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Hearing and Heeding • Mark 4:1-20 · HBCWestminster

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  Turn in your Bibles, if you would, to Mark chapter 4. Mark chapter 4. Our text this morning will be
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  verses 1 to 20. Mark chapter 4. Remember, as we introduced the gospel of Mark, I described it as
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  the life of Jesus, but in short bursts. I call it almost like YouTube shorts, like these little 30
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  second little clips, and each mini story details some new, exciting revelation about the Savior.
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  And at the end of each major section, the author forces his readers to make a choice.
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  What do you believe about Jesus? Who do you believe him to be? And what are you going to
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  do about it? And this morning is no different. This morning, he's going to confront us with
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  this question. What type of soil will you prove to be? Will your faith fade with the heat of the sun
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  with the choking troubles of this world? Or will you heed God's word, grow roots, and bear fruit?
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  And with that in mind, would you stand in honor of God's word as I read?
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  Our text is verse...
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  This is 1 to 20, but I just want to focus our attention and our reading this morning on one
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  verse, the very last one. Mark chapter 4 and verse 20. And the word of God says,
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  but those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear
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  fruit. Thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold. And Lord God Almighty, would you bless the
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  preaching and hearing of your word? Would you dig out our ears to hear the word of God?
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  And humble our hearts to receive your truth in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thank you, church.
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  As you know, Pastor Wes and I were in Dubai just a little over a week ago. We went for seven or
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  eight days or so. And I can tell you, Dubai is the strangest, maybe most unique city I've ever
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  visited. Somebody asked me not that long ago, actually, how many countries I had been to. And
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  I'd never really counted them. I just started to write them all down in the notes in my phone. And
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  it's somewhere around 30 different countries.
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  That the Lord has blessed me to be able to visit countless cities. I don't know how many cities in
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  those countries. By far, Dubai stands out as the most unique. The reason that we went was to visit
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  the Zeller family. I showed you guys a four minute testimony video from them last Wednesday. If you
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  were here with us for Thrive, that video will soon be posted on our YouTube channel. So you can see
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  it there as well. But there are Eric and Heather. Eric and I were good friends in college. Heather
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  and Hallie were good friends in college. In fact, Hallie was Heather's RA. They lived in the same
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  dorm.
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  We were all friends as kids together. You know, all of us got married to each other. And then not
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  all of us got married to each other. I got married to Hallie. Eric married Heather. We started our
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  families and all of that. And the Lord called them to go to Dubai. And there they are with their
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  five kids. 10 years ago, Eric started what they call Gulf Theological Seminary in Dubai. And their
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  mission statement says this, GTS is meant to equip pastors, church planters, and lay leaders to
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  multiply faithful churches. And they're going to do that. And they're going to do that. And they're
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  going to do that. And they're going to do that. And they're going to do that. And they're going to
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  churches in the Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, and Africa. It says we aim to see communities
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  throughout our region transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ, working through faithful, biblical,
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  and missional churches to make disciples of all nations. This is a family and a seminary that our
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  church supports. They are in, they are a line item in our missions budget. We support that seminary.
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  And really the key takeaway from my experience there were those last two words in their mission
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  statement. The words, all nations.
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  man, you want to talk about an international city. It is unbelievable the representation
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  that the nations have in Dubai. More than 90% of the 4 million people that live in Dubai
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  are not from the United Arab Emirates. They're expatriates from other countries. They're on
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  work visas. Can you imagine less than 10% of the country are citizens of that country? More than
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  90% are Indians and Pakistanis and Afghans and Uzbekis and Russians and Ukrainians and Filipinos
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  and Kenyans and Nigerians. And I'm trying to remember some of the others. I don't know, man,
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  I met people from all over the world. The only place I didn't meet people from was America. I
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  did not see any other Americans. There were a few other white people, but they were like Australians
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  or British or whatever. I just didn't see them. It was the most unique city I've ever been to.
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  And if you like international food,
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  man, it was awesome. You guys, I mean, if cheeseburgers and pizza are your thing,
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  you would not have liked it, but man, it was awesome. The cultural clash that exists in Dubai
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  was incredible. Two Sundays ago, Wes and I visited Redeemer Church. Redeemer Church has 1200 people in
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  it. This is an evangelical gospel preaching church. 1200 people were sitting in the middle and in the
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  front. So you can't really get the scope of the whole church from this picture, but we met people
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  from all over the world. Of those 1200 people, they are represented 60 different nationalities,
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  60 different nationalities in the church, which I was really impressed with until I had lunch
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  with Anna Davidson and Louise Norman's dad. You guys know them. They're members of our church.
