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Parable of the Sower · The Rhett Palmer Show

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he is the great idea.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_02: His first friend was Abraham.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_02: Surely said Abraham.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_02: I am that I am.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning, Rhett.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning, sir.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Michael, how are you?
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's a good day today.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: The blue angels flew over us uh as we were coming to the studio today.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they're in the air today.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I tell you what, uh uh they always bring a tear to my eye.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: I guess if you if you see them live, it's so loud.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's so close to the earth, and you feel so protected, and you feel you just this allegiance and this this whole USA patriotism thing.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: And then my first uh as I had tears in my eyes, then immediately I prayed.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: What's it like to be somewhere where those are above you and they're bombing you?
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: I immediately prayed for the children of uh Ukraine, the children of I I Iran, and the children of um Oh actually Russia too.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: And uh what's the other one we're for?
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, with Israel, you know, and uh Palestinians.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I don't know about you, but I just I can't wait for the Prince of Peace to come and everybody will get to live, right?
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right, right.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're gonna be talking about Well uh we we soil.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well we had uh a couple days ago we talked about a dirty show.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: Dirty show here.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: Talking about the dirt and the soil of uh good seed.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um Yeah, we're going to uh talk about Jesus' parable of the sower.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what we've been talking a lot uh about in these last weeks, Rhett, is just the uh idea of preparing ourselves for engaging our culture around us.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: We f have been given the uh principles of truth, we've been given God's word, we've been given his Holy Spirit, and all of those are for a purpose.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, we are his workmanship created anew in Christ Jesus so that we could do the good things he planned for us long ago.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: So he is actually an artisan of sorts.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and he has cre uh artisaned us, basically, uh, you know, and given us uh a lot of uh talents and he's given us relationships and he's given us skills and he's given us his words, and he's giving us a uh opportunity now to reach the world, or just the people in your neighborhood and and your uh community.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: But this is uh we're we're now partnering with the king to invite people into his family to spend eternity.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: The stakes are huge, Rhett, for this mission that we're on.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: And as we've talked about uh often in our uh Tuesday mornings men's group at the uh Rio Coco Cafe, what a risky uh uh undertaking to uh give this uh m all-important mission to us men and women.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you talk about taking a big risk that he entrusts that to me and you.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: Well, he can actually get it done without us as much as he could.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: He could.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: He could.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: But he desires that we participate with him.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is all about participating with him.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: Relationship.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: We uh, you know, when you when we stand before the Lord and get the video replay of our life, the Bible says this is gonna happen.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: And there will be rewards.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm not sure what rewards and what that means, or uh uh even if that's a motivation.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: But I know there's going to be a replay of my life, and I know Jesus is gonna be standing right there beside me, and I'm gonna see, just like the the highlights of the game, right?
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: You see the fingertip catch of the football in the end zone and scoring the touchdown.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then you see the fumble on the snap, and uh the other side takes the ball and runs it all the way to the end zone.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: You we see the the fumbles and we see the touchdowns.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: And the reality is that Jesus is going to be standing there right beside us, and I think he's gonna say something like, Look at what we did together.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: You know, uh Reinhard Bunkey uh had come in here many times, and he's the guy you see in Africa standing before the late Reinhardt Bunke.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: Uh what a delightful man.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: I know he went to your church when he came to town, and he would come in here, uh, but he would he would speak in front of millions, and supposedly he had these cards filled out at one where they did it brought in over a million people, signed their cards, that they came believers in Jesus in one week.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I he was on with Pat Robertson, of which I also had the pleasure of knowing when he was alive.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, two great men of God, but uh I know that they that Pat was impressed with the numbers, and so was Reinhardt, and that was their generation.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: But now I I just want people to know that I really believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Lord revealed to me there's no such thing as one million, there's only a million ones.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: And as long as you're faithful, folks, to the one before you, you don't have to feed the whole world, but if there's somebody hungry around you, then yes, it is your obligation to feed them.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: Well, this is promote Jesus.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: You bring one person to Jesus, though it says the whole wall of heaven rejoices.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, just in a normal um church gathering, ask how many people have got saved at a big uh rally, at a big event, um stadium event.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: How many people?
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, maybe maybe three or four percent of the people in the audience will raise their hand.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you became followers of Jesus because your friend brought you to church?
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Then the hands all go.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: Or, you know, people that were faithful in telling you, bringing up his name, which is offensive.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: Because I remember I was at the ABC commissary in Hollywood, and this this guy, I guess he I think, as I'll recall, he'd been gay, he'd been an actor, he got born again and stopped, and he's talking about Jesus.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: And over there is a cameraman from ABC going, Hallelujah, amen, brother.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: I thought, oh my God, I'm surrounded by these born-again wackos, these Jewish, these Jesus freaks.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: And and then uh I did a jingle for the American Lung Association, and the president's having lunch with us at a big round table out at a restaurant.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, son, have you heard about Jesus?
