Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Analysis of a Crop Failure │ Msg 116 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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Analysis of a Crop Failure │ Msg 116 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: Doctor George Sweeting, former longtime president and Chancellor of the
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Speaker 1: Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, inspired a generation of young
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Speaker 1: missionaries and student evangelists to penetrate culture with a rare
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Speaker 1: and a compelling boldness. During his many years at Moody,
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Speaker 1: Sweeting raptured the imaginations of hundreds, if not thousands, of
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Speaker 1: young aspiring Christians, training them in the scriptures and then
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Speaker 1: launching them into ministries literally around the world. Few leaders
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Speaker 1: have experienced such unusual results in a single generation. Yet
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Speaker 1: the secret of Sweeting's success, like for so many other
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Speaker 1: influential ministry leaders, seems to be something remarkably simple. A
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Speaker 1: list of practical goals that guided his life from one
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Speaker 1: year to the next. I'm told that each year doctor
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Speaker 1: Sweeten wrote on some free corner of a page in
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Speaker 1: his Bible three simple goals. Not goals that changed from
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Speaker 1: year to year, like New Year resolutions that eventually fade
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Speaker 1: over time, but fixed points that kept the man focused
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Speaker 1: on what mattered most. Let me share them with you today.
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Speaker 1: The first two I mentioned perhaps will not surprise you.
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Speaker 1: Number one is to lead as many people to Christ
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Speaker 1: as possible, and the second to disciple as many people
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Speaker 1: in Christ as possible, and now it's the main one
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Speaker 1: that struck me to cultivate the inner life. Isn't that great?
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Speaker 1: The foundation of George Sweeten's list of personal goals year
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Speaker 1: after year was an unswerving commitment to pay attention to
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Speaker 1: his own heart. I love that that kind of relentless
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Speaker 1: commitment of spiritual growth all but guarantees a lifetime of
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Speaker 1: maximum impact. The series I'm beginning today, titled Growing Up
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Speaker 1: in God's Family, will underscore for all of us the
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Speaker 1: importance of growing up spiritually and the importance of cultivating,
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Speaker 1: as doctor Sweeten called it, the inner life. We're going
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Speaker 1: to begin our study by focusing on the words of Jesus,
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Speaker 1: who teaches us through a simple parable what happens when
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Speaker 1: a tiny seed wants sown lands and seeks into the fertile,
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Speaker 1: obedient soil of a human heart, it grows. My Bible
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Speaker 1: is open to his words recorded in Mark chapter four.
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Speaker 1: Please turn with me to Mark four if you would.
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Speaker 1: I'll be reading beginning at verse one down through verse
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Speaker 1: nine from the New Living Translation. So listen carefully as
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Speaker 1: I read Mark four, verse one. 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 a tell many
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Speaker 1: stories 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 a 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: plant soon wilted under the hot sun, and since it
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Speaker 1: didn't have deep roots, it died. Other seed fell among
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Speaker 1: forms 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 one 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. One of the
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Speaker 1: most famous speeches ever delivered in America, certainly in the
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Speaker 1: latter half of the last century, was a speech that
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Speaker 1: began with simply four words, I don't believe that the
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Speaker 1: preacher who delivered that speech expected it to have such
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Speaker 1: a revolutionary effect, but indeed it swept across our country
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Speaker 1: like a wildfire. It was in fact revolutionary. As the
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Speaker 1: preacher began the speech, I have a dream. I'm convinced
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Speaker 1: that my talk today will not have the same kind
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Speaker 1: of effect as his, But I would like to begin
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Speaker 1: with ForWords, and I would hope that it would spread
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Speaker 1: like a wildfire, at least across this congregation, and certainly
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Speaker 1: out into our community and into the world that we
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Speaker 1: are able to reach, for whom we are accountable. I
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Speaker 1: have a question, not a dream, as much as a question.
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Speaker 1: The question will make you uncomfortable. I have wrestled with
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Speaker 1: it since I entered the ministry, and there isn't a
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Speaker 1: week that passes that some shade or part of that
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Speaker 1: question doesn't come back to haunt me. I would love
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Speaker 1: to put it to bed, I would love to settle it,
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Speaker 1: but I think it will continue to be in my
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Speaker 1: craw as long as I live. It's one of those
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Speaker 1: why questions, one of those how can it be? Questions?
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Speaker 1: Why do some grow while others exposed to the same
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Speaker 1: nourishment don't. How can it be that the same body
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Speaker 1: of people can hear precisely the same information reproofs, encouragement, instruction,
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Speaker 1: and there be such divergence of response. That's my question.
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Speaker 1: I was with some pastors and their wives this past
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Speaker 1: week for a conference. It was a rich time. It
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Speaker 1: is always good to rub shoulders with men and women
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Speaker 1: in the same work as you, and this was true
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Speaker 1: in my case. I met men who have churches of
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Speaker 1: fifty and one hundred, and some whose churches number in
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Speaker 1: the hundreds, and I always administered too much more effectively
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Speaker 1: than I feel I ministered to them. Interestingly, I found
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Speaker 1: that those men and women ask the same question, even
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Speaker 1: though our ministries are different, even though we may differ
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Speaker 1: in geography and size and length of time in ministry,
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Speaker 1: They're asking the same thing, Chuck, How can it be
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Speaker 1: that the same body of people can hear the same
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Speaker 1: information that we preach week in week out, week in
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Speaker 1: week out, but there be such such immaturity, such income consistency, frankly,
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Speaker 1: such carnality. I'm not ready to accept a shallow answer.
