SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to the FBC El Doredo Sermon Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Taylor Gere, and I have the privilege of being the pastor here at First Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to thank you for listening into our sermon this week.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to tell you this if you're in our area and you don't have a church home, we would love to see you any Sunday morning at First Baptist El Doredo.
SPEAKER_00: Would you join me now in listening to our sermon from this week?
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray for us as we get ready to begin.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, thank you so much for your word.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the truth of your word.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, now we ask that you would teach us through your word, by your word, through your spirit, the author of the word, that we would not only learn this word, but apply this word to our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, would it reshape how we live as individuals, but also, Lord, how we live and interact and worship as a church.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, even now, would you speak in these moments?
SPEAKER_00: And I ask this in Christ's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We'll be in again Luke chapter 8, verses 4 through 15.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 8, verses 4 through 15.
SPEAKER_00: I'm no uh music expert.
SPEAKER_00: Let's be clear about that.
SPEAKER_00: There was a lot of uh uh talented musicians on this stage.
SPEAKER_00: I I'm no music expert.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know a ton about the music industry.
SPEAKER_00: Again, let's let's get that clear.
SPEAKER_00: But I I I do know this that maybe the hardest thing in the music industry, and you ask anybody in the industry what is maybe one of the hardest things in the industry, it's this it's putting out a sophomore album.
SPEAKER_00: Putting out the sophomore album, the the second album of a career.
SPEAKER_00: Whether it's an individual artist, whether it's a a group, a band, that second album.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, because uh you can uh strike gold early on and you can put something out that climbs the charts and it's a hit, and your group, your band, you as an individual, you are a hit, but then at some point you have to go back to the lab and you've got to do it again.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to replicate it, or even you've got to improve upon it, and you've got to put something else out there.
SPEAKER_00: And now, how many artists or groups through that second album have become just icons?
SPEAKER_00: And now they've got their full decades-long career in front of them.
SPEAKER_00: On the other side, how many maybe would-be stars have become one-hit wonders simply because that sophomore album didn't really do much?
SPEAKER_00: And they just become one of those groups that 30 years down the road you hear the song and you say, I remember that one.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, that that second album is huge, really.
SPEAKER_00: What do you do with your popularity?
SPEAKER_00: How do you maintain your popularity, your standing?
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I could ask the question of Jesus this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, uh, when your ministry was gathering crowds from all over, when you were at uh in worldly terms, we might say the the height of your game, Jesus, what did you do next?
SPEAKER_00: How did you maintain that level of popularity?
SPEAKER_00: How did you build on that level of popularity?
SPEAKER_00: I'm speaking in worldly terms that Jesus uh wouldn't even deal with, but for the moment, Jesus, how do you handle that popularity?
SPEAKER_00: Look with me at verse 4 of Luke 8.
SPEAKER_00: And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town to town came to him, we're about to see what happens, but the context is set, great crowds are gathering, Jesus's popularity is rising, and what we see is people from town to town.
SPEAKER_00: So they're coming from out of town to wherever Jesus is, the great crowds have been assembled.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Jesus, what do you do with that popularity?
SPEAKER_00: Well, what's the next uh, maybe not uh album, what's the next parable you're putting out for the crowds?
SPEAKER_00: What's the next story?
SPEAKER_00: What's the next ministry moment uh that's going to expand the crowds even more than they already have been expanding as they've come from town to town?
SPEAKER_00: And so he's at the height of popularity.
SPEAKER_00: People have come from all over, and then verse five through eight, I'll just read it.
SPEAKER_00: Let's see what Jesus does next.
SPEAKER_00: He says this a sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it.
SPEAKER_00: Some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away because it had no moisture.
SPEAKER_00: Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it, and some fell into good soil, and grew and yielded a hundredfold, and as he said these things, he called out, He who has ears, let him hear.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we get.
SPEAKER_00: The crowds are coming from all over, the multitudes have come to this moment, and what does Jesus do in this moment where his popularity is on display?
