, will say it had
32:10
Speaker 1: no roots. So the seed fell and even before it
32:15
Speaker 1: could germinate and take root, it dies because it doesn't
32:21
Speaker 1: have roots. It lies in the soil, it's very shallow,
32:27
Speaker 1: and it doesn't last because of the heat that burns
32:30
Speaker 1: on it. And it's in that area that is really
32:33
Speaker 1: a desert. Without the addition of water, it dies out.
32:38
Speaker 1: There's a third part of the story, keep reading, keep observing.
32:43
Speaker 1: Other seed fell among thorns that grew up and choked
32:46
Speaker 1: out the tender plants. Now, let me get real practical.
32:50
Speaker 1: If I were studying this as I have this week,
32:54
Speaker 1: I would have a piece of paper just like this.
32:57
Speaker 1: I do my work with pen and paper, and so
33:00
Speaker 1: I'm doing it on a computer. You may prefer that.
33:02
Speaker 1: And I would make a list number one shallow soil,
33:07
Speaker 1: and I would describe the soil number two. I would
33:10
Speaker 1: put rocky soil number three. I would put the forny
33:14
Speaker 1: soil number four, the good soalt, fertile soil, and I
33:18
Speaker 1: would make my observations right on that piece of paper.
33:21
Speaker 1: It isn't It isn't rocket science. Folks. You can do that.
33:26
Speaker 1: You can do that kind of work. And believe me,
33:31
Speaker 1: when you do that kind of work, you do more
33:33
Speaker 1: than most Christians do in their lifetime. Most people do
33:38
Speaker 1: not ever pull out a pen with a pad and
33:41
Speaker 1: sit down with their Bible open and write their thoughts down.
33:45
Speaker 1: But students of the scriptures who wanted, who want to
33:49
Speaker 1: stabilize their life, take the word of God that seriously,
33:53
Speaker 1: and this is just that logical that organized soil one,
33:58
Speaker 1: soil two soil three Sol four. So the third soil
34:01
Speaker 1: is what for the soil, And it grew up and
34:05
Speaker 1: choked out the tender plants. They produced no grain. So
34:10
Speaker 1: it's got plants that grow, but there's no production. There's
34:14
Speaker 1: no fruit that follows. Why well, because the thorns are
34:21
Speaker 1: there and they choke out the tender plants. Exactly what
34:25
Speaker 1: you read from what Jesus said. Now look at verse eight.
34:30
Speaker 1: Here's the fourth kind of soil. Still, other seeds fell
34:34
Speaker 1: on fertile soil. On my piece of paper, I write
34:37
Speaker 1: fertile soil, and I write verse eight, and I see
34:43
Speaker 1: that the fertile soil causes the seed to fall into it.
34:49
Speaker 1: The seed takes root, germinates, sprouts, and grows and produces
34:58
Speaker 1: a crop, some of them thirtyfold, some sixteen, some even
35:04
Speaker 1: one hundred times as much as had been planted. Then
35:08
Speaker 1: he said, anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand. Okay,
35:16
Speaker 1: all of you have been good to listen. You've heard
35:21
Speaker 1: the words that were spoken. Jesus taught them in my Bible.
35:24
Speaker 1: They're in red. So these are the words of Jesus.
35:29
Speaker 1: But what do they mean? Now we move to interpretation
35:35
Speaker 1: and the good news is. You don't have to listen
35:37
Speaker 1: to me interpret it. We'll hear the one who told
35:40
Speaker 1: the story interpret it. Our Lord found any number of
35:46
Speaker 1: truths in the common things of life, all of which
35:49
Speaker 1: are designed to lead us to God, if we will
35:53
Speaker 1: only see them and read them in the pictures he paints,
35:59
Speaker 1: which become mire and reveal himself to us through the windows.
36:06
Speaker 1: All of this is here, and if you're not careful,
36:09
Speaker 1: you'll race on to the next chapter. The Bible doesn't
36:15
Speaker 1: yield its fruit to the hurried or the lazy mind.
