'Words of Life' w/ Pastor Mark D. Ingram
'Words of Life' w/ Pastor Mark D. Ingram
'The Parable of the Sower' featuring Twala Ingram's 'Biblical Thoughts'
What does the Parable of the Sower reveal about our hearts and how we receive God's Word? As we unravel this profound parable alongside our host, Twala D. Ingram and her special guest, Ms. Suzette Law, we invite you to join us on an enlightening journey that may alter the way you perceive your spiritual life.
Prepare to evaluate your heart's condition, to seek ways to cultivate a bountiful spiritual harvest, and to comprehend the sanctity of spreading GOD'S WORD.
In the course of our broadcast + podcast, we take a step further to interpret the parable's implications on our duties as Christians. Our reflections lead us to understand the necessity of being ‘the good soil’ - receptive, understanding and productive. Despite life's obstacles, we discuss strategies to keep our spiritual growth unhampered. Regardless of our talents, we recognize that our primary mission is to disseminate God's WORD, evangelize, and guide others towards JESUS, as the sole hope for the eternal souls of humanity. We examine the comforting, healing, and strengthening power of GOD'S WORD, reminding us of its undeniable influence in our lives.
Lastly, we turn the spotlight on you, our dear viewers and listeners. We encourage you to assess your own spiritual state in relation to The 'Parable of the Sower.' Ponder on ways to improve your eternal productivity and share God's love with those around you.
As we emphasize the urgency of preparing for JESUS's return, we discuss the significance of radiating GOD'S WORD in a world in dire need of its SAVIOR.
Understand how our choices impact our spiritual lives and the importance of serving the Lord with an open heart. So, let's get ready to dig deep, nurture our spiritual soil, and discipline ourselves for the eternal, fruitful harvest, that GOD desires for HIS children.
Join us for our soul-searching exploration of: 'The Parable of the Sower.'
In lieu of eternity, sermons and musical artists are featured to extol JESUS CHRIST as the sole hope for the eternal souls of humanity.
We thank you for joining our.
Speaker 3:Biblical Faults broadcast podcast where our mission is studying God's Word with practical application and encouragement from various women of God.
Speaker 3:We now join Lady Twalla with this week's Biblical Faults. Hello, this is Twalla and we are back for another episode of Biblical Faults. This is our second episode, so we're excited to get into the word with you today. Today, I have a different guest with me this morning, so I'm going to let her give a little introduction of herself. Her name is Miss Suzette, and she's going to just maybe give you a little bit of background on her.
Speaker 2:Good morning. I am delighted, delighted, to be here. Thank you for this great opportunity. So a little bit about me. I am, first and foremost, a mother. I am retired military, retired from school educator, and my passion right now is I do a lot of ministry work. I go overseas, do a lot of international ministry. So we feed, we clothe, we just make sure that the gospel is being spread throughout the world. We do it locally and all over the places. We have several places. We just got back on my mission team. So that's my passion right now making sure that the children of God and those that are not seen by the larger society, that somebody has their eyes on them and to ensure that they know that God still sees and still loves them. So I'm glad to be here today and so I'm ready.
Speaker 3:Well, I'm so grateful that you are here. I'm so thankful that God led you this way and that you accepted the call to come and be with us today. I've got some biblical thoughts, so today we're going to get ready to get into the word. We are doing the parable of the sower. It is a familiar portion of scripture coming from Matthew, mark and Luke, which are the synoptic gospels. But we're going to read from the portion of scripture that is found in Matthew, the 18th through the 23rd verse. And, for those who are viewing or listening, just a reminder that these are earthly stories. The way that I was always taught is it is an earthly story with the heavenly meaning. So I'm sure that you as well have heard it that way. So we're just going to get into the word of God. We are in this portion of scripture. Jesus is speaking to a multitude of people and we're going to read the 18th through the 23rd verse of Matthew. So it reads, starting with verse 18.
Speaker 3:Now listen to the explanation of the parable about the farmer planting seeds. The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message about the kingdom and don't understand it. Then the evil one comes. Snatches it away, snatches away the seed and that which was planted in their hearts. The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy, but since they have don't have any deep roots, they don't last. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing in the word of God. The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God's word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of life and the lures of riches, so no fruit is produced. And the final verse verse 23. The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God's word and produce a harvest of 30, 60, or even 100 times as much as had been planted. And we add a blessing to those who hear, read and do the word of God.
Speaker 3:As we have read these verses, we're going to just kind of get into, just get into a talk about the word. I like to think of this as I had the when we had our first episode women in the word. So this is biblical thoughts. But I just feel like these are. We're just women getting in the word and discussing the word of God. So we can just start with it. Do you have a point that you that came to mind after reading the word of God?