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my god, a Jesus for one to crawl into the table.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: I was embarrassed by his name.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: But those people were faithful in bringing his name in little bit by little bit by little bit, and then observing a friend of mine who a bass player who had changed.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Wow, over a year, he really has changed.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: And then led to one morning, me getting up on a Sunday morning, yelling at the ceiling, calling out to God, and finally after uh declaring that I do believe he died and rose from the dead twice, but the second time I said, Okay, I believe he died, rose from the dead, and I surrender my life.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: And then all of heaven opened up and I was filled with the greatest joy.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: And you and I being former pokes pot smokers when we were kids, my first thought was, so this is why people do drugs, because this is the real McCoy.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: Drugs are the counterfeit.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: I said, This is what people are seeking.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: So, but but it's because of people like you that were faithful in bringing up the name of Jesus.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, just look at the history of uh the Christian church.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we went from a group of uh 10,000 at the end of the first century to, according to Rodney Stark's uh research that he published in The Rise of Christianity, uh, he says there's 33 million Christians by the middle of the fourth century, uh, which comprised uh 53% of the Roman Empire population.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: How did we do it?
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: There was no megaphone, you know, there was no social media, there was no big events.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, the only time Christians were brought into the stadiums were to be uh killed by the animals of the gladiators.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: But how did we do it?
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: It was one on one, people inviting those into their home, serving them.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: And when the plagues came in 160 and 250 that killed about 35% of the populations of these Roman cities, it was the Christians that stuck around and cared for them, cleaned them, fed them.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think we're gonna feed you to the lions anymore.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: We kind of like you guys.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it was like uh who do I really trust with my welfare?
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Who am I gonna really listen to?
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: And when Constantine uh became emperor and he saw the sign of the cross conquering this sign, and he won uh a battle that he shouldn't have won.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now he's trying to really reorganize the Roman Empire and bring uncorrupted officials to run the departments.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: And who does he choose?
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: He chooses Christians to come in and do that because he knows they can be trusted.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: So this movement that we're part of is a one-on-one movement.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's a it's people that we meet, and and we get an opportunity to, as Jesus says, be salt and light to them.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh salt in biblical culture means loyal, faithful, unoffendable friends.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: And light is defined as our random acts of kindness where people see Jesus through us.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's the starting point of engaging the people.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus tells us how that's going to happen, and he tells us a little bit about the results, and then I think the record of the New Testament even further helps us with this parable.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: So Matthew chapter 13, if I may, um, Jesus spoke to many things to them in peril, saying, Behold, a sower went out to sow.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: And as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Others fell on the rocky places where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up because they had no depth of soil.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: But when the sun had risen they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: He who has ears, let him hear.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: So later on the disciples are saying, Okay, what's with the parable?
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Tell us about this.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus uh gives the explanation in verse eighteen.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Hear the parable of the sower.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: This is the one on whom the seed was sown beside the road.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: So that first soil is somebody that does not understand the word of the kingdom.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus goes on.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: The one on whom the seed was sown in rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no firm root in himself, but it is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: So this is a person that has no firm root in him.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: He hears, but it never takes root.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus goes on the one on whom the seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so these are people that are choked out by the deceitfulness and the alures and the the anxiety of the world culture.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: The one Jesus goes on, and the one whom the scene has shown in the good soil, this is the man who hears it hears the word, he understands it, and indeed bears fruit and brings forth some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: So what I see from this is that the good soil requires understanding, deep personal roots, and freedom from the cares of the world.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when I first read this as a new believer, I thought Jesus is telling us how things are when we go out and meet people and we try to tell bring them the message of the kingdom, the gospel, and we talk about Jesus, it's gonna fall on a roadside where the our words aren't even gonna penetrate uh their hearts.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Or it's gonna fall in a um rocky place where yeah, they may respond, but they'll just it never takes roots, it never takes hold of their life.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: Or it's gonna fall fall in a uh among people that are so consumed in the world affairs that they just don't have time for it.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh even though they they say, yeah, uh as the Doobie Brothers said, Jesus is just all right with me, okay?
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: And it was the Doobie Brothers, I found out.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: It was, okay.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: For all those years I thought it was the birds.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: But uh these uh these are people that get choked out uh literally because of their emphasis on the power, pleasure, and prestige things of the world.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: However, Rhett, when I continued doing my study, and it took a number of years, I was reading the story in um about the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts chapter nine.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: Chapter eight, I think it is, yeah.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um where um this guy's in a carriage being uh with slaves, four slaves carrying him along.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's and well it's I think he's actually in a in a cart.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: He's in a chariot or a a wagon.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: And this is Acts chapter eight.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: The angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, Get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's a desert road.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: So he got up into it, and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure, and he had come to Jerusalem to worship.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now, why would an Ethiopian come to Jerusalem to worship?