SPEAKER_00: He tells a quick little story about seed and rocks and weeds and soil.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what he throws out there.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm tempted to look at Jesus and say, Why have you done this?
SPEAKER_00: Couldn't you have captured this moment in a little different or a little better way?
SPEAKER_00: You know, we'd be tempted, couldn't you have brought out some uh fog machines and laser lights and sound systems, and we could have really taken this ministry off?
SPEAKER_00: Couldn't we have done something different than tell a story about a farmer and his seed?
SPEAKER_00: And I think as I ask this question, I've really got to ask the question on a broader level, what is Jesus up to with the parables in general?
SPEAKER_00: What is a parable?
SPEAKER_00: We're beginning a new series this week on the parables of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna see a lot of these parables, with the parable of the sower that we see this morning really being the first major parable of the Gospel of Luke.
SPEAKER_00: And we have to ask, what is a parable?
SPEAKER_00: And you might say it's uh a story, it's uh illustration, it's uh maybe some kind of allegory or you know, even almost a riddle.
SPEAKER_00: Do we have to figure it out like a riddle?
SPEAKER_00: And and and to those statements, I would say there is some truth in each one of those, and there's a little bit uh false about each one of those ideas, because parable kind of lives on its own.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like many things, but it is its own thing.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're asking what it is, you're in good company.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he's about to explain it, the disciples want to know.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples see the crowd, the disciples see what's going on, and the disciples hear Jesus again tell a simple story uh about dirt, about soil.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, what are you doing with this parable?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus gives us a quick little answer, verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: He said, To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.
SPEAKER_00: So a strange but important answer to the question of what is this parable?
SPEAKER_00: Uh Jesus said to his disciples, To you, it's been given the secret of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, here's something important.
SPEAKER_00: When we see Jesus talk about a secret of the kingdom of God, or later on when we see Paul talk about this secret, or he calls it a mystery of the gospel, when we see this kind of language in Scripture, we we've got to kind of step away from what you and I sometimes think of as a secret.
SPEAKER_00: You remember maybe on the playground telling someone a secret, and that secret, uh, that was that was an oath.
SPEAKER_00: That was nothing could break that.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you and I know as kids everything could have broken that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but a secret just meant, I'm gonna tell you this, and you're my best buddy, and and we're not gonna let this go outside of us.
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of what we think of with a secret.
SPEAKER_00: When God talks about the secret of the kingdom of God, he's really talking about what is a very open secret.
SPEAKER_00: That everyone who is sensitive to the things of God, everyone who has a relationship with the Lord and understands the things of God and sensitive to his movement in their lives, then guess what?
SPEAKER_00: This secret is yours.
SPEAKER_00: It's not some secret, you know, heavenly code that we never get access to.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's this open invitation to come hear about the secrets of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, at the same time, those who rebel against the Lord, want nothing to do with the Lord, whose hearts are hardened to the things of the Lord, they are not in on it simply because they don't want to be in on it.
SPEAKER_00: Their hearts are hardened to the things of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he quotes uh Isaiah chapter 6, seeing they may not see, hearing they may not understand.
SPEAKER_00: Very quickly, back in Isaiah, that famous moment where God wants to send out a messenger, and Isaiah says, Here am I, send me.
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful moment, and then God follows it up by telling Isaiah, I will send you.
SPEAKER_00: And basically, my paraphrase, no one's gonna listen to you.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's heart is hardened, and you're gonna have a real tough road with this message.
SPEAKER_00: But go.
SPEAKER_00: That's what God says, but go.
SPEAKER_00: Because all throughout history, and by the way, even today, there are so many who want nothing to do with the message of God, the things of God, the person of Jesus Christ, their hearts are hardened.
SPEAKER_00: And what we see in the parables are is really this earthly picture of a heavenly reality.
SPEAKER_00: And those whose hearts are open to the things of God, sensitive to the workings of God in their lives, they will see how this parable shapes and reshapes their lives.