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Speaker 1: I'm not ready to accept well, nobody's perfect. I'm tired
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Speaker 1: of that answer that has gotten more people into more
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Speaker 1: sin than anything I can imagine. Nobody's perfect, all right.
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Speaker 1: No one has ever required of you to be perfect,
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Speaker 1: nor me. Our Savior is perfect, and in the Savior
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Speaker 1: we can put perfection to rest. I'm not ready to accept, well,
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Speaker 1: we have a lot of information to pick and choose from.
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Speaker 1: What you have to say is just a part of
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Speaker 1: what many people are saying. I don't accept that either.
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Speaker 1: The only thing I have to say is from his book.
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Speaker 1: You may forget everything else, and you wouldn't miss a thing.
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Speaker 1: But if God is speaking and you are hearing, why
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Speaker 1: doesn't it make a difference. Why don't we change and
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Speaker 1: grow faster, and have our attitudes revolutionized and our spirits
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Speaker 1: encouraged to do great exploits for God? Why do we
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Speaker 1: grovel as though we have no power or reason to
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Speaker 1: go on? I don't know of another generation in this
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Speaker 1: century that has been exposed to more truth and responded
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Speaker 1: to it more indifferently. Eugene Peterson, in his book Five
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Speaker 1: Smooth Stones for Pastoral Works rites, when I look for
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Speaker 1: help in developing my pastoral craft and nourishing my pastoral vocation,
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Speaker 1: the one century that has least to commend it is
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Speaker 1: the twentieth has any century been so fascinated with gimmickry,
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Speaker 1: with fads, so addicted to nostrums, so unaware of God,
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Speaker 1: so out of touch with the underground spiritual streams which
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Speaker 1: water eternal life in relation in relation to pastoral work,
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Speaker 1: the present day healing and helping disciplines are like the
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Speaker 1: river Platte, as described by Mark Twain, a mile wide
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Speaker 1: and an inch deep. They are designed by a people
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Speaker 1: without roots, in an age without purpose, or a people
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Speaker 1: without God. Where is the growth? Where is the growth
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Speaker 1: in your life? Are you really that different than you
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Speaker 1: were ten five, two years ago? Why? If I were
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Speaker 1: a farmer perished the thought if I were a farmer,
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Speaker 1: and if I sowed seed in in my fields, and
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Speaker 1: if I gave the same attention, nourishment, time and effort
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Speaker 1: to all of the acreage responsible to me and for
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Speaker 1: which I was responsible. And I discovered in a few
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Speaker 1: months that some of the crops were two feet high,
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Speaker 1: some four feet high, some eight feet high, and bursting
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Speaker 1: with produce. Some looked weak, some felt of the wrong texture,
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Speaker 1: some tasted bad, they were of the wrong color. I
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Speaker 1: would want to know why, if it is the same seed,
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Speaker 1: and if it is provided with the same atmosphere of nourishment.
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Speaker 1: Why is there such variety in the same field. There
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Speaker 1: has to be something wrong with the soil, and I
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Speaker 1: would call for help from those who do soil analysis,
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Speaker 1: and I would find out where the trouble is. Spiritually speaking,
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Speaker 1: that is what drew me to the fourth chapter of Mark.
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Speaker 1: In recent days, please turn, in fact, you don't really
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Speaker 1: have to have a Bible in front of you to
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Speaker 1: understand what I am going to say, because everything I
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Speaker 1: have to say has to do with a story that
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Speaker 1: Jesus told, and the story style that Jesus used was
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Speaker 1: one that didn't require people having a bible in front
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Speaker 1: of them. He in fact resorted to a parable Jesus
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Speaker 1: is in a large crowd. It is so big on
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Speaker 1: that shoreline that it is required of him to get
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Speaker 1: into a little boat and to push out at sea,
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Speaker 1: and to sit in that boat so that he could
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Speaker 1: use the water as part of the acoustical assistance needed
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Speaker 1: to be heard by a crowd that large. Perhaps he
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Speaker 1: looked up on the hill on ledges above where the
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Speaker 1: people were sitting, and he saw a farmer, and realizing
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Speaker 1: the significance of what that farmer was doing in light
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Speaker 1: of what they needed to hear. He told a story.
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Speaker 1: The thing we must guard against in parables is making
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Speaker 1: them walk on all fours. This parable is not an allegory.
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Speaker 1: Allegories and parables are different. Listen to the words of
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Speaker 1: one wise New Testament student. The parables were, in the
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Speaker 1: first instance, not meant to be read, but to be heard.