Speaker 2:And so, as I was standing for this and I was preparing, and one of the things I thought about is that the seed it fell on different grounds the parol, but the seed was good. So it's not the seed, that's the first thing I want to point out, that it's not the. It's nothing's wrong with the seed, because we might tend to think, well, I didn't get the good seed, and maybe that's why, but it's nothing wrong with the seed. The seed is not, it's imperishable. So the seed, the seed is good. So let's start there. So we all had an opportunity with a good seed.
Speaker 2:But it's talking about us now, when the seed falls on our heart. So the ground is our heart. And then what's the posture of your heart when the seed has fallen on your heart? When you hear the word of God, what is it going on in your mind? What's going on in your heart? It's what I think about. And so for me, let's, let's we know that what our heart can change, and now we can learn things and make our heart open, or we can get encountered in life and make our heart heart, and some of the things through life will harden our heart or will expose who are we really is our heart? Well, sure, so to me. This is why we're having these different types of outcomes, with the seed and each one so and I feel the same way.
Speaker 3:I want to just basically piggyback on you. My first point was different soils produce different results. So, like you said, the soil that's us, that's our heart, and looking at those different hearts that they came in contact with the seed, it produced something different and it wasn't like you said. It's not the seed, it's the heart in which the seed fell upon. And so, just going forth and looking at that first, the first one that was mentioned in scripture was the footpath. And when I thought about the footpath, you know it's a place where people are constantly walking, it's being trampled upon, even if it's like I thought about when I was a little kid and we would walk to the store, the path that we would take, where we always would walk through this grass, that grass died, where our feet were always treading, so yeah, that same spot.
Speaker 3:It was growing until the trampoling. So something that is you know, if we drop a seed in a place like that, that's being stepped on and there's, if there is something there, it's gonna die. So just looking at that part where that's, and that heart was a heart that heard the word but didn't even understand it had no understanding or not tried to understand it.
Speaker 2:I thought about with that, because of the students I had I talked about, you know you can tell somebody something and they listen to you, but you know they're not. It goes in and out. Yes, yes, this is what I thought about when, with this one here, you know the drop seed, but they heard, but they're not really comprehended, they're not really trying to hear, they allow you to say it but they're not really into it, they don't care. It goes in and out. And so this is what I thought about, that with this verse Amen.
Speaker 3:In this heart. You know, I agree. My husband often says are you hearing me?
Speaker 1:Or are you?
Speaker 3:listening and he always tells us to. There's a difference, you know, between Are you really listening? The second if we don't have anything else on the footpath, I like to look at the rocky place, and these were the people that received the word with joy, but it was short lived.
Speaker 1:There are no roots there were no roots, there were no sensations.
Speaker 3:So and we can even think of that, you know, god explained, jesus explained it in the natural, and that you know talked about how plants if you grow it somewhere where the roots are not deep, the plant is not going to survive. So, just like with us, if we're hearing the word, we're not getting deep in it or we're, you know, it's just it's not taking root in us and we're not going to be able to be productive. Help anyone else, you know, bring someone else into the knowledge of God If we don't know enough.
Speaker 2:Enough Of the word to help someone. And so we don't know enough. One of the things well, we don't know enough and life starts lifeing and things come up, and hard things come up, because it's already rocky, because it's already shaky. Already It'll shake us, yeah. And so we were excited at first. I mean, it sounded good because we might be thinking, oh man, I'm having a problem.
Speaker 2:So I heard this word God's going to fix it. I'm excited, but then you don't see the results that you thought you should have seen. And so now you're like wait a minute, I'm supposed to say that. He's supposed to say I'm a Christian. Now he's probably doing something, something should be happening, but it happened the way we think it should happen. And so now we're questioning, we're questioning God instead of learning, and we don't have the foundation. And so I always thought of think about people. I would say well, I have to go to church a lot, so why do I have to surround myself with like-minded people, with people that think like me? Well, for this right here. Because if you don't have somebody that is thinking Godly or can encourage you, this is why this word is taken, it's followed.
Speaker 3:You're going to fall away. You're going to fall. You're going to feel like there's. You know it came to Christ and he didn't do anything and he didn't do anything.
Speaker 1:He didn't do anything.
Speaker 3:You know, and so, like you said, we have to be mindful and know that we do need to surround ourselves with other people, like-minded, being with other brothers and sisters, finding ourselves, you know, maybe, even if it maybe, looking at the word of God on, tell it.