36:20
Speaker 1: You have to think, You have to concentrate. That's why
36:26
Speaker 1: he says, pay attention, listen, there's truth here for you.
36:35
Speaker 1: So verse ten, when Jesus was alone with the twelve disciples,
36:43
Speaker 1: read something interesting here. The twelve disciples and with the
36:49
Speaker 1: others who were gathered around, they ask him what the
36:54
Speaker 1: peril means? Understand the soil. Understand farmer. I've seen that
37:01
Speaker 1: all through my growing up years in this agricultural area.
37:07
Speaker 1: I know what you're getting at. What's with the soil
37:10
Speaker 1: and the seed? Verse thirteen. Now all the guesswork is
37:16
Speaker 1: taken out of it. If you were on your own
37:19
Speaker 1: at home doing this study, it would be more difficult
37:22
Speaker 1: than this. But this is a good one to turn to,
37:25
Speaker 1: because the passage itself answers it for us. Watch closely,
37:31
Speaker 1: Jesus said to them verse thirteen. If you can't understand
37:36
Speaker 1: the meaning of this parable, how will you understand all
37:40
Speaker 1: the other parables? Great question? In other words, there is
37:46
Speaker 1: a pattern here that is like all the other parables,
37:52
Speaker 1: this analogy, this similitude, that you will find in the story.
37:57
Speaker 1: Just as you see it here, you will see it
37:59
Speaker 1: in all the parables that I will tell you. You want
38:03
Speaker 1: to look for those things that are represented in the obvious,
38:08
Speaker 1: the familiar. I give you a warning now before we
38:13
Speaker 1: go any further, because it will be your tendency, especially
38:17
Speaker 1: those of us who are detailed minded, be careful about
38:21
Speaker 1: trying to make every picking part of the story significant.
38:28
Speaker 1: Let some of it go focus on the essential, but
38:33
Speaker 1: don't try to make it walk on all fours. If
38:36
Speaker 1: you do, you'll be you'll have paralysis of analysis. You'll
38:41
Speaker 1: get lost in the detail, and you'll miss the fact
38:44
Speaker 1: you're looking for the main lesson. Jesus was a master teacher.
38:50
Speaker 1: He doesn't have them open their bibles because they don't
38:52
Speaker 1: have a Bible. He doesn't say, unrolled a scroll because
38:56
Speaker 1: they don't have scrolls. They're sitting there here. Bring him,
39:00
Speaker 1: many of them for the first time, and suddenly they're
39:02
Speaker 1: interested because of a story that connects with the familiar
39:08
Speaker 1: world in which they live. Communication at its best, so
39:14
Speaker 1: Jesus says, in effect, let me help you. He doesn't
39:17
Speaker 1: shame them by saying, well, maybe you'll never learn. He says,
39:22
Speaker 1: now listen carefully, and I'll unload, unfold, unpack the story,
39:29
Speaker 1: and let's let him do that. Verse fourteen. The farmer
39:37
Speaker 1: plants seed by taking God's word to others. Stop right there.
39:49
Speaker 1: He's mentioned the seed several times. Be where. He's done
39:53
Speaker 1: the seed here, and he's thrown the seed there. The
39:56
Speaker 1: seed doesn't change. The seed is the same on forny
39:59
Speaker 1: so oil as it is on the hard path, as
40:02
Speaker 1: it is on fertile soil. The seed, what is the seed? Closely?
40:10
Speaker 1: The seed is God's word. You see it. It's like
40:16
Speaker 1: finding that arrow in fed X. Some of you are
40:19
Speaker 1: still looking for that arrow. Had a couple say to
40:23
Speaker 1: me today, there is no arrow in FedEx. They'll see
40:28
Speaker 1: one day and they'll go WHOA. He wasn't lying there
40:31
Speaker 1: is an error there. Person told me you can see
40:35
Speaker 1: Amazon from A to z dot com and there's a
40:40
Speaker 1: little sweep underneath that takes you from A to Z
40:43
Speaker 1: in Amazon. I've never seen that before. So something to
40:47
Speaker 1: learn every day, something to learn about seed, not rocket science.