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  Reese and Anna and Tucker and Louise are members of our church. And Anna and Louise are sisters
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  and their dad still lives in Dubai. He's been there since 2010. While we were there, we had lunch with
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  Mark. Whenever Mark is in town, he visits our church. In fact, he was here three Sundays ago.
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  And so you'll see him around, but we had lunch with him in Dubai. He said his church
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  on the other side of town has a hundred nationalities. It's more than half of the
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  countries in the world are represented in their congregation. An unbelievable privilege to get to
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  hear them worshiping the Lord. It was awesome. I met a man named Chinaydu. That is what his
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  name tag says. He's from Kenya. He has a student at the seminary. He's getting his master's degree
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  in theological studies. And his goal is to go to the other side of Dubai and plant another
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  evangelical church for all of the Africans. He said, my heart is for Africa. He says, I want to
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  get, there are Africans all over the place. I mean, it is an unbelievable country. Another thing that I
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  think makes it really unique is represented in this picture. Here are the Zellers. And then
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  so you can see pastor Wes and I,
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  there, uh, and then this massive Marina, this big Harbor, and then the skyline of Dubai that
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  is downtown Dubai, what fits in the picture. It's actually much larger than that in the
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  background. What is really crazy about Dubai is that nothing you see in that picture existed 30
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  years ago, nothing, not even the water was there 30 years ago. They dug all of that out. The place
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  where we were standing, if I had turned the picture the other way, there are just high-rise
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  buildings. Now, as far as the eye can see four million people have moved to Dubai in the last 30
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  years. Uh, it is incredible, incredible. The construction that's going up, you think Denver
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  is booming. It is nothing compared to that. Nothing compared to it. I mean, hundreds of cranes at a
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  time, just throwing these huge, huge towers up. As I was in the country, I was confronted with a lot
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  of religion.
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  Religious zeal is everywhere. It is a Muslim country. And so that small percentage of Emiratis
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  are all Muslim. They are followers of Islam, but man, people from all over the world live there.
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  So there are a few evangelical churches, but there are Catholic churches. There are Hindu
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  temples. There are Buddhist temples. I mean, it's just, you are confronted with religious zeal
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  everywhere. You turn every corner. There's another mosque. There's another temple for
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  worshiping.
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  What turn out to be primarily false gods. You can't escape religious practice, devotion and
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  faith, but it turns out that just under the veneer, you realize it is a faith which does not
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  save. Now, Mark chapter four, Jesus talks about such a faith, a faith which doesn't bear fruit.
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  And I want to point our attention to the first word in verse three, the first word in verse three,
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  how does Jesus begin his sermon with what word?
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  The word listen. Now in the Greek, that is the word.
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  There it is. And I wanted to point that up here because I want you to see an English word in it.
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  There's an English word in. It's the word acoustic, acoustic. We get the word acoustic
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  from the Greek word. It means here or listen, but there's another really cool. And I think
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  interesting. Maybe you don't think it's interesting, but I think it's interesting.
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  This twist in the Greek language,
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  because the word here is, but the word obey is the same word, the word for here. And the word for
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  obey is the same word. The word for obey is hoop. And you see there, there is that root listen or
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  hear the prefix hoop is the same. It's the same prefix as hip. It's the same word as hype. It's
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  where we get the word hype from. It's where we get the word.
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  So you can hear or you can obey, which really just in the Greek word is hyper here. You can
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  hyper hear it. So you tell your son to put on his shoes before playing outside. But again,
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  and again, he goes outside barefoot. One day he comes in having stepped on something sharp and in
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  tears. And you say,
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  you should have listened. And he says, dad, I heard you. I know you heard, but you didn't
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  listen. Listening takes it a step further. Listening says, I hear you. And now I'm going
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  to heed what you say. That's what Jesus is saying. When he says, listen is don't just
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  hear what I'm telling you actually do something about it. Turn your attention.
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  Now, if you went to the second half of our text versus 14 to 20 are the interpretation. Jesus gives
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  the explanation of the parable. If you were here on Wednesday, you'll know that Sam actually pastor
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  Sam referenced this parable from Matthew's gospel, the same parable. He said on Wednesday,
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  the easiest parables to preach are the ones that Jesus then explains, right? So here's the parable
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  and here's what it means. He says, you just read it and close in prayer. And so that's what he does
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  here in verse one. He says, read it and close in prayer. And so that's what he does here in verse
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  14 to 20. In these seven verses, he explains what the parable means. And in these seven verses,
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  the word word in the Greek logos, the word word is used eight times, eight times. The sower goes
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  out and sows the seed. The seed is the word. The word is heard. The word is understood that the
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  word is rejected. The word is believed upon the word bears fruit eight different times in those
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  seven verses. Certainly the focus of the parable is the word. Everybody follow that
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  the word for here, that word, a Kuwaiti that we had just up there a second ago,
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  a Kuwaiti, that word for here, hope a coin, right? Is used four times. And each time it's used,
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  it's attached to one of the soils. Now you guys will know this as the parable of the sower or the
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  parable of the soils.
