SPEAKER_00: May turn your Bibles this morning to Matthew's Gospel chapter 13.
SPEAKER_00: Be reading the first 23 verses.
SPEAKER_00: This morning we're starting a new series for a month on the kingdom parables that Jesus taught.
SPEAKER_00: We find it in Matthew 13.
SPEAKER_00: Hear the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea, and great crowds gathered about him, so they got into a boat and sat down.
SPEAKER_00: And the whole crowd stood on the beach.
SPEAKER_00: And he told them many things in parables, saying, A sower went out to sow.
SPEAKER_00: And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.
SPEAKER_00: Other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil.
SPEAKER_00: And immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil.
SPEAKER_00: But when the sun rose they were scorched, and since they had no root, they withered away.
SPEAKER_00: Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.
SPEAKER_00: Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
SPEAKER_00: He who has ears let him hear.
SPEAKER_00: Then the disciples came and said to him, Why do you speak to them in parables?
SPEAKER_00: And he answered them, To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
SPEAKER_00: For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
SPEAKER_00: This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
SPEAKER_00: Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says, You will indeed hear, but never understand, and you will indeed see, but never perceive, for this people's hearts have grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.
SPEAKER_00: But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears for they hear.
SPEAKER_00: For truly I say to you, many prophets and righteous people long to see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what you hear and did not hear it.
SPEAKER_00: Hear then the parable of the sower.
SPEAKER_00: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was and sown in their heart.
SPEAKER_00: This is what was sown along the path.
SPEAKER_00: As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy.
SPEAKER_00: Yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.
SPEAKER_00: As for what was sown among the thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.
SPEAKER_00: As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it.
SPEAKER_00: He indeed bears fruit and yields.
SPEAKER_00: In one case, a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.
SPEAKER_00: This is the reading of God's Holy Word.
SPEAKER_00: Please join me in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Father, our prayer this morning is simple.
SPEAKER_00: Would you bless our eyes?
SPEAKER_00: Would you bless our ears that we will see and we will hear by the work of your spirit.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Kingdom Parables.
SPEAKER_00: Those opening words are most interesting, aren't they?
SPEAKER_00: A great crowd gathered around Jesus one more time.
SPEAKER_00: Not the first, not the last.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus had a way of drawing crowds.
SPEAKER_00: But then he got into a boat.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that interesting?
SPEAKER_00: A boat becomes his pulpit.
SPEAKER_00: And there's the crowds.
SPEAKER_00: Who knows?
SPEAKER_00: Could well have been more than us here in the sanctuary.
SPEAKER_00: There's the crowds, and did you notice that they're all standing?
SPEAKER_00: I suspect they're standing because they want a better view, and maybe even hear better.
SPEAKER_00: And they're just attuned to this man who taught like no one had ever taught.
SPEAKER_00: And he told them many things, it says.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder if it's more than what's recorded.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that the gospel writers certainly did not record everything Jesus said or did.
SPEAKER_00: He told them many things and parables.
SPEAKER_00: So this morning we're going to look at why parables, secondly, what kingdom, and thirdly, the different responses to this kingdom message.
SPEAKER_00: Why parables?
SPEAKER_00: There are seven parables in the 13th chapter of Matthew's gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Seven kingdom parables.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus started using parables at a particular stage in his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't start with parables, he didn't really end so much with parables.
SPEAKER_00: He started using parables after he started getting rejected.
SPEAKER_00: I find that interesting.
SPEAKER_00: What is a parable?
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have heard it's an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, it is.
SPEAKER_00: It's like an illustration, it's making a comparison between something that is unknown, an unknown truth of God, and something that is known and understood in life.
SPEAKER_00: So we're not surprised in this chapter, he's using terms and word pictures that were very familiar to his listeners.
SPEAKER_00: A farmer goes out to sow seed.
SPEAKER_00: He talks about agriculture, he talks about the things of this world that wouldn't be hard to understand.