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: And was he a Jewish Ethiopian or well, the only connection in the Bible between that area of Africa and Israel is during the time of Solomon, the queen of Sheba came up to visit Sh Solomon because she heard he was such a wise guy in the world, and uh so she came, and so the Bible records this woman that came and um and Sheba at the time is this area that's kind of uh now we could look at sort of northeastern Africa, that area of Ethiopia, of Somalia, of um of uh those.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: So she came because she was curious of who?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus or Solomon.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Solomon.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: The richest and wisest man in the world.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: So she wanted uh uh audience with him.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: And she spent time, and I think Solomon and her got together and um probably he impregnated her, and she probably went back with his baby because the emperors of Ethiopia have always been called the Lion of Judah.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: Say that again.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: They were the Emperors of Ethiopia.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: The last emperor of uh Ethiopia was a guy named Hale Selassie.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: And he was famous for appearing before the League of Nations in 1937 when uh Italy invaded Abyssinia or Ethiopia, and Hale Selassie came and appealed to the League of Nations to stop this invasion.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, Hale Selassie, one of his titles, emperor, was Lion of Judah.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: Really?
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: But that's what we call Jesus.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it was also the names that were given to the kings of Judah.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: Judah is uh is a group of uh Jews.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: Judah is that area of Judea, it's that area of uh southern Israel, it's that area from the Negev up to you know um Samaria, up to uh uh just north of Jerusalem.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's why were the Jews fractured?
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: Why were the twelve tribes?
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: That means he doesn't want to answer that right now.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Not right now, yes.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um so no diversions here.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: So if we're gonna stay on time.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: So um this is the culprit by the just so you see what it looks like.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I got it.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: I got it.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: There it is.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Does everybody see that?
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: There it is.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: Just order right now for 1999.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: We should have we should actually uh sell these, you know.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: Well, how how how did you, by the way, how did you too prosper with your ministry?
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: We ended up selling bells to people around the world, you know.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: So the Ethiopian is coming.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now remember also recently there's a huge migration of Ethiopian Jews that have come to Israel back in uh when I first noticed and noticed them was about 99-2000 when I was living in uh Gilo.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I noticed um there were a lot of servers at the restaurants that were Ethiopians, and then the guy at El Denikar at the uh airport in Tel Aviv uh in Ben Gurion uh was an Ethiopian that was uh rented, that I was you know basically getting the car from, and we talked about coffee.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a large number of Ethiopians that are now citizens of the nation of this.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: We talked about coffee.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, by the way, this is called what's our show called?
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: Cup of Friendship.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: And if you'd like to find out about our pre- and by the way, you've been spoiling me.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: I noticed the other day you've been giving me these coffees that we bring in here that we're selling, and uh I'm really cultivating a pallet for them because the other day I drank some regular congo and dang, what's the stuff we had last week?
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: It was from From Rwanda.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, that I think that might be my favorite so far.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this is from the uh the region in Mexico called Chiapas, it's right next to Guatemala.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's got some really nice chocolatey, smooth, chocolatey tones to it.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like a dry wine?
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh perhaps.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: But that could just be me, too.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: I've I took zinc this morning because I had a a little bit of a uh feeling I had a sore property.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's a delicious coffee.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: So so the Ethiopian eunuch, because he knows of Yahweh, because of the Queen of Sheba, he's coming to Jerusalem to worship.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: He's a eunuch.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, a eunuch means a young boy that is castrated and trained for government service, and they figure that people that uh men who without their testicles would not be subject to sexual sin and could be trusted.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: So if I'm a king and I want somebody to look over my while I'm traveling or doing warring or whatever I'm doing, I'm gonna have some eunuchs around that aren't gonna mess around with my wives or why.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so so he is on his way back from Jerusalem.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now remember, as a eunuch, you're missing body parts.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: And you're only allowed to come into the courts of the temple if you have all of your body parts.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Oh there's mikveh out uh little baptismal uh pools out in on front of the south steps of the temple, and you would have to uh go into that little pool.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's a small pool about the size, really, about the size of this room, smaller.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: You take your clothes off, walk down and into the pool, dip yourself.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: The priest comes in, looks, make sure you have all your body parts, you get dressed, he gives you a pottery token, and now you can enter into the courts of the uh of the temple.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: I wonder why it was set up that way.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: So that they because you when you come before the Lord, you have to be whole.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: You can't be incomplete.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta be whole.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: Remember when Malchus gets his ear chopped off by Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane, he's the servant of the high priest.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: When his ear was chopped off, he lost his job.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus reached down or just regenerated, whatever he did, but gave Malchus his job back.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: But so the Ethiopian eunuch can come in to the outer areas, but he can't come into the inner courts because he's not whole.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: So this is the setup.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: He's sitting in his chariot, he was returning and sitting in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: Then the Spirit said to Philip, Go up and join the chariot.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so now Philip is jogging alongside, and he ran up and he heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and he said, Do you understand what you're reading?