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Speaker 1: That is to say, in the first instance, no one
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Speaker 1: could possibly sit down and investigate and study them phrase
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Speaker 1: by phrase and word by word. They were spoken not
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Speaker 1: to be studied at length, but to produce an immediate
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Speaker 1: impression and reaction. That is to say, the parables must
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Speaker 1: never be treated as allegories. In an allegory, every part
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Speaker 1: and action and detail have an inner meaning and significance.
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Speaker 1: The pilgrim's progress, for example, is an allegory in it
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Speaker 1: every event and person in detail has a symbolic meaning.
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Speaker 1: But if that be so, clearly, an allegory is something
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Speaker 1: to be read and studied, examined and investigated. But he adds,
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Speaker 1: a parable is something which was heard once and only once. Therefore,
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Speaker 1: what we must look for in a parable is not
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Speaker 1: a situation in which every detail stands for something. We
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Speaker 1: must look for a situation in which one great idea
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Speaker 1: leaps out and shines a flash of lightning. I want
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Speaker 1: you to hear this story. Whether you read it or
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Speaker 1: not is of no concern to me. I want you
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Speaker 1: to hear it. Jesus doesn't give an out allegory. He
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Speaker 1: gives a story. And if you miss everything else, don't
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Speaker 1: miss the idea that flashes like a flash of lightning.
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Speaker 1: From the story. He talks about a man who sows seed.
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Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, he went out for the
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Speaker 1: purpose of sowing seed, and when he arrived at his field,
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Speaker 1: he began to cast the seed, and the first part
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Speaker 1: of the seed fell. It reads beside the road in
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Speaker 1: those days, as today, among farmers, there is always a
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Speaker 1: hardened path where the tractor's tires turn, where the farmer
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Speaker 1: or his beast must walk, and it is hard as asphalt.
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Speaker 1: While casting the seed on either side, some of the
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Speaker 1: seed blew across the wayside area, or if you please,
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Speaker 1: the pathway. Naturally, it was like a feeding trough for
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Speaker 1: the birds, and they swept down and they cleaned it up.
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Speaker 1: The seed never once penetrated. That's why Mark, in recording
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Speaker 1: it says that some of the seed fell. Parah beside
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Speaker 1: the road, alongside, not into anything. There was no penetration.
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Speaker 1: It just like a seed on a piece of wood.
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Speaker 1: It's sat there. In the process of sowing his seed,
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Speaker 1: he came to soil that is called rocky ground. Now,
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Speaker 1: if you're from Tennessee, or if you're from sections of
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Speaker 1: the Deep South, or if you're from places up in
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Speaker 1: Idaho or Nebraska, you're familiar with rocky stony soil. But
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Speaker 1: it's not like rocky stony soil. In Galilee, it was
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Speaker 1: not uncommon to find limestone slabs that would actually stretch
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Speaker 1: for acres, but dirt had blown across and by erosion
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Speaker 1: had been pushed upon the limestone, so that about an
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Speaker 1: inch to an inch and a half of dirt was there.
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Speaker 1: It's called stony ground. Not that there were little bits
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Speaker 1: of stone and rock that could be tilled up. But
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Speaker 1: beneath the soil there was literally a shelf of limestone,
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Speaker 1: and the little seed would drop upon the soil different
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Speaker 1: term mark uses at Pea, it means upon and it
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Speaker 1: wouldn't even take root. As a matter of fact, he
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Speaker 1: specifically says it had no root. Verse six. And as
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Speaker 1: soon as the hot searing rays of the sun beat
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Speaker 1: upon the soil. That little plant began to wither and
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Speaker 1: finally fall and would die and blow away. And then
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Speaker 1: there was the thorny soil. Other seed fell among the thorns,
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Speaker 1: and the thorns grew up, and the thorns choked it,
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Speaker 1: and it yielded no crop. One man writes, the Palestinian
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Speaker 1: farmer was lazy. He cut off the top of the
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Speaker 1: fibrous rooted weeds and thorns. He even burned off the top,
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Speaker 1: and the field might look clean, but in below the
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Speaker 1: surface the roots were still there. And in due time
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Speaker 1: the weeds and thorns revived in all their strength. The
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Speaker 1: weeds grew with such rapidity and virulence that they choked
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Speaker 1: the life out of the seed. A very vivid mark
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Speaker 1: uses for choking. It's for seizing someone around the neck
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Speaker 1: so as to strangle them. It's used to describe a
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Speaker 1: drowning victim, smothering, suffocating, strangling. And this lazy, absent minded farmer,
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Speaker 1: who knew better, tossed his seed among soil where there
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Speaker 1: was a network of thorns, rooted weeds ready to grow
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Speaker 1: with the plants. And along with the plant that began
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Speaker 1: to grow came the thorns, and they choked the life
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Speaker 1: out of the sea, so that it yielded no crop.