SPEAKER_00: But this chap in this chapter we read that these are the secrets of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: The mystery.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, it's not that conundrum, it's not that mystery.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I wish I could understand that, but this is way beyond me, I'll never get it.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what it means.
SPEAKER_00: Something that was hidden, but now through Jesus, has been revealed for us.
SPEAKER_00: One scholar put it like this: Parables put the truth in portable form so that they can be remembered, and it's easier to carry them away with you once you understand them.
SPEAKER_00: It's designed to avoid offense to those who are not receptive.
SPEAKER_00: So the person, and this has been going on through centuries, right?
SPEAKER_00: For the person who hears the word of God and comes away and says, I just don't get it.
SPEAKER_00: But then never really has the spiritual appetite or hunger to follow up.
SPEAKER_00: They just kind of walk away from it.
SPEAKER_00: God only knows how many people have done that.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, through history and today.
SPEAKER_00: They hear the word of God and they, that's interesting.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_00: They maybe get curious about it, but they don't know what to do with it.
SPEAKER_00: And again, this is really the crucial step.
SPEAKER_00: I don't get it.
SPEAKER_00: And they don't follow up.
SPEAKER_00: They don't seem to have any real heart interest to dig in to the words of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I hope that's not you.
SPEAKER_00: I hope that's never me.
SPEAKER_00: But it happens a lot.
SPEAKER_00: Why parable?
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, what kingdom?
SPEAKER_00: The word kingdom we know means somebody who rules and reigns, the dominion of a king.
SPEAKER_00: There's no kingdom without a king, is there?
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 13 is all about King Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of God was Jesus' central message.
SPEAKER_00: The mysteries of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, no one receives Jesus as Savior without lordship.
SPEAKER_00: We know that in the PCA, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we we've we got that one right.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody comes to Jesus as Savior without also coming to Jesus as Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible's very clear.
SPEAKER_00: If you come to Jesus simply to have your sins forgiven, but you don't understand his lordship, and you're not ready to bow down before his lordship, you're not a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible's very clear about that.
SPEAKER_00: Although that message has been really diluted in many of our churches in this country.
SPEAKER_00: The stages of the kingdom correspond with the stages of the ministry and the activity of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For those of you who have been here for a while and know Steve Stonehouse, who once was an elder in this church and now has been a missionary for many years.
SPEAKER_00: Steve's grandfather was a real scholar at Westminster Theological Seminary, Ned Stonehouse, put it like this, and I think this is helpful.
SPEAKER_00: The stages, again, of the kingdom correspond with the stages of the ministry and the activity of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: There's three stages, all right?
SPEAKER_00: This is just a quick look.
SPEAKER_00: The first stage is the coming of the kingdom in the public ministry of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We looked at this over a year ago when we went through the theme for the year, the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: But just a little bit of a review.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came when he preached, he said, Today the kingdom has arrived.
SPEAKER_00: It's fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom has come.
SPEAKER_00: The Greek word means the actual presence, not mere proximity.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus could say that with a straight face.
SPEAKER_00: That kingdom of God that had been prophesied and promised for hundreds of years, centuries, when Jesus came to this earth, he said, it's here now, because the king is here.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom, he said, is within you.
SPEAKER_00: As you hear the kingdom message, as you believe it, as you receive it, the kingdom is within us.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, the coming of the kingdom is in the exaltation of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This age in which we live now.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ is exercising his authority directly over this world through his church, through the word of God, and through the Spirit of God, his Holy Spirit, directly, did you caught that right?
SPEAKER_00: Directly.
SPEAKER_00: But listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: Indirectly through us.
SPEAKER_00: So to the extent that your heart opens up to the king and to the king's message, and my heart opens up to him, and the Holy Spirit is at work within us, the kingdom is growing in us and through us as King Jesus in heaven right now, at the right hand of the Father, is exercising his kingly rule.
SPEAKER_00: And that's how he does it.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, the coming fulfillment of the kingdom at the return of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We're waiting for that, aren't we?