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  As the sower goes out and spreads the word and scatters it all over the place. There are four
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  different responses that people can have to the gospel. All of them hear it, but it does not
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  always bear fruit. What is interesting about verses 14 to 20 is that same word for here is
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  used four times. This soil heard it, this soil heard it, this soil heard it. Finally, the good
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  soil heard it. But in the Greek, that last one is different. In the English,
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  it's the same. They all heard it. But in the Greek, the first three times it's used of the
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  soils, which do not produce fruit. The first three times it's used in what is called the
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  aorist tense. That is like a past tense, a final hearing, a completed hearing. It is
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  heard and done. It is never acted upon. So it is a one-time event. It's finished. It's like
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  the seed went in, the word went in one ear and out the other.
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  The final time it's used,
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  in verse 20, that the word is heard. They hear it. The Greek tense changes. It changes to the
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  present tense, which means it is a continual hearing. It is a hearing of response. It
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  produces a miraculous harvest. Jesus' point is going to be this.
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  Many hear the gospel, but few heed the gospel. Many hear it, but few listen.
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  Many profess Christ, but few bear fruit. And so what type of soil will we prove to be?
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  Go back, if you would, now to verse one, and let's just start at the beginning and move through it.
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  Verse one says, again, he began to teach beside the sea and a very large crowd gathered about him
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  so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea. And the whole crowd was beside the sea
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  on the land. Again, it happens again. It happened.
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  Chapter three. Now it, again, it happens in chapter four, where the crowds are so large
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  and are pressing so much about him that he jumps into a boat, paddles out a little ways. And now
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  his pulpit is a fishing boat. It sounds wonderful to me. Okay. Verse two. And he was teaching the
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  many things in parables. Now, in case you're not familiar with that term, a parable is a story
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  that is used to either help or hide the communication of a deeper truth.
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  This morning's parable is about four soils, which represent four possible responses to the
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  kingdom gospel. And if you're taking notes this morning, the two points are easy. Point number
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  one, we're going to make some observations about the sower. Who is the guy who is sowing and what
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  is it that he's sowing? Okay. So observations about the sower. And then point number two will
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  be observations about the soils themselves. So let's look at the sower and notice first,
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  the sower is good. I'm sorry. The sower is God. Point number two, I just gave it away is good.
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  Okay. Point number one, the sower is God. Okay. So if you already wrote good, that's fine. Just
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  right above it, right? God. All right. Verse three, notice behold, a sower went out to sow.
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  Skip ahead now to verse 14. Here's the explanation. Jesus says the sower sows the word.
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  It takes no time at all to realize that this parable is more,
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  more than instruction in good farming techniques. In fact, if you're going to use this parable to
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  learn how to farm, you're not going to be a very good farmer. All right. The sower goes out and
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  sows indiscriminately. This is by no means a farmer's almanac and how to sow seeds. Well,
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  it is rather a description of the Lord's own preaching ministry. Verse three says the sower
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  went out to sow. It is the same exact,
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  phrase used of Jesus when he declared his own purpose in coming in Mark chapter one,
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  Jesus said, let us go on to the next towns that I may re preach there also for that is why I came
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  out. The very purpose of Jesus's coming was to go out and sow the word. And that is exactly what he
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  did. Jesus is the one who sows the seed and verse 14 says that the seed is what it is. The word of
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  God.
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  The kingdom of God. We learn advances by the sowing of the word of God,
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  a preaching ministry void. The word of God doesn't even make sense. Does it?
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  I mean, how can you have a preaching ministry without the word of God?
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  I don't even know what else you preach. What do you talk about? It doesn't even make sense to me
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  this last Friday. I started a book study with any men from the church that wanted to come. It is not
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  too late to join the, buy yourself a copy of knowledge of the holy by AW Tozer show up in my
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  office this coming Friday at four o'clock. It is a one hour book study just for anybody who wants
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  to come talk about the nature and character of God. So we started this last Friday. One of the
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  guys mentioned in that book study just two days ago in my office right there, it just said it took
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  us a long time to find a church that preaches the word of God.
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  And my response was first, well, that's tragic. And then second, I don't know what else there is.