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Speaker 1: It was a crop failure. And then the good news
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Speaker 1: is there was some good soil, and it grew up
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Speaker 1: and increased, and it yielded some thirty, some sixty, and
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Speaker 1: even some places one hundred times the amount. Now you
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Speaker 1: read a story like this and you want to know
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Speaker 1: what does it mean. In fact, those people in his
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Speaker 1: day wanted to know it, says his followers, along with
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Speaker 1: the twelve, began asking him about the parables. What does
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Speaker 1: that mean? What is that idea you're trying to get across.
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Speaker 1: Jesus said a few things that are profound and mysterious
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Speaker 1: about the use of parables in his ministry. And then
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Speaker 1: thankfully he turns in verse fourteen and begins to interpret
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Speaker 1: this parable. I love this parable because I don't even
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Speaker 1: have to imagine what it means. You don't have to
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Speaker 1: trust the imagination of some pastor or some teacher to
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Speaker 1: let you know what this interpretation is. Jesus gives us
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Speaker 1: the interpretation, and he says, I'm doing this because this
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Speaker 1: is a pattern for all parables. You follow this line,
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Speaker 1: you'll be in touch. So let's interpret with Jesus what
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Speaker 1: he means, first, there's the sore verse fourteen. The sower
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Speaker 1: would be someone who sows the word. So the seed
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Speaker 1: would be the word of God, principles from God's book,
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Speaker 1: literal precepts that could be quoted from sections of God's book,
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Speaker 1: principles that are represented in the precepts. And if you
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Speaker 1: would allow me that dimension application of the truth that
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Speaker 1: has been presented, it would be the interpretation, the quotation
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Speaker 1: or the application of scripture. That's the seed. Please observe
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Speaker 1: in each one of these soils, the seed is heard.
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Speaker 1: No one fails to hear the seed. After this initial conversation,
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Speaker 1: Jesus gives them a rather simple and understandable explanation. He
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Speaker 1: talks about the sower that would be anyone who declares
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Speaker 1: God's message. He presents the seed as the word, and
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Speaker 1: then he gets to the subject of the soil. And
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Speaker 1: here we find the answer to my question. Why is
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Speaker 1: there such divergence of growth? Why is it one teenager
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Speaker 1: will grow like leaps and bounds when he hears or
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Speaker 1: she hears the message, and another one will remain dull, insensitive,
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Speaker 1: and out of touch, in fact carnal. Why is it
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Speaker 1: one businessman and whyfe will hear something, and another sitting
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Speaker 1: right near them in the same set of circumstances will
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Speaker 1: hear very little. The condition of the soil. That's the problem.
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Speaker 1: Nothing wrong with the seed. Something's wrong with the soil.
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Speaker 1: Let's look at the soil, if you'd allow me, Let's
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Speaker 1: call the wayside soil unresponsive. That's the first that's verse fifteen.
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Speaker 1: Those are the ones who are beside the road where
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Speaker 1: the word is sown. And when they hear notice they
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Speaker 1: hear Mark's favorite word. Immediately Satan comes and takes away
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Speaker 1: the word which has been sown in them. I didn't
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Speaker 1: imagine that God said that the birds would represent our adversary,
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Speaker 1: the devil. There is no route. There is an absolute,
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Speaker 1: unresponsive cord that is struck. Let me get specific. This
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Speaker 1: has reference to people who are lost. They have never
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Speaker 1: come to the they have never submitted their will to
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Speaker 1: the Savior, they have never come under the blood of
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Speaker 1: the land. They like the way things sound enough to
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Speaker 1: come back and hear them again and again. They even
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Speaker 1: like to be around some Christian friends. That's pretty good
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Speaker 1: business contacts.
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Speaker 2: There.
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Speaker 1: There's something good that you feel, perhaps as a result
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Speaker 1: of some of the seed landing on you, but none
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Speaker 1: of it penetrates, has no impact on your will, does
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Speaker 1: nothing to your attitude. It never alters your motivation, It
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Speaker 1: does not clean up your inner life. It simply lands
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Speaker 1: on top, rests there for a little bit of time,
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Speaker 1: and is blown away or eaten away by the adversary.
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Speaker 1: The wayside soil represented by the person who is unresponsive. Next,
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Speaker 1: there's the rocky soil. If you will get me use
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Speaker 1: another word, I'd use the word impulsive here look at
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Speaker 1: verse sixteen. In a similar way. These are the ones
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Speaker 1: on whom seed was sown in the rocky places, who
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Speaker 1: when they hear observe again, they hear immediately. They receive
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Speaker 1: it with joy. Now it's a lot more fun to
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Speaker 1: preach to those people than the first group. These people
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Speaker 1: smile back, These people like your stories. These people even
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Speaker 1: enjoy your worship and great music. They will, in fact
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Speaker 1: come a little more often than the first group. If
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Speaker 1: we're going to use this in a church context, these
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Speaker 1: are people who have learned the language, and they genuinely
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Speaker 1: get excited in an impulsive sort of way when the
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Speaker 1: truth is presented or a new idea is suggested, and
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Speaker 1: they will hear that truth, and they will think I
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Speaker 1: can put that to use. In fact, I'll use that
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Speaker 1: this week. But notice immediately there it is again, because
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Speaker 1: they have no root Verse seventeen, no root in themselves,
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Speaker 1: only temporary in growth. When affliction or persecution arises because
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Speaker 1: of the word, immediately they fall away. Some of you
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Speaker 1: are like that, You're also lost. But the tragic thing,
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Speaker 1: in fact, it's dangerous. The dangerous thing is that you
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Speaker 1: think you're saved because you are at times more responsive
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Speaker 1: than some of God's own people. You like a good laugh,
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Speaker 1: you stay interested in the development of a sermon. You
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Speaker 1: sing along with the hymns. You even know some of them.