SPEAKER_00: And those whose hearts are hardened, they may leave this day just thinking Jesus is talking about seeds and rocks and weeds.
SPEAKER_00: And so we continue now because we're very lucky this morning, because with this first major parable, Jesus does us a big favor, and he tells us exactly what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: Now the parable is this, these are Jesus' words.
SPEAKER_00: The seed is the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: So as Jesus is explaining this parable, what we see from the start is uh the sower, the farmer, is throwing out this seed.
SPEAKER_00: And from the start, Jesus tells us, when we're thinking about the seed that is going out, we are thinking about the word of God that is going forth.
SPEAKER_00: And so the word of God goes out.
SPEAKER_00: We're about to see four different responses.
SPEAKER_00: As the word of God lands in different locations, the response varies.
SPEAKER_00: And so, implied in that, if the seed is the word of God, then the sower, the farmer, is the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That it is God who is sowing and who is giving out his word.
SPEAKER_00: Let's be clear about that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh this word is God's word.
SPEAKER_00: I hope we know that.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Timothy 3.16, all uh scripture is breathed out by God.
SPEAKER_00: God breathed, God inspired, he has given us this word.
SPEAKER_00: He is a communicating God.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know that the reason uh you and I can know the things of God or uh about the character and person of God, the reason we can know these things is because he delights to communicate with us and tell us these things.
SPEAKER_00: He's not uh desiring to hide up in the heavens, he's given us this word so that we can know it and embrace it and know who he is and what he's up to.
SPEAKER_00: How thankful are we that God is a communicating God.
SPEAKER_00: And so God is the farmer, the sower who is sowing the seed.
SPEAKER_00: But I also want to say this because we could also see it another and very important way that we could also call the sower.
SPEAKER_00: Certainly it's always the Lord who gives the word, but also the sower could be any proclaimer of the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: You too could be this farmer, and I hope have been this farmer throughout your life.
SPEAKER_00: Not that you originated the word, no, no, we only have what we have received from the Lord, but as you and I proclaim the word of God in the ins and outs of our lives, I'm not just talking about the things that happen on a Sunday morning, but as the word of God goes out from your lips to people all around us, you too are sowing the seed.
SPEAKER_00: Again, you didn't originate this.
SPEAKER_00: We are simply messengers, not the originators, but you too are sowing the seed.
SPEAKER_00: But again, ultimately, God is the sower because God's word is the seed that goes out.
SPEAKER_00: And so now what we need to see is the four different areas, the four different locations in which this word can land.
SPEAKER_00: And we need to ask hard questions about ourselves and say, which one am I?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 12 The ones along the path are those who have heard.
SPEAKER_00: Then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.
SPEAKER_00: That's a very exciting beginning to a verse with a very tragic ending to a verse.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read it again.
SPEAKER_00: The ones along the path are those who have heard.
SPEAKER_00: Then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts that they may not believe and be saved.
SPEAKER_00: These are the ones along the path.
SPEAKER_00: You think about the path, whether it's just this well-worn path that has been created just by foot traffic, whether in our own lives, our own paths that are that are paved, or whatever it is, you think about if seed uh goes and lands on Northwest Avenue in the middle of uh the asphalt there going down Northwest Avenue, it's just nothing much is gonna happen with it.
SPEAKER_00: That that it it will land, but a bird might just come take it and fly away with it, and they've got a little meal going on.
SPEAKER_00: This is what is happening in this moment.
SPEAKER_00: That the word goes out, but but there's no there's nothing spiritually happening in the hardened heart of the one who who is receiving the word.
SPEAKER_00: Again, simply put, their hearts are hardened to the word of God, to the movement of God.
SPEAKER_00: There is no growth, and and I just want to see what's happening here.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is clear about this.
SPEAKER_00: What's happening?
SPEAKER_00: The devil is taking it away, is is ripping it away.
SPEAKER_00: The word goes out, uh, but the devil doesn't like it when the word goes out and wants to take it away.
SPEAKER_00: And can I just tell you how I'm so convinced that this often happens?