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: Remember the criteria of being soil like a road, the seed that fell on the road.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't understand, right?
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: Philip is asking, Do you understand?
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: And the eunuch said, How could I understand unless someone guides me?
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now the passage of scripture he was reading was this He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, as a lamb before the sheer he is silent, so he does not open his mouth.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: In humiliation his judgment was taken away.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: Who will relate his generation?
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: For his life is removed from the earth.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: And the eunuch answered Philip and said, Please tell me, of whom does the prophet speak?
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Of himself or someone else?
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, this is from Isaiah chapter 53.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is the classic chapter in the Hebrew Scriptures that talks about the Messiah and how the Messiah is going to become the sacrifice for the sins of the people, and how he was crushed for our iniquities.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: He was pierced for our transgressions.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: And the Lord was well pleased to crush him if he would render himself as a guilt offering.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: So this is the classic passage where Isaiah is described.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Describing six hundred years before it happens, the mission of Jesus Christ when he comes to the earth in the first century.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: So Philip sees an opportunity.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: So he opens his mouth and he be beginning from the scripture, he preached Jesus to him.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: He started to explain the Messiah, the prophetic words of Isaiah, and then how Jesus fulfilled these on that Passover week when he died on the cross on the Passover as the perfect Passover lamb, and then of course resurrected.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: Three days later, he's eating fish with his friends, and he's uh in the next fifty days he's seen by over five hundred people before he ascends.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is explaining is uh Philip's explaining what Jesus did on the cross and how we are now forgiven and we're considered whole before the Lord, complete.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so as Philip's explaining this, suddenly they went along the road and they came to some water.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: And the eunuch said, Look, water, what prevents me from being baptized?
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now he's never been allowed to go in the mikveh because he's missing body parts.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: So now all of a sudden he realizes God considers him whole if as he receives Jesus as his Lord and Savior, which apparently he did.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: And the verse uh the text tells us here.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm whole now.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: I've never even been able to be dipped and baptized.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: There's water, please can I be baptized?
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: Philip said, If you believe in your heart, you may.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer, and he answered and said, I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: And he ordered the chariot to stop, and they both went down to the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: So God was aware of this guy, this eunuch eunuch, a travel one that he had a desire to seek him.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: And just say, You will find me if you seek me, when you seek me with all your heart.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this is a eunuch that goes, uh, an Ethiopian.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: He travels a long way to go to Jerusalem to worship Yahweh.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: And Philip is up in Samaria, and there's a big move of the Lord going on.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: Philip's uh involved, and suddenly the Spirit says, Go down to the road in Gaza.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, can you imagine Philip's friends going, what do you mean?
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing down there but a bunch of sand and dirt.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the Lord's telling me to go.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: Philip, you're involved in the ministry here.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's crazy.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: Nope, the Lord told me to go.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: So Philip is obedient, even if it sounds crazy.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: He does what the Lord's telling to do, and he has this encounter with this Ethiopian.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the Ethiopian receives Jesus.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't understand he was bad soil, but Philip explained to him and suddenly he became good soil.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: And guess what happened?
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: He goes back to Ethiopia and he starts a movement called the Ethiopian Coptic Church, which is still in existence today.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: And over the years, hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians and Africans have become followers of Jesus as a result of this encounter.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Rhett, I hear a lot of people saying in this time that we uh the Christian church is this white church colonizing church that is spread to all the world and colonizing people.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the reality is this the first expansion of the Christian church was to Africa.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: And Ethiopians are typically black.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus was not white either.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, he's a Semitic Jew, so uh uh he's you and I have both been there.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: We've seen these uh So the the point is two points.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, bad soil because of lack of understanding.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: Philip helps him understand, and now he understands and he receives Jesus.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: He goes back to Ethiopia, a church movement is planted that is still in existence today where hundreds and hundreds of thousands of of people over the last two millennia have been brought into the kingdom.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: Good soil, okay?
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now the next story deals with the soil that's rocky.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: There was a Roman centurion named Cornelius that was stationed down in Caesarea.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: And at the same time, Peter was living in Joppa, and he had been uh known in this time to raise a few people from the dead.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: Dorcas, this uh one woman, uh guy was paralyzed, Aeneas, he uh he healed him.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: So Peter is walking in a high anointing of God and what he's doing in this area.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: But in Caesarea, there lived a Roman army officer named Cornelius, who was a captain of the Italian regiment.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: He was devout, God-fearing man, as was everyone in his neighborhood.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: He gave generously to the poor, prayed regularly to God.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now, it was the custom of Roman soldiers whenever they're wherever they were stationed in the empire, they knew there were local deities that sort of controlled what was going on in that region.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: So many of the Romans uh were always seeking out the local gods so they could uh offer sacrifices and be obedient to the local gods.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Cornelius is a Roman, so he has a plethora of gods, the whole pantheon of gods that he is subject to.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: But when he comes to uh favor with the local deity, the local gods.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: But they didn't believe in those gods.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Cornelius did.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: Cornelius believed in all the Greco-Roman gods.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: He believed in them.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is multiple gods.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so when you come to Judea, they the Jews have their gods, so now he's trying to uh be um uh uh accommodating to the local deity.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: So he's uh giving offerings, he's a uh uh you know, he's doing good things, okay?