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Speaker 1: You've sung them all your life. You've been exposed to
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Speaker 1: what God has said, and in fact you plan to
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Speaker 1: be back next week. But you let a little affliction come,
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Speaker 1: You let the sun get hotter than normal, You let
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Speaker 1: the winds of hardship blow upon you and beat upon
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Speaker 1: your house, and you fall. And there is no root,
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Speaker 1: because there is no life. You are as lost as
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Speaker 1: the hardened heart. I'm concerned for you, But look at
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Speaker 1: the third. So far it's fairly simple. All that's needed
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Speaker 1: is to come to faith in the Savior. But now
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Speaker 1: it gets complicated. You knew this was coming Verse eighteen.
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Speaker 1: Others are the ones on whom seed was sown among
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Speaker 1: the thorns. Let me pause if I may interrupt the
30:04
Speaker 1: story here and add the thorns have been there all
30:06
Speaker 1: the time. They don't start when the seed is planted.
30:14
Speaker 1: So many have come into the Christian life with a
30:17
Speaker 1: thorny past. You have established yourself in a certain frame
30:23
Speaker 1: of mind. You are by nature weak in those areas.
30:28
Speaker 1: We all have such weaknesses. But for some reason unknown
30:34
Speaker 1: to me, if I could find the answer to this one,
30:37
Speaker 1: I would pull these levers, and push these buttons, and
30:40
Speaker 1: blow these whistles day and night. But for some reason
30:44
Speaker 1: unknown to me, some in the family of God willfully
30:50
Speaker 1: choose not to come to terms with the thorns, and
30:54
Speaker 1: their lives are marked by carnality, or periods of carnality
31:02
Speaker 1: in which they deliberately walk against God's will. What are
31:08
Speaker 1: the thorns? They've heard the word? Verse eighteen concludes, So
31:13
Speaker 1: there's no question about the exposure. They've been exposed. But
31:18
Speaker 1: the thorns are the worries of the world. Verse nineteen begins,
31:26
Speaker 1: Would it help if I spill that out? This would
31:28
Speaker 1: be the heavy weights of anxiety that preoccupy us. In fact,
31:34
Speaker 1: I would give this category the title preoccupied. The first
31:40
Speaker 1: is unresponsive, the second is impulsive. This group is preoccupied.
31:45
Speaker 1: This person has a thing with worry. The worry sucks
31:50
Speaker 1: one's emotions, steals one's joy. There are a number of anxieties.
31:55
Speaker 1: All you've got to do is to read the paper.
31:58
Speaker 1: If you're running short of them, just pick up the
32:01
Speaker 1: paper and get preoccupied with what you read. The political scene,
32:05
Speaker 1: the economic scene, the crime scene, of the educational scene,
32:13
Speaker 1: the philosophical scene. You're preoccupied with that. You don't have
32:20
Speaker 1: to be old to have that happen. It can happen
32:23
Speaker 1: to you in your college days, when you become a
32:26
Speaker 1: better student of current events than of God's word, and
32:32
Speaker 1: you just shift your priorities, you push them aside so
32:37
Speaker 1: that you can well give attention to things that are
32:41
Speaker 1: right now more pertinent, and you establish the rooting of
32:46
Speaker 1: the foreign. Second, there is the deceitfulness of riches. This
32:55
Speaker 1: is a person who is preoccupied with financial matters. It
33:00
Speaker 1: doesn't mean you're rich, it may mean you want to be.
33:07
Speaker 1: But the preoccupation with either occupation or investments or possessions
33:13
Speaker 1: or the whole complex array of involvements and entanglements of
33:19
Speaker 1: financial matters. That's got your heart. That's what you think
33:24
Speaker 1: of most every day and on into the late evening time.
33:29
Speaker 1: You're preoccupied. What you have is a network of thorns.
33:38
Speaker 1: That's why you're not growing. Third, the desire for other things.
33:45
Speaker 1: The term epithemia is a very very tough word to
33:49
Speaker 1: put into the English language. I don't know if there's
33:51
Speaker 1: a better one than maybe allurement or evil lures, the
33:59
Speaker 1: allurement for other things enter in and choke the word.
34:11
Speaker 1: When my younger daughter and I yesterday finished our run together,
34:15
Speaker 1: I brought up the subject of a particular teenager that
34:21
Speaker 1: is of concern to me and a friend of hers,
34:24
Speaker 1: and I said, I notice lately that she seems preoccupied.