SPEAKER_00: King Jesus is going to return.
SPEAKER_00: And when he comes back, there's not one person in the world who will miss it.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says in Philippians that when he comes back, every single tongue will confess.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care the most hardened atheist you know.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know the, it doesn't matter, the biggest rebel.
SPEAKER_00: That person is going to bow and say, Jesus, you are King.
SPEAKER_00: But at that point it's going to be too late.
SPEAKER_00: You either bow to King Jesus now out of faith for blessing, or you will bow before King Jesus one day in punishment.
SPEAKER_00: Receive him now.
SPEAKER_00: Bow before him today.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone will bow their knee.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: Think about the person that you know that says, I don't care about any of this.
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna bow.
SPEAKER_00: And they're gonna confess with their tongue.
SPEAKER_00: He is Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I never knew that.
SPEAKER_00: I never believed that.
SPEAKER_00: This is the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: But thirdly, the different responses to the kingdom message.
SPEAKER_00: Commentators use different words to describe these four different responses.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give you just a couple of them that I like the best.
SPEAKER_00: The hard heart, the shallow heart, the strangled heart, and then fourthly, the open heart.
SPEAKER_00: Or here's some other terms.
SPEAKER_00: The unresponsive heart, the impulsive heart, the preoccupied heart, or the responsive heart.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the main point.
SPEAKER_00: To show that the effect of the kingdom message depends on the state of the person's heart.
SPEAKER_00: Now, please hear this, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Don't miss this.
SPEAKER_00: The difference in the results is the soil, not the seed.
SPEAKER_00: This is very important you get this.
SPEAKER_00: The seed is the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God is powerful whether you believe it or not.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God, the seed doesn't change in its power.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God is all powerful.
SPEAKER_00: The difference is in the soil of our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: So let's break that down.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom is a presence which transforms the world, beginning with me or you.
SPEAKER_00: Alexandria Presbyterian Church, I used to say this a lot in the early years.
SPEAKER_00: I guess it was just gripping my heart then in a new way.
SPEAKER_00: APC exists to extend the transforming presence of the kingdom of Jesus Christ in Alexandria, in Washington, D.C., in D.C.
SPEAKER_00: Metro, around the world.
SPEAKER_00: His transforming presence means that we will challenge those places where the king's rule is denied.
SPEAKER_00: We've already done that this morning, haven't we?
SPEAKER_00: In our confession of sin?
SPEAKER_00: Didn't we do that?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, wherever, wherever I am denying your kingly rule, your reign, show me, forgive me, help me to bow and not to blow off your message.
SPEAKER_00: A sower went out to sow.
SPEAKER_00: That's Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Or any preacher this morning, that's Tom Holliday.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Tom Holiday is doing right now.
SPEAKER_00: Sowing his seed by the power of his spirit, hopefully.
SPEAKER_00: Not only for the sower, but for what are you this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Whatever we all in one sense.
SPEAKER_00: The soil.
SPEAKER_00: What kind of soil are we?
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at the first one.
SPEAKER_00: The hard heart, the unresponsive heart.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said this in verse 4, and as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.
SPEAKER_00: We see the explanation in verse 20, verse 21 also.
SPEAKER_00: As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word.
SPEAKER_00: Excuse me, when anyone, verse 19, when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, this is scary.
SPEAKER_00: All right?
SPEAKER_00: Don't miss this.
SPEAKER_00: This is scary.
SPEAKER_00: There are many, many people in the history of the world who hear the word of God, but don't understand it.
SPEAKER_00: And then the evil one, well, you know who that is, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's Satan.
SPEAKER_00: Comes and snatches, snatch, that's a strong word.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Snatch.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't just kind of come up, you know.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just that's scary.
SPEAKER_00: You can sit in this sanctuary and hear the word of God, and the evil one is here also.
SPEAKER_00: And he's here to snatch whatever he can snatch.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we had a dog growing up.