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  It honestly, it doesn't even compute. What do you do for an hour and a half?
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  I mean, what, what things do you talk about? I preaching ministry without the word would be
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  like a baseball game without a baseball. I mean, it's the focus of attention for everything that
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  we do. How do you play catch without a baseball?
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  It doesn't even make sense. There's no game without the ball. And the sowing of the word of God
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  is in the same way foundational. It is the very foundation to any true preaching ministry.
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  Maybe the most famous building in Dubai is this one. It is called the Burj. Burj just means tower.
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  The Burj Khalifa. Khalifa is the name of the highest King in the United Arab Emirates. So
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  it's named after him. Khalifa's tower. That's what it's called. It's the tallest building in the world.
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  It's over half a mile.
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  Tall. It is gigantic. It is gigantic. We're staying at the base. They're standing at the
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  base of it. They're trying awkwardly to fiddle over faces in whatever, as we're standing at the
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  base, you can't really get an idea of scale until you compare it to the other buildings around it.
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  You realize how tall it is that you can look this up tallest building in the world compared to other
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  towers around the world. You can see it compared. So like the Eiffel tower is just dwarfed. I mean,
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  it is a joke.
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  Compared to it, the empire state building is less than half of its height. So you can, this thing is
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  just massive. This spire up into the clouds. One of the men that we were with knowing that we were
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  going to Dubai watched a documentary on the construction of the Burj Khalifa. And so I had
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  all of these questions. I just said, how deep did they have to drill before they hit bedrock?
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  How far did they have to drill before they hit bedrock?
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  How far down did they have to go? And he said, they never hit bedrock. They went 500 feet down
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  and it was just sand, sand, sand, sand, sand. The entire kingdom is built on sand.
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  And Jesus had some things to say about that, right? Building your life on sand.
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  So he said, what they, I said, what'd they do? And he said, they drilled 190, 500 foot deep holes.
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  And then they filled those holes full of concrete. And that's what they set the tower on. And they're
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  just honestly hoping that there's not a really big wind someday. Like that's it. The whole city
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  is built on sand. And that is what preaching without the word is like.
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  The church without the word is like a kingdom without bedrock. It was like a church built on sand.
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  Well, that's who the sower is. The sower is God. And he sows the word, but notice also the second,
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  the sower is good. He's good. You say, well, why do you say that? Because look how he sows.
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  It is indiscriminate. He is throwing this seed. And you guys, if you've ever tried to buy seed,
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  seed is expensive. He is throwing seed everywhere, indiscriminately, liberally throwing it, not
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  sparingly.
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  Jesus preached,
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  everywhere and to everyone. And he said, well, why, why wouldn't he be more careful?
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  Why wouldn't he be more efficient? Wouldn't efficient preaching be more effective? Why does
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  he preach to everyone? And the answer is because he really does want everyone to be saved.
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  I don't know why people think that God doesn't want people to be saved. That doesn't make any
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  sense. He threw the gospel everywhere. The look at second Peter three in verse nine, the Lord is not
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  slow to fulfill his promise.
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  Some count slowness, but as patient toward you, here's the key, not wishing that any should perish,
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  but that all should reach repentance. He wasn't wasteful. He was hopeful. He sowed liberally in
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  the hope that perhaps good soil could be found in every corner of his field. I love Psalm 19.
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  The heavens declare the glory of God in Psalm 19. You just,
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  imagine God being a farmer and throwing seed just everywhere. The heavens declare the glory of God.
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  Every time you look up, there is a godly declaration. Imagine the seed just being thrown.
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  The sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech. Night to night reveals
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  knowledge. In other words, every time it's daytime, the glory is revealed. Every time it's nighttime,
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  the glory is revealed.
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  There is no speech, nor are there words whose voice is not heard. Anywhere language is spoken,
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  the gospel can be found. Their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end
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  of the world. God is good. That's first observations about the sower. Now let's go to the soils. You
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  guys ready? Four different types of soils. And the first described is the unplowed soil. The
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  unplowed soil. Look at verse four.
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  As he sowed, some fell along the path and the birds came and devoured it. Skip over now to verse
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  15. These are the ones along the path where the word is sown. When they hear Satan, it turns out
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  is the bird immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. The seed on the path
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  couldn't receive the truth because of its hard packed soil. That hard packed soil meant that
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  the seed just bounced along the path. The seed on the path couldn't receive the truth because of its
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  hard packed soil meant that the seed just bounced along the path. The seed just bounced along the
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  top and sat there, which allowed the enemy to come along and snatch up the seed before it could
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  germinate. Jesus says in the same parable in Matthew's version, when anyone hears the word
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  of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been
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  sown in his heart. Many years ago, I was meeting with a college aged young man named Mark. Mark
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  is now a pastor in Southern California, but at the time he was 20 or 21. I used to meet with him on a
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  weekly basis. He was a pastor in Southern California. He was a pastor in Southern California.