SPEAKER_00: We might be tempted to say that this often happens in this kind of way, that the word of God goes out and then uh the devil tempts you, uh, the devil tempts an unbeliever in just some catastrophic way.
SPEAKER_00: That that you sit under the word of God, you hear the word of God, and then the devil tempts you to go commit some large sin that upends your life, and and you you've thrown your life away in this temptation that has come after hearing the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, the devil would love nothing more than that.
SPEAKER_00: But but let me tell you how he also does it and how it more often happens.
SPEAKER_00: I'll just tell you this that the word of God goes out, and and then you remember this uh that that I think we're out of groceries.
SPEAKER_00: You suddenly remember that that, yeah, we are low on bread.
SPEAKER_00: You suddenly remember at work this week, I do have that one meeting, don't I?
SPEAKER_00: And how often, and by the way, I'm I'm only preaching to myself, uh uh let's be clear.
SPEAKER_00: How often have I sat in front of this eternal word and and given my thoughts to anything and everything else, the distractions of life, the distractions of this world.
SPEAKER_00: The devil wants nothing more than to distract us from the things of God.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, the devil knows the power of this word, how the Holy Spirit uses this God-breathed, spirit-written word to still transform lives, to tell unbelievers the truth of the gospel of how to be saved, to grow believers in their faith.
SPEAKER_00: And guys, the the evil one wants to shut this down.
SPEAKER_00: But I also want to say something on the other side.
SPEAKER_00: I want to encourage you with that in just a second.
SPEAKER_00: You say, Pastor, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: You want to encourage me with the fact that the devil wants to shut down your reading of the word of God?
SPEAKER_00: I do.
SPEAKER_00: And let me explain it like this It doesn't have to look this way.
SPEAKER_00: You you find the time and place that works for you to interact with the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: But let's just say you wake up in the morning, and maybe before the rest of the house, the kids, uh, who your spouse is awake, you you're just making that cup of coffee, and you're at the dining table, and you just open up this and you don't, you don't, uh, you know, you don't ever understand every single thing you read, but you're wanting to study well and just figure it out, and you make a commitment that that you know, tomorrow morning, I'm just gonna spend five minutes, ten minutes in the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: There will be a temptation in your mind to say, what difference is that really making?
SPEAKER_00: There will be a temptation in your mind to say, what has my ten minutes in God's word really done for me and for the kingdom of God?
SPEAKER_00: Well, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: If the devil desires to take God's word from all of us, to distract us from the things of God, if the devil wants nothing more than for us to flee this word and run from this word, then you making the commitment to just spend time in the word of God at your little dining room table, in your kitchen, at your home, with your uh cup of coffee.
SPEAKER_00: Guess what?
SPEAKER_00: You you are causing the forces of darkness to flee.
SPEAKER_00: That something is happening in your dining room at your home as you read these words, that you are telling the evil one that you don't have a hold in my home, that you don't get to dictate my home, you don't get to dictate my spiritual life.
SPEAKER_00: Greater is he that is in me, that he is in the world.
SPEAKER_00: And at this moment, at this time, I have an appointment with the eternal word of God, and I'm not missing that appointment.
SPEAKER_00: That in your dining room at home, you you are pushing back the evil one and the forces of darkness that would love nothing more than for you to do anything else other than rejoice in the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just so afraid, especially as I think about unbelievers, that there are so many.
SPEAKER_00: I know there are so many, that maybe they hear the word and they're just like this path.
SPEAKER_00: The birds of the air, really the evil one, they come and take it away.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy.
SPEAKER_00: But these have no root.
SPEAKER_00: They believe for a while, and in time of testing they fall away.
SPEAKER_00: They believe for a while, and in a time of testing, they fall away.
SPEAKER_00: These are the ones who the word is sown, and it falls upon this place where there are these rocks.
SPEAKER_00: In this region of the world where this is written, uh it is covered in so much of this area, there will be two to three inches of soil, and then under that two to three inches, just this limestone bedrock that there's really not far that any plant can go.