Speaker 1:I mean any kind of way studying in the word.
Speaker 2:Yes, to stay in the word.
Speaker 3:To stay in the word and to keep from having that. Hey, I got it, I'm full of joy, I've received it and now, all of a sudden, you've fallen off. So we don't want that falling away.
Speaker 1:We want to be mindful of other people, because we're not in the word Because of trials and truth, because of trials and truth Because of life.
Speaker 3:And it seemed like the next one, the one that fell among thorns, kind of put me in the same mindset. But it says these people hear the word, but the message gets crowded out by worries of life, wealth, riches, you're thinking about all of these things. So they hear the word and it seems like they kind of stayed there for a minute, but as soon as all the bombardment and you know, like you said, life.
Speaker 2:And sometimes we put stuff on ourselves. You know, as women turn my way right. As women, okay, we start worrying about our family, we start worrying about our finances, we start worrying about our health. We start we got all these worries and cares, concerns, and we forget that we can take them to the Lord. But the seed which? This might be new, it might not have been there a long time, but we let worry consume us and so we don't take time to realize that we can go back and get them back. And it says women, you know, and we want to fix everything in nature.
Speaker 3:We want to fix everything and everybody.
Speaker 2:So we're getting ready to fix the whole house. We're gonna fix our neighbor our girlfriend. We got to fix everything, work and so forth, and sometimes, when we don't see that happening, I can likely say, like that word maybe start to fall away because it's not in our time or it's not being fixed like we. It should look like to us.
Speaker 3:Amen, and then that there's no, you can't produce fruit, you know.
Speaker 1:and it said in that portion it's like you're too busy worried about this. Too busy, was it that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, there you go, that you're so busy trying to fix everything that there's no productivity. Yeah, you're not, you're not getting anything done?
Speaker 3:There's no productive, because you're like, okay, oh, this, this, this, this, that life. Look the kids, like you said. So, no production, no production, yeah, you're not getting anything done. And then we're going to move on to the last soil, which was that good soil, and I like to think that this is the one that all Christians want to be. These are the people that truly hear and understand God's word. This is the heart that produces a harvest. Of it said 30, 60 and 100 times. So this is where we want to be and I just think, as Christians, this is the good soil is. I mean not to say that these other, if it falls on among the thorns or rocky places, that they're not Christians, because it doesn't say that they're not Christians, but with life consuming them, they're not able to be productive.
Speaker 3:And the word of God says we don't want to just hear the words, we want to be doers of the words also so we need to be doing and helping others and reaching others and bringing others to know God, and I think that is the good soil, that's the key, that that's where we want to be, so that we can help others and be a light and be be there for us.
Speaker 2:I think that's one of the keys to this, to these scriptures and these verses and I do believe they're Christians, Because I do believe we have Christians that fit at least into these last three categories yeah, the first one could be or not, the first one could be, you know, I might accept it, I might not, or I accepted it, but I ain't trying to hear out somebody in front of school.
Speaker 2:20 years ago, I accepted it. I do believe the last three could be Christians, you know. But we just all grow at different stages and different levels and I do believe that the one you know, the good soil, the good, the deaf person there, I think it's teaching us as Christians what our duties are in Christ, because to produce good fruit, we're making more disciples, we're spreading the word, we're, like I like going through mission trips and stuff, so. So, as a good Christian, a lot of times we say, well, what am I supposed to do? I don't know my purpose. Well, this tells us, our purpose?
Speaker 2:Our purpose is to produce good fruit you know, to make more disciples to hear the word, learn from the word, grow from the word you know and then repeat it to someone.
Speaker 3:And help others in the word and help others come to know Jesus, so exactly. It's a blueprint for what Christians should do, Even if you don't have a gift Again yeah, you can have a purpose. We all have a purpose.
Speaker 1:And that is to be that good soil and reaching and teaching others, and bringing others to know Christ.
Speaker 3:And the next point that I had from the scriptures, that the verses that we read. I thought about the seed, which we know is the word, and the word is good, it's powerful, it has power. When you mentioned what you did about it, it wasn't the seed. The seed is the seed. The seed wasn't bad, it's the soil. So to me, the second point is the seed is the word. The word has power. It may not, the person that is receiving it may not be at the point and place where they can receive it and go out and be productive, but there's nothing wrong with the word.
Speaker 1:There's nothing wrong with the seed.
Speaker 3:It has power, has power to do many things when I think about that. It has the power to comfort, to heal, to strengthen. It has the power to keep us from saying, if we get in the word and let it guide us and let it lead us, so it is very powerful, it's very active.