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: One afternoon about three o'clock, he had a vision in which he saw an angel of God coming toward him.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: Cornelius, the angel said.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: What is it, sir?
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: He asks the angel.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: Your prayers and gifts of the poor have been received by God as an offering.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now send some men to Joppa and summon a man named Simon Peter.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: He's staying with Simon, a tanner who lives near the seashore.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: As soon as the angel was gone, Cornelius called two of his household servants, a devout soldier, one of his personal attendants.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: He told them to what happened and sent them off to Joppa.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: So this is such a rich story.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: There's so much to cover here, because this Roman centurion was a man who had been touched by God.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: And now God is responding to him and telling him to go south to Joppa.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: This is uh a sh uh uh 45-minute bus ride and find this guy Peter and bring it up.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: Bring it up, okay?
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: 45-minute bus rides.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now remember, Peter doesn't particularly like Romans.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he's under an oppressive Roman government.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: And we can see from he a Roman citizen or Peter uh was just a Jewish fisherman, okay?
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: That's right, that's right.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm thinking of all, sorry.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh Peter is gonna have to overcome some of his preconceived notions and his prejudices against the Romans and what he thinks God should be doing, because God knows that Peter's gonna have to change his mind about things if he's gonna really fulfill the calling of God in his life.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell At this point, he thinks Jesus is only for the Jews, not for the Gentiles.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: That was the basic uh assumption of all the Jews.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: So the next day, as uh Peter's uh as Cornelius' messengers are hearing town, Peter went up the f flat roof to pray.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: About noon, he was hungry.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: And while a meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance, he saw the sky open, something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners, and the sheet were all sorts of animals, reptiles, and birds, and a voice said, Get up, Peter, kill and eat them.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: O Lord, Reptiles too?
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: I've never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure and unclean.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: But the voice spoke again, do not call something unclean if the Lord has made it clean.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: And the same vision was repeated three times.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: Vision of a sheet coming down.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, they're in Joppa.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: This is a port.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: When you unload your cargo from your ship, you use the sails.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: So they take the sails down, they fill it with the cargo, and they swing it over.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: So this is a very significant uh well they did.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: So he sees these uh shrimp and these lobster and these catfish, okay, which are not kosher.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the Levitical laws say don't eat these because you can get sick uh from eating bottom fish and uh having reactions, shrimp, you know, pigs, if you don't cook them properly.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: But now the vision says, get up, kill, and eat.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: What I've declared clean is not unclean.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_01: But this is not about food.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: It happens three times.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: And as soon as the third vision happens, there's a knock on the gate.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, Peter was very perplexed.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: What could the vision mean?
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: Just then the men sent by Cornelius found Simon Peter's home.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: Standing outside the gate, they asked if a man named Peter.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: Simon Peter was staying there.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, as Peter was puzzling over the vision, the Holy Spirit said to him, Three men have come looking for you.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: Go downstairs and go with them without hesitation.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: Don't worry, I've sent them.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: Three visions, three pig eating pagans knocking on his door.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: You see the connection there?
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so Peter goes down.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: They said, We're sent by Cornelius.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: He's a devout, God-fearing man, well respected by all the Jews, and angels instructing him to summon you to his house so that he can hear your message.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: And Peter invited the men to stay with him.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: So now the setting of Joppa.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: Famous biblical story.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: Remember the uh the prophet that was sent to the Assyrians and got swallowed by the whale, Jonah.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: Oh when God tells him to go to the hated Assyrians who are terrorizing the northern kingdom at this point and give them a message of encouragement and say salvation for the city of Nineveh, what does Jonah do?
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: He goes to Japan, he gets on a ship and he goes as far away from God as he can.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: There's a connection here because Peter is a very reluctant missionary, just like Jonah.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: The reluctant missionary.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: So they're walking all day.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: And we think that Peter's probably engaging these Romans and talking to them about his experience with Jesus and the resurrection, but we don't hear a word.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: He's walking in silence, going, What the heck is going on?
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: As Peter entered his home, Cornelius fell at his feet and worshiped him.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: And Peter pulled up and said, Stand up, I'm a human being just like you.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: So they talked together and went inside, where many others were assembled.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: Peter told them, You know it is against our laws for a Jewish man to enter a Gentile home or like this or associate with you, but God has shown me that you could no longer I could no longer think of anyone as unpure or unclean.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I came without objection as soon as I was sent for.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now tell, tell me, why have you sent for me?
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Brett, this is not the best user-friendly approach to evangelism.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: Come in and insult your host, okay?