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh last week me and and my crew went over to Home Depot and we we made my kids made a planter, and and they even got to put a little uh tomato plant in it, and they've started sprouting, and we're all fired up about it.
SPEAKER_00: Um but but uh as proud of those as I am and my kids that made them, I I also know uh at some point in our lives we're gonna have to order tomatoes again from the grocery store.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's this pot and and and that to those roots got about that far to go.
SPEAKER_00: And once they reach that, uh we're ordering tomatoes.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't call Katie and say cancel all grocery orders, we're set.
SPEAKER_00: Just like that soil with the rocks underneath the limestone, these plants need somewhere to lay down their roots, to grow, to get down those roots deep, to receive nourishment and water and everything they need for life.
SPEAKER_00: And what does Jesus compare it to?
SPEAKER_00: It's like the one that receives the word and is excited about the words, but there is no root.
SPEAKER_00: And what What happens when those plants are not rooted?
SPEAKER_00: We'll say this.
SPEAKER_00: What happens when the person who receives the word of God is not rooted in the things of God?
SPEAKER_00: What happens is when the storms and the trials come, they are blown away.
SPEAKER_00: They can't stand in that day because they are not rooted.
SPEAKER_00: And is this not the story of so many?
SPEAKER_00: And even the temptation, even still today, that we say we believe the word, we say we trust the word, we say we delight in the word, and yet what happens so often, the storms of life come.
SPEAKER_00: The thing we didn't see coming, the diagnosis we didn't see coming, the uh relational issue we didn't see coming, the financial situation we didn't see, whatever it is, and every one of us could fill in the blanks ten times over, whatever it is we didn't see coming, the storm, the trial, in that moment we are tempted to say, God, do you really have my best interest in mind?
SPEAKER_00: God, are you really up to something in my life because because right now it doesn't really feel like it?
SPEAKER_00: These are the ones that hear the word and maybe they receive it with gladness, but it's not rooted.
SPEAKER_00: It hasn't changed and shifted their lives.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just ask you the question: are are you rooted in the things of God?
SPEAKER_00: Do you subscribe to a more what we call cultural Christianity?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've heard that term.
SPEAKER_00: I of course I go to church.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of what you do in South Arkansas.
SPEAKER_00: Of course.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm a member of First Baptist, I do this.
SPEAKER_00: And is that your faith?
SPEAKER_00: Or do you have something deeper?
SPEAKER_00: That I I know the person of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That I know the truth of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: That I know, like Paul says, that these present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed.
SPEAKER_00: Are you rooted?
SPEAKER_00: And one quick note, you do see those words that in the time of testing they fall away is Jesus here talking about losing salvation.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be clear, he's not talking about losing salvation.
SPEAKER_00: That would be uh one consistent with everything else we read in all of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: But uh what what we see uh throughout Scripture is is I believe this that the the uh the the one who has it never loses it, and the one who quote unquote loses it uh never had it.
SPEAKER_00: Is it something deep for you?
SPEAKER_00: Has it really shifted you so that in the time of trial you're rooted?
SPEAKER_00: You don't fall away.
SPEAKER_00: We continue now to verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.
SPEAKER_00: Now we can get pretty convicted with all of these, but I'm certain we can find some ways to be convicted with this one.
SPEAKER_00: This is the one who receives the word.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they're excited about the word.
SPEAKER_00: They hear it with gladness, yet there's these thorns, there's these weeds that are growing up alongside of the word and just start to choke it away.
SPEAKER_00: And what are these called?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, these are the riches and the pleasures of life.
SPEAKER_00: Mainly this.
SPEAKER_00: These are just the things of the world that distract us from ultimate things.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be clear about something because it's fascinating.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 13, uh, we received the word, but uh it was stripped away with what we call bad things.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what's interesting in verse 14 that we received the word, yet it was choked away by what we might call good things, what the world would call good things, the the pleasures of this world, wealth and riches.