SPEAKER_00: We had a dog that could snatch.
SPEAKER_00: And if you put that food too close to the corner of the table, there was many times.
SPEAKER_00: Sharon could tell you the time in early marriage where she had a whole chicken that was thawing.
SPEAKER_00: And Oscar snatched the whole chicken.
SPEAKER_00: We came home to find it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I won't tell you where we found it.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, dogs are not the only ones you can snatch.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let this happen to you.
SPEAKER_00: You've got something to do with this.
SPEAKER_00: So do I.
SPEAKER_00: Because the ground is hard, the path, there have been many feet on this path that have trampled it.
SPEAKER_00: And because the soil is hard, the seed that falls there doesn't take root, it doesn't sink in, and there's unbelief and there's sin.
SPEAKER_00: It's like the word of God goes in one ear and right out the other ear.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not that you couldn't go home today and tell somebody, yeah, I think the sermon today was about, it's not that you couldn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: That person is, they hear it, it just doesn't really go anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't change them in any way.
SPEAKER_00: That's um that's very sad, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: This is what one commentator said.
SPEAKER_00: There are many Christians today who are not Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Tongue in cheek.
SPEAKER_00: People who keep on hearing, but whose hearts Satan removes the word.
SPEAKER_00: When John Calvin looked at this paragraph, he too was struck by the fact that of all four soils describe professing Christians so that the parable becomes a warning to Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Well, not really Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Let me get ahead of myself.
SPEAKER_00: There's only one soil that really are Christians.
SPEAKER_00: That's the fourth soil.
SPEAKER_00: Calvin and many other church fathers in history said this was a dire warning from God to those who sit in the pews, week after week, year after year, who hear the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: But there's just no real evidence of any fruit.
SPEAKER_00: They really didn't receive Jesus as Savior and Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That's the description of these four.
SPEAKER_00: What did we say at the beginning?
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those ears that hear and those eyes that see.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, the shallow, impulsive heart.
SPEAKER_00: These people received the word of God immediately with joy.
SPEAKER_00: Why didn't anybody ever tell me this?
SPEAKER_00: This is great news.
SPEAKER_00: And they start following Jesus for a while.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the key.
SPEAKER_00: For a while.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground which did not have much soil, and immediately They sprang up, but because there was no depth of soil, the seed never really took root.
SPEAKER_00: And it never really bore fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Literally, the language says, because they do not, they did not have deep earth.
SPEAKER_00: What is deep earth?
SPEAKER_00: That's the Holy Spirit coming and planting the seed and watering the seed so that the seed germinates, it takes root, something grows.
SPEAKER_00: The seed fell there and it sank in, yet it was very shallow.
SPEAKER_00: These are people that quickly respond, often with joy, but they don't ever really grow in their Christian faith.
SPEAKER_00: Was it an emotional response?
SPEAKER_00: I've told this story before back when we were in Chicago.
SPEAKER_00: I was sharing the gospel with a man, and I'll never forget, he told me, Tom.
SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden the sky is bluer.
SPEAKER_00: He said, the grass is greener.
SPEAKER_00: We were in a park.
SPEAKER_00: He said, everything is different.
SPEAKER_00: I was thinking, great.
SPEAKER_00: It appeared to me as I tried to follow up with him, it was pretty much an emotional response as far as I could tell.
SPEAKER_00: I saw no evidence of his heart being changed.
SPEAKER_00: Now it might have, it might have later, I hope.
SPEAKER_00: But some people just immediately respond with their emotions.
SPEAKER_00: But did the seed go down?
SPEAKER_00: Is the seed bearing fruit?
SPEAKER_00: Is really the question.
SPEAKER_00: It says, it's not a matter of profession of faith.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody is saved by a profession of faith.
SPEAKER_00: Did you catch that?
SPEAKER_00: We are saved by actually believing.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a profession of faith that saves anyone.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually believing Christ, taking him at his word, trusting in Jesus Christ alone, that person will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: But take no confidence.