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  One of those young men that you just knew was going to be in ministry, incredibly bright,
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  understood the word, passionate about the word, wanted to go to seminary. And I just thought,
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  you know, we'll invest in this guy. And so every week he would come to my house. We would sit in
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  the study in my house 15 or so years ago and just talk about spiritual things. We'd go through his
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  Bible reading. What questions do you have? We'd go through books together and we'd do that every
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  week. We'd take walks together, pray together. As we were sitting there one day,
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  there was a knock at my door and I went and answered it. And this was back in the days when
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  we used to answer the door when people knocked on it. That has come and gone. And because it has,
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  we have effectively destroyed the ministry of Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons. That's pretty
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  funny actually, but I always get a kick out of that. But this particular time, it actually turned
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  out to be two women from the Jehovah's Witness Church, from the Watchtower Society. One younger,
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  one older, one apprentice, one master, one Padawan, one Jedi. Okay.
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  And I opened the door and it was these two women and it was the Padawan who began talking and she
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  had her Bible out and she began sharing with us her false gospel. And I entertained it for a few
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  minutes and just asked simple questions to clarify. And Mark was kind of standing right behind me and
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  listening. And you guys, as gently as I could, but nevertheless direct, I had just read a book
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  called Putting Jesus in His Place by a guy named Ed Kamaszewski. I've heard that he has gone to be
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  now, but Ed Kamaszewski wrote a book called Putting Jesus in His Place where he describes
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  the deity of Christ. He goes through the scriptures and just says, Jesus is absolutely unequivocally
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  equal to the father. It's a defense of the Trinity. Okay. Defense of the second person of
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  the Godhead, Jesus Christ. He is God. And he described it in this acronym and it was effective
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  enough that here now, 15 years later, I remember it. The acronym was HANDS. And he says, if you
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  just remember your hands, you'll remember the acronym. And he says, if you just remember your
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  hands, you'll remember the acronym. Jesus is given the same honor as God. So Jesus receives the
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  worship of people. Jesus is described using the same attributes of God, right? The attributes of
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  the father, also the attributes of Christ. He has the same names of God. He does the same deeds of
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  God. He has the same seat as God. Hands. It was this easy way to remember it. I just read that.
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  So I'm giving her the hands. She's saying, well, God wasn't, God is, Jesus is a mighty God, but
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  sometimes that's confusing to people, but don't be confused. It is a different gospel.
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  And so she's describing this different gospel to me. And I said, ah, no, you know, actually
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  throughout the scriptures, Jesus has given the same honor as God. And I took it and the same
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  attributes and the same names and the same deeds. And you guys, it was clicking. It was making sense.
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  This older woman never said a word. I mean, the entire time I never heard her voice the entire
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  time. She's just standing back there listening and I'm explaining to her and you guys, it was
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  clicking. I could see it making sense. The lights are turning on. She's picking it up. She's
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  saying, that's actually a really good point. She's saying stuff like that. We get to the end
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  of it. The conversation had ended. I closed the door. They turned to walk away. I called Mark
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  over and we watched as they left, watched through the window as they were walking away. And I said,
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  Mark, watch as the enemy of our souls comes and snatches up the seed. Watch. We're going to watch
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  it happen. And sure enough, the young lady's walking away with her Bible. The older one grabs
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  her Bible, opens it and starts explaining to her, undoing all of that stuff.
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  And I just thought, man, what a good reminder to make sure that our hearts are ready to receive
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  the word when we're confronted with it, that we're ready to receive the seed. Like Joel chapter two
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  says, rend your hearts, stop rending your garments, rend your hearts to make sure that you are
• 27:57
  receptive to the truth. That's first unplowed soil. Notice second is the shallow soil, the shallow
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  soil. Look at verse five.
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  Other seed fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil and immediately it sprang up since
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  it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched. Since it had no root, it withered
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  away. Look at verse 16. These are the ones sown on rocky ground. The ones who, when they hear the
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  word immediately receive it with joy. They have no root in themselves, but endure for a while.
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  Then when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word immediately, they fall
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  away. There is this
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  short burst of excitement, a couple of weeks of showing up a couple of weeks of enthusiasm,
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  but eventually that enthusiasm wanes a mere matter of months later, they all but disappear.