SPEAKER_00: But we could even say this: any even good things in our lives that, by the way, when we make ultimate things, they become very dangerous things.
SPEAKER_00: Anytime we take even that which is good and put it on the place of the throne in our lives and becomes an idol for us, we are in deep trouble.
SPEAKER_00: And so as we receive the word, and yet at the same time the things of this world and the desires of this life are weighing on us, then at some point uh we'll realize that we have two masters, and and and Jesus reminds us that you can't have two masters.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna love one or you're gonna hate the other, that I'm gonna follow Jesus with everything, or I'm gonna follow the world with everything.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to be clear.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying here, Jesus is not saying that you can't enjoy the good things of this world.
SPEAKER_00: God has given us amazing things in this world.
SPEAKER_00: God has given us just an act of common grace, just the most amazing things in this life, the amazing people around us, the amazing thing.
SPEAKER_00: I my my hope for you, I almost said prayer.
SPEAKER_00: That'd probably be a little much, but my my hope for you is that this this afternoon, you find a comfortable couch and you put the masters on and you just enjoy it for hours.
SPEAKER_00: That's a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: That's a great thing.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you do it.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you enjoy it.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean everything in our lives just has to go, no more this, no more that.
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, sinful things, bye-bye, they gotta go.
SPEAKER_00: But but that doesn't mean everything means nothing.
SPEAKER_00: What it does mean is what is your ultimate hope?
SPEAKER_00: What is ultimate for you?
SPEAKER_00: What is ultimate in your life?
SPEAKER_00: If if the answer to that is anything other than a vibrant, nourished relationship with Jesus Christ, then we've gone wrong.
SPEAKER_00: And anywhere else we desire to put our hope will let us down.
SPEAKER_00: It might let us down today, it might let us down tomorrow, it might let us down in a decade.
SPEAKER_00: It will let us down.
SPEAKER_00: If you're wondering today, a quick way to know what in my life am I turning into idols or ultimate things?
SPEAKER_00: You've may heard this before that one of the quickest ways to know is look in two areas, your your calendar and your checkbook.
SPEAKER_00: Your calendar and your checkbook.
SPEAKER_00: Now, checkbooks aren't really used like they used to.
SPEAKER_00: We'll just say your calendar and your bank account.
SPEAKER_00: Where are you giving your time?
SPEAKER_00: Where are you giving your money?
SPEAKER_00: Those aren't the only ways to know.
SPEAKER_00: But those are good ways where I can know, God.
SPEAKER_00: What am I giving myself to that that I am elevating to a place of ultimate authority in my life?
SPEAKER_00: What what God, what what idols need to fall?
SPEAKER_00: What needs to come down so that you can be lifted up, so that I can be the kind of soil where the word of God can come and not be choked away by the things, uh the good things or even the worries of this world.
SPEAKER_00: And now we see verse 15 as Jesus concludes this parable.
SPEAKER_00: As for that in the good soil, the seed that lands on the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience.
SPEAKER_00: I I'm just gonna tell you after reading all of those, I already know which one I want to be.
SPEAKER_00: The one who hears the word.
SPEAKER_00: Part one, you hear the word, you receive the word, but look what happens next.
SPEAKER_00: You hold it fast in an honest and good heart.
SPEAKER_00: You let the word change you.
SPEAKER_00: So often we we think about the the word, uh, and and my my study of the word, you might think of your study of the word as if you're up here and the microscope, you're looking through the microscope to investigate God's word.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be clear.
SPEAKER_00: That's I hope you do that.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you have rich Bible study where you are above the microscope in investigating God's word.
SPEAKER_00: But don't forget to turn it around this way as well.
SPEAKER_00: Let the word of God be above you, investigating you.
SPEAKER_00: That the word of God is looking through the microscope at my life.
SPEAKER_00: Saying, Taylor, where do you stack up compared to the word of God?
SPEAKER_00: Where do you need conviction?
SPEAKER_00: Where do you need, where is your life out of line with the word of God?