34:29
Speaker 1: She said, yeah, that she is. She said there are
34:33
Speaker 1: a number of things that have caused her to shift
34:41
Speaker 1: her priorities. I thought that is perfect, a perfect description
34:52
Speaker 1: of what we're just considering. What she described as a
34:56
Speaker 1: person entangled in thorns. I'm not talking to you if
35:05
Speaker 1: you happen to be sixty and older. This isn't just
35:08
Speaker 1: for you. I'm not talking to you if you've just
35:13
Speaker 1: made your first million, or you're close to it. I'm
35:17
Speaker 1: addressing you, but not just you. I'm talking to you
35:21
Speaker 1: who have yet to know direction in life to finish
35:24
Speaker 1: your schooling. I'm talking to you whether you're single or married,
35:30
Speaker 1: divorced or remarried. Those situations now have nothing to do
35:35
Speaker 1: with thorns. I'm talking to you. If you're preoccupied, let
35:43
Speaker 1: me be really, really blunt. Your prayer life is a joke.
35:48
Speaker 1: You don't pray. You have a few fire escape prayers
35:52
Speaker 1: that you go to if you have to, but only
35:55
Speaker 1: as a last resort. It's a joke. You don't really
36:00
Speaker 1: dig into this book to find a truth for the
36:05
Speaker 1: to help you through a situation. You don't seek God's
36:08
Speaker 1: precepts for decisions you're wrestling with. That's not where you are.
36:16
Speaker 1: Do you want me to tell you the truth? You're
36:19
Speaker 1: living in thorns. You're part of our problem. You are
36:28
Speaker 1: a major reason that it's difficult to know how to
36:31
Speaker 1: lead this assembly because you live in thorns. You prefer thorns,
36:40
Speaker 1: You're comfortable around them. And when the discussion of faith
36:45
Speaker 1: is addressed, and when decisions are to be made that
36:49
Speaker 1: have to do with how you spend your money or
36:51
Speaker 1: how you give your money, or where you spend your time,
36:55
Speaker 1: how you give your time. It shoots way over your head.
36:58
Speaker 1: When someone addresses the truth needs and the growth of
37:02
Speaker 1: God's family and God's world program, that's foreign. Talk to you.
37:08
Speaker 1: You'll drop it a five dollar bill, but that'll do
37:13
Speaker 1: maybe ten. But there's no investigation of your deep commitment
37:18
Speaker 1: of time and finances. This church is running over with people.
37:25
Speaker 1: We turn them away by the hundreds most every Sunday,
37:30
Speaker 1: and we are strapped financially. I can't believe it. It's
37:39
Speaker 1: a foreign problem. That's what we face. We don't face
37:45
Speaker 1: an involvement problem, or an insufficient financial support problem, or
37:50
Speaker 1: new land problem, or a vision problem or congregational togetherness problem.
37:56
Speaker 1: Your theigns are coming out, and those are the ones
38:08
Speaker 1: on whom the seed was sown on the good ground.
38:11
Speaker 1: And they hear and they respond some thirty, some sixty
38:19
Speaker 1: some to such a commitment that it's one hundred percent.
38:30
Speaker 1: I have a second question, what are you going to
38:33
Speaker 1: do about your soil? You say, okay, okay, I give
38:42
Speaker 1: more money. No, you missed it. I said it wasn't
38:47
Speaker 1: a financial problem, it's a heart problem. Can't you see that?
38:54
Speaker 1: Thomas Jefferson said it. When the heart is right, the
38:57
Speaker 1: feed are swift. When the heart is right, one can't
39:02
Speaker 1: be generous enough. When the heart is right, the attitudes
39:06
Speaker 1: are swept clear of negativism and cynicism. When the heart
39:11
Speaker 1: is right, the tongue is controlled. When the heart is right,
39:15
Speaker 1: the vision is clear, and we're ready to roll. We
39:17
Speaker 1: get this job done. What are you going to do
39:22
Speaker 1: about your heart? I'm burdened about that. It's weighing on me. Now.
39:40
Speaker 1: If you happen to be in the first two categories,
39:44
Speaker 1: it's very uncomplicated. I invite you to come to the Cross.
39:50
Speaker 1: What you need is power. What you need is cleansing.
39:53
Speaker 1: What you need is the Savior. Now, you don't need
39:57
Speaker 1: to learn more versus. You don't need to attend more
39:59
Speaker 1: church services. You don't need to pray more. You don't
40:03
Speaker 1: even need to work harder on giving up your sins.
40:07
Speaker 1: You need the Savior. You need to have the blood
40:11
Speaker 1: cleanse your sins and wash you clean so that you
40:15
Speaker 1: now have a channel of power and a reason to
40:18
Speaker 1: go on and the hope of eternity with God. You
40:21
Speaker 1: need that. I invite you this day to be man
40:27
Speaker 1: or woman enough to break through the hardened soil, and
40:31
Speaker 1: to turn your life over to the Savior this day. Now,
40:37
Speaker 1: if you're among the last category, great, may you try increase.
40:45
Speaker 1: We need more of you. But it's the thorny ones.
40:51
Speaker 1: It's the thorny ones that drive me up a wall.