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  I've been a pastor for 24 years. I'm telling you, I've seen this so many times, so many times
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  where the gospel is received eagerly at first, but then whatever it is comes up in their lives.
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  As soon as any difficulty arises, they fade away. And I am heartbroken over how little
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  difficulty it often takes and not even the threat of difficulty or persecution, but just the offer
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  of comfort, I think can be even more devastating to our souls than persecution. Comfort becomes
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  an idol in our lives. We're often willing to compromise our faiths for just a little,
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  little bit of comfort. As soon as things get uncomfortable, that enthusiasm wears off
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  when the race that God has marked out for us is just too long. It's too hard. It's too difficult.
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  And so for some who start the race with excitement, sprinting after just a few hundred yards,
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  lay down in the grass and quit. That's second, the shallow soil. Notice third, the distracted soil,
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  the distracted soil.
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  Verse seven says other seed fell among the thorns and the thorns grew up and choked it
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  and it yielded no grain. Verse 18, others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear
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  the word, but the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, the desires for other
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  things enter in and choke the word. And it proves unfaithful, unfruitful. The problems may appear
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  external at first glance, right? All of these things, deceitfulness of riches, cares of the
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  world, desires for other things seems,
• 30:37
  external, but really what you realize is the problem is not external. It's internal. The
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  problem is a distracted, divided heart. It's a heart which lacks devotion. And can I ask beloved
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  friends before we move any further, are you devoted? Are you devoted? Have you pushed all
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  of your chips in saving nothing back? And I would encourage you to take your time before answering
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  that question. I heard a man one time say, whatever you choose to do in the moment that you do it,
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  is what you believe to be the most important thing to do in that moment.
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  I thought, yeah, that's probably true. Cause if you thought something else was more important,
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  you'd go and do that. I'm going to take that phrase and twist it a little bit.
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  Whatever you choose to spend your money on when you choose to spend it is what you believe the
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  most important financial priority is in that moment. And whatever you choose, whoever you
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  choose to hang out with, when you choose friends, those are the people you believe are the most
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  important relationships.
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  For you and listen, friends, the world will offer a thousand alternative devotions,
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  a thousand of them distractions, and not all of them are sinful things. In fact,
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  some of them are quite righteous things when appropriately done, but they are devotions.
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  Nevertheless, which will dilute your devotion to Christ. If you allow them to
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  things like for many men, their work. Now, listen, where are we designed to work?
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  Should you work heartily as unto the Lord? If you allow them to work heartily, then you will work heartily.
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  Yes. But can your work become a distraction and an idol in your life? Yes. We can become successful
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  at work. We get used to, because we've been put in positions of authority over others. We get used
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  to people doing our every bidding for us. We do not get used to people telling us no. And so then
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  when we go home and nobody does our bidding, we get frustrated and go back to work, right? I'm
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  going to go back there where everybody does what I want them to do, where I can tell them what I want
• 32:40
  to do. And work can become almost as idle in our lives for many. It's, it's maybe their kids. And
• 32:47
  for some moms, it becomes their kids. I mean, the stereotype would be that for moms, it would
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  become their kids. Listen, our kids inherently sinful. You're like original sin. I've read the
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  Bible. Yes. They are unregenerate. I understand all of that, but listen, are they, it's taking
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  care of your kids. Sinful. Of course not. You guys, that you didn't say no to that very fast.
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  Let me, we are going to offer a parenting conference in August. I would encourage you
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  guys to attend.
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  It's taking care of your sins, taking care of your sins. It's taking care of your, your kids.
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  Sinful. No, of course not. Of course you should take care of your kids, but can your kids become
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  a distraction and an idol in your family? Yes. To the point that they even dictate what's going on
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  in your home. Yes. For others, it's recreation hobbies, golf, fly fishing. I mean, for others,
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  not, not for me, of course. You know, one thing I've noticed,
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  here's one that I've noticed. This was in our own house. So I'm not pointing fingers at anybody. I'm
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  not accusing anybody, but just in our own house, you know, one of the things that became kind of
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  an idol, it dictated everything else in our home was our kids' sports. I came across this article
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  by a guy named Jim Eliff. The title is when ball becomes bail. Bail was like the old Testament,
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  false God. Remember that guy? And I thought, oh, that's a clever, clever title. And in that
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  article, he says this, how does ball become bail answer? And listen, you can, you can replace
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  anything you want for ball. You can replace anything you want for ball. You can replace anything
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  you want for ball. You can put in there when recreation becomes bail, when hobbies become
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  bail, when fly fishing becomes bail, whatever you devote your time to other than to the Lord and
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  his bride. But how does ball become bail answer when it controls you and you give it devoted
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  worship because it's around your God that you order your life and you can almost never say no
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  to it. And so like athletes foot is how he describes it. Sports has taken over more and more
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  of the life of believers. Almost overnight, we've awakened to the same thing. We've awakened to the
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  sad fact that in many communities, sports has even usurped the hours believers meet on the Lord's
• 34:46
  day. Missing church is what he's saying to go to sports. That was a temptation for us.