40:54
Speaker 1: It's God's word. So before we go any further, when
40:59
Speaker 1: you share cris with someone else, you're planting seed. When
41:05
Speaker 1: I stand and preach, I'm planting seed. When a good
41:09
Speaker 1: teacher stands in front of a class, she shares the
41:13
Speaker 1: word of God, and she is planting seed. The one
41:18
Speaker 1: you attend, the class you atend, he may stand and
41:20
Speaker 1: deliver the word of God. He is planting seed. The
41:24
Speaker 1: seed is the same all the way through. It is
41:28
Speaker 1: the word of God. And will you please remember that
41:33
Speaker 1: good teachers stay with the seed. They stay with the seed.
41:40
Speaker 1: Don't change the seed, don't look for another brand. The
41:45
Speaker 1: seed is the Bible, the Word of God. I love
41:51
Speaker 1: the way Walt Kaiser refers to this. This word focus
41:59
Speaker 1: in the pulpit is the defining mark of all true exposition.
42:07
Speaker 1: Those who preach and teach the Word are to be
42:10
Speaker 1: so deeply rooted and grounded in the scriptures that they
42:14
Speaker 1: never depart from them ever directing themselves as well as
42:19
Speaker 1: their listeners to its truths. Biblical preaching should be just
42:25
Speaker 1: that biblical he goes on. But this biblical prescription is
42:31
Speaker 1: an unknown remedy for many preachers today. In their zeal
42:37
Speaker 1: to lead popular and successful ministries, many are becoming less
42:42
Speaker 1: concerned with pointing to the Biblical texts. Their use of
42:47
Speaker 1: the Bible is much like the singing of the national
42:50
Speaker 1: anthem before a ballgame. By the way, that's an analogy.
42:56
Speaker 1: Everybody's been at a ballgame where they sung the national anthem.
43:00
Speaker 1: Now stay with this thought. It is merely something to
43:04
Speaker 1: be heard at the beginning, but never referenced again, a
43:08
Speaker 1: necessary preliminary that almost becomes an awkward intrusion to the
43:13
Speaker 1: real event. In their attempt to be contemporary and relevant,
43:19
Speaker 1: many pastors talk about the scriptures, but sadly, they rarely
43:24
Speaker 1: speak from the scriptures. You are hearing exposition when your
43:31
Speaker 1: face is regularly turned toward the scriptures, when you find
43:35
Speaker 1: yourself lost without a Bible, as the preacher or the
43:39
Speaker 1: teacher is declaring the truth, the seed is being sown,
43:44
Speaker 1: but you're missing it because you don't have a copy
43:47
Speaker 1: of the seed in front of you. That's why I
43:50
Speaker 1: say to you when you come, one thing you need
43:53
Speaker 1: to bring always is a copy of the Word of God.
43:57
Speaker 1: Because when we sow the seed, we are sowing the
44:00
Speaker 1: word of God. So that's what the seed means. Okay,
44:04
Speaker 1: read on. The seed that fell on the footpath represents.
44:12
Speaker 1: So Now we have the soil, and there are four
44:15
Speaker 1: different kinds of soil. You know what. The soil represents
44:20
Speaker 1: the condition of your heart, your inner being. All four
44:27
Speaker 1: of these kinds of soil are represented right here in
44:31
Speaker 1: our gathering today. All four. Some of you have hard soil.
44:39
Speaker 1: I'll explain it in the moment. Some of you have
44:41
Speaker 1: rocky soil, your conditioned with it. Some of you have
44:46
Speaker 1: forny soil. I'll explain that Jesus actually does the explaining.
44:51
Speaker 1: And some of you have fertile soil. So let's look
44:56
Speaker 1: at all four as we see the unfolding, he describes
45:01
Speaker 1: the meaning of this story. So we get to the
45:06
Speaker 1: hard path, the footpath. Look at what it represents. Read
45:11
Speaker 1: it for yourself. Verse fifteen. Those who hear the message
45:16
Speaker 1: only to have it to have Satan come at once
45:22
Speaker 1: and take it away. Now you're remembering the story where
45:28
Speaker 1: the farmer is sowing the seed and it's on hard soil.