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: And he utters a statement.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you know it's against our laws for a Jewish man to enter a Gentile home or even social.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: Well, is this true?
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: Is this true?
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's not true.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, God instructed Moses and the Jews to show hospitality to foreigners to care for them.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: So when you're To take in the stranger.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: So right.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: You must show a love and to foreigners who are living among you, Deuteronomy chapter 10, because you yourself were once foreigners.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're uh harvesting your food, Deuteronomy 24 says, leave some of your crop for the widows, orphan, and for the foreigners.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: And in Deuteronomy 26, whenever you're celebrating the good things that God has done for you and given you, remember, include the Levites and the foreigners living among you.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: So this wasn't this was a Pharisee law.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: It was their own law.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: You can't enter the house of a Roman.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: He's unclean.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: No, God's God's command was always, embrace the people around you.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: Quite the contrary.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: So Cornelius tells the assembled crowd about the appearance of the angel and his command to send for Peter, and he states what's obvious to him and his friends, but not to Peter.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: What's the message you have for us?
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: And Peter's going, Huh?
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_00: Message?
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, on the day of Pentecost, Peter stood up and said, This gift of the Holy Spirit, it's not only for you, but for those Gentiles who are far off.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_01: Who said that?
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: Peter said that.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: He's conveniently forgotten this.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because he doesn't like Romans.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know what, Rhett?
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the biggest miracle that God can do is to allow us to overcome our preconceived prejudices and notions, okay?
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I sent, Cornelius says, so I sent for you at once, and it was good for you to come.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now you're here waiting for God to hear the message the Lord has given you.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: And Peter goes, Oh, that message.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, yes, Jesus our Lord told me to go to these people and tell them how he died on the cross and saved humanity from their sins.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_01: So Peter has a good heart after God, but he's kind of a little on the He's just like us.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: Red, he's just like us.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: He's got the same prejudices, the same things of what thoughts of what God should be doing.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: So when God's doing something differently, you know, it's like, whoa, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: So Peter says very clearly, I see God shows no favoritism.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: In every nation accepts those who fear him and do what is right.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then he goes on to give an incredible story of Jesus preaching, of uh the power that was uh displayed, the teaching, uh his death on the cross, his resurrection, and then his commission to preach everywhere, testify that Jesus is the one appointed by God to be judged.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: And verse 43 of Acts 10, he is the one all the prophets testified about, saying that everyone who believes in him will have their sins forgiven through his name.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: And Cornelius and his Roman friends are listening.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, suddenly the Holy Spirit invades the airspace, and he falls on Cornelius and his friends.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: Even as Peter was saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: The Jewish believers who came with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in other tongues and praising God.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: Peter asked, Can anyone object to their being baptized now that they have received the Holy Spirit just as we did?
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: So he gave orders for them to be baptized in the name of the Jesus Christ.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: Afterwards, Cornelius asked him to stay with them for several days.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: Cornelius is a guy who knows about Yahweh, but he's got no roots.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't have any deep understanding.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: He's going through the motions of worshiping a God he really doesn't know.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: He knows about.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: But the Holy Spirit sees his heart, so he brings Peter to give him the gospel, give him the message of forgiveness of sins, of Jesus dying on the cross, of the resurrection, of Jesus being the Lord.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden the Holy Spirit falls upon him, and now this rocky soil becomes good soil.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: You see?
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: So we've had the seed falling by the road because of lack of understanding.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the Ethiopian eunuch has understanding, becomes a follower of Jesus, becomes good soil and and is very fruitful.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now we have the seed falling in the rocky places and not allowed there's no roots there, but all of a sudden Cornelius is growing deep, deep roots because the Holy Spirit has fallen upon him, and now he's become very good soil.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_01: So he's giving us a dose of hope, saying Okay.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: The third soil falls among the thorns and the cares of the world and the anxiety, choke it out.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: Alright.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: Paul in his travels to Greece, the Apostle Paul, he goes to a city called Thessalonica.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's a port city.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's right on a the Via Ignatia, which is a road that goes through Macedonia all the way to the Adriatic coast, and then you can cross by boat, it goes into the southern part of Italy and it goes all the way to Rome.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: This is a this is like I-95.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: Thessalonica is on I-95 all the way to Rome.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's a port city.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: All the grain that's coming from Egypt and other places in the Middle East is coming into Thessaloniki.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of commodities, and there's a lot of commodity stock investments, just like the commodity market.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: There's so much commerce going on in this city that the Romans put a mint there so they could mint coins to make the commerce flow.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: These are people that are concerned about what's going on in the world.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: They have there's many ri get rich, quick schemes.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_01: Even back then, huh?
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: They're not working with their hands because we know later Paul tells them to get a job and work with your hands and be content.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: They're a bunch of busybodies, and yet this is where Paul goes on his uh mission to Macedonia.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: He stays for about three weeks, he and Timothy and Luke and Silas, until there's a dispute that arises from the Jews who are sort of jealous of what Paul's doing.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: And uh Paul is uh basically asked to leave town.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_00: There's a riot, and he's asked to leave.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_01: He created a riot?