40:56
Speaker 1: I had a man ask me following that my talk
40:58
Speaker 1: on this when I gave it earlier. He said, how
41:03
Speaker 1: can I He happens to be a fellow pastor. He's
41:06
Speaker 1: looking for tips, and he said, how can I get
41:12
Speaker 1: the thorns out of those people in my congregation? I said,
41:17
Speaker 1: if I had known that, I would have told you
41:19
Speaker 1: that I would be doing that. He's looking for whistles
41:23
Speaker 1: and buttons and levers, and there is no such thing.
41:26
Speaker 1: You see, this is a volunteer organization. You want to
41:32
Speaker 1: live in thorns. You live in thorns. But the difficulty
41:36
Speaker 1: is your thorns multiply and your life spreads its venom.
41:46
Speaker 1: It's poison, it's pain. Your lifestyle is reproduced first immediately
41:55
Speaker 1: in your own family and then in those with whom
41:57
Speaker 1: you come into contact. And even in the way you
42:00
Speaker 1: help us direct this church. We're stymy till you come
42:04
Speaker 1: to terms with your thigns. Say what do I have
42:08
Speaker 1: to do. First of all, you have to confess that's me.
42:16
Speaker 1: I'm distracted, i am deceived, I am a victim of
42:23
Speaker 1: my own desires. I need to deal with that. I
42:33
Speaker 1: have worked with a few alcoholics in my ministry, and
42:37
Speaker 1: I have discovered that I've never begun to help any
42:40
Speaker 1: one of them. Who wouldn't first say the hardest words
42:44
Speaker 1: that could be uttered from the human throat, I am
42:47
Speaker 1: an alcoholic. You first begin with confession. Second, you begin
42:58
Speaker 1: to repent. It's a process. You begin to pull out
43:04
Speaker 1: the thorns by the power of the Holy Spirit. You
43:09
Speaker 1: analyze your life. You look at your anatomy, your eyes,
43:16
Speaker 1: your ears, your tongue, your heart, condition, your sensitive spirit
43:22
Speaker 1: towards the things of God. You move right down into
43:26
Speaker 1: the area of your motivation for living. You're praying, You're
43:34
Speaker 1: giving your time with God. You analyze that, and one
43:41
Speaker 1: by one you let the spirit of God invade each
43:44
Speaker 1: room of your house till he has full control of
43:48
Speaker 1: the thing. I think it might be helpful if you
43:54
Speaker 1: do a little project right now. I've given you an
43:58
Speaker 1: outline in the bulletin, and I'd like you to turn
44:01
Speaker 1: it over on the other side. I'm going to give
44:03
Speaker 1: you four words to write down, just four words. Then
44:08
Speaker 1: I'm going to let you make a choice. The first
44:17
Speaker 1: word is unresponsive, so write that down unresponsive. The second
44:29
Speaker 1: word is impulsive. Write that down impulsive. Third preoccupied, fourth
44:48
Speaker 1: is productive. If you will before you turn it over
44:57
Speaker 1: to put a bracket around the first two and put
45:00
Speaker 1: lost l o st just the word lost beside the
45:05
Speaker 1: first two. Now the question I want you to write,
45:11
Speaker 1: which one am I h you may be a part
45:24
Speaker 1: of the bottom two. I understand that you would say
45:32
Speaker 1: part of my life is marked by a spiritual dimension.
45:35
Speaker 1: But I I have to confess I've got I've got
45:38
Speaker 1: some thorns that are trapping me and causing me to stumble.
45:43
Speaker 1: I I I would confess to you that I've I've
45:47
Speaker 1: got worries that I nurture, and I have got desires
45:52
Speaker 1: for things that have no business in my life that
45:54
Speaker 1: I that I promote and I don't cancel out. I
45:57
Speaker 1: have some deceitful less related to riches that are plaguing me.
46:03
Speaker 1: And when are you going to do something about that?
46:12
Speaker 1: I mean permanently. You know what the main truth of
46:22
Speaker 1: this story is, You've already got it, maybe not in
46:25
Speaker 1: these words, the harvest depends on the soil, or, if
46:34
Speaker 1: you like the larger version, the result of truth depends
46:38
Speaker 1: on the condition of the heart. It is not a
46:43
Speaker 1: dramatic statement for me to say that we are at
46:46
Speaker 1: a crossroads in our ministry. There are some major major
46:52
Speaker 1: decisions upon us. Decisions regarding additional services, visions related to vision,
47:02
Speaker 1: the expansion of this ministry, Decisions that directly relate to
47:09
Speaker 1: getting this gospel out of this place and around the
47:13
Speaker 1: world effectively, consistently, broadly. Every one of those decisions takes
47:24
Speaker 1: money everyone. How about beginning with a tithe. You say
47:34
Speaker 1: I don't believe in tithing, well, then give more than
47:36
Speaker 1: a tithe. That's fine, you can start with fifteen percent.