45:32
Speaker 1: Remember what came and took the seed away in that
45:35
Speaker 1: original story? Got it the birds? In this case, the
45:40
Speaker 1: birds of the story represent Satan. Jesus is interpreting the parable.
45:47
Speaker 1: But as he told the story, he doesn't say the
45:50
Speaker 1: devil comes and takes the seed. He gives them an
45:53
Speaker 1: analogy they can understand. They've all seen birds fluttering around
45:57
Speaker 1: the back of a farmer as he's walking along sewing. See,
46:00
Speaker 1: because they've got a chance for a nice meal, as
46:02
Speaker 1: they pick up all the sea that lays on the
46:04
Speaker 1: hard soil. Now, he says, this represents those with hard soil,
46:12
Speaker 1: hard hearts. These would be people caught in the frenetic
46:18
Speaker 1: traffic of life. Sports media stuff, hands on iPods, iPads,
46:25
Speaker 1: television phones, light flights to catch life is little more
46:31
Speaker 1: than a sports page and a beer and a People magazine,
46:35
Speaker 1: or an appointment at the beauty parlor or a restaurant,
46:39
Speaker 1: or the movies, or hauling the kids here or there.
46:41
Speaker 1: Your heart's hard. I'm not insulting you. I'm simply telling
46:46
Speaker 1: you the truth what no one else may have ever
46:49
Speaker 1: told you. You come to church because that's the thing
46:52
Speaker 1: to do on Sunday. You sit, you listen, it passes.
46:56
Speaker 1: You have no plans whatsoever to have it impact your life.
47:01
Speaker 1: I mean, after all, you're not gonna get fanatic about this,
47:05
Speaker 1: you think. So you look around, You see folks around you,
47:08
Speaker 1: and you think, wow, that's where they are. I'm not
47:10
Speaker 1: like that. You have a hard heart. The seed lies
47:14
Speaker 1: and is taken away by the enemy. Believe me, the
47:17
Speaker 1: enemy doesn't want you to think about it when you
47:19
Speaker 1: go to bed tonight. He don't want you to think
47:23
Speaker 1: about it when you lose your mate or your business
47:27
Speaker 1: goes under. He wants to take away the seed so
47:30
Speaker 1: that you won't have anything to fall back on. And
47:33
Speaker 1: then you start considering life on your own, which leads
47:36
Speaker 1: ultimately to thoughts of suicide. Enemy delights over every suicide.
47:45
Speaker 1: If that's not the journey the Lord would take us on.
47:48
Speaker 1: He gives us a seed so that we could let
47:51
Speaker 1: it come in. Now, let me do a little correlation
47:54
Speaker 1: right quick, so we won't take a lot of time
47:56
Speaker 1: rather than waiting until later. Let me give you an
47:58
Speaker 1: example of a hard heart. A man Felix. He was
48:02
Speaker 1: a governor. You'll read of him in Acts twenty four.
48:05
Speaker 1: So if you take notes, put Acts twenty four twenty
48:07
Speaker 1: two to twenty seven Governor Felix. Felix played around with
48:12
Speaker 1: the message. Paul was a captive. He brought Paul in,
48:16
Speaker 1: had an audience with him. Paul gave the gospel. Felix says, Yah,
48:20
Speaker 1: show him back to his celf, get rid of him,
48:25
Speaker 1: and they brought him back. He was a little bit
48:27
Speaker 1: interested in him, and then he got rid of him
48:28
Speaker 1: later in fact, we read later in Acts twenty four,
48:32
Speaker 1: he left him in prison for two more years. He
48:36
Speaker 1: kind of played with the messenger, but he really wasn't interested.