SPEAKER_00: Take no confidence because you're a member of this church that you're saved.
SPEAKER_00: It's not joining a church that saves anybody.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus saves.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Until the pressure in life comes in, he says, on account of the world, excuse me, not the world, the word, on account of the word of God, he falls away.
SPEAKER_00: This is the person that seems to get off to a good start, but never never gets to the finish line.
SPEAKER_00: This is the person that when pressure sets in, pressure can come in all kinds of forms and shapes.
SPEAKER_00: When pressure sets in, either pressure from somebody else, don't you ever let somebody pressure you out of following Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: As a pastor, I've seen that over the years many times.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you dare let anybody pressure you out of following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus talks about that very clearly in this gospel, doesn't he?
SPEAKER_00: Blessed is the man who leaves father and mother, brother and sister, wife or husband.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed is the person that puts everyone and everything in their life behind their loyalty to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, the strangled or preoccupied heart.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7, we see that.
SPEAKER_00: Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.
SPEAKER_00: Choked them.
SPEAKER_00: That's sad.
SPEAKER_00: The strangled heart, the preoccupied heart, strangled by, and this is so sad, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: What's that next word?
SPEAKER_00: Strangled by things.
SPEAKER_00: To think that things in this world could choke out a real relationship with the real God.
SPEAKER_00: How sad is that?
SPEAKER_00: How devastating is that going to be on the day of judgment for the person who looks back on their life in judgment, not in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And says, I missed it for things.
SPEAKER_00: I missed him for things.
SPEAKER_00: Jim Boyce said, Riches do not choke a person all at once.
SPEAKER_00: It's usually a gradual process.
SPEAKER_00: Riches do not usually choke a person all at once.
SPEAKER_00: Over time, riches have a way of taking our heart and taking over our heart.
SPEAKER_00: Fourthly, the open, responsive heart.
SPEAKER_00: This is the good one, right?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain.
SPEAKER_00: Some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
SPEAKER_00: He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
SPEAKER_00: Church, let's not get overconfident and expect that everybody we witness to is going to come to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Probably not going to happen.
SPEAKER_00: My own personal belief from my study of the Word of God is we are going to be the minority.
SPEAKER_00: Broad is the gate to destruction.
SPEAKER_00: Narrow is the door to Christ in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: So let's let that help us get some perspective.
SPEAKER_00: And yet the good news is we know that people are going to respond when we share the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: I actually believe that people get saved when I preach.
SPEAKER_00: Not because of my power, not because of my gifts.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Holy Spirit has called people, is calling people to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's his power.
SPEAKER_00: If it's his word and the Spirit is filling me, the Spirit will work.
SPEAKER_00: Won't He?
SPEAKER_00: Expect that.
SPEAKER_00: I think too many preachers just don't expect it and they just kind of hope that God does something.
SPEAKER_00: That's no way to preach.
SPEAKER_00: The only sure evidence of a genuine reception of the Word of God in our lives is spiritual fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's true that we're not saved by our good works.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody here is saved by their good works.
SPEAKER_00: But if you are saved, genuinely saved, there will be good works in your life.
SPEAKER_00: There will be spiritual fruit.
SPEAKER_00: There has to be, if it's God's word and it's God's power, there will be God's results.
SPEAKER_00: And some people, a hundredfold return, which is a phenomenal return.
SPEAKER_00: Sixty-fold return, thirty-fold return.
SPEAKER_00: It's all part of that, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: It's all part of that that we are looking at this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, friends, this is so, this is so important that we're looking at this responsive heart.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read from John Calvin.
SPEAKER_00: He was struck by the fact that all four soils describing professing Christians, so a warning to those who think they're Christians.
SPEAKER_00: This warning will help us all the more when we realize that there is no mention here in this text of people that openly despise God's word or refuse God's word.
SPEAKER_00: This message was preached to people that seem to want to hear God's word.