47:41
Speaker 1: There would be no difficulty whatsoever if there were that
47:44
Speaker 1: kind of response, that kind of commitment. But you see,
47:48
Speaker 1: that's gutsy, But this is gutsy work. That's how we
47:59
Speaker 1: got started in this city. How about getting serious about prayer,
48:06
Speaker 1: really serious. You have my permission to get fanatical, really fanatical,
48:14
Speaker 1: so that it's every day you pray every day about
48:21
Speaker 1: the future of this church and teenagers. Right now in
48:27
Speaker 1: this level of your life, you pray, God, what do
48:30
Speaker 1: you want from me? How can I serve you? What
48:36
Speaker 1: direction do you want me to take? Silence my selfishness,
48:42
Speaker 1: forgive me for getting off track and listening to the
48:46
Speaker 1: hundreds of voices around me. What do you want from me? God,
48:50
Speaker 1: I want to do it. I'll start now. I'll go
48:55
Speaker 1: further this summer. I'll be further along than I've ever
48:59
Speaker 1: been in my life. I walk with you by next fall,
49:01
Speaker 1: but I want to start now that kind of talk.
49:10
Speaker 1: Without this, friends, we're not going to make it. We're
49:21
Speaker 1: not going to make it. This ministry will be curtailed,
49:28
Speaker 1: sections of it will shrivel, and by and by the
49:31
Speaker 1: word will pass. There has been a crop failure, and
49:37
Speaker 1: the thorns will win. I don't believe that's God's plan
49:45
Speaker 1: for us. I can hardly stand to let those words
49:49
Speaker 1: come out of my mouth. But it's your move. If
49:56
Speaker 1: you're lost, give it up, come to faith, come to Christ.
50:01
Speaker 1: If your carnal confess it, tell your family, admit it,
50:11
Speaker 1: stop it, start moving in the direction that honors God.
50:21
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you this. This thing will take off
50:24
Speaker 1: for phase two like Gangbusters. I dreamt the other night
50:33
Speaker 1: I was on a wild horse. I'm not too crazy
50:36
Speaker 1: about horseback riding. I like cowboy clothes, but I'm not
50:40
Speaker 1: crazy about horses. And I was on this horse and
50:44
Speaker 1: I couldn't hang on, and I didn't have a saddle.
50:49
Speaker 1: I had a rope for a What do you call
50:52
Speaker 1: that thing you put in your mouth? Main? No harness?
50:58
Speaker 1: Is it a harness? Bridle? Thanks Britia. Want to finish
51:02
Speaker 1: a seremony and a bridle? I needed that. I was
51:08
Speaker 1: going like this. Nothing was just right down the streets.
51:16
Speaker 1: I would love I would love for that to be
51:19
Speaker 1: a parable of this ministry, moving like a mighty army
51:28
Speaker 1: moves the Church of God. Brothers, this is where the
51:34
Speaker 1: saints have trod. Oh, let's get rid of the questions.
51:42
Speaker 1: Let's get back to dreams. Let's get the job done.
51:48
Speaker 1: Our Father, I asked that you begin to quiet our
51:51
Speaker 1: hearts and to move us closer, ever closer to a
51:55
Speaker 1: realization of our full, our COMPREHENDI need of your great
52:02
Speaker 1: love and your inexhaustible grace, not our partial need, but
52:10
Speaker 1: our total need for you and for the ministry of
52:13
Speaker 1: your still small voice of instruction. Please forgive us, Lord
52:19
Speaker 1: for ignoring the forns, for being so preoccupied with the
52:25
Speaker 1: worries of this world, that we've allowed those things to
52:28
Speaker 1: choke off the wondrous and merciful supply of your peace.
52:35
Speaker 1: Deliver us too from the very real and paralyzing effects
52:41
Speaker 1: of the deceitfulness of riches, from striving always to have
52:47
Speaker 1: more and more and more, or clamoring for the approval
52:52
Speaker 1: of others. Help us, Dear Father, to surrender all of
52:58
Speaker 1: that to you at the foot of the cross, to
53:02
Speaker 1: repent in absolute surrender and in obedience to your word.
53:08
Speaker 2: May we begin today the difficult but joyous process of
53:16
Speaker 2: allowing you to have your sovereign way in every area
53:21
Speaker 2: of our lives, especially in the deepest.
53:26
Speaker 1: Caverns of our hearts. To allow your gracious spirit to
53:32
Speaker 1: turn the soil of our hearts, so the truths of
53:36
Speaker 1: your word can take root, begin to grow, and ultimately
53:43
Speaker 1: bear the fruit of your righteousness. May you, and you
53:48
Speaker 1: alone be exalted in this place, in our families, and
53:55
Speaker 1: in our ministries across the world. I ask them these
54:00
Speaker 1: things sincerely in the powerful and the faithful name of Jesus,
54:05
Speaker 1: our Savior and Lord. Amen. The preceding message, Analysis of
54:12
Speaker 1: a Crop Failure, was copyrighted in nineteen eighty five, and
54:16
Speaker 1: the sound recording was copyrighted in twenty sixteen by Charles R. Swindall, Inc.
54:20
Speaker 1: All rights are reserved worldwide