48:40
Speaker 1: He had a hard heart. He was interested. Felix is
48:43
Speaker 1: a classic example of a hard heart. You have a
48:46
Speaker 1: hard heart when you can continually be around spiritual things
48:50
Speaker 1: and it's never impacting you. Classic example of a hard heart.
48:54
Speaker 1: I'll give you one more example is Alexander the Coppersmith
48:58
Speaker 1: two Timothy, Chapter four, verses fourteen and fifteen. He did
49:02
Speaker 1: me much harm, for he always opposed my message, says
49:06
Speaker 1: the Apostle when he writes his last letter. Alexander was
49:10
Speaker 1: a man with a hard heart, unsaved, uninterested, tolerates it
49:16
Speaker 1: until it's over and sermons are always too long. There's
49:21
Speaker 1: always something far more important than paying attention to this.
49:25
Speaker 1: The seed was sown, but Alexander wanted nothing to do
49:28
Speaker 1: with it. In fact, Paul says, he resisted my ministry
49:35
Speaker 1: from the very start all the way through. In every
49:39
Speaker 1: church there are Alexander's. I don't know why they stay,
49:43
Speaker 1: but they do. And if you are one with a
49:46
Speaker 1: hard heart, you hear, you listen. It makes no difference,
49:50
Speaker 1: and you go right on living as you please. You
49:53
Speaker 1: have not received the gospel, you have not accepted the
49:56
Speaker 1: rebuke or the reproofs of scripture. You are not really
50:00
Speaker 1: interested in your life being changed. You're hardened, but you
50:04
Speaker 1: keep hearing. And the seed falls. But the enemy has
50:08
Speaker 1: taken it away, just virtually as soon as it arrives.
50:13
Speaker 1: After all, I don't want it to get away of
50:17
Speaker 1: my business or my peace of mind. You think you
50:23
Speaker 1: have peace until all hell breaks loose. Then you have
50:28
Speaker 1: no peace, and the seed has been taken. That's the tragedy.
50:34
Speaker 1: Let's go to the second Rocky Soil, Verses sixteen and seventeen.
50:39
Speaker 1: Look in your Bible, look into the Word of God.
50:44
Speaker 1: The seed on the rocky soil represents now you don't
50:48
Speaker 1: have to guess. Those who hear the message immediately receive
50:55
Speaker 1: it with joy. Pay attention to that. So there's a
50:58
Speaker 1: momentary except there's a little joy. But since they don't
51:04
Speaker 1: have not deep roots, that's not a good rendering. Since
51:07
Speaker 1: they have no root. The Greek says, since they have
51:11
Speaker 1: no root, they don't last long. They fall away as
51:17
Speaker 1: soon as they have problems and are persecuted for believing
51:20
Speaker 1: God's word. Here's another type. He or she enjoys brushing
51:24
Speaker 1: alongside other Christians, even toss around a verse or two.
51:29
Speaker 1: Every now and then. You may have what is called
51:35
Speaker 1: some kind of fantastic story from your background, and people
51:40
Speaker 1: think you've had this overnight turnaround in your conversion. And
51:46
Speaker 1: if you're not careful, you'll hit the celebrity trail. Especially
51:50
Speaker 1: if your sins were bad enough to draw a crowd.
51:53
Speaker 1: People will want to hear how bad you were and
51:56
Speaker 1: then find out how much your life has been changed.
51:58
Speaker 1: It's sort of a scintillating, mesmerizing story of your getting religion,
52:05
Speaker 1: but hard times come, persecution arises, and you quickly dump
52:09
Speaker 1: the whole thing. Example of that, I want to suggest Judas.
52:15
Speaker 1: Judas is around it. He plays with a message. He
52:19
Speaker 1: hears the seed, he runs with those that believe it.