SPEAKER_00: Is the word of God investigating you?
SPEAKER_00: That's the question.
SPEAKER_00: Are you this good soil that you hear it, you hold fast to it, and then I love this, and then you bear fruit with patience.
SPEAKER_00: That as you receive the word and it changes your heart and life, you are transformed in such a way that the word then goes out and transforms others, that you bear fruit, that the Holy Spirit works in your life.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to ask you, are you that good soil?
SPEAKER_00: And I'll ask it like this do you do you feast on the word of God?
SPEAKER_00: Does this word have a priority in your life?
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to answer that honestly.
SPEAKER_00: Because obviously we all want to say yes to that, but let's look deeply.
SPEAKER_00: Does this word have a priority in your life?
SPEAKER_00: I want to say it like this.
SPEAKER_00: I love different uh we'll call it just uh spiritual supplements, things that uh come alongside of us and can help us in our spiritual walk.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I I I love these things.
SPEAKER_00: And we allow for spiritual supplements, uh, things like that that podcast that fills me up, things like that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, maybe maybe even a Sunday morning message, a sermon that we allow for those things, but but uh and I love the supplements, but but are you personally feasting on the word of God in your own life?
SPEAKER_00: I used to laugh as a kid.
SPEAKER_00: Uh actually, I laugh now.
SPEAKER_00: As a kid, I was wildly frustrated because uh I'd sit in uh math class all throughout, from elementary school all through high school and beyond.
SPEAKER_00: And uh there were there were moments when I, you know, I I understood it, and then we moved from addition to subtraction, and they added multiplication and division, but we got there.
SPEAKER_00: And then sometime around eighth grade, they took all of my numbers and they started adding letters to it.
SPEAKER_00: The alphabet got involved.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't like that as much.
SPEAKER_00: But every time I anyone in the class uh would would would ask the question, why are we doing it?
SPEAKER_00: I see my son's principal in the room.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure she's been asked a hundred times, why are we doing this math?
SPEAKER_00: And the teacher would always say something.
SPEAKER_00: She'd always say, Taylor or whoever, because for the rest of your life, you're not always going to have a calculator right in your pocket.
SPEAKER_00: And I almost just want to go to their door this afternoon and knock.
SPEAKER_00: And when they answer, just hold up the phone and just say, actually.
SPEAKER_00: That was true of the calculator.
SPEAKER_00: I guess uh not true.
SPEAKER_00: We do always have it, but uh I want to be clear the supplements for our spiritual life, they're helpful, but we might not always have those.
SPEAKER_00: You've got that podcast that you listen to of the the preacher from another state, another country, whoever it may be, praise God.
SPEAKER_00: Keep listening to it.
SPEAKER_00: But what happens when the church decides we're not gonna put out the podcast anymore, or that preacher goes and does a different thing, whatever it might be?
SPEAKER_00: This sermon every week, you say that is my spiritual feeding for the week.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so praise God that it is a spiritual feeding for the week.
SPEAKER_00: I hope that it is.
SPEAKER_00: But what happens when when, God forbid, what what happens if something happens to me and I'm not here next week?
SPEAKER_00: Well, you'll probably get another preacher in here that'll do it even better, but still, that's just the illustration I'm trying to make.
SPEAKER_00: What happens when it's gone?
SPEAKER_00: You say that life group uh fills me up each and every week.
SPEAKER_00: That that is my spiritual nourishment for the week.
SPEAKER_00: I hope that is part of your spiritual nourishment for the week.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God that it is.
SPEAKER_00: But what happens when a career takes you somewhere else and you're not in that life group, or career takes the life group leader somewhere else?
SPEAKER_00: That what happens when these things aren't there anymore when we don't have the supplements?
SPEAKER_00: If you asked me today, Taylor, what do you what do you feed on?
SPEAKER_00: What nourishes you throughout the week?
SPEAKER_00: And I gave you this answer.