Speaker 3:It is effective and effective. So, looking at both of those words, I thought that it can produce a desired result and it can produce an emotional feeling For me when I hear the word, when it says I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. God didn't just throw me together. He didn't just throw us together. He didn't just throw us together. You know what I'm saying when I hear certain words, I get that emotional feeling. So I think the word is effective and it is effective Perfective. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, do you have a point? Or?
Speaker 2:Well, the point for me there is. I totally agree with that, and it makes you know that some people will be like well, you're just like that, god loves you more. You know God don't love me, he don't see me, but the word covers everybody, it's not selective, it's out there for everyone. How do you see it? So I love that.
Speaker 3:I love it too. No-transcript, it just made me think, like, okay, like you said, the seed there's nothing wrong with the word.
Speaker 1:The word is the word.
Speaker 2:The word is powerful.
Speaker 3:You know it's. How are you receiving it? What heart is it? What heart is it falling on for you? And I just feel like when we apply the word of God, it changes lives. It can change, it can change your life. You know, with someone who may, like you said, you go on missionary trips and you may reach people who have maybe not heard the word as much, but it, if they hear it, and the spirit of God comes alive in them, they, and that can change their life. You know, they may be poor, they may not have much, but if they know that there is a God, there is someone that loves and cares for them, like you said with, and he's here for us all, they just need to know, they just need to hear the word. And that is our job. If we are that good soil, that is our job to make that known, because there may be so many people that still don't believe, don't know, but those we come in contact with, that is our job to try to tell them and teach them and help them along.
Speaker 2:That's a good measuring stick for us and I think this is a good check for our heart, even those of us that are on good soil. Are we doing what the word says? You know? Are we, are we applying it? Are we producing good fruit? Those of us that you know sometimes says that are we consumed? We're worried. This, this panel, does a good measuring stick for us to check our hearts as Christians. You know, do I let fear and worry and the things of this world consume me and and try to steal God's word? Try to make God out of a liar? You know, like he can't handle what I'm going through. You know he can't be my provider, he can't be my comfort, he can't be my love, because I'm so worried about, I'm trying to fix them, I'm not trusting God. This is a good measuring tool for us to see what do we do in times of trouble, amen. You know, in times of first, what do we do?
Speaker 3:Amen, I totally agree. Just, you know the word, it's, it's there, it's effective, it's powerful. And how are we, how are we allowing it to help us, to help others? Yeah, and then, just as a last thought for me, one more thought that I had. Like you said, this is a measuring stick for us. Which soil am I? For us, as Christians, we need to be in the know. You know, where, where am I? Am I producing? You know? Am I producing a harvest? Am I, am I reaching others? Am I helping others? Or am I? Oh, like you said, the word life, life is life, and right now, and it's getting me, you know, I, I think we are all, as Christians, our goal is to be that good soil, to be productive to. You know, we should strive to share God with as many people as we come in contact with. So that's a question for all of us as Christians. If you're listening, if you're watching, which soil am I? You?
Speaker 3:know, I know that while I was preparing this and studying for this message, this, this talk, I thought about that. You know, am I? Am I productive? You know, am I doing all I can do? You know I teach and I try to. You know, you know, live Christ in my classroom.
Speaker 3:We can't preach, but I can sure show the love of God to the kids that I have. I can sure show God's love to the people that I work with and I come in contact with it. If they do come to me and seek advice, I give them the advice from you know, from God. I will give them biblical advice or am I? You know being that Gossiper and you know so that you know. Just a question for us which soil am I?
Speaker 2:That's interesting because you know when I was saying it to, we all want to jump to the good soil, right?
Speaker 1:Right, right, right.
Speaker 2:But I kind of had a little chin check right, this isn't for me, because at this time I was going through nail problems. So I kind of when I was like, oh wait, I might be a little worried.
Speaker 2:I want to be good. So I was like I can't, I can't, I can't. I was like, wait, I think I'll worry a little bit, you know. So we, as we get into the world, we kind of say, okay, I need to read just some things. Let me read program myself and refocus and see that I'm kind of slipping into this. Okay, I know where I'm stating the word, but I'm worrying a little bit. I'm worrying more than I have to. Right, I'm not giving it over. So I'm saying give it and he's got it yeah give it with that.
Speaker 2:So what soil are we? Yeah, that's, that's and are we striving to be, yes, the good soil, the good soil where we're being producing good fruit, because we can produce fruit, you know, but it's it Good fruit.
Speaker 3:Good fruit and we're known by. You know, a tree is known by the fruit of fear.