• 34:52
  All too often, members of our churches are saying to their church leaders, and you guys,
• 34:57
  this happens all the time. We'll be gone next Sunday because of the soccer tournament or
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  whatever it happens to be. In turn, leaders are supposed to acquiesce humbly. And I'm telling you
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  that's the pressure put on us because we can't afford to appear legalistic.
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  And I'm going to tell you this. As soon as I'm done reading it, we'll throw it away because I'm
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  offended by it too. Okay. So don't, don't forget. I didn't write it. He did. We'll blame him. But
• 35:19
  listen to what he says. Everyone knows that the greatest crime a church can commit is to demand
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  something of someone. Oh, that's interesting. And so you'll hear, but the team needs all the players.
• 35:30
  We can't let the team down, but it never occurs to them that the church body needs all of its
• 35:35
  players too. And so the church is being deprived of a necessary body part. I'm telling you, there
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  are a lot of different devotions, distractions that the enemy will put in front of us. Not all of
• 35:48
  them sinful. I hope that your kids play sports and enjoy those things. They can teach you a lot
• 35:52
  about yourself and about the faith, but nevertheless can become a distraction from
• 35:58
  that which truly matters. I was confronted with the devotion of worshipers again in Dubai. This
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  is in Abu Dhabi, which is another Emirate just nearby to Dubai, man. It's called the grand
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  mosque. It's one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen. It was incredible. This culminate,
• 36:15
  it's hard to imagine how immense it is. I mean, honestly could fit 10,000 worshipers
• 36:20
  could come into this patio area. You know, we're trying to figure out how to get 81 cars in the
• 36:25
  parking lot, you know, and it's just massive, massive. The scale is huge. Thousands of
• 36:30
  worshipers can go inside and worship a false God, an idol. Honestly, what turns out to be a demon,
• 36:40
  it's demon worship.
• 36:42
  And yet they're devoted to it. Five times a day, the, the, the canter or whatever they call them
• 36:47
  gets up in the minarets and starts singing this call to prayer. And people are supposed to go to
• 36:52
  their local mosque. They're supposed to take off their shoes and socks. They're supposed to wash
• 36:56
  their feet, walk in and put their faces in the carpet and pray to the Lord five times every day,
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  fasting and praying and weeping. And I just was struck by their devotion. And all the while,
• 37:08
  I told pastor West all the while I was wondering,
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  myself in this spot with us, what we were talking about is I took this picture.
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  I just said, Wes, but why do I have such a hard time convincing myself that reading three chapters
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  of my Bible every day is a good idea. Look what these people are doing for demons.
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  And yet my devotion to the living God pales and beloved friends, let not their devotion to their
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  idols outshine our devotion to our eternal savior. I'm reminded of the songs,
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  the words of the song, turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face and the
• 37:48
  things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glorious grace. That's the third
• 37:53
  soil, that rocky soil, the distracted soil notice forth the fruit bearing soil. And with this, we
• 38:00
  end the fruit bearing soil verse eight, other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain
• 38:06
  growing up and increasing and yielding 30 fold and 60 fold and a hundred fold. And he said,
• 38:10
  he who has ears, let him hear the verse 20. But those that were sown on the good soil are the
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  ones who hear the word and accepted and bear fruit 30 fold and 60 fold and a hundred fold
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  faith, which saves we read produces fruit. In fact, I believe there is no such thing as a fruitless
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  Christian. If you go to the local plant nursery, you can buy what they call fruitless fruit trees.
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  I thought, wait, if it's fruitless,
• 38:45
  it ain't a fruit tree, right? And the same is true of Christianity. There's no such thing as a
• 38:51
  fruitless fruit tree. And listen, I'm not the one who said it. Jesus did John 15. You didn't choose
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  me. I chose you. And I appointed you that you should go and bear much fruit. Romans chapter
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  seven. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ so that you
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  may belong to another. We belong to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may
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  bear fruit.
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  For God, Colossians chapter one, walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him,
• 39:21
  bearing fruit and every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. A second Peter chapter
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  one. And I love this text, but second Peter chapter one, just very simply says that if you're
• 39:31
  saying that you can be a Christ honoring God, honoring a believer, but not bear fruit. Second
• 39:37
  Peter one just says you're nearsighted, blind and forgetful. Well, what kind of fruit are we
• 39:43
  supposed to bear?