SPEAKER_00: The first soil hearer lets the devil steal the word from his heart because he doesn't want to know what God really has to say.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Matthew Henry, the Bible scholar, said.
SPEAKER_00: True.
SPEAKER_00: The devil who is a sworn enemy to our ever profiting from the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, look, I don't know who your enemy is.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us have enemies in this world.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever might be your enemy is not your biggest enemy.
SPEAKER_00: Your biggest enemy and my biggest enemy is the accuser of the brethren, the evil one.
SPEAKER_00: And he will stop at nothing to snatch away the word of God so that you will never come to Jesus Christ for salvation.
SPEAKER_00: He will do anything he can to snatch away the word of God so that once you're a Christian, you just don't ever really get renewed by the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: You lost your gospel joy.
SPEAKER_00: You've lost your joy, you've lost your peace, you've lost, you haven't been renewed.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit wants to renew you.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, watch out for the devil who comes and snatches that word from you.
SPEAKER_00: What did Henry say?
SPEAKER_00: Prepare your heart before you, I'm going to paraphrase.
SPEAKER_00: Prepare your heart before you come into the sanctuary to worship.
SPEAKER_00: And you ask God to prepare your heart.
SPEAKER_00: God, please, would you open my mind, my emotions, my heart?
SPEAKER_00: I want to receive whatever you want to give me.
SPEAKER_00: You pray like that.
SPEAKER_00: And you come and you watch what he'll do.
SPEAKER_00: But he said, after you hear the word, pray and meditate.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, say, God, set time aside.
SPEAKER_00: Say, God, what was it that you wanted me to come away with this morning?
SPEAKER_00: What was it?
SPEAKER_00: Would you bless that?
SPEAKER_00: Would you grow that?
SPEAKER_00: The prayer supplications that we received, what, two Sundays ago?
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to tell you one last year that got my heart.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, a lot of them did, right?
SPEAKER_00: But this nine-year-old boy who wrote on his prayer supplication form last year, who was having significant hearing problems, who needed surgery.
SPEAKER_00: He said, God, would you please heal my hearing so I can hear the word of God?
SPEAKER_00: And God healed his hearing.
SPEAKER_00: The surgery was effective.
SPEAKER_00: May that be our prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Do you need surgery?
SPEAKER_00: Does your heart, maybe not your ears literally, does your heart need surgery?
SPEAKER_00: Get on the table.
SPEAKER_00: Alright?
SPEAKER_00: I mean it.
SPEAKER_00: Get on the table.
SPEAKER_00: Get into the OR.
SPEAKER_00: Ask the Lord and ask the Holy Spirit to do whatever He has to do, to open your ears and to open your eyes so that you see and you hear.
SPEAKER_00: You will never ever regret that.
SPEAKER_00: I promise you.
SPEAKER_00: When you meet Jesus, you will thank him that things didn't get in your way.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are your eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are your ears.
SPEAKER_00: You're not the gardener.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit is the gardener.
SPEAKER_00: He knows what to do with the soil.
SPEAKER_00: Come to Him.
SPEAKER_00: He's the one who said, I'll give you a new heart.
SPEAKER_00: You ask me.
SPEAKER_00: I'll give you a new heart.
SPEAKER_00: Let's ask Him.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we come now and we ask.
SPEAKER_00: Father, if there's anyone here in this room that has never really received Jesus as Savior and Lord, perhaps they've joined this church.
SPEAKER_00: But if they have not experienced real life, new life in Christ, if they don't know that their sins are forgiven, not because of anything that they could do, but only because of what Jesus you have done for them, let them this day hear and come to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And Father, for many of us, we would just ask, would you please do whatever you need to do?
SPEAKER_00: If you need to put us on the operating table, put us on.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, that things will not choke what you want to do in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: King Jesus, we bow before you.
SPEAKER_00: We bow before you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Give us faith to believe.
SPEAKER_00: May we bear much fruit for your glory.
SPEAKER_00: In Christ's name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.