SPEAKER_00: I said this, I take these two vitamins every day, I cut them into three parts, and it's breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
SPEAKER_00: You'd say, uh, buddy, you might not have lot much long time left in this world.
SPEAKER_00: Uh that's a supplement that's not meant to fuel me totally.
SPEAKER_00: Take all the supplements, let them add to your spiritual life.
SPEAKER_00: But I just want to tell you individually, feast on the word of God for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Feast on the word of God in your own life.
SPEAKER_00: You say I don't have time, make time.
SPEAKER_00: You say that doesn't sound very kind or pastoral.
SPEAKER_00: I it it I I don't know what to tell you.
SPEAKER_00: Make time.
SPEAKER_00: Find the opportunity to love this word, find a way to cherish this word.
SPEAKER_00: Pray that the Spirit would give you a depth of love for this word, and commit yourself to consistently be in this word for yourself, whatever that looks like, and watch what the Lord does in your life, watch what the Lord can do, and and I'm just gonna tell you, if we are a church that embraces this word on Sunday morning, and by the way, we will be that, that's powerful.
SPEAKER_00: But let me tell you something even more.
SPEAKER_00: If we are a church where Sunday morning is simply the celebration and the overflow of what God has been doing in our lives the previous six days, there's nothing God can't do in a church like that.
SPEAKER_00: It takes every one of us rejoicing in the word of God, being this soil, and in your own life and in the life of this church, I just can't even imagine what God could be up to.
SPEAKER_00: Why does Jesus bring this first major parable first?
SPEAKER_00: The parable of the good soil.
SPEAKER_00: Why does it come to us so soon in the book of Luke?
SPEAKER_00: And I believe it's simply because of this.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's Jesus' way of asking us the question: are you ready?
SPEAKER_00: For all that is ahead, are you ready to receive it?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just gonna tell you the truth.
SPEAKER_00: I believe there is something on the way and something ahead for this church.
SPEAKER_00: Um I just believe the Lord has something for us in a new season.
SPEAKER_00: I believe what's ahead is strong.
SPEAKER_00: I believe the Holy Spirit is gonna do something in the life of this church that he's never done before, and he's gonna take us places and do things, and I think what the Lord is simply asking us as individuals and asking us as a church is simply this are you ready?
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready for what I'm calling you to?
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready to do the work of ministry because it's out of the overflow of a life that is lived in the presence of God?
SPEAKER_00: And I pray that when the Holy Spirit moves, that we would be a people ready.
SPEAKER_00: That we don't have to go get ready, but the Holy Spirit has readied us for what's ahead.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray that you'll do this alongside of me, that I'll do this alongside you, that we would be a church that is good soil, and you would be an individual that is good soil, ready to receive the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Would you pray with me now?
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, I thank you for the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I need the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: We all need God's word.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, I just ask that we would be found faithful, that we would be found as this good soil where the word of God can come, can bury itself within our heart and our spirit, and can grow forth and bear fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, that is just what I ask.
SPEAKER_00: And would we be found faithful?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, would we not put our spiritual growth off?
SPEAKER_00: Would we not say things like, I'll get to that along the way, or Lord, I'll get to that in the future.
SPEAKER_00: No, no.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, even now in this moment, would we say, Lord Jesus, I want more of you.
SPEAKER_00: And however we need to respond today, Lord, let us do it.
SPEAKER_00: If it's praying right where we sit, doing business with you, Lord, asking you to give us a passion for knowing you deeper, Lord, let us do it.
SPEAKER_00: If there's one that needs to come join this church or talk about baptism, or if there's one that wants to know your word, but really wants to know the truth of the heart of your word, the gospel of Jesus Christ, that wants to know that you've died for them to forgive their sins.
SPEAKER_00: And wants that relationship with you, Lord, even now would they respond?
SPEAKER_00: Would they come down?
SPEAKER_00: I'd love to talk with them about it, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: However, we need to respond by your Spirit, help us to do it.
SPEAKER_00: As we worship you now, we ask this in Christ's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Would you stand and as we worship, I'll be down front.