• 39:45
  We know that fruit is more important than fruit.
• 39:46
  More than mere outward success. The new Testament describes four different types of fruit. And so if
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  you want to write these down, you can four different types of fruit. And the first is fruit
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  of the spirit, love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and
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  faithfulness and self-control and nine different fruits that are to be born by every single
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  believer. If the spirit of God lives in you, then you should be more loving this year than you were
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  last year and more joyful.
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  It's not to say that you never mess up and you never, you know, lose your cool. And there's never
• 40:22
  a time where your temper gets the better of you. But it is to say that over the course of time,
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  you begin to exercise more and more and more self-control. The self-control would be one of
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  the marks, one of the characteristics that marks who you are. The second is the fruit of praising
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  lips. You know, every time we worship the Lord, every time we speak the gospel, every time we
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  speak his good news, it is called fruit unto God. And so if you're a believer, then you should be
• 40:46
  through him. Then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of
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  lips that acknowledge his name, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Notice third, another
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  one fruit in keeping with repentance. Do you repent when you sin honestly, or do you like I often do
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  sweep it under the rug, never bring it up again. I hope that people forget. I hope that you can
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  just go enough time or.
• 41:16
  Eventually your wife stops bringing it up. Your wife doesn't notice your wife just becomes okay.
• 41:20
  Eventually she'll stop crying and I won't have to say, I'm sorry. Right? I've done that.
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  That is not fruit. Right? Fruit is actually repenting of sin. So when I act in a way that
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  is not loving, I actually go and make it right. When I complain about my circumstances, instead
• 41:37
  of having joy, even in the midst of suffering, the way that James one says, I repent and make it
• 41:41
  right. When I'm unkind, I repent that when I'm not good,
• 41:46
  I'm not faithful. When I blow up and lose my cool, I repent. The scripture is called that fruit
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  finally converts to the gospel converts to the gospel of this. You have heard before in the word
• 41:58
  of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you as indeed in the world world, the gospel is bearing
• 42:04
  fruit and increasing. I would ask church, are your branches drooping with fruit? Well, that's it.
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  The end of the parable.
• 42:18
  I'm going to close in prayer and hope that nobody noticed that I skipped verses 10 to 12.
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  Does that sound good? Of course not. If you guys were kind of paying attention as we went,
• 42:28
  you might've noticed that this is another one of those Markan interpolations, the sandwiches.
• 42:34
  Okay. The two slices of bread are the parable and the explanation of the parable. But like we said,
• 42:39
  the point is always what's in the middle. And so the peanut butter and jelly of the text is
• 42:44
  verses 10 to 12. The purpose of the parable becomes the most important thing about the
• 42:50
  parable. Verse 10 says, when he was alone, those around him with him, those around him with the
• 42:58
  12 asked him about the parables. Why do you share in parables? And notice his answer. It's in verse
• 43:04
  11. He's addressing two groups of people. See if you can find them. He said to them, to you,
• 43:12
  there's group one has been given the secret of the kingdom of God. But for those,
• 43:19
  there's outside, right? There's the second group, the crew member and the crowd to those outside.
• 43:24
  Everything is in parables so that they may indeed see, but not perceive and may indeed hear,
• 43:30
  but not understand list. They should turn and be forgiven. The point of the parable and the point
• 43:35
  of all parables is this, that the providence of God is effective in Jesus to produce a fruitful
• 43:43
  harvest in the world. So the point is, and the whole reason Jesus came is to produce,
• 43:49
  fruit and the mystery is revealed to the good soil. So what is it that distinguished the good
• 43:55
  soil from the three bad soils? It wasn't their lack of hearing rather the good soil combined
• 44:02
  the hearing with heating. They didn't just hear it. They listened. And that is the difference.
• 44:11
  The Jesus began to sift using parables. He was sifting out, filtering out who were part of the
• 44:18
  believers, who were the believers. And he was sifting out, filtering out who were part of the
• 44:19
  fruit bearing believers and who were not, who were just springing up small, but pathetic little
• 44:25
  plants, what were proving not to be good soil. And so will you merely hear the parable or will
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  you hyper hear the parable, heating what Christ taught, bearing fruit of the spirit, praising God,
• 44:40
  repenting of sin, sharing the good news with others. And Lord, thank you again for the truth.
• 44:47
  Thank you, God, for the words of Jesus.
• 44:49
  Thank you for this parable and the reminder that it gives us to bear much fruit for your
• 44:56
  glory and for our good. And it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.