52:24
Speaker 1: He's numbered among the disciples, but he turns away as
52:29
Speaker 1: soon as he realizes Jesus isn't going to overthrow the
52:32
Speaker 1: Roman government. He's not going to lead an insurrection. We're
52:35
Speaker 1: not going to be a body of twelve terrorists fighting
52:38
Speaker 1: against the Romans so that we get our freedom back
52:42
Speaker 1: as Zionists, as Israelis and ought to be free. And
52:46
Speaker 1: because Jesus doesn't lead that kind of insurrection, Judas wants
52:49
Speaker 1: nothing more to do with him, and he turns on him,
52:53
Speaker 1: and as you know, he betrays him. Another example for
52:56
Speaker 1: correlation would be John six versus sixty six. I thought
53:01
Speaker 1: that was interesting. Six sixty six means nothing. It just
53:04
Speaker 1: it just occurred to me. John six, verse sixty six,
53:08
Speaker 1: which says many disciples turned away and deserted him. They
53:13
Speaker 1: had been following him to get their bellies fed. They
53:16
Speaker 1: were interested in getting food. That Jesus was turning uh
53:20
Speaker 1: things into food and multiplying the loaves and fish. But
53:24
Speaker 1: when he stopped doing that, they didn't want to follow
53:26
Speaker 1: any longer. So they were those with rocky souls and
53:31
Speaker 1: represented here in this second group, and there are some
53:34
Speaker 1: of you in that category. You hear the word, you
53:39
Speaker 1: don't really take root. The word doesn't really take root
53:43
Speaker 1: in you, but you're you're mesmerized by it, You're attracted
53:47
Speaker 1: to it. You kind of like hanging around people that
53:50
Speaker 1: run with those that believe it. But the truth is,
53:56
Speaker 1: when things get hard, is not going to help you
53:58
Speaker 1: at all, because you're the faith isn't really your faith.
54:02
Speaker 1: It's borrowed faith from someone else. And it kind of
54:06
Speaker 1: fascinates you, but it doesn't stabilize you. It hasn't come
54:11
Speaker 1: anywhere near changing your life. Now it gets very interesting.
54:17
Speaker 1: Now we come to the thorns. Listen, pay attention, busy
54:24
Speaker 1: men and women listen, Verse eighteen. Then there's the seed
54:33
Speaker 1: that fell among thorns, representing others who hear God's word,
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Speaker 1: but all too quickly the message is crowded out. How
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Speaker 1: he tells us, by the worries of this life, by
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Speaker 1: the lure of wealth, that's a great rendering. Epithumia is
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Speaker 1: the Greek word. It means the desire. In this case,
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Speaker 1: it's an evil desire, a desire to get rich. Here's
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Speaker 1: a desire for other things, other thing you're caught up
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Speaker 1: in things. The one who dies with the most toys wins.
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Speaker 1: You like that on your license plate, that represents what
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Speaker 1: you really believe. When nobody's looking you are you are
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Speaker 1: driven to get rich. Nothing wrong with wealth. You who
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Speaker 1: know me well enough, you know better than that. But
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Speaker 1: there's something deceitful about riches, something deceitful, in fact. Let
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Speaker 1: me give you a couple examples. Dan was a single
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Speaker 1: guy living at home with his father and working in
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Speaker 1: the family business when he found out he was going
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Speaker 1: to inherit a fortune when his sickly father died, He
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Speaker 1: decided he needed to find a wife with whom to
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Speaker 1: share his fortune. One evening, at an investment meeting, he
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Speaker 1: spotted the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on.
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Speaker 1: Her natural beauty took his breath away. I may look
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Speaker 1: like just any ordinary guy, he said to her, but
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Speaker 1: in just a few weeks, my father will die and
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Speaker 1: I will inherit two hundred million dollars. Impressed, the woman
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Speaker 1: asked for his business card. Three days later, she became
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Speaker 1: his stepmother. The deceitfulness of riches. Here's another one, like
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Speaker 1: the heart of a young woman, to which a young
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Speaker 1: man once proposed he said darling, Darling, I want you
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Speaker 1: to know that I love you more than anything else
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Speaker 1: in the world. I want you to marry me. We'd
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Speaker 1: have a great life together and rich. I don't have
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Speaker 1: a yacht or a rolls Royce like Johnny Brown. But
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Speaker 1: I do love you with all my heart. She thought
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Speaker 1: for a minute and then replied, and I love you
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Speaker 1: with all my heart too. But tell me more about
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Speaker 1: Johnny Brown. The deceitfulness of riches. You can't hide it
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Speaker 1: down deep inside. It crowds out the truth of Scripture.