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_00: He created a riot, right.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: So they were there, and then Paul was sent on to go to Athens.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we know the Acts 16 and 17, this is the story, and and he eventually ends up in Athens.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: But he uh writes a letter, and it's probably for a month or two later from uh when he's in Corinth, he writes a letter to his friends in Thessaloniki.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_00: And the question is did the thorny soil get turned into good soil?
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: This is what he says in chapter two of his letter.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: For you know, brothers, that c our coming to you was not in vain, but after we had suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness of God to speak to you the gospel of God amidst much opposition.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_00: For our exhortation doesn't come from error or impunity by way of deceit, parentheses, we're not trying to manipulate you.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: But we speak what we've been approved of by God to entrusted with the gospel.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_00: So we speak.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: We're not trying to please men, but we're pleasing God who examines our heart.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_00: We never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: God is a witness, nor did we seek glory from men.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't point you to ourselves, we pointed you to Jesus.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_01: And they weren't collecting money.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_00: But we proved to be gentle among you as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children, having so fond an affection for you.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: We were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives because you had become so dear to us.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_00: For you, brethren, recall our labor and hardship, how working day and night is not to be a burden to any of you.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_00: We proclaim to you the gospel of God.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_00: And you're our witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_00: We modeled the Christian life.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_00: And as you know, we were exhorting and encouraging, imploring each of you as a father would his own children, so that you would walk in a manner worthy of God who called you into his own kingdom and glory.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_00: For this reason we constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it as the word of men, not as the word of men, for what it really is, the word of God which also performs its work in you who believe.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_00: For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, and you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: So obviously, Paul developed a church there, and when I was there in 2001, uh we were uh standing in the uh an old church that was from, I think, the eighth or ninth century that's downtown in Thessaloniki, and this church, the church movement is still thriving in this part of Greece.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: So here's an area that is that Jesus describes as thorny soil that actually became very good soil.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_01: So Yeah, because a lot of us can be dissuaded by the the parable of the sower.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like, oh, you know, there's no hope for this one, there's no hope for that one.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_01: And this corrects a lot of that.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you're exactly right, because when you read the parable of the sower without reading the rest of the New Testament, you would think that Jesus is condemning or just saying just saying that, okay, these guys are never going to make it.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_00: But yet the reality of what the apostles and the disciples did throughout the first century was they went to that uh soil that was beside the road and they explained.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: They went to the rocky places and they helped people develop deep roots that went down.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_00: They went to places like Thessaloniki, where there was commerce and the cares of the world, and they established a thriving church through personal relationships and caring for people and modeling and not manipulating, but just uh speaking the gospel in a very relational manner.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_01: Instead of being arrogant like ignorant people who have read this and go around preaching fear and condemnation as opposed to being a servant of those he they encounter.
• 45:24
  unknown: Yeah.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_01: We've got a lot of that you know fire and brimstone stuff.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I th I think the parable of the sower is Jesus giving us a clue as to what kind of soil we are going to encounter.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I never heard I'm so glad to hear this, Mr.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I always took it to be the negative.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_00: And and I think he's giving us an encouragement that he can make that hard soil beside the road really good soil.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_00: Just look at you and me.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_00: That he can take the uh the rocky soil and allow you allow people to develop deep personal roots in Christ.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_00: And he can't.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_01: I was a rejector of Jesus.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_01: I thought that's foolishness.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: And uh people that are so caught up in the affairs of the world, and we know many in our town and uh in our community here, that these are people that all of a sudden can have a revelation and totally change their path.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_00: So to me, the parable of the sower is Jesus giving me a heads up of the challenge before me.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm to recognize what the type of soil is, and then I'm to do my part to water and fertilize everyone you encounter.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_01: So we should be the servant.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_01: Paul said, esteem others greater than yourself, because you know, I was in a church attendance for a group of very wealthy people that do believe in Jesus and follow him.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_01: And it's turned out that that church is a very friendly church.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, when I first got there, a little bit of my prejudice, though I was brought up with I was brought up with wealth, and that changed later on, but uh so you know these people, so I've always kind of like oh, you know, you th you're trusting in your money like I'm some sort of judge, and then all of a sudden I get into this church where the people really do love other people and and they're not haughty or arrogant.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the Lord spoke to me and said, Sometimes it takes great wealth to learn how poor you are.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus has chosen the the poor of this world to be rich in faith, but sometimes uh wealth can block you, so sometimes so he's so this is what came to me.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it takes great wealth to realize how poor you are.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's why we have some people who are sitting in mansions and alone and and and then nobody goes to reach them, uh, but they are reachable, just like the Muslims.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_01: Right, you know?