Speaker 3:So the word of God you know, tells us that, and usually a good tree is not going to bear bad fruit and a bad tree is not going to bear good fruit. So that is something that we are as Christians. We want to seek to be that good soil. Jesus, you know, don't hide Christ. He's the light of the world, you know. So let that light be shown. We should be out there teaching. This world is in so much turmoil, there's so many things going on, so we could. Even if it's just the people that we come in contact with, we are not going to be able to reach the world, but the people that we do reach, we need to be sharing and ministering to them the love of God, the love of Christ, that you know he is coming back one day.
Speaker 3:He is coming back to receive those that have accepted him, and so we want to make sure that we are helping others accept Christ and come to know Christ and be ready for, be ready for him when he does return. Do you have any other thoughts last minute?
Speaker 1:I think we had some pretty good takeaways from the word.
Speaker 3:This was like I said as I was studying, made me ask questions and made me think you know about me and what I'm doing. How am I doing? And you know it's good to do it, because nobody is on a mountaintop all the time. You know, we do have our valley moments, but we need to know that we can go to the word, we can turn to God and it is our job to be that fruitful and productive as we can be.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm good, I want to leave it where you are, okay well, as we are coming to a close in our show, we're going to go ahead and just offer an invitation for any of the people that are watching, for any of the people that are listening, to come to Christ. I opened in prayer. Would you like to close this out in prayer, sister Saz? Amen. Okay, would you close this out in?
Speaker 2:prayer. We thank you on today, lord God, for this opportunity, god, to share your work, god. We thank you, god, that your work, god will go forth, god, and land on good ground. On today, lord God, good soul, God, and they will open their hearts. On today, lord God, and even more God, those that ground. That is not good, Lord God, that's still Lord God. Someone will speak to their heart. Lord God, something that will be said and done throughout this program. Lord God, that they were here and understand Lord God and desire God to have a relationship with you, lord God, desire God to be in your work, god, desire God to stand with you, lord God. So we thank you, God, thank you Now, we don't take it lightly, lord God, that you give us the ability to share your work with your people. Lord God, wherever we are, whatever we can do, lord God and this is in our corner, god, in our atmosphere, god, we choose to do it, god, with willingness and with an open heart, god. So we thank you, lord God. We love you.
Speaker 3:We thank you, son Jesus, that we pray amen, amen and amen, and we thank you all for tuning in, those of you who tuned in with us, those of you who were watching the video broadcast. We thank you for being here. We offer you another invitation to join us again next month when we have our third podcast. We are so grateful that you were here, because you could have been anywhere else, but you chose to listen and you chose to watch with us. So, also, I would like to thank Ms Suzette for coming out and being with me today, and I hope that God will lead you to come and worship with me again, because I would love to have you again and
Speaker 3:thank you all for being with us today on Biblical Thoughts with Twalla. Home you will serve. Will you choose this day? Home you will serve, cause there's only one way. Forget what you heard, as for me and this house, there is no doubt. Will you choose this day? Home you will serve. You're gonna have to choose when religion don't wanna lose, and some might disapprove While others wanna stay confused. But when our time is due, then the whole you want no answer to and there'll be no excuse. So you're gonna have to choose. You're gonna have to choose when religion don't wanna lose and some might disapprove While others wanna stay confused. But when our time is due, then the whole you want no answer to and there'll be no excuse. So you're gonna have to choose. Choose this day. Home you will serve, cause there's only one way. Forget what you heard, as for me and this house, there is no doubt. Will you choose this day. Home you will serve. Will you choose this day? Home you will serve, cause there's only one way Forget what you heard.
Speaker 1:As for me and this house, there is no doubt. Will you choose this day Home, you will serve. You're gonna have to choose when religion don't wanna lose and some might disapprove, while others wanna stay confused. But when our time is due, then the whole you want no answer to and there'll be no excuse. So you're gonna have to choose. You're gonna have to choose when religion don't wanna lose and some might disapprove, while others wanna stay confused. But when our time is due, then the whole you want no answer to and there'll be no excuse. So you're gonna have to choose. Choose this day Home you will serve, cause there's only one way Forget what you heard. As for me and this house, there is no doubt. Will you choose this day Home, you will serve. Will you choose this day, home, you will serve, cause there's only one way. Forget what you heard. As for me and this house, there is no doubt. Will you choose this day, home, you will serve. Will you choose this day Home, you will serve, cause there's only one way Forget what you heard. As for me and this house, there is no doubt Will you choose this day.
Speaker 1:You can also view sermons from the legacy ministry of Pastor Mack Erlingram Sr. We look forward to you joining us soon.