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Speaker 1: When the Bible talks to you about sacrifice, it's like
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Speaker 1: an obsea word talks about your giving up your will
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Speaker 1: for the will of the Lord Jesus. Not yet, you're
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Speaker 1: crowded out with the forms and the cares of so
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Speaker 1: many other things. Are you listening? The command is that
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Speaker 1: we listen. Are you hearing this? There are you who
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Speaker 1: are growing up in the thorns of life, and the
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Speaker 1: thorns of life are crowding out the truth of Scripture.
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Speaker 1: The truth is being sown every Sunday. You hear it
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Speaker 1: from this pulpit and every teaching stand in this church.
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Speaker 1: You may hear it from broadcast. That you listen to
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Speaker 1: or telecast you listen to, you're taking in, but it's
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Speaker 1: not really growing because you're like Demus. Demus check out
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Speaker 1: two Timothy, chapter four, verse ten. Having loved this present world,
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Speaker 1: Demus for Suk Paul and went away the lure of
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Speaker 1: a lesser loyalty. Doctor Richard Sumi called that in his
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Speaker 1: book Shoes for the Road of a Lesser Loyalty. There's
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Speaker 1: thorny soil represented here. You know what, I'm not able
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Speaker 1: to tell you whether you're saved or lost. I don't
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Speaker 1: get the answer from the parable. I don't want it
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Speaker 1: to walk on all fours, so I'm not going to
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Speaker 1: make a dogmatic statement. But you know, you know, if
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Speaker 1: I've just described you with the thorns, and you know
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Speaker 1: that you you got to determine is it because I
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Speaker 1: don't know Christ or because I'm walking in the flesh
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Speaker 1: and not the spirit. Have I yielded to the things
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Speaker 1: that would attract me and ultimately turn into a habit?
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Speaker 1: Even an addiction is that me am I saved? It's
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Speaker 1: yours to answer. And then finally there is the fertile
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Speaker 1: soil at the end of the story. I love this
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Speaker 1: verse nineteen, verse twenty, and the seed that fell on
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Speaker 1: good soil represents those who hear and accept God's word.
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Speaker 1: The word accept his decomind means to welcome. You hear it,
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Speaker 1: and you welcome. And there's lots of fertile soil in
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Speaker 1: this place. That's what keeps me hot in the study,
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Speaker 1: because I know I have fertile soil in the hearts
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Speaker 1: of most of you. You love the word of God.
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Speaker 1: You long for the good seed to be planted. You
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Speaker 1: appreciate the exhortation. You love the fact that we come
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Speaker 1: together around the word of God. And it's about God
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Speaker 1: and his truth that holds us together and gives us
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Speaker 1: a song to sing in, a message to proclaim, and
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Speaker 1: a truth to rely on. You were You're like Timothy
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Speaker 1: in Acts chapter sixteen. He heard and he believed in
1:00:59
Speaker 1: the and to travel with Paul. You're like Nicodemus John three.
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Speaker 1: He checked out the information regarding the new birth, and
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Speaker 1: by the time you get to chapter nineteen, that seed
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Speaker 1: has taken root, and he's now out of the closet
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Speaker 1: as a pharisee, making it known that he's one of
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Speaker 1: the followers of Jesus as he helps embalm the body
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Speaker 1: of the dead savior. You're one of those, and I
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Speaker 1: applaud you. I commit my ministry to you and the
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Speaker 1: investment of the time because I pore over this book
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Speaker 1: that you might grasp and grow toward maximum productivity. You
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Speaker 1: know what's interesting, Just a little aside, no extra charge.
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Speaker 1: All four hear the word check it for yourself. The
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Speaker 1: pathway soil. They heard the word, the rocky soil. They
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Speaker 1: heard the word the thorny. They heard the word I
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Speaker 1: checked it. I've got it underlined in blue. And the
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Speaker 1: fertile soil they hear an accept the word. All four
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Speaker 1: hear it. Nothing wrong with your hearing. There's something wrong
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Speaker 1: with your listening, your heart of listening if it isn't
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Speaker 1: making a difference, There's nothing wrong with the seed. So
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Speaker 1: where are you in the parable? Where are you here?
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Speaker 1: You need to ask yourself which soil am I? You
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Speaker 1: won't know what the point of the parable is. As
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Speaker 1: best I'm able to determine here it is my own words.
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Speaker 1: The condition of your heart will determine the destiny of
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Speaker 1: your life. The condition of your heart will determine the
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Speaker 1: destiny of your life. I'll say this to her embarrassment,
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Speaker 1: but I will tell you the one thing that attracted
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Speaker 1: me to the woman I married was her constant hunger
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Speaker 1: for the Word of God. Early on, it was stronger
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Speaker 1: than my own desire. And I was attracted to a
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Speaker 1: woman who loved God and really could not get enough
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Speaker 1: of His word. And she was growing in it, and
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Speaker 1: it became contagious in her life, and I long for
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Speaker 1: that for all of us. Let the word of God
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Speaker 1: land and take root and bear fruit in your life.
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Speaker 1: When you stand before your God, he won't say how
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Speaker 1: many church services were you at, how much money did
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Speaker 1: you give? How hard did you work to prune yourself
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Speaker 1: from those things that wanted to encroach on your life? No? No,
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Speaker 1: what did you do about the truth that was delivered
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Speaker 1: into your ears? Did it take root in your soil?
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Speaker 1: Has it made a difference in your attitude the way
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Speaker 1: you respond life to lives? Have you submitted yourself first
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Speaker 1: and foremost to Christ and his cross? That is what
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Speaker 1: you'll answer for the condition of your heart will determine
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Speaker 1: the destiny of your life. I love this section of scripture.
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Speaker 1: You know why. You can't miss it. You can't miss
1:04:27
Speaker 1: it unless I go too long. So let's stop here.
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Speaker 1: Please bow with me. Where are you in the soil?
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Speaker 1: Where are you? Where are you in the soil? You
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Speaker 1: know that person sitting next to you, even though married
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Speaker 1: to you, even though you're the best of friends, cannot
1:04:54
Speaker 1: answer that question. For you, each one of us must
1:04:59
Speaker 1: have for ourselves and for the grace of God and
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Speaker 1: his faithful patience. You'll come to the place where you'll
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Speaker 1: realize the only way to go is with fertile soil.
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Speaker 1: For you hear and accept God's truth, and then you
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Speaker 1: know the joy of harvesting thirtyfold, sixtyfold, maybe even a hundred.
1:05:33
Speaker 1: It begins with your coming to Christ. Start there. Thank
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Speaker 1: you Father, for the time we've spent hearing what you
1:05:44
Speaker 1: have said from the lips of your son, who lived
1:05:49
Speaker 1: among those who were his own, even though his own
1:05:55
Speaker 1: did not receive him. Thank your Father for the things
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Speaker 1: we were able to learn from a simple set of
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Speaker 1: verses like this. How meaningful this is for our lives.
1:06:08
Speaker 1: How grateful we are that you have allowed us to
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Speaker 1: receive the seed. You provided it, and now you await
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Speaker 1: our receiving it and welcoming it fine within us, a
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Speaker 1: welcome mat for the good word of God that you've given.
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Speaker 1: Maybe grow mature and make your word known to others
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Speaker 1: in the name of Christ, our Savior and Lord. Everyone
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Speaker 1: said amen.
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Speaker 2: The preceding message, tasting a sample learning where we fit
1:06:44
Speaker 2: in the story, was copyrighted in twenty fourteen, and the
1:06:48
Speaker 2: sound recording was copyrighted in twenty sixteen by Charles R. Swindall, Inc.
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Speaker 2: All rights are reserved worldwide ass