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we can reach them.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_00: The reality is the thing that is um significant the most in our lives is our relationships with the people around us.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_01: Everything you say is about what I've learned late in life.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_01: And just recently I went to bed and I said, Lord, I said, uh do you um what what happened with that?
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Do you care?
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_01: Do you want to be, oh, do you want to be worshipped first?
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_01: Down on my knees, oh God, you're great.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_01: Or do you want me to have her love you first?
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_01: Thinking, you know, is he a god of lovers?
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, it's funny, my eyes were opened up, and it's like, of course, it's love first.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_01: And that that praise and worship and uh sh sacred sacred worship is a fruition of a real love.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, everything the reality is our culture has been really bombarded by a philosophy that it's really centers on self.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean mine.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_00: And mankind is a source and the standard of morality.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_00: Truth is fluid for the situation.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_01: Truth is fluid, yeah.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_01: Flexible.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_00: Each individual whatever you believe.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, each individual should decide what's best for themselves.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_01: If it feels good, do it.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_00: And pursue it regardless of the consequences, of their personal or societal consequences.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_00: And the our culture tells us that personal happiness should be our goal in life.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, who who said that?
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, uh I said this.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_00: I wrote this in our newsletter yesterday.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, did it?
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, you know, I th I because uh uh it really succinctly helps me understand what I'm up against.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_01: If somebody wants that newsletter, where would they how would they get it?
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh go to seekthelamb.com.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_01: Seekthelamb.com.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_00: S-E-E-K-T-H-E-L-A-M-B, and uh uh our uh May newsletter, May 2026, uh has an article that uh this paragraph is taken from.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_00: But I just wrote it down and I I I think it's very helpful to see what are we up against.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna convince people in that are the uh hard soil, the rocky soil, or the thorny soil by saying the Bible says this.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_00: No, we have to help them understand the paradigms that they're living in and help them suddenly shift their paradigms to a spiritual uh uh biblical worldview paradigm, which is when that happens, everything changes.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's change for you, it's change for me.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_00: So earn equity.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_01: I like the way you say that.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_01: Is that your own saying?
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that was really great.
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_01: Because a lot of people jump on other people, you know, they get born again, and of course, what's the one to do?
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_01: I found God's real.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I remember as a kid, a teenager said if I ever find out that there really is a God, I'm gonna tell all the world.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_01: And what once that that happens in this miraculous encounter, you just want to tell everybody, and you want to take them by the column, hey, you gotta get this too.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_01: And uh no, no, no, no, no, no.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_01: You need to earn the equity.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_00: The the challenge is that many portions of the Bible that tell us uh what God thinks about us, what he says we are, how he says we should live for him, and especially the people around us, how we should protect the family unit that's been disregarded by so many.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_01: And none of it's a burden.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_01: The world says it's a burden.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_01: But these things set you free, the disciplines.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_00: But these portions of the Bible, many so-called Christians consider them not applicable to our modern times.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_00: They're irrelevant, they're culturally out of date.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_00: And as a result, and you've met them and I've met them, there's often confusion in among many of our brothers and sisters regarding the question of how do we followers of Jesus think about our life?
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_00: Who we are.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_00: And what is the path that really leads to joy and peace and fulfillments?
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_01: And we must remember that it says the mind of man is enmity with the Spirit of God.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_01: Do you trust in your mind as your God or in the Spirit of God?
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_00: The search has taken many to the mountaintops of experience, the depths of knowledge, and the latitudes of freedom, which often fall outside the counsel given to us by the Bible.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_00: The most published book in history that claims to be written by God's Spirit through men, which has a solid historical basis and has been shown throughout our history to have valid answers to the questions of life.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_00: This is our challenge for us, Rhett.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_00: Where do we go for direction in our life in these years?
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_00: Our culture, what our inner self is telling us, or what God's word is.
• 52:22
  SPEAKER_00: And you and I have been given the word of God, and we've been given the opportunity in our community to be friends and be servants of the people around us, and at just the right time to give them just like Philip did to the Ethiopian eunuch, Peter did to the Roman centurion, and Paul and his team did to those Thessalonicans, you know, give them the words of life.
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it may seem novel, and it I mean it's to me, I mean it sounds I remember all of a sudden I was in my car and I remember went.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_01: Oh it's a privilege to serve now this sounds very simple-minded.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_01: You think this guy's really dumb.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Oh, so it's a privilege to serve others.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_01: And the Holy Spirit went right through me.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_01: Now I'm a 29-year-old, 30-year-old guy, and I felt the presence of the Lord.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_01: I went, it's a it's a it's a it's a yeah, it's a wow.
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you would think you think a 30-year-old guy would know that being in service of others gives you joy, but we're we're we're blind to that stuff, you know.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_00: Just a moment.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_00: Is that your wife?
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_00: I think we're out of time.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_00: We're out of time.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna take the call of the spouse.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna take a break.
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna we're gonna wind it up and